Failure Is an Option
Museums are no longer the home of just major successes stories thanks to this South Side student project
One-man-band Buddy Nutt wields his musical saw
He’s the kind of performer whom public radio was intended for — is anybody listening?
A narrow palette belies wide-ranging ideas in India: New Installations, at the Mattress Factory.
Three of the four artists have created entirely new realities — works all but pure of associations with existing cultures — while the fourth uses tried-and-true modes of expression to fabricate personas.
Environment
A nonprofit environmental group has finally found a company willing to post its billboard critical of Giant Eagle. But how long it stays up is anyone’s guess. Earlier this year, Washington, D.C.-based Oceana began targeting the local grocery giant because of how the store notifies customers about high mercury levels in fish. The Food and…
American Gangster
There’s nothing new in Ridley Scott’s lengthy, fact-based crime drama, but it’s solid entertainment. (Capsule review.)
Pittsburgh n’@
From: http://www.theblurgh.com/ Downtown Livin’ One of the things that Gretchen’s fam asked us about when they were in town last weekend was what it’s like living downtown. When they lived in the area, the only people who lived downtown were uber-rich, and even for them it wasn’t all that livable. It was deserted after 5,…
Iraq War
Retired Gen. John Abizaid says the U.S. is losing the war of words in Iraq and the Middle East.
Bee Movie
In this animated family comedy, a young bee (voiced by Jerry Seinfeld) eschews traditional work at the Honex complex, and sets out for the real world. (Capsule review.)
THIS MAGNITUDE
A poem by Philip Terman
Going Through the Motions: Oct. 31
By the time you read this, you’ll either be bracing yourself for the sweeping changes headed to your city government by a new Republican mayor … or moaning about how things in city government never change, and the latest public gaffe committed by the Democratic mayor. Regardless of who wins the top seat, one thing…
Control
In May 1980, on the eve of Joy Division’s first North American tour, charismatic frontman Ian Curtis took his own life. (Capsule review.)
A Conversation with DJ Gallo
Creator of the satire site sportspickle.com, DJ Gallo lampoons the world of sports with headlines like, “Chad Johnson Quits Bengals to Pursue Solo Career,” “Ray Lewis Excited to Unveil His Gayest Pre-game Dance Routine Yet” and (for a story about funding a new facility for the Pittsburgh Penguins) “School Lunch Tax to Support New Arena.”…
Sophie Klahr’s fine new chapbook describes a journey through recovery from addiction.
“And if disease runs in my family / it does so at night,” writes Klahr with characteristic barbed humor about stealth and denial.
Fred Claus
When it comes to holiday movies, just sign me up for the first halves — the funny or outrageous set-ups that explicate how disengaged the characters have become from the True Meaning of Christmas. (Capsule review.)
Author and Duquesne University law professor Bruce Ledewitz says secularists could use a little more religion in their politics.
“This book argues that secularism has to be religious.”
Letters to the Editor: Nov 7 – 14
Setting the record straight on Duquesne University and Planned Parenthood.
Pittsburgh hosts premier bagpipe bands and competitors at the Balmoral Classic
I can’t quite emphasize this enough, but there are bagpipe bands, and there are bagpipe bands.
Looking Glass
I placed a jar in Tennessee,And round it was, upon a hill. …The wilderness rose up to it,And sprawled around, no longer wild. — Wallace Stevens 1) Dale Chihuly’s traveling Gardens & Glass exhibit first took root in Chicago five years ago. But since coming to Phipps Conservatory last May, it’s become a Pittsburgh phenomenon.…
This Just In: Nov 7 – 14
Highlights from the local TV news: Holiday sales at Wal-Mart … and disappearing monkeys in Washington County!
El Otro Lado / The Other Side
Arelin’s left arm gently holds her eight-month-old daughter, who smiles and swings her Winnie the Pooh pacifier through the air. Her right arm holds her daughter’s pink blanket, which she uses to wipe away her own tears. “It’s really hard to make money in Honduras,” says the 27-year-old woman, speaking through a translator inside a…
Urban Apple Festival
Slow Food Pittsburgh and the Urban Apple Festival go together like apple pie and windowsills, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sat., Nov. 10, at the Union Project. What’s slower than baking an apple pie? Assuming, of course, that the apples will be freshly plucked from a nearby orchard, and carefully arranged in a cardboard…
Jerome Bettis’ Grille 36
The menu seems designed to please, simultaneously, patrons who hoped to dine in a sports bar and those who would rather be seated before a white tablecloth.
Savage Love
I came out after a number of years of “playing straight.” I had two relatively long-term monogamous gay relationships, then converted a friend into a boyfriend. We bought a house, got a dog, and live in the ‘burbs. Supposedly, life is good. I’m a fairly athletic guy, and I got started playing sports partly to…
The Three Rivers Film Festival
The 26th annual Three Rivers Film Festival, presented by Pittsburgh Filmmakers, continues through Nov. 15. The program includes foreign-language works, American independents, documentaries and experimental cinema, as well as several programs highlighting local filmmakers. The festival concludes with an evening with legendary avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger, who will present a selection of his films…
The Decemberists cancel WYEP Holiday Concert
The sick bandmember was not disclosed, but the extensive cancellation has spawned rumors and speculation online.
Experimental-film legend Kenneth Anger visits with classics and new videos.
The 30-minute avant-garde touchstone follows a motorcycle gang through a bacchanalia and a deadly race, wickedly incorporating Nazi symbology, a church desecration and footage from a Sunday-school Jesus movie.
Building Consensus
I’m sitting here a bit despondent as the homes and buildings keep coming down in my neighborhood. You know the one, you’ve heard about it for months now: the historic Hill District. It’s strange to be “en vogue” and so heavily desired, especially after the well has run dry a number of different times in…
Lions for Lambs
Regardless of what you conclude about Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs — whether you find it to be a thoughtful polemic, or an exegesis of things we already know, or a scolding for not already knowing them — you’ll have to admit that it’s certainly the year’s bravest Hollywood movie.
Streets of America
Director/choreographer Scott Wise and musical director/orchestrator Douglas Levine have created a very solid evening, with an enormous contribution from this achingly sincere and committed student cast, who fill the stage with enthusiasm and precision.
“Trailer Trash: A Film Journal” covers three harrowing years in the life of West Virginia artist Don Diego Ramirez.
The movie’s wrenching sequences document his bouts with insomnia during the ordeals, an interview with a jailed niece, and his grandmother’s death.
Happy to Be Here
Maybe it’s a live installation piece, or a punk cabaret, or a rhythmic rant.
A Conversation with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene
“I like that I didn’t sit down with my brain and a pen and try to sort out what was going to be said, and how to be crafty about it.”
Fiddler on the Roof
Cast members conveyed the rudiments of the simple characters, delivering lines sincerely while, at the center, Leon Zionts as Tevye glowed with charming warmth.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s low-tech character studies
“I started to become bored with the limitations I had placed on myself.”
Madcap Australian troupe The Suitcase Royale marry adult themes and childlike imaginations.
The trio employs unwanted furniture, discarded odds and ends, debris, jetsam, refuse, and rubbish to construct brand-new environments in which to play.
Horseback’s obsessive-compulsive drones
The inspiration for the record was drawn consciously from his reaction to disorder and his fear of blood.
Apartment Complex Situation
East Hills neighbors say changes at a local apartment complex are disrupting their view
The Blues Orphans reach beyond the blues on Root Rot
I’m betting that a fresh planting in some new soil would shake away the root rot.
