Which of Santa’s Reindeer are You?
Are you a Donner or a Blitzen? Believe it or not, Santa’s reindeer all have distinct personalities. Rudolph may have a whole movie dedicated to him, but the entire crew bring something different to the table. Find out who you are!
WYEP’s Holiday Hootenanny boasts diverse lineup of 20 local acts
“It’s a wonderful way to further showcase local musicians on a big stage.”
The Warhol brings Shade Compositions multimedia performance to Pittsburgh
Local talent takes the stage when The Warhol presents the Pittsburgh debut of Shade Compositions, a multimedia performance about the complexities of social power structures, agency, and language. Launched in 2005, Shade Compositions continues New York-based multimedia artist Rashaad Newsome’s examination of the English Black vernacular spoken by many African Americans, esecially in urban communities.…
Faith, labor, and pro-immigrant groups call for removal of Colcom Foundation’s name from holiday market
Pittsburgh’s Colcom Foundation and other local groups who accept its funding have recently come under criticism for Colcom’s large donations to anti-immigrant groups, including two designated hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The loudest criticism has been made surrounding the Peoples Gas Holiday Market, which is sponsored by the Colcom Foundation and displays…
Just announced this week: new shows coming to Pittsburgh in 2019
Group therapy tour: Hootie and the Blowfish w/ Barenaked Ladies come to KeyBank on July 21
Holiday Movie Advent Day 5: Jingle Belle
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (probably). Is there some big-wig at Lifetime who got dumped by their high school sweetheart after graduating? Every other holiday movie on the network seems to have the same plot: small-town…
Documentary Paris to Pittsburgh highlights the ‘Burgh, among others battling climate change
Last year, President Donald Trump name-checked Pittsburgh when he announced the U.S. was pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Paris to Pittsburgh begins with the reaction to the president’s statement and explores the increasingly dire consequences of climate change.
ACA open enrollment for health insurance rolls into final weeks
You have until Dec. 15 to enroll in a health-insurance plan
Swastikas and anti-Semitic vandalism found in book in CMU library
Carnegie Mellon University sophomore Adira Rosen recently wrote a paper on a Yiddish Play called God of Vengeance for a drama class. For her research, she visited CMU’s Hunt Library on Nov. 29 to check out The Passing Game, a book that explores how Judaism and the LGBTQ community intersect in theater. When she opened the…
After $205 million and three years of construction, Carnegie Mellon University’s David A. Tepper Quad is complete
After $205 million and three years of construction, Carnegie Mellon University’s David A. Tepper Quad is complete. The five-story building in Oakland — built by Moore Ruble Yudell in association with Pittsburgh’s Renaissance 3 Architects — will house CMU’s Tepper School of Business, which promotes itself as “the world’s most forward-looking business school,” with an…
This holiday season, give the gift of a talking wine bottle that delivers lectures on Australian history.
This holiday season, give the gift of a talking wine bottle that delivers lectures on Australian history. A new app called Living Wine Labels allows users to bring wine labels to life — or at the very least, animate them. Users open the app, point the camera at the wine label, and the inanimate image…
Point Park’s Conservatory Dance Company to christen new PNC Theatre with star-studded production
It took more than two years to renovate Point Park University’s new state-of-the-art Pittsburgh Playhouse, adding the 550-seat PNC Theatre and a 2,738-square-foot soundstage, among other new features. The space opened in October, but this week marks the first production in the new spot, with a stellar program featuring student dancers and four world-renowned choreographers…
Abstract photography exhibits open at Silver Eye Dec. 6
Photography is a medium that more or less captures the world as it is, but two new exhibits at the Silver Eye Center for Photography showcase the more abstract side of the form. The In-Between by Trisha Holt and Door into the Dark by Lauren Semivan, both opening Dec. 6 with an artist talk between…
Holiday Movie Advent Day 4: The Ultimate Christmas Present
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (probably). Disney Channel nails the cheesy, lovable holiday film with an 18-year-old classic, The Ultimate Christmas Present. It’s three days until Christmas in hot, sunny L.A. Disney makes it obvious, with…
Lynn Cullen Live – 12/4/18
Video Archive Lynn and Susan are touching upon a wide variety of topics this morning. One of them is the Wisconsin Republicans in office now attempting to limit the power of the governor’s office before the newly elected Democrat is sworn in. They are also discussing the allegations of absentee ballot fraud in North Carolina.…
Move over, Knickers: In search of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s biggest bovine
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has launched a social media campaign looking for the commonwealth’s biggest bovines.
Superior Motors has ice cream for dinner with six-course spread
Chefs Kevin Sousa (Superior Motors) and Sam Mason (Oddfellows Ice Cream NYC) elevated a humble dessert on Sunday for a six-course ice cream dinner, the first in a series dreamt up by Superior Motors general manager, Christopher Clark. The evening was divided by taste: four savory courses and two sweet. It was boldly presented, the menu…
Holiday Movie Advent Day 3: Albert
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (probably). Who doesn’t love when a bunch of normally inanimate objects come alive while silly humans are none the wiser? Albert, a Nickelodeon animated short, follows Albert, a mini fir tree…
Lynn Cullen Live – 12/3/18
Video Archive Lynn is reminding us that people are complex this morning. They are neither all good, nor bad. She is talking about an encounter her mother had with Green Bay Packers’ President Mark Murphy, which contrasts the things people are saying now after the firing of their head coach. Lynn is also taking the…
Pylon Pics: Football is family, even in 30-33 loss
Brotherly love trumps even the toughest of losses, especially for members of the Watt and Pouncey families.
Holiday Movie Advent Day 2: A Shoe Addict’s Christmas
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (probably). I did not expect a movie called A Shoe Addict’s Christmas to be so little about shoes and so much about Christianity and time travel. The Hallmark Channel original stars…
Holiday Movie Advent Day 1: Mingle All the Way
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, everyday (probably). Hallmark Channel original Mingle All the Way follows the classic rom-com format of two people who hate each other, but are forced to pretend to be a couple for dumb reasons. Molly (Jen Lilley)…
Nevada Color releases Rosewater EP
It’s been four years since Nevada Color has released any new music. But that doesn’t mean the group of Point Park graduates has been idly sitting around. Nevada Color has been touring. They’ve been writing. They’ve been working with producers and songwriters in Los Angeles and Nashville. And today Nevada Color dropped a three-track EP…
Pittsburgh City Paper writers discuss this week’s Health Issue on Pittsburgh City Podcast
Why did we choose seasonal affective disorder as the focus of this year’s Health Issue? Go behind-the-scenes as Pittsburgh City Paper senior writer Amanda Waltz and staff writer Jordan Snowden discuss this week’s Health Issue on the Nov. 30 edition of the Pittsburgh City Podcast. The journalists also answer questions from a live studio audience of…
Burk’s Barbeque brings smoked ribs, chicken, pork, and brisket to Oakmont, with a grand opening Dec. 1
Chef Kevin Burkardt got his start in barbecue on the rooftop of the Oaks Theater. He’d haul his smoker to the top of the building and sell his food at the Oakmont venue’s concession stand. Burkardt had years of experience working in fine dining, but he says that once he tried his hand at barbecue,…
Healthy Ride started with 50 docking stations in 2015; this week, they reached 100
In 2018, Healthy Ride doubled its footprint with 50 new stations and 200 bikes.
Kyle Smith celebrates 20 years at WYEP with 100 song playlist
Dec. 1st marks Smith’s 20th anniversary at WYEP
Abjuration Brewing celebrates its first birthday with a milkshake IPA, food trucks, and movie screenings
When Kennedy native Aaron Stubna was reimagining the Parkway Theater, he wanted make sure he contributed to the momentum of McKees Rocks’ bustling business district. “As somebody who’s trying to revitalize that area by saving a little movie theater, there are certain things you’re going to need there in a business district,” Stubna said. “You’re…
White nationalism stickers posted outside Belvederes in Lawrenceville
For the second time this month, a white nationalism group has vandalized public property in Pittsburgh. At least six Patriot Front stickers were plastered near Belvederes Ultra-Dive on Butler Street in Lawrenceville. At least one was stuck to a Pittsburgh Parking Authority meter outside of the bar. Patriot Front has been deemed a hate group…
Lynn Cullen Live – 11/29/18
Video Archive A few minutes ago Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s business with Russia, so that’s the topic Lynn is focusing on to start today’s show. She is also talking about the still outstanding house races. Yesterday Anthony Brindisi beat Claudia Tenney, flipping a New York House seat. There are…
Lynn Cullen Live – 11/28/18
Video Archive Lynn is talking about the struggle she has to produce less depressing shows. As an empathetic person she has a hard time handling all the bad news that is out there currently. She is also apologizing to you for how depressing she feels the recent shows have been. In addition, she is discussing…
Breaking SAD
Maybe seasonal affective disorder in Pittsburgh feels so widespread because our gloomy gray season just seems to last longer. One second, it’s arts fest; the next, everyone’s crowded around the Horne’s Christmas tree. While the holiday season brings a lot of folks joy, there are some of us still having a hard time coping with the…
Paint a happier you with art therapy
Treating mental health takes many forms, from conventional talk therapy and physical activity to homeopathic remedies. But for many, art may hold the answer to feeling better. The official therapeutic use of art dates back to the 1940s when artist Edward Adamson began working with author Adrian Hill to develop the approach for British patients…
Q&A with a professional exerciser
Considering how many folks get anxious in social situations and also don’t like to exercise, it seems counter-intuitive that exercising in social situations is so insanely popular. But here we are: group exercise programs like yoga and spin classes have ballooned to billion-dollar industries in the past decade or so, and the trend doesn’t appear…
Levity Day Spa: Float Tank Review
Some say float tanks can bring about psychedelic experiences. An hour-long session can feel like a couple of minutes. You can lose yourself and cleanse your soul. Those are just a few of the rave reviews I heard about using an isolation tank – a form of floatation therapy that has grown in popularity over…
Orangetheory understandably has an almost cult following
“It’s so … orange.” My sister and I stood outside of Orangetheory Fitness in East Liberty and exchanged uneasy looks. In full view, the gym was quite eerie. Everything, and I mean everything, was blanketed with a deep orange. Silhouettes moved in sync like cogs in a machine from exercise to exercise. The scene was…
After a sauna, I couldn’t give two shvitz
Summer ends. Leaves change color. Next thing you know, your workday is bookended by darkness. Now you’re depressed. Maybe you were depressed before fall. I’m not sure, I barely know you. As a Pittsburgh City Paper employee who dabbles in depression and anxiety in my spare time, I volunteered to examine the purported positive effects…
Tips for mental self-care on a budget
To some degree, the culture has become much more open about mental health. Celebrities like Kristen Bell and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have promoted the conversation by detailing their own struggles with depression, anxiety, and other issues. The nationwide Healthy Minds Study, a recently released, 10-year-long survey of more than 150,000 college students from 196…
How to combat seasonal affective disorder
Seasonal affective disorder, also known as SAD, is a type of depression that relates to the changing seasons. SAD can occur in any season, but it’s most common in the winter months. Dr. Alicia Kaplan, a psychiatrist with Allegheny Health Network, says symptoms of SAD are similar to depression and that they typically start in…
Healing Roots Massage Review: Yoga Nidra
I left my yoga nidra session at Healing Roots smelling of lavender, tear stains on my face. I was alert and more aware of myself and my place in the world than I was when I entered. Nidra means sleep in Sanskrit, and yoga nidra is a deep meditative form of yoga. The word yoga…
Does CBD oil work?
One of the biggest health mysteries of 2018 is the sudden ubiquity of CBD. CBD, or cannabidiol, is derived from marijuana but contains none of the psychoactive effects of THC, yet the marketing of CBD products makes it seem otherwise. Products infused with CBD—including face creams, chocolate, ice cream, juice, tea, bath bombs, gummy bears,…
Cupping therapy pulls tension up, like the opposite of massage, but in a soothing way
Alternative medicine splits people into two groups: the non-stop babblers and the skeptics. Believers swear by acupuncture, gem therapy, and meditation. Opposers deem it a well-orchestrated placebo. When it comes to cupping therapy, I am now firmly in the non-stop babbler corner. Cupping therapy is an ancient Chinese treatment. Bizarre suction cups that leave huge,…
Caving to the pressure of the Himalayan salt trend
Himalayan salt lamps have become so trendy, they’re now sold at Walmart. Yes, Walmart. Add them to the list beside essential oils and gluten-free diets as health fads even your conservative aunt has heard about. But do they work? When a friend recommended a Himalayan salt cave visit after finding out I was seeking stress…
Social media probably makes you feel bad — here’s how to limit usage
Social media can be bad for mental health. This is obvious to anyone who has ever looked at their phone immediately after waking and gone on to have a bad day or felt emotionally drained from looking at news and reactions on Twitter or felt like a gargoyle after looking at pictures of pretty people…
