Ghost Doorway
Remnant of a business — and an office item — now gone
Falling Leaves and …
Tis autumn, when the leaves and the scapulars fall to the sidewalk
Messages From the Street
In case you were wondering … Texas is the End of the World
New Human Hustle mixtape feat. Beedie, Palermo Stone, more
Just a quick morning heads-up: a couple days ago, Human Hustle and North Coast Beats released its first mixtape on DatPiff. It’s got a load of Pittsburgh rappers, including Beedie. Worth a look-see for those interested in getting a taste of Pittsburgh hip hop beyond the household names. Read more and download it here.
Recap: GZA at Altar Bar 9/17/2012
GZA performs at Altar Bar on 9/17/2012 with Killer Mike, Wu Lords and Bear Hands.
Activists Question Benefits, Prospects for Natural Gas
In advance of protests at an industry conference, natural gas is called environmentally damaging, and reserve sizes are disputed
Crowds gathering outside PENNDOT for Voter ID drive
AFL-CIO helping citizens get Voter ID until 4:15 today
A conversation with Arlene Holt Baker
Voter ID “gives us another opportunity to show that these folks, who would try to suppress your vote, are not on your side as working people.”
Heads Up: Morning Headlines for Sept. 18
Mitt Romney thinks you’re a slacker … city police get wearable cameras … and meet a Steelers great while being an engaged citizen.
Lynn Cullen Live 09/18/12
Video Archive Phone guest: Susan; Romney speech leak: 47% of Americans are lazy moochers with a sense of entitlement; the taxes that Romney isn’t paying; tax cuts for the rich by cutting social services for the non-rich; Romney doesn’t believe in peace in the Middle East; American work hours, work ethic; NFL updates; football is…
A giant maze, Braddock Hospital documentary and more
Some local campaigns currently up on crowdfunding sites.
Allegheny County Controller says accountability for the new reassessment values rests with county officials
The firm who conducted Allegheny County’s court-ordered property reassessment can’t be blamed for the disparate final numbers, says Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner. In a report Wagner released today after a five-month review of the contract county officials signed in 2010 with Tyler Technologies, Inc., she says the company did only what it was asked…
Heads Up: Morning headlines for Sept. 17
Barack Obama has a strong 11-point lead over Mitt Romney among Pennsylvania voters, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer poll. Pollsters confirm a measurable post-convention “bounce” for Obama, but find little evidence of one for Romney. And while fewer than one-third of Pennsylvanians could correctly identify Obama’s religion (Protestant), it seems not to matter: 55 percent…
Has ground shifted beneath Dems on redistricting?
OK, it’s finally here, the blog post you’ve been waiting for: our write-up of the torrid redistricting action before the Supreme Court! Bottom line? State Sen. Jim Ferlo might be in trouble. Redistricting, of course, is the process of drawing up the boundaries for legislative districts, which must be crafted anew after each Census. State…
Community organizes #WeLoveShadow event to show support after club receives complaints
Customers and musicians who have played at East Liberty’s Shadow Lounge are throwing a free party Sunday, Sept. 23 at the venue in response to news that its owner received several mysterious complaints earlier this summer from regulatory agencies. They plan to show up with signs explaining why they love the Shadow Lounge, and hope…
Playing the Trump card
Remember when you first saw the Mac Miller “Donald Trump” video, a year and a half ago? Donald Trump remembers when he first heard about it, too! This morning. Wouldn’t you think someone would’ve told him, like, at least during the year it came out? I guess this at least confirms once and for all…
A Digital Film About Digital Films
A new documentary about the impact of digital filmmaking
Heads Up: Morning headlines for Sept. 14
Supremes debate future of democracy … a call for a moratorium on the state’s death penalty … and at state liquor stores glass bottles sometimes break.
Lynn Cullen Live 09/14/12
Video Archive Kansas wants Obama off their ballot; if you’re going to lie, lie big & often; Obama’s birth conspiracy, people actually believe Obama is the anti-Christ; moral relativism; Obama has the lead in FL, OH, VA; $20 million to go to the Pittsburgh Foundation; you need a good sense of humor to age; innocent…
“The Life and Death of Little Finn” Review
“Little Finn” is poignant yet darkly funny.
Voter ID gets its day in Supreme Court
The state’s controversial Voter ID law came before the state Supreme Court today, and observers seem to agree … the state did not have an easy time of it. Two Democrats on the Court’s current 6-member roster — Seamus P. McCaffery and Debra McCloskey Todd — seemed openly hostile to the measure. “Could it be…
The Life & Death of Little Finn at CorningWorks
The latest from Beth Corning’s Glue Factory Project is billed as “an adult dancetheater puppet production.” I’d also call it “boutique theater.” The show opened its limited run last night. The delightful if darkly funny production, based on a concept by Canada’s Company X, is designed for three performers, numerous puppets and a small audience.…
An open letter to Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar isn’t into voting; Jamar Thrasher is.
Messages From the Streets
“I am beautiful”
EDMC says it’s focusing on students most likely to succeed
EDMC participates in Education investing conference
The Tag Cloud is the Tag Cloud Week 2
Breaking down Mike Tomlin’s weekly Press conference
Heads Up: Morning headlines for Sept. 13
Pre-gaming the voter ID case … the wheels of justice grind slowly … and Tom Corbett says Mitt Romney does too have a chance in Pennsylvania.
Lynn Cullen Live 09/13/12
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; mouth noises; tis the season for Jewish holidays; Romney has no restraining inner core; Egypt isn’t an enemy, but not an ally either; voter ID hearing today; daily newspapers only going to print a few days a week; books vs. kindles; compression of communication; people responsible for the anti-Islam video;…
Will public school board lose third majority-black district?
You knew it couldn’t last. In an election season dominated by a presidential election, debates over voter ID, and the drawing of legislative boundaries, we’ve heard nary a peep from the city’s often-fractious school board. But as the Pittsburgh Public Schools, too, must redraw the boundaries of its nine political districts, that may be about…
Get the Poop on Poop
ALCOSAN hosts its annual open house Saturday — free tours and lots of info about municipal sanitation and the environment
A negative ad from Dems — but THIS one attacks … other Dems
Remember how excited you were back in the spring, when Congressional incumbents Jason Altmire and Mark Critz battled each other in the newly drawn 12th District? OK, we don’t remember that either. But Critz won, meaning that this November, he is carrying the banner of his party. Which he hates. Or so it would seem…
Casey launches new negative ad against Smith
Senator Bob Casey’s re-election campaign has launched a new television ad — this one a negative attack, asking whether challenger Tom Smith “is your cup of tea?” The ad relies on news clips of Smith himself speaking of his involvement with the Tea Party and his founding of the Armstrong County Patriots’ group. It follows…
Heads Up: Morning headlines for Sept. 12
The city’s gas-drilling ban is, again, up for debate. And so is a tax on billboards! GOP demands government keep its hands off of its own programs, and Mr. Biden goes to Shanksville.
ID Labs Studios prepares to move across the river
“I showed up here eight years ago and built a mic booth in the back room,” says producer E. Dan, looking around his ID Labs Studios in Lawrenceville. “That’s the extent to which we went for studio construction.” Inside, you’ll find walls lined with thousands of records, or covered with album artwork and press coverage…
Arbitrage
I love those glossy thrillers-cum-morality tales that spin well-heeled characters through boardrooms, bedrooms and courtrooms. The late 1980s and early ’90s were prime time for this genre, and one of its star players was Richard Gere, who always looked good in an expensive suit, and effortlessly projected an air of sophisticated amorality. That Gere is…
Hidden America, by Jeanne Marie Laskas
JEANNE MARIE LASKAS 7 p.m. Thu., Sept. 13. Barnes & Noble Homestead 100 W. Bridge St. (The Waterfront) West Homestead. Free. 412-462-5743 Hidden America By Jeanne Marie Laskas Putnam, $26.95, 318 pp. #excerpt { padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; width:500px; } In the introduction to Hidden America, Jeanne Marie Laskas suggests that this collection of…
Mark Mallman gets in the van to make music — and doesn’t get out
MARK MALLMAN’S MARATHON FOUR: ROADROGUE. Streaming at markmallman.com, Sat., Sept 15-Fri., Sept. 21. Pittsburgh stop, Sept. 15. Gearing up for his Marathon Four: Roadrogue project, Mark Mallman is faced with the task of explaining the tour to inquisitive journalists. It involves playing music without stopping, for seven days, in a van, while on a road…
For a Good Time, Call …
Phone sex is the focus of this comedy, directed by Jamie Travis. In an Odd Couple set-up, two mismatched gals — the well-mannered Lauren (Lauren Miller) and the free-spirited Katie (Ari Graynor) — wind up sharing a pricy Manhattan apartment. Katie already works for a phone-sex company, but Lauren figures out the real profits are…
Latest effort to revive a decommissioned city pool gets mixed results
PROJECT: LIDO continues through Sept. 23. Leslie Park Pool 46th and Butler streets, Lawrenceville. lvpgh.com In 2009, a handful of motivated Lawrenceville residents formed the LESLIE Park Collective — an organization dedicated to keeping the decommissioned city pool active. Among other programming, in 2009, the group hosted an “accordion party” that drew some 600 visitors. It…
Gypsy and His Band of Ghosts release debut EP
GYPSY AND HIS BAND OF GHOSTS EP RELEASE with CALEB POGYOR AND THE TALKERS, HOMELESS GOSPEL CHOIR. 9 p.m. Sat., Sept. 22. Thunderbird Café 4023 Butler St. Lawrenceville $10-12. 412-682-0177 or thunderbirdcafe.net Perhaps you’ve noticed a strange phenomenon in the last five years or so, in which those kids you’d always seen at all-ages punk…
Trishna
Michael Winterbottom adapts Thomas Hardy’s 19th-century novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles, resetting the tale of an uneducated rural woman variously betrayed by men in contemporary India. Trishna (Freida Pinto) thinks she has found a better life with the cavalier and wealthy Jay (Riz Ahmed). She works at his father’s hotel, and later, joins him as…
Fall Arts Guide 2012
Don’t let the squirrels have all the fun this season. Check out previews of dance, music, film, art and other events, in this year’s Fall Arts Guide
CD Reviews
Judith Avers God Bless the Brooders (Self-released) Avers’ voice is especially warm and genuine, and her songwriting often more complex than the standard singer-songwriter fare. Make no mistake: This is laid-back folk- and country-inflected stuff. But it’s a notch above most of Avers’ local contemporaries. Her lyricism delves into personal thoughts and concerns in a…
August: Osage County
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY continues through Sept. 23. Pittsburgh Playhouse 222 Craft Ave. Oakland. $15-27. 412-392-8000 or pittsburghplayhouse.com A classic thespian motto is that there are no small roles, only small actors. This is a lie, of course, to make actors feel better. There are plenty of small, sad, pathetic roles in theater, and the truth…
Critics’ Picks: September 12-18
[INDIE POP] + SAT., SEPT. 15 Kishi Bashi is, in a way, best known for not being well known: He’s played bit parts, mostly violin, on plenty of records (of Montreal, Sondre Lerche). But he’s breaking out with 151a, an upbeat and beautiful solo effort with strings and synth sounds, which he plays live using…
Becky’s New Car
BECKY’S NEW CAR continues through Sept. 22. Little Lake Theatre 500 Lakeside Drive (off Route 19) Canonsburg. $12-20. 724-745-6300 or littlelake.org According to an aphorism in Becky’s New Car, when a woman wants a new car, she really wants a new life. Thus, we are told without subtlety, the title character of Steven Dietz’s 2008…
Evidence Control: University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris’ new book lobbies for change in post-arrest police procedures
For most of us, it’s hard to imagine confessing to a serious crime we didn’t commit. It may be just as hard to imagine sitting on a jury that ignored a genuine confession. Yet at least one of those things — and maybe both — happened in the case of Marcus Andrejco and Emilio Rivera,…
Exhibits this fall address big issues.
Two things unavoidable this fall are the presidential election and the flu. You can improve your odds against the flu with a vaccine — unless, of course, you have issues with “big” government agencies like the FDA, CDC and WHO — but the only cure for politics is to stay informed. A number of new…
On the Record With Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!
AMY GOODMAN speaks at 7 p.m. Thu., Sept. 13. McConomy Auditorium CMU campus Oakland. Free ($10 donation suggested). 412-322-7570 The feisty journalists at Democracy Now! caused quite a stir at the Republican Convention, in Tampa Bay, Fla., last month — and not just for the independent news program’s provocative daily coverage. In one incident that…
The Drowsy Chaperone
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE continues though Sept. 23. 1614 Coursin St. McKeesport. $7-18. 412-671-1100 or mckeesportlittletheater.com The evening begins in total darkness. After a few seconds, we hear a plaintive voice: “I hate theater.” How could I not love The Drowsy Chaperone? Now playing at McKeesport Little Theater, Chaperone is one in the recent spate of…
Personal Foul
“It’s going to be a different atmosphere,” Brentwood High School football coach Kevin Kissel told the Observer-Reporter newspaper before last Friday night’s Monessen-Brentwood football game. That’s quite a declaration. Especially considering that he was trying to distance the upcoming game from an atmosphere that apparently never existed — except, perhaps, in the minds of those…
Fall dance ranges from classic ballet to edgy modern dance, flamenco and more
Old favorites and slew of bold new works highlight Pittsburgh’s new dance season. Here’s a sampling of what will be on stages through year’s end: Move over Pinocchio, as CorningWorks presents a different kind of puppet experience in The Life & Death of Little Finn, an adult puppet dance-theater production continuing through Sept. 16 at…
Stifling Heat
“They knew what the weather was going to be months ago.” So sneered Charles Krauthammer at news that Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention was being moved indoors, for fear of rain. Krauthammer, like other Republicans, was certain the real reason was that Democrats feared they couldn’t fill an outdoor venue. It did…
Caravan Theatre tackles a play about madman science-fiction author Philip K. Dick.
Caravan Theatre Company presents 800 WORDS: THE TRANSMIGRATION OF PHILIP K. DICK Sept. 14-30 Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre 937 Liberty Ave. Downtown. $15-20. caravantheatreofpittsburgh.com Like Van Gogh, Poe or original Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett, science-fiction author Philip K. Dick is linked to a legend about his own madness that is as famous as anything he…
Savage Love
I want to buy my 14-year-old niece a dildo, some lube and an age-appropriate book about sex. (Can you recommend one?) I have her mother’s permission, but I wanted to double-check on whether there are legal issues I should be concerned about. (I live in Oregon.) Would it be inappropriate to cross that boundary with…
Fall Arts Guide: Music
Summer may historically be considered concert season, but some of this year’s biggest tours are poised to hit town this fall. Meanwhile, the series we’ve come to expect (VIA, the Warhol’s Sound Series) return with heavy-hitting lineups. For the rock traditionalist, a few major events are can’t-miss. Neil Young and Crazy Horse play the Petersen…
Short List: September 12-18
Tue., Sept. 18 — Dance When it debuted its Some Assembly Required series 15 years ago, Attack Theatre was a little ahead of the interactive-art curve. A dance performance created on the spot, based on audience members’ responses to artworks, was a novelty — one the troupe took to the Carnegie International and to galleries…
Acclaimed choreographer’s new work explores the history of African-American humor.
CAMILLE A. BROWN & DANCERS perform Mr. TOL E. RAncE 8 p.m. Fri., Sept.14, and 8 p.m. Sat., Sept. 15. Kelly-Strayhorn Theater 5941 Penn Ave. East Liberty. $15-25. 412-363-3000 or kellystrayhorn.org In the past few years, Pittsburgh audiences have been introduced to award-winning dancer/choreographer Camille A. Brown and her work. In 2010, she performed at…
Lynn Cullen Live 09/12/12
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter, CP editor; US ambassador to Libya has been killed; Egypt gets a lot of US aid — what will the Republican response to this be?; Potter’s son didn’t want to participate in “Remember 9/11” art project; global warming & climate change = longer allergy season; Repubs don’t believe in global…
Sleepwalk With Me
Sleepwalk With Me Directed by: Mike Birbiglia and Seth Barrish Starring: Mike Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose Starts Fri., Sept. 14. Regent Square In the first scene of Sleepwalk With Me, protagonist “Matt Pandamiglio” addresses the camera directly and assures us that the story he’s about to tell is true. Which makes sense, since Matt is portrayed…
The Blind Pig Tavern
The Blind Pig Tavern 2210 E. Carson St. South Side. 412-586-5936 Hours: Mon.-Fri. 4 p.m.-2:30 a.m.; Sat.-Sun. 11 a.m.-2:30 a.m. Prices: $4-14 Liquor: Full bar Though “The Blind Pig” sounds like one of those twee British tavern names, the menu of this South Side saloon tells a different story, one which explains it as a…
Fall Film Preview
As you settle into fall’s cooler clime, take heart that the fare at the megaplex is looking relatively substantial. Of course, fall is also festival time ’round these parts, and some local venues offer less-mainstream features. The first of the ‘Burgh’s two long-running festivals to return is the Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival…
Plans for a North Side bar from the partners of the former Firehouse Lounge and Embury have fallen
Partners in the much-lamented Firehouse Lounge and 1920s-themed cocktail bar Embury have backed out of plans to move into the block housing the North Side’s Garden Theater. And while a South Side location is in the works, it will not have a role for Spencer Warren, who created the Firehouse/Embury concept. Wayne Zukin, a…
The stage season focuses on contemporary American themes, but travels overseas and into the past, too.
Must be a presidential-election season or something: This fall’s plays are about a lot of, you know, American stuff. Just to be perfectly explicit about it, Pittsburgh Public Theatre has even dubbed its season “Made in America.” It opens with Garson Kanin’s classic Washington, D.C.-set comedy Born Yesterday (Sept. 27-Oct. 28). Then the company gets…
Steeped in history — and vinegar — “shrubs” add new flavor to cocktails
At first, the thought of putting a jigger of vinegar in your cocktail might sound unappetizing. But what if you combined that vinegar with ripe fruit and sugar? You’d be drinking a concoction that’s been around since America’s colonial days — the shrub. The “shrub,” whose name is derived from the Arabic word for “drink”…
Venues of all sizes host literary names from the locally renowned to the world-famous.
Autumn’s lit season has everything from world-famous names to local favorites, brought to you by everyone from venerable institutions to area writers themselves. Late September alone offers a cornucopia of notable events. On Sept. 20, The New Yinzer online literary magazine marks its 10th anniversary with a reading at ModernFormations Gallery featuring TNY staffers like…
A new frozen-yogurt shop on East Carson Street offers tasty treats
While East Carson Street has a reputation as a playground for the over-21 drinking set that to its busy bar scene, a new frozen-yogurt joint caters to the kid in us all. Love Yogurt, which opened four months ago, is a sweet spot for any kid or grown-up. Inside, you’re embraced by vibrant orange and…
