Mid-week updates: Jed Davis postponed, Van Dyke de-brief, etc.
First off, a quick heads-up: You may have heard about the Jed Davis/Reeves Gabrels show coming up this Saturday at Howlers. I just got word that the show’s been postponed until December. Weird Paul, who was slated to open, will still be playing on Saturday. Now then, a couple thoughts inspired by last night’s Van…
Police review board attorneys resign, citing law department dispute
At the first meeting of the city’s newly reconstituted Citizens Police Review Board, executive director Beth Pittinger made a surprise announcement tonight: Board solicitors Hugh McGough and William Ward are resigning, effective October 18. In a letter addressed to Pittinger and obtained by our very own Chris Young, Ward says their firm is stepping down…
Helping the Carnegie Library
You have through Thursday to help save the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. That’s a slight exaggeration, of course: Preserving this embattled but invaluable asset will be a long process, and there’ll be plenty of opportunities to donate and volunteer, and to advocate for more funding. But Thursday is your last chance to help shape the…
MP3 Monday: The Incline
We last caught up with (climbed?) The Incline, it was spring of 2009 and they were releasing their first album. The pair of brothers put out Road to Home, an eclectic mix of songs, and I noted that they pulled off a rapped breakdown “better than you might expect.” They seem to have taken that…
Van Dyke Parks, extended interview, part two
As promised, here’s part two of my talk with Van Dyke Parks. Here we talk about stuttering Moses, the public domain, torque and pop. Nestled at the end you’ll find an MP3 of Van Dyke telling a funny little story about Pittsburgh party-crashing in the early ’60s. City Paper: A lot of the work you’ve…
Alan Moore’s In Pictopia at the Toonseum
“Only superheroes can afford to dream in color,” said a young Alan Moore. It’s hard to imagine a time when Moore, a comics superstar, had the heart of an independent artist longing for validation. But the late ’80s was that time, and In Pictopia was the comic. These days, Moore’s work is familiar from big-screen…
Comedian Doug Stanhope tells why it’s better in England.
“I do have stuff with social relevance, and I do have fist-fuck jokes and brutal, crude humor.”
The Town
Supposedly, the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston is a hotbed of armed bank robbers. No surprise, then, that this second feature from actor-turned-director Ben Affleck dumps us right in the middle of a job. The gang, headed by Doug McCray (Affleck), bumbles, taking the bank manager (Rebecca Hall) hostage. After her release, she’s a person of…
Easy A
It happens by accident, but the misinformation that the virginal Olive (Emma Stone) spent a naughty weekend with an older man makes her a lot more popular at her high school. And because Olive is bright — too clever by half, really — she decides to maximize her newfound slutty reputation, by “renting” herself out…
Short List: Week of September 23 – 30
Thu., Sept. 23 — Stage Cultural phenomenon Tyler Perry — you might know him as Madea — started his show-business career on stage and made his name nationally on the big screen. Now Perry is back on stage live for the first time in years. Madea’s Big Happy Family is the latest in the line…
Fall Arts Highlight
RADical Days Free performances, exhibits and more continue at venues all around town, through Oct. 24. www.radworkshere.org The Barber of Seville Pittsburgh Opera does Rossini’s classic. Benedum Center, Downtown. Oct. 9, 12, 15, 17 412-281-0912 Made in America Work by Pittsburgh Symphony Composer of the Year Joan Tower keys a concert also spotlighting Rachmaninoff and…
As one longtime reading series bows out, other venues for authors, poets and speakers soldier on.
Gist Street’s shoes will be no easier to fill than were those of the venerable International Poetry Forum.
Fall dance has everything from Pilobolus to a Three Musketeers ballet.
The Pittsburgh Dance Council season-opener includes choreographer Pascal Rioult’s daring Bolero.
Fall theater leans toward the new and the new-to-you.
City Theatre’s The 39 Steps is a spy farce based on a novel based on the Hitchcock movie, with four actors playing some 150 roles.
Marilyn at The Warhol and Cuban race relations at The Mattress Factory are among fall’s highlights.
Queloides/Keloids includes new work by 12 artists who’ve explored the traditionally taboo topic of discrimination toward Afro-Cubans.
Fall Film Guide
The summer-time booms and shrieks from the megaplex are fading away, and now movie-lovers settle in for sweater weather and more varied offerings. Several returning festivals offer lesser-seen fare, and come the holidays the Oscars contenders start popping up. The first of the ‘Burgh’s two long-running festivals to return is the Pittsburgh International Lesbian and…
Fall Concerts
The National, playing the Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead Sept. 25 with Owen Pallatt, is shaping up to be one of the fall’s hot-ticket shows, and it seems like a case of the times catching up with a band — not long ago, it was playing to a half-interested crowd at a half-full Rex…
Lockhouse 6
Drive or float up, for riverside dining on the Ohio
Farewell
In the early 1980s, a Frenchmen becomes the contact for a Russian KGB agent, who passes along secrets. They don’t quite make them like Farewell any more, and it’s a shame: Set in Moscow, Paris and Washington (with Fred Ward as Ronald Reagan!), it’s entertaining and smartly done, a drama on the fringes of history,…
This Just In: September 23 – 30
Highlights from the local TV news: Take a Walk on the South Side
Consolidated Coal Company of Pittsburgh, 1977
A poem by Stephanie Brea
Attack Theatre showcases its vision with Site/Re-site.
In a daredevil duet with Jeff Davis, Liz Chang danced precariously along the outside ledge of the railing of the bar’s upper level.
Red, White & Tuna
Little Lake Tuna veteran Art DeConciliis, as usual, gives a master class in how to play comedy.
While not exactly fresh, a new account of race in Pittsburgh since World War II is a helpful survey.
A motif of the book is that black perspectives on issues like public housing, or school busing, were often more conflicted than current political rhetoric assumes.
Fire and Ice
“Global warming loads the dice” for extreme weather.
In good spirits
Burmese refugees create religious center
Getting Mobilized?
Activists try to rally the public behind public transit
Pen Pals
An upstart group presses the state on treatment of prisoners
Yeasayer transcends its early buzz-band status with Odd Blood
Odd Blood is either futuristic groove-heavy psych-pop or a Pro-Tools brand of baroque-pop built for the dancefloor.
A Conversation with Van Dyke Parks
“I wanted to be a part of pop music; I wanted to be serious about un-serious music.”
Going her own way, Esperanza Spalding signals a new moment in jazz
Spalding has carved out her own identity not only in jazz, but in the larger musical landscape.
ModernFormations offers an engaging two-artist show about solitude and silence.
What Armagost has captured with clarity is not just that all of these devices and contraptions are lifeless and quiet, but that they once shouted and sang.
Pairdown champions fingerstyle guitar with new album, tablature and blog
“The idea was to form a relationship with the international community of guitarists.”
La Casa Narcisi Winery
4578 Gibsonia Road (Route 910) Gibsonia 724-444-4744 The saying “In vino veritas” may come from Latin, but there’s no one I veritas more with my vino than the Italians. And for those seeking good wine and Italian culture, La Casa Narcisi in Gibsonia is a veritable oasis. It’s part winery, part café and part…
Savage Love
I’m a gay male and have been seeing a terrific guy for a couple of months. Two years ago, during an uncharacteristically wild few months in my life, I had a threesome with a couple, and as it turns out, my boyfriend is very good friends with them. Nothing has been mentioned by anyone, and…
Fall Arts Preview
Fall Concerts Fall Film Guide Marilyn at The Warhol and Cuban race relations at The Mattress Factory are among fall’s highlights. Fall theater leans toward the new and the new-to-you. Fall dance has everything from Pilobolus to a Three Musketeers ballet. As one longtime reading series bows out, other venues for authors, poets and speakers…
