Corbett gas tax “impact fee” may be more industry-friendly than the industry’s own proposal
One percent. According to one left-of-center think tank, that would be the approximate tax rate on natural gas under Gov. Tom Corbett’s plan to set an “impact fee” on Marcellus Shale gas wells. If that estimate is correct, Corbett is asking for a tax rate even lower than the one sought last summer by the…
MP3 Monday: Satin Gum
A month or two ago, I ran into Brian from Satin Gum at a show, and I asked if they had something new coming out, and he said yes, but he wasn’t sure if I’d like it. Then he followed up with: “Do you like the Rolling Stones? If you like the Rolling Stones, you…
Organizers plan to bring Wall Street protest to Pittsburgh
Do you long to defy the global economic elite, but find it hard to pull together bus fare so you can occupy Wall Street? You may soon get your chance: A local event in solidarity with the NYC protest, “Occupy Pittsburgh,” is slated for Oct. 15, though details are very much in flux. Organizers of…
Toomey “appears” in Onion hostage-taking story
Senator Pat Toomey’s Station Square office will be the site of a demonstration at noon today.The folks at One Pittsburgh intend to tell Toomey “There’s work that needs to be done and we’re ready to work.” According to a release, the group intendes to present “photographs of places in Pittsburgh where there’s work to be…
“Rebel Bookseller” Visits Pittsburgh
Independent bookseller and local-business advocate Andrew Laties believes we should pay to live in the kind of world we want. In Rebel Bookseller, he draws on experiences from his 30 years in the industry to illustrate the need for consumer activism and awareness. Laties, who speaks here on Monday, dismisses the excuse of generous savings…
Short List: Week of September 29 – October 4
Thu., Sept. 29 — Stage Pittsburgh is no immigration hotbed. But it has sheltered some of Sudan’s “Lost Boys,” who came here in 2001. Inspired by that true story, veteran local playwright Tammy Ryan’s Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods follows the relationship between one such refugee, a Pittsburgh woman and her daughter. The play’s…
Aji Picante
Trying a new restaurant is, for us, much like going to the movies: We don’t like to know too much going in. So when we say we were bowled over by how much we liked Aji Picante, a new Peruvian restaurant in Squirrel Hill, it’s not because our expectations were low. But, unfamiliar as we…
Long misunderstood, absinthe makes a comeback
Downtown’s Meat & Potatoes is new on the scene, having opened on Penn Avenue this June. But the “gastropub” has already established itself with an innovative mix of cocktails — thanks in no small part to an ingredient you don’t find in the average Pittsburgh corner bar: absinthe. Absinthe is a botanical spirit distilled with…
Too Many Apples
Maybe the kids went crazy at the U-Pick orchard; or your CSA dropped off two five-pound bags; or you just bought loads at the supermarket, because with apples at their peak, prices are low. And despite your best intentions about an-apple-a-day, weeks from now there’s a big bowl of not-looking-so-good fruit. Fortunately, apples are a…
On the Record: Lynn Swann
Hall of Famer Lynn Swann was a key factor in the Steelers’ first four Super Bowls and is hoping to bring even more championships to the city as co-owner of the Pittsburgh Power Arena Football League team. The Power is looking for new talent for its second season with an Oct. 1 open tryout. What…
Test Question: Will state drug tests for welfare really come at a savings?
As Pennsylvania prepares to drug-test some welfare and food-stamp recipients, it’s not clear if the move will bring the savings promised by legislators. State lawmakers passed a budget committed to making $400 million in cuts at the Department of Public Welfare. As part of that mandate, they passed Act 22, requiring drug testing for recipients…
PAT’s legacy would make regional transit system a tough sell
Rich Fitzgerald envisions mass transit in Allegheny County. He just doesn’t picture Port Authority of Allegheny County delivering it. The county-executive candidate has proposed dissolving the transit agency altogether and creating a new, regional system. But transit in Allegheny County hasn’t had the best reputation, and some worry that merging with the Port Authority would…
Savage Love
I am a 23-year-old female, sexually active for seven years, and I can’t reach climax. I have a wonderfully patient and helpful partner. He has tried hard to no avail. I can’t even get myself there. I feel like I am broken. When I brought up to my doctor that I had never had an…
Malignant Growth
If you think the clash between UPMC and Highmark is aggravating, imagine how Gary Ebersole feels. For one thing, his son works for Highmark, his wife for UPMC. In this battle, he says, “I’m the most neutral person you can find.” And as a commissioner in rural Bedford County, Ebersole has a bigger problem: Many…
The Old College Try
How big of a business is college sports? So big that, even with tuitions rising and state funding being slashed, the University of Pittsburgh is ready to pay $5 million to sever ties with the Big East athletic conference. And it expects to earn that money back — and then some — by joining the…
Critics’ Picks: Sept 30 – Oct 6
[CLASSICAL] + FRI., SEPT. 30 When one thinks of classical music they may automatically revert to visions of Beethoven or Mozart, old dead dudes who play canonical pieces or very squarely constructed melodies. But composition for classical instrumentation can be youthful and vibrant, according to Alia Musica, an organization founded in 2006 by a group…
Writer Josh Barkan at Wood-Fired Words
Braddock Mayor John Fetterman has been nationally recognized for efforts to revive his adopted hard-luck mill town, not least with art. The project has already birthed a gallery, UnSmoke Art Space, where artists also inhabit studios upstairs in the former St. Michael’s Catholic School. The building houses studios for a few writers, too. And so…
CD Reviews
Caroline SaveryInner Dim53 Records Twelve tracks of charmingly amateurish acoustic rock from this newcomer (it’s also the first release for 53 Records, run by Joy Toujours in conjunction with the Project 53 free music-ed program). Sincere, sweet folky tunes largely about the issues humans face when they try to relate to other humans (and themselves).…
Lock and Key Collective celebrates its fourth birthday
Although Lock and Key Collective is preparing to celebrate its fourth birthday, its origins go back nearly a decade. Founder Dan Rock met Chris #2 from Anti-Flag when #2’s other band, Whatever It Takes, toured with Rock’s brother’s band, Teddy Duchamp’s Army. Rock ended up working for A-F Records for years. After he left A-F,…
Shinji Masuko, of DMBQ and Boredoms fame, returns to Pittsburgh with a more contemplative solo instrumental record.
How cool is Shinji Masuko? Let us count the ways: As founder of DMBQ and a member of Boredoms, he’s been one of Japan’s most unassailable guitarists for more than 20 years. He also builds guitars, including two versions of the Sevena, a seven-neck guitar which he somehow keeps tuned and maintained during Boredoms shows.…
‘Burgh-born Boy Wonder
When Angelo Spagnolo attended Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts High School (CAPA), in the mid-’00s, Ben Opie, the saxophonist in Opek and Thoth Trio, was teaching there. One Friday afternoon, Spagnolo noticed a CD Opie had just bought that featured traditional Japanese music and asked if he could borrow it over the weekend. When when…
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
You know that popular horror-movie set-up whereby some clueless college kids take a vacation in the woods, and are set upon by a psychotic, murderous hillbilly or two? Good — because you’ll want to know all the tropes to really appreciate Eli Craig’s somewhat-gory comedy that flips the story. In a neat bit of role…
Senna
Formula One motor-racing is a bit like soccer — a lot more popular in other countries. Yet no viewer need be a fan of the sport, nor have any foreknowledge, to be captivated by British filmmaker Asif Kapadia’s documentary about one of F1’s greatest stars, Ayrton Senna. The handsome, charismatic Brazilian dominated the track in…
50/50
About an hour into 50/50, the story of a 27-year-old man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) fighting cancer, he and two fellow patients sit around a backyard, smoking marijuana to relieve their nausea, and just riffing on stuff. The director, Jonathan Levine, shoots the conversation with quick cuts and in close-ups that look at times like he used…
Moneyball
Pittsburghers already know the miseries of having a small-market baseball team, with a dinky budget to match. But that doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy Moneyball’s extended riff on the Oakland Athletics’ similar troubles, and the then-esoteric strategies their general manager, Billy Beane, employed to stem the bleeding. Bennett Miller’s Moneyball is adapted from Michael Lewis’…
A “rebel bookseller,” a writer-in-residence and this year’s Drue Heinz winner are among this week’s talkers and readers.
Andrew Laties says he’s been a contrarian since age 8, when he refused to cut his long hair, despite ridicule from classmates. “At that point, I took on an adversarial position that’s resonated throughout my life,” he says. For 30 years, Laties managed three independent book stores in Chicago. He now runs the Eric Carle…
Godspell
Let me put it this way: Godspell, now playing at South Park Theatre, has a wonderful cast. The performers in this mostly-female production are funny, sharp and physically agile. They improvise effortlessly, and they work well together, playing word games and pantomiming scenes with energy and zest. They even dance like they mean it. Phase…
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Because of a few karmic debts I had to work off, I spent much of my youth watching a lot of Shakespeare. I never could figure out what was more ridiculous — his godawful writing or the swarms of people oohing and aahing over it. But there is an upside: I get the jokes in…
What?
For its latest dance work, What?, Attack Theatre invited audiences for three nights to witness its creation as a work-in-progress, and offer feedback. Starting on Sept. 23, creation gave way to performance in the project’s second phase, entitled “This Is What.” Inspired by fast-paced TV detective dramas like the CSI franchise, Attack’s Strip District studio/performance…
After 11 years of international belly-dance success, Zafira Dance Company plays its last show.
Like a rock band breaking up over creative differences or members’ solo careers, Zafira Dance Company is calling it quits after 11 years, and for many of the same reasons. The award-winning Pittsburgh-based belly-dance troupe gives its swan-song performance Oct. 4 at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater with Club Bellydance, co-produced by internationally touring troupe Belly Dance…
-mother
There is a woman knees in the dirt digging for potatoes in the long field of my brain,black under her nails, an apron that was white this morning. There is a woman finding food for her family, saving skins, chewing on the inside of her cheek.But we will never starve. There will always be something we…
