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EVENTS 5-10pm FREE GOOD FRIDAYS PRESENTED BY UPMC HEALTH PLAN Each Friday in January, enjoy free museum admission, a cash bar, and Pittsburgh’s own DJ Huck Finn. Free Good Fridays are presented by UPMC Health Plan. FREE
1.31 – 8pm SOUND SERIES: HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER The Warhol theater Tickets $15/$12 Members & students
2.11 – 8pm SOUND SERIES: VALERIE JUNE Carnegie Lecture Hall (Oakland) This performance is co-presented with Calliope: The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society. Tickets $20/$15 Members & students
2.12 – 11am VINTAGE VALENTINES WORKSHOP AT ACE HOTEL Ace Hotel – Gym (East Liberty) Ace Hotel Pittsburgh is The Warhol’s official hotel sponsor. FREE
3.16 – 8pm SOUNDS SERIES: KID KOALA: NUFONIA MUST FALL Carnegie Music Hall (Oakland) Co-presented by The New Hazlett Theater. This event is part of the Strange Times series presented by Carnegie Nexus. Tickets $25/$20 Members & students
2-17 — 5-21 Inspired by lineages of black resistance in works primarily of female subjects, Báez’s Bloodlines utilizes the history of social movements in the United States and the Caribbean to address contemporary issues with race and identity politics. Firelei Báez: Bloodlines is organized by Pérez Art Museum Miami Assistant Curator María Elena Ortiz and locally coordinated by Jessica Beck, associate curator of art, The Andy Warhol Museum.
The Andy Warhol Museum receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency and The Heinz Endowments. Further support is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset District.
Image: Firelei Báez, Sans-Souci (This threshold between a dematerialized and a historicized body), 2015, collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum, purchase with funds provided by Leslie and Greg Ferrero and Rose Ellen Meyerhoff Greene
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
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“WHEN FEMINISM DOESN’T CONTEST THE LOGICS OF RACISM, THEY END UP REINFORCING THEM.”
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At City Paper, we’re not about alternative facts. The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t headed to the Super Bowl, but you can check out our slideshow from the playoff game at www.pghcitypaper.com.
The Sumo Showdown came to town over the weekend. Check out our slideshow and video from the event at www.pghcitypaper.com.
We covered the national Women’s March on Washington, along with two marches in Pittsburgh, over the weekend.
{CP PHOTO BY KATEY LADIKA}
Thousands marched from Grant Street to Market Square, Downtown
CITY DIVIDED
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I
T STARTED WITH a Facebook comment. Two weeks ago, Celeste Scott posted on the event page for the Women’s March on Pittsburgh, a sister march to the national event planned for Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21. “Is this a white feminism thing?” she asked. What transpired in the coming days has left many feminists in Pittsburgh divided. Arguments erupted on the Pittsburgh march’s page. The event was cancelled and then back on, but without official recognition from the national organization. The organizing committee of the local march turned over a handful of times before the final organizers were able to secure the seal of approval from the national group. Meanwhile, a group of black femme activists, including Scott, were organizing their own thing. And in the end, Pittsburgh
ended up with two events on the same day: the Women’s March on Pittsburgh, Downtown, and Our Feminism Must Be Intersectional, a rally and march in East Liberty.
Two women’s marches spur conversation around intersectional feminism {BY REBECCA ADDISON} “I always like to ask accountability questions,” Scott says, reflecting on the initial Facebook comment. “I had no idea this would happen.” It may have started with a simple Facebook comment, but from the furor emerged what many Pittsburgh activists say is a much-needed conversation on intersectional feminism. And it mirrors
similar debates that have erupted out of the national March on Washington and other sister marches around the country. “The impact I think we’ve had is people realizing that white feminism is trash and that they’ve been getting things wrong,” says Tresa Murphy-Green, one of the black femme organizers. (A femme is someone who identifies as feminine.) “That was the lesson for everybody, and it actually forced a lot of allies to come out and question their privilege.” Intersectional feminism is a relatively new term. The concept of intersectionality was created by activist Kimberlé Crenshaw, in 1989, when she was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. Crenshaw was a keynote speaker at last year’s Women in the World Summit, where she talked about the origins of intersectional theory and the CONTINUES ON PG. 08
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Borderline Pe r s o n a l i t y D i s o r d e r The University of Pittsburgh and UPMC are seeking men and women ages 18 to 45 to take part in a research study of borderline personality disorder. To participate, you must have symptoms of the disorder, which may include: troubled personal relationships, chronic feelings of emptiness or boredom, difficulty controlling anger or frustration, mood swings, self-destructive or impulsive behaviors, or history of self-inflicted pain or injury. Participants are interviewed about their moods, behaviors, and personality traits and will be compensated up to $125 upon completion of the interviews. Some participants may also undergo an fMRI scan. There is no cost for this procedure. Participants are compensated $50 upon completion of the fMRI. For more information, call 412-246-5367.
{CP PHOTO BY AARON WARNICK}
White allies in the East Liberty march
issues facing feminism today. “Intersectionality was meant to draw attention to the way black women’s experience — sometimes distinct experience of gender discrimination — was buried under the experiences of white women,” Crenshaw said. “When feminism doesn’t contest the logics of racism, when anti-racism doesn’t contest the logics of patriarchy, they end up reinforcing them.” Crenshaw’s statement is at the crux of why the black femmes who organized the East Liberty march opposed the Woman’s March on Pittsburgh. They say that when they tried voicing their concerns about the march’s lack of inclusivity, they were silenced and told they were being divisive. “It’s about holding yourself accountable, being able to say ‘I messed up, I have issues,’ not make the other person feel bad for you messing up,” says Murphy-Green. “I feel like a lot more people have that understanding now. You have to be open to checking yourself and the views that you may have that you don’t even know you have. I think that’s the lesson in all of this.” Intersectional feminism also means acknowledging the work black women are doing around social-justice issues and their role in the civil-rights movement over the past few decades. The organizers of Saturday’s East Liberty march also say it means centering black women and letting them lead. “The only way we will get liberation is if we center black women,” says organizer Alona Williams. (Editor’s note: Williams, a student at Chatham College, is working this semester as City Paper’s music intern). “This is a movement, not a moment,”
Scott says. “Black femmes have been doing the foundation of this work and will continue to.” But this is not your grandmother’s civilrights movement. The organizers are bold and unapologetic. And some have even called them hostile. At one point during the march in East Liberty, Murphy-Green turned her megaphone on a group of marchers to reprimand them. They had been shouting, “No Trump, no KKK, no racist USA.” “This isn’t about Trump,” MurphyGreen shouted. And when chanting died down at one point, Murphy said, “You all have no problem being loud when it’s about Trump.” “Marchers were screaming ‘pussy grabs back’ and ‘Eff Donald Trump’ and all that extra shit, and we had made it very, very clear that this was not an anti-Trump space,” Murphy-Green says. “So for people to not do their research, come to an event and get upset when you put them in line, it doesn’t make sense. “People were equating womanhood with vaginas and not even realizing how harmful and hurtful that is to non-binary folks. Allies who came had to really check themselves the entire time.” Context is important, the organizers say. Instead of labeling the East Liberty march organizers as mean, hostile or aggressive, they’re asking people to look at the message of inclusivity they’re sending, and they’re asking white feminist allies to be more introspective about their unconscious biases against people of color and the LGBT community. “The angry-black-woman narrative
“I HAD NO IDEA THIS WOULD HAPPEN.”
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LOVE & LAUGHTER
A sampling of signs from the Women’s March on Pittsburgh
“I’m here because I think it’s really imis something we’ve always experienced,” says Murphy-Green. “It’s really easy to portant. I know we can’t change the outwrite us off as being aggressive, but were we come of the election, but we’re not going to let hate determine the direction of our really aggressive?” “I hope people take away a good feel- country,” said Sara Studebaker. “We’re not ing. I hope everyone was able to walk away going to let fear and xenophobia push back with that, even the people we had to tell the progress we’ve made.” Talking with marchers like Studeto stop protesting Trump when we were marching,” says Murphy-Green. “I hope baker shows that people in both marches they have a better, clearer understanding have more in common than the controversy surrounding the events would of what it means to be an ally.” One of those allies is Samey Jay. At the suggest. Remove the focus on Trump, and they’re fighting for a lot of the event on Saturday, she helped with same things. logistics and she’s also offered “It’s good to see people herself as a resource to those E R MO ROM with the same values, people looking for more information F S O T O PH RGH’S that believe this country was on intersectional feminism. PITTSBU HES C R built on equality and that we Several white allies, such as MA at www. should be moving towards Jay, have offered themselves r e p a p pghcity equal rights for everyone. We as a resource to take the onus .com should be open to immigrants. of explaining intersectional We should be dismantling institufeminism from black women. tional racism. I just feel we’re in a criti“I want to support a movement that really explores intersectional ideas, that cal moment, and if people are silent, then are really trying to build something that we’re tacitly complicit.” Tazeen Chowdhury brought her family doesn’t center the voices of middle-class down to the march, including her son who white women,” Jay says. But Jay’s sentiments weren’t so differ- was holding a sign that read “Love, not ent from those expressed at the March on hate, makes America great.” A woman of Pittsburgh a few miles away. In fact, it’s color, she was there to rally for equal pay. “I came to represent women from similar to what Bryn Alizeh Albee, one of many who flooded Downtown on Saturday, all around the world,” said Chowdhury. “Everyone’s got different issues, but in expressed as her motivation for marching. “I wanted to come out here today to this administration, our voices need to be show unity with all the minorities who heard. This is history in the making.” The Downtown Women’s March on are subjected to the hateful rhetoric of our president,” Albee said. “We have to do what Pittsburgh, which drew several thouwe can to ensure people’s rights aren’t sand people, was realized largely thanks to the dedicated efforts of Tracy Baton. trampled on.” Baton says, “I am excited that 25,000 And Albee wasn’t the only one.
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Pittsburghers learned to put on their shoes and come out.” (Accounts vary as to how many attended, with some estimating closer to 5,000.) She continues: “I am glad that they learned that theirs are the only hands and feet that make democracy work.” The East Liberty march drew an estimated 2,000 participants. Baton was on the original organizing committee for the Downtown march and took it over after the original clash between the black femme activists and some of the Facebook event page’s administrators. As a black woman, it was important to Baton that the march be inclusive. “I was raised in the spirit of activism,” says Baton, whose mother was also a Pittsburgh activist. “I stood for my mother, I marched for my daughter, I lead for my city.” However, Baton’s passion, and her status as a queer black woman, weren’t enough to protect her from the ire of the East Liberty march’s supporters. When Baton took over leadership, opponents of the Downtown march cried tokenism, a practice of appointing a person from underrepresented groups in order to deflect criticism of exclusivity.
People from both sides traded barbs for days across the two events’ Facebook pages before both groups largely shut down posting and commenting. But despite the harassment she experienced in the since-deleted Facebook posts viewed by Pittsburgh City Paper, Baton does not speak ill of the organizers of the competing event. Instead, she says, they have a lot in common. “Moving forward, it is important for the community to adjust and to accept the notion that racial justice has to be at the core of this movement,” Baton says. “They and I largely agree on most of the political issues.” Now weeks after that first Facebook comment, organizers on both sides are quick to downplay the role the sister march played in the birth of the black femme rally. “I think that event was always going to happen, but it had nothing to do with me or controversy; it was a wave,” says Baton. “We focused in. This is about celebration,” says Scott, of the East Liberty march. “We left that in the past. That was like last year for us.” “Oh, the other march, we don’t know her,” echoes her colleague Williams. RN U T TA L L @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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ACTIVISM SURGE This year’s Summit Against Racism sees increased attendance {BY RYAN DETO} IN PREPARATION for this year’s Summit Against Racism, organizers created 500 information packets for attendees, even though only about 350 people were expected. But by 11 a.m. on Sat., Jan. 21, all 500 packets had been distributed and attendees were still filing in the door. “We ran out of program books,” said summit co-coordinator Mary C. Parker. “And there are still more people coming. The march is still coming.” And indeed, after about 2,000 marchers from the Our Feminism Must Be Intersectional rally arrived at the summit, at about 1:30 p.m., City Paper witnessed dozens more people register to attend workshops. Tim Stevens, of the Black Political Empowerment Project, said the increased attendance this year shows that a large group of people still care deeply about tackling race relations and social-justice issues. Stevens helped create the Summit Against Racism 19 years ago in response to the death of motorist Jonny Gammage at the hands of police and the fact that, at the time, there were no sitting black Pittsburgh city councilors. Stevens rejects the idea, pushed by conservatives and Trump supporters, that the 2016 election was a decisive victory against progressive ideals. Stevens said Trump was a great marketer and that the Democrats were out-marketed in 2016, but he said millions of people still believe in championing a progressive agenda. (Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes.) “I’m concerned the Trump election states more than it really was,” said Stevens. “Obviously Democrats have more of an uphill battle … but a lot of the principles pushed by Barack Obama, people still support a lot of those things.” For example, Trump won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by about 78,000 combined votes. But over the weekend, more than 189,000 marchers participated in Women’s Marches in those three states, according to numbers compiled from news reports and social media by the University of Connecticut and the University of Denver. Summit co-coordinator Parker said many attendees told her they feel more energized this year than in years past.
{CP PHOTO BY AARON WARNICK}
Summit Against Racism organizer Tim Stevens
She said many attendees were more open to having “direct and real” conversations about race. “It feels like [the summit] is a sense of what is actually happening in the country,” said Parker. “We are going to have this conversation, and anyone can have it.” The 2017 summit’s theme of Polarization to Cooperation was aimed at building off the momentum gained by the recent surge in activism. “Hopefully, someone will leave motivated and leave inspired to actually do something, whether it is writing a letter to a political leader or even initiating a new organization,” said Stevens. Joylette Portlock, of environmental communication nonprofit Communtopia, held a workshop with political organizer Lydia Morin on how to get involved in political issues and organize a campaign for public office. “A lot of people want to be engaged, and feel the world should be more inclusive,” said Portlock. “In the wake of the 2016 election, a lot of people are feeling a responsibility to protect our society and democracy.” And some of those in the workshop were champing at the bit to do just that. Morin said several people indicated to her their desire to run for office. One attendee, who requested anonymity because her plans weren’t finalized, even told CP she is planning to take on Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai (R-McCandless) in 2018, with a campaign focused on public transportation, education funding and tackling mental-health issues.
“WE RAN OUT OF PROGRAM BOOKS.”
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SUSTAINED MOVEMENT Pittsburghers pledge to continue fighting after women’s march {BY KIM LYONS} KARA KERNAN, of Brookline, knew she would be menstruating on Saturday, and decided to make the best of a crampy situation. She and two friends traveled to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate with hundreds of thousands of others in the Women’s March on Washington, and Kernan made a sign that garnered the attention of a lot of fellow marchers. It read: “I’m Bleeding from my Wherever Right Now,” a reference to one of President Donald Trump’s early campaign remarks about Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. “I never was a person to pick up the phone and call my senator before, but I see that as my role now,” the mother of two daughters said. “We have to hold them and Trump accountable.” Although organizers tried to bill the march as being pro-woman rather than anti-Trump, it was conceived in the hours after the November election as a way for women to voice their anger and disgust with the new administration. Some, but not all, of the signs carried by protesters on Saturday included messages against Trump (“Keep your tiny hands off my uterus,” “Respect existence or expect resistance” and “This pussy grabs back” were a few notables) and the rallying cries of “We need a leader, not a creepy tweeter” and “We will not go away, welcome to your first day,” were some of the most-repeated anti-Trump sentiments as marchers made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House. The first iteration of the march planning was marred by what many viewed as a
{CP PHOTO BY JOEFF DAVIS}
The people are speaking: marchers, along Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21
lack of inclusion and diversity. But the organizing committee that ultimately spearheaded the march included well-known community organizers Tamika D. Mallory, Carmen Perez, Linda Sarsour and Bob Bland. The march attracted more participants than organizers anticipated, which meant long lines at Metro stations in Washington, D.C., and nearby Maryland and Virginia. There was also some confusion about when the rally with speakers and performers was over, and when and where the march was starting. Ultimately, with so many people, the original march route expanded to include the National Mall, side streets and parts of downtown. People made their way from the Capitol Building area toward the White House, along main arteries such as Independence, Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues. The crowd was fairly diverse, but ap-
peared to skew toward white women over 35. Many marchers wore pink knitted pussyhats, designed to look like cat ears, but also referencing Trump’s recorded remarks on the Access Hollywood tape in which he bragged about grabbing women by the pussy. (The Pussyhat Project launched online last fall with a goal toward providing a vivid visual marker for the marchers, and as a way for non-marchers to participate by making and contributing hats.) Jennifer Will, a former Pittsburgher who now lives in Bucks County, Pa., said Saturday that she was marching to protest pledges from the Trump administration to defund Planned Parenthood. “It’s not going to stop abortions, it’s going to get women killed,” she said. “This shouldn’t be a political issue. It’s a health-care issue.” Angela Jackson, of East Liberty, who attends college in Virginia, said she had
never demonstrated publicly before. But she and her sister decided it was time for them to make their voices heard. She said she was angered that so many white women had voted for Trump, and was unsure what was going to happen after the march was over. “You can’t just wear your pink hat and make a sign and think that’s enough,” Jackson said. “I hope all these women don’t just go home and think they’re done. But I don’t know.” Kernan said the march was not the last protest she plans to participate in. She says she will continue calling her senators daily and will make sure others know who their senators are. “It’s not enough to wear a safety pin and march and say, ‘Yay! I did my part,’” Kernan said. “It’s going to be a long four years. This is just the beginning.” I N F O@ P G H C I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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ALTERNATE REALITY {BY CHARLIE DEITCH} EDITOR’S NOTE: The following piece is not just the opinion of City Paper editor Charlie Deitch, the 16-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and three-time Emmy winner for his work on the 1970s sitcom Maude, co-starring Bea Arthur; it is the opinion of every single person in America. The people came from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Dutch Antilles; they got together over the weekend and asked Deitch to write this, so the world can know how the entire country feels about the first days of the Trump presidency. The meeting took place at the Hyatt Regency Conference and Banquet Center in Las Cruces, N.M. Catered by legendary chef Wolfgang Puck, the luncheon featured unicorn burgers and cornon-the-cob planted in the “corn patch” featured in the film Field of Dreams. (Sub-Editor’s Note: Honus Wagner appeared to Deitch in the corn patch and said if the Pirates traded Andrew McCutchen, the stadium would crumble and slide into the river, never to be seen again). At that meeting, 26 catrillion-billionthousand people signed a six-million-page power of attorney giving Deitch the authority to speak on their behalf and to drive their cars whenever he chooses. However, on the plane ride back to Pittsburgh, the plane was overtaken by various “monsters.” Deitch was able, with the help of noted actor Samuel L. Jackson, to defeat the monsters, but not before the letter was eaten by a large gargoyle named Carl. However, anyone in the country, Puerto Rico and the Dutch Antilles can verify Deitch’s claims; if they deny it, they are lying.
JUST WHEN I thought the shit-show that is
Trump’s America couldn’t get any stranger, this weekend we were treated to yet another brilliant Trump administration invention: “alternative facts.” Despite the fact that Trump’s inauguration was more lightly attended than Barack Obama’s, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told a different tale: It was the largest attended Inaugural in history, “period.” After he won in November, Trump had told us it would be, and we all know The Donald doesn’t like to be called a liar, even though he’s really good at it. And then on Sunday came the most exciting episode of Meet the Press in a very long time. Host Chuck Todd asked Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway — the best worst spin doctor ever — how the administration could make such an obviously false claim. Conway said, “You’re saying it’s a falsehood, and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts.” On Monday, Spicer said he was trying to counter the media’s attempt to “delegitimize” Trump’s presidency. Since he began his campaign and started making one false statement after another because it fit his agenda, Trump has
Charlie Deitch
been at war with “the media.” And just like he somehow convinced the American public to vote for him, he has convinced it that the liberal media was lying and out to get him. Now the term “fake news” is the go-to for anybody who doesn’t agree with a set of facts. And horseshit news outlets like Breitbart, Radix Journal and American Renaissance became the source for those looking to have news tailored to their beliefs. Stories that people normally dismiss out of hand because they’re so obviously false are now gaining traction. Remember Pizzagate? That’s the rumor that alleged that Hillary Clinton and top Democratic aides were running a satanic child-sex ring out of the basement of a pizza shop. It seemed ridiculous that anyone would believe it — until a guy decided to shoot up the pizza shop late last year because he believed it. It’s unbelievable that people can’t see through obvious falsehoods — or choose not to. But in the spirit of education, I’ve written three examples of personal facts about myself, and then rewritten them with “alternative facts.” Fact: I am a charming, well-liked, funny 45-year-old overweight guy whose wife is kind enough to tell him how handsome he is. Alternative fact: Not only do I look like Leonardo DiCaprio, I am Leonardo DiCaprio. Fact: I attended Youngstown State University and was proud to work on the school’s newspaper, The Jambar. I once ate a bologna, clam and chocolate-pudding sandwich with ketchup on top to win a $10 bet. Alternative fact: After receiving my bachelor’s degree from Brown, I received an MBA from Harvard, a J.D. from Princeton, a Ph.D. from Oxford and an STD at the Youngstown Greyhound station. And, finally, in reverse order this time: Alternative Fact: Nobody with an ounce of sanity would believe that anything in the above editor’s note is true. Fact: At least 1.5 million people will claim to have been at the meeting and swear that unicorn tastes exactly like chicken. C D E I T C H @ P G H C I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
News of the Weird
S E N D YO U R W E IRD N E W S TO WE IR DNE WS@E A RTH L IN K. N E T O R W W W. N E W S O FTH E W E IRD. CO M
{BY CHUCK SHEPHERD}
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In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals finally pulled the plug on Orange County, Calif., social workers who had been arguing in court for 16 years that they were not guilty of lying under oath because, after all, they did not understand that lying under oath in court is wrong. The social workers had been sued for improperly removing children from homes and defended their actions by inventing “witnesses” to submit made-up testimony. Their lawyers had been arguing that the social workers’ “due process” rights were violated in the lawsuit because, in no previous case on record, did a judge ever have occasion to explicitly spell out that creating fictional witness statements is not permitted.
Craigslist were accurate and that she was putting herself through school by supplying them (making about $200 a day). The seller claimed that “many” pregnant women market their urine for tests — even though the main use of the test seems to be “negotiation” with boyfriends or husbands.
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(1) What was billed as the United Kingdom’s first “Rage Cage” opened in Nottingham, England, in December, allowing patrons to vent with crowbars, baseball bats and hammers to smash crockery, electronics and glassware — at prices ranging from about $15 to about $40. (2) In October, a bookstore in Cairo, Egypt, set aside a small, soundproof
Former elementary-school teacher Maria Caya, who was allowed to resign quietly in 2013 from her Janesville, Wis., school after arriving drunk on a student field trip, actually made money on the incident. In November 2016, the city agreed to pay a $75,000 settlement — because the police had revealed her blood-alcohol level to the press in 2013 (allegedly, “private” medical information). The lawsuit against the police made no mention of Caya’s having been drunk or passed out, but only that she had “become ill.”
room where patrons could go scream at the top of their lungs for 10 minutes about whatever stresses them. The store owner pointed to an academic study demonstrating screaming’s “positive effect” on the brain. (The prototype store is still Donna Alexander’s Anger Room in downtown Dallas, thriving since 2011, offering a variety of bludgeoning weapons, and especially active this election season, with target mannequins gussied up to be “Trump” and “Clinton.”)
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On Dec. 5 in New York City, a so-farunidentified man made five separate attempts to rob banks in midtown Manhattan over a three-hour span, but all tellers refused his demands, and he slinked away each time. (Police said a man matching his description had successfully robbed a bank four days earlier.)
@nickb1202
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(1) Two weeks after a Pakistani International Airlines crash killed all 47 on board, some employees of the company figured they needed to dispel the bad karma (for their own safety) and thus sacrificed a black goat on the tarmac at Islamabad airport next to an ATR-42 aircraft (the same model that crashed). (2) Badminton player Mads Pieler Kolding, in a January match in India’s Premier Badminton League, returned a volley at a world’s record for a shuttlecock — 265 mph.
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“I’m [as] tired of hearing the word ‘creep’ as any black person or gay person is of hearing certain words,” wrote Lucas Werner, 37, on his Facebook page in December after he was banned from a Starbucks in Spokane, Wash., for writing a polite dating request to a teenage barista. Managers thought Werner was harassing the female, who is at least the age of consent, but Werner charged illegal “age discrimination” and claimed that “age-gap love” makes healthier babies.
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Taylor Trupiano grudgingly paid his $128 “traffic” fine in December, issued by a Roseville, Mich., officer who caught his car warming up unattended — in his own driveway. Police routinely issue such tickets (five to 10 each winter, based on a town ordinance) to send drivers like Trupiano a message that unattended cars are ripe for theft, which burdens Roseville’s police department. (A police spokesman said the driverless warmups are illegal even for locked cars.)
@jadepea
Thanks for sharing your
photos with us! Tag your photos of Pittsburgh with #CPReaderArt, and we’ll regram our favorites!
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David Martinez, 25, was shot in the stomach during a brawl in New York City in December. He had inadvertently initiated the chaos when, trying to park in Manhattan’s East Village just after midnight Saturday, he moved an orange traffic cone that had obviously been placed to reserve the parking space. He apparently failed to realize that the parking spot was in front of the clubhouse of Hells Angels, whose members happened to take notice.
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An unnamed pregnant woman convinced a reporter from Jacksonville, Fla., station WFOX-TV in December that the “positive” urine tests she was advertising on
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“THERE ARE A LOT OF DIFFERENT INTENTIONS THAT GO INTO THE WRITING.”
BEAT
{BY ALEX GORDON}
Hip hop and classical music are genres rife with misconceptions and stereotypes. Even in contemporary pop music, where distinctions between genres are more and more diluted, these two still carry some seriously archaic baggage — hip hop as low-brow, classical as elitist. It turns out Nas’ Beethoven-sampling 2003 hit “I Can” was not enough to bury those clichés. But a Jan. 25 multidisciplinary event from the artist collective The Groove Aesthetic and Chamber Music Pittsburgh aims to help break down those barriers. BACHBOOMBOX is an interactive exploration of the intersections between classical music and hip hop. Hosted by Magic Organs (D.S. Kinsel and Julie Mallis), the performance will feature poet Joy KMT, hip-hop artist Shad Ali, multi-instrumentalist Langston Kelly and vocalist Anqwenique Wingfield, founder of The Groove Aesthetic. “In today’s world, with such easy access to everything, to art, to different kinds of music and everything being instant, I think that lends itself to mashing up and breaking down of barriers between different kinds of genres,” says Wingfield. “It causes us to think about how we classify music, what makes something classical, what makes it jazz, what makes it R&B.” The organizers are mum on some of the specifics, but the program will open with cellist Rachel Smith performing one of Bach’s cello suites, on which the other artists will incorporate hip-hop styles. What happens from there is unknown, but Wingfield says that audience participation is a safe bet. BACHBOOMBOX debuted in 2013 at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, featuring many of the same performers as this year. It’s pared down a bit in its second incarnation, this year hosted at BOOM Concepts in Garfield (the capacity for the event is around 70). It’s scaled down, but the organizers see that as a potential upside. “We wanted to take [classical music] out of the ivory tower, out of the concert hall, out of this place where it seems to have a lot of restraints and restrictions,” says Kristen Linfante, executive director of Chamber Music Pittsburgh. “There will be a little something for everyone and everyone will be surprised by something,” says Wingfield. ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
GROOVE AESTHETIC: BACHBOOMBOX 6:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 25. BOOM Concepts, 5139 Penn Ave., Garfield. Pay-what-you-wish. 412-624-4129 or chambermusicpittsburgh.org
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Magic Organs: D.S. Kinsel and Julie Mallis {PHOTO COURTESY OF JULZ KOOSER}
STRANGE BREW
{PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIA MONTANO}
Collective Soul: The Park Plan
DUAL PLAN {BY MIKE SHANLEY}
O
N FIRST BLUSH, The Park Plan
could be considered a pop band in the classic sense. The band’s 2015 debut, Junior Achievement, featured layers of clean, twangy guitars banging out infectious riffs over a rhythm section that elevated the music with extra melody and swing. A quick look at the lyric sheet, though, reveals a sharp, political undercurrent. In “Gender Gap” and “Good Guy With a Gun,” guitarist Adam JannonFischer sang about the dangers women face when going out in public alone, and gun violence, respectively. Bassist Jenn Jannon-Fischer, Adam’s wife and the co-author of many songs, tells City Paper the band pulls between two sides. “Are we playing power-pop, or are we playing something that’s a little harder? Are we playing something surfy?” she asks, rhetorically. “There are a lot of different
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
intentions that go into the writing. All the songs end up being a little different based on who’s the most dominant [member] in shaping the songs.”
THE PARK PLAN CD RELEASE
WITH LOFI DELPHI, OLD GAME, LORENZO’S OIL 8 p.m. Sat., Jan. 28. Howlers, 4509 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield. $5. 412-682-0320
The latest EP, Last Looks, finds the members working with a bigger sound. The pop foundation remains, but the band’s keen sense of arrangement (melodic basslines, sharp drum accents) gets a further boost from extensive layers of guitars and vocal harmonies. The Jannon-Fischers started the band
in 2014 with drummer Ian White. Jenn had never played bass but proved to be a quick study. “I was a dancer and I did a lot of tap dancing,” she says, “I think tap dancing lends itself to either being a great drummer or a great bassist.” From the start, they were interested in socially conscious lyrics, without the hardedged approach of a band like Fugazi. “We try to do it in a way that you don’t feel like you’re listening to a band that’s doing a message. We want the music to be good, but also have [it deliver] a message,” she says. When Joe Tarowsky replaced original second guitarist Eric Gorman just prior to Junior Achievement, the songwriting process became even more egalitarian. He contributed “I’m Not in This Business to Make Friends,” a moody track on the new EP, replete with vocal harmonies reminiscent of Queen. White contributed CONTINUES ON PG. 18
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DUAL PLAN, CONTINUED FROM PG. 16
“Memoria,” which starts out sounding like a Sebadoh song, until Adam’s tenor is replaced by Jenn’s John Lydon-esque wail on the chorus. The other three tracks took shape collaboratively, at band practices. Although most of the lyrics deal more with the ups and downs of interpersonal relationships, the closing “Us, You and Them” was written last year during the Republican primary. “We were thinking about what it would be like if you sat down and had a drink with Ted Cruz,” Jenn Jannon-Fischer says. “And it’s kind of about there’s an ‘us,’ there’s a ‘them,’ and then there’s this ‘you’ character, the Ted Cruz character, that’s on the outside. It could really fit for Donald Trump also.” In one particularly telling verse, Adam sings to the person in question: “Can’t forget what you told me last night / About the way that fairness fills you with spite / I can’t forgive what you will say when you’re on a roll / A horror untold.” While the words hit hard, they rest easily under a four-on-thefloor drum beat and jangly guitars, which rise in the final moments to a roar that’s normally heard by a group like Dinosaur Jr. The band recorded Last Looks at various spaces around town, with assistance from Bengt Alexander of the band Action Camp (which includes Tarowsky on drums). As Jenn Jannon-Fischer and Tarowsky talk about recording their EP, they recall Alexander’s keen ear and “nods to classic productions,” such as getting the band to nail three-part vocal harmonies. “All these stories point to the fact that Bengt creativedirected this whole album,” Jenn JannonFischer says. “He was the one that had all the ideas and made the songs actually sound a lot better than when we started.” The disc marks the first release coming from a new collective of bands known as the Duquesne Light Orchestra. Between sharing band members and similar political concerns, a casual unity has started to come together between The Park Plan, Action Camp and a few others. “We have been trying to think about, in 2017, if we can do more as a collective,” Jenn Jannon-Fischer says. “We all share concern about where the country is headed. We’re also really thinking about how we can build more diversity at local shows and try to bring in other types of genres. I guess the other thing is the bands [are concerned with] gender diversity.” Tarowsky agrees, adding that now is the time for more people to get up and express themselves. The idea is in keeping with the Park Plan’s ability to keep moving forward. “I see this [release] as a snapshot of where we were this past year,” he says. “So this’ll be available [this week], then we’ll be thinking about the next thing to do.” I N F O@ P G H C I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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diesel
PRO FLOW {BY ALEX GORDON}
{PHOTO COURTESY OF BRAVERIJAH GREGG}
Throwback or throwforward: Postmodern Jukebox
{BY BILL KOPP} IT’S ONE OF those inspired ideas that leads listeners to wonder why someone hadn’t thought of it before: Take modern-day hit songs, and recast them in the styles of yesteryear. That’s the winning approach of the fiendishly creative and prolific Postmodern Jukebox. The brainchild of New York City pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee, PMJ has become an enduring YouTube sensation with its weekly “throwback Thursday” music videos. And on Feb. 1, at Carnegie Music Hall, the show goes live.
SCOTT BRADLEE’S POSTMODERN JUKEBOX 8 p.m. Wed., Feb. 1. Carnegie Music Hall, 510 E. 10th Ave., Munhall. $30-60. 412- 462-3444 or www.librarymusichall.com
In a phone interview with City Paper, Bradlee admits that he didn’t see PMJ’s success coming. “It’s always very hard to predict what’s going to take off,” he says. “I don’t think I had any inkling of the possibilities, of how far this could go.” He’s lost track of exactly how many music videos — all shot on the cheap in his New York City apartment — Postmodern Jukebox has made, but the actual number is upward of 200. Bradlee admits the project began out of a combination of desperation and necessity. “I was trying to make a living as a jazz pianist in New York City,” he says, laughing. “And I wanted to build a kind of online business card.” He noticed that many musicians had made successful use of YouTube as a medium to promote their work. So he made and shared a home-
spun video of his own. “More people saw me play that one piece of music than had watched me play my entire life!” Postmodern Jukebox grew out of an earlier project of Bradlee’s. Observing the backlash when rockers Nickelback — named by Rolling Stone as the secondworst band of the ’90s — was chosen to play a football halftime show in Detroit, he decided to come up with a musical program he called A Motown Tribute to Nickelback. “Somebody had made an online petition with 60,000 names or something like that, petitioning against Nickelback playing there,” Bradlee recalls. “I thought, ‘What if I try to make both sides happy?’” Bradlee’s retrofitting of Nickelback tunes like “Photograph” into classic 1960sstyled arrangements was well received, and the template for Postmodern Jukebox was established. Starting in 2012, Bradlee, his band and a rotating cast of top-flight vocalists have recorded and posted a new tune every week. Eighteen of PMJ’s best tunes were compiled as the album The Essentials, released in September 2016. The touring version of Postmodern Jukebox serves up the group’s variety in thrilling style. A universally known tune like Celine Dion’s Titanic smash “My Heart Will Go On” finds new life as a doo-wop extravaganza in a style that recalls Jackie Wilson’s “Lonely Teardrops.” There’s a never-ending supply of songs just begging for the PMJ treatment, but Bradlee is selective. While he admits that he loves a good challenge — that’s part of the project’s appeal — not every song lends itself to his radical reworking. “Surprisingly,” Bradlee says, “it’s much easier to adapt an electronic-sounding song than something that already has a throwback feel.”
R.A. The Rugged Man {PHOTO COURTESY OF PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST}
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There’s a video on YouTube called “A-F-R-O — Definition of a Rap Flow.” It features a teenage MC called A-F-R-O rapping immaculately over a remix of Friend & Lover’s “Reach Out of the Darkness.” The dude is incredibly fast, but coherent; even the track’s title rhymes. Every couple of bars, when the flow crescendos, an awed voice chimes in: “What the fuck?” The video has more than two-and-ahalf-million views, and it landed A-F-R-O a guest spot on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. This video was A-F-R-O’s submission to a rap-flow contest held by independent rapper R.A. The Rugged Man, a 25-year hip-hop veteran, whose collaborations include The Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan and Mobb Deep. A-F-R-O’s video won the contest. On Jan. 29, both A-F-R-O and R.A. The Rugged Man come to the August Wilson Center to kick off the 2017 season of Multiple Choice. The program, which debuted last year, offers a number of events — drunk performances of Shakespeare and tastings from craft breweries, for example — and allows attendees to choose what they want to attend and pay accordingly. The tagline is: “Your night, you decide.” Multiple Choice was developed by Randal Miller, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s director of dance programming and special projects. The program was initiated to engage a younger, more diverse audience. After a successful debut in 2016 with a dance contest and a performance from hip-hop icons EPMD, expansion seemed like a no-brainer. This year, Multiple Choice features five events. The theme of the 2017’s inaugural event is Underground Hip Hop, offering a b-boy/b-girl competition featuring both local and national breakdancers, and performances from A-F-R-O and R.A. The night will also serve as a launch party for the 2017 season, with Miller giving a rundown of this year’s events and what they signify. “My background is in street dancing, particularly breaking, so it’s always been a goal of mine to incorporate hip-hop culture into the Trust programming,” Miller says. “Featuring these kinds of events is important to diversify the programming that we do at the Cultural Trust.” The next event, the aforementioned Shitfaced Shakespeare, takes place on April 7.
o f F LYL E A F
2/ 14| 7:00 PM | AA
2/ 16 | 8 : 00 PM | 18 +
2/ 18 | 7:00 7 00 PM | AA
2/21 | 7:00 PM | AA
2/22 | 8 : 00 | 21+
2/23 | 8:00 PM | AA
2/24 | 8 : 00 PM | 21+
3/7 | 7:00 | AA
3/8 | 7:00 | AA
3/9 | 7:00 | AA
3/21| 7:00 PM | AA
ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
MULTIPLE CHOICE: UNDERGROUND HIP HOP 4 p.m. Sun., Jan. 29. August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $5-20. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org
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[INDIE ROCK] + FRI., JAN. 27
MONDAY, MARCH 27, 2017 7 PM • BYHAM THEATER TRUSTART S.ORG • BOX OFFICE AT THE ATER SQUARE 412-456-6666 • GROUPS 10+ TICKETS 412-471-6930
Last summer, four well-regarded Pittsburgh bands with similar aesthetics teamed up a la Elephant Six and formed a musical collective, Golden Magnet, to inspire each other and push the local music scene forward. Part of that includes bringing Oakland’s student population back into the fold, hence this free showcase at the William Pitt Union’s Assembly Room featuring the dreamy post-rock of Sleep Experiments, Delicious Pastries’ jangly ’60s psych-pop, and the thoughtful, melodious indie pop/ rock of Mariage Blanc and Host Skull. Brian Conway 7 p.m. 3959 Fifth Ave., Oakland. Free. All ages. www.tinyurl.com/ goldenmagnet
[CLASSIC ROCK] + SAT., JAN. 28 Ever just feel like starring in your own ’80s coming-of-age story? In his heyday, Rick Springfield provided the soundtrack to pretty much every movie about teenage middle- and upper-class kids who pretended to have problems. Here comes the nostalgic imagery of unblended eyeshadow, legwarmers and that great coke-deal scene from Boogie Nights. But if your familiarity starts and ends with “Jessie’s Girl,” you need to dig deeper. The dude’s got more than 15 top-40 hits under his belt. Joining Springfield for this acoustic set at the Benedum Center is producer, songwriter and fellow ’80s icon Richard Marx. Alona Williams 8 p.m. 237 Seventh St., Downtown. All ages. $43.75-368.75. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org
[ROCK] + TUE., JAN. 31 Cheetos, balloons, a giant teddy bear, a
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bathroom: These are the hallmarks of any halfway-decent Friday night. They’re also the images that populate Stef Chura’s video for “Slow Motion,” the charismatic mid-tempo rocker from her latest release, Messes. The video, the song, the album and Chura herself are all sure-footed and endearing as hell, pairing lightly toasted distorted guitar with songs that sound upbeat but feel dreary. It’s quite an experience. She’s joining Calyx and Swampwalk at Club Café tonight. It’s BYOB(alloons), but they may have some Cheetos. Alex Gordon 8 p.m. 56 S. 12th St., Hiss South Side. $10. Golden 412-431-4950 Messenger or www.ClubCafe Live.com
[FOLK ROCK] + TUE., JAN. 31 Pigeonholing music into one genre rarely works these days. Genre is a more fluid concept than ever before for a lot of bands. Genre shifts not only from album to album, but these days, also from song to song on the same record. That’s not a bad thing, and on Hiss Golden Messenger’s newest record, Heart Like a Levee, it’s done with a deft hand by frontman and songwriter M.C. Taylor. The record profiles a man torn between a life on the road to support his family and the guilt of leaving them to make that living. The record contains the country-folk tunes the band is known for, like the title cut, but they’re broken up with songs such as “Like a Mirror Loves a Hammer,” that seem influenced by Southern soul. The band plays The Andy Warhol Museum tonight as part of its Sound Series; folk rockers The Dead Tongues open. Charlie Deitch 8 p.m. 117 Sandusky St., North Side. $12-15. 412-237-8300 or www.warhol.org
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Etienne Charles
Rufus Reid
TO SUBMIT A LISTING: HTTP://PGHCITYPAPER.COM/HAPPENINGS 412.316.3388 (FAX) + 412.316.3342 X165 (PHONE) {ALL LISTINGS MUST BE SUBMITTED BY 9 A.M. FRIDAY PRIOR TO PUBLICATION}
Lewis Nash
WED 01
ROCK/POP THU 26 HOWLERS. Doors in the Labyrinth, Carol Blaze, Amadea, Futurism. Bloomfield. 412-682-0320. REX THEATER. BoomBox. South Side. 412-381-6811.
FRI 27
February 4, 2017
Etienne Charles
with featured guests Jazzmeia Horn & Melissa Aldana
February 10 & 11, 2017
February 25, 2017
Lewis Nash Quintet
with featured guest Roger Humphries All concerts are held at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. For tickets, please call 412-322-0800 or visit mcgjazz.org.
$
2.50
The Return of...
$200 Cash Prize th Starts Jan 26 rd Finals march 23
WEEKLY PRIZE WINNERSS!
Bottles JEKYL AND HYDE | 140 S. 18TH STREET 412-488-0777 | BARSMART.COM/JEKYLANDHYDE 22
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
Feeney. CD release. East Liberty. 412-665-0555.
DJS THU 26 BELVEDERE’S. Selecta & smi. Lawrenceville. 412-687-2555. MR. SMALLS THEATER. Centrifuge Thursdays. At the Funhouse. Millvale. 412-821-4447. PERLE CHAMPAGNE BAR. Bobby D Bachata. Downtown. 412-471-2058.
FRI 27 ANDYS WINE BAR. DJ Malls Spins Vinyl. Downtown. 412-773-8884. BELVEDERE’S. Down & Derby Disco Skate. Lawrenceville. 412-687-2555. THE FLATS ON CARSON. Pete Butta. South Side. 412-586-7644. ONE 10 LOUNGE. DJ Goodnight, DJ Rojo. Downtown. 412-874-4582. THE R BAR. KAR-E-O-KEE. Dormont. 412-942-0882.
SAT 28 BALTIMORE HOUSE. Funhouse w/ Flashback. Pleasant Hills. 412-653-3800. BLOOMFIELD BRIDGE TAVERN. Kleptosonic w/ Bleach Fuzz & Tim Vitullo. Bloomfield. 412-682-8611. CATTIVO. David Fiuczynski’s KIF & Jonathan Scales Fourchestra w/ MonoNeon. Lawrenceville. 412-687-2157. DOWNEY’S HOUSE. Waiting For Ray. Robinson. 412-489-5631. THE FIREPIT WOOD FIRED GRILL. Lenny & Larry. North Huntingdon. 724-515-2903. KOPPER KETTLE. King’s Ransom. Washington. 724-225-5221. MOONDOG’S. TheCAUSE. Blawnox. 412-828-2040. THE R BAR. Pat & The Blue Bombers. Dormont. 412-942-0882. ROYAL PLACE. BADDADZ, Black George & King Richard Beam. Castle Shannon. 412-882-8000. SMILING MOOSE. Pop Punk Night. South Side. 412-439-5706.
MP 3 MONDAY DK ANDERSON’S CYPHER {PHOTO COURTESY OF DIANE ANDERSON}
Rufus Reid
Enjoy
FULL LIST ONLINE
BLACK FORGE COFFEE HOUSE. Psalm Zero, Slaves BC & Bring Her. Knoxville. pghci m .co 412-291-8994. CLUB CAFE. The CLUB CAFE. Flux Capacitor Uptown Woods w/ w/ Chillent. South Side. Millgroves Crossing. South Side. 412-431-4950. 412-431-4950. MR. SMALLS THEATER. MR. SMALLS THEATER. G. Love & Special Sauce w/ RIPE. Between You & Me, Natalie Millvale. 412-821-4447. Rogers, Kaelber, Horus Maze, REX THEATER. Lespecial, Vacancy Yeti Bite & Natalie Rogers. Vibe & Direct. South Side. Millvale. 412-821-4447. 412-381-6811. PALACE THEATRE. WALLACE’S TAP ROOM. War Kris Kristofferson. Greensburg. on the Workers: A Tribute to Anne 724-836-8000.
THU 02
Tribute to Ray Brown with the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra
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CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF HOMESTEAD MUSIC HALL. Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox. Homestead. 412-368-5225. CLUB CAFE. Taj Weekes & Adowa. South Side. 412-431-4950. KEYSTONE BAR. The Bo’Hog Brothers. Sewickley. 724-758-4217. STAGE AE. Falling In Reverse, Issues, Motionless In White w/ Dangerkids, Dead Girls Academy. North Side. . www per 412-229-5483. typa
SUN 29 THE R BAR. Billy The Kid & the Regulators. Dormont. 412-942-0882.
TUE 31 CLUB CAFE. Stef Chura w/ Calyx, Swampwalk. South Side. 412-431-4950.
Each week, we bring you a new song from a local artist. This week’s track is “Double Vision,” a dark, jazzy nine-minute instrumental by DK Anderson’s Cypher. Stream or download it for free at FFW>>, the music blog at pghcitypaper.com.
EARLY WARNINGS
Waka Flocka Flame
FRI 27
SUN 29
FRI 27
ANDORA RESTAURANT - FOX CHAPEL. Pianist Harry Cardillo & vocalist Charlie Sanders. Fox Chapel. 412-967-1900. BACKSTAGE BAR AT THEATRE SQUARE. Jeremy Fisher Jr & Anthony Ambroso. Downtown. 412-325-6769. GRILLE ON SEVENTH. Tony Campbell & Howie Alexander. Downtown. 412-391-1004. JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. George Heid III Quintet. North Side. 412-904-3335.
TUPELO HONEY TEAS CAFE. Bluegrass Brunch: Devin Moses. Millvale. 412-821-0832.
CAPRI PIZZA AND BAR. Bombo Claat w/ VYBZ Machine Intl Sound System. East Liberty. 412-362-1250.
WED 01 ALLEGHENY ELKS LODGE #339. Pittsburgh Banjo Club. Wednesdays. North Side. 412-321-1834. PARK HOUSE. Shelf Life String Band. North Side. 412-224-2273.
SAT 28
[FRI., MARCH 31]
Stevie Nicks [SAT., APRIL 01]
ROCKS LANDING BAR & GRILLE. Tony Campbell & the Jazz Surgery. McKees Rocks. 412 - 857- 5809.
Bryan Ferry
MON 30
Heinz Hall, 600 Penn Ave., Downtown
Waka Flocka Flame RIVERS CASINO. VDJ Stasko. North Side. 412-231-7777. ROWDY BUCK. Top 40 Dance. South Side. 412-431-2825. RUGGER’S PUB. 80s Night w/ DJ Connor. South Side. 412-381-1330.
SAT 28 BELVEDERE’S. ADMC. Kayne night. Down N Derby. Lawrenceville. 412-687-2555. DIESEL. DJ CK. South Side. 412-431-8800. MIXTAPE. DJ Antithesis. ‘The 1990s (& a bag of chips)’ dance party. Garfield. 412-661-1727. REMEDY. Dance Crush. Lawrenceville. 412-781-6771. ROWDY BUCK. Top 40 Dance. South Side. 412-431-2825.
TUE 31 THE GOLDMARK. Pete Butta. Reggae & dancehall. Lawrenceville. 412-688-8820.
WED 01 SMILING MOOSE. Rock Star Karaoke w/ T-MONEY. South Side. 412-431-4668. SPOON. Spoon Fed. East Liberty. 412-362-6001.
THU 02 BELVEDERE’S. NeoNoir Dark 80s w/ Erica Scary. Lawrenceville. 412-687-2555. MR. SMALLS THEATER. Centrifuge Thursdays. At the Funhouse. Millvale. 412-821-4447.
NEWS
PERLE CHAMPAGNE BAR. Bobby D Bachata. Downtown. 412-471-2058.
HIP HOP/R&B TUE 31 HEINZ HALL. Ms. Lauryn Hill. Downtown. 412-392-4900.
BLUES THU 26 JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. Ray Lanich Band. North Side. 412-904-3335.
FRI 27 565 LIVE. The Blues Orphans. Bellevue. 412-522-7556. ELWOOD’S PUB. Jack of Diamonds. Rural Ridge. 724-265-1181. MOONDOG’S. Black Cat Moan. Blawnox. 412-828-2040.
SAT 28 TWIN OAKS LOUNGE. Jimmy Adler Band. White Oak. 412-678-3321.
JAZZ THU 26 JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. Roger Humphries Jam Session. Ballroom. North Side. 412-904-3335. VALLOZZI’S PITTSBURGH. Eric Johnson. Downtown. 412-394-3400.
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FRI 27
THU 02
PIRATA. The Flow Band. Downtown. 412-323-3000.
ELWOOD’S PUB. West Deer Bluegrass Review. Rural Ridge. 724-265-1181.
COUNTRY RIVERS CASINO. Saddle Up. North Side. 412-231-7777.
LINDEN GROVE. Move Makers. Castle Shannon. 412-882-8687. OAKS THEATER. The Sweatermen Barbershop Quartet. Oakmont. 412-828-6322. RIVERS CASINO. On the Level. North Side. 412-231-7777.
CLASSICAL
SAT 28
THU 26
ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM. Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo w/ Sarah Plum, violin. North Side. 412.237.8300. PALACE THEATRE. London Calling. Presented by Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra presents, Haydn: Symphony No. 101 “The Clock” Elgar: Cello Concerto Cicely Parnas, cello Maxwell Davies An Orkney Wedding w/ Sunrise solo bagpiper. Greensburg. 724-836-8000. RIVERS CASINO. Mark Ferrari. North Side. 412-231-7777.
REGGAE
THU 02
Diesel, 1601 E. Carson St., South Side
THU 02
SAT 28
JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. Year of the Rooster w/ The Afro Yaqui Music Collective. The Afro Yaqui Music Collective will be performing works by the late, guggenheim award-winning Fred Ho, whose revolutionary Moneky Orchestra combined jazz-funk w/ Peking Opera styles & improvisation. Met Opera soprano Gizelxanath Rodriguez will be singing a fusion between Peking Opera, Indigenous Yaqui music & the jazz-blues tradition. North Side. 412-904-3335.
HAMBONE’S. Ian Kane, Ronnie Weiss & Tom Boyce. Lawrenceville. 412-681-4318.
[THU., APRIL 06]
THU 26
JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. Roger Humphries Jam Session. Ballroom. North Side. 412-904-3335. VALLOZZI’S PITTSBURGH. Eric Johnson. Downtown. 412-394-3400.
THU 26
SAT 28
LINDEN GROVE. Karaoke. Castle Shannon. 412-882-8687.
FRI 27
SUN 29
with The Pretenders PPG Paints Arena, 1001 Fifth Ave., Uptown
OTHER MUSIC
565 LIVE. The Flow Band. Bellevue. 412-522-7556.
WORLD
JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. Daryl Strodes w/ Special Guests. Tony Campbell Saturday Afternoon Jazz Session. North Side. 412-904-3335. THE MONROEVILLE RACQUET CLUB. Jazz Bean Live. Every Saturday, a different band. Monroeville. 412-728-4155.
which reflect an array of concerns & points of view. Heinz Chapel, Oakland. 412-624-4157.
PIRATA. The Flow Band. Downtown. 412-323-3000.
NINA SAINATO. Rivers Casino, North Side. 412-231-7777.
SUN 29 THE DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY CHOIRS W/ THE ARSENAL DUO: NATHAN CARTERETTE & DR. EDWARD ALAN MOORE. East Liberty Presbyterian Church, East Liberty. 412-441-3800. MUSIC BY J.S. BACH & SIX AMERICANS W/ ROGER ZAHAB, VIOLIN. This program is built around Bach’s Partita in b minor for solo violin - a set of four dances w/ division-type variations - and music by American composers
THU 02 LINDEN GROVE. Karaoke. Castle Shannon. 412-882-8687.
ACOUSTIC THU 26 BOULEVARD PUB. Eclectic Acoustics. Canonsburg. 724-746-2250. DOWNEY’S HOUSE. Aaron from The Lava Game. Robinson. 412-489-5631. THE EXCHANGE. Brad Yoder & Jason Rafalak. Greensburg. 724-836-7191.
FRI 27 565 LIVE. The Blues Orphans. Bellevue. 412-301-8158. OAKMONT TAVERN. Right TurnClyde. Oakmont. 412-828-4155. SIEB’S PUB & RESTAURANT. Eclectic Acoustics. Ross. 412-364-8511.
THIS S AT U R D AY !
SAT 28 BENEDUM CENTER. Rick Springfield & Richard Marx. Downtown. 412-456-6666. DAVID LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER. Right TurnClyde. Downtown. 412-565-6000. ELWOOD’S PUB. Mike Huston & Jeff Conner. Rural Ridge. 724-265-1181. WALNUT GRILL-ROBINSON. Eclectic Acoustics. Robinson. 412-747-2100.
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What to do Jan
25 - 31
IN PITTSBURGH Kurt Metzger – You’re Making It Worse
CARNEGIE OF HOMESTEAD MUSIC HALL Munhall. All ages show. Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 8p.m.
CLUB CAFE South Side. 412-431-4950. With special guests Rob Mailloux & John Dick Winters. Over 21 show. Tickets: ticketweb.com/ opusone. 8p.m.
Mogwai play Atomic
BachBoomBox BOOM CONCEPTS Garfield. With special guests Shad Ali, Joy KMT, Langston Kelly, Human DJ, Rachel Smith & more. Tickets: chambermusic pittsburgh.org or 412-624-4129. 7p.m.
THURSDAY 26 Whiskey Myers
JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE Warrendale. 724-799-8333. Over 21 show. Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 8p.m.
SUNDAY 29
FRIDAY 27 275
The Uptown Woods CLUB CAFE South Side. 412-431-4950. With special guest Millgroves Crossing. Over 21 show. Tickets: ticketweb.com/opusone. 10:30p.m.
A Life Well Lived, Natalie Rogers, Kaelber, Horus Maze, Vacancy MR. SMALLS THEATRE Millvale. 412-821-4447. All ages show. Tickets: ticketweb.com/opusone. 7p.m.
BoomBox
Somethin’s Cookin’
REX THEATER South Side. 412-381-1681. With special guest Chalk Dinosaur. Over 18 show. Tickets: greyareaprod.com. 9p.m.
CLUB CAFE South Side. 412-431-4950. Over 21 show. Tickets: ticketweb.com/ opusone. 7p.m.
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HEINZZ HA HEINZ HEIN HALL LL Downtown Downtown. 412-392-4900. Tickets: pitts burghsymphony.org. 8p.m
PHOTO CREDIT: BRIAN SWEENEY
WEDNESDAY 25
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
Winter Wellness: Meditation and Movement at the Museum
CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART Oakland. Over 18 event. Tickets: cmoa.org. 9a.m.
MONDAY 30
Pump Boys & Dinettes CABARET AT THEATER SQUARE Downtown. Tickets: pittsburghclo.org. Through Apr. 15.
MOGWAI PLAY ATOMIC CARNEGIE OF HOMESTEAD MUSIC HALL JAN 25
TUESDAY 31
Sound Series: Hiss Golden Messenger Twenty One Pilots PPG PAINTS ARENA Downtown. All ages show. Tickets: ticketmaster.com or 1-800-745-3000. 7p.m.
SATURDAY 28
David Fiuczynski’s KIF
& Jonathan Scales Fourchestra
Rick Springfield and Richard Marx
CATTIVO Lawrenceville. 412-687-2157. With special guest MonoNeon. Over 21 show. Tickets: greyareaprod.com 9p.m.
BENEDUM CENTER Downtown. 412-456-6666. Tickets: trustarts.org. 8p.m.
Super Diamond: Neil Diamond Tribute
ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM North Side. Tickets: warhol.org. 8p.m.
Something Rotten! BENEDUM CENTER Downtown. 412-456-6666. Tickets: trustarts.org. Through Feb. 5.
THE SOURCE MATERIAL IS NOT ENTIRELY ACCESSIBLE, WHICH IS PARTLY THE POINT
[DANCE]
SOLO BURNING A main reason people are drawn to works of art is the chance to see themselves reflected in them. So it was for dancer/ choreographer Jasmine Hearn, whose blue, sable, and burning took inspiration from a few other artists’ works. Fueling Hearn’s spirit and imagination was poet Robin Coste Lewis’ triptych poetry collection Voyage of the Sable Venus, as well as imagery from Hearn’s own ongoing collaboration with local visual artist and activist Jennifer Meridian. Hearn says she was particularly struck by the title poem in Lewis’ book, a narrative made up entirely of titles of artworks from ancient times to the present that speak to the black female figure in Western art. In that poem, Hearn says, Lewis was “mapping out this kind of body, this kind of vessel where a spirit can live.” With blue, sable, and burning, Hearn feels she has conjured a similar character, and by embodying this character she is mapping yet another journey. She performs the new solo work Jan. 26, in the gym of The Braddock Carnegie Library. Hearn calls blue, sable, and burning “a deeply rooted investigation and conversation with myself from a place of darkness and deep feeling,” says Hearn. With the work, the Houston native and Point Park grad says she is inviting others to witness this cathartic conversation. The 40-minute piece, funded by The Pittsburgh Foundation, grew out of Hearn’s solo work CINDER, which was made while she was an artist-in-residence at Dance Source Houston’s The BARN. It has been developed in residencies at Pearlann Porter’s The Space Upstairs, in Point Breeze, and at New York’s Movement Research through a 2016 Van Lier Fellowship. Set to a mostly original recorded soundscape created by Hearn and Pittsburgh’s slowdanger, blue, sable, and burning is a mix of dance, theatrical monologue, personal narrative and song, all performed live by Hearn. And like Lewis’ poem, which in part seeks to reclaim negative connotations of the Sable Venus as a symbol of the rape of slave women, Hearn seeks with this solo work to reclaim painful symbols from her own life’s journey. INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
JASMINE HEARN performs BLUE, SABLE AND BURNING 7:30 p.m. Thu., Jan. 26. Braddock Carnegie Library, 419 Library St., Braddock. $12 at the door (free for Braddock Carnegie Library patrons). 412-351-5356 or www.facebook.com (“blue sable and burning”) NEWS
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Jasmine Hearn in blue, sable and burning {PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT SHAW}
{BY STEVE SUCATO}
“Third Floor West gallery 500 Sampsonia Way,” a room-sized installation by Stephen Bram
[ART REVIEW]
SPACED OUT {BY NADINE WASSERMAN}
N THE DARKENED space of the basement gallery at the Mattress Factory, the sounds of the MTA subway are instantly recognizable. Depending on when you enter, the images might be fairly still, with only people in motion, or an abstract blur of light and sound. “Stations,” a multichannel video, plays on 10 screens — five on one long wall and five on the opposite. Edited by Ezra Masch from simultaneous footage shot by riders with their own cell phones from 10 different windows on the train, the installation makes one feel like a passenger on a subterranean ride (albeit sans rats, bad smells and subway “showtime” dancers). The 10 screens of “Stations” are laid out based on the distance between train windows. At first glance, what seems like a single take slowly reveals itself as an amalgam of separate images. The installation, part of the museum’s Factory Installed series, is a study in both abstraction and realism. Much like a cubist or futurist painting,
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multiple images are here synchronized into a parallax view that depends not only on the position of the observer/recorder but on that of the observer/viewer. The complexity is further enhanced by the fact that the image both speeds by as an abstraction and then slows to reveal figuration and realism as the train comes to a stop, people enter or exit, and station signs along the No. 6 line become visible — Canal, Spring, Bleecker and Astor.
FACTORY INSTALLED continues through May 28. Mattress Factory, 500 Sampsonia Way, North Side. 412-231-3169 or www.mattress.org
The dysynchrony of group perception is here reconfigured to form a concert of light and sound formulated by both digital and mechanical technology. It gives one pause to contemplate this particular juncture, when our technological evolution has us
increasingly dependent on both physical and virtual tools. Similar thoughts are conjured when looking at the work of Christopher Meerdo, titled “Active Denial System.” In our current digital milieu, when it takes no time at all for an image to travel the globe, Meerdo ponders the ethical issues surrounding image sharing, consumption, manipulation and hacktivism. Like Masch, Meerdo explores a space between mechanical and digital, abstraction and figuration. Five contorted abstract “figures” populate his installation. Low to the ground and oddly shaped and colored, they resemble the fanciful abstractions of Franz West. Yet the source material is quite different and far more ideological, serious and not entirely accessible, which is partly the point. Meerdo extracts non-specific digital data from police body-cam pursuit videos and global protests, then uses an algorithm to turn shapes and ghost images into CONTINUES ON PG. 26
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SPACED OUT, CONTINUED FROM PG. 25
pghcitypaper
Drew Leigh Williams, Jon Rohlf, Erika Strasburg & David Toole| Photo: Archie Carpenter
HIGH-OCTANE MUSIC MUSICAL CAL ENTERTAINMENT!
January 26 - April 15
CLOCabaret.com THE CABARET AT THEATER SQUARE IS A PROJECT OF THE PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST
412-456-6666
Groups 10+ 412-325-1582 Christmas Morning 1963. Woody and Ann Pittsburgh, PA
Feb 03 Feb 19
Ronald Allan-Lindblom, Artistic Director Kim Martin, Producing Director
INF O @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
[ART REVIEW]
COMPLEMENTARY {BY NATALIE SPANNER}
Sylvester Damianos’ sculpture “Ecocube” {PHOTO COURTESY OF DAMIANOS PHOTOGRAPHY}
#CPStreetPortraits A new weekly Instagram series by photo intern Katey Ladika
irregular sculptures through a 3-D modeling technique called photogrammetry. The sculptures are covered in reflective fabric; visitors are encouraged to take pictures using their flashes, which results in a dark photograph depicting large hunks that sparkle like fool’s gold. Across the room, a video piece by Meerdo, called “metadata,” is a montage of images, poetry and music that forms a statement about universal and personal grief across three large screens upended into a formidable vertical shape. By using digital composites, both Meerdo and Masch introduce nonlinearity and skepticism. Stephen Bram does the same using an entirely different medium. Employing sheetrock, timber, paint and fluorescent lights, he manipulates the gallery space itself. “Third Floor West gallery 500 Sampsonia Way” is a study in perspective. Here Bram considers points in space and creates an abstraction that is recognizable as a room but with unfamiliar odd angles. Some walls meet at a triangular point that might be at home in a Frank Lloyd Wright modular house, such as Kentuck Knob, but as a “white cube” gallery, these tight spaces prove awkward. These details underscore the fact that the room itself is the artwork. What at first seems like a bare space, with peculiarities, becomes symbolic of a deep and long-lasting conversation regarding abstraction, illusion, representation, idealism, architecture, modernism and postmodernism. Ultimately it questions the art object itself and the authority of the gallery and the museum. “The Great Illusion,” by Mohammed Musallam, while sharing some themes with the others, is the most literal of the four installations. The room-sized installation, which smells strongly of olive oil, consists of a bed of olive leaves bordered on all sides by barbed wire embedded with stamped passport pages. A jumble of barbed wire overhead holds passport covers folded to resemble paper airplanes. Although it is reminiscent of work created back during the culture wars, when many artists were focusing on multiculturalism and identity politics, “The Great Illusion” is notable for the fact that now, in an era of white rage in the United States, works like this are still relevant. Palestinians remain under occupation with limits to their freedom and human rights, and all Arabs are stereotyped as terrorists. While the installations in this second part of Factory Installed (the first is in the museum’s annex) are not intended to fall under a uniting theme, they are all in some way interpreting aspects of navigating space, whether literal, personal, political, virtual, abstract or concrete.
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is way different from how I remember it. A big renovation was completed in October 2015, and if, like me, you haven’t been there since, this is the perfect opportunity. Opposites Attract: Kathleen Mulcahy and Sylvester Damianos showcases the work of two local artists whose approach and mediums, on the surface, appear antithetical. Pittsburgh Glass Center co-founder Mulcahy is intuitive, with ideas that come in dreams; Damianos, a well-known architect, is a thinker whose ideas strike in the middle of conversation. Placing Mulcahy’s mixed-media, metal and glass sculptures next to Damianos’ pieces of concrete, metal and wood produces a stirring atmosphere. Quickly, thoughts, feelings and impressions combine within you, and the overall effect confirms that certain opposites need each other. Positioned in the museum’s new Cantilever Gallery, with its 16-foot ceilings and stunning view of the Laurel Highlands through one enormous glass wall, you get the sense that this space was made for Opposites Attract, not the other way around. Humankind’s relationship with nature is an undeniable motif, but perhaps due to the refined persistence of this pair of detail-oriented artists — who clearly delved deeply into their mediums — this presentation of a familiar theme includes nothing expected. The exhibit includes three-dozen works, some quite large-scale. Damianos’ 2015 construction “The City Beyond” is a collection of scrap wood, sanded and stained, with grains in all directions, arranged to mimic a city skyline. The beautiful scraps are smallest at the base of the “buildings” as blocks, and grow into long, yardstick-sized skyscrapers. It’s refreshing to gaze into a city skyline made of organic material, rather than man-made garbage. That realization still recalls the damage we’ve done. Then the meticulous arrangement before you galvanizes the next thought: We can do better. Nay, better exists already. We just have to find it. Over and over, Mulcahy and Damianos find “better” in nature and present it in something we recognize: complex art, full of contradictions. Even Mulcahy’s relatively tiny “Golden Spinner,” a spherical, blownglass sculpture swirling with fiery golden debris, in the same breath suggests both ugly pollution and peaceful leaves fallen into the water. In individual pieces and altogether, Opposites Attract manages to comment on the external patterns of nature and on the internal nature of inspiration. INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
OPPOSITES ATTRACT continues through Feb. 5. Westmoreland Museum of American Art, 221 N. Main St., Greensburg. 724837-1500 or www.thewestmoreland.org
Use code CITYCITY to save $5 on single tickets [ JANU ARY 2 1 – FEBR U A RY 12, 2017 ]
“A BREAKTHROUGH SAGA FOR A NEW GENERATION.” — THE LA TIMES
A page from John Peña’s Daily Geology
[BOOKS]
DAILY PAPERS {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL} COPING WITH the everyday can be no small feat. Two new publications, by local artists John Peña and Christiane Dolores, accept the challenge in idiosyncratic fashion. Daily Geology is the second year’s-worth compilation of Peña’s long-running project to make a drawing recording a memorable moment from each day. Because it documents moments, the self-published collection of mostly single-panel comics ($25, www.dailygeology.com) feels more like a scrapbook than a journal: The instances covered include everything from life events (like moving in with his girlfriend) to quirky stuff his cat does. Yet over the course of 12 months, and 365 charming drawings, you inevitably get a multifaceted portrait of Peña. He’s a thoughtful, rather neurotic fellow, on anxiety meds and prone to irritable-bowel syndrome. He teaches at Carnegie Mellon, makes art (like an installation at the Mattress Factory, and a Downtown bike rack) and works with a friend renovating houses. His girlfriend, Jess, is really patient. Peña loves dogs and cats — who supply no small part of this fat little book’s incidents — and watches a lot of movies (more horror and action than you might guess). He bike-commutes from and to his home in Wilkinsburg, so you’ll get a good recap of that year’s weather. And when he goes to visit family in Washington state, you might conclude that there’s no better way to recount a vacation than with daily panels.
Understandably, Peña doesn’t disclose every detail of his life; in fact, his frequent vague references to “meetings” he has to attend leave you wondering, “About what?” Nonetheless, what’s most remarkable about Daily Geology is Peña’s sheer willingness to acknowledge his own vulnerability. He quite frequently depicts himself depressed or weeping, and if you’re uncomfortable with intimate medical details, be forewarned. (Two words: “Birthday diarrhea!”) For another tack on the everyday entirely, there’s Tea With Dolores, a pocket-sized, 60-page collection adapted from tweets by Christiane Dolores. It’s one tweet per page, with line-breaks that suggest poetry, in an artfully funky font designed by Rick Bach for Lascaux Editions. Bonus: a handful of edgy illustrations by Rashad Jamal. “Postblackness?!? We need some postwhiteness / dump thy privilege today / join the rest of the human race,” Dolores writes. And indeed, there’s plenty of politics here — more overt commentary on current events on single pages than you’ll find in all of Daily Geology. “They asked what country / and I laughed / as I typed the United States / we couldn’t be more divided,” Dolores writes. Yet much of this “Self-Help Book for Bad Asses” ($10 on Amazon) comprises wise thoughts on love (“You don’t know who you will weep for until the tears flow”), friendship and family (“My Aunt had a closetful of wigs. I loved her no matter what she looked like”). Some entries approach a sort of haikulike ideal of the tweet: “I never noticed the beauty / of the craggly tree / until / the crow cawed from it.”
THE ROYALE BY
Marco Ramirez Stuart Carden DIRECTED BY
BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY! 412.431.CITY (2489) | CityTheatreCompany.org | South Side
D RI SCO L L @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M
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FOR THE WEEK OF
01.26-02.02.17 Full events listed online at www.pghcitypaper.com Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures welcomes Helen Macdonald, the English writer, poet and naturalist responsible for 2015’s blockbuster, genre-defying memoir H Is for Hawk. When Macdonald lost her father, overwhelming grief provoked her to buy a goshawk. In doing so, she joined the ranks of the cultured and bereaved who looked toward nature for a balm for her anguish. (Recall Teddy Roosevelt, whose famous conservation efforts came in the face of tragedy.) She retreated from
{PHOTO COURTESY OF MARZENA POGORZALY}
Helen Macdonald
friends and family and set about training her hawk, Mabel, in urban Cambridge. If that all sounds very gloomy, well, it is. But Macdonald’s book is so much more than a memoir of her grief. It also serves as excellent nature writing, as well as a mini-biography of the writer T.H. White, an unhappy, closeted man who once wrote a book about training his own goshawk. What Macdonald learns about man’s relationship to nature and its power to heal, or not, is meaningful and compelling to country folk and city folk alike. Macdonald speaks Jan. 30 at the Ten Evenings series at Carnegie Music Hall. Books will be for sale before and after the talk.
^ Thu., Jan. 26: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
thursday 01.26
BY AMANI NEWTON
7:30 p.m. Mon., Jan. 30. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. $15-35. 412-622-8866 or www.pittsburghlectures.org
CALL FOR ARTISTS Perilous times call for more art. With its Active Voice Project, Artists Image Resource is seeking local artists to exhibit their work in response to the new administration in Washington. It’s a nonjuried show, and all artwork delivered to AIR’s North Side building will be exhibited. All media are welcome; artists will hang their own work. Artwork can be delivered from 5-6 p.m. on each of the three following dates: Thu., Feb. 2; Feb. 16; and March 2. The exhibit culminates with a big closing reception on March 11. BY BILL O’DRISCOLL
518 Foreland St., North Side. 412-321-8664 or www.artistsimageresource.org
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
STAGE What if you could live out your dreams, but only at the expense of selling out your culture? That’s the question in The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, the Pulitzer Prizenominated 2009 play by Kristoffer Diaz. A pro-wrestling fall guy discovers an amateur with charisma to rival the league’s star. When he presents him to the bosses, they have a great idea: introduce the Indian-American as a terrorist character. The play opens barebones productions’ 2017 season with a two-week run at The Gym at Ace Hotel Pittsburgh. Amani Newton wton 8 p.m. Continues through Feb. 5. 120 S. Whitfield St., Eastt Liberty. $35. 888-718-4253 or www.barebonesproductions.com om
STAGE If a little romantic/comedic relief ef is in order, Pittsburgh Public Theater offers a fresh staging of one of Shakespeare’s most sportive plays. Twelfth Night has a shipwreck, a twin brother and sister, a crossgender masquerade (naturally), ), a love triangle and drunken antics. It’s also one of the few
Shakespeare plays whose original music survives, in the songs sung by the jester Feste. In this production, which the Public’s Ted Pappas locates in a pre-World War I setting, Feste is played by Broadway veteran Mitchell Jarvis. The show also stars Carly Street, as Viola; Max Rosenak, as Sebastian; Timothy D. Stickney, as Orsino; and Gretchen Egolf, as Olivia. The first performance is tonight. Bill O’Driscoll 8 p.m. Continues through Feb. 26. O’Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Downtown. $15.75-62. 412-316-1600 or www.ppt.org
friday 01.27 ART Generations of students from kids tto o seniors have taken Arts, in everything classes at Pittsburgh Center for the eA jewelry, ceramics and from painting and printmaking to je e weaving. Tonight, 39 works weavv by 29 9 artists from 16 different classes will be on display cla la a as part of the Center’s semi-annual Student Show. The works were chosen by PCA staff. ch h ^ Fri., Jan. 27: Tonight’s opening Ton To on n I Am Not Sam reception includes a recc talk ta a by painter Phiris Kathryn Sickels, who’s K a PCA student and
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{ART BY TARA TAYLOR}
C e n t r al D i r e c t F i n a n c i al
^ Fri., Jan. 27: Student Show
exhibiting solo artist. BO Reception: 5:30-9 p.m. ($5 donation requested). Exhibit continues through March 19. 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. 412-361-0873 or www.pfpca.org
Apply Now 1-800-974-1645
ART Angela Washko, a visiting assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, is emerging as a fourth-wave successor in feminist art. Working in the tradition of Yoko Ono and Carolee Schneeman, Washko uses her work to challenge gender presumptions, only instead of focusing on the body, Washko confronts biases embedded in video games and technology. In Hacking / Modding / Remixing as Feminist Protest, at the Miller Gallery, Washko curates 22 artists whose work also employs technology to speak to women’s perspectives and experiences. Tonight’s opening reception is followed by a public series of lectures and screenings. AN 6-8 p.m. Exhibit continues through Feb. 26. 5000 Forbes Ave., CMU campus, Oakland. Free. 412-268-3618 or www.millergallery.cfa. cmu.edu
In Oakland NOW OPEN!
HAPPY HOUR DAILY SPECIALS
$2 Well Drinks $1 Domestic Bottles $3 Fireball Shots All day everyday $6 Pitchers (select)
STAGE Race relations have ^ Fri., Jan. 27: Hacking / Modding / Remixing as Feminist Protest been at the forefront of American political life in recent years, not that we’re closer to a resolution. If anything, matters of racial pride and shame are even more muddled, and that conflict lies at the heart of I Am Not Sam, a 2015 one-man show arriving for a two-day run at the August Wilson Center. Playwright Michael Phillip Edwards performs all three characters: an elderly black man, his white son-in-law and his interracial grandson, all deliberating the question “What is black?” The shows are presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. AN 8 p.m. Also 8 p.m. Sat., Jan. 28. 980 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $28.25. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org.
KARAOKE Tuesdays • 9pm-12am
$1 Tacos / $2 tequila shots / $4 Margaritas —Also AvailabLe—
HOCK EY SPECI A LS
328 Atwood wood ood od Street Strr t • Oa Oak Oakland
CONTINUES ON PG. 30
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SHORT LIST, CONTINUED FROM PG. 29
[DAILY RUNDOWN] {PHOTO COURTESY OF JOAN MARCUS}
^ Tue., Jan. 31: Something Rotten!
saturday 01.28 ART Hervé Tullet returns to the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. During his previous visit, many of Pittsburgh’s smallest citizens had the opportunity to work with the French artist, creating large-scale pieces in the tradition of his geometric, primary-colored canvases. The work has been hanging in the museum’s art studio ever since. Tullet returns to oversee a new exhibition, Hervé Tullet’s Art Explosion: Pittsburgh, which will hang in the main galleries today through Feb. 26. Visit today and tomorrow from 1-2 p.m. to have Tullet sign one of his bestselling picture books, including Press Here!, Let’s Play! and Mix It Up! AN 10 Children’s Way, North Side. $14-16 (free for kids under 2). 412-322-5058 or www.pittsburghkids.org
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
MUSIC Piano four hands is what it sounds like — a style of performance with two people playing one piano — but seeing it in person is an unexpected trip. There’s as much choreography involved as there is musicality, and the result is weirdly mesmerizing. If you’re unfamiliar, get familiar tonight at The Andy Warhol Museum as the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo performs the music of Hungarian composer György Kurtág (Check out the ^ Sat., Jan. 28: Hervé Tullet’s Art Explosion: Pittsburgh duets with his wife, Marta, on YouTube — adorable.) Also performing is violist Sarah Plum (pictured). Presented by Pitt’s Music on the Edge. Alex Gordon 8 p.m. 117 Sandusky St., North Side. $15-20. 412-624-7529 or www.music.pitt.edu/tickets
sunday 01.29 TALK This week even more than before, people have been talking about the need to fight back against anti-democratic values and any and all efforts to reduce equality. This afternoon, join a longstanding local bastion of progressivism as the 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club holds its Resistance Inaugural Ball, at
EVERYONE IS A CRITIC EVENT: 21+ Glow Night, Carnegie Science Center, North Side CRITIC: Blair Patterson, 27, a production coordinator from Bloomfield WHEN: Fri.,
Jan. 20
It’s a cool thing to come here, enjoy a little drink, and not have to worry about elbowing kids in the head. I like space stuff a lot, so the space exhibits are really cool. My girlfriend has a museum membership, so she saw an article about it and it just sounded really cool. We’ve been here for a couple different events and we love it here. We’ve done the laser shows before and they’re a lot of fun; we’re definitely gonna look at them tonight and see if they’re available. Our first date was the laser show. We met through mutual friends and they were just like, “Hey, do you wanna go to this laser show midnight at the Science Center?” And she agreed, and we went with a few friends and it was a really awesome time. I recommend it to all adults. B Y AMANI NE WTO N
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Not a ball in the traditional sense (there’ll be little waltzing), it’s instead a festive get-together that includes the club’s annual meeting and a chance to meet like-minded people and organizations. All are welcome. The free event includes refreshments and music by DJ Zombo. BO 1-4 p.m. 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. Free. www.pgh14widc.org
tuesday 01.31 STAGE Singing, dancing and acting, all at the same time? It’s so crazy, it just might work. That at least is the thinking of brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, playwrights in Elizabethan England whose plan to outdo their overbearing rival Will Shakespeare involves staging the world’s first musical. Something Rotten!, itself a musical comedy by Wayne Kirkpatrick, Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell that spoofs Shakespeare, musicals and plenty more, was a 2015 Broadway hit, nominated for 10 Tony Awards. The first national touring production features three of the Broadway principals, including Rob McClure and Josh Grisetti, as the Bottom boys, and Adam Pascal, as Shakespeare. It g gets eight performances at the g p Benedum Center, courtesy of PNC Broadway y in Pittsburgh, starting tonight. BO 7:30 p.m. Continues through rough Feb. 5. 237 Seventh St., Downtown. $26-77. 412-456-6666 56-6666 or www.trustarts.org
wednesday 02.01 MUSIC Get up close and personal with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians at Music 101. 1. In these long-running informal lunchtime lectures, ures, speakers discuss their musical lives and theirr instruments, and give short performances. The series continues today with violinist Jennifer Orchard’s presentation, titled “White Nights.” Visitors can bring their own lunches or order brown-bag meals from The Common Plea for $9. (See www.psa75.org for details.) Music 101 talks, held in Heinz Hall’s Dorothy Porter Simmons Regency Rooms, are organized by the Pittsburgh Symphony Association, the PSO’s primary all-volunteer fundraising arm.. BO 12:30-1:30 p.m. 600 Penn Ave., Downtown. $2 (free for students and children). www.pittsburghsymphony.org > Sat., Jan. 28: Music on the Edge
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WE LOVE THE IDEA OF THE “DEVILED EGG OF THE DAY”
MAKING PROGRESS {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL} Gab Cody and Sam Turich moved from Brooklyn to Lawrenceville in 2007, and immediately were welcomed with an invitation to a tradition already a quarter-century old: the neighborhood’s progressive dinner. Today, that peripatetic party — each course is eaten at a different house — draws 150 neighbors, and Cody and Turich have attended the annual event all but once. In 2014, they even released an homage: their feature-length independent film Progression, a rather saucy screwball comedy shot in the neighborhood. Now comes their book The Joy of Progressive Dinners: A Gourmet Guide to Friendmaking. The self-published 80-pager — which slyly and with much wordplay parodies that 1970s cultural touchstone The Joy of Sex — is a guide to creating one’s own progressive dinner. It comes complete with tips, recipes (by contributors including chef Justin Severino), and illustrations by Lawrenceville prog-dinner pioneer Mary Mazziotti. The advice ranges from how long to leave for each course to how to handle the panoply of dietary restrictions you’ll encounter. On promoting the dinner: “Gently reach for your neighbors, being careful to first gain their consent. Slowly massage your contact list of interested neighbors. Languidly work your way toward social media: Facebook groups and other sites like Nextdoor (but not Tindr, Grindr or Yinzr). If you’re ready to invite new partners, entrust neighbors to tempt their contact as well.” The paperback book ($29.99) is available on Amazon and at www. createspace.com, and at Butler Street boutique Wildcard. Bonus: a free DVD of the smartly made Progression with each copy. (The idea for the book actually came from a distributor whom they were trying to interest in the film.) Cody and Turich, theater artists by trade, note that they’re not trying to recruit for the Lawrenceville dinner, which is strictly for Lawrencevillians. As Turich says, “The idea behind the book is you can do it — you just can’t do the one in our neighborhood.”
{CP PHOTO BY VANESSA SONG}
Spare ribs, brisket and pork belly, with side of cucumber salad
SOUTHERN CHARM {BY ANGELIQUE BAMBERG + JASON ROTH}
OME CHEFS build a brand by replicat-
S
ing a concept in an ever-expanding territory. Not chef Richard DeShantz. His empire may be tiny, but it is mighty: All four of his full-service restaurants are within a bone’s throw of each other in Downtown’s Cultural District, and each features a setting as distinctive as its food. From the smoky chalkboards and mirrors at his flagship, Meat and Potatoes, to the twee Wes Anderson set piece that is Butcher and the Rye, to the phantasmagorical splendor of täkō, DeShantz creates not just dining, but full-immersion dining experiences. His latest venture, Pork and Beans, is an upscale urban riff on Southern country barbecue, picking up where East Liberty’s Union Pig and Chicken left off. So yes, there’s barnwood, but not for barnwood’s sake. Paired with string lights in mason
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jars, a Mail Pouch mural and chipped, enameled metal tabletops, the weathered wood here evokes a place and a culture that haven’t been polished, modernized and updated beyond recognition — yet. Only a tall
PORK AND BEANS 136 Sixth St., Downtown. 412-338-1876 HOURS: Tue.-Thu. 4-11 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 4 p.m.-midnight PRICES: Snacks, salads, sandwiches and a la carte smoked meats $8-14; entrees $30-38 LIQUOR: Full bar
CP APPROVED chain-link fence, topped by barbed wire (!), between the bar and main dining areas threw off the otherwise-appealing reducereuse-recycle vibe. We suppose there was some sort of indoors/outdoors concept at
play, but there are really no positive associations with a fence like this. The menu consists of straightforward, if carefully and cleverly prepared, versions of Southern food and smoked meats. Take the first item on the menu: fried-catfish sliders with American cheese on small, soft potato rolls. Sure, jalapeño tartar sauce and apple slaw are a bit outside the classic canon of Southern cuisine, but they’re not too foreign or fancified, either, and the catfish and dressings were exemplary. DeShantz can’t resist a few extravagant flourishes here and there, such as foie gras on a fried-chicken sandwich. But picnic food should be familiar and inviting, and for the most part, this was. The sandwiches, especially, stood out. The hot dog was made in-house, split and grilled, then topped with cheese, brisket, ranch slaw and fried jalapeños. It was
massive, but it wasn’t a mess, in part because the frank was big and flavorful. In truth, had it been much more simply dressed, it might have been a bit much, all juice and spices and meat. But all the toppings’ flavors and textures worked together to create both variety and harmony. This was close to the perfect wiener. Like wieners, what we call country-fried steak originated with German immigrants in Texas, who adapted their home recipes for schnitzel to locally plentiful beef. It is therefore fitting that Pork and Beans offers a pork schnitzel sandwich. Jason thought the meat was too thick and the breading a bit too dark in spots, but Angelique liked the juicy, crunchy-coated cutlet just fine. She would have skipped the undistinguished soft roll and even the fried egg on top because the tangy radicchio slaw and mustard sauce provided all the accompaniment the schnitzel required. A pulled-pork sandwich, topped with more radicchio and jalapeños, plus supercrisp housemade pickles, was far above and beyond the waterlogged product purveyed by most Northern barbecuers. This pork was tender, but short of soft, and had plenty of tasty charred exterior mixed in without ever adding toughness. We love the idea of the “deviled egg of the day,” and we really loved the one we got, carbonara. Bacon bits, a parmesan wafer and pea puree perfectly, and addictively, melded with the creamy whipped yolk to evoke the luscious pasta dish. Hoppin’ John, the New Year’s goodluck rice-and-beans dish of the Carolinas, was on the special menu. It was authentically prepared, not with black-eyed peas, but with Sea Island red peas, which were small, tender-firm and much more delicious, especially when mixed with bits of pork. The rice, Carolina Gold, was also a cut above. Topped with zingy chives, this was a deliciously auspicious start for the year. Finally, we tried brisket, one of Pork and Beans’ daily a la carte smoked meats. The texture was extraordinary, perhaps perfect, with juicy, ultra-tender meat and melting, succulent fat, comparable to what we’ve had at Texas Hill Country barbecues. But salt was the leading flavor, with smoke a distant second. Too much salt on the crust could be excused as a matter of taste, but the paucity of smoke was hard to square with the hardwood stacked, almost to the ceiling, against one wall of the dining room, let alone with Pork and Beans’ motto: “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Swine.” Pork and Beans gives Northerners a taste of the art — and the mythology — of Southern barbecue. If it occasionally fell a bit short, it also occasionally made our barbecue-craving hearts soar. INFO@ PGHC ITY PAP ER.CO M
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OAXACA CUISINE
[PERSONAL CHEF]
CELEBRATION SANDWICH
NOW OPEN IN THE SOUTH SIDE
Chef Adan Morales
Friday, January 27
{BY KELLY ANDREWS, GREENFIELD} Listen, it’s a new year, new me, and I’m going full on woo-woo with the power of positivity. See this grilled-cheese sandwich? It’s not the sad grilled cheese of your childhood, with sticky slices of American slapped between pieces of butter-drenched bread. No, this is the kind of sandwich you make to celebrate the fact that you have no crying children (unlike the downstairs neighbors in your duplex), or obligations to cook for anyone but yourself. Want to eat a grilled cheese every night? Go right ahead, boo. If you put lots of greens in it and stick veggies on the side, it’s practically healthy.
LIVE MUSIC LATIN GUITAR
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Bistro
INGREDIENTS Literally whatever the fuck you want, but I used the following: GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH: • Olive-oil bread • bacon (for those who aren’t yet ready to deprive themselves of all that is delicious in this world) • smoked gruyere cheese, sliced thin • shaved slices of Honeycrisp apples — the undeniably sweetest and most delicious apple • a small handful of fresh spinach • butter
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Mention the Pittsburgh City Paper ad for 20% OFF all food orders. Not valid with any other offer.
2017 E. CARSON STREET 412-251-0558 PUBLIC PARKING IN THE BACK.
Korean BBQ Buffet
GREEN BEAN SALAD: • fresh-cut green beans • sprinkle of feta cheese • handful of cranberries • handful of almonds • drizzle of olive oil
FRIDAYS-SUNDAY 4-9PM • CHICKEN/ BEEF BULGOGI • • PORK, BEEF SHORT RIB • • SCALLOPS, SHRIMP •
INSTRUCTIONS Cook bacon to your liking, which any sane person knows is crispy, and then blot with a paper towel. Set aside. Heat skillet on medium high for a couple of minutes before adding lightly buttered bread. Layer the bread with ingredients, starting and ending with the cheese. Cook on each side for approximately five minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden-brown. Steam the green beans for approximately 10 minutes or boil quickly for two minutes, then rinse in cold water. Let beans dry on a paper towel, then toss them with the rest of the ingredients. Pretend that this meal is hearty and will keep you full. I recommend a second dinner of broccoli quiche around 9 p.m.
COOKED AT YOUR OWN TABLE
EAT ME... NOW. AWARD WARD WI WINNING INNING NN SU SUSHI
Best 25 Restaurant Honoree in Pittsburgh
Sushi Kim
INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
Kelly Andrews is a poet who plans to stick around Pittsburgh indefinitely. You can find more sad, healthy (and funny) meals on her blog sadhealthymeals. wordpress.com.
Check us out at 1241 Penn Avenue Downtown / Strip 412-281-9956
WE WANT YOUR PERSONAL RECIPES AND THE STORIES BEHIND THEM. EMAIL THEM TO CELINE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM.
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{CP PHOTO BY JOHN COLOMBO}
A dessert-wine flight at Allegheny Wine Mixer: Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage Port 2001, Cossart Gordon 10-year Bual Madeira and Jurancon Moelleux Camin Larredya
[ON THE ROCKS]
DELVING INTO DESSERT WINES Madeira, port, sherry and beyond {BY DREW CRANISKY} I DON’T OFTEN order dessert. I wish I could
say that I am too sophisticated for sweets or possess incredible self-control. But the truth is that I’ve usually stuffed my face so aggressively during the previous courses that there’s not a speck of room left for cakes and pies. Dessert wine, however, I can get into. A nip of sweet wine feels like a perfectly classy (and less filling) cap to a decadent meal. I sat down with Jamie Patten, the owner of the Allegheny Wine Mixer, and her husband, John Venable, to talk and taste through an impressive selection of dessert wines. “People [in America] still have kind of a ‘sweet is bad’ attitude,” notes Patten, citing the ill reputation of massproduced, sickly sweet offerings like Blue Nun. At Allegheny Wine Mixer, however, Patten encourages people to explore the sweeter side of wine with a carefully curated and accessible selection of dessert wines. And it’s working. “We go through a weird amount of dessert wine here,” she says, laughing. So what is dessert wine? The broad, loosely defined category includes everything from well-known wines like port to quirkier offerings like ice wine, which is made by allowing the grapes to freeze while still on the vine. Because of the higher levels of sugar and alcohol, many dessert wines are good candidates for aging. “Dessert wines, in general, have a long shelf life,” says Patten. “Madeiras can age hundreds of years,” adds Venable. And dessert wine
is often best with food: Sherry plays well with cheese; port and chocolate are a classic match; and Vin Santo (an Italian dessert wine) is traditionally served with biscotti. Though the list at AWM is ever-changing, Patten always has a few bottles of “the big three”: port, sherry and Madeira. All three are fortified, meaning that brandy is added to boost the alcohol content. And each has a geographical origin: port and Madeira are made in particular regions of Portugal, and sherry is produced in the Andalusia region of Spain. Beyond these basic similarities, however, the categories offer a world of variation. Each style must be produced in specific and often labor-intensive ways, the result of tradition, geography and necessity. Perhaps the most interesting (and certainly the trendiest) variety is sherry. “Sherries range from bone-dry all the way to sweet,” explains Patten. “And when you learn how sherry is made, you can’t believe it’s as cheap as it is.” Sherry relies on a solera system, which involves blending multiple vintages and constantly transferring product between barrels. Though the process is taxing, the result is a nutty, raisin-y delight, The best way to explore dessert wine, of course, is to start tasting. Allegheny Wine Mixer offers about 20 dessert wines by the glass, or flights of three smaller pours. So whether you go for bright, acidic Sauternes or rich PX sherry, there is definitely a dessert wine for you.
“PEOPLE STILL HAVE KIND OF A ‘SWEET IS BAD’ ATTITUDE.”
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BOOZE BATTLES {BY CELINE ROBERTS}
Each week, we order the same cocktail at two different bars for a friendly head-to-head battle. Go to the bars, taste both drinks and tell us what you like about each by tagging @pghcitypaper on Twitter or Instagram and use #CPBoozeBattles. If you want to be a part of Booze Battles, send an email to food-and-beverage writer Celine Roberts, at celine@pghcitypaper.com.
THE DRINK: CORPSE REVIVER
VS.
Bar Marco
The Abbey on Butler
2216 Penn Ave., Strip District
4635 Butler St., Lawrenceville
DRINK: Corpse Reviver No. 2 INGREDIENTS: Gin, Lillet Blanc, Cointreau, lemon juice, absinthe OUR TAKE: Both high summer and the dead of winter are brightened by this classic with the name that says it all. With citrus season at its peak, the fresh lemon juice provides a tart kick to match the light bite of gin. Cointreau rounds out the cocktail with orange notes, and the drink finishes on notes of absinthe.
DRINK: Corpse Reviver No. 2 INGREDIENTS: Faber gin, Cointreau, Lillet Blanc, absinthe, lemon juice OUR TAKE: Absinthe’s anise flavors were bold in this cocktail, providing bitter balance to the tart notes of lemon and the gin’s juniper kick. Citrus was the lingering taste, backed by a lemon twist for aromatic appeal.
City Paper’s food podcasts, Sound Bite and Five Minutes in Food History will return in February. Check out our archives online at www.pghcitypaper.com
One Bordeaux, One Scotch, One Beer Cranberry Gose, Long Trail Brewing Co. $6.50/23-oz. pour “A lot of people are starting to get into tart and sour beer. This is a nice introduction to those styles. It’s not too heavy on the cranberry nic flavors, but is a good seasonal beer for the winter. I try a little every flav time I come in.” tim — RECOMMENDED BY PATRICK CUNNINGHAM, BARTENDER AT LOT 17
Cranberry Gose is available at Lot 17, in Bloomfield.
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HORRORS {BY AL HOFF}
JAMES MCAVOY LIKELY HAD A BLAST PLAYING THESE DISPARATE CHARACTERS
If you’d like to double down on the gloom and doom of the season, the Hollywood Theater, in Dormont, is offering JanuScary, a mini-festival of five new horror films. Nicola Pesce’s The Eyes of My Mother (7 p.m. Fri., Jan. 27, and 7 p.m. Mon., Jan. 30) is a stylish black-andwhite film that balances slow, moody sequences with some shocking acts of violence. A young girl who lives on an isolated farm witnesses a shocking act that deeply informs the very troubled young woman she becomes. It’s a deliberate slow-burner about trauma, loneliness and madness.
The Void
The Canadian entry, The Void (7 p.m. Sat., Jan. 28), directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski, packs a lot in: spooky robed people, a nearly abandoned hospital, weird diseases, freaky beasts, mad scientists and a lastreel pivot into some pretty crazy timespace-life-death stuff. Not sure it all held together satisfactorily, but it was fun to watch. Fans of The Babadook should like Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow (7 p.m. Sun., Jan. 29, and 7 p.m. Wed., Feb. 1), an Iranian psychological spooker set during the panicky times of the Iraq-Iran war. Left alone in a Tehran apartment building, a woman and her young daughter fear they might be victims of a djinn, or supernatural evil force. Or maybe they are just stressed out? Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch star in Andre Ovredal’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe (7 p.m. Tue., Jan. 31, and 7 p.m. Thu., Feb. 2), which establishes that the dead can talk, and might not even be dead. Running all week is the Mexican film We Are the Flesh (9 p.m. daily Jan. 27-Feb. 2), directed by Emiliano Rocha Minter. In a post-apocalyptic landscape, a brother and sister seek refuge with a deranged man; they can stay if they do as he says. But then things get weird. And sexually explicit. Best for those who dig horror out on the taboo-pushing edge and don’t need a lot of plot. $6-8, except The Void ($10); festival pass $30. 412-563-0368 or www. thehollywooddormont.org
Person to persons (in foreground): Anya Taylor-Joy and James McAvoy
HEAD GAMES {BY AL HOFF}
HREE TEENAGE girls are kidnapped from a mall parking lot by an intense dude. They wind up imprisoned in a basement, captives of Dennis (James McAvoy). No, wait — he’s Barry. Um, is that Dennis/Barry in a dress? The gimmick of Split, M. Night Shyamalan’s otherwise rote locked-up-bya-bad-guy thriller, is the kidnapper has disassociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder). Thus the three young women (Anna Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula), depending on who they’re talking to, face different challenges and opportunities while trying to stay safe and hopefully get free. For instance, Dennis is uptight and a clean freak. When the girls’ clothes get dusty early on, he has them strip to their underwear. They stay exposed, even though “Barry” is a fun clothing-designer, “Patricia” is a kind English woman, and 9-year-old “Hedwig” is easily manipulated. (File under: icky plot hole.) It’s Barry who turns up at the office
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of Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), who helps Barry and co. — he has 23 identities — stay organized as a functioning person. But Fletcher’s main job is to explain all the psychology, like a walking pop-up bubble; it’s a bit of a drag. (And speaking of explaining, Shyamalan pops up in a cameo as a character whose sole purpose is to provide a shruggy defense of Hooters. File under: why?)
SPLIT DIRECTED BY: M. Night Shyamalan STARRING: James McAvoy, Anna Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley
McAvoy likely had a blast playing these disparate characters and I’d watch his campy one-man show anytime, but his hard work can’t save this mess. And let us never ever speak of personality No. 24, who emerges in the final reel to remind viewers that Shyamalan has serious trouble closing movies. (The
absolute last scene is an embarrassing bit of lily-gilding you may want to talk about. Oof.) Split could have been a tense psychological thriller, a battle of wills between captor(s) and captives, but the film veers from silly to tedious. It never makes a clear case for the kidnapping — it’s like we’re just dropped into a play-acting exercise — and it employs some tiresome tropes like fetishizing trauma (“the broken are the more evolved”), sensationalizing mental illness and invoking rape threats. (Too often in popular entertainment, rape is casually incorporated as a cheat for being edgy, adding sexual frisson or as lazy way of establishing “character” for female characters; Shyamalan hits the trifecta here.) And yet, the MPAA ratings board never fails to surprise: Split, with its stripped teenagers, assorted beatings and killings, child sex abuse and non-stop menacing of young women by an unstable and violent man, is a take-the-family PG-13! A H OF F @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
FILM CAPSULES CP
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NEW A DOG’S PURPOSE. Lasse Hallström’s film adapts W. Bruce Cameron’s novel tracking the life of a dog and the various humans he helps along the way. Britt Robertson, Dennis Quaid and a dog (voiced by Josh Gad) star. Starts Fri., Jan. 27 GOLD. What is it about the quest for gold that drives men to do very foolish things? That’s one of the threads that runs through this caper-ish dramedy directed by Stephen Gaghan (Syriana). Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) is a thirdgeneration Nevada-based mining man, but by the late 1980s, he’s reduced to buying up abandoned claims and trying to raise small-time investors. (How small? He works out of a bar.) So with his last few dollars, he tracks down Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramírez), who has a “nose” for finding valuable deposits. The pair picks a spot in the Indonesian jungle, and what luck — they hit gold! (Fun fact: After Sahara and Fool’s Gold, this is the third search-for-gold film that McConaughey has starred in.) The news makes the two big-time, with Wall Street investors and Indonesian political players jumping in. It’s all limos, champagne and good times, until it’s not.
Gold a novel, and travel to Amsterdam to track down its elusive author. Josh Boone directs this 2014 dramedy. 4:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 25, and 9 p.m. Thu., Jan. 26. Row House Cinema EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. Johnny Depp stars as the decidedly different boy-next-door (he has scissors for hands) in Tim Burton’s funny-sweet 1990 film. 7:15 p.m. Wed., Jan. 25, and 5 p.m. Thu., Jan. 26. Row House Cinema THE WANDERERS. Philip Kaufman’s 1979 film takes us into the slightly funny, slighty sad world of New York City hoodlum youth, circa 1963. The film, with lots of nostalgic rock ’n’ roll tunes, is adapted from an early Richard Price novel. 7 p.m. Wed., Jan. 25, and 9:30 p.m. Thu., Jan. 26. Hollywood OCEAN WAVES. A young man recalls his high school days and, in particular, one girl, a transfer student from the big city. This is a new digital restoration of Tomomi Mochizuki’s 1993 anime. In Japanese, with subtitles. 9:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 25, and 7:15 p.m. Thu., Jan. 26. Row House Cinema DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB. The Cold War was never funnier than in Stanley Kubrick’s pitch-black 1964 satire. From the brilliant Peter Sellers’ three roles (including the titular doctor with a problematic artificial arm) to Sterling Hayden’s muttering about “precious bodily fluids” to Slim Pickens’ greatest ride, this mad rush to annihilation manages to be a sharply defined time capsule of early-’60s paranoia while remaining a hilarious all-purpose general indictment of military madness. Jan. 27-29 and Jan. 31Feb. 2. Row House Cinema (AH)
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Resident Evil: The Final Chapter Gold is entertaining enough, mostly because McConaughey and Ramirez are compelling actors; McConaughey (who gained weight and lost hair for this role) especially has done well lately playing charming rogue types, who are rough around the edges and morally wobbly. And there’s a retinue of hammy characters actors — Corey Stoll, Bruce Greenwood and Stacy Keach — to fill in the scenes; Bryce Dallas Howard gets stuck playing the cardboard role of Wells’ worried wife. There’s some missed opportunity for sharpness — the comparison of pie-eyed prospectors with see-no-trouble Wall Streeters could have been better executed — and the dark comedy elements could have been cranked up. It’s the sort of movie that makes a perfectly pleasant at-home screening when stumbled upon on cable or Netflix, and thus, isn’t the worst way to spend some cash at the multiplex. Starts Fri., Jan. 27 (Al Hoff) RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER. After five films, this saga of one woman (Milla Jovovich) fighting against apocalyptic zombies concludes. Or so we hope. Paul W.S. Anderson directs. Starts Fri., Jan. 27
REPERTORY THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. Two teenage lovebirds, each with cancer, become obsessed with
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COOL HAND LUKE. Paul Newman gets put on a chain gang after assaulting some parking meters. No jailhouse can hold this feisty smart-ass, though — and Newman plans to bust out, in Stuart Rosenberg’s 1967 paean to homegrown anti-authoritativeness. Jan. 27-30 and Feb. 1-2. Row House Cinema (AH)
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ROSEMARY’S BABY. Roman Polanski’s 1968 thriller about possible devil worship and satanic insemination is still pretty creepy. The quiet, contemplative, yet at times fevered tone of the film belies the uneasiness that builds: Are the next-door neighbors into the pentagram? Is Mia Farrow’s husband (John Cassavetes) just an arrogant actor, or has he crossed to the dark side? Could it be that Farrow is merely suffering from emotional stress only because of her difficult pregnancy? Polanski wisely keeps all such questions afloat, leaving the viewer deliciously confused and off-balance. Jan. 27-Feb. 1. Row House Cinema (AH)
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THE APARTMENT. In Billy Wilder’s melancholy 1960 comedy, the mild-mannered Jack Lemmon loans out his small apartment so his unctuous boss (Fred MacMurray) can enjoy assignations, including a bitter one with the sweet gal (Shirley MacLaine) whom Lemmon is fond of. Jan. 27-31 and Feb. 2. Row House Cinema (AH)
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KEEP MIKE
PENNSYLVANIA IS ON THE VERGE OF REGULATING DAILY FANTASY SPORTS
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was fired on Sunday night — by some guy on Twitter with 13 followers. It shouldn’t be a surprise that within seconds of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the New England Patriots in the Jan. 22 AFC Championship game, fans were already out on social media calling for the coach of 10 years to be fired. Here’s a small sampling from Twitter: “As far as replacing Tomlin, I know a pee-wee Coach who can step rtf in = same results.” “Steelers need a new coach Mike Tomlin is overrated and not even top 10.” “YOU SHOULD BE FIRED. !!!! YOU CAN’T KEEP LOSING TO NEW ENGLAND. !!!” Needless to say, I don’t agree with any of these sentiments; I never have. People have been calling for Tomlin’s head ever since he arrived in Pittsburgh. He’s been given more shit than the PWSA and given less slack than, well, the PWSA. It seems ridiculous that we have to do this after every big Steelers loss. In his decade with the team, Tomlin has been successful, and while he’s lost some big games, he’s won a few too. He’s constantly compared to Bill Cowher, a coach who has lost more big games and squandered more opportunities than Tomlin ever has. I liked Cowher then, and I like him now, but Tomlin is being held to a standard that Cowher was never expected to reach. Let’s review. Mike Tomlin is 1-1 in Super Bowls; Cowher is 1-1. Tomlin is 2-1 in AFC Championship games; Cowher was 2-4. Cowher had three losing seasons in 10 years; Tomlin hasn’t had any. Cowher was 149-91 in 15 seasons with a .623 win percentage; Tomlin is 103-57 with a win percentage of .644. Finally, Cowher won the AFC North title eight times in 15 years; Tomlin has won it six times in 10 years. This isn’t an exercise to decide whether Mike Tomlin is a better coach than Bill Cowher. But it shows that they’re really close. Tomlin hasn’t just been moderately successful in 10 years, he’s been phenomenal. It also shows that Cowher was given a whole lot more leeway than Tomlin has ever been given. Steelers fans have a history of thinking the grass is always greener somewhere else. But who would you suggest to take over the Steelers? Jeff Fisher? Chip Kelly? Rex “Freaking” Ryan? But make no mistake: We need to keep Tomlin, because he’s a successful coach and good for this city.
Mike Tomlin {CP PHOTO BY LUKE THOR TRAVIS}
{BY CHARLIE DEITCH}
FINAL FANTASY {BY RYAN DETO}
EGULATING FANTASY sports may no
R
longer be a fantasy in Pennsylvania. Thanks to an already allocated budget allowance of $100 million, Pennsylvania will most likely join a handful of other states in regulating online gambling. But while online gaming as a whole seems to have broad support, regulating daily fantasy sports (DFS) could create some sparks. The fantasy-sports phenomenon, born out of sports nerds meeting in basements to create pretend sports teams in an effort to win cash and prizes, is now a multibillion industry with millions of users and million-dollar payouts. Websites like FanDuel and DraftKings continue to claim their competitions are entirely “skill-based” and shouldn’t be classified as gambling. “Our product is all about entertainment value,” said Matt King of FanDuel, in an October 2015 interview with PBS’ Frontline. However, a 2015 New York Times in-
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
vestigation showed DFS outlets offer such a wide array of bets on so many different sporting events, that chance has become a much bigger component. Originally, DFS companies felt they shouldn’t be regulated because of their skill-based claim, but they have since backed off their hardline, antiregulation stance. Seven states have passed laws regulating DFS, including licensing fees, taxes and minimum-age requirements for players. Now Pennsylvania is next. State Senate minority leader Jay Costa (D-Forest Hills) will introduce an online-gaming bill that includes a provision to regulate DFS in the state. Costa spokesperson Stacey Witalec says the senator believes that DFS is gambling, and his legislation is following other states’ leads that DFS should be regulated. “We believe this is a gaming-type product where people wager money and are rewarded based on the outcome of events,” wrote Witalec in an email to City Paper.
“Whether it involves skill or luck, regulation should be completed.” Costa’s proposal includes a $2.5 million licensing fee and a 25 percent tax for a DFS operation. These would be the highest fees and taxes of any state in the country, but Witalec says it’s consistent with rates imposed on slots and table games in brickand-mortar casinos. Also, Costa’s proposal wouldn’t just regulate daily fantasy sports; the regulations and licensing structure would also govern other online gambling options from slot machines to table games (like blackjack, poker and craps). “We must be careful not to offer a product at a low rate that might imperil already existing gaming venues where substantial investments have been made in capital and personnel,” wrote Witalec. She adds that Costa’s bill shows that Senate Democrats are motivated to fund the state budget and believe the bill will satisfy the $100 million commitment
Antonio Brown’s DraftKings’ stat sheet
already allocated in 2017 state budget. Marc La Vorgna, a spokesperson for DraftKings and FanDuel, the two largest DFS websites, says the companies are open to the idea of Pennsylvania regulation on their DFS websites, but doesn’t believe that DFS should be classified as gambling. “We are seeking legislation across the country,” says La Vorgna, “to make it clear that Daily Fantasy Sports are a legal game of skill and establish consumer protections, and that is what we are doing in Pennsylvania.” La Vorgna says his clients support other legislation that will be introduced by Sen. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Jefferson Hills) and Sen. Anthony Williams (D-Philadelphia). According to a memorandum from the senators, their bill will signify DFS contests as a “game of skill” and will require taxes based on revenue. Reschenthaler’s chief of staff, Aaron Bonnaure, says the bill includes a 12 percent tax rate (still the highest of any state) and will establish a $50,000 licensing fee or 7.5 percent of first-year revenue, whichever is smaller. Bonnaure says this allows smaller, niche DFS operators (he says the state has about 10 currently) to operate, since they don’t make enough money to afford the $50,000 fee. “What people don’t understand is there are many small providers, too, that we don’t want to exclude,” says Bonnaure. Bonnaure says Reschenthaler’s bill could bring in about $200,000 to the state
in the first year and potentially a few million dollars over time. However, this bill has no ties to the 2017 budget’s pre-allocated $100 million from online gaming. Those monies would come from other regulations on online gambling. DraftKings came under scrutiny when the New York Times revealed that one of its employees won $350,000 while playing DFS on the site. Since then, many states have established rules barring employees from playing. Also, both DraftKings and FanDuel have failed to turn a profit, which is not uncommon for tech start-ups. However, each of the companies is valued at about $1 billion and each has attracted hundreds of millions in outside investments, and spent hundreds of millions on advertisements. While La Vorgna and Witalec disagree on many aspects of regulating DFS, they agree on one thing: Pennsylvanians love fantasy sports. La Vorgna says his market research shows that more than two million Pennsylvanians play some form of fantasy sports. And Witalec thinks the popularity of DFS means it’s here to stay, regardless of how state legislatures regulate it. “We believe [people] will continue to wish to play in Pennsylvania,” wrote Witalec. “Pennsylvania is a very populous state with very enthusiastic sports fans. Just listen to anyone on Monday mornings talking about any variety of fantasy sports and their leagues, be it football, baseball, hockey, NASCAR, et cetera.”
“WHETHER IT INVOLVES SKILL OR LUCK, REGULATION SHOULD BE COMPLETED.”
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[THE CHEAP SEATS]
MARK OUT {BY MIKE WYSOCKI}
{CP PHOTO BY LUKE THOR TRAVIS}
ON OUR BLOGH We brought you the preview in last week’s sports section. Now you can check out our slideshow and video footage from
Sumo Showdown, a charity event that brought together two world-renowned sumo champions.
Online now at www.pghcitypaper.com
ALLEGHENY COUNTY has about 150 designated historical markers commemorating Pittsburgh’s contributions to labor, literature, medicine, military battles, music and, of course, sports. While statues are one way to pay tribute to a person, when you realize there’s a statue of Fonzie in Milwaukee, the value of a bronze doppelganger decreases in value. But a historical marker, now that’s a real tribute; or, as Fonzie would say, it’s cooler. While other publications can argue the merits of which war memorials are best, we’re going to look at the county’s best historical sports markers ranked in ascending order. Let the debate begin. The Homestead Swim Team. 510 E. 10th Ave., Munhall. Nowadays, being the best swimmer at a library in Munhall doesn’t take you far; but it used to. Four U.S. Olympic swimmers trained there in the 1920s and ’30s, and collectively won bronze, silver, and gold medals. Greenlee Field. Bedford Avenue and Junillo Street, Hill District. This was the home of the Pittsburgh Crawfords and, later, the Homestead Grays. The $100,000 ballpark opened with Satchel Paige throwing the
{CP PHOTO BY JOHN HAMILTON}
The Forbes Field historical marker at Roberto Clemente Drive in Oakland
first pitch to catcher Josh Gibson. In contrast, PNC Park opened with Todd Ritchie throwing to Jason Kendall. Johnny Unitas. 40th and Butler streets, Lawrenceville. Pittsburgh has produced some Hall of Fame players in its day, but only one has a historical marker: Johnny U. A four-time MVP and a regular on the list of all-time greatest players. Now, even the hipsters in Lawrenceville know who he is. Josh Gibson. 2217 Bedford Ave., Hill District. The “black Babe Ruth” grew up partly in the area and went on to become one of the all-time greats. Gibson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Josh Gibson Field (formerly Ammon Field) is where the marker is located. Honus Wagner. Mansfield Boulevard and Chartiers Street, Carnegie. If you’re ever vacationing in Carnegie, stop by and pay homage. The greatest Pirates player of all time, and the greatest shortstop ever. Eight batting titles and he was the first man to steal second, third and home in an inning. Art Rooney. Tourman Street and Coulterville Road, Coulter. The Chief’s father owned a saloon in Coulter; sometimes it’s called Coulters. (We like to add an unnecessary “s” to a word sometimes, like Giant Eagles or Kmarts.) The Rooneys left the town and moved to the North Side and, well, you know the rest. Homestead Grays. The Waterfront, in Homestead, near the train tracks and the bridge. The bridge is also named after the team. The Homestead Grays had 12 players who went on to the Baseball Hall of Fame. They made Pittsburgh the City of Champions before it was cool. Three Rivers Stadium. Art Rooney Avenue near North Shore Drive, North Side.
Over 30 years, the Blast Furnace saw its Steelers turn from also-rans into a powerhouse. It was the site of the Immaculate Reception, and every game since then has sold out. It was the most beloved of the cookiecutter concrete-doughnut stadiums of the early 1970s. Forbes Field. 3950 Roberto Clemente Dr., Oakland. The House of Thrills was the gold standard of American baseball parks. The team’s owner, Barney Dreyfuss, didn’t want a park with cheap home runs, so he put a 12-foot-high fence around the outfield walls. Plus another 28-foot wall down the line. Nobody ever threw a no-hitter at Forbes. The site of Bill Mazeroski’s World Series home run, and a stadium built in 1909 that lasted twice as long as its successor. First Professional Football Game. North Shore Drive and Art Rooney Drive North Side. It wasn’t the first game, but it was the first game that a guy was paid to play in. In a contest between the Pittsburgh Athletic Club and Allegheny Athletic Association, William “Pudge” Heffelfinger took $500 to play a game of football. It’s still more than I make, and this was in 1892. First World Series. Riverwalk near PNC Park. This is true American history. The first-ever World Series game was here in 1903. Pittsburgh was in it, but lost to the Boston Pilgrims (my great-great grandfather hated them so much). It’s near the water steps, where you can see adults smoking cigarettes in their swimwear right next to their kids. Don’t let that detract from the historical significance. The Pirates would go on to win five of the next 113 World Series. It doesn’t sound like much, but only the Yankees, Cardinals and Red Sox have won more.
MIK E WYSO C K I IS A STANDU P C O ME DIAN. F O L L OW H I M ON T W I T T E R: @ I T S M I K E W YS OC K I
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Vesuvius USA Corporation is seeking a Research Engineer to work in its office in Pittsburgh, PA Responsible for desig’g & carrying out experiments in support of new prod dvlpmnt projects. Reqs, at a min, a Master’s degree in Materials or Mech Engr’g & 2 yrs exp in the job offered or a rel. occupation. Also reqs 3 yrs R&D or design exp w/flow control refractories & applications, which may have been gained through employ. or acad. coursework &/or research studies. Also reqs, at a min, 1 yr composition dvlpmnt or analysis exp w/flow control refractories, incl castable refractories & carbon refractories; 1 yr R&D exp in flow modeling or another mechanical modeling discipline; & knowl of market conditions for int’l steel industry. Applicants should e-mail resumes to: Tricia Ketterer, Senior Regional HR Mgr. NAFTA, @ tricia.ketterer@us.vesuvius.com & reference “Research Engineer” in the subject line.
OFFICIAL ADVERTISEMENT
THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH Sealed proposals shall be deposited at the Administration Building, Room 251, 341 South Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15213, on February 14, 2017, until 2:00 P.M., local prevailing time for the following:
Pittsburgh Carrick H. S. Roof Replacement General and Plumbing Primes Pittsburgh Woolslair K-5 and Cupples Stadium Various Asphalt and Concrete Repairs General Prime Pittsburgh King PreK-8 and Pittsburgh Lincoln K-5 Various Asphalt and Concrete Projects General Prime
[DAILY RUNDOWN]
Project Manual and Drawings will be available for purchase on January 23, 2017 at Modern Reproductions (412-488-7700), 127 McKean Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15219 between 9:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. The cost of the Project Manual Documents is non-refundable. Project details and dates are described in each project manual. We are an equal rights and opportunity school district. Parent Hotline: 412-622-7920 www.pps.k12.pa.us
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OFFICIAL ADVERTISEMENT THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH
ON-SITE TRANSFERS
{BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY / WWW.BRENDANEMMETTQUIGLEY.COM}
Sealed proposals shall be deposited at the Administration Building, Room 251, 341 South Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15213, on February 7, 2017, until 2:00 P.M., local prevailing time for the following: Pittsburgh Allegheny K-5 Installation of Classroom Ceiling Fans Electrical Prime Pittsburgh Brashear H. S. ADA Toilet Room Renovations General, Plumbing, HVAC, and Electrical Primes Pittsburgh Colfax K-8 Restroom Renovations General, Asbestos, Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical Primes Pittsburgh Dilworth PreK-5 Auditorium Ventilation Unit Replacement General, Asbestos, Mechanical and Electrical Primes Pittsburgh Dilworth PreK-5 Boiler Replacement Asbestos, Mechanical and Electrical Primes Pittsburgh Morrow PreK-5 Roof Replacement General and Plumbing Primes Pittsburgh Perry H. S. New Theatrical Lighting and Sound System Electrical Prime Pittsburgh Various Pgh. Schools Carbon Monoxide and Heat Detection System Mechanical and Electrical Primes Pittsburgh Westwood K-5 Elevator Addition General, Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical Primes Project Manual and Drawings will be available for purchase on January 9, 2017 at Modern Reproductions (412-488-7700), 127 McKean Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15219 between 9:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. The cost of the Project Manual Documents is non-refundable. Project details and dates are described in each project manual. We are an equal rights and opportunity school district. Parent Hotline: 412-622-7920 www.pps.k12.pa.us 42
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.25/02.01.2017
ACROSS 1. “The Sandman” author Neil 7. Unreadable paper 10. Surprise party command 14. Yale nickname 15. Middle East commodity 16. Days gone by 17. Star chart 18. Cologne for those just starting law school? 20. Design on an eagle’s gripper? 22. “___ I’m saying is ...” 23. The Mormons, briefly 24. Kind of orange 28. Grunts, for short 29. He took the red pill 30. “The cops!” 32. Traveling bag 33. Ground 35. Halloween purchases 36. Wishing Evita and Juan were still in power? 39. Twitter’s CEO Dorsey 40. One always picking things up 41. Unreturned serve 42. Pale lager from Milwaukee, briefly 43. Planetoid
44. Chess player nicknamed “The Magician From Riga” 47. Barcelona superstar Lionel 49. Close bud 50. Author Sarah ___ Jewett 51. Guide for how to be like Charlton? 55. “And now for the next one” ... and an alternate title for this puzzle 58. On the hook 59. Plowing team 60. It might be sprayed on 61. Ford of fashion 62. Piece of memory 63. Place for a rooter 64. Put down, slangily
DOWN 1. Skip the date 2. High-pH compound 3. Pastoral poems 4. Letters in the office 5. Jackson of country 6. Jewelry in a cup 7. Plant parts 8. Isn’t wrong? 9. TV show with a finger L in its logo 10. Choir pieces 11. “Money’s coming,” for short 12. RX writers
13. Faux-shocked cry 19. ___ Hubbard 21. Decorated 25. Equal to 26. Tour itinerary 27. “Rogue One” extras, briefly 29. Metroid platform 30. “The Larry Sanders Show” co-star 31. Not on the roster 33. “Gotta do better than that” 34. Muslim official 35. General Tso’s pan 36. Ren Faire club 37. Slays, slangily 38. Messy cookout item
39. Breakfast spread 42. Outward appearance 44. “Survivor” gangs 45. Shaker V.I.P. 46. Folklore tale 48. Spruce up a spat 49. Pretty, like a lass 50. Roundish figures 52. Some noncoms: Abbr. 53. Exactly 54. Supposedly legit Roman numeral 4 55. Violent crowd 56. Big name in acne medication 57. Rex checker
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FOR THE WEEK OF
Free Will Astrology
01.25-02.01
{BY ROB BREZSNY}
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A London-based think tank does an annual study to determine which of the world’s countries offers the most freedom. The Legatum Institute measures indicators like civil liberties, social tolerance and the power to choose one’s destiny. The current champion is Luxembourg. Canada is in second place. France is 22nd, the U.S. is 26th and Italy 27th. Since I’m hoping you will markedly enhance your own personal freedom in the coming months, you might want to consider moving to Luxembourg. If that’s not an option, what else could you do? The time is ripe to hatch your liberation plans.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I love to see dumpsters that have been decorated by graffiti artists. Right now there’s one by the side of a busy road that I often drive down. Its drab gray exterior has been transformed into a splash of cartoon images and scripts. Amidst signatures that look like “Riot Goof” and “Breakfast Toys” and “Sky Blooms,” I can discern a ninja rhinoceros and a gold-crowned jaguar and an army of flying monkeys using squirt guns to douse a forest fire. I suspect it’s a perfect time to for you to be inspired by this spectacle, Pisces. What dumpster-like situation could you beautify?
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Westward Ho! is the name of a village in southwestern England. Its name is impressive because of the exclamation point. But it’s not as dramatic as that of the only town on earth with two exclamation points: Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, which is in Quebec. I invite you Aries folks to be equally daring. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you have a cosmic mandate and poetic
license to cram extra !!!!s into all your writing and speaking, and even add them to the spelling of your name! Why? Because this should be one of the most exciting and ebullient phases of your astrological cycle — a time to risk showing just how enthusiastic and energetic you are!!!!!
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The New York Film Critics Circle named Casey Affleck the Best Actor of the year for his role in the film Manchester by the Sea. In his acceptance speech at the award ceremony, Affleck gave a dramatic reading of quotes by David Edelstein, a prominent critic who has criticized his work. “Mumbly and mulish,” was one of Edelstein’s jabs about Affleck. “Doesn’t have a lot of variety,” was another. A third: “Whenever I see Affleck’s name in a movie’s credits, you can expect a standard, genre B picture — slowed down and tarted up.” I suspect that in the coming weeks, Taurus, you may get a vindication comparable to Affleck’s. I suggest you have wicked fun with it, as he did.
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The roulette wheels at casinos in Monaco have 37 pockets. Eighteen are black, 18 are red, and one is green. On any particular spin, the ball has just less than half a chance of landing in a red or black pocket. But there was one night back in August 1913, at the Casino de Monte-Carlo, when probability seemed inoperative. The little white ball kept landing on the black over and over again. Gamblers responded by increasingly placing heavy bets on red numbers. They assumed the weird luck would soon change. But it didn’t until the 27th spin. (The odds of that happening were 136,823,184 to 1.) What does this have to do with you? I suspect you’re in a comparable situation — the equivalent of about 20 spins into an improbable streak. My advice: Don’t bet on the red yet.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Born to a religious mother on July 8, 1839, John D. Rockefeller amassed a fortune in the oil industry. Even in comparison to modern billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, he’s the richest American who ever lived. “God gave me the money,” he said on numerous occasions. Now I’m going to borrow the spirit of Rockefeller’s motto for your use, Cancerian. Why? Because it’s likely you will be the recipient of blessings that prompt you to wonder if the Divine Wow is involved. One of these may indeed be financial in nature. (P.S.: Such boons are even more likely to transpire if you’re anchored in your sweet, dark wisdom and your holy, playful creativity.)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): What influence do you need most in your life right now? Are you suffering because you lack a particular kind of help or teaching? Would you benefit from having a certain connection that you have not yet figured out how to make? Is there a person or event that could heal you if you had a better understanding about how you need to be healed? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to get useful answers to these questions — and then take action based on what you discover.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The next two weeks will be a favorable time to kiss the feet of helpful allies, but not to kiss the butts of clever manipulators. I also advise you to perform acts of generosity for those who will use your gifts intelligently, but not for those who will waste your blessings or treat you like a doormat. Here’s my third point: Consider returning to an old fork in the road where you made a wrong turn, and then making the correct turn this time. But if you do, be motivated by bright hope for a different future rather than by sludgy remorse for your error.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the beginning was the wild cabbage. Our ances-
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tors found that it had great potential as food, and proceeded to domesticate it. Over the centuries, they used selective breeding to develop many further variations on the original. Kale and kohlrabi were the first to appear. By the 15th century, cauliflower had been created. Broccoli came along a hundred years later, followed by Brussels sprouts. Today there are at least 20 cultivars whose lineage can be traced back to the wild cabbage. In my astrological opinion, you Libras are in a wildcabbage phase of your long-term cycle. In the coming months you can and should do seminal work that will ultimately generate an abundance of useful derivatives.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In 1733, workers finished building the New Cathedral in Salamanca, Spain. But if you go there today, you will see two seemingly modern elements on one facade: carvings of a helmeted astronaut and of a gargoyle licking an ice-cream cone. These two characters were added by craftsmen who did renovations on the cathedral in 1992. I offer this vignette as metaphor for your life, Scorpio. It’s a favorable time to upgrade and refine an old structure in your life. And if you do take advantage of this opening, I suggest you add modern touches.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I suspect that in the coming weeks, you will be afforded opportunities to bend the rules in ways that could make life simpler, more pleasurable and more successful — or all of the above. To help you deal with the issue of whether these deviations would have integrity, I offer you these questions: Would bending the rules serve a higher good, not just your selfish desires? Is there an approach to bending the rules that may ultimately produce more compassionate results than not bending the rules? Could you actually get away with bending the rules, both in the sense of escaping punishment and also in the sense of being loyal to your own conscience?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I don’t necessarily guarantee that you will acquire paranormal powers in the coming weeks. I’m not saying that you will be able to foretell the future or eavesdrop on conversations from a half-mile away or transform water into whiskeyflavored coffee. But I do suspect that you will at least tap further into a unique personal ability that has been mostly just potential up until now. Or you may finally start using a resource that has been available for a long time. For best results, open your imagination to the possibility that you possess dormant magic. Say “I love you” at least 25 times a day for the next seven days. Report your results to Truthrooter@gmail.com.
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Savage Love {BY DAN SAVAGE}
I am quite the follower on social media — Facebook and Twitter in particular. I make no trolling comments, no #MAGA hashtags; I just look with my male gaze. Like Laura Mulvey says, the male gaze is only natural. I’ve lost interest in pornography, so I use everyday pictures of women, typically selfies. It helps me to know the story behind the face and body. None of these pics are pornographic — just feelgood selfies by young women posted on social media. I don’t communicate with these people, because that would be creepy. I’m not worried about whether this is abnormal. I just wondered if people would be OK with this, if people were aware of behavior like mine when they post, and if I should ask these girls for their permission to wank to their selfies.
Russian hookers made the news. Every time someone on social media tries to make a comment about how disgusting that is, someone else jumps in and scolds that person for “kink-shaming.” The problem for me is that by normalizing my piss fetish, you’re making it dull for me. Piss was one of the few things that even the kink community found disgusting. My polyamorous boyfriend and I found each other without knowing we shared a love for piss. If you personally don’t want to kink-shame, that’s fine. I get it. But everyone, please stop telling your friends not to kink-shame so that my boyfriend and I can get back to the business of pissing on each other, and feeling disgusting about it and horny because of it.
NOT ANTHONY WEINER
I’m confident that the kink-shamers will continue to have the upper hand for decades to come, despite the best efforts of the kink-shamer shamers. So your kink will continue to induce enough revulsion and disgust generally to keep you and your boyfriend feeling disgusting and horny in perpetuity.
So long as you’re wanking alone, wanking with a reasonable expectation of privacy, and not bothering anyone who isn’t a sex partner or a sex-advice professional with your wanking, you can wank to whatever you’d like — except for images of child rape, a.k.a. “child pornography.” You remind me of the proverbial shoe salesman with a foot fetish. Let’s say a guy working in a high-end shoe store has an intense attraction to feet. Is it inappropriate for him to get an obvious boner while helping women try on shoes? Of course it is. It would also be inappropriate for him to drool or pant; and it would be super inappropriate of him to ask if he can jack off about their feet after his shift. But if he can be completely professional, that guy can sell shoes. And he’s free to upload mental images to his spank bank. It’s only creepy if the people whose images we’re uploading are made aware that we’re uploading them. So in answer to your question, under no circumstances should you ask the girls whose selfies you’re wanking to for their permission. People who post revealing pictures to social media know they run the risk of their pics being wanked to by random strangers. But there’s a difference between knowing some stranger might be wanking to your pics and hearing from one of those wanking strangers. Being asked by a wanker for permission to wank drags the social-media poster into the wanker’s fantasies — and not only is that creepy, it’s also no way to show your gratitude. If some stranger is going to make your day by posting a hot pic, why would you ruin theirs — or make them think twice about ever posting a revealing pic again — by telling them exactly what you’re doing while you gaze at their pics? If you saw a woman on the street that you thought was hot, you wouldn’t stop her to ask if you could wank about her later. Finally, your question inspired me to read feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” in which she describes the male gaze as phallocentric, patriarchal, pervasive and socially constructed — she never describes it as natural.
PISSED OFF SLUT WIFE
Listening to pundits discuss the president on the radio, I was inspired by your brilliant acronym (DTMFA) to yell, “Impeach the motherfucker already!” I’d love to see a line of bumper stickers and T-shirts bearing that sensible message: ITMFA! We need a shorthand for the obvious — think of the boost to productivity we’d get if we could cut half-hour conversations about the president to five simple letters: ITMFA! I appeal to you to bring this acronym into our everyday vocabulary.
WE’RE IN FOR A LONG AND UGLY FOUR YEARS, FOLKS.
A problem has cropped up for me ever since the reports of Donald Trump’s pissing
DUMPED MY MOTHERFUCKER ALREADY
DEAR READERS: DMMA wrote me that letter in 2006. She wasn’t referring to Donald Trump, our current awful president, but George W. Bush, our last truly awful president. I thought DMMA’s idea was great, I put up a website (impeachthemotherfuckeralready.com), and I raised more than $20,000 selling ITMFA lapel pins and buttons. I donated half the money to the ACLU and the other half to two Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate. (My readers helped turf Rick Santorum out of office!) I didn’t think I’d see a worse president than George W. Bush in my lifetime. But here we are. So I’m bringing back my line of ITMFA buttons and adding T-shirts and, yes, hats to the collection. Go to impeachthemotherfuckeralready.com or, if that’s too much typing, ITMFA.org to order some swag for yourself or someone you love. All the money raised will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the International Refugee Assistance Project. We’re in for a long and ugly four years, folks. Let’s raise some money for groups fighting Trump, let’s bring ITMFA back into our everyday vocabulary, and let’s remember that we — people who voted against Trump, people who want to see him out of office as quickly as possible — are the majority. ITMFA! On the Lovecast, sex-toy review with Erika Moen: savagelovecast.com.
SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET AND FIND THE SAVAGE LOVECAST (DAN’S WEEKLY PODCAST) AT SAVAGELOVECAST.COM
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Get yourself and others out of danger. Stop using your phone while driving, walking or biking.