Dec. 20, 2017 - Pittsburgh City Paper

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THROUGH JANUARY 14, 2018 ONLY AT THE WARHOL TW TWO T W CU CULTU LTU L TURES TURES ES.. ONE ARTIST ST.. HOW ST W WILL WIL LL YOU O INT N ERP RPRET ET T IT T? TWO W CU WO CULTU LTU TU URES R . ON RE NE E ART ART TIST ST. HOW W WIL WI L YOU O INT N ERP E RET ER R T IT? IT T? Farhad Moshiri, Yipeeee, 2009, Private Collection, London, photo by Guillaume Ziccarelli

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

EVENTS Every Friday in January FREE GOOD FRIDAYS PRESENTED BY UPMC HEALTH PLAN Each Friday in January, enjoy free museum admission, special guest DJs, Gusto & Naeem and a cash bar.

Free Good Fridays are presented by UPMC Health Plan.

12.30 – 3pm DANDY ANDY: WARHOL’S QUEER HISTORY Join artist educators for Dandy Andy, a monthly tour that focuses on Warhol’s queer history.

Free with museum admission

TWO CULTURES. ONE ARTIST. HOW WILL YOU INTERPRET IT? TWO CULTURES. ONE ARTIST. HOW WILL YOU INTERPRET IT?

1.5 – 7pm ART IN CONTEXT: BORDER CROSSINGS The Warhol theater Artists, scholars, and community members come together to consider creative expression in relation to timely political and social concerns.

Free; Registration suggested

1.11 – 8pm SOUND SERIES: BEYOND: CONCERT 1 FEATURING THE BEYOND FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Carnegie Music Hall (Oakland) Co-presented by the Music on the Edge series of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Music Tickets $15/$10 students and seniors in advance, $20/$15 students and seniors at the door

1.12 – 7:30pm SOUND SERIES: BEYOND: CONCERT 2 FEATURING LOADBANG The Warhol theater Co-presented by the Music on the Edge series of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Music Tickets $15/$10 students and seniors in advance, $20/$15 students and seniors at the door

Farhad Moshiri, Yipeeee, 2009, Private Collection, London, photo by Guillaume Ziccarelli

THROUGH JANUARY 14, 2018 ONLY AT THE WARHOL Farhad Moshiri: Go West is generously supported by The Fine Foundation, Piaget, Galerie Perrotin, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, The Third Line, Dubai, The Soudavar Memorial Foundation, The Farjam Foundation, The Khazaei Foundation, Maryam and Edward Eisler, Navid Mirtorabi, Ziba Franks, Elie Khouri, Fatima and Essi Maleki, Nazee Moinian, Mahshid and Jamshid Ehsani, and Narmina and Javad Marandi.

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.

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Next time you’re painting the town, take the bus or T. Next time you’re headed to PPG Paints Arena, consider transit.

Steel Plaza T Station is a short walk and 61 and 71 routes have stops nearby. Hop on board, we’ll get you there.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

12.20/12.27.2017 VOLUME 27 + ISSUE 51

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[NEWS

Leon Ford has been named City Paper’s inaugural Pittsburgher of the Year. In this issue, read about his story and the stories of other notable Pittsburghers.

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THIS WEEK

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“EVERYONE THINKS OF ME AS THE GUY WHO GOT SHOT BY POLICE, BUT I HAVE SO MANY OTHER COMPONENTS.”

www.pghcitypaper.com

On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers took on the evil New England Patriots.

Check out our photos from the game at www.pghcitypaper.com.

{CP PHOTO BY CHANCELOR HUMPHREY}

Leon Ford

Struggling to stay afloat in the constantly swirling sea of political news?

Check out City Paper’s Politicrap blog to read about the most important races and issues in our region.

CP recently reported on a racist video as part of our work with ProPublica’s Documenting Hate project aimed at collecting reports of hate crimes and bias incidents. If you’ve been a victim or a witness, tell us your story at www.pghcitypaper.com.

CITY PAPER

PITTSBURGHER OF THE YEAR Five years ago, Leon Ford was shot and paralyzed by police.

Today he’s trying to make a difference in Pittsburgh, Silicon Valley and everywhere in between. {BY REBECCA ADDISON}

INTERACTIVE

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Our featured photo from last week is by @jokeiper. Use #CPReaderArt to share your local photos with us for your chance to be featured next!

Want to get the freshest content sent right to your inbox? Sign up for our newsletters at pghcitypaper.com/newsletters.

N 2012, Leon Ford was shot and para-

lyzed by a Pittsburgh police officer during a routine traffic stop. Police say he ran a stop sign and was detained because his name and appearance were similar to those of a man suspected of illegal activities.

Three officers were on the scene at the time Ford was shot. The officers tried to forcibly remove him from his vehicle before one officer, David Derbish, entered the car as it began moving. Derbish then shot Ford five times.

Ford was charged with aggravated assault, but in September 2014 a jury found him not guilty. The following year, District Attorney Stephen Zappala dropped the remaining charges against him.

CONTINUES ON PG. 08

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

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PITTSBURGHER OF THE YEAR, CONTINUED FROM PG. 06

This year, Ford’s federal civil-rights suit against the officers involved in the shooting finally went to trial.

“I knew we won,” says Ford, who recalls one of the jurors crying during the trial. “It was a complete wipeout. It was clear as day.”

But unfortunately, the result wasn’t what Ford anticipated. In October, officer Andrew Miller, who was accused of assault and battery for attempting to pull Ford out of the car, was cleared by the jury in the civil trial. The jury deadlocked on the charges of excessive force against Derbish.

“I went through a stage of depression,” says Ford, temporarily dropping the customary smile he had worn throughout the trial and other appearances in the years since he was paralyzed. “I was shot, I was paralyzed and I was denied justice.

But I believe I have been a great citizen to Pittsburgh.”

Pittsburgh City Paper agrees. This year, the newspaper has selected Ford as its inaugural Pittsburgher of the Year.

In the nearly five years since Ford was paralyzed, he has spoken out against police brutality, and he travels around the country to share his story. Locally, he has been an advocate for affordable housing and decried the displacement of residents in East Liberty.

And now he’s transcending the label of victim. Just last week, he was hired by a California-based venture-capital firm.

He says he plans to use the position to bring change to Pittsburgh’s East End and to prove he isn’t defined by that one night in 2012.

“Everyone thinks of me as the guy who got shot by police, but I have so many other components,” Ford says.

“That’s only one night of my life. It’s been five years of fighting and I’ll be fighting for the rest of my life so it doesn’t happen to anyone else. But that label only defines one moment. It doesn’t define who I am as a person.”

Leon Ford wears a necklace with a picture of his son on one side and a picture of his deceased sister on the other.

EARLIER THIS month, 24-year-old Leon Ford was basking in the California rays.

After the outcome of his trial, he struggled to cope and ultimately went west to collect his thoughts and reenergize himself.

But the trip turned out not to be the vacation he’d planned. While in California, he spoke at Twitter headquarters, where he met the social-media company’s CEO. At a party he attended with his mentor Stephen DeBerry, whom Ford met at a conference in Washington, D.C., he met the owner of the BET network. During the week he was in California, Ford also met people from Facebook, and even had a meeting with professional football player Marshawn Lynch.

“I was just on the ground networking,” Ford says. “It’s rewarding when I get to help connect people and find innovative solutions.”

And the networking paid off. His mentor DeBerry was so impressed with Ford during the trip that shortly after he returned to Pittsburgh, Ford learned he’d been chosen to serve as “entrepreneur in residence” at DeBerry’s venture-capital firm, Bronze Investments.

There he’ll be developing smartphone applications and working on projects to support affordable housing in Pittsburgh’s East End neighborhoods.

“I have a desire to be a part of rebuilding the East Side to make it more inclusive for people who grew up there,” Ford

“IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS OF FIGHTING AND I’LL BE FIGHTING FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE SO IT DOESN’T HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE.”

says. “I want to be a property-owner.

I want to develop some projects that really benefit and support people from the community.”

Ford’s recent success is a testament to his social capital. He’s spent the past few years traveling the country to speak at schools, nonprofit organizations and prisons.

And in addition to the people he’s touched in person, he’s also gained a following of supporters on social media.

In August, Ford — who gets around in a wheelchair — posted a video of himself walking with the assistance of a walker as his 4-year-old son cheered him on.

“Keep pushing. Don’t give up,” Ford’s son says. The video has been retweeted more than 150,000 times and viewed more than five million times.

“Although, the doctor’s prognosis has not changed, rehabilitation is going great and I am hopeful that I will one day walk again,” Ford says. “My son is by my side every step of the way.”

But despite all the positive changes, Ford has seen in his life, he says Pittsburgh is stagnant. Asked whether community-police relations have improved since he was shot, Ford says “not at all.”

“If you’re talking to someone with a political motive and who isn’t really connected to the neighborhoods, they’ll say it improved,” Ford says. “But from where I’m sitting, I see good people standing behind bad politics. This absolutely didn’t improve. Some people are scared and afraid to speak up.

“I see the problem with policing here.

I see the problem with affordable housing. I see that it’s not accessible. These are issues that I have to talk about because my life is hard every day because of these issues.”

In order to address the ever-present problems, Ford says those in leadership positions should be talking to people like CONTINUES ON PG. 10

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

PITTSBURGHER OF THE YEAR, CONTINUED FROM PG. 08

him and Jordan Miles, an African-American man who was beaten by three Pittsburgh police officers in 2010.

“People are having conversations about community policing and building relationships, but no one talks to me or Jordan Miles about it,” Ford says.

“It’s impossible to have these conversations without him or myself at the table.

A lot of the elitist black folks will meet with the mayor and they won’t bring these issues up. Until we reconcile what happened to me, what happened to Jordan, we can’t say we’re being progressive.”

Last year, the city issued a $125,000 settlement to Miles, a move many saw as a step toward repairing community-police relations. But the city has yet to reach a settlement with Ford. For now, even though he says the battle has been exhausting, he plans to go back to trial in early 2018, with a smile firmly planted on his face, to pursue a civil verdict against the man who paralyzed him.

“I still experience PTSD, I still have dreams. Whenever I see police in Pittsburgh I feel anxiety,” Ford says. “If we don’t hold people accountable, they feel like it’s OK. They’ve taken something from me that I can never get back.”

In January, Ford will release his book, Untold, which tells the story of his experience and proposes solutions to the problem of police brutality. He says that his struggle for justice in the courts is about more than personal gain. He says it’s one more step toward addressing the many issues that adversely impact minority communities.

“I’m definitely hopeful for a verdict in my favor, but I’m even more hopeful for change. Whatever the verdict turns out to be, I know I’m in a position to change Pittsburgh. I feel the city has a desire to be progressive, but we’re not as progressive as people might think,” Ford says. “Personally, I’m hurt. I feel abandoned and bullied. However, I see an opportunity for growth.”

“I WENT THROUGH A STAGE OF DEPRESSION.”

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[2017 PITTSBURGHERS OF NOTE]

WOMEN OF THE RESISTANCE Since President Donald Trump’s election, a grassroots uprising has grown in all corners of the Pittsburgh region, and women are leading the charge. {BY RYAN DETO} ABOUT 11 MONTHS after the election of President Donald Trump, Kitty Lagorio, of Peters Township in Washington County, finally found her mission. Lagorio, a lifelong Democrat, was dismayed by the 2016 election results. She looked inward; she blamed herself and her party for Hillary Clinton’s defeat.

For weeks, Lagorio was depressed, but when some pissed-off suburban women started to organize in Pittsburgh’s South Hills, she dusted herself off and joined the fight. Mondays with Murphy, a protest group to hold then-U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Upper St. Clair) accountable, formed in early 2017 when Mount Lebanon resident Lynne Hughes organized the group’s first meeting.

“After the election, and when I was

{CP PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK}

Kitty Lagorio at her home in Peters Township

finally able to speak again, I went to Lynne Hughes’ event, and encountered several women there,” says Lagorio. “I just knew that I had to do something. One of the first days of Mondays with Murphy, I was just so angry. My mother went to jail in Germany for cursing Hitler, and so I made a sign saying ‘Damn you Trump.’”

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Lagiorio is one of thousands of women who have been on the frontline of the resistance since Trump was elected. These women have channeled their anger into proactive solutions and disruptive actions, and they’re seeing results.

In addition to protesting Murphy, who resigned in October following an adultery scandal, Lagorio found another cause to direct her efforts toward.

Washington County Magisterial Judge James Ellis announced his retirement on March 7, the final day that filing petitions were due to run for his soon-to-be vacated seat. It was later discovered that the only candidate to file papers to run, Jacob Machel, had extensive ties to Ellis. Machel also had little legal experience and worked as a commercial real-estate broker.

Lagiorio describes the move as “entrenched politics at its worst.”

Critics saw the situation as such a subversion of the voting process that a Peters lawyer, Michael Petit, switched his party affiliation from Democrat to independent to challenge Machel in the general election.

Grassroots groups formed to support Petit, and even the Peters Township Republican Party backed him. But since Machel received both the Democratic and Republican nominations after the primary election in May, Petit had an uphill battle.

This is where women like Lagorio came in. She knocked on more than 100 doors in Peters and mailed out more than 40 letters to potential voters. Her goal was to let people know that there was a more qualified candidate running as an

independent in the magisterial race.

“Let’s face it, I got lazy,” says Lagorio of her attitude in the run-up to Trump’s election in 2016. “But then I found out what I can do for Peters Township.”

It worked. Petit won the election by about 700 votes. And Lagorio believes her personal engagement made a difference.

“People told me, ‘I have been a Democrat all my life, and this is the first time someone has come to my house to ask me to vote,’” says Lagorio.

Hughes, of Mondays with Murphy, now called PA Progress 18, believes the Pittsburgh-area resistance movement isn’t just a reaction; she feels a community of engaged voters is forming and growing. “There’s been some hiccups, mostly communication and learning how to work as a group, but I am genuinely in love with all the people I’ve met since January,” wrote Hughes in a text message to Pittsburgh City Paper.

And PA Progress 18 isn’t the only women-led group aimed at resisting Republican political efforts. PA 12 for Progress is led by North Hills residents Linda Bishop and Stacey Vernallis, and the group has held many protests against U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Sewickley). Other Rothfus resistance groups led by women include Indivisible Johnstown and Southwest PA NOW, a branch of the National Organization for Women. The Pennsylvania 12th Congressional District chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America is also led by a woman, Tina Shannon, and the group has held multiple events calling on Rothfus to hold a town hall.

The Pittsburgh branch of Tuesdays with Toomey, a group organized to influence Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Lehigh), is organized by women like Jill Helbling and others. TwT has gathered crowds as large as 300, and still holds protests weekly.

The Pittsburgh-based Black Brilliance Collective, run by women like Ciora Thomas and Diarra Clark, has held marches with hundreds of attendees in response to the white-supremacy events in Charlottesville, Va., and Trump’s inauguration.

Pittsburgh’s Women’s March, which gathered thousands of marchers in Downtown Pittsburgh in January, was another event organized by local women. And this doesn’t begin to encapsulate the many local women-lead efforts.

“There seems to be resentment towards women among the current administration.

I think Trump’s attitude toward women is motivating women,” says Lagorio. “I am energized, and I hope to see a woman on the ticket. I do think we will see a change as women step up.”

“I DO THINK WE WILL SEE A CHANGE AS WOMEN STEP UP.”

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

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[2017 PITTSBURGHERS OF NOTE]

THE GOATS OF ALLEGHENY GOATSCAPE Our caprine friends deserve some recognition {BY ALEX GORDON} WHAT QUALIFIES a person for Pittsbur-

gher of the Year? As this was City Paper’s inaugural run, it took our staff some time to iron out what qualities we were looking for. Should it be a pattern of philanthropy and good will? Is it winning hockey games? Does the winner have to live in Pittsburgh, or are expats eligible too? Should the winner be famous, or should the award be used to amplify the work of an unappreciated Pittsburgher?

Is it a moral issue, or just a question of influence?

While there was plenty of back and forth about those issues, it was agreed that the person should be a person. But there was one group that deserves a small measure of recognition, a group that has impacted different parts of the city, from Brighton Heights to the South Side, and looked adorable while doing it.

The idea to nominate the goats of Allegheny GoatScape came from WYEP morning host Joey Spehar. Last month, we were recording our weekly Friday feature — if you don’t listen, please do; it’s objectively excellent — and discussing potentials for the award. We floated names like Charlie Batch, Sally Wiggin, Bill

{CP PHOTO BY RENEE ROSENSTEEL}

Allegheny GoatScape tends a lot earlier this year.

Peduto, Weird Paul and Darieth Chisolm. I suggested Joey nominate himself, and he said, “What about those goats?” I was immediately 100 percent in.

If you’re lost, here’s a little background: Allegheny GoatScape is a company that cleans up overgrown areas of Pittsburgh using a herd of grazing goats. It grew out of another goatscaping company called Steel City Grazers. Currently, the crew consists of Reuben, Ozark, Angel Face, Twinsie, Kama, Cowboy, Wimpy, Favourite, Butter Bailey, Baby and a donkey named Hobo. Please go to alleghenygoatscape.org for a full rundown of their personalities.

There are a number of reasons why goats are uniquely gifted at clearing

vegetation, but basically it breaks down that the process is more efficient and eco-friendly than traditional options.

Plus, as Allegheny GoatScape owner Gavin Deming told CP earlier this year, “As castrated males, they have no other function really except for to be eaten or to eat.

We want to make sure that these guys are not eaten, but are eating.”

That sentence alone nabbed my vote, but here are five more reasons the goats of GoatScape deserve recognition.

1. The rising popularity of goatscaping represents another reason to feel good about Pittsburgh in 2017. We still have a way to go and yes, the “old meets new” cliché in Pittsburgh is a little tiring. But

efforts to improve publicly accessible community spaces through environmentally friendly means should be applauded.

2. The process is wicked efficient. There are no herbicides involved, no machines requiring fuel, and the goats naturally fertilize the soil, all while protecting desired regional flora from pesky invasive species.

3. Amazon already has a goatscaping program. Not that I want to encourage Amazon’s HQ2 campaign — I do not — but for those who do, Pittsburgh’s goat scene might be something to tout to our potential Northwestern overlords.

Amazon’s Japan offices got in the goat game in 2013, replete with employeeID cards for each critter, and its home Seattle office followed suit in 2015 (no surprise, since Seattle was an early adopter of goatscaping).

4. Goats are apolitical. It’s hard to please everybody when it comes to award season, but goats are generally pretty well regarded (that’s not based on any research, I just like goats and assume everyone else does too).

5. And finally, goats are cool. They have four stomachs. They were one of the first animals to be domesticated, some scientists believe, as many as 10,000 years ago.

Goats are known to have regional accents, so the bleats and bahhs sound different depending on the hometown. We should take care of them. As ethical means of farming are gaining popularity nationwide, it’s nice to see Pittsburgh embracing a practice that benefits its people and places, while providing a good life to these animals. It’s a win-win.

Kudos, Pittsburgh goats.

ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

[2017 PITTSBURGHERS OF NOTE]

FOR CONSIDERATION Earlier this month, City Paper asked for the public’s help in nominating local residents for our inaugural Pittsburgher of the Year Award. As you know by now, we awarded this honor to local activist and entrepreneur Leon Ford. However, we wanted to share some other nominations from our readers.

NOMINEE: Kristee Cammack, founder and CEO of A Giving Heart, a community center built in a vacant building in Allentown.

REASON FOR NOMINATION: “The lesson is that anyone can do anything when hard work and dedication is applied to make a dream happen. Kristee Cammack’s idea began with [one] paper written as an undergraduate. She never backed down and made it all happen on her own. Thank you again to another community hero.”

NOMINEE: Jessica Strong, CEO and co-founder of Flexable, a company that provides drop-in child-care services at events.

REASON FOR NOMINATION: “Flexable is helping working parents by providing child care at events and in offices across Pittsburgh. She is trying to revolutionize the way businesses approach child care by adding the missing piece of family benefits offered by businesses.”

NOMINEE: Leah Lizarondo, CEO, 412 Food Rescue REASON FOR NOMINATION: “412 Food Rescue recognized a need and a way to fill that need, providing food that would otherwise be wasted to the people of Pittsburgh. This grassroots organization is innovative, smart, and inspirational, due in large part to the drive of its [co-founder], Leah Lizarondo.”

NOMINEE: Bonnie Baxter, founder, Doors Open Pittsburgh, a nonprofit that organizes a two-day event to provide public tours of the city’s “iconic buildings.”

REASON FOR NOMINATION: “Bonnie has created an amazing event that has proven extremely popular and successful in its first two years. We should honor people like Bonnie … [for launching] Doors Open Pittsburgh, an internationally renowned event, which highlights our city’s architectural gems.”

COMPILED BY CHARLIE DEITCH

14

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

[GREEN LIGHT]

PLAN C(LIMATE) {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL} PITTSBURGH’S proposed new Climate Action Plan is certainly ambitious. Most broadly, it sets the goal of reducing the city’s greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent (from a 2003 baseline) by 2023; by 50 percent by 2030; and by 80 percent by 2050. The plan also proposes that by 2030, City of Pittsburgh governmental operations will run on 100 percent renewable electricity, with a vehicle fleet completely free of fossil fuels.

In days when many politicians are leading us, disastrously, into climate denial, even asserting such goals is valuable. “Right now our federal and state governments are missing in action on climate change. So we feel it’s very important the city is trying to do its part,” says local climate activist Fred Kraybill.

But what are the real prospects for fighting climate change in our corner of the world?

Three months ago, a draft of the plan (version 3.0 of a document originally issued in 2008) was released for public comment; it’s now awaiting introduction to Pittsburgh City Council.

The draft credits some 150 local nonprofits, businesses, neighborhood stakeholders and other entities with input.

That’s a big change from prior versions, which relied heavily on a handful of civic and business leaders, says Lindsay Baxter, program manager for energy and climate for the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC).

Guiding the process was the Department of City Planning’s Division of Sustainability and Resilience. Grant Ervin, the city’s chief resilience officer, says Climate Action Plan Version 3.0 also goes further in offering an holistic sustainability strategy for Pittsburgh, one that shows how energy generation, transportation, housing and even the food system can work together to reduce pollution. (Denser development, for instance, facilitates walking and public transportation.) And it explores how cutting pollution will improve quality of life, especially for vulnerable populations.

For example, reducing home energy use both helps the planet and saves lots of money; curbing diesel emissions also fights asthma. Also new to 3.0 is a section on carbon sequestration: planting trees and conserving forest to trap carbon in soil and plants.

The document suggests that our biggest climate challenges involve buildings: Heating, cooling and lighting Pittsburgh’s residential and commercial structures creates 81 percent of our carbon emissions.

That’s why in 2012 the Green Building Alliance launched the Pittsburgh 2030 District, an initiative currently including nearly 500 buildings in Downtown and Oakland whose owners seek to halve energy use, water use and transportation emissions by 2030.

There have been gains on that front: For instance, in one year, parking garages owned by the Urban Redevelopment Authority cut their electricity bills by 57 percent simply by switching to LED lights.

Yet it’s not been enough: Between 2008 and 2013, according to Version 3.0, Pittsburgh’s greenhouse-gas emissions actually rose about 10 percent. Pittsburgh’s heavily antique housing stock leaves a lot of room for improvement. “There’s a ton of opportunity in Pittsburgh on the single-family residential side,” says GBA executive director Aurora Sharrard.

Ervin says the city is working with the nonprofit Conservation Consultants, Inc., to coordinate a network of service providers to help retrofit homes for energy efficiency.

Other challenges include joining other Pennsylvania cities to convince Harrisburg to revise the state’s outdated building codes with energy efficiency in mind.

Mostly, though — and unlike the imperiled federal Clean Power Plan — the city can’t mandate reductions in carbon pollution. It can only guide, persuade and lead by example. And so it was just last week, when city government announced it had taken delivery of its fleet’s first four all-electric cars, and that by next year it would be charging them using solar energy. Immediately, Ervin says, inquiries arrived from government sustainability folks in Boston, Chicago and Cincinnati. In turn, Ervin says, Pittsburgh can learn from Cincinnati’s own ambitious plan for city-owned solar arrays.

That’s one sort of dynamic Ervin hopes the Climate Action Plan inspires.

“What the plan does is kind of give us the guideposts and the how-tos,” he says.

“Once you demonstrate the viability of these tools … [p]eople start to see, ‘OK, this isn’t really that tough.’”

“WHAT THE PLAN DOES IS KIND OF GIVE US THE GUIDEPOSTS AND THE HOW-TOS.”

DRI SCO L L @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M

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A LONG FIGHT {BY LISA CUNNINGHAM} LOCAL HISTORIAN Carol Peterson was

Pittsburgh.

She was an encyclopedia of knowledge about the city’s history, she loved the Pittsburgh Pirates, and after she passed away on Sunday, after a long battle with breast and lung cancer, people all over town joined together to post their condolences and celebrate her life.

Among the postings was one on the city’s bicentennial Facebook page: “Today we lost Carol Peterson, an architectural historian who was a fierce protector of our City’s soul. We will miss her deep expertise, her tireless efforts, her humor. Her.” You might recognize Peterson from Rick Sebak’s WQED special 25 Things I Like About Pittsburgh, where she was interviewed about her popular Pittsburgh House Histories project, which provided home-owners all over town with reports on ownership chronology, construction documentation, and a biography of the first owner. When WQED aired reruns of the episode, she’d often post online about being recognized on the street.

In 2013, she posted to her Facebook page, “Rick Sebak just called to tell me that WQED was about to show 25 Things I Like About Pittsburgh for the third time, so I’d be forewarned that I could again be inundated with house-history requests. I’ll be hiding in the basement.”

Peterson was also on the city’s Historic Review Commission, fighting for preservation of historic buildings in Pittsburgh neighborhoods, including Lawrenceville, where she lived and rehabbed houses of her own. She also co-authored Allegheny City, a book on North Side’s history, with late Steelers owner Dan Rooney.

Additionally, she was a big voice in the local punk scene, a regular at shows and a frequent poster on local message board nevertellmetheodds.org (originally “The Roboto Board”). It was on that board where I first discovered her, many years before I became her Facebook friend. Local message boards can make you feel like you’ve known a person forever, and after seeing everyone’s sad posts about her passing, I know there are so many others who felt like they knew her through her witty, friendly and informative posts.

This was her seventh year fighting breast cancer, and she was vocal about her opposition to both donating to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and “pink-washing”— the practice of organizations using the color pink to promote products and make profit under the guise of supporting breast-cancer research.

When I was told that our paper was going

{PHOTO COURTESY OF RENEE ROSENSTEEL}

Carol Peterson

to run an article about a breast-cancer event with profits going to the Komen organization, I asked Peterson whether she’d like to run a contrasting piece.

In that 2014 column, she wrote, “What if Komen hasn’t looked for the cure in the right places because doing so would be expensive, inconvenient or embarrassing?

Komen seems to have strayed far from its original mission. It now seems to be a marketing firm specializing in pink-washing.”

Two years later, I felt obligated to break the news to Peterson that City Paper was going to publish a “Pink Issue” for breastcancer awareness month; every page would be printed on pink paper. Not everyone here agreed with the idea, and I was adamantly opposed to it, having personally heard the arguments against pink-washing from my best friend, another breast-cancer survivor, and Peterson’s posts.

Peterson said she appreciated the headsup, but she didn’t hide that she was super pissed at the idea of her local alt-weekly being printed on pink paper, years after we ran her piece against it. She posted negatively about it on her page after the issue came out.

I also told her that if she wanted to write another opinion piece against the decision, we’d be willing to print it. (Though I cringed as I typed it, knowing that her article — if she decided to write one, would also be printed on that pink paper.) She turned me down, disclosing that her cancer had reached stage 4, and that she couldn’t write anything new because nothing had changed and she didn’t know whether she would live another year. That was in September 2016.

I didn’t know Peterson as well as others.

I’m one of the many who grew to admire her, largely based on her online posts. But it’s evident to so many all over the city that Peterson was a fighter and a role model.

She was a leader in our community, and Pittsburgh has lost a true champion.

Her friends have posted on her Facebook page that a memorial service is being planned for January, and people are encouraged to donate in Peterson’s name to Preservation Pittsburgh and Lawrenceville Stakeholders.

L C U N N I N G @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

News of the Weird

S E N D YO U R W E IRD N E W S ITE M S TO WE IR DNE WST IPS@A M U N IVE RS A L . CO M .

{COMPILED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL PUBLISHING}

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Cai, a 28-year-old man in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China, had plenty of time to consider traffic patterns as he waited for the lights to change during his daily commute. So much, in fact, that he decided to take matters into his own hands on Sept. 27 and paint new traffic arrows on the roadway.

A traffic camera captured the whole project as Cai carefully added a straight arrow to the existing left-turn and U-turn arrows. “I saw the straight lane was always packed with cars, while the turning-left lane has a lot of space,” Cai told police. “So I thought changing the signs would make my commute smoother.”

The BBC reports that police fined Cai the equivalent of about $151, and crews removed the new straight arrow from the road.

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Timothy Colton, 28, is cooling off in the Clark County (Nevada) Detention Center after being charged with arson and the attempted murder of his 66-year-old mother, who has limited mobility. The Nov. 27 altercation apparently started over a laundry dispute, but North Las Vegas police said Colton became aggressive and threatened to kill his mother and burn the house down.

Fox News reports that Colton set fire to the front door and then ran away to hide under a car in a nearby parking lot, where officers found him. Police said he was “kicking the back-seat door and hitting his head on the plastic partition between the front and rear seats” in the patrol car during his arrest. He was being held on $100,000 bail.

the Spanish newspaper El Mundo it appears Minguez intended his letters to be a sort of time capsule. The original letters were sent to the Archbishop of Burgos for archiving, but copies were returned to Jesus’ hindquarters to honor Minguez’s intent.

going on under the cover was unmistakable,” Preston wrote in the Hull Daily Mail.

Still, she was worried about running over them, so she called police, who eventually removed them. “If I was homeless, I’d come here too,” Preston wrote. “Where else can you go for a posh meal, followed by cocktails in a swanky bar and finish the night stepping over some frisky homeless people fornicating on your driveway?”

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Chuck E. Cheese restaurants are undergoing an evolution of sorts, and employees at the location in Oak Lawn, Ill., were only following company protocol when they took sledgehammers to the plastic head of the animatronic mouse on Nov. 28. In a video recorded by a reporter with the Oak Lawn Patch, two female employees half-heartedly strike Chuck’s head for several minutes before it finally breaks apart.

Meanwhile, other workers load furniture and games into a moving van. The Oak Lawn location has closed after experiencing a particularly difficult period, as it became the scene of violent brawls and gang activity.

But they won’t have Chuck E. to kick around anymore.

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An 18th-century statue of the crucified Jesus that was removed for restoration from the church of St. Agueda in Burgo de Osma, Spain, held a surprise in a most unusual spot. As historians removed from Jesus’ backside a section of the carving meant to look like a cloth, they discovered two handwritten letters dated 1777 and signed by Joaquin Minguez, then-chaplain of the cathedral. Minguez details life in the community, including harvest reports and diseases, and tells about the sculpture’s artist, Manuel Bal. Historian Efren Arroyo told

WAYNOVISION

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Nemy Bautista of Sacramento, Calif., will not be posting a five-star review to Amazon this holiday season following not one, but two, alarming experiences. On Nov. 28, Bautista returned home to find a pile of what he thought was dog poo at the end of his driveway. But after reviewing his security camera footage, he discovered the poop perp was in fact a contract delivery driver for Amazon, driving a U-Haul truck. Bautista watched as the female driver squatted by the side of the truck, partially concealed by the open door, and left her mark. Bautista called Amazon to complain, and a supervisor arrived hours later to bag up the evidence.

The next day, Bautista got another package from Amazon, but the delivery person “tossed the package ... instead of walking up the driveway,” Bautista told FOX40. He said the package contained a “fragile porcelain figurine,” but it didn’t break. Maybe the delivery person was afraid of stepping in something?

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Faye Preston of Hull, Yorkshire, England, loves her neighborhood — even the homeless folks who gently ask for change, or, in Preston’s case, make love in her driveway. She stepped out one night in November to smoke a cigarette and saw a couple under a blanket in her drive, and decided to let them be. But when she went out the next morning, “They were having actual sex on my driveway. The movement

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LISTEN AS YOU READ: SCAN THE CODE FOR OUR NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST, A SOUNDTRACK TO THE STORIES IN THIS SECTION, OR VISIT WWW.PGHCITYPAPER.COM/BLOGS/FFW/

NEW LOCAL RELEASES {BY MEG FAIR}

Tears of Joy FAT MONEY SUMMER TOJPA.BANDCAMP.COM

Each of the four songs on Tears of Joy’s Fat Money Summer boasts a minimalist pop-rock sound centered around smart, tasteful drums and catchy clean riffs. The sound may be simple, but emotional music doesn’t always require bells and whistles. On Fat Money Summer, the band questions bad habits and the nature of existence, such as on “The Weeds,” when the guitarist and vocalist asks, “What will I learn in my time on earth before they bury all my bones in the dirt?”

The EP’s opener, “Liquor Store,” is a slower, melancholy number that pushes back against liquor and cocaine and people that make you feel used. “The Weeds” has a happy sound, but its lyrics evoke a sense of existential uneasiness about the eerie monotony of wholesome, Christian suburban existence. “Calculus” ends the album on a note of romantic longing. Among its bouncy drums is a minor-key riff that recalls the feeling of standing up against the wall alone during the slow-dance portion of prom.

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Have guitar, will travel: Matt Barranti

GOOD NEWS BLUES

townsppl TWIGS SOUNDCLOUD.COM/TOWNSPPL

The music of townsppl is sweet, playful and quirky, the kind of tunes with melodies that get stuck in your head for weeks.

Throughout twigs, townsppl (who is Alex Stanton) takes a folksy indie-pop approach to writing. Stanton’s vocals sound like a charmingly reserved Ezra Koenig, and the instrumentals he arranges highlight that less is more when it comes to crafting catchy pop tunes. Sometimes all it takes is a simple bassline, a fetching acoustic-guitar riff and a little low-key kick and snare to create an infectious pop ditty.

Almost every single song on twigs is perfect for use in a darling short indie film, or to soundtrack your next cookie-baking holiday date. Each song feels like a trinket, a distinct memory of a person, place or trip, like the postcard on your fridge or the worn concert ticket on your nightstand. Be it a beachy number like “I’ll be home soon (can it wait till I get there)” or a pretty, melancholy bop like “the road to end up,” townsppl flexes indie-pop range.

FOR FANS OF: LATER HELLOGOODBYE, BARS WITH FAKE-SNOW DISPLAYS, HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE

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{BY MIKE SHANLEY}

M

ATT BARRANTI remembers the

first time he heard Foghat’s Fool for the City. He was in 11th grade, hanging out with his friend Danny, two doors down from the Barranti home in Venetia, Peters Township. The album, which included the band’s bluesy stomp, “Slow Ride,” might not have been as important to Barranti as the Allman Brothers Band, which inspired him to pick up the guitar.

But the memory came rushing back to him earlier this year, and with good reason: Barranti toured as a member of Foghat, opening every night’s set with that album’s title track. “It’s so weird walking out and playing that thing and remembering what it was like when I first heard it,” he says. “Forty years later, roughly, I’m onstage with that band. Shows why you never quit, doesn’t it?”

But the slot with the British blues-rock legends is only one part of Barranti’s musical world. His own group, the Matt Barranti Band, is poised to compete with blues acts

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

from around the world. After winning the Western Pennsylvania Blues Challenge earlier this year, the group will travel to Memphis in January to compete against 260 acts in the 34th Annual International Blues Challenge. Bands from as far away as Israel and Norway will be competing for top honors in the five-day event.

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While some competitors might be able to rattle off the list of Challenge prizes, Barranti has other things on his mind. “I just want to do good,” he says. “Whatever comes out of it, I want to do the best I can. We’ve been rehearsing and rehearsing, going at it

and refining things, trying to polish it.”

Growing up, Barranti had a strong affinity for Southern rock. It shows in the Barranti Band’s style, which features a strong boogie backbeat driving its electric blues. If the guitar solos touch on the influence of Duane Allman, it’s no surprise. “I heard Duane Allman play, and I said, ‘I want to know what that is. I want to know how to do that,’” he says. “I wanted to be able to convey that emotion with a guitar.”

Though he took lessons, much of his schooling came by listening to records, repeatedly. “It was the ’70s,” he says. “The way we learned was pick the needle up [off the record], put it back down. Over and over, trying to hear what the notes were. And you tried to find them” on the guitar.

The blues comes in all styles and shapes these days. What sounds like three simple chords in one musician’s hands can become an emotional testimony in someone else’s.

Repeatedly spinning records helped Barranti CONTINUES ON PG. 20

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GOOD NEWS BLUES, CONTINUED FROM PG. 18

EMOTIONAL JOURNEY {BY MEG FAIR}

{PHOTO COURTESY OF KARIN MCILTROT}

The Matt Barranti Band

understand the keys to the blues. “I think notes are very important,” he says, after reflecting for a moment. “Music needs to be melodic. It’s not just getting up there and showing how fast you can play, or that you’re able to play something that Jimmy Page played. You need to be able to make an emotional statement with your notes.

I’m not a theoretical player, but I work on technique to the point where, if I’m having an inspired night, my fingers are able to do whatever’s coming out, if that makes sense.”

Over the years, Barranti has opened for numerous national acts, from the Allmans to blues artists like James Cotton and Jeff Healey. For a while, he hoped that someone

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

would hear his playing and take him under their wing. Three years ago, after opening for Foghat at Jergel’s, he was called backstage by the band at the end of the night.

“They explained that everybody in the band has a backup,” he says. “They liked the way I played slide guitar, so they asked me if I would be the backup player for Bryan Bassett. I said sure.”

They sent him material to learn the songs, and even flew him to Florida to sit-in with the band. Barranti wasn’t sure if anything would come of it, but last December, he woke up to an email saying Bassett was having heart issues and the band needed him. “They flew me to Florida, and we rehearsed for three days and hit the road.

It was a blast,” he says.

Throughout January, February and early April, he toured throughout the U.S. with Foghat. The group allowed him to show his personality during the solos, but some things were also written in stone. “‘Slow Ride’ needs to sound like ‘Slow Ride.’ You honor the original intent of the songs,” he explains.

Barranti wasn’t about to take it easy after getting off the road. His band went through some lineup shifts before settling on the current personnel: drummer/vocalist Greg McIltrot, keyboardist Fred Delu and bassist Willy Franklin. In addition to singing, McIltrot also blows blues harp, while holding down the tempo. Delu and Barranti have known each other since the ’70s, but they just joined forces with Franklin and McIltrot this year. The guitarist calls them “the greatest musicians I’ve ever worked with.”

Regarding the International Blues Challenge, Barranti says he’s nervous, but adds that he’ll be happy if his band makes it past the first round, since that’s when most of the competitors get sent home. “If you make it to the finals, you have 20 minutes.

I know guys that can’t even tune a guitar in 20 minutes,” he laughs. “And you’ve got 20 minutes to show everything you’ve got.”

The band hosts a send-off party for the trip to Memphis on Fri., Jan. 12, at Moondog’s, in Blawnox.

INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

A still from the music video for “Where I Go”

Soft Gondola WHERE I GO CRYPTIC CAROUSEL SOFTGONDOLA.BANDCAMP.COM

It’s inevitable that when the winter chill kicks in and you find yourself staring down the end of the year, you’ll contemplate the year past and begin dreaming about the year to come. If you’re a giant empath, it can be an incredibly emotional time. Luckily for you, Soft Gondola’s Where I Go is the perfect soundtrack for meditating on the relationships in your life.

The dreamy indie-pop release has tinges of psychedelic undertones. It’s a sonic exploration of love and loss in a mixedgenre package.

Songwriter Daniella Trimble’s guitar melodies and airy singing are moving on their own, but the lyrics about love and loss truly bring the feelings home.

The album is all about giving yourself fully to the life you live and those you live it with, even though the prospect of getting hurt is always present.

The titular opener is a bouncier, gentle ease into the emotional pull, but it quickly gives way to the single, “5 Norton Dr.” This slow-burner, with nearly whispered verses about missing a lover and vignettes of intimate moments from a now-ended romantic partnership, is heartbreaking. It’s the kind of song you listen to after a fresh break-up for a good, cathartic cry.

In addition to longer slow-jams, Where I Go features brief songs like “Time & Space” that up the tempo and the bounce. These will lift you up in a moment of hope, in spite of the uncertainty of change and the challenges it brings.

MEGFAIR@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

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Mary Jo Coll, far left, gathers with Howlers regulars.

MAMA JO {BY SAM BOJARSKI} “FIND YOURSELF in a heap of debt / Mama

Jo give you a cigarette / Make sure you’re fed when the night is done / Good old Jo’s a Ma to everyone,” sing The Harlan Twins on the 2012 song “Mama Jo.” The local rock group recorded the song as a tribute to Mary Jo Coll, the longtime booking manager for Howlers and Hambone’s — two anchors of Pittsburgh’s vibrant music scene. In Coll’s own words, the song made her “sob like a baby the first time they played it.”

Coll certainly doesn’t mince words. “I’m not really — what’s the word I’m looking for — subtle,” she says between puffs on her e-cigarette. “I tend to just tell people to get out of my face.”

Beneath her gruff, nononsense personality lies a deep passion for the bands she books each week. For more than 12 years, Coll has been helping the musicians of Pittsburgh find an audience. Many of them affectionately call her by the same name as the Harlan Twins song — Mama Jo. “Look at you, Gabe!” Coll exclaims as Gabe Cetra, lead singer of oldies band Photo Joe and the Negatives, approaches her table at the Howlers bar. “What did you do, dress in layers so you have more to take off?”

“Yeah, but I’m gonna keep it on tonight,” Cetra replies, after giving Coll a hug.

Coll, a native of Pittsburgh’s Morningside neighborhood, has technically raised

Bell Bottoms Blues

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Y L N HT O

seven children, but when you count the local musicians she’s worked with over the years, that number increases.

“They’re all my kids,” Coll says. “I just kind of refer to myself as the local bar mom. I do what I can and help when I can. I give you a stage if that’s what you need, and if the show fails, we tweak it, figure out what went wrong, and try again.”

Coll has had her finger on the pulse of Pittsburgh’s music scene since the 1970s and ’80s, when she was a regular at The Decade, the former Oakland rock club. She fondly remembers seeing U2 play there the year before the band released its landmark album The Joshua Tree. But even though she comes from the classic-rock era, Coll loves all genres.

“People are always trying to pigeonhole you into having a favorite band and so on. I don’t have a favorite because I like it all, and I listen to it all,” she says. “But I’ve always been able to tell which ones have skill and the potential to move forward.”

Her job, as she eloquently puts it, is to “get asses in the seats.” But that doesn’t stop her from helping amateur artists develop.

“I’m kind of willing to take a chance on anyone anytime,” she says nonchalantly. “There’s some kids in the local scene now that started playing Sunday nights [at Howlers] when they were 17 or 18 years old, and I’ve watched them grow. When I find a band that’s really good, I just boot them in the ass relentlessly until they get out there.”

TS BU RG H US T AN D PIT CU LT UR AL TR PIT TS BU RG H

EN T WI NE RY PR ES

G I N O T

H OM E S Y A D I L HO

“WHEN I FIND A BAND THAT’S REALLY GOOD, I JUST BOOT THEM IN THE ASS RELENTLESSLY UNTIL THEY GET OUT THERE.”

FOR THE

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CRITICS’ PICKS {PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON MCEACHERN}

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

[GOOD CAUSE] + THU., DEC. 21

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a cup of coffee a hot meal

FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR. YOU CAN CREATE CHANGE. TEXT “GIVE” TO

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

{PHOTO COURTESY OF JORDAN BECKHAM}

YOU CAN SPARE...

Top-tier DJs, soup and interactive Andy Warhol exhibits convene tonight at Spirit for You Can Help: A Family-Friendly Canned Food Drive Party. Grab some non-perishables from your cabinet, throw in a few bucks, and enjoy a night of tunes from Pandemic Pete, Arie Cole, Jesley Snipes and Keebs. Channeling the art and spirit of Warhol, who often volunteered in soup kitchens, recreations of some of his iconic works will be scattered throughout the space, including a Silver Cloud Room and stacks of Brillo boxes. All proceeds go to Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank. Plus, donating a can of food at the entrance lands you a free PBR. Alex Gordon 6 p.m. 242 51st St., Lawrenceville. $5 for adults, kids free. All ages 6-9 p.m.; 21 and over after 9 p.m. www.spiritpgh.com

[FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US] + THU., DEC. 21 What’s better than Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa combined? A madeup holiday derived from Seinfeld revolving around an aluminum pole. Howlers will host its annual Festivus 13, billed as the “longest-running celebration of Sein-Culture in the ’Burgh.”

This year’s musical lineup features bright-eyed punk from Endless Mike and the Beagle Club, the industrial sound of Rein[Forced], moody indie-rock from Emily Rodgers, and a Seinfeldthemed set from punk-comedy duo Lorenzo’s Oil. There will also be a trivia contest, feats of strength and, of course, the airing of grievances

(which could last days, after the year we’ve had). Hannah Lynn 8 p.m. 4509 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield. $5. 21 and older. 412-682-0320 or www.howlerspittsburgh.com

[X-MAS ROCK] + FRI., DEC. 22 What do you do when you want to get into the Christmas feeling, but don’t wanna ditch your rock ’n’ roll spirit? You go to an elaborate, laser-filled Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert at PPG Paints Arena. Even if you haven’t heard of TSO, you’ve probably at least heard its music in an intense, holiday-themed car commercial. The group takes Ali traditional Christmas Spagnola tunes and amps them up with electric guitars, fog machines, violins and fire. It all makes “Jingle Bell Rock” sound like a slow folk song. HL 3 and 8 p.m. 1001 Fifth Ave., Uptown. $53-72. All ages.

412-642-1800 or www.ppgpaints arena.com

[POWER HOUR] + FRI., DEC. 22 The closer we get to the holidays, the more celebratory and/or stress drinking ensues. And if you’re going to get shitfaced, it’s best to do it in public, at a concert. Pittsburgh native and YouTube personality Ali Spagnola will play her Power Hour Show, a set of 60 one-minute cover songs in which the audience takes a swig after each one.

It’s like a college party, only you’re an adult and paying for it. Joining the night of debauchery at Club Café are local rockers The Nerd Herders.

HL 10:30 p.m. 58 S. 12th St., South Side. $12. 21 and up. 412-431-4950 or www.clubcafelive.com

YOUR SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT GIFT ENDS HERE

TO SUBMIT A LISTING: WWW.PGHCITYPAPER.COM/HAPPENINGS {ALL LISTINGS MUST BE SUBMITTED BY 9 A.M. FRIDAY PRIOR TO PUBLICATION}

ROCK/POP THU 21 BRILLOBOX. The Long Hunt, Love Dumpster, Action Camp. 8 p.m.

Bloomfield. 412-621-4900.

HOWLERS. Festivus XIII: Endless Mike & the Beagle Club, Reinforced, Lorenzo’s Oil. 8 p.m.

Bloomfield. 412-682-0320.

DOWNEY’S HOUSE. King’s Ransom.

9:30 p.m. Robinson. 412-489-5631.

TUGBOAT’S. Terrance Vaughn & “Shaggy” Marcello. 9 p.m.

East Pittsburgh. 412-829-1992.

CLUB CAFE. Joanna Lowe & the Broken Word w/ Brewer’s Row. 6 p.m. South Side.

412-431-4950.

MEADOWS CASINO. Jason Kendall Band. 9 p.m. Washington.

724-503-1200.

SPEAL’S TAVERN. Lenny Smith & The Instant Gators. 8 p.m.

New Alexandria. 724-433-1322.

SAT 23 BAJA BAR AND GRILL. Nightlife. 9 p.m. Fox Chapel.

412-963-0640.

412.481.8273 • VAPORGALLERIA.COM 2724 EAST CARSON STREET • PITTSBURGH, PA 15203

FRI 22

ANDYS WINE BAR. DJ Malls Spins Vinyl. 5 p.m. Downtown.

412-773-8884.

THE R BAR. Billy the Kid’s BELVEDERE’S. dj admc. Emo Steel Town All-Stars. 7 p.m. night. 10 p.m. Lawrenceville.

Dormont. 412-942-0882.

412-687-2555.

DEE’S CAFE. Punk Night w/ DJ Ian. 10 p.m. South Side.

412-431-1314.

BELVEDERE’S. dj ez www. per THE FLATS ON pa lou. New wave 80s. pghcitym CARSON. Pete Butta. .co 10 p.m. Lawrenceville.

10 p.m. South Side.

412-687-2555.

412-586-7644.

THE FUNHOUSE @ MR. ONE 10 LOUNGE. SMALLS. Centrifuge. Non-genre DJ Goodnight, DJ Rojo. specific electronic music night 9 p.m. Downtown. 412-874-4582. showcasing aspiring fresh talent RUGGER’S PUB. 80s Night to veterans alike. 9 p.m. Millvale. w/ DJ Connor. 9 p.m. South Side.

412-821-4447.

412-381-1330.

PERLE CHAMPAGNE BAR. Bobby D Bachata. 10 p.m.

Downtown. 412-471-2058.

BELVEDERE’S. dj admc. Drake night. 10 p.m. Lawrenceville.

412-687-2555.

DIESEL. DJ CK. 10 p.m.

South Side. 412-431-8800.

PERLE CHAMPAGNE BAR. DJ Tenova. ladies night. 9 p.m.

Downtown. 412-471-2058.

SUN 24

DJS

FRI 22

RIVERS CASINO. DJ NIN. Levels. 6 p.m. North Side.

412-231-7777.

LIKE US

FULL LIST ONLINE

THU 21

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@PittsburghCityPaper Keep up to date on the latest news and events in the city.

SAT 23

MP 3 MONDAY MOON BABY

TUE 26 THE GOLDMARK. Pete Butta.

Reggae & dancehall. 10 p.m.

Lawrenceville. 412-688-8820.

THE SUMMIT. Dig Now Sounds w/ Hot Honey. 9 p.m.

Mt. Washington. 412-918-1647.

WED 27 THE GOLDMARK. Pete Butta & Preslav. Top Dollar Dancehall. 10 p.m. Lawrenceville.

412-688-8820.

HIP HOP/R&B FRI 22 SAVOY RESTAURANT. The Bill Henry Band. 10 p.m.

Strip District. 412-281-0660.

WED 27 ROCKS LANDING BAR & GRILLE. Tony Campbell feat.

Teresa Hawthorne. 7:30 p.m.

McKees Rocks. 412-875-5809.

Each week we post a song from a local artist online for free. This week, it’s “I’m Beginning to Want to Just Say Fuck This,” by moon baby. It’s a fun play on an iconic holiday number, featuring delightfully frank lyrical content about the dumpster fire that has been 2017. Stream or download “I’m Beginning to Want to Just Say Fuck This” for free on FFW>>>, the music blog at pghcitypaper.com.

BLUES THU 21 O’DONNA’S. The Bo’Hog Brothers. 8 p.m. Beaver.

878-313-3418.

RED FOX WINERY. Roger Barbour Band. 6 p.m. Hickory.

724-809-9897.

CONTINUES ON PG. 24

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CONCERTS, CONTINUED FROM PG. 23

FRI 22 ELWOOD’S PUB. Jack of Diamonds. 8:30 p.m. Rural Ridge.

724-265-1181.

EXCUSES BAR & GRILL. Bill Toms and the Hard Rain feat. The Soulville Horns.

7:30 p.m. South Side.

412-431-4090.

MOONDOG’S. Billy Price Band. 8:30 p.m. Blawnox.

412-828-2040.

HEAVY ROTATION Here are the songs CP arts & entertainment editor Bill O’Driscoll can’t stop listening to: Billie Holiday

“I Don’t Want to Cry Any More”

JAZZ THU 21 SAVOY RESTAURANT. Roger Humphries & RH Factor. 8 p.m.

Strip District. 412-281-0660.

22

FRI 22

“Prettiest Train”

ANDORA RESTAURANT - FOX CHAPEL. Pianist Harry Cardillo & vocalist Charlie Sanders. 6:30 p.m.

Fox Chapel. 412-967-1900.

SAT 23

Neil Young

THE MONROEVILLE RACQUET CLUB. Jazz Bean Live. 7 p.m.

Monroeville. 412-728-4155.

WALLACE’S TAP ROOM. Tony Campbell Jazzsurgery. 5 p.m.

East Liberty. 412-665-0555.

“Walk Like a Giant”

SUN 24

Kendrick Lamar

ROCKS LANDING BAR & GRILLE. Tony Campbell, John Hall, Howie Alexander & Dennis Garner. 7 p.m. McKees Rocks.

412-875-5809.

“LUST.”

MON 25 HAMBONE’S. Ian Kane, Ronnie Weiss & Tom Boyce.

Jazz Standards, showtunes & blues. 6:30 p.m. Lawrenceville.

412-681-4318.

VINOSKI WINERY. Joe Materkowski. 1 p.m. Belle Vernon.

724-872-3333.

OTHER MUSIC

TUE 26

SUN 24

THE FUNHOUSE @ MR. SMALLS. Nuclear Sad Nuclear, Rolo Tomassi, Cryptodira, False Accusations.

6 p.m. Millvale. 412-821-4447.

RILEY’S POUR HOUSE. Martin Rosenberg. 7 p.m.

Carnegie. 412-279-0770.

WED 27 RIVERS CLUB. Jessica Lee & Friends. 5:30 p.m. Downtown.

412-391-5227.

ACOUSTIC THU 21 HOP FARM BREWING. The Shameless Hex. 8 p.m.

Lawrenceville. 412-726-7912.

FRI 22 BAR 3 MILLVALE. Todd and Dale. 8:30 p.m. Millvale.

412-408-3870.

THE BULLPEN. The Eclectic Acoustics. 9 p.m. Avella.

724-356-3000.

FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH. The Early Mays: A Very Merry Winter’s Night. 7:30 p.m.

Shadyside. 412-242-7769.

FONTANA’S CAFE. Just JJ. 9 p.m. North Huntingdon.

724-863-0900.

SAT 23 DOUBLE WIDE GRILL. Right TurnClyde. 9 p.m. North Huntingdon. 724-863-8181.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

HAMBONE’S. Acoustic Brunch.

Acoustic Brunch welcomes all styles of music, poetry, spoken word, comedy in an open mic format. We also have one ‘Feature Artist’ sandwiched in the middle of our show.

10:30 a.m. Lawrenceville.

412-681-4318.

WED 27

THU 21

FRI 22 LINDEN GROVE. Artistree. 9 p.m.

Castle Shannon. 412-882-8687.

RIVERS CASINO. Antionette Trio. Levels.

9 p.m. North Side.

412-231-7777.

FULL LIST E N O LwIN w.

ALLEGHENY w paper ELKS LODGE pghcitym .co #339. Pittsburgh CHILDREN’S MUSEUM Banjo Club. 8 p.m.

OF PITTSBURGH. North Side. 412-321-1834.

Handmade Percussion.

PARK HOUSE. Shelf Life 12:30 p.m. North Side. 412-322-5058.

String Band. 9 p.m. North Side.

THE FUNHOUSE @ MR. SMALLS. 412-224-2273.

H.R. (of Bad Brains) & Human WHEELFISH. Jason Born. 7 p.m.

Rights Band. 8 p.m. Millvale.

Ross. 412-487-8909.

412-821-4447.

RIVERS CASINO. LIGHTS OUT. 4 p.m.

Darryl & Kim & Friends. 9 p.m.

Jeff Jimerson & Airborne. Drum Bar. 9 p.m. North Side. 412-231-7777.

PIRATA. The Flow Band. 9 p.m.

Downtown. 412-323-3000.

SAT 23

REGGAE THU 21

COUNTRY

HOLIDAY MUSIC

SAT 23

FRI 22

NIED’S HOTEL. Slim Forsythe & The Turbotonics: Surfin’ Christmas. 7 p.m.

Lawrenceville. 412-770-8150.

FRICK ART & HISTORICAL CENTER. Scott & Rosanna’s Holiday Concert. 6:30 p.m.

Point Breeze. 412-371-0600.

What to do IN PITTSBURGH

December 20-26 WEDNESDAY 20

Drake Night w/ DJ ADMC

Home for the Holidays

BELVEDERE’S ULTRA-DIVE Lawrenceville. 412-687-2555.

Over 21 event. For more info visit belvederesultradive.com.

10p.m.

BENEDUM CENTER Downtown. 412-456-6666.

Tickets: trustarts.org. 7:30p.m.

THURSDAY 21

SUNDAY 24 MONDAY 25 5

Film Premiere: The People Are The Light CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART Oakland. Free event.

For more info visit cmoa.org.

6:30p.m.

Marcus Cox CLUB CAFE South Side.

412-431-4950. Over 21 event.

Tickets: ticketweb.com/opus one. 8p.m.

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS BENEDUM CENTER WED., DEC. 20

© the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Third Thursday: Art Wars CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART Oakland. For tickets and more info visit cmoa.org. 8p.m.

FRIDAY 22

Saved by the 90s JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE

Warrendale. 724-799-8333.

NEWS

Joanna Lowe & the Broken Word CLUB CAFE South Side.

412-431-4950. With special guest Brewer’s Row. Over 21 event. Tickets:

+

MUSIC

SATURDAY 23

ticketweb.com/opusone. 7p.m.

Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 8p.m.

+

21+ Night: Holiday Party

Strangelove: The Depeche Mode Experience

CARNEGIE SCIENCE CENTER North Side. Over 21 event.

For tickets and more info visit carnegiesciencecenter.org.

6p.m.

HARD ROCK CAFE Station Square. 412-481-ROCK. With special guest Electric Duke. Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 9:30p.m.

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TUESDAY 26 26

Benny Benack & Friends

Feliz Navibrah w/ Brahctopus, Heavy Chest, Little Good Bad, Stationary Pebbles & Different Dan CLUB CAFE South Side.

412-431-4950. Over 21 event.

Tickets: ticketweb.com/opus one. 8p.m.

SCREEN

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BACKSTAGE BAR AT THEATER SQUARE Downtown.

412-456-6666. Free event.

5p.m.

Bill Deasy’s Annual Boxing Day Show CLUB CAFE South Side.

412-431-4950. Over 21 event.

Tickets: ticketweb.com/opus one. 8p.m.

CLASSIFIEDS

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“IT’S LIKE BEING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOOKING GLASS.”

[ART REVIEW]

LIGHT SPEEDS {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL}

DRISCOLL@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

MACULAR continues through Dec. 31.

Wood Street Galleries, 600 Wood St., Downtown. 412-471-5605 or www.woodstreetgalleries.org

26

[BOOKS]

DOUBLED {BY AMANDA REED}

Joris Strijbos and Daan Johan’s “Parsec” {PHOTO COURTESY OF ED JANSEN}

Macular, an exhibit at Wood Street Galleries by the internationally known Dutch art collective of the same name, features four room-sized kinetic light installations. The results range from contemplative to jarring.

Somehow on the contemplative side, despite a sound component suggesting a dentist’s drill, is “Fading Shadows,” by Nicky Assmann and Joris Strijbos. Two screens facing each other from opposite walls display strobing, constantly shifting grid patterns as cast by projectors mounted on the rising, falling or rotating arms of three robots. The idea is to explore the moiré effect, which results from superimposing two patterns. Stand in different spots in the small chamber for different takes; each warping, blurring screen is trippiest when it fills your field of vision.

Almost hypnotic is Strijbos and Matthijs Munnik’s “Shifting Structures.” In a high-ceilinged, darkened room, each of five ceiling-mounted metal bars holds a 12-foot-long rod that includes a lit-up translucent tube (think: light saber) and slowly rotates in the vertical plane, clockwise or counter-clockwise, each aiming its dot of incandescence at ceiling, wall, floor in turn. Engineered to display “balance and self-correction” as they move, the antenna-like rods emote a quiet sentience, like bioluminescent sea creatures, complete with a sound element suggesting underwater bells.

Eric Parren’s “Undulator” bounces pulsating colored light off rippling reflective surfaces; the three resulting wall-sized projections are translucent and spasmodic, like microscopic bits of animal tissue dancing in an electric current. “Undulator” is silent, though you might not realize it at first because of the sound bleeding from the adjacent chamber: the high-pitched, metallic audio, sometimes siren-like, that heralds “Parsec.” Strijbos and Daan Johan offer 12 10-foot-long metal arms, each attached at its midpoint to a frame, with a light on each end of each arm and an audio speaker at each midpoint. Each arm spins at varying speeds in the vertical plane, the lights brightening and dimming. If you like your sound and kinesis both nerve-wracking, “Parsec” is for you: When all the arms speed up at once and the lights blink madly, it’s quite a show, a miniature carnival ride gone wild.

A

LIFE

LMOST 30 YEARS after leaving

journalism, Lynda Schuster found herself telling a new story. But it wasn’t one about someone else’s life. For once, it was her own.

“Through the years, people who have been close to me and knew my story had always said, ‘Oh my gosh, you should write a book about this,’” she says. “You reach a certain point in your life where you look back and you think, ‘I kind of would like to write it down to try to make sense of it all.’” hat The Pittsburgh-based author does that in her new memoir, Dirty Wars and Polished Silver: The Life and Times of a War Correspondent Turned Ambassatrix (Melville House Publishing).

The book spans 20 years, beginning when Schuster was a 17-year-old living in Detroit, Mich., booking a student-fare ticket to Tel Aviv to volunteer on a kibbutz — an Israeli communal settlement — and ending in 1998 in Peru. There, she and her second husband, Dennis Jett, a U.S. ambassador, lived in a 22,000-square-foot mansion surrounded by soldiers, and traveled with a three-car bulletproof convoy.

The book has two narrative arcs. The first is Schuster’s story about becoming a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and The Christian Science Monitor. The second retells her journey to e becoming an ambassador’s wife, complete with black-tie parties and a personal staff.

“There are two stories, but one life,”” she says.

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

{PHOTO COURTESY OF HEIDI L. LEWIS}

Lynda Schuster

As a journalist, Schuster was taught to nev never use “I” in a story. Writing this book, she says, required breaking that convention and understanding how she came to be a as a writer, wife and person.

“It’s like being on the other side of the look looking glass,” she said. “I’m always doing the interviews, but now I’m the subject of the story, so that was very difficult.”

Particularly, it was difficult for her to wr write about the death of her first husband, vet veteran Los Angeles Times foreign corresp spondent Dial Torgerson, who was killed in Honduras on assignment. They had be been married for 10 months.

“Having to go back and look at le letters that I had written and letters he h written to me prior to his death, and had l look at news clippings because it made i international headlines, and to have to g back and relive all that was really go very, very painful,” she says.

After her first husband’s death,

Schuster was transferred to Beirut, where she covered Lebanon’s civil war, and also reported from the Persian Gulf, Israel and Egypt.

Later, she relocated to South America and became the Journal’s Central America correspondent, covering Argentina’s “dirty war,” when the military and right-wing fighters killed leftist guerillas, political dissenters and supporters of socialism.

It was there she met Jett, who worked for the State Department as a political officer.

The couple soon married, and in the late 1980s Schuster left the Journal to follow Jett to his posting in Malawi as a deputy chief of mission. She became the South African bureau chief at the Christian Science Monitor, covering the last of the apartheid regime.

She left journalism to follow Jett to his ambassadorial postings in Mozambique and Peru. According to Schuster, life as an ambassador’s wife was a double-edged sword.

“On the one hand, because of my husband’s position, I got to meet people and experience things that I would never have as a journalist, but I also lived in this rarefied bubble where it’s all cocktail parties and state dinners,” she said.

After the birth of their daughter, Noa, the couple moved to the United States, eventually relocating for her husband’s new job as a dean at the University of Florida, then to State College, where he became a founding professor in Penn State University’s School of International Affairs. They moved to Pittsburgh for their daughter to start high school in the area after being blown away by the city when visiting friends.

The family now lives in Squirrel Hill.

Lately, Schuster is busy on her book tour. And she’s already working on another, a nonfiction work about her new home: Pittsburgh.

“It has power, it has money, it has sex, it has love, but luckily nothing to do about war,” she says.

With Dirty Wars and Polished Silver, she wants to make readers understand there’s a bigger world outside of Pittsburgh worth exploring — though it’s perfectly fine if you return to the Steel City, she says.

“You should go out and follow your heart, but don’t be surprised if you end up back basically where you started from, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” she says.

“Where the journey ultimately ends isn’t so important. It’s the journey itself.”

INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

CORRECTION The Dec. 13 art review “Talking Pictures” incorrectly stated the number of photographs in the Carnegie Museum of Art exhibit William Henry Fox Talbot and the Promise of Photography that are digital reproductions rather than original prints. Of the exhibit’s 31 images, eight are inkjet copies.

[BOOKS]

RUIN NATION {BY FRED SHAW} Robert Gibb is having a hell of a year.

With his poems already prominent litmag staples, he began 2017 with the release of After, his 11th collection and 2016 winner of the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize. He’ll end 2017 by dropping his 12th collection, the beautifully imagistic Among Ruins (Notre Dame Press), winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize.

The one-time steelworker skillfully uses Among Ruins’ 81 pages to round out his four-volume Homestead Works cycle, with its focus on the industrial past of the poet’s hometown that informs this region’s history, as well.

No self-promoter, Gibb has been quietly crafting sharp-eyed work for decades. The result has been a bevy of awards, ranging from NEA grants to a Pushcart Prize, all of it well deserved. Yet what makes Among Ruins a success isn’t experimentation or shocking confessionalism, but rather a reliance on clear-sighted memory.

When Gibb quotes Sister Carrie author Theodore Dreiser saying of Pittsburgh, “What a city for a realist,” he could just as well be speaking of himself. “Light Rail” is representative, as he writes of “[a] trolley like a lantern hung by its handle, / With a stop at the top of my street. / Grooved tracks and, overhead, that grid / of electric netting, / the skirts of the fenders in winter / Running just above the snow, / Though in any weather it was magic — / Clattering, loaf-shaped, amps of the carriage, / The man a conductor as well.” The distinctly wrought images carry a collection that leans on accurate representation.

This connoisseur of jazz and roots music excels at finding inspiration in the visual.

In “Double-Shot,” inspired by “the cover of Time magazine,” he writes, “My father in his cups, this his recitation — / Barney Bigard, Jimmy Yancey, Zutty Singleton — / Names like the ones of fabled cities / He loved visiting — Zoot Sims and Kid Ory — / Their lingua franca a speaking in tongues, / The raptures of scat. But Monk / I stumbled upon on my own one week / …

And after that in the record bins / Where I found him featured in profile again …”

He relies on precise language, a signature invoking a supple musicality.

While Among Ruins leans heavily on ekphrasis (literary descriptions of visual arts), Gibb juxtaposes his and the area’s past in relevant, beautifully rendered ways using a wide range of artists and photographers as a lens to situate the reader among the rubble of things past.

Enjoy

$3.00

COORS LIGHT 20OZ DRAFTS during all the Pens games at your local TGI Fridays Contact your local TGIF for more details.

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{PHOTO COURTESY OF HANDERSON GOMES}

Tony Bingham and Tami Dixon in Midnight Radio: A Christmas Story, at Bricolage Production Co.

[PLAY REVIEW]

HOLIDAY CHEER {BY MICHELLE PILECKI} BRICOLAGE’S delightful production of

Midnight Radio: A Christmas Story brings the immortal Jean Shepherd’s holiday classic full circle. No, more like an upward spiral, to get three-dimensional about it.

Hey, it’s the season for “begats,” right?

Some genealogy is in order. Philip Grecian, in 2000, adapted the 1983 movie A Christmas Story for his stage play. The film, cowritten by Leigh Brown (the then-Mrs. Shepherd) and Bob Clark with Shepherd (who also narrated), was in turn adapted from Shepherd’s 1966 novel In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, with a smidgen of his Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, from 1971. Those books were drawn from Sheppie’s (as his fans called him) tales told on his long-running (1955-77) late-night show on New York’s WOR, with stints elsewhere on the dial into the 1990s.

MIDNIGHT RADIO: A CHRISTMAS STORY continues through Sun., Dec. 23.

Bricolage Production Co., 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $25-35. 412-471-0999 or www.bricolagepgh.org

Bricolage’s multi-talented five-person troupe is multiply cast into several roles each, all providing sound effects as well, under the direction of company artistic director Jeffrey Carpenter. Producing artistic director Tami Dixon leads the cast as the 9-year-old Ralphie, as well as other boys and girls battling snow and bullies in Hohman, Ind. Her incantation of “Red Ryder carbineaction, 200- shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time” is pure Zen.

Monteze Freeland, in perfect voice as the adult Ralphie narrating the story, revels in the rituals and language of children.

He also does a mean (in several senses of the word) Santa Claus. The ever-ebullient Tony Bingham embodies The Old Man (Ralphie’s father): his rapid mutterings at all the frustrations of his life, his battles with the furnace, his pride in his Major Award. And without an extra breath, Bingham turns into Ralphie’s hapless buddie, Flick. Adam Seligson moves between the barely verbal little brother, Randy, and vicious bully Scut Farkus. Playing authority figures like Mom and the teacher, Maura Underwood nicely transforms into a little girl with a crush on Ralphie.

Midnight Radio: A Christmas Story — like Midnight Radio productions in general — is wonderfully musical. Wait till you see/ hear the celebration of the Major Award, and the twisted-carol version of the jingle for the “show’s sponsor,” Meatloaf and Cabbage. (Dixon wrote the “commercials.”) Live accompaniment by music director/pianist and by Cello Fury (an amazing trio with a memorable solo performance) provides just the right notes (ouch) for a production brimming with energy and merriment. Adding to the cheer of this nicely wrapped package are sound engineer Brendan Kepple, technical director and scene designer Hank Bullington, stage manager Phill Madore and assistant director Parag S. Gohel.

Instituting a now-well-established radio genre, Shep (1921-99) mixed stories, reminiscences, commentary and pranks — all improvised — for a devoted and wide audience. So, the original elements of A Christmas Story started not as a radio play (which Midnight Radio isn’t, either), but definitely on the radio. Bricolage’s Midnight Radio: A Christmas Story reincarnates what’s already a classic into a new life.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

FOR THE WEEK OF

12.21-12.28.17 Full events listed online at www.pghcitypaper.com Ice-skating outdoors is pretty much confined to a few months in winter, but this week it’s a recreation as good as any, and better than most. The region’s most accessible outdoor rinks include the venerable Schenley Park Skating Rink, where for $3-5 each (and just $3 more for skate rental) you can while away an afternoon or evening circling the frozen pond. The rink is open daily, and as late as 11:30 p.m. for adults-only sessions on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; discount events include Thursday Family Nights and thrice-weekly College ID Sessions.

{CP PHOTO BY JOHN HAMILTON}

Schenley Park Skating Rink

Other affordable options (especially for Allegheny County residents, who get favorable pricing) include the public rinks in North Park and South Park.

The latter, unfortunately, remains closed for renovations, though it’s expected to open later in the season (with improvements including a new “skate trail”). But the North Park rink is operating as usual, with late, adult-only hours on Fridays and Saturdays, and, on Wednesdays, both morning senior skates and early-evening discounted family skates.

A little pricier, but perhaps most accessible of all for many, is the MassMutual Pittsburgh Ice Rink, in Downtown’s PPG Place. A seasonal tradition in this location since 2001, the rink is open daily 11 a.m.10 p.m., and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. (It even keeps regular hours on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.) Admission is $7-8, with $4 skate rental, and special events include this season’s final Skate with Santa, 2-4 p.m. Sat., Dec. 23.

And if you can’t make it out this holiday week, don’t worry: All these outdoor rinks remain open well into February.

^ Fri., Dec. 22: Ugly Sweater Party

thursday 12.21 FILM Artist Alisha Wormsley’s latest project dug deep into a single neighborhood, Homewood. As part of the Hillman itiative, Wormsley teamed with 12 artists and Photography Initiative, collaborators to create two site-specific installations and 10 omewood to explore things like restorative workshops in Homewood writing, hair art,, yoga and meditation, and the Black ent. Tonight, Carnegie Museum Maker Movement. of Art Theater hosts the premiere of “The People Are the Light,” Wormsley’s new film hy series inspired by the project. and photography isha Blackwell, Bekezela Mguni, Collaborators Nisha on and Anqwenique Wingfield Ricardo Robinson ening discussion. The event is join a post-screening dees get $5 off admission to free, and attendees tonight’s Third Thursday party at the museum. Bill -8 p.m. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

O’Driscoll 6:30-8 n requested at www.cmoa.org Free; registration

BY BILL O’DRISCOLL

OUTDOORS

COMEDY Many know him as Overton “Obie” Wakefield Jones on the 1990s sitcom Living Single, but comedian John Henton is no one-trick pony. He’s also appeared on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Late Night With Conan O’ O’Brien, and starting tonight, he takes to the Pittsburgh Im Improv stage for five shows over three nights of laughs. Expec Expect jokes about fatherhood, golf and perhaps even Hen Henton’s stint as a guest star on Hannah Montana. A AR 8 p.m. Also 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. Fri., Dec. 2 22, and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Sat., Dec. 23. 16 166 E. Bridge St., West Homestead. $20. 4 412-462-5233 or www.pittsburgh.impro www.pittsburgh.improv.com

Celebrate the shortest hortest day of the year tonight with Venture nture Outdoors on its yearly Winter Solstice Hike. Along the moderately challenging, guided ided four-mile hike through rambling and woodsy Hartwood Acres

Schenley Park Ice Rink: Schenley Park, Oakland (412-422-6523 or www.pittsburghpa.gov). North Park: McCandless Township (412-935-1280 or www.alleghenycounty.us/parks).

MassMutual Pittsburgh: PPG Place, Downtown (412-394-3641 or www.ppgplace.com) NEWS

Park, you’ll occasionally stop to gaze at the stars, listen for any night critters that haven’t slipped off into hibernation, and learn fun facts about the park itself. Bring a flashlight or headlamp, cold-weather gear and trail shoes or hiking boots to traverse through the cold. Amanda Reed 6:30-8:30 p.m. 200 Hartwood Acres, Allison Pa Park. $12.

412-255-0564 or www.ventureoutdoors.org

friday 12.22 PARTY Grab your ugly ho holiday sweater from the depths o of your closet for a 21+ Ugly Sweater Sw Party

> Thu., Dec. 21: John Henton

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s a m t s i r Ch Partyr 23 Decembe

featuring the Bobby Hawkins Band 8-12m

1025 Broad Street, North Versailles, PA 15137 412-829-2911 www.BroadStBistro.com

LEE FIELDS

{PHOTO BY ALISHA WORMSLEY}

^ Thu., Dec. 21: “The People Are the Light”

& THE EXPRESSIONS

tonight at the Carnegie Science Center. As part of the Center’s Science After Dark programming, you can sing laser karaoke in the Buhl Planetarium or (for the price of a separate ticket) watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the brand-new Rangos Giant Cinema. Also, don’t miss the ugly-sweater fashion show, giant beer pong, a laser-cut-holiday-ornament workshop, and more. AR 6-10 p.m. 1 Allegheny Ave., North Side. $12-17. (Tickets to Star Wars: The Last Jedi are an additional $9.95).

412-237-3400 or www.carnegiesciencecenter.org

part of the

FUTURE OF PITTSBURGH GRAND FINALE 10:4 5PM -MID NIGH T

MUSIC

PITTSBURG H’S

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31

NEW YEAR’S EVE IN THE CULTUR AL DISTRIC T

6PM-MIDNIGHT

ADMISSION BUTTONS $10 • KIDS 5 & UNDER FREE FIRST NIGHT FRIENDS VIP EXPERIENCE $40

BOX OFFICE AT THEATER SQUARE • 412-456-6666

PARTICIPATING GIANT EAGLE LOCATIONS

TRUS TARTS. ORG /FIRSTNIGHTPGH 30

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

“No one told me love is a corpse,” confesses Joanna Lowe in “All My Available Space,” a track combining spoken word with dark, atmospheric music: acoustic drums, electronic soundscape. The talented Pittsburgh-based theater artist and producer has been developing a new project, and tonight is the “band reveal” for Joanna Lowe and The Broken Word. With keyboardist Jim Barr, guitarist Brian Sproul, bassist Corry Drak and drummer Jeremy Papay, an intriguing evening awaits at Club Café. Brewer’s Row opens. BO 7 p.m.

56-58 S. 12th St., South Side. $10-12.

412-431-4950 or www.clubcafelive.com

DANCING Warm up the dance {PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST} floor tonight with ^ Fri., Dec. 22: Salsa Fridays Salsa Fridays at the Cabaret at Theater Square, courtesy of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Now in its ninth year, the weekly session embraces all kinds of dances, including bachata, merengue and cha cha. Have two left feet? Basic dance lessons run 10-10:30 p.m. to prepare for a night filled with DJ-spun tunes. Don’t miss the Late Night Happy Hour beforehand. AR 10:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m. 655 Penn Ave., Downtown. $5. 412-325-6769 or www.trustarts.org

EVERYONE IS A CRITIC

SCORE YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

GIVE THE GIFT THAT FITS

EVENT: Star Wars: The Arcade Strikes Back at Arcade Comedy Theater, Downtown CRITIC: Jessica Smith, 31, a librarian from Garfield WHEN: Sat.,

Dec. 16

This particular [stage] show is a satire of the Star Wars movies, as well as sort-of-not-really teasers of the new movie, but it’s a really good show if you’ve never seen the movies before, or if you’re a die-hard Star Wars fan. I’m here to support my colleague, who wrote the show and is a library person with me at the Oakland library. I’ve been meaning to come to Arcade forever. This was the perfect compilation of “he wrote and directed it,” “it’s Star Wars weekend” [and] “[Arcade is] in a new location,” so it was kind of the perfect storm. I liked all of the fun backstories of “what could have been” in the movie. I think when you think of improv and comedy, you’re scared that it’s going to be this really amateur thing. But this was a very professional performance, and I think comedy can get a bad rap for not being so, but they put a lot of heart and soul into this.

BY AMANDA REED

tuesday 12.26 MUSIC Benny Benack III’s annual holiday gig back in his hometown is a little more special than usual this year. In September, the acclaimed Pittsburgh-native trumpeter, vocalist and composer released his first solo album, One of a Kind. It’s yet another milestone for the New York-based artist whose résumé already includes stints with all the major big bands, international gigs, and even a spell as touring trumpet soloist for Josh Groban. The new album is getting strong reviews; Jazz Weekly called it “[u]pscale and sleek.”

Tonight, Benack, who sings in a crooner style, takes a break from headlining at top New York City venues as he and his band play Downtown’s Backstage Bar for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s JazzLive series. Admission to Benny Benack & Friends is free. BO 5-8 p.m. 655 Penn Ave., Downtown. Free. www.trustarts.org

From the football field to the battlefield and back, Rocky Bleier tells his own incredible story in this unforgettable one-man play.

BY

GENE COLLIER DIRECTED BY

SCOTT C. WISE

9 Shows Only!

SPORT

DECEMBER 28 – JANUARY 6

It wouldn’t be Boxing ^ Tue., Dec. 26: Benny Benack III Day in Pittsburgh without basketball — or at least without the Harlem Globetrotters making their traditional visit. The squad’s feats this year include a Guinness World Records nod for most half-court shots by a team in one hour. (They sank 348, in Times Square.) Today, the ’Trotters play two games against the perennially hapless Washington Generals at PPG Paints Arena, a matinee and an evening match. BO 2 and 7 p.m. 1001 Fifth Ave., Uptown. $18.75-80.25. www.ticketmaster.com

O’REILLY THEATER CALL

BUY ONLINE

412.316.1600 PPT.ORG

MUSIC You never know where a musical idea will lead. In 2008, Jeff Berman, Sue Powers and Mimi Jong formed AppalAsia, with Berman on dulcimer, Powers on banjo and vocals, and Jong playing the erhu, a traditional two-stringed Chinese bowed instrument. The music, by turns pretty, playful and haunting, combines traditional American mountain sounds with those of the Far East, and it has graced the local scene, and venues throughout the Northeast U.S., ever

PRODUCTION SPONSOR

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^ Tue., Dec. 26: AppalAsia

since. In a concert marking the eve of the group’s 10th annivesary next year, AppalAsia performs tonight at Chatham Village Club House. Admission is donation-requested; proceeds will go toward a planned new album, new music intended for which the musicians will showcase. BO 7 p.m. (doors at 6 p.m.).

655 Pennridge Road, Mount Washington. Donation requested: $15 or more. www.appalasia.com

wednesday 12.27 OUTDOORS Join the Allegheny County Parks Department tonight for wintry stargazing in North Park. The night begins at the Latodami Nature Center, where you’ll receive a star chart and learn some basic information about stargazing. Then, hike to an observation post in the upper fields to see the full moon up-close with the aid of a telescope. This event is geared toward children 10 and up. Dress warmly, wear sturdy shoes and bring a flashlight. Pre-registration is required.

AR 6:30-8 p.m.

303 Pearce Mill Road, Allison Park.

Free. 724-935-2170 or www.county. allegheny.pa.us

• PENS SPECIAL : $2.00 COORS LIGHT PINTS DURING ALL THE GAMES & A PENS TICKET GIVEAWAY EVERY MONTH. • SMOKING AND NON SMOKING SECTION. • 40 CENT WINGS ON WEDNESDAY 5-11 AND SATURDAY 11AM TO 6PM. • $8.99 LARGE WOOD FIRED PIZZAS EVERY THURSDAY. • VISIT US ON THE WEB OR LIKE US ON FACEBOOK FOR A FULL LIST OF SPECIALS!

HOP HOUSE ROSS TOWNSHIP 5510 BABCOCK BLVD. • PITTSBURGH, PA 15237 32

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

thursday 12.28 COMEDY One of the city’s best comedy deals is the Pittsburgh Improv Jam, held Thursdays year-round at Downtown’s CLO Cabaret. As an institution, the Jam ^ Thu., Dec. 28: Pittsburgh Improv Jam helped kick-start Pittsburgh’s nowburgeoning improv scene: It was, for instance, where the performers who launched Arcade Comedy Theater first got together. Nowadays, the late-night, 21-and-over Jam is hosted by popular improv troupe Well Known Strangers, who assemble on-the-spot improv teams that include experienced improvisers, beginners and even first-timers to create comedy scenes based on one-word audience suggestions. (Sign-ups are at 9:30 p.m. in the Backstage Bar; the Jam is free for performers.) The Strangers or another established troupe opens each show. And tickets are only $3 at the door — or free with a ticket stub from elsewhere Downtown that evening. BO 10 p.m. 655 Penn Ave., Downtown. $3.

412-325-6769 or www.trustarts.org

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THE PREPARATION OF EACH COMPONENT WAS IMPECCABLE

UPPER CRUST

DRISCOLL@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

1327 Arch St., North Side. 412-321-4021 (The market will close from Dec. 23-Jan. 2 for renovations.)

the

FEED

It’s easy to be prompted to donate to food banks and pantries during the holidays, but the need is year-round. Why not set a monthly reminder on a calendar (smartphones love to notify you!) to help out in every season?

Pizza from Allegheny City Market {PHOTO COURTESY OF JAKE JOHNSON}

{BY BILL O’DRISCOLL} For years, supermarkets have competed with restaurants by offering their own prepared meals. Even neighborhood stores have embraced the trend. Take Allegheny City Market. When Mike Mitchell bought it, in 2014, the Central North Side storefront was a deli with sandwiches. That’s all still there, but lately Mitchell has been moving more into ready-to-eat hot foods.

This past summer, for instance, he and business partner Gary McAfee bought a used Baker’s Pride pizza oven, made room for it behind the deli counter, and in late September started turning out pies. The savory thin-crust pies — I recently sampled a medium with red onion and green peppers — are hand-tossed, with fresh dough (made off-site for now) and home-made sauce. There are specialty pies like seafood (shrimp, scallops and crab) and even Mexican (taco meat, refried beans, etc.). And Mitchell responded to customer requests with a line of vegan pizzas, featuring non-dairy cheese.

The market also now complements its salads and sandwiches — including the neighborhood-themed Randyland Reuben and its popular breakfast sandwiches — with home-made soups and dinners, including pasta dishes and chicken parmesan.

“We just need more people to know that we’re doing this stuff,” says Mitchell.

Not that, with his restaurant background, he minds. “I enjoy this,” says Mitchell.

“I love to cook.”

{CP PHOTO BY VANESSA SONG}

Rainbow trout

A SPLENDID PLATE {BY ANGELIQUE BAMBERG + JASON ROTH}

S

HADYSIDE WAS once home to much of the city’s finest and most interesting dining, but now it almost feels like a statement for Chicago chef Scott Walton to choose it as the location for his unabashedly ambitious new restaurant, Acorn. At a time when Pittsburgh restaurant concepts are growing ever more elaborate as menus become simpler and more streamlined, Walton has taken the opposite tack.

Acorn’s restrained ambience serves as a serene backdrop to Walton’s elaborate culinary creations. The color scheme is a warm gray with cool teal upholstery and ash-brown wood; it feels more like a tasteful living room than a formal, fine-dining spot. Even the dishware is thoughtfully understated. All is designed to defer the focus to the lush aesthetics of Walton’s food, dishes that elaborate upon their

central elements — a cut of meat, a whole chicken, lasagna — with international flavors, diverse textures and a sometimesdizzying array of distinct ingredients that are, in themselves, complex.

ACORN 5528 Walnut St., Shadyside. 412-530-5950 HOURS: Sun.-Thu. 4:30-10:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 4:30-11 p.m.

PRICES: Small plates $12-16; entrees for one $26-48; entrees for two $75-77 LIQUOR: Full bar

CP APPROVED According to our server, Walton aims to encourage sharing via a couple different strategies. Half the menu consists of small, modestly priced sharing plates, while the other side includes a pair of pricey dishes —

fish cassoulet and ribeye — served familystyle for two or more. In addition, some traditional entrees are, we discovered, ample for sharing bites, if not for splitting into full portions. It adds up to a lot of ways to put together a meal.

And there’s a lot to explore. While each menu description lists three to five components, that’s often a summary rather than a comprehensive description. For example, the roasted root-vegetable appetizer was listed as including sesame seeds and za’atar, the Middle Eastern spice blend. But the bed of hummus was a surprise, a pleasant one that successfully pulled together the bold, contrasting flavors of turnip, parsnip and beet.

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NFL Sunday Ticket!

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(chorizo and olive), each light, crunchy, and packed with flavor. The combination served to push the dish firmly into Spanish-tapas territory, impressively presented with curlicue tentacles holding the crackers aloft above a bed of smoky charred-tomato romesco sauce studded with fermented red-pepper puree. While some of our party liked this complex construction, others felt they would have enjoyed this dish’s best components — the tentacles and the crackers — with fewer adornments.

Salt cod, a thick, rich spread offered with toasted housemade sourdough, was more straightforward and successful. Enriched with stravecchio cheese, it was rich yet mild.

Our favorite appetizer was a single chestnut ravioli, its filling enriched with ricotta and egg, served atop wilted spinach, smothered in a charred tomato-smoked clam sauce, and sprinkled with flash-fried baby spinach leaves. This dish was packed with flavors that might overwhelm an entire entrée, but delighted the palate for just a few bites.

With one vegetarian exception, Acorn’s entrees center on a large portion of meat surrounded by sides, sauces and complementary ingredients. For instance, whole rainbow trout floated atop a cloud of aquafaba — the cooking liquid of chickpeas — whipped with maple. It was also stuffed with dollhouse-size enoki mushrooms, topped with pine-tapioca crackers, and accompanied by roasted turnips. For so many components, the dish came together well, although we found the sweetness of the maple a bit unbalanced. But the preparation of each component was otherwise impeccable, and the presentation was stunning.

Other dishes were no less intricate. Eye of lamb — a length of roasted loin — came with both a tiny merguez sausage and tender sweetbreads, while an entire chicken was broken down and cooked three ways (grilled, poached and fried). The meats were juicy, flavorful, and distinctive. For the most part, the forays into international cuisines worked as well. Nuoc cham, served with the chicken, was a soy-flavored exception. But pork loin coated with achiote, served with a little squash tamale, resting atop two moles, and sprinkled with cotija cheese was excellent. It wasn’t assertively Mexican, but the diverse ingredients shared a coherent backstory.

From this grade of restaurant, at these kinds of prices, we typically demand perfection, or something close to it. Acorn was not perfect, sometimes overthinking dishes or simply not getting an element right. But even its imperfections were unique and fascinating, and nowhere in Pittsburgh is plating taken to a higher art. It’s time to get back to Walnut Street, where some of the most exciting food in Pittsburgh is being made.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

[PERSONAL CHEF]

BLOGGER GRANOLA {BY SHANNON REED} Not all treasured recipes were passed down from a Nonna, Nana or Gramma.

While I have beloved recipes from my family, my granola recipe was found online, in a random woman’s blog.

She shut it down a couple weeks after I started reading it so I’m glad I had copied the recipe — it’s delicious!

People often look at me with a mixture of disgust and envy when I mention that I make my own granola. But I don’t like most cereals and don’t have the wherewithal to actually cook much of anything first thing in the morning, yet I like to eat soon after getting up. A bowl of simple granola, customizable and filling, has made my life so much easier. I’m forever grateful to that fly-by-night blogger.

May this recipe ease your life too!

INGREDIENTS (All of these measurements are estimates.)

• 5 cups rolled oats • ½ cup toasted wheat germ • ½ cup whole-wheat flour • ½ cup flaked coconut (I usually use unsweetened) • ¾ cup sliced almonds • ½ cup honey • 1 cup water • 1 tsp. vanilla • ½ cup vegetable oil (I’ve also used olive oil successfully, coconut oil less so …)

INSTRUCTIONS Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a large rimmed cookie sheet with a silpat or parchment paper. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients well. In a smaller bowl, mix the honey, water, vanilla and vegetable oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, mixing together (and allowing the “clumps” of granola to form). Spread granola on the cookie sheet, and bake for two hours. The world will not end if you mess up and leave it baking for more than two hours, but I wouldn’t go past three. Let cool, then, break into small clusters. Store in an airtight container. To serve, add fruit (dried or fresh), some chocolate chips, or whatever else suits your fancy!

I N F O@ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM

Reed is a writer and professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

WE WANT YOUR PERSONAL RECIPES AND THE STORIES BEHIND THEM. EMAIL THEM TO CELINE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM.

Family Owned and Operated

AUTHENTIC & FRESH

{CP PHOTO BY JOHN COLOMBO}

Inside the new Tina’s in Bloomfield

[ON THE ROCKS]

GOODBYES AND HELLOS Two bars gone, and a satisfying newcomer {BY DREW CRANISKY} 2017 IS DRAWING to a close, which means

it’s time for me to look back at the year in drinks. Usually, I write about the new things, the bars and breweries that arrived on the scene. And though there were plenty of exciting openings this year, I want to take a moment to remember a couple of bars we lost.

This year, two closings hit home for me: Tender Bar + Kitchen and the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern. When I moved to Pittsburgh, in 2012, I ended up in a house on the edge of Bloomfield. My new roommate and I would walk to bars in the area to play cards and celebrate finishing gradschool assignments. These were the places we got to know each other, and began to realize we wanted to be more than friends.

We’ve been together for almost five years now.

Those two bars hold cherished memories of our awkward getting-to-know-you phase. We drank mint juleps at Tender on Derby Day, and Corpse Revivers on Halloween. We knocked back Straubs at the BBT and fell down in the snow on a tipsy, giggly walk home.

The bars themselves, of course, couldn’t have been more different. Bloomfield Bridge Tavern was a friendly, divey joint with cheap beer, great Polish food, and a creepy basement bathroom. Tender was a cocktail palace, a stately (if a bit stuffy) haven for complex cocktails and rare spirits. Both had their charms, and I

was sad to see them go.

But in their wake come new places to forge memories. I’m most excited to find the ones that fall somewhere in between those bygone bars: watering holes that have the warm neighborhood feel of BBT alongside the ambition and quality of Tender. Most recently, my girlfriend and I found this magical combination at Tina’s, the bar that took the place of Teabag’s, in Bloomfield.

From the moment you walk in, Tina’s feels right. The retro furnishings and a huge mural of an idyllic outdoor scene give it the look of a roadside bar from the 1960s. A jukebox (a real one, with real 45s) spins an impressive selection that ranges from deep soul cuts to local rock bands. I picked a few tunes, and we grabbed menus from the friendly bartender.

And what a menu it is. It’s smart without being fussy, and the prices are incredible. The most expensive cocktails are still only $9, and well worth it: I particularly enjoyed the Scorched Earth, a negroni riff with mezcal and Cynar. Or you could just grab a $3 I.C. Light pounder, put some Barry White on the jukebox, and remember why you fell in love.

As craft becomes commonplace, I hope we see more places like Tina’s. And in a strange world that seems to get only stranger, we could all use a good place to escape.

5523 Walnut Street • Shadyside • 412-621-6220

mercuriosgelatopizza.com

FROM THE MOMENT YOU WALK IN, TINA’S FEELS RIGHT.

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MEXICAN RESTAURANT AND BAR

IN THE STRIP DISTRICT

NEW MENU

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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: BUTTER & FAT

SOON! TORTILLAS MADE FRESH DAILY!

s 2031 Penn Ave [at 21ST] 412.904.1242 @casareynamex

WE CATER!

VS.

Acacia

The Commoner

2108 E. Carson St., South Side

458 Strawberry Way, Downtown

DRINK: Duc Fyffe INGREDIENTS: Kerrygold butter-washed Slane Irish Whiskey, banana, blackstrap bitters, Angostura bitters, sea salt OUR TAKE: Malty notes from the whiskey combine with the sea salt and butter, bringing a homemade caramel-like quality to this drink. It doesn’t strike the palate as overly sweet because of the oakiness of the whiskey and spice of the bitters. The texture is incredibly smooth.

DRINK: Turducken INGREDIENTS: Duck fat-washed Wild Turkey 101 Rye Whiskey, Laird’s straight apple brandy, sage-maple syrup, lemon, local apple cider OUR TAKE: The sage is very fragrant and lends nice herbal notes throughout the drink. Apples are the star of the show for this cocktail, and the duck fat mellows their tartness. Maple adds dark sweetness, and cider provides light effervescence.

This is Sound Bite signing off.

Thank you for listening! Tune into our archive at www.pghcitypaper.com to hear past episodes.

One Bordeaux, One Scotch, One Beer Deep Eddy Ruby Red Grapefruit Flavored Vodka $6/1½-ounce pour “It tastes more like an infused vodka as opposed to a flavored one.

It’s nice real-fruit flavor that’s easy to cocktail with.”

RECOMMENDED BY SHEILA GEISLER, BARTENDER AT STUFF’D PIEROGI BAR

Deep Eddy Ruby Red Grapefruit Flavored Vodka is available at Stuff’d Pierogi Bar.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

DARKEST HOUR EDGES CLOSE TO OLD-FASHIONED CINEMATIC HAMMINESS

THE SAME OLD BULL {BY WILL ASHTON} Blue Sky Studios excels at mediocrity.

The animation outfit behind Rio and the Ice Age franchise has mostly safeguarded itself from creative challenges, thus creating two decades of children’s entertainment that’s more forgettable than offensive. While the studio is not without the occasional win — the first Ice Age movie was fun, and The Peanuts Movie was delightfully blissful nostalgia — most of its recent output is placeless and too conventional. Plots are recycled.

There are liberal bouts of bathroom gags.

Yappy side characters energetically appeal to undemanding kids. There’s little in here you haven’t seen elsewhere.

Ferdinand, among the flowers

Its latest film, Ferdinand, directed by Carlos Saldanha and adapted from the popular children’s book, is no exception.

While harmless and good-humored, it’s almost viciously bland. It follows a bighearted bull (voiced by John Cena) who, like the best of us, is a lover, not a fighter.

Despite his hulking, imposing size, he’d rather frolic and sniff flowers than charge at matadors. There are lessons about love, compassion and acceptance, but it’s all routine. The voice cast, including Kate McKinnon and, weirdly, Peyton Manning, is serviceable, and the animation is vibrant, especially when lingering on gorgeous Spanish locales. But nothing grabs you. It’s too easy to call it bullshit, and anyway that would give it too much distinction.

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Tis the season for cheesy made-for-TV holiday movies! New this year: The Sweetest Christmas, starring Hallmark Channel favorite Lacey Chabert, covers all the basics: small town, woman with cra crappy boyfriend, handso handsome single dad from her past, a and a holi holiday bak baking cont contest with a lifechang changing pr prize.

Br Bring on the te tears!

Recording history: Lily James and Gary Oldman

MAN OF THE HOUR {BY AL HOFF}

I

N 2017, there were three new films about

.the World War II military evacuation at .Dunkirk: Christopher Nolan’s experiential eponymous drama that zoomed in on the logistics of the troop transport; Their Finest, from Lone Scherfig, depicting a crew turning the event into a wartime propaganda film; and now, Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour.

Of the three, Darkest Hour is the most traditional — a handsomely produced, dialogue-driven history lesson that rests on the broad shoulders of its indelible protagonist, Winston Churchill. The film is set during a fraught few weeks in May and June of 1940 in which the British government struggles with assorted crises. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin has stepped down, and Churchill is grudgingly appointed in his stead; Hitler is sweeping across Europe, and some in Britain want to sign a peace treaty to stave off invasion; British troops are trapped on the French coast, at Dunkirk; and Churchill himself wrestles with both his new position (“It’s not a gift, it’s revenge,” he complains) and the fearsome decision that current events demand.

Wright mostly presents a snapshot of

Churchill we know — the thunderous orator of newsreels; the stalwart Englishman who held fast against Hitler; the rumpled curmudgeon, armed with wit and fat cigars. And he’s tackled with some skill by Gary Oldman, who all but disappears beneath prosthetics, padding and lumbering, yet who rises above caricature. Oldman delivers a canny but flawed man — a male diva of sorts, whose outward showmanship and bravado masks worry and doubt. (But what is a politician, after all?)

DARKEST HOUR DIRECTED BY: Joe Wright STARRING: Gary Oldman, Ben Mendelsohn, Lily James Starts Fri., Dec. 22

CP APPROVED Like its main character, Darkest Hour is a sturdy, well-padded affair. There are perfect interiors you long to rummage around in, and just-so costumes. A slew of respectable actors orbits Oldman, including Kristen Scott-Thomas as Churchill’s wife;

Lily James, as his secretary; and Ben Mendelsohn, as King George VI. Darkest Hour edges close to old-fashioned cinematic hamminess — cheer as Churchill defeats the upper-crusty naysayers, or snicker when he terrorizes his secretary with his mannered boorishness (dictating from the tub, he bellows: “I’m coming out in a state of nature!”). Truthfully, audiences secretly love that sort of stuff, perhaps even more so when it’s wrapped up all “respectably British.” If Wright pushes this indulgence too far, it’s in a preposterous scene in which Churchill rides the subway, polling plucky Londoners.

It all builds to Churchill’s famous address in which he committed Great Britain to the war — “never surrender!” It is the crescendo of this otherwise buttoned-up political melodrama, and Oldman and Wright give it all they have. Should you have any doubt that this is a defining performance even in the context of historical reality, the scene even receives a contemporaneous review from Churchill’s opponent, the treatydesiring Lord Halifax: “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”

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Irving Berlin classics such as “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” and “Blue Skies.” Dec. 20-25. Row House Cinema

FILM CAPSULES CP

= CITY PAPER APPROVED

CHRISTMAS EVIL. Lewis Jackson directs this 1980 cult horror thriller about a man whose mind was warped in childhood by a primal Yuletide scene and who grows increasingly obsessed with Christmas. He keeps a “naughty or nice” list, and administers it in bloody fashion. 9:50 p.m. Wed., Dec. 20, and midnight, Sat., Dec. 23. Row House Cinema

NEW ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD. Ridley Scott directs this docudrama about the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, grandson to one of the world’s richest men, who balks at paying a ransom. Michelle Williams, Mark Wahlberg and Christopher Plummer star. Starts Mon., Dec. 25

MONTY PYTHON’S LIFE OF BRIAN. It’s not the story of Jesus, but that of some guy named Brian who lived nearby. The Monty Python gang takes on the New Testament in this irreverent 1979 comedy.

Free admission with a donation of a non-perishable or canned food item. 5:30 p.m. Fri., Dec. 22; and 5:30 p.m. Sat., Dec. 23. Regent Square

DOWNSIZING. Would you shrink yourself if such a procedure allowed you to enjoy a nicer lifestyle? That’s the call Matt Damon makes in Alexander Payne’s new comedy.

FATHER FIGURES. Lawrence Sher directs this comedy in which two brothers (Owen Wilson, Ed Helms) hit the road in search of their real father.

J.K. Simmons, Ving Rhames, Christopher Walken and Terry Bradshaw co-star.

Father Figures THE GREATEST SHOWMAN. Michael Gracey directs this musical biography about the birth of show business as conceived by P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman).

JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE. Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan star in this reboot of the 1995 film, in which four teenagers fall into a video game and become their avatars. Jake Kasdan directs.

In 3-D, in select theaters.

PITCH PERFECT 3. The lively ladies of a capella singing are back. After splitting up, the Bellas reunite to perform in a USO show. Anna Ken-

drick, Hailee Stanfield and Rebel Wilson head up an ensemble cast; Trish Sie directs.

THE SHAPE OF WATER. In a 1960s research lab, the discovery of an experimental aquatic creature changes the lives of the workers. Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) directs this supernatural tale; Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer and Michael Shannon star.

REPERTORY THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY. Malcolm D. Lee’s 2013 holiday movie is like that perennial dessert, fruitcake: It’s packed with little bits of everything —

motherhood, fatherhood, a baby, a funeral, amateur obstetrics, God, lack of God, cat fights, sexting, a career-defining NFL game, interracial romance, commitment, lack of commitment, Santa, raucous comedy, tears, men without shirts, ample bosoms, prayer, cursing and a lot of Showcase Mega Mansion. Free admission with donation of a non-perishable or canned food item. 8 p.m. nightly, Dec. 20-21 (Regent Square). Also 8 p.m. Fri., Dec. 22, and 8 p.m.

Sat., Dec. 23 (Harris) IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Take the time for Frank Capra’s beloved 1946 holiday classic, in which a harried man (Jimmy Stewart) rediscovers the simple joys of life. See it on a big screen. Free admission with a donation of a non-perishable or canned food item.

5:30 p.m. nightly Dec. 20-21, and 7:30 p.m. nightly Dec. 22-23 (Regent Square). Also 5:30 p.m. Fri., Dec. 22, and 5:30 p.m. Sat., Dec. 23 (Harris).

DIE HARD. It’s pretty much the worst way to spend Christmas Eve, single-handedly defending a Los Angeles skyscraper against a dozen terrorists. But New York cop John McLane (Bruce Willis) makes it look fun. John McTiernan directs this 1988 actioner that made Willis a big-time movie star. Dec. 20-25.

Row House Cinema HOME ALONE. Kevin (Macauley Culkin) is accidentally left behind when his family heads out for the holidays, and this proves to be very bad news for a pair of burglars. Chris Columbus directs this 1990 comedy that made a star of the face-palming Culkin. Dec. 20-25. Row House Cinema NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION. For my money, the funniest entry in the “Vacation” franchise, because it taps a universal truth: Other people’s behavior ruins your holidays, while your behavior contributes to other people’s misery. It’s all about giving and getting! Everyman Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) tries to lay on the perfect Christmas, but is undercut by his low-rent cousin (Randy Quaid), uptight neighbors, demanding elderly relatives, his boss, a squirrel and a tangle of Christmas lights.

Jeremiah S. Chechik directs this 1989 neo-classic holiday comedy, penned by John Hughes. Dec. 2025. Row House Cinema WHITE CHRISTMAS. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye are a pair of entertainers who travel to Vermont with two singing sisters (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen) for the holidays. Once there, the men discover the country inn is run by their old Army general, and he’s in financial straits. Looks like a big musical show might be the ticket! Besides the title song, Michael Curtiz’s 1954 film includes other

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

GREMLINS. The little furry guys sure are cute, but when the rules get broken, hordes of misbehaving gremlins get loose, unleashing comic mayhem on a small town. Joe Dante directs this 1984 comedy.

This special screening includes a beamed-in conversation with Dante about the making of the film, as well as fun activities at the theater. 2 p.m. Sat. Dec. 23. Hollywood AN AMERICAN TAIL. Among the many 19th-century immigrants to the U.S.A. was Fievel Mousekewitz, a Russian mouse. Don Bluth’s 1986 animated family comedy tells his story. Free admission with a donation of a non-perishable or canned food item. 3 p.m.

Sat., Dec. 23. Regent Square Theater ALIEN. H.R. Giger’s monster and set designs are still the most impressive aspect of Ridley Scott’s 1979 outer-space horror show. With only the barest of ’70s-style conspiracy subplots, the film is as lean and mean as its titular critter (though not nearly as slimy): Spaceship has monster on board; kill monster before it kills you. Scott engineers a series of differently calibrated scares, culminating in a cunningly contrived final confrontation with hero-by-default Sigourney Weaver. Still, the thin characterizations and thinner story wouldn’t amount to much without the dazzling design work. That’s especially true of Giger’s biological-mechanical creature, a walking nightmare if there ever was one on film. Dec. 26-30 and Jan. 1-4. Row House Cinema (Bill O’Driscoll) BRINGING UP BABY. Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant star in Howard Hawks’ classic 1938 screwball romance. She’s a madcap heiress, and he’s a stuffed shirt of a paleontologist. There’s her pet leopard, another big cat on the loose, an important bone that’s gone missing — and no end of delightful confusion designed to bring two mismatched souls to the altar. Dec. 26-30 and Jan. 1-4. Row House Cinema THE IRON GIANT. While kids will dig this sweet story about a giant robot from the sky, there’s plenty for the adults to enjoy in Brad Bird’s 1999 animated feature based on a tale from the late poet Ted Hughes. The iron man — who is probably a gigantic defense system from outer space — doesn’t just land in Maine; he lands smack dab in the middle of the Cold War, and all its attendant weapons hysteria and “normalizing” activities. The big guy is befriended and sheltered by a couple of town weirdos — a geeky boy and a beatnik — who humanize the towering hunk of metal. For kids, it’s a simple tale of redeeming friendship; for adults, some trenchant commentary on weapons disarmament, though I suspect even jaded adults will mist up when the giant makes his dramatic sacrifice. Dec. 26-30 and Jan. 1-4. Row House Cinema (AH) INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film follows a group of American soldiers during World War II as they hunt down Nazis. Dec. 26-30 and Jan. 1-4. Row House Cinema

HISTORY LESSONS

“PITTSBURGH IS A WINNING CITY.”

This week in Pittsburgh Sports History {BY CHARLIE DEITCH} DEC. 21, 1947 The city’s first NFL playoff game kicks off at Forbes Field. The Steelers lose to the hated cross-state rival Eagles.

DEC. 23, 1972 The Steelers take on the Raiders in Pittsburgh’s first playoff game in 25 years.

It’s also the day that one of the greatest plays in sports history took place — The Immaculate Reception.

Quarterback Terry Bradshaw’s pass to Frenchy Fuqua hit and bounced off the hands of Oakland’s Jack Tatum. Before the ball could hit the ground, Steeler Franco Harris scooped it up and scored the game-winning touchdown. Raiders fans say the ball hit the ground. Pittsburgh fans roundly believe they are full of shit.

DEC. 23, 2004 Allegheny County native and former NFL head coach Dave Wannstedt is named head coach of the Pitt Panthers.

Wannstedt would be out by 2010, and his dismissal would start a coaching carousel at Pitt, with six men taking the job over the next seven years.

DEC. 24, 1913 World Welterweight champion and New Castle native George Chip defeats former champion Frank Klaus at Duquesne Gardens. Chip beat Klaus for the strap two months earlier at a fight at the former City Hall in Market Square.

It was the first time Klaus had been knocked out in his career.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHRIS COWGER}

Pittsburgh Riverhounds captain Kevin Kerr (right)

KICK BACK

DEC. 24, 2005 Steelers linebacker James Harrison flattens a Cleveland Browns fan with a body slam after the fan ran onto the field during Pittsburgh’s 41-0 defeat of the Browns.

DEC. 26, 1925 The NHL’s Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Americans set an NHL record for shots on goal in a single game with 141.

The Americans win 3-1, but Pirates goalie Roy Worters makes 70 saves.

DEC. 26, 2009 The last basketball game ever is played at Mellon Arena, by the Harlem Globetrotters.

DEC. 27, 1975 The Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Baltimore Colts in a playoff game at Three Rivers Stadium. It is the first time that Terrible Towels are waved at a Steelers game.

D

ON’T EXPECT TO see the same Pittsburgh Riverhounds come 2018. Pittsburgh’s professional soccer team is undergoing some pretty dramatic changes this offseason, including a new head coach, the loss of the team’s leading scorer, and adding 2,000 seats in a stadium expansion.

This is good news for those who follow soccer in Pittsburgh closely, as the Riverhounds have seen better days. Last year, the team missed the United Soccer League playoffs for the second straight year, and the offseason lacked drama.

That’s not the case with this offseason.

There have already been several exciting moments, with more on the horizon.

Head coach Dave Brandt was let go after more than a year with the Hounds.

Riverhounds General Manager Kevin Johnston says the decision to release Brandt wasn’t personal; Brandt simply did not have the proper licensing to qualify as a USL Division 2 coach.

After back-to-back mediocre seasons, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds are shaking things up for 2018 {BY RYAN DETO} “Dave was not A-licensed, and so we had to make the change,” says Johnston.

“We like Dave and I think Dave can be a great coach.”

In January, U.S. Soccer promoted the

USL, which includes the Riverhounds, to Division 2 status. (USL was previously in Division 3.) But the change meant the Hounds needed an A-licensed coach, and they also needed to expand the seating at Highmark Stadium, near South Side’s Station Square.

Luckily for the Riverhounds, the Rochester Rhinos had some financial trouble and are currently on hiatus from the USL. This meant Rochester’s coach, Bob Lilley, needed a job, and the Riverhounds were happy to oblige.

Lilley won a USL championship with Rochester in 2015, and during two separate stints as head coach there, the Rhinos were extremely successful. “This is huge; he has never missed the playoffs,” says Johnston. “He is a proven winner,

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KICK BACK, CONTINUED FROM PG. 39

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and we hope that he continues that with the Riverhounds.”

In addition to bringing a pedigree of winning to Pittsburgh, says local soccer writer John Krysinsky, Lilley will likely contribute his own flair to the offseason process of filling in the team’s roster.

“Anytime you can bring in a coach who has won championships at this level, it is a good thing,” says Krysinsky. “[Lilley] just knows how to get things done. I spent an hour-and-a-half just talking shop with him; he has a plan and he really knows what he is doing.”

The Riverhounds’ star player, Corey Hertzog, signed with St. Louis this year, but Krysinsky notes the return of team captain Kevin Kerr and the re-signing of forward Romeo Parkes as bright spots.

Also, there are plenty of roster changes still to come, as many spots remain open.

“Expect a signings-filled offseason,” says Krysinsky.

Krysinsky says the 2018 Riverhounds will be focused on defense first and foremost. It’s this area where Krysinsky expects Lilley and Johnston to be creative in signing defensive-minded players.

Krysinsky is optimistic about the Riverhounds’ future because of the team’s strong youth-development affiliations.

K.C. McElroy writes about soccer in the

Pittsburgh Riverhounds fans cheering on the team

Pittsburgh region for his Golden Triangle Soccer Weekly newsletter. He hopes the offseason excitement will translate into more fans enjoying professional soccer in the Steel City.

“The fans’ devotion would go a long [way] to improving the team,” says McElroy. “People love soccer, and fans that love soccer need to support the team.”

McElroy too is optimistic about the Riverhounds’ chances n ext season, and expects the team to “get back into the playoffs.” He also thinks the expansion of Highmark Stadium will make watching games more exciting.

Johnston is also hopeful the changes to Highmark will bring more fans to games and events. However, he acknowledges that in the Pittsburgh sports world, just showing up is not enough to keep spectators satisfied.

“Pittsburgh is a winning city. If we do that, then I think we are going to be OK,” says Johnston.

The Riverhounds’ season kicks off in March.

Fans can stay informed on the latest team analysis and news by reading Krysinsky’s blog, Pittsburgh Soccer Report, at pittsburghsoccerreport.com, and can sign up for McElroy’s newsletter at goldentrianglesoccerweekly.com.

“ANYTIME YOU CAN BRING IN A COACH WHO HAS WON CHAMPIONSHIPS AT THIS LEVEL, IT IS A GOOD THING.”

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

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[THE CHEAP SEATS]

HOLIDAY WISHES {BY MIKE WYSOCKI} BEING DEEP into the holiday spirit this year,

I wanted to give a few gifts to Pittsburgh sports fans. We especially need them after Sunday’s crappy loss to New England.

For long-suffering Pirates fans, an exciting offseason. Baseball fans in New York are eager to see what Giancarlo Stanton can do at Yankee Stadium, Cards fans await Marcell Ozuna, and Angels fans are curious to see Shohei Otani. Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh we have to wait out an injury to minor-league pitcher Nick Burdi. To be fair, the Pirates also signed some Rule 5 draft picks. Although Rule 5 picks are usually AA players who aren’t quite good enough to be considered among an organization’s top 40 players. Well, at least they haven’t traded Andrew McCutchen … yet.

For Penguins fans, some thankfulness.

Following a 2-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, social media was abuzz with “Fleury is better than Murray” tweets.

Fleury was better that night, and career statistics prove his superiority as well. But what do fans want from Matt Murray? He’s played two seasons and won two Stanley

{CP PHOTO BY LUKE THOR TRAVIS}

Ryan Shazier in 2016

Cups. Be grateful you are not fans of the Capitals, Flyers or Rangers. Since 1975, those three teams have played a combined 126 seasons, and only the Rangers’ Mike Richter, in 1994, has won a Cup. Those teams have seen hundreds of goalies come and go, and not one of them has as much success as Matt Murray.

For fans of the Steelers, more thankfulness. In the history of the NFL, the three

coaches who have won more regular-season games than anybody else in their first 10 years are named Don Shula, Joe Gibbs, and Mike Tomlin. Pretty elite company for a coach who is routinely called on by fans to be fired. Maybe fans in Miami and Washington constantly complained about Shula and Gibbs’ “playing down to opponents” and “terrible clock management,” but it seems unlikely. Sure, the standard here is higher than, say, anywhere in Ohio. A great quarterback, running back, and maybe the most exciting wide receiver in history surely help his cause.

For the A.J. Palumbo Center, more basketball fans. This basketball revolution is not being televised, so fans have to get out to this arena on the Bluff to witness it.

Coaches Keith Dambrot, of the men’s team, and Dan Burt, of the women’s squad, are quietly assembling very respectable and fun-to-watch programs. The die-hards always show up, but it needs some new blood. Get out there and support these teams; that way you can say you were there before it was cool.

For Pitt football fans, players who want to stay. Two quarterbacks, a key offensive lineman, and the explosive Quadree Henderson are leaving Oakland early. It worked

for Joe Flacco years ago, but it’s not a blueprint for success. Kenny Pickett played outstanding quarterback for a game against the then-second-ranked Miami Hurricanes. The performance was so good that he was immediately crowned the next Dan Marino, and every other quarterback on the roster got out of town.

For fans of the Pitt Panthers basketball team, an easier schedule? Or how about a time machine? That way, Pitt could go back and sign Jamie Dixon to an unbreakable lifetime contract instead of arguing that change is a good thing. Really, it’s hard to figure out what this team needs other than starting over.

For the Pittsburgh RiverHounds and Pittsburgh Thunderbirds, a little recognition. It’s tough to get that sports dollar in a football-centric town that has hockey as its sidekick. The Hounds play in a beautiful stadium nestled between the Mon River and Mount Washington. Some of the most talented soccer players from around the world play there. The Thunderbirds sport of Ultimate Disc is immensely popular in Canada, so give it a chance — they were right about hockey.

And finally, for Ryan Shazier, a full recovery.

MI KE WYSO CKI I S A STANDU P C O ME DIAN. F O L L O W H IM O N T WIT T E R : @IT SMIK E WYSO C K I

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CLASSIFIEDS FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO PLACE A CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISEMENT, CALL 412-316-3342 EXT. 189

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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 January 9, 2018, until 2:00 P.M., local prevailing time for a Service Contract the following:

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Parent Hotline: 412-622-7920 www.pps.k12.pa.us

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Gateway Health Plan LP seeks Business Intelligence Engineer to work in Pittsburgh, PA & to be responsible for planning, designing, testing, & implementing bus. intelligence solutions through use of BI tools, technologies, & systems. Apply at www.highmarkhealth. org, keyword J110640.

HELP WANTED APPLICATION DEVELOPER HM Health Solutions Inc. seeks Application Developer to work in Pittsburgh, PA & to be responsible for analyzing, designing, coding, testing, & implementing app. enhancements w/ limited supervision. 2 yrs of exp. must incl.: 2 yrs of PEGA & PRPC design & development in Version 6 & Version 7; 2 yrs PEGA Server admin. & product installation; 1 yr w/PEGA Health Care Framework; 2 yrs in Performance tuning of the app.; & 2 yrs in SQL, HTML, Java Script, Unix Shell Scripting & Core Java. Must be PEGA certified Sr. System Architect. Apply at www. highmarkhealth.org, keyword J110952

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(MULTIPLE OPENINGS) Duolingo, Inc. seeks Product Manager – Revenue (mult. openings) to work in Pittsburgh, PA & to be rspnsbl for determining pricing strategy & designing revenue generating strategies w/ in app purchases for Duolingo; & creating monetization strategy for Duolingo w/digital advrtsng; Must possess Master’s or foreign equiv. in Bus. Admin. & Bachelor’s or foreign equiv. in Comp. Sci., Math, or Engnrng.

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Exp. must incl. 1 yr of: designing revenue generating strategies for mobile apps &/or sftwr products; analyzing website usage data; creating monetization strategies in digital industry; & preparing revenue forecasts for digital advrtsng. Must know (from any comp’d university-lvl crswrk, seminars, wrkshps, or real-world, hands-on exp.): digital ad networks (Google Adsense, Google Admob or Facebook Audience Ntwrk); web analytics platforms (Google Analytics, Omniture or Mixpanel); mrktng & product launch strategies; mrktng analytics & applied probability models in mrktng; pricing strategies & policies; descriptive stats & regression analyses; financial & managerial accounting; & corp. finance (incl. profit & loss (P&L) mgmt). Email resume & cvr ltr to jobs@duolingo.com & reference job # 648266

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ACROSS 1. Creche floor covering 6. Dessert wine 10. Brings home 14. Letter from Larissa 15. Little bit of everything 16. The surrounding neighborhood 17. “Who ___ last?”

18. Record collector’s curio 20. Middle East statesman Anwar 21. Improves 22. Sea shell seller 24. Giggly Muppet 25. Extremely disinterested 30. Central Park force 34. Letters in many Protestant church names 35. Alternative reader name 36. Horrible 37. Romania’s currency 38. Christmas figure whose prominent feature appears four times in this puzzle 42. Drummer’s setup 43. “Kids” band 45. Protagonist of the YA book “Hush, Hush” 46. ___ Rap (Lil’ Peep’s genre) 47. Brownie’s

decorative band 48. 2004 curse breakers 51. Badder than bad 53. Prohibition repealer 54. Tacked on 58. Wallclimbing plants 62. Event with a caller 63. Franco’s five 64. Out of one’s gourd 65. Prelude to a recount 66. ___ Bell (Anne Brontë’s pseudonym) 67. “___ Christmas” (classic holiday song) 68. Bela Lugosi’s role in “Son of Frankenstein” 69. Buttercup kin

11. Pennsylvania lake 12. “Far From You” author Sharpe 13. Egg holder 19. Albuquerque sch.

23. Accusatory phrase 25. Lip applications 26. Watch name 27. Biting midges 28. Conclusion 29. Near-eternities 31. “That can’t be good!”

32. Simply the best 33. Dry out 39. Sodom escapee 40. Tenure holder, for short 41. Golf’s equalizer 44. Time traveler’s

destination 48. Using only 1s and 0s 49. Racetrack has-been 50. Dead zone message 52. Having veins 54. Shade similar to electric blue 55. Sets (down) 56. Danish shoe brand 57. Animal with hoofs 59. Digging a lot 60. Milton Friedman’s subj.

61. “Call Me By Your Name” studio 62. Colin Jost’s show {LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS}

DOWN 1. Health class topics 2. Mother of Eos and Helene 3. Use a Nook 4. “Finally!”

5. Unit of energy equivalent to 3,600 joules 6. Francis’s title 7. Ken of “The Man In the High Castle” 8. More loaded 9. Invoice bottom lines 10. Insignificant amount of time

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FOR THE WEEK OF

Free Will Astrology

12.20-12.27

{BY ROB BREZSNY}

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The blunt fact is that you can’t be delivered from the old demoralizing pattern that has repeated and repeated itself — until you forgive yourself completely. For that matter, you probably can’t move on to the next chapter of your life story until you compensate yourself for at least some of the unnecessary torment you’ve inflicted on yourself. Now here’s the good news: 2018 will be an excellent time to accomplish these healings.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In 2018, one of your primary missions will be to practice what you preach; to walk your talk; to be ambitious and masterful in all the ways a soulful human can and should be ambitious and masterful. Live up to your hype in the coming months, Capricorn! Do what you have promised! Stop postponing your dreams! Fulfill the noble expectations you have for yourself! Don’t be shy about using exclamation points to express your visions of what’s right and good and just!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Years ago, when I started my career as a horoscope writer, my editor counseled me, “Always give priority to the Big Three. Romance, money and power are what people care about most.”

After a few months, he was disgruntled to realize that I wrote about how to cultivate psychological health and nourish spiritual aspirations as much as his Big Three. He would have replaced me if he could have found another astrology writer whose spelling and grammar were as good as mine.

But his edict traumatized me a bit. Even today, I worry that I don’t provide you with enough help concerning the Big Three. Fortunately, that’s not relevant now, since I can sincerely declare that 2018 will bring you chances to become more powerful by working hard on your psychological health … and to grow wealthier by cultivating your spiritual aspirations … and to generate more love by being wise and ethical in your quest for money and power.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): What binds you? What keeps you closed down and locked up? I urge you to ponder those questions, Pisces. Once you get useful answers, the next step will be to meditate on how you can undo the binds. Fantasize and brainstorm about the specific actions you can take to unlock and unclose yourself. This project will be excellent preparation for the opportunities that the coming months will make available to you. I’m happy to announce that 2018 will be your personal Year of Liberation.

get your yoga on!

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your life in the first half of 2018 will be like a psychological boot camp that’s designed to beef up your emotional intelligence. Here’s another way to visualize your oncoming adventures: They will constitute a friendly nudge from the cosmos, pushing you to be energetic and ingenious in creating the kind of partnerships you want for the rest of your long life. As you go through your interesting tests and riddles, be on the lookout for glimpses of what your daily experience could be like in five years if you begin now to deepen your commitment to love and collaboration.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You’ll soon have a chance to glide out into the frontier. I suggest you pack your bag of tricks.

Bring gifts with you, too, just in case you must curry favor in the frontiers where the rules are a bit loose. How are your improvisational instincts?

Be sure they’re in top shape. How willing are you to summon spontaneity and deal with unpredictability and try impromptu experiments?

I hope you’re very willing. This may sound like a lot of work, but I swear it’ll be in a good cause.

If you’re well prepared as you wander in the borderlands, you’ll score sweet secrets and magic cookies. Here’s more good news: Your explorations will position you well to take advantage of the opportunities that’ll become available throughout 2018.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

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These days it’s not unusual to see male celebrities who shave their heads. Bruce Willis, Dwayne Johnson, Seal, Tyrese Gibson and Vin Diesel are among them. But in the 20th century, the bareheaded style was rare. One famous case was actor Yul Brynner. By age 30, he’d begun to go bald. In 1951, for his role as the King of Siam in the Broadway play The King and I, he decided to shave off all his hair. From then on, the naked-headed look became his trademark as he plied a successful acting career. So he capitalized on what many in his profession considered a liability. He built his power and success by embracing an apparent disadvantage. I recommend you practice your own version of this strategy in 2018. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to begin.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In the Northern Hemisphere, where 88 percent of the world’s population resides, this is a quiescent time for the natural world. Less sunlight is available, and plants’ metabolisms slow down as photosynthesis diminishes. Deciduous trees lose their leaves, and even many evergreens approach dormancy. And yet in the midst of this stasis, Cancerian, you are beginning to flourish. Gradually at first, but with increasing urgency, you’re embarking on an unprecedented phase of growth. I foresee that 2018 will be your Year of Blossoming.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): If you’ve had an unfulfilled curiosity about genealogy or your ancestors or the riddles of your past, 2018 will be a favorable time to investigate.

Out-of-touch relatives will be easier to locate than usual. Lost heirlooms, too. You may be able to track down and make use of a neglected legacy.

Even family secrets could leak into view — both the awkward and the charming kinds. If you think you have everything figured out about the people you grew up with and the history of where you came from, you’re in for surprises.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Most of us regard our ring fingers as the least important of our digits. What are they good for?

Is there any activity for which they’re useful? But our ancestors had a stronger relationship with their fourth fingers. There was a folk belief that a special vein connected the fourth finger on the left hand directly to the heart. That’s why a tradition arose around the wedding ring being worn there.

It may have also been a reason why pharmacists regarded their fourth fingers as having an aptitude for discerning useful blends of herbs. I bring this up, Virgo, because I think it’s an apt metaphor for one of 2018’s important themes: A resource you have underestimated or neglected will be especially valuable — and may even redefine your understanding of what’s truly valuable.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In fairy tales, characters are often rewarded for their acts of kindness. They may be given magical objects that serve as protection, like cloaks of invisibility or shoes that enable them to flee trouble. Or the blessings they receive may be lifeenhancing, like enchanted cauldrons that provide a never-ending supply of delicious food or musical instruments that have the power to summon delightful playmates. I bring this up, Libra, because I suspect that a similar principle will be very active in your life during 2018. You’ll find it easier and more natural than usual to express kindness, empathy and compassion. If you consistently capitalize on this predilection, life will readily provide you with the resources you need.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Like all of us, you go through mediocre phases when you’re not functioning at peak efficiency. But I suspect that in 2018 you will experience fewer of these blah times. We will see a lot of you at your best.

Even more than usual, you’ll be an interesting catalyst who energizes and ripens collaborative projects.

You’ll demonstrate why the sweet bracing brightness needs the deep dark depths, and vice versa.

You’ll help allies open doors that they can’t open by themselves. The rest of us thank you in advance!

Write a parable or fairy tale that captures what your life has been like in 2017. Freewillastrology.com

GO TO REALASTROLOGY.COM TO CHECK OUT ROB BREZSNY’S EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES AND DAILY TEXT-MESSAGE HOROSCOPES. THE AUDIO HOROSCOPES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE BY PHONE AT 1-877-873-4888 OR 1-900-950-7700

Savage Love {BY DAN SAVAGE}

I am a 22-year-old Italian man, 100 percent straight, sensitive and sporty. I have been reading Savage Love for years in Internazionale. I have one question for you: Why do I always fall in love with lesbians?

Why do I instantly fall in love with girls who have that something more in their eyes? Something melancholy and perhaps insecure? Girls whom I’d rather protect and embrace than take to bed? The last three girls who fit this description all turned out to be lesbians. The last girl with whom this happened told me it was my “Red Cross” mind-set that made me fall in love with girls who are insecure/sad/melancholy, so I have a sort of selection bias that excludes most straight girls I meet. I do not believe this, because the world is full of straight girls who need saving. So why then, Dan? WHY? I have a girlfriend.

I truly love her. Since September, we have been living in two different cities because she went away to study. I am afraid that one day she is going to tell me she’s gay too. She always talks with me about a new super-cute female friend. Is she a lesbian? I have recently met another girl, super empathetic. She is gay, and I knew it after an all-night conversation in my car listening to Cigarettes After Sex. Why do I always fall in love with gay girls? Can I love two people at the same time? This is the fourth time that this has happened. Is my girlfriend gay? Why do I find lesbians so attractive? I’m freaking.

But if your girlfriend isn’t straight, ITALY, she’s likelier to be bisexual, seeing as there are roughly three times as many bi women as there are lesbian women. And if she seems gayer now than when you met, that could be because you landed a straight girl who had been suppressing her masculine swagger — which many men don’t find attractive — and she’s consciously or subconsciously come to the realization that she doesn’t have to play the girly girl around you to hold your attention. Quite the opposite, in fact.

4. It’s entirely possible to love more than one person at a time. Just as we are capable of loving more than one parent, child, sibling, friend and television show at a time, we can love more than one romantic partner at a time. But we’re told that romantic love is a zero-sum game so often — if someone wins, someone else loses — it has become a self-fulfilling/relationship-destroying prophecy. It’s a myth that harms not just people who might want to be with two people, but partnered monogamous people as well. A person who is convinced he can feel romantic love for only one person at a time will doubt his love for a long-term partner if he develops a crush on someone new. But those feelings can exist side by side — stable, secure, lasting love for a longterm partner and an intense infatuation (most likely fleeting) for a new person.

5. Cigarettes After Sex were on a boat in the Arabian Sea — they sent the pics to prove it — when I reached them about your dilemma.

Drummer Jacob Tomsky said: “About loving more than one person at the same time, a Gabriel García Márquez quote from Love in the Time of Cholera comes to mind: ‘My heart has more rooms than a whorehouse.’ Your heart will surprise you with its duplicity.” Or its capacity.

Keyboardist Phillip Tubbs wanted to share a Morrissey line with you: “’Cause I want the one I can’t have and it’s driving me mad.” Lead singer Greg Gonzalez declined to comment.

6. Maybe it’s not an accident that you keep falling for lesbians. There are lots of straight men out there who have a thing for dykes. It’s entirely possible that you aren’t worried your girlfriend is a lesbian, ITALY, but secretly hoping she is.

Good luck!

IT’S ENTIRELY POSSIBLE TO LOVE MORE THAN ONE PERSON AT A TIME.

INCREASINGLY TORMENTED ABOUT LESBIAN YEARNINGS

There’s a lot going on in your letter, ITALY, so I’m going to take your questions one at a time …

1. Maybe you always fall in love with lesbians or maybe this was a series of coincidences — by pure chance you fell for more than one woman who turned out to be a lesbian — and, hey, since you’re probably going to love a few more women over the course of your life, ITALY, that “always” seems a bit premature. It’s also possible you find women with a certain degree of masculine energy and/or swagger attractive, and women with that swagger are somewhat likelier to be lesbians, slightly upping your chances of falling in love with four girls-whoturned-out-to-be-lesbians in a row.

Personally, ITALY, I’m attracted to guys with a certain degree of feminine swagger and, needless to say, these guys are likelier to be gay. But while almost all effeminate guys are gay — so stigmatized is femininity in males (even in the gay community) — masculine swagger in women is less stigmatized and therefore somewhat less likely to correlate as strongly with lesbianism. Women with masculine swagger and men with feminine swagger are also likely to be self-conscious about their gender-nonconforming traits, particularly when they’re young and/or not yet out, and that can read as melancholy and/or insecurity.

2. Women — straight or bi or lesbian — don’t need “saving.” They need respect, they need to be taken seriously, they need bodily autonomy, and they need loving partners and political allies.

3. Your girlfriend may be a lesbian — anyone could in these highly fluid days, even me.

Are you really whining about having a president you don’t like in office? Is that so terrible that you have to get little digs in every week? That’s the problem with you liberals — you’re a bunch of wimps. Man up, dude.

MAKE AMERICA STRONG AGAIN

Gee, I don’t recall any whining from you rightwing he-men back when a black guy who didn’t collude with a hostile foreign power and wasn’t poisoning our air and water and didn’t undermine our Democratic norms and wasn’t surrounded by a cadre of deeply corrupt sycophants was president — you guys were so stoic during the Obama years, so he-manly. You ova’d up, you didn’t whine or moan, you didn’t spread wild conspiracy theories or march on Washington waving signs that proved you were every bit as misinformed as you are illiterate. (Wake up, dude.)

Give the gift of the magnum Savage Lovecast at 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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WORST PITTSBURGHER OF THE YEAR: TIM MURPHY

His penchant for lying and hypocritical behavior puts him head and shoulders above the rest {BY CHARLIE DEITCH} IF THERE WERE an Olympic event for being an overall horrible person, Tim Murphy would have won gold, silver and bronze in 2017. And that’s why he has been named City Paper’s Worst Pittsburgher of the year.

To qualify for this award, the recipient must be pompous, pious, slimy, smarmy, two-faced and hypocritical. Instead of doing work to spread goodwill and make this a better place to live, the recipient must be selfish and arrogant and only do work to advance their own career or public image. In other words, we were looking for the asshole’s asshole.

We decided in pretty short order that former Republican U.S. Congressman Tim Murphy was our guy.

The 65-year-old — whose district included mostly white, conservative areas like Upper St. Clair, Robinson and parts of Allegheny, Washington, Greene and Westmoreland counties — resigned in October after 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He had been outed by the media about an extramarital affair.

for life messages. I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”

The problem for Murphy is he has been beating the pro-life drum for years, and was lauded by anti-abortion organizations and received campaign funding from them. In fact, on the same day the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the story, Murphy voted in favor of pro-life legislation just as he has dozens of other times over his career.

To be clear, Murphy isn’t winning this very prestigious award because he had an affair. He’s the worst because of his second-to-none level of hypocrisy on matters like abortion. And, if I were a Bible-beater, I’d also ask Murphy if this is the way a God-fearing man would act. After all, those of us on the left are “godless reprobates” simply because we believe in equality for everyone and that a woman has the right to choose what happens to her body.

As if being a two-faced hypocritical jerk wasn’t enough to

FOR ENGAGING IN TOP-SHELF HYPOCRITICAL BEHAVIOR AND BEING A SHITHEAD TO THE PEOPLE IN HIS OFFICE, TIM MURPHY EASILY WALKS AWAY WITH THE WIN. Now ordinarily, I believe that someone screwing up their private life is their own business. But Murphy’s situation was special.

When the affair first came to light in September — Murphy’s name came up in the divorce proceedings of his former mistress — the U.S. Navy launched a review because adultery is a crime under the Code of Military Justice, and Murphy is a commander in the Naval Reserves. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

In October, a text surfaced between Murphy and his thengirlfriend, Shannon Edwards, in which Murphy asked the woman to get an abortion because she was apparently carrying Murphy’s child (the woman turned out not to be pregnant.)

“And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Edwards wrote in a text to Murphy.

Murphy then responded: “I get what you say about my March

secure this honor, Murphy went the extra mile by being a mean jerk to his employees. In the days after the abortion news hit, other stories surfaced indicating that Murphy was a horrible boss.

The P-G reported on a June memo from Murphy’s chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk, that said Murphy was creating a hostile work environment because of his “inability to communicate without expressions of rage, criticisms or insults.” That behavior, she wrote, resulted in a “near 100 percent turnover in one year’s time.”

So, for engaging in top-shelf hypocritical behavior and being a shithead to the people in his office, Tim Murphy easily walks away with our highly coveted Worst Pittsburgher of the Year award.

Ironically, Murphy, a psychologist who spent much of his congressional tenure working on mental-health issues, once wrote a book called: Overcoming Passive-Aggression: How to Stop Hidden Anger From Spoiling Your Relationships, Career, and Happiness. The way he’s acted, it makes you wonder if he’s actually read it.

C DE IT C H @ P G H C I T Y PA P E R. C OM

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 12.20/12.27.2017