January 31, 2017 - Pittsburgh City Paper

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EVENTS

Cornelius

2.8 – 8pm SOUND SERIES: ROSTAM UEST EST JOY AGAIN WITH SPECIAL GUEST theater The Warhol the -presented presented with WYE Co-presented WYEP Free e parking parkin in The Warhol lot.

Tickets $18/$15 members & students

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2.9 – 8pm SOUND SERIES: THURSTON MOORE: MUSIC + RADIO RADIEUX: ADIEUX: DIEUX: FILM F The Warhol arhol rhol theater theat Co-presented presented with WYEP Free parking in The Warhol lot.

Tickets $25/$20 members & students

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2.10 – 8pm SOUND SERIES: ROBERT BLACK AND ANDREA PARKINS 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

3.10 – 8pm Carnegie Lecture Hall (Oakland), Tickets $25/$20 members & students

2.11 – 1pm VINTAGE VALENTINES WORKSHOP AT ACE HOTEL Ace Hotel Pittsburgh Co-presented with Ace Hotel Pittsburgh Free; Registration is suggested

Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl

3.17 – 8pm SOUND SERIES: COUNTER)INDUCTION The Warhol theater Co-presented by the Music on the Edge series of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Music The groundbreaking NYC ensemble performs Elena Mendoza’s Nebelsplitter, Douglas Boyce’s Etude, Kyle Bartlett’s Twitch, Mario Davidovsky’s Quartetto #3, and Gabriel Erkoreka’s Rondo.

Tickets $15/$10 students and seniors in advance, $20/$15 students and seniors at the door

3.7 – 8pm 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.

The Warhol theater, Tickets $20/$15 members & students Co-presented with City of Asylum

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t c e f r e p e h t k Pic . s s a p y t i r o h t u A Port

What pass is best for you?

In for the long run. Annual Pass- Best value if you ride frequently all year long. Price includes a full year of unlimited rides. Pay for the first 11 months– the 12th month is free. Cost: $1,072.50

Take 10. Ten-Trip Pass*- So, you plan to ride but don’t know exactly when. No problem. The ten-trip pass gives you the flexibility to use according to your unpredictable schedule. Cost: $25.00

Everyday commuter? Monthly Pass- The next best option, if you prefer to pay each month instead.

Receive unlimited rides, just not the free month.

Valid for a calendar month beginning with the first day and ending on the last. Well worth it if you intend to ride at least 20 days per month. Cost: $97.50

Forget Cash. Stored Cash Value- Provides the same flexibility as a ten-trip pass and will save you from paying an extra $.25 if you use cash.

Stored cash value is required in order to purchase a $1 electronic transfer. Cost: Load any value up to $200

Taking it one week at a time. Weekly PassA good short-term option if you plan to ride often throughout a specific week. Receive unlimited rides for a calendar week Sunday through Saturday. Cost: $25.00

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

One day at a time. Single Trip Pass/Single Trip Pass with Transfer- A great option for occasional riders and visitors. Perfect if you just need a one-way ride to or from an event or want to see Downtown Pittsburgh at night from the Monongahela Incline. Cost: $2.50/$3.50

Taking it day by day. Day Pass*- Your best option for unlimited rides for one service day.

The pass is valid from first tap on a farebox to the end of Port Authority service that same day.

Cost: $7.00 Passes are available on a Connectix, the paper version of an electronic smart card, and can be purchased at any ConnectCard Vending Machine.

01.31/02.07.2018 VOLUME 28 + ISSUE 05

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“THEY SHOULD RESTRUCTURE THE RULES SO THEY CAN GET RID OF BAD POLICE OFFICERS.”

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On City Paper’s Politicrap blog, we examine how Donald Trump’s actions in Washington, D.C., impact people here in Pittsburgh. Check it out at www.pghcitypaper.com.

Introducing #PGH360, photo intern Jake Mysliwczyk’s new weekly Instagram feature where he’ll be taking a 360-degree tour of the city skyline.

Look for a new photo every Tuesday at Instagram.com/pghcitypaper.

CP is part of 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.

{SOURCE: THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH}

Leon Ford’s recent $5.5 million settlement nearly equals the amount of all civil-rights settlements from the past decade.

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N 2009, the City of Pittsburgh ap-

proved a $3.7 million settlement for musician Thomas Doswell. The settlement was the result of Doswell’s decades-long struggle to clear his name after he was falsely arrested and imprisoned in 1986.

Doswell spent 19 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of rape. He was ultimately freed following the results of a DNA test in 2005.

His $3.7 million settlement was the highest the city had seen in recent years, until now. This month, the city announced it had reached a $5.5 million settlement with Leon Ford, a man who was paralyzed after a Pittsburgh police

officer shot him during a routine traffic stop in 2012.

Settlements resulting from alleged police misconduct are costing Pittsburgh taxpayers millions. What can be done to lessen the burden? {BY REBECCA ADDISON} Last year, Ford’s civil suit against the Pittsburgh police officers involved in the stop went to trial. The jury deadlocked on

a claim of excessive force against David Derbish, the officer who shot Ford five times, paralyzing him. The other officers at the scene were cleared of wrongdoing by the jury, and the suit against Derbish was expected to go back to court this month before it was settled.

“After five years of arduous litigation, all parties are pleased to announce that we have reached an amicable resolution in the federal lawsuit Leon Ford brought following the November 11, 2012 shooting incident,” Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said in a statement. “The City has agreed to pay Mr. Ford and his attorneys $5.5 million dollars. This settlement is in the best interest of Mr. Ford, Officer Derbish CONTINUES ON PG. 08

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

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COST OF LIVING, CONTINUED FROM PG. 06

and the City of Pittsburgh, and will provide all involved the closure needed to move forward in a positive direction.”

City Paper asked the city for records of all settlements resulting from civilrights complaints over the past 10 years.

According to those numbers, from 20082017, the city had paid out $5,781,178.26 in settlements. At $5.5 million, Ford’s settlement alone nearly equals the price tag for police settlements doled out over the prior decade.

In light of the financial challenges facing the city, Ford’s multimillion-dollar settlement might be hard to swallow.

Since 2004, the city has been operating under Act 47, a recovery program designed to help distressed municipalities strengthen their finances. And many city sectors — including the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, which has been in the news regularly for problems resulting from crumbling infrastructure — are in need of costly updates.

Many believe Ford’s settlement is necessary to repair the damage he has suffered. But should taxpayers carry the burden of alleged police misconduct?

Whether it’s making police officers personally liable for their actions or requiring changes to police-department policies and procedures, advocates say the city must do more to hold police accountable, not taxpayers.

“You can’t help but look at the settlement of Leon Ford and be grateful that that young man is going to be taken care of,” says Beth Pittinger, director of the Citizen Police Review Board. “It’s outrageous that we’re paying $5.5 million to settle a case that resulted from a police officer’s conduct. You can never make Leon Ford whole, but we sure as hell cannot tolerate officers acting in such a cavalier fashion.”

From 2008-2017, the city paid 43 settlements resulting from claims of police misconduct including excessive force,

false arrest and imprisonment, and freespeech violations. The payment amounts ranged from $995 to $250,000, the highest amount of any settlement from the past decade, not counting Doswell’s.

“Mr. Ford is just one example,” says attorney Todd Hollis, who represented an individual who received a $40,000 settlement from the city in 2015. “Payments like these are to compensate victims for injuries they have sustained at the hands of police. I don’t know that you can put a price tag on it.

“If the community is upset about these large payouts, they should be upset about the police officers in the department. They should restructure the rules so they can get rid of bad police officers.”

Hollis’ client Paul Parrish was involved in a police chase in 2012. Hollis says Parrish eventually came to a stop and exited the vehicle with his hands up in a gesture of surrender when he was pistol-whipped by a Pittsburgh police officer.

“If you want to avoid these situations, perhaps they should be more cognizant of hiring better-trained police officers who work within the boundaries of the law,” Hollis says. “There is no excuse for a police officer to pistol-whip anyone. Particularly someone who has their hands up and has surrendered. There are some very good police officers who have never had to use their guns.”

(Two years after Parrish received the settlement, a 3-year-old girl shot and killed herself with a gun found in his home. Parrish was barred from owning a firearm due to a prior conviction. A few months later, he was arrested by Pittsburgh Police’s Narcotics and Vice Unit after a month-long drug investigation.)

Hollis says the police bureau must do more to discipline officers, including firing them. For example, Derbish, the officer who shot and paralyzed Ford, remains on the force.

“Certainly after they spent that money, why in the world are those police officers

still enforcing the law? Why are they still there?” Hollis says. “The solution to the problem should begin with the government no longer employing these police officers.”

Pittinger, of CPRB, says the bureau has seen improvements in holding officers accountable in recent years. She says former Chief Cameron McLay set the bureau on a path to correct these problems, and current Chief Scott Schubert is continuing that work.

“What we’re seeing is holding officers to standards and making sure they’re trained to meet those standards,” Pittinger says. “It’s different from where we were maybe 15 or even 10 years ago.

Over the last several years they have improved the relationship with the community. You can’t always measure these things, but you can notice that there is a difference with the tension level. They’re making a concerted effort to professionalize the officers.”

In addition to these changes, CPRB has suggested requiring all officers to carry the equivalent of law-enforcement malpractice insurance. The recommendation was discussed with Mayor Bill Peduto’s administration when he first took office, but Pittinger says she was told it wasn’t an option for officers in Pennsylvania. The mayor’s office and the police bureau declined to comment for this story.

“Several years ago, we looked at whether you can hold someone responsible for the amount of civil damages a city absorbs because of their actions,” Pittinger says. “If there’s no finding, what do you do? How do you still hold that person responsible if no one has determined if they are responsible? That’s an incredibly gray area.”

But the city has tried to hold an officer personally responsible, at least partially, in recent years. In 2011, the city paid $40,000 to Kaleb Miller following CONTINUES ON PG. 10

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a claim of excessive force against Pittsburgh police officer Paul Abel. In June 2008, Abel allegedly assaulted Miller and shot him in the hand while off duty.

Abel’s homeowner’s insurance was supposed to pay out an additional $4,500 as part of the settlement for Miller, but the decision was ultimately overturned and the city ended up picking up the tab for the additional $4,500. Following the incident, Abel was fired, charged criminally, acquitted by a judge and then given his job back by an arbitrator.

“It’s time for some policies that make it clear that there’s going to be some personal responsibility when any employee acts beyond the scope of their duties or outside of policy, and there’s going to be some consequence for it,” says Pittinger.

“Right now, that’s not the world we live in.”

Instances of alleged police misconduct aren’t the only cases where the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has cost the city money over the past decade. In 2015, the city reached a $985,000 settlement with a group of African-American applicants to the police force. The federal class-action lawsuit against the city alleged that the police department had a “longstanding pattern and practice of racial discrimination against African-

Americans in its hiring process for entrylevel police officer positions.”

That case was handled by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. The group has been involved in several civil-rights suits against the police bureau over the past 10 years, including four that resulted from the international G-20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009.

The G-20 cases were not included in the numbers the city sent CP because these settlements were paid by an insurance policy the city took out to cover the summit. According to the ACLU, these settlements totaled approximately $800,000.

The ACLU often works on free-speech cases where clients say the police department has infringed on their First Amendment rights. Over the past decade, the city settled five civil-rights claims involving free speech or religious freedom.

“We’ve had numerous complaints about police officers citing people for disorderly conduct for using profanity,” says Sara Rose, senior staff attorney with ACLU Pennsylvania. “We had a case where a guy was driving and had given

another driver the middle finger, and a police officer saw him, pulled him over, and issued him a citation.”

In that case, the ACLU obtained a $50,000 settlement for its client, David Hackbart. But the group also had the city agree to change its training policies.

“Part of the settlement was the city would provide additional training to all officers on the constitutional rights of individuals using profane languages or gestures, that they would adapt a procedure whereby supervising officers review citations for summary offenses written by officers or personnel in the field on a regular basis,” says Rose.

As a result of this change, Rose says the ACLU has received significantly fewer complaints about police officers issuing citations for the use of profanity in Pittsburgh.

“When we settle a case, we can ask to incorporate anything, so that’s one of the reasons we bring these kinds of damages cases, with hope that we’ll be able

“RIGHT NOW, THAT’S NOT THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.”

to settle them with some kind of changes to training and policy,” Rose says.

The ACLU also worked on the case of Dennis Henderson, a Pittsburgh Public Schools teacher who was arrested after he made a comment to a police officer whom he says was speeding down a residential road. Henderson received a $52,500 settlement in 2015, and the city ended up changing its procedures for tracking pedestrian stops.

“At the time, if an officer stopped a pedestrian on the street and even frisked them, they weren’t even tracking those stops,” Rose says.

These kinds of policy changes tied to settlements are something Rose would like to see more of. Only in this way, she says, can the city ensure that such incidents don’t continue.

“We have limited resources, so we try to use our litigation to achieve broader goals,” says Rose. “Obviously, we want to represent the interests of the person whose case it is, but we don’t just want to get relief for them. We want to get broader relief for everybody so we don’t have to go back to court again in two years.”

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NEW COMMUTES Analyzing the changing ways Pittsburghers get to work {BY RYAN DETO}

“PEOPLE WILL BIKE IF THEY FEEL IT IS SAFE FOR THEM TO DO SO.”

RYAN DETO @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M

PITTSBURGH ALLEGHENY COUNTY REGION

80%

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BIKING Bike commuting saw the sharpest increase of any commuting mode in the city. Overall, it’s still a very small percentage of commuters, but in six years it nearly doubled, to 2 percent.

Ricks says the increase in bike infrastructure and protected bike lanes has encouraged more commuters to get on their bikes.

“I think one thing that is leading to an increase is actually having safe facilities,” says Ricks. “There is a lot of pent-up demand. People will bike if they feel it is safe for them to do so.”

The city of Pittsburgh had 1,704 bike commuters in 2010 and had 2,964 in 2016, an increase of 1,260 bike commuters. Ricks is proud to see more bike commuters considering the city’s winter climate and hilly topography, and she expects to see even more bikers in the future. “We fully anticipate that mode share will continue to tick up,” she says.

20%

15%

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5% 2011

2012

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DRIVING ALONE Despite the gains in bike commuting, and the continued presence of a large amount of pedestrian commuters, the city, county and region still saw an increase in commuters driving to work alone. The city of Pittsburgh’s number of drive-alone commuters rose 2.4 percent from 2010 to 2016.

In that time, Pittsburgh added 6,874 car commuters. In the region overall, driving alone remains the most popular mode of commuting, with 77.5 percent of residents participating, an increase of about .5 percent since 2010.

Ricks says the increase is likely tied to the improved economic standing of some Pittsburghers, since wealthier individuals typically choose the pricier option of driving over biking or public transit. “We don’t want to judge the people who have to commute,” says Ricks, who adds that some commuters might not have the option to avoid driving. “But, generically speaking, there’s a correspondence of more driving with people’s improved economic fortunes.”

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PITTSBURGH ALLEGHENY COUNTY REGION

PITTSBURGH IS CHANGING. From revitalized business districts and construction of luxury apartments to the disappearance of some long-loved establishments, Pittsburghers have different destinations now. And the way they are getting to those new destinations is changing, too.

By looking at U.S. Census data, Pittsburgh City Paper analyzed the changing commuter patterns of Pittsburghers. From 2010-2016, residents of the city, Allegheny County and the region as a whole have adjusted the way they get to work. All three areas saw an increase in the number of workers, but the city of Pittsburgh saw the largest gain, a 4.3 percent jump.

More people are biking to work, even as more people are commuting alone in cars. Overall, fewer people are using public transit. Still, some things remained the same. About 11 percent of Pittsburgh workers still commute by foot; this is among the highest percentage of pedestrian commuters in the country.

Karina Ricks, director of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, is encouraged by those biking and walking numbers, as they can help reduce traffic. But she believes the city can do more to help people get out of their cars.

“We need to make a big push to make it really easy ... for people to use these alternative modes,” says Ricks. “At the same time, I think there are a lot of people using those [non-driving] modes a lot more. But we are capable of so much more.”

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

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PUBLIC TRANSIT Like most cities and regions across the country, Pittsburgh saw a decrease in commuters using bus or rail to get to work. Between 2010 and 2016, the region lost 2,605 transit commuters; the city lost 2,350. Ricks attributes these losses to two factors: better economic situations for more Pittsburgh residents and a lack of investment in public transit.

“The economic rise is definitely [a cause of transit losses],” says Ricks of commuters who can now afford to drive. “This is part of the reason we need to make investments in transit.” Ricks says investments to simplify and add frequency to transit service, like the proposed Bus Rapid Transit line from Oakland to Downtown, will help increase city transit commuting.

Even as Pittsburgh lost transit commuters, two suburbs in Allegheny County, Bellevue and Wilkinsburg, saw substantial gains of transit commuters, into the hundreds. Ricks says those suburbs saw public-transit growth because they have good transit service. Both Bellevue and Wilkinsburg are served by multiple bus lines with frequent service.

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After spending the past 1,100 or so moons with this organization, arts editor Bill O’Driscoll is packing up his desk and moving on. Starting Monday, he will be the arts and culture reporter at WESA. I would say he’s their “new” arts and culture reporter, but Bill’s been covering this beat for so long, it would be an insult to imply otherwise.

I found out who Bill was when I started working at City Paper’s former rival, In Pittsburgh back at the turn of the century. I was writing a story about the surge in local MMA fighters (it was still illegal in Pennsylvania). I was told that about 18 months before I did my story Bill had done one entitled, “I Know Why the Caged Man Swings.”

“Screw that,” I thought: Mine, entitled the “Fine Art of Ass-Kicking” was way better.

Today, I can finally admit, it wasn’t. The fact is, Bill is one of the best writers in this city, bar none. Not that I’m going out on a limb. Ask just about anyone who’s read his work, and they’ll confirm that. I admire Bill for his longevity here, not simply because of the length of time but because of a work ethic that has never waned. He gives the same effort today as he always has.

Here we are, four days away from his departure and he’s helping us out by planning out his section for the next few weeks. But, I’m not surprised. It’s the kind of person he is, the kind of coworker he is and the kind of leader he is. He’s taught me a lot in the past 13 years and he will be missed.

But enough of all that sappy crap. This column was to thank Bill for his contributions to this paper.

And to do that, I thought I’d share my favorite stories written by Bill over the years.

— and avoid conflicts with, say, irresponsible bandmates.”

“There Will Be Crud” (April 23, 2009) Long before people really started talking about the dangers of fracking, Bill went to Washington County to tell the story of landowner Ron Gulla. He had signed an agreement to let Range Resources extract gas from underneath his 141 acres. What he got, he said, was contaminated well water, sediment in his fish pond that killed the inhabitants, and a piece of land that used to be beautiful. Lamented Gulla, “Once you lease, you’ve just signed your life away.”

“Building a Movement” (June 12, 2008) When I think about Bill, I think about arts, culture and the environment. One thing I never thought of was parkour. Long before shows like American Ninja Warrior brought the sport into the spotlight, Bill was running around with a bunch of these young athletes, who themselves were running around, climbing up walls and all kinds of silly stuff. He traveled to Columbus to see athletes from all over the country, including Pittsburgh, take part in the small, but rapidly growing, sport. Said one: “It’s not a game. It’s something you want to do for life.”

My last selection isn’t a very long story.

In fact, in some respects, it was kind of a throwaway. Often, we do stories offering new ideas to make the city better. Usually they’re things that have worked elsewhere, and the city’s decision-makers roundly dismiss them. But on Jan. 6, 2011, Bill wrote a story that began with a simple question: “If sharing works for cars, why not bikes?”

It was apparently a great question because two years later, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl decided to bring the program to Pittsburgh.

Lucky for us all, someone must have read him Bill’s story.

BILL IS ONE OF THE BEST WRITERS IN THIS CITY, BAR NONE.

“Bill Dorsey’s Blues” (Feb. 1, 2007) This 7,000-word story focused on Bill Dorsey, a former blues singer of whom the great John Lee Hooker once said, “That blind boy’s up there singing his ass off.

He’s something else.” When Bill spent time with him, he was living a modest life in the Hill District and using his beautiful voice to make a living singing on street corners. Bill wrote: “Dorsey professes to shun show business. He says his brief experiences with managers have gone poorly. He also treasures his independence; as a street singer, he can choose his own material — these days, he mostly sings gospel

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News of the Weird {COMPILED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL PUBLISHING}

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Ikea has taken advertising in a whole new direction with its recent print ad for a crib. The ad, which appears in the Swedish magazine Amelia, invites women who think they might be pregnant to urinate on the paper to reveal a discounted price. “Peeing on this ad may change your life,” the ad reads at the top of the page.

“If you are expecting, you will get a surprise right here in the ad.” Adweek reported that the agency behind the gimmick adapted pregnancy-test technology to work on a magazine page.

Linda Jean Fahn, 69, of Goodyear, Ariz., finally succumbed to a frustration many wives suffer. On Dec. 30, as her husband sat on the toilet, she barged in and “shot two bullets at the wall above his head to make him listen to me,” she told Goodyear police when they were called to the scene. Fahn said her husband “would have had to be 10 feet tall to be hit by the bullets,” ABC15 in Phoenix reported, but officers estimated the bullets struck about 7 inches over the man’s head as he ducked. She was charged with aggravated assault.

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An unnamed 41-year-old Chinese woman who had been suffering from fevers and breathing problems for six years finally went for a checkup in early January at a hospital in Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province, China. Doctors X-rayed and found an inch-long chili pepper in her right lung. Metro News reported that Dr. Luo Lifeng tried to remove the pepper using a probe but was forced to operate because it was lodged too deep to reach. He speculated that she had inhaled the pepper and then forgotten about it.

In more extreme-weather news from Australia, The Daily Telegraph reported on Jan. 8 that record high temperatures near Campbelltown had killed more than 200 bats, found on the ground or still hanging in trees. Cate Ryan, a volunteer with WIRES, an Australian wildlife-rescue organization, came across the flying foxes and put the word out for volunteers to bring water to rehydrate the bats that were still alive. “I have never seen anything like it before,” Ryan said. “Ninety percent of the [dead] flying foxes were babies or juveniles.”

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Chris McCabe, 70, of Totnes, England, escaped a frigid death thanks to his own quick thinking on Dec. 15. McCabe owns a butcher shop, and he had entered the walkin freezer behind the shop when the door slammed behind him. Ordinarily that wouldn’t be a problem, as a release button inside the freezer can open the door. But the button was frozen solid. So McCabe looked around the freezer and saw the shop’s last “black pudding,” or blood sausage, which he used as a battering ram to unstick the button. “They are a big long stick that you can just about get your hand around,” McCabe told the Mirror.

“I used it like the police use battering rams to break door locks in. Black pudding saved my life, without a doubt.” He believes he would have died within a half-hour in the minus4-degree freezer.

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Alyce H. Davenport, 30, and Diron Conyers, 27, of Southbridge, Mass., couldn’t make it to the funeral of Audra Johnson, Davenport’s mother, on Jan. 5 because they were busy stealing a safe from Johnson’s home. Southbridge police started searching for the pair after Johnson’s boyfriend discovered the safe was missing, reported The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. When police stopped Davenport the next day, they found the safe in the trunk of the car she was driving (also registered to Johnson) and seized it. Davenport and Conyers were arrested at a Sturbridge motel, where officers found jewelry, keys, cell phones and other documents, and the two were charged with seven counts related to the theft. “Alyce has a history of larceny, identity theft and forgery,” the police report said.

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Pesto’s Pizza Shop in Boise, Idaho, takes its pizza prep seriously. So when an employee burns a pizza, the discipline is swift and public: The worker must don an orange bag that reads “I burned a pizza,” then “walk the plank,” or the sidewalk, in front of the shop five times. Pesto’s owner, Lloyd Parrott, told KBOI TV: “You know, we gotta have some fun around here. It’s all in good fun.”

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An unnamed man tried an unconventional method to kill a wolf spider in his Redding, Calif., apartment on Jan. 7: He set it afire with a torch lighter. Unfortunately, the burning spider ran onto a mattress and caught it on fire. Residents were able to put out the mattress fire, but not before flames reached nearby drapes and a flag collection, then a nearby closet, reported the Redding Record Searchlight.

When a garden hose failed to douse the blaze, firefighters were called and prevented it from spreading to other apartments. The blaze caused about $11,000 in damage, and all the residents were able to escape unharmed.

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Daniel Bennett, 18, of Irvington, Ala., was charged in Mobile County with bestiality after “engag(ing) in or submit(ting) to any sexual contact with an animal, to wit: a horse.”

The horse’s owner, Francine Janes, and her husband became suspicious when their dogs started barking the evening of Jan. 4. They found Bennett, dressed in a trenchcoat and carrying burglar’s tools, hiding in one of their barn stalls, Janes told WPMI-TV. Bennett told Janes “he wanted to pet [Polly] the horse,” but he admitted to sheriff’s investigators he molested Polly. Janes said she suspects Bennett had visited Polly “seven, maybe 10 times,” because “toilet paper had been left. ... Items had been turned over. And that’s as far as I want to go.”

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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}

Jeff Betten THREE A.M. AND THE STARS WERE OUT SELF-RELEASED WWW.JEFFBETTEN.COM

THREE A.M. AND THE STARS WERE OUT is a release that makes a statement.

Jeff Betten approached the endeavor with intent to blow up the conventions of a typical album.

For it, Betten collaborated with Chet Vincent, Joseph Ripple, Jeremy Colbert, Erika Laing, David Manchester, Jessie Hoffman, Molly Alphabet and Karen Ramirez. The group created a work featuring folk traditionals, improvisation and original compositions; it was all produced and engineered

by J. Vega, of The Wilderness Recording Studio in Zelienople.

Rather than broken down into tracks that can be skipped through, like a traditional album release, THREE A.M. is intended for consumption in a single sitting. It’s an investment — 62 minutes of your time, to be precise. I recommend listening in the early morning as the sun rises or in the quiet of the late night.

The project is meant to reflect Betten’s upbringing in a wooded, rural pocket west of Pittsburgh, far from busy roads and noisy cities. Instead, the chorus of crickets and other talkative insects runs throughout the entire piece. This soundscape, composed of a field recording from Karen Ramirez (“Nothing but Crickets”), is reminiscent of sitting on the porch on a balmy summer night.

As each “vignette” of music unfolds during this soundscape, no tracks are brought to the forefront. Instead, it sounds like your distant neighbor playing banjo on his porch, or the whimsical instrumentals of your dreams as you drift off to sleep with your window open, the night breeze visiting you in gentle wisps.

Some of the most enticing musical vignettes on this release are provided

by Erika Laing. Her improvisations and compositions, like “The Dying Whale & The Crying Bird,” are haunting and captivating, resting quite naturally in the soundscape.

THREE A.M. AND THE STARS WERE OUT is definitely an ambitious release.

One could imagine it taking on an even larger life, as, say, the audio in an immersive audiovisual experience installed somewhere like the Mattress Factory.

SINCE YUNAHON J

UST BEFORE Oso Oso frontman Jade

Lilitri picked up the phone last week to speak with City Paper, he was doing something that one year earlier he never could have imagined: preparing for his band’s tour. And not just any tour, but a more than month-long run opening for popular emo act Tiny Moving Parts, in small- to mid-size clubs across the country. In the year since Lilitri decided to surprise what little fanbase he thought he had with a “pay-what-you-want” Bandcamp upload of his second full-length, the yunahon mixtape, his perceived ceiling for what Oso Oso could accomplish has been shattered multiple times over.

“I felt like it was kind of like the end of Oso,” he tells CP, referring to his feelings around the release of yunahon in January 2017. “I thought we weren’t gonna be touring as much, and I thought I’d be constantly recording and releasing music as like a hobby thing.”

The exact opposite occurred.

When yunahon was released, it received near-universal applause from the emo/punk scene Lilitri had come up in.

MEGFAIR@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

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{PHOTO COURTESY OF NICK KARP}

{BY ELI ENIS}

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

Jade Lilitri, of Oso Oso

Then Pitchfork got wind of album and granted it a fairly generous score of 7.8.

Now Oso is taken seriously by “serious indie-rock fans” and critics (for better or worse). Then the group nabbed a booking agent, and by the end of the year, the members had inked a deal with Triple Crown Records, essentially the ultimate destination for emo bands with the skill set to make it out of the basement circuit.

OSO OSO

7 p.m. Mon., Feb. 5. 146 44th St., Lawrenceville. $13-15. All ages. www.cattivopgh.com

For Lilitri, all of these achievements were actualizations of “lofty ambitions” and “hypotheticals” that he and his producer Billy Mannino had merely fantasized about leading up to yunahon’s release.

“We literally said, ‘Wow, what if Triple Crown put it out?’ and that happened,” Lilitri says, still in awe of being able to call his musical heroes — bands like Weatherbox and Northstar — his labelmates.

“I’ve met so many people over the last

year who’ve been involved in music who I couldn’t believe would’ve taken such an interest,” he says.

He mentioned Kenny Vasoli — frontman of the prominent, mid-2000s poppunk band The Starting Line. Vasioli, who recently pegged Oso’s buds in Prince Daddy & the Hyena to open for his band in New York City, sent Lilitri a direct message on Twitter to compliment the record. Even crazier was the notorious Brit-rock band Los Campesinos! tweeting that its album of the year was yunahon.

“Stuff like that is just so weird and wild to me,” Lilitri says. “It’s so cool to see people who actually do it and have done it, to get that affirmation that these people who make really quality stuff — I consider their stuff so far beyond mine — at least see what I’m going for.”

Although the way yunahon seemed to take off organically via the power of the internet is itself interesting, it’s not entirely uncommon. However, for a smaller band like Oso Oso, its ascent to the realm of selfserious critics and hipsters (who, again, for better or worse have a sizeable amount

of influence on building the narrative for what’s considered “cool” music) is actually pretty significant. Oso had previously seen only regional success in the almost intentionally isolationist emo and pop-punk scene, which is relatively unfashionable (by music-snob standards).

Despite feeling that Oso doesn’t fit snugly into any particular genre, Lilitri says that he wasn’t surprised that the indie-rock crossover ensued.

“You kind of feel like you fit into all these different worlds, but not enough into one completely,” he said. “There’s pop-punk elements, and emo elements, and indie. Three different crowds, three different worlds.”

“It’s really hard to explain that stuff,” he says. “Because to me, you take all these bands of those three worlds, and if you simplify it down to the lead singer playing on an acoustic guitar, all their songs come from the same world. I think the things that put them in those worlds are just like, a certain lyric here or there, or a guitar tone or drum tone.

“I don’t think we said, ‘Yo, I want this album to sound indie’ … but I definitely knew I wanted the guitars and the drums to sound a certain way. Definitely different than our previous albums.”

In many ways, yunahon feels like a genuine intersection of those worlds, which is perhaps why it’s been so well received in each of them. Songs like “reindeer games” and “out of the blue” feature anthemic, pop-punky refrains, while tracks like “the cool” and “the bearer of the truths” work with sturdy riffs and more classically indie-rock swells. The record’s narration of a romantic rise and fall is standard, though exceedingly well done, emo fare.

It’s a curiously cohesive meld of the three styles, which flow together with the precision of a carefully sequenced mixtape — the kind you spend hours into the night curating for a deep crush, the kind that needs to sound perfect.

The difference between yunahon — an album he made for whoever might listen, not whoever will listen — and whatever Lilitri makes going forward will attempt to navigate the space between self-defined perfection and the consensus of his listeners. It’s something every artist who achieves some level of popularity is forced to confront.

“I could make a record that I might think is the best thing I’ve ever done, and everybody might hate it,” he says. “To be truthful, I don’t think I’d be happy with that.”

Conversely, Lilitri says he’d be far more disappointed if he put out a record that he’s “not stoked on fully,” but that his fans end up loving.

“If I don’t feel good about it, then it doesn’t matter what people think of it.”

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BELVEDERES

BEAUTIFUL WARRIOR

PITTSBURGH AT THE GRAMMY AWARDS

{BY MEG FAIR}

{BY ALEX GORDON}

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90S NIGHT SEAN MC + DJ AMOS MON SILENT DISCO YOGA 8PM TUES KARAOKE 9PM 4016 BUTLER STREET PITTSBURGH, PA 15201 412-687-2555 WWW.BELVEDERESULTRADIVE.COM

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IT WAS A MIXED bag for Pittsburgh artists at the 2018 Grammy Awards last Sunday night. Local hardcore group Code Orange lost out to Mastodon for Best Metal Performance; the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra won Best Orchestral Performance for its recording of Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio.”

For Pittsburgh’s Jeff Betten, general manager of Misra Records and chief operating officer at Wild Kindness Records, who attended the Grammys show in New York City, the experience was a mix of exciting and boring, interesting and predictable. If you followed along with his live-tweets throughout the night, you already know his thoughts on Bono and his performance with Kendrick Lamar (he did not like it).

CP caught up with Betten via email the day after the soiree to unpack the experience.

WAS THIS YOUR FIRST TIME AT THE GRAMMYS? HOW DOES ONE GET INVITED? Yeah, this was my first time! I was actually invited as a member of The Recording Academy last year, but traveling to L.A. is kind of a drag for me. That it was in New York this year basically left me with no excuses.

DID YOU DRESS FOR COMFORT OR STYLE? I FEEL LIKE I’D GET ANTSY SITTING THERE FOR THAT LONG. So, this is something that I learned this weekend ... rented tuxes are surprisingly comfortable! To answer the question, it was style and comfort in this instance.

YOU LIVE-TWEETED THE WHOLE NIGHT. WAS THAT YOUR PLAN ALL ALONG? No, that just happened because I was starting to get bored with Lady Gaga’s performance and the vast majority of the show failed to win back my attention. I figured I’d at least try to entertain folks with something of a “behind-the-scenes” account.

SINCE 1980 MON-FRI 9AM-6PM SAT 10AM-5PM 513 GRANT AVENUE • MILLVALE Questions? Call Us 412-821-8484

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WHAT’S THE MOST SURPRISING THING ABOUT ATTENDING THE GRAMMYS? Everyone was singing the words off of a TelePrompTer! With a few notable exceptions, it was pretty shocking. You’d think

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

{PHOTO COURTESY OF JEFF BETTEN}

Jeff Betten (right), at Grammys

that if you didn’t already know the words to “Tears in Heaven” or “Wildflowers” then you’d be damn sure to learn them if you were going to take part in a Grammys tribute.

WEIRD QUESTION OF PERSONAL INTEREST. WHAT IS THE FOOD SITUATION LIKE? There’s free food and drink at the afterparty, but there wasn’t anything available during the actual ceremony at Madison Square Garden. We were all pretty hungry by the time Bruno Mars took home the last award of the night.

Menu was pretty much all comfort food, as far as I could tell ... mac-and-cheese, fried chicken, pulled pork. Absolut sponsored the open bar, so it was pretty much all vodka mixed drinks. It was hard to get drunk because the lines were pretty long.

WHAT WAS THE BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE NIGHT? Best performance for my money was Childish Gambino (who didn’t use a TelePrompTer, by the way).

WHO WOULD YOU HAVE PICKED FOR THE BIG CATEGORIES? Kendrick and Lorde were absolutely robbed. I would have let them split all the big categories!

AND FINALLY, WHAT IS YOUR BEEF WITH BONO? Bono is just the smuggest person ever. He wanted to make the debate over DACA and the DREAMers about U2 somehow. I don’t think there’s anyone else in rock ’n’ roll who just expects lavish praise as much as Bono, which is why I refuse to give him my respect.

ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Blue Soul Ten THE BEAUTIFUL WARRIOR SELF-RELEASED WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/BLUESOULTEN/

Claye Greene, the local brain and brawn behind Blue Soul Ten, created The Beautiful Warrior as the third in a trilogy of albums, beginning with The Unspoken Warrior and The Fearless Warrior. The Unspoken Warrior had more of a lounge feel; The Fearless Warrior polished the edges and created buttery R&B begging to be bumped through car speakers.

THE LAST WORK IN THE TRILOGY IS A MUCH MORE EMOTIONAL AND ACHING RELEASE. The last work in the trilogy, The Beautiful Warrior, is a much more emotional and aching release. It begins with found audio from a classic film, before sliding into the grooving, smooth R&B instrumentals that mark Blue Soul Ten’s expected sound. The first three tracks are much dancier than the rest of the album. After that, the rest of The Beautiful Warrior gives itself over to down-tempo tracks, underscored by romance and heartache, but which are still smooth and relaxing.

The breathy, female vocals on “Here I Am” accentuate the song’s air of vulnerability, and complement its subtle saxophone work. Vulnerable is something that Blue Soul Ten does brilliantly, as on the pop-tinged R&B number “Try,” which includes harp and melancholic harmonies.

“Silly Me” drips with heartbreak — its subtle guitar riffs and almost-grimy synth underbelly showing the soft, sad tone of Greene’s more emotive songwriting. No song expresses this theme as strongly as “Rain Fall,” a simple song, which weaves together the sound of a thunderstorm, reserved piano and horn riffs, and leaves its whispering vocals feeling particularly exposed.

MEGFAIR@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

CRITICS’ PICKS

Adult Mom

[ROCK] + SAT., FEB. 03

{PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLIE SHUCK}

If you had asked me a year ago to stick Noah Gundersen into a genre, I would have given him the tender title of singer/songwriter.

Alas, my sweet Seattle son is all grown up and has earned himself a juicier title — rock ’n’ roller. If you never listen to another word I say ever again, hear this: Go see this show at the Rex Theater. Planning on witnessing the birth of your first child? An uncle’s funeral?

Step-grandparents’ house-warming barbecue?

Abandon every single responsibility, cut all ties, and free yourself by going to this show. You will write me all the thank-you notes.

Emily Bennett 8 p.m. 1602 E. Carson St., South Side.

All ages. $16-18. www.rextheater.net

[EXORCISM] + SAT., FEB. 03 It’s 2018. We’ve all got some bad juju we could get rid of. Marketed as an endeavor of the scientific and artistic varieties, the purpose of this exorcising event is a loose one — meaning it’s what you make it.

The objective at the forefront of this casual little exorcism get-together is to focus the willpower of the mind to eradicate negative presences. Participants will write something down that they want erased from their life, and then they get to BURN IT IN THE STREETS. Unfinished Symphonies, one of the acts set to present that night at the Glitterbox Theater, assures that this will be the finest exorcism in town. The event also features tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, Steve Pellegrino,

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Maurice Rickard, The Tortured Genius, Emily Deferro and Matt Aelmore. EB 8 p.m. 480 Melwood Ave., Oakland. All ages. Free or $20 (your choice). www.theglitterboxtheater.com

[INDIE POP] + SUN., FEB. 04 One time I saw Adult Mom perform a show in a crowded living room in Athens, Ohio.

As vocalist/songwriter Steph Knipe sang, “Maybe in a year, I won’t feel like a bad queer” — the conclusion of “Survival” from 2015’s Momentary Lapse of Happily — I burst into loud, ugly tears.

Classic Meg! Adult Noah Mom is performing Gundersen with pop sensation and professional one-man-rock-show Chris Farren, as well as locals Rue and Lawn Care at the Mr. Roboto Project. Meg Fair 5106 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. $12-14.

All ages. www.the robotoproject.com

[BLUEGRASS] + WED., FEB. 07 The Banjo night at Elks Lodge #339 is guaranteed to have you do-si-do’ing until the cows come home, or something like that. This night is the purest celebration of the four- (or five-) stringed instrument of glory, all brought to you by the Pittsburgh Banjo Club (a thing!

How truly superb). There’s hot food and cold beer, and more importantly, steady streams of people of all ages from all walks of life.

Disclaimer: This isn’t your parents’ banjo night, but it’s also not Marcus Mumford’s. You’ll just have to see for yourself. EB 8 p.m. 400 Cedar Ave, North Side. All ages. Free. 412-321-1834 or www.thepittsburghbanjoclub.com

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

at Alloy. Unblurred at Alloy amplifies underrepresented voices to build a strong, active and vibrant community as part of DIESEL. Lex “The Hex” Master, First Fridays on Penn Avenue. New SCUM, AMB. all ages. 7 p.m. gallery exhibitions, performances, South Side. 412-431-8800. film screenings, and vendors from across the region. An art-filled experience where visitors can DIESEL. Winter Rock Challenge meet artists and expand their own Finals. Bands - TBA 7 p.m. creativity. 8 p.m. Friendship.

South Side. 412-431-8800.

412-363-3000.

KARMA. Working Breed, ANDYS WINE BAR. Amoeba Knievel, The DJ Malls Spins Vinyl.

Park Plan. 8 p.m. South 5 p.m. Downtown.

Side. 412-304-2480.

412-773-8884. ww. r w THE PALACE pape BELVEDERE’S. pghcitym THEATRE. The Ryan .co DJ admc. Dirty Pelton Elvis Tribute Show. south night. 10 p.m.

7:30 p.m. Greensburg.

Lawrenceville. 412-687-2555.

724-836-8000.

BRILLOBOX. Pandemic : Global Dancehall, Cumbia, Bhangra, Balkan Bass. 9:30 p.m. Bloomfield.

885 ROADHOUSE. Shot O’ Soul.

412-621-4900.

8 p.m. Clairton. 412-405-8561.

THE FLATS ON CARSON. DIESEL. Jawga Boyz, Dirt Road Pete Butta. 10 p.m. South Side.

Republic. 7 p.m. South Side.

412-586-7644.

412-431-8800.

ONE 10 LOUNGE. DJ Goodnight, DOWNEY’S HOUSE. Gone South.

DJ Rojo. 9 p.m. Downtown.

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

412-874-4582.

LUANNE’S ROUTE 68.

RUGGER’S PUB. 80s Night Hellin Back Band. 9 p.m. Industry. w/ DJ Connor. 9 p.m. South Side.

724-643-6508.

412-381-1330.

ROYAL PLACE. Leprosy, Neostem, Goonland and Last Will. 9 p.m.

Castle Shannon. 412-882-8000.

BELVEDERE’S. sean mc THE PALACE THEATRE. and dj thermos. 90s dance Donnie Iris & The Cruisers. 7 p.m. party. 10 p.m. Lawrenceville.

Greensburg. 724-836-8000.

412-687-2555.

CATTIVO. Illusions. w/ Funerals

ROCK/POP

FRI 02

FULL LIST ONLINE

SAT 03

SAT 03

SUN 04

THE MR. ROBOTO PROJECT. Adult Mom, Chris Farren. 7 p.m.

Bloomfield.

THE R BAR. Billy the Kid’s Steel Town All-Stars. 7 p.m. Dormont.

412-942-0882.

TUE 06 THE PALACE THEATRE. 3 Doors Down. 7:30 p.m. Greensburg.

724-836-8000.

& Arvin Clay. 9 p.m. Lawrenceville.

412-687-2157.

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.

SPIRIT HALL & LODGE. TITLE TOWN Soul & Funk Party. Rare Soul, Funk & wild R&B 45s feat.

DJ Gordy G. & J.Malls. 9 p.m.

Lawrenceville. 412-586-4441.

TUE 06 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 07 TOM’S DINER/VASTA LOUNGE. RayJack. 10 p.m. Dormont.

412-531-2350.

HIP HOP/R&B WED 07 ROCKS LANDING BAR & GRILLE. Tony Campbell feat.

Teresa Hawthorne. 7:30 p.m.

McKees Rocks. 412-875-5809.

BLUES THU 01 O’DONNA’S. The Bo’Hog Brothers.

8 p.m. Beaver. 878-313-3418.

MP 3 MONDAY MARS JACKSON

WED 07 KEYSTONE BAR. The Bo’Hog Brothers. 7 p.m. Sewickley.

724-758-4217.

DJS THU 01 THE FUNHOUSE @ MR. SMALLS. Centrifuge. Non-genre specific electronic music night showcasing aspiring fresh talent to veterans alike. 9 p.m. Millvale.

412-821-4447.

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

Downtown. 412-471-2058.

FRI 02 THE ALLOY STUDIOS. Unblurred

Each week we post a song from a local artist online for free. This week, it’s “Heart Dance,” by Mars Jackson, produced by NICE REC and Grand Ear. Mars Jackson’s delightfully dreamy R&B/pop track will have you moving your feet and falling in love on the dance floor. Stream or download “Heart Dance” for free on FFW>>>, the music blog at pghcitypaper.com.

HEAVY ROTATION

SAT 03 THE LAMP THEATRE. Bell Bottom Blues. Eric Clapton tribute. 8 p.m. irwin. 724-367-4000.

RIVERTOWNE BREWING COMPANY. Strange Brew. 7 p.m.

Export. 724-519-2145.

Here are the songs CP music writer Meg Fair can’t stop listening to:

JAZZ

IT IT

“Dawn Ever”

THU 01 SAVOY RESTAURANT. Roger Humphries & RH Factor. 8 p.m.

Strip District. 412-281-0660.

FRI 02

tUnE-yArDs

RIVERS CASINO. RML Jazz.

9 p.m. North Side. 412-370-9621.

“ABC 123”

SAT 03 CIOPPINO SEAFOOD CHOPHOUSE BAR. Lucarelli Jazz w/ Johnny Van. 7 p.m.

Strip District. 412-281-3090.

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.

Simon & Garfunkel

“America”

SUN 04 CITY OF ASYLUM @ ALPHABET CITY. Reverso. 6 p.m. North Side.

412-435-1110.

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

McKees Rocks. 412-875-5809.

MON 05 HAMBONE’S. Ian Kane, Ronnie Weiss & Tom Boyce. Jazz Standards, showtunes & blues. 6:30 p.m.

Lawrenceville. 412-681-4318.

PITTSBURGH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. Bill Carter & Stuart Malina. 7 p.m. East Liberty.

412-924-1345.

TUE 06 RILEY’S POUR HOUSE. Martin Rosenberg. 7 p.m. Carnegie.

412-279-0770.

WED 07 THE BLIND PIG SALOON. Erin Burkett & Virgil Walters w/ Max Leake & Mike Tomaro.

7:30 p.m. New Kensington.

724-337-7008.

CITY OF ASYLUM @ ALPHABET CITY. Jessica Lee. 8 p.m. North Side. 412-435-1110.

ACOUSTIC THU 01 ELWOOD’S PUB. West Deer Bluegrass Review. 7:30 p.m.

Rural Ridge. 724-265-1181.

FRI 02 BAR 3 MILLVALE. Todd and Dale. 8:30 p.m. Millvale.

412-408-3870.

HAMBONE’S. The Girlie Show 5 Year Anniversery. Founded by women. Booked by women.

Showcasing women. Feat. Liss Victory, Joanna Lowe, Victoria Susan & Shay 9 p.m. Lawrenceville.

814-403-2989.

NEWS

SUN 04 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. Calliope Old Time Appalachian Jam. 5 p.m.

Lawrenceville. 412-681-4318.

WED 07 ALLEGHENY ELKS LODGE #339. Pittsburgh Banjo Club.

8 p.m. North Side. 412-321-1834.

GRIFFS GROUNDS COFFEE CAFE. Union Jack. 5 p.m.

Penn Hills. 412-704-5235.

PARK HOUSE. Shelf Life String Band. 9 p.m. North Side.

412-224-2273.

REGGAE THU 01 PIRATA. The Flow Band. 9 p.m.

Downtown. 412-323-3000.

COUNTRY SAT 03 STAGE AE. Chase Rice, Travis Denning. 7 p.m. North Side.

412-229-5483.

CLASSICAL SUN 04 A TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES. The Pittsburgh Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (PYPO) presents music from France & England, including works by Holst, Ravel, Walton & Bizet. 3 p.m. South Fayette High School. South Fayette.

412-403-0002.

MON 05 THE DIAZ TRIO. 7:30 p.m.

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Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland.

412-624-4129.

WED 07 DEVIN SHERMAN, GUITAR. The program will include works by Reza Vali, Tania Leon, Dai Fujikura, Qin Ding, Michael Fiday, John Fitz-Rogers, and a world-premiere of “Micro-Sonata” by Pittsburgh composer Aaron Myers-Brooks.

7:30 p.m. Mellon Institute, Oakland. 412-268-4921.

OTHER MUSIC SAT 03 ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM. Sound Series: Jens Lekman.

8 p.m. North Side. 412-237-8300.

CATTIVO. Requiem. 10 p.m.

Lawrenceville. 412-687-2157.

RUGGER’S PUB. Horehound, St. Dude, Holy Rivals. 9 p.m.

South Side. 412-381-1330.

MON 05 CATTIVO. Tiny Moving Parts w/ Mom Jeans & Oso Oso. 7 p.m. Lawrenceville.

412-687-2157.

TUE 06 THE FUNHOUSE @ MR. SMALLS. The Dangerous Summer. emo night. 6 p.m. Millvale.

412-821-4447.

WED 07 J. GOUGH’S TAVERN. Bourbon & Bluegrass w/ The Academy Pickers. 8 p.m.

Greenfield. 412-315-7029.

STAGE AE. Black Label Society, Corrosion Of Conformity & RED FANG. 6:30 p.m. North Side.

412-229-5483.

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Sponsored by:

What to do JAN 31 - FEB 6 WEDNESDAY 31 Pink Floyd's Rock Opera: The Wall

THE FUNHOUSE AT MR. SMALLS THEATRE Millvale.

412-421-4447. Over 21 event.

Tickets: mrsmalls.com.

7:30p.m.

IN PITTSBURGH

or 1-800-745-3000.

Doors open at 8p.m.

CITY THEATRE COMPANY South Side. 412-431-CITY. Tickets: citytheatrecompany. org. Through Feb. 18.

Yarn THE FUNHOUSE AT MR. SMALLS THEATRE Millvale.

412-421-4447. With special guest Ferdinand the Bull.

Over 18 event.

Tickets: mrsmalls.com. 8p.m.

MONDAY 5

Nathan Angelo w/ Sam Burchfield

Greensky Bluegrass CARNEGIE OF HOMESTEAD MUSIC HALL Homestead.

412-462-3444. With special guest Billy Strings. All ages event. Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 8p.m.

JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE Warrendale. 724-799-8333.

With special guest Suicide Burns. Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 8p.m.

BoomBox

We Will Rock You

REX THEATER South Side.

412-381-1681. Over 18 event.

Tickets: greyareaprod.com.

8p.m.

PITTSBURGH MUSICAL THEATER West End. 412-539-0900. Tickets: pittsburghmusicals.com/tix.

Through Feb. 11.

Snow Tubing BOYCE PARK Monroeville.

724-733-4656.

For tickets & more info visit: alleghenycounty.us/parks.

THURSDAY 1 Poppy

STAGE AE North Side.

Tickets: ticketmaster.com

Big Wreck

FRIDAY 2 Kaleido

SMILING MOOSE South Side.

412-431-4668. With special guest MaxXouT. All ages event. Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 6:30p.m.

GREENSKY BLUEGRASS CARNEGIE OF HOMESTEAD MUSIC JANUARY 31

TUESDAY 6 Starset

Party: Benefit for Planned Parenthood SPIRIT Lawrenceville.

412-586-4441. Over 21 event.

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

Ozzmosis JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE Warrendale. 724-799-8333.

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

412-421-4447. All ages event.

Tickets: ticketweb.com/opusone. 8p.m.

Tickets: ticketmaster.com or 1-800-745-3000.

Doors open at 7p.m.

Evil Dead: The Musical

Noah Gundersen

PITTSBURGH MUSICAL THEATER West End. 412-539-0900. Tickets: pittsburghmusicals.com/tix.

Through Feb. 10.

SATURDAY 3 Chase Rice

The Radio Dept.

Electro Swing Dance

CLUB CAFÉ South Side.

412-431-4950.

Over 21 event. Tickets: ticket web.com/clubcafe. 8p.m.

STAGE AE North Side. With MR. SMALLS THEATRE Millvale. special guest Travis Denning.

REX THEATER South Side.

412-381-1681. With special guest Elizabeth Gundersen.

All ages event.

Tickets: mrsmalls.com. 8p.m.

SUNDAY 4

The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey

STAGE AE North Side.

With special guests Grabbitz, Year of the Locust & Harmless Habit. Tickets: ticketmaster.com or 1-800-745-3000.

Doors open at 6p.m.

3 Doors Down THE PALACE THEATRE Greensburg. 724-836-8000.

With special guest Elvis Monroe. All ages event. Tickets: thepalacetheatre.org 7:30p.m.

Introduction to Snowshoeing Half-Price Lift Tickets

Every Wednesday from 3:30-9:30 pm

alleghenycounty.us/winterfun

22

We Know Snow

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

Sunday, February 10 Π2:00-4:00 pm Round Hill Park Snowshoe rentals are $10/person for ages 11+ and $5/person for ages 10 & under.

Pre-registration is required at alleghenycounty.us/parkprograms

[STAGE]

EDGING OVER

“HE’S AMAZING TO WORK WITH.”

Gesturing toward a table bearing a mock chainsaw, a shotgun and a metal hand, Nick Mitchell discussed how much fake blood would be just right. The director was pondering the props for Evil Dead: The Musical, a stage show to be produced by a perhaps unlikely troupe: Pittsburgh Musical Theater.

With Evil Dead — inspired by the cult-horror films — and rock musical We Will Rock You, PMT launches After Hours and Rockin’ West End, initiatives to stage edgier fare that diverges from its typical family-oriented repertoire, like A Lyrical Christmas Carol and The Little Mermaid.

“We will continue to program familyfriendly shows,” says PMT executive artistic director Colleen Doyno. “But this is our opportunity to present some of those shows that are edgier and rockin’, and something we can do in front of a more intimate audience. It’s a nice next step into our future.”

We Will Rock You is a 2002 British musical by Ben Elton, strung together with hits by Queen.

It follows two characters trying to save rock ’n’ roll in a post-apocalyptic world.

Doyno says this the first regional staging outside of nationally touring productions.

The widely staged, bloodily comic Evil Dead combines aspects from all three Evil Dead movies, including protagonist Ash, the regular guy turned demon-slaying badass. Composer George Reinblatt’s songs include “All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons.”

We Will receives six performances; Evil Dead receives four late-night performances, each following one of We Will’s Friday and Saturday shows.

The crew has 45 minutes to transform the stage from apocalypse to a demoninfested cabin in the woods.

Unlike PMT’s bigger productions at Downtown’s Byham Theater, both shows will be staged with professional performers in PMT’s West End space, the 250-seat Gargaro Theater. Mitchell likes the intimate setting.

“The way [theater is] moving, and should be moving, is toward a more personal presentation,” says Mitchell.

“I think including the audience allows for a more shared experience. It’s not just people watching a show, it’s a show happening with an audience.”

PMT hopes that staging more adultthemed shows will draw younger crowds.

“The fight for the entertainment dollar is fierce in Pittsburgh,” Mitchell says. “But by branching out like this, we’re keeping our bullseye so much bigger.”

INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

WE WILL ROCK YOU Feb. 1-11.

EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL Feb. 2-10.

Pittsburgh Musical Theater, 327 S. Main St., West End. $40. 412-539-0900 or www.pittsburghmusicals.com NEWS

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B.A. Goodnack rehearses Evil Dead: The Musical {PHOTO COURTESY OF MELISSA WALLACE}

{BY LAUREN ORTEGO}

{CP PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK}

Author Tom Sweterlitsch at his home in Greenfield

[BOOKS]

GONE TO STAY {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL}

U

NTIL JUST OVER four years ago, Tom Sweterlitsch wrote as an avocation. He was married, with a young daughter, a house in Greenfield, and a day job he loved as a customer-service rep at the Carnegie Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. He wrote fiction in his off hours.

These days, writing is his full-time job.

While Sweterlitsch remains a Greenfield family man, he’s got two science-fiction novels to his credit, including the brandnew The Gone World, out Feb. 6 on G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Both books have been optioned

by Hollywood movie studios, with name directors attached. And last year, one of those filmmakers, Neill Blomkamp, known for District 9 and Elysium, invited Sweterlitsch

to co-write some short films he was making for the web.

Such life changes are heady, but to meet Sweterlitsch you wouldn’t guess it. In early

TOM SWETERLITSCH THE GONE WORLD BOOK LAUNCH

8 p.m. Tue., Feb. 6. Alphabet City, 40 W. North Ave., North Side. Free. Reservation requested at www.alphabetcity.org

January, City Paper found him arrived early for an interview, sitting at a rear table in an East Liberty coffeehouse, wearing a Steelers sweatshirt and shaggy beard.

You might even have spied this twice-

published novelist out writing: When not at his East Liberty co-working space, he often hits shopping-mall food courts — Century III and Ross Park malls are favorites — and the Carnegie Library’s main branch, in Oakland. Such spots are nice and anonymous, he says. Apparently, they are also good places to summon dark visions of futuristic murder investigations like the one in Gone World, which he pitched to Putnam as “Battlestar Galactica plus NCIS plus time travel.”

The novel’s protagonist is a young woman from Canonsburg named Shannon Moss. She’s a Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent assigned to both the grisly murder (in her old hometown) of a Navy SEAL and his family, and the disappearance of his teenage daughter. That CONTINUES ON PG. 26

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2018 24

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DRIVEN BY

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GONE TO STAY, CONTINUED FROM PG. 23

NOW EXTENDED THROUGH FEBRUARY 25, 2018!

A RADIANT SMALLTOWN WHODUNIT

by JAMES

LECESNE directed by LAURA SAVIA USE CODE CITYCITY TO SAVE $5 ON SINGLE TICKETS

TICKETS ON SALE NOW 412.431.CITY (2489) / CityTheatreCompany.org / South Side

murder occurs in 1997, but to track leads, Moss travels forward in time, to our present day. And woven into the plot are her terrifying prior journeys far into the future, to the Terminus, or the end of humanity.

The novel, with its many twists on the vagaries of time travel, has received strong pre-publication notices from the likes of Kirkus Reviews, which called it “a mindblowing fusion of science fiction, thriller, existential horror and apocalyptic fiction.”

Filmmaker Blomkamp, reached by email, writes that Gone World “is my favourite book I have ever come across.” He calls it “an amazing narrative journey with an incredible protagonist” that deals with concepts, from quantum mechanics to Plato’s allegory of the cave, that Blomkamp finds fascinating.

Sweterlitsch, 40, is a native of Canton, Ohio, with a master’s degree in literary and cultural theory from Carnegie Mellon University. In 2011, he approached acclaimed, locally based novelist Stewart O’Nan (Last Night at the Lobster), who provided guidance and contacts that led to the publication of his first novel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow (2014). Sweterlitsch drew on influences including Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler to unspool a dark thriller set in a technology-infused 2058 Pittsburgh. Critics praised it, and Sony TriStar optioned the film rights, with a payout that let Sweterlitsch quit his job and write full-time.

The Gone World was inspired by Sweterlitsch’s conversations with two inlaws: His late father-in-law, a U.S. Department of Defense physicist with whom he discussed time travel, and his brother-in-law, a real-life NCIS agent whom he once asked how time travel would affect criminal investigations. “If you could go to the future, and talk to someone when the passions had cooled down, and learn information and come back to the present, that would be this amazing thing,” his brother-in-law told him. Sweterlitsch recalls thinking, “This is a fantastic fictional way to explore characters and how characters change over time.”

The novel’s time-travel scenarios are based in real science, Sweterlitsch says, but what’s more engaging is how he plays with the possibilities — for instance, the idea that time-travelers can visit only possible

futures, which exist only because the traveler has arrived. (This causes conflicts with the humans inhabiting those futures, who quite understandably wish to continue exisitng.) Other inspirations for The Gone World include such cultural touchstones as Dante, Edward Albee’s absurdist 1960 play The Sandbox, and one of Dali’s crucifixion paintings. But the book’s structure reflects Sweterlitsch’s desire to make what he calls a “fractal-shaped narrative.” “There’s like five sections and it’s shaped angularly,” he says. “Within those sections there’s a lot of repetition and reflection of each other.”

Yet at heart, The Gone World is about people. The title references not actual time travel, but Moss’ vanished youth, which she can’t truly revisit. “Science fiction is just kind of the doorway I walk through to get to a human story,” says Sweterlitsch.

Sweterlitsch’s own story grows more intriguing.

Sony has the option on Tomorrow and Tomorrow, with director Matt Ross (Captain Fantastic) attached. The option on Gone World is held by Fox, with District 9 director Blomkamp attached to write and direct. And last year, after Blomkamp flew Sweterlitsch out to his Oats Studios, in Vancouver, to discuss Gone World, the novelist ended up co-writing four short films that Blomkamp released online. One of them, “Rakka,” is a dystopic alieninvasion thriller starring Sigourney Weaver.

Sweterlitsch enjoyed the collaboration, and Blomkamp praises Sweterlitsch’s efforts: “I thought it would be amazing for him to come on board and write on the short films we wanted to create at Oats. Elevating them.

Which is exactly what he did,” writes Blomkamp. “He’s amazing to work with.”

Through it all, Sweterlitsch remains aware that Hollywood moves slowly; films of either of his books might get made, or they might not. Publishing too is a struggle nowadays. Starting with the Feb. 6 book-launch at Alphabet City, on the North Side, Sweterlitsch will enjoy a five-city, cross-country book tour. But his original two-book contract with Putnam is up. “Now that the second book’s done, I might be looking for a job again!” he quips. “What happens next is, I write another book.”

“SCIENCE FICTION IS JUST KIND OF THE DOORWAY I WALK THROUGH TO GET TO A HUMAN STORY.”

D RI S C OL L @ P G H C I T Y PA P E R. C OM

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

[PLAY REVIEWS]

BRIGHT SIDES {BY TED HOOVER} WITH AN EYE fixed firmly on my karma, I

note that City Theatre presents the local premiere of James Lecesne’s The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey. Whatever else there is to say about Lecesne’s talents, the most remarkable is his having written the Oscar-winning short film “Trevor,” which lead to the creation of The Trevor Project, a nationwide organization combating LGBTQ teen suicide.

I wouldn’t dare give a hero like that a bad review.

Not that I want to: Lecesne has written this one-man, one-act show with heart firmly attached to sleeve, and there’s much to enjoy. The title character is a 14-year-old who, at the show’s opening, has disappeared. We then follow a hardbitten New Jersey detective’s investigation and meet the various people in Leonard’s life.

A child of enormous heart and energy (the “brightness” of the title), Leonard altered the life of every person he touched … which most don’t realize until Leonard (and I’m not giving anything away) is found, the victim of gaybashing, at the bottom of a lake.

It’s such a horrific tale, but Lecesne manages to keep it from being a dirgefest with the assorted “wacky” characters he creates. I will say I felt a little … uneasy? … that the death of the plucky gay kid is used to teach life lessons to all the straight folks. And it’s only because I’m a bitch I kept thinking of the classic line from the 1988 film Heathers: “I love my dead gay son!” But I will also say that when the boy’s sort-of stepmother speaks at his attacker’s trial, Lecesne’s writing soars into the stratosphere.

THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY continues through Feb. 25. City Theatre, 1300 Bingham St., South Side. 412-431-2489 or www.citytheatrecompany.org

Laura Savia directs the City Theatre production featuring Keith Randolph Smith. Savia and Smith make an interesting choice to play against the sadness and sorrow of the story perhaps, because like Lecesne, they want to avoid 70 minutes of unrelenting gloom. On the other hand, the tone feels maybe a little too light for such a harrowing journey.

Britton Mauk has designed the hand-

NEWS

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{PHOTO COURTESY OF KRISTI JAN HOOVER}

Keith Randolph Smith in The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, at City Theatre

some set with Isabella Byrd’s lights and Elizabeth Atkinson’s sound providing a well-defined sense of location.

RULES OF SECONDS continues through Feb. 17.

1211 Braddock Ave., Braddock $35-40. www.barebonesproductions.com

I N F O @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M

mer terrain. On the small stage of barebones’ newly renovated black-box theater, Melissa Martin adroitly directs a strong cast of 10 including Connor McCanlus as Nathaniel (“I simply don’t understand how one spills tea on honor”); barebones artistic director Patrick Jordan as James (“Tomorrow you’re going to put a hole in that son of a bitch like a gentleman”); and, in three supporting roles, Los Angeles-based Jack Erdie (a former Pittsburgher who starred in Netflix’ Mindhunter).

Rightly, though, the focus is ultimately on two actors. Cotter Smith, a newly Pittsburgh-based veteran of Broadway and Hollywood, is deeply unsettling as a man willing to kill over a pair of boots. (A very nice pair, but still.) And it’s a welcome return to local stages for Robin Walsh, who convincingly makes Martha a matriarch to be reckoned with, one with enough insight to observe, “One must always question a system whose architects are its primary beneficiaries.”

Such male pathology as dueling might seem an easy target for mockery. But by pulling the veil of civility from selfjustifying butchery — well as from the accompanying sexism, racism and classism — Pollono shows that his commentary remains tragically relevant.

MAN’S WORLD

D RI S C OL L @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM

{BY BILL O’DRISCOLL} “HONOR” MIGHT seem a concept antique

— 19th century at best. But honor is the subject of John Pollono’s crackling new play Rules of Seconds, receiving its Pittsburgh premiere at barebones productions. The dark comedy is set in 1855 Boston, where dueling is outlawed but men routinely duel anyway because, according to the 18th-century Irish dueling code, a “gentleman” lives by honor, and “Honor can only be restored by the spilling of blood.”

Honor can be lost, however, over the most minor offense. So when shipping magnate Walter Brown is accidentally slighted during a business deal, he challenges young milquetoast Nathaniel Leeds to a duel. The overmatched Nathaniel recruits his estranged, more worldly younger brother, James, as his “second,” or cornerman. The story unspools the pasts, futures and fortitudes of characters also including the brothers’ widowed mother, Martha.

For quick wit, sudden violence and full-throated profanity, Pollono (who also wrote barebones’ previous show, Small Engine Repair) here recalls Irish playwright Martin McDonagh (The Lieutenant of Inishmore), with a similar knack for pivoting instantly from comedy to grim-

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FOR THE WEEK OF

02.01-02.07.18 Full events listed online at www.pghcitypaper.com Marianne Bayard and Jonathan Kaplan’s web series Killing It! reminds us that no one really has life figured out — even people who are almost 40.

The series follows two best friends, Mares and Kaps, trying to find the “meaning” of life at nearly 40 — all while making misguided attempts to reach their fullest potential and remain best friends. It’s a narrative usually reserved for young adults, fresh out of college and ready to take on the world, but Mares and Kaps’ lovable, yet goofy interactions make it work.

“It’s a story about two idiots following their dreams, driven by their delusions, committed to their friendship — ’til death do they part,” says Kaplan in press materials.

Mares and Kaps’ chemistry is evident in scenes such as when Mares insists that being a “mom-aged” actor without actually being a mom is ruining her chances of being cast, therefore she needs a baby and subsequently a “real mom-post-baby body.” Kaps reminds her that she would be a terrible mom and would have to give up her dreams.

When Mares insists, Kaps goes along but reminds her that “if acting is your main priority, your baby is going to grow up to be an asshole.”

Bayard and Kaplan co-created and wrote the show while living 600 miles apart, sharing ideas for the first year of the series via email. Bayard now resides in Pittsburgh, and has film and TV credits including the Jennifer Lawrence film Joy and the Netflix series Mindhunter. Kaplan is based in Lindenhurst, N.Y., and performs in standup clubs in New York City.

Killing It! receives its Pittsburghpremiere theatrical screening Feb. 8 at Steel City Improv Theater, in Shadyside, and will be followed by an “excellently DJ-ed dance party.” The event is free.

{ART BY JOE PERRI}

^ Fri., Feb. 2: Space Available

thursday 02.01 STAGE Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the Detroit riots.

New Horizon Theater looks back with a production of Detroit ’67, a 2013 drama by acclaimed young et playwright Dominique Morisseau (Sunset Baby). Siblings fight over their family’s after-hours bar and more in this play set against the backdrop of the riots, and tracked to the music of Motown.

Herb Newsome directs this Pittsburgh premiere, staged at Pitt’s Falk School. Bill O’Driscoll 7:30 p.m.

Continues through Feb. 11.

4060 Allequippa St., Oakland. $15-20. 412-431-0773 or www.newhorizontheater.org

friday 02.02

BY LAUREN ORTEGO

8 p.m. Thu., Feb. 8. 5950 Ellsworth Ave., Shadyside. thekillingits@gmail.com

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

ART A new Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery llery exhibit called deconstructing the conversation rsation includes new sculptures that depict what at our world is coming to when our interactions are limited to 280 characters, and emojis are a principal form of communication.

With work by 17 artists working in a variety of styles, this exhibit will remain on display through the National Council

on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference, an annual event involving more than 100 exhibitions around the reception is tonight. Lauren Ortego country. An opening ope Reception: 5:30 p.m. (free). Exhibit continues through March 31. 5833 Ellsworth Ave., Shadyside.

412-441-5200 or www.morganglassgallery.com 412-44

ART AR Eig blocks of Penn Avenue come alive Eight tonight to with Unblurred. The monthly Penn A Avenue Arts Initiative gallery crawl includes m more than a dozen galleries, businesses and m more. Attractions include Jamie Smittle’s iinteractive puppet-sculpture showcase, at A Assemble; Steph Neary’s solo exhibit folklore n nevermore, at Bunker Projects; a show of work

by Indian village artists Samir Gurai and Suman Gu Gupta, at METTA; a Bill Murray party at Wor WorkshopPGH (think Groundhog Day); Men of the Af African Diaspora, a Pittsburgh Black Media Federatio Federation photography exhibition at BOOM Concepts; an and a Hot Jam demo at Pittsburgh Glass Center.

BO O 6-10 p.m. 480 4800-5500 Penn Ave., Bloomfield/Garfield/ Friendship. Free. www.facebook.com (“unblurred first Friday”) ^ Fri., Feb. 2: Unblurred {ART BY JAIME SMITTLE}

{PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN ALTDORFER}

^ Fri., Feb. 2: A Devil Inside

COMEDY Last year, Tiffany Haddish co-starred in Girls Trip, which had the highest-grossing opening of an R-rated movie in two years. Tonight, Haddish brings her national comedy tour #SheReady to the Byham Theater. Haddish’s upbringing in the foster-care system in South Central Los Angeles has inspired her humor and down-to-earth style of comedy. She has worked with such comedians and stars as Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith and Kevin Hart. Hear her riff on her journey from “the hood to Hollywood.� LO 7 p.m. 101 Sixth St., Downtown.

Sold out. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org.

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Pittsburgh bids farewell to another independent art gallery as The Gallery 4 opens its final exhibit. After eight years and some 75 fun, funky and forward-thinking exhibits, the Shadyside gallery calls it a day with a big group show of new work by some of the many artists who have exhibited there, including Brian Gonella, SOVIET, Marlana Adele Vassar and Ryder Henry. You can enjoy the puckishly titled Space Available into March, but tonight’s party will surely be the most festive way to say goodbye. BO 7-11 p.m. (free). 206 S. Highland Ave., Shadyside. 412-363-5050 or www.thegallery4.us

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{ART BY DAVID ROBINSON}

^ Fri., Feb. 2: deconstructing the conversation

STAGE

A pair of pickled human feet is among the key props in A Devil Inside, the darkly farcical 1997 comedy that playwright David Lindsay-Abaire wrote before such lauded plays as Rabbit Hole and Good People. Point Park University’s professional theater company The REP brings this off-the-rails play about a young man tasked with avenging his father’s death to its intimate Studio Theatre; Kim Martin directs. The show is The REP’s final production in Oakland before the new Pittsburgh Playhouse opens Downtown in the fall. BO 8 p.m. Continues through Feb. 18. 222 Craft Ave., Oakland. $1-29. 412-392-8000 or www.pittsburghplayhouse.com

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CONTINUES ON PG. 30

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SHORT LIST, CONTINUED FROM PG. 29

G et C h ee ky H City Paper A Night Witneh d PGParenthood and Plan tern pa ooff wes

Be Our Valentine!

To celebrate the Love and Sex issue, the Pittsburgh City Paper is hosting a delightful night of fun, games, and prizes.

ic from live mus g in r u t Fea HE AND T E S A H C S. BARON

Hosted by

Lola LeCroix

Wednesday, February 14 Hard Rock Cafe, Station Square 8-11 pm, 21+ event $5 online / $10 at the door

Tickets available at cooltix.com

^ Tue., Feb. 6: Tarana Burke

STAGE The 1967 film version of John Ball’s novel In the Heat of the Night is a cultural touchstone for many, a story dealing with racial tension in the contemporary South. Starting tonight, playwright Matt Pelfrey’s acclaimed 2010 stage version gets its Pittsburgh premiere.

Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Co. stages the story of a black California cop investigating a brutal murder in small-town Alabama in 1962. Monteze Freeland directs a cast led by Kevin H. Moore as detective Virgil Tibbs. BO 8 p.m. Continues through March 11. 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $27.50-32.50. www.pghplaywrights.com

saturday 02.03 COMEDY Teachers spend their careers educating the youth of our nation, and for that they deserve a night of comedy just for them. Tonight, Eddie B brings his Teachers Only Comedy Tour to Heinz Hall. Eddie B says his comedy involves simply saying what teachers are ^ Sat., Feb. 3: Teachers Only Comedy Tour thinking, and this tour has been seen by educators across the country. The former teacher shines a light on how it really feels to hang out with our children five days a week, nine months a year. LO 8 p.m. 600 Penn Ave., Downtown. $35-65. 412-392-4900 or www.pittsburghsymphony.org.

sunday 02.04 WORDS Bryan Collier began the journey that became his career when he noticed that the children’s books in stores didn’t connect with his children, or with himself.

The watercolorist and collage artist has been recognized by the Coretta Scott King Awards nine times both as an illustrator and author. Today, he comes to the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall for Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures’ Words & Pictures series. He’ll discuss his new book, about football player and artist Ernie Barnes.

A signing follows. LO 2:30 p.m. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. $11. 412-622-8866 or www.pittsburghlectures.culturaldistrict.org.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

EVERYONE IS A CRITIC EVENT: Steve Hackman and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh perform The Music of Bob Dylan, at Mr. Smalls, in Millvale CRITIC: Nathaniel Hundt, 32, a product manager from Shadyside WHEN: Fri.,

Jan. 26

This was an enchanting, innovative recreation of a distant time and place that’s more relevant now than it has been in a while. I loved the last part [of the concert], when the chorus surrounded us and really made it feel like you were in the moment with them. It’s hard to escape that energy. I also enjoyed the recurring “Times [They] Are [a-]Changin’,” the three times they brought that back was really nice and grounding. [Our friend] is hoping she gets into UPMC, so we’re trying to convince her that Pittsburgh is where she wants to be. She wanted live music and this caught my eye. I’m also trying to convince my best friend to move here, so coming to this, everyone gets a taste of what really makes Pittsburgh awesome. This experience was somewhat spiritual. I mean, we are in a former church. [Mr. Smalls] should definitely do more stuff like this.

B Y L AU R E N O R T E GO

tuesday 02.06 TALK Tarana Burke, senior director of program at the Brooklyn-based Girls for Gender Equity, has spent a quarter-century advocating for social justice and for young women of color who have experienced sexual abuse and assault. But she is best known as founder of the #MeToo movement, a key factor in our culture’s current drive to give long-overdue attention to sexual abuse and misconduct. Tonight, nonprofit news outfit PublicSource hosts Burke for a talk at Calvary Episcopal Church, in Shadyside.

Proceeds benefit PublicSource; scholarships are available for those who cannot afford admission. BO 7 p.m. 315 Shady Ave., Shadyside. $8-40 (private reception: $100). www.publicsource.org

thursday 02.08 COMEDY Tired of waiting for the eighth season of one of HBO’s biggest hits? Musical Thrones: A Parody of Ice and Fire will tide you over.

It’s all the Game of Thrones ^ Thu., Feb. 8: Musical Thrones: A Parody of Ice and Fire characters you love, and love to hate, but in a condensed and comedic presentation, with singing and dancing to boot by five actors (and one dragon). This 90-minute show journeys through six of the show’s seven seasons to date. Recommended for ages 12 and up. LO 7:30 p.m. Byham Theater, 121 Sixth St., Downtown. $35-60. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org.

DANCE Australian choreographer Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe, a maker of unique musical instruments, team up for Meeting, a “choreographic sound installation” at the August Wilson Center. On a stage set with tiny, mechanized percussion instruments, two performers act, react and interact. The Anthony Hamilton Project production, presented by Pittsburgh Dance Council, is the featured event at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s latest Multiple Choice, which lets audiences attend a show, go to a dance party, visit a food-truck roundup or some combination thereof, with tickets priced accordingly. BO 8 p.m. 980 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $25 (party only: $5). 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org

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DE

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ON

THE QUALITY OF WINES AT THE EVENT RUN FROM SIMPLE TRADITIONAL TABLE WINE TO HIGH QUALITY FINE WINES

Pittsburgh isn’t really a Mexican-food mecca. The region has some of the lowest percentages of people of Mexican descent of any large metro area in the country. To many Pittsburghers, a taco is the delicious concoction of a crunchy shell filled with seasoned ground beef, lettuce and yellow cheese.

This taco variety isn’t really Mexican; it’s a fusion of Mexican and American cuisines. But a new taco shop in Bloomfield is hoping to push, albeit gently, Pittsburghers over to the more authentically Mexican version of tacos.

Baby Loves Tacos is co-owned and operated by Zack Shell, and it opened last month. The space is pretty small and mostly does take-out orders, but it does offer some counter room for extra-hungry customers. Shell says the tacos, burritos, rice bowls and salads he serves aren’t “traditionally Mexican.” Shell calls his recipes “soulful food.” The tacos, however, are presented in a more authentic Mexican style on soft-corn tortilla shells with cilantro, onions and salsa.

The menu has choices of tacos and burritos filled with roasted meats like brisket and marinated pork. And there are vegetarian options, with taco fillings such as buffalo-style cauliflower and barbecued mushroom.

Shell says he became accidentally immersed in Latino culture while working at the El Fuego restaurant in Philadelphia and playing in semi-pro, Hispanic soccer leagues. “I developed a love for it,” says Shell of Mexican food. But he adds that Baby Loves Tacos is “never going to scare people away” who are unfamiliar with or intimidated by authentic Mexican cuisine.

In fact, Shell says he wants his restaurant to foster a welcoming environment in all ways. He says he pays his employees $15 an hour, plus tips. And he will make kid customers something that suits their tastes, like simple quesadillas, for free.

Shell says he chose Bloomfield because busy Liberty Avenue didn’t have a taco joint. He says business has already been good, and he wants everyone in the area to come enjoy some tacos.

“We hope to attract people that are hungry, [whatever] their background,” says Shell.

RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

4508 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield. www.babylovestacospgh.com

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Roasted brisket tacos {PHOTO COURTESY OF ZACK SHELL}

TACO{BY RYAN TIME DETO}

{CP PHOTOS BY VANESSA SONG}

Guests socialize at the Wine Share.

WINE SWAP {BY CELINE ROBERTS}

F

RANK LAVALLE steers me into a long corridor, echoing with the sounds of glasses clinking and laughter.

“Come on, I’ve got to introduce you to my cousin. He makes the best wine,” he says as we move through the crowd. I had met LaValle two minutes prior as I was taking off my coat, and asked if he wouldn’t mind discussing the event we were stepping into: the Consumer Fresh Produce Winemakers 3rd Annual Wine Share, held Jan. 20.

The Wine Share is a place for Pittsburgh’s (largely Italian) home winemaking community, hobbyists and a few professionals to come together and share their wine, swap stories and advice, and engage in some friendly competition. There’s also an abundance of homemade sopressata and good ol’-

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

fashioned smack-talk.

Last year, while researching the home-winemaking community, I was led straight to Ron Casertano, the general manager at CFP Winemakers. “Uncle Ronnie,” as he’s affectionately known in

“IT’S JUST A FAMILY THING, BEING ITALIAN.” the local winemaking community, has been working for CFP for 41 years and has gained quite the following. Most of the the people I talked to at the Wine Swap credit him with sparking new life and interest in home winemaking in Pittsburgh. Midway though the

event, Casertano gave a speech, most of which was dedicated to thanking the various winemakers for their participation, very sweetly crediting his wife with his success, and talking up charitable endeavors in the community. The friendly catcalls from the crowd and the thunderous applause of the guests made it apparent why Casertano is an honorary uncle.

Diving into a space where many of the participants are so closely knit can be a challenge. “You just gotta approach tables, meet the people, talk shop and drink their wine,” says LaValle, weaving his way through the tables, greeting friends along the way. His family’s table is full, with his son, cousins and their spouses. Winemaking is a family activity for the LaValles and many Pittsburgh

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Italians, and that’s reflected in the swathes of guests with the same last names milling around.

Patrick Nudi, LaValle’s cousin, is the current host of the family’s winemaking pursuits. He has proudly garnered some gold medals from the Amateur Wine Competition at the American Wine Society Pittsburgh Wine Conference. His label, “Due Famiglia,” denotes both the LaValle and Nudi sides. “I started 30 some years ago with Frank’s [LaValle] father down in a warehouse in Monongahela,” he says. Two other labels made by family adorn the table: LaValle Wines from the LaValle side of the family and one that LaValle calls “The Seven Clowns,” which is a collaboration between him and some high school friends. Nudi estimates they probably make about 3,200 bottles of wine a year. “It’s just a family thing, being Italian. You grow up with it. You’re allowed to taste wine at the table at young age. “[My] grandfathers and uncles made wine, and when I was young I saw the whole process,” he says. The family also makes spicy sopressata, a dry-cured, coarsely ground pork sausage, and were delighted when challenged by another group to compare it to their own.

While the gregarious openness of the LaValles may be exceptional, their story in Pittsburgh’s home-winemaking community is not. As I spoke with numerous families at the Swap and remembered my experience helping a local family, the Argentines, with their winemaking process last year, it became clear that keeping up this tradition is part of the daily life of many families in the area.

It also serves as an important connection point to their history and their current family life.

The quality of wines at the event runs from simple traditional table wine to high quality fine wines, with many of the millennial generation of producers taking classes in food chemistry and applying modern methods to an Old World process.

The home-winemaking community is also inspiring a few of its members to go professional, like Duane Rieder, owner of Engine House 25 Wines in the Strip District. Rieder started making wine in 1992 with his neighbor and friend in Bloomfield, Nino Tolomeo, and opened Engine House Wines in 2009.

“I started the same way Uncle Ronnie did and everyone else in the room,” he says. “We would go down there [the Strip District] at midnight when the trains would come in, and eat the grapes and go, ‘Oh we want to try this or that.’”

He and Tolomeo would buy the cheapest grapes and make “dago red” (“I’m half Italian so I’m allowed to say that,” says Rieder.) But Rieder soon wanted to experiment with new varietals and offered to pay to upgrade their grape selection. Tolomeo balked and told Rieder he’d have to make it by himself then and said he “wouldn’t make one barrel.”

Years later, Rieder is running his own cellar. But he’s never forgotten where he started or who got him his beloved 100-year-old wooden wine press from a Calabrian woman for the promise of two bottles of homemade red wine and sopressata. “Nino Tolomeo,” says Rieder, grinning.

CELI NE @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M

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’ LET S

GET S CIAL [ON THE ROCKS]

BUON VINO Exploring Italian wine {BY DREW CRANISKY}

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ITALY MAKES a whole lot of wine. In fact, according to the most recent figures from the International Organization of Vine and Wine, Italy leads the globe in wine, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the world’s production. Despite the impressive volume, many drinkers are far more familiar with French Chardonnays and Napa Cabs than they are with Italian varieties. So I sat down with Michel Mincin for a crash course in Italian wine.

Mincin is the owner of Allora Wine Group, which specializes in importing Italian wines and providing wine education.

You don’t have to talk to him for long to notice his passion for the subject. “You’re pushing almost a thousand grape varietals in a country that’s not that big,” enthuses Mincin. “There’s so much diversity in that small area … that’s what I love about it.”

The 20 wine regions of Italy produce an incredible array of styles, from the everyday table wines of Tuscany to the heavy-hitting Barolo and Barbaresco of Piedmont.

Even so, Mincin finds that many drinkers tend to paint Italian wine with a broad brush. “I still feel like people pigeonhole Italian wine — particularly Italian red wine — and say it’s all really acidic and really dry,” he says. “And that’s not the case at all.” For those drinkers, Mincin recommends a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a crowd-pleasing wine from central Italy with softer tannins and lower acid. He also points to barbera, a grape that has long lived in the shadows of the much-revered nebbiolo. It’s a “wine of the people”: an af-

fordable, accessible, and food-friendly red that needn’t be saved for special occasions.

Though pizza and pasta may bring red wine to mind, Italian whites should not be overlooked. “Especially if you prefer a dry white wine, I think Italy has so many fantastic options,” says Mincin. Pinot grigio is by far the most familiar Italian white for most Americans, but there is plenty more to explore. Mincin recommends trying a verdicchio, a bright and acidic wine made from a variety native to the Marche region, or seeking out the delicate white wines of Northern Italy.

To learn more about Allora Wine Group’s portfolio and upcoming events, see allorawinegroup.com or follow Allora Wine Group on social media.

By and large, Italian wine is meant to be consumed with food. No proper Italian meal is complete without a complementary bottle (or two, or 10) of wine. The ideal pairing, of course, will depend on the dish, the season, and your personal taste. For the winter months, Mincin is reaching for wines made with aglianico or sagrantino grapes. “Full-bodied, dry, big tannins,” he explains. “Great with beef stews and prime rib — those hibernation foods.”

Combining centuries of tradition, vibrant culture and a deep passion for making and drinking wine, Italy offers a world of excitement and diversity for the curious drinker.

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

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

BOOZE BATTLES {BY CELINE ROBERTS}

Each week, we order two of the same cocktail for a friendly head-to-head battle. Go to the bar, taste both drinks and tell us what you like about each by tagging @pghcitypaper on Twitter or Instagram and using #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: DRI BITTER FIZZ

VS.

William Penn Speakeasy

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530 William Penn Place, Downtown DRINK: Bitter Fizz Very Bitter INGREDIENTS: Fernet Branca, Fever Tree bitter-lemon tonic, rosemary OUR TAKE: The carbonation of the lemon tonic helps to lighten the texture of the Fernet Branca and takes the edge off its intensely herbal flavors of peppermint and saffron. The rosemary sprig releases oils on the surface that complement the peppermint.

DRINK: Bitter Fizz Mild INGREDIENTS: Amaro Montenegro, Fever Tree bitter-lemon tonic, mint OUR TAKE: The vanilla and orange-peel notes in Montenegro blend with bitterlemon tonic to produce an incredibly refreshing and slightly tart mix that cuts through winter’s malaise. Mint cools the drink and adds a fragrance that pairs well with the notes of orange.

Check out City Paper ’s Blogh for local food news and assorted tidbits. www.pghcitypaper.com

One Bordeaux, One Scotch, One Beer Ardbeg 10-Year Single-Malt Scotch Whiskey $51.99/750 ml “Since this scotch is matured in American oak casks once used to make bourbon, it has some vanilla notes that help to soften its intense peatiness. Spicy notes give it depth, while the finish is slightly nutty.”

RECOMMENDED BY CELINE ROBERTS

Ardbeg 10-Year Single-Malt Scotch Whiskey is available at Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores.

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THE KANGAROO’S TROUBLES BEGAN WITH AUSTRALIA’S COLONIZATION

CITY OF SONG {BY AL HOFF} It’s another steamy night in an openair club in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The easy banter between customers establishes that this is a place of regulars. Drinks are served, romantic overtures are rejected, and finally a band sets up in the corner. A woman stands before the ensemble, and then with a strong, colorful and evocative voice begins to sing. It’s a transformative moment, as the singer, the bar patrons and the film’s viewers slip into this new space created by the performance.

CP APPROVED

Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya)

A number of such scenes mark Alain Gomis’ new film, Félicité, which recently won the Jury Grand Prix at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The rather loosely plotted film follows the singer, the melodically named Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya), as she deals with both an immediate crisis and her everyday struggles. The latter is introduced first, as her ancient refrigerator breaks down and she must engage the services of a flirty repairman named Tabu (Papi Mpaka). Félicité, who makes it clear she is her own woman, has no time for silly men.

But she’ll need help when she learns that her 14-year-old son has been badly injured in a traffic accident. He’s in the hospital, but the doctors won’t operate without a large sum pre-paid. Félicité dashes around town, collecting old debts, cadging favors and passing the hat among the band. Tabu, when he’s not drinking, proves occasionally helpful.

These scenes are intercut with documentary-style footage from the streets of Kinshasa, a mostly poor city that thrums with activity; other musical interludes, including a classical-music ensemble and a choral group; and dreamlike sequences of Félicité (shorn of her long braids) walking with some purpose in the forest at night. It’s all a bit disjointed and slow, so viewer patience is advised.

But the film’s elements ultimately come together to form a portrait of Félicité, as well as of life in this struggling city. It feels like a cliché to have to note the resilience, cooperation and ingenuity that keep both Félicité and her environment together. There’s a lot that needs fixing — from her son’s bones and the busted fridge, to the closed-off spot in Félicité’s heart that might need some romancing.

In Lingala and French, with subtitles.

Starts Fri., Feb. 2. Regent Square

PLUNDER DOWN UNDER {BY AL HOFF}

T

HE FILM OPENS with grainy blackand-white video footage, as a camera shakily makes its way through trees at night. Discernible: a pickup truck and, briefly, a kangaroo caught in a spotlight. The camera operator is agitated, fearful. You might joke, “Ah, Australian Blair Witch Project,” but this new documentary is much more horrifying. Shots ring out, and this kangaroo and others nearby are killed. Thousands more such kangaroo deaths occur each night.

Mick McIntyre and Kate McIntyre Clere’s new documentary, Kangaroo: A Love Hate Story, examines Australia’s truly confused relationship with its signature animal. The creature’s image is synonymous with the country, and yet, as the film’s title suggest, the kangaroo’s existence is deeply polarizing. One interviewee divides the kangaroo’s role into three categories: pest to be eradicated, resource to be exploited for profit (meat and leather), and sacred animal, deserving of protection.

Unsurprisingly, the kangaroo’s troubles began with Australia’s colonization by northern Europeans. The new settlers

AHOFF@ PGHC ITY PA PE R.CO M

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

Is the kangaroo a national icon, pest or commodity?

brought sheep and cattle, and considered kangaroo destructive interlopers on the precious grazing areas. (Among the ironies, it is the kangaroo that has adapted to thrive in the continent’s harsh environment.)

Thus, kangaroos were killed as “agricultural pests,” often rounded up into pens and shot by the hundreds. Carcasses were left to rot, or processed as pet food.

KANGAROO: A LOVE HATE STORY DIRECTED BY: Mick McIntyre and Kate McIntyre Clere Starts Fri., Jan. 26. Hollywood

CP APPROVED Lest you think this is how things occurred in less enlightened times, Kangaroo is here to set you straight. Kangaroos are still legally eradicated as agricultural pests; farmers can hire professional “roo shooters,” who use trucks, spotlights and rifles as depicted in the opening video. Others are killed, in the wild, to supply meat — much of it still goes to pet food, but there’s

a movement to market better cuts domestically and to large overseas markets, such as Russia and China. The hides are converted into leather. (Are your name-brand sports kicks made of “k-leather”? That’s kangaroo.)

The filmmakers check in across the spectrum, from meat-processors and farmers to animal-rights activists and scientists.

Politicians have their say, whether it’s in favor of increasing the market for a uniquely Australian product, or seeking better preservation of the animals. Viewers also get two images of kangaroos — alive and hopping across the range, or dead and mutilated. The sensitive should take note: The film contains explicit footage of kangaroos — even baby kangaroos — being shot, dismembered and left gravely injured.

Like The Cove or Blackfish, Kangaroo is a muckraking work that advocates a clear position for better management and treatment of Australia’s kangaroos. Having previously known little of the kangaroo “industry,” or how contentious the animal’s presence is in its native land, I admit the film left me startled. It likely will jolt you, too.

A H OF F @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM

he is sued by the family. In 1990, filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami recreated the story, using the actual participants, who play themselves. In Persian, with subtitles.

6 p.m. Sun., Feb. 4. Regent Square

FILM CAPSULES CP

= CITY PAPER APPROVED

HUMAN FLOW. This recent documentary essay, directed by well-known Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, seeks to put a face to the unimaginable scope of refugee populations worldwide.

Today, there are more displaced people than at any time since World War II. The film visits a number of ad hoc communities where refugees have set up encampments in rail yards, or with tents in the desert. Cameras travel along newly erected borders, such as in Macedonia, or examine more established ones, like the walls in Palestine and along the U.S./ Mexico border. Various immigrants are interviewed, and their accounts range from hopeful to despairing: “Nobody flees their country lightly,” says one woman. Populations in crisis include Kurds, Syrians, North Africans, Rohingya (fleeing Myanmar) and Afghan refugees in Pakistan, making the trek back to a stillstruggling homeland.

Much of the footage is heartbreaking — elderly people, families and so many children making do under extreme physical and psychological duress.

There are a few lighter moments; noted cat-admirer Ai Weiwei even meets Tabush, a Syrian pet cat now stateless in Europe. And occasionally, the camera finds extraordinarily striking imagery, such as the huddle of North Africans, wrapped in shimmery, crackly cheap foil blankets. It’s visually arresting, like an art installation, but that shiny cheap sheet of plastic is the sole possession of these desperate men. The film is quite long, nearly two-and-half hours, but then again, there is no amount of time that could even begin to cover the breadth of this ongoing global crisis. The film concludes Duquesne University’s series of recent documentaries that highlight human-rights issues. In English, and various languages, with subtitles. 7 p.m.

Wed., Feb. 7. Room 105, College Hall, Duquesne campus, Uptown. 412-396-6415. Free (AH)

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NEW AUDRE LORD: THE BERLIN YEARS (19841992). Dagmar Schultz’s 2012 documentary profiles the African-American poet and civil-rights activist during the time she lived in Germany.

There, she helped Afro-German women to celebrate their identity and challenged white women to examine their privilege. Also playing out during this time: the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the reunification of Germany. The screening at 8 p.m. Thu., Feb. 8, will include an introduction and Q&A led by Bekezela Mguni, of Black Unicorn Library & Archives Project. In English, and German, with subtitles. Starts Fri., Feb. 2. Harris WINCHESTER: THE HOUSE THAT GHOSTS BUILT. Michael and Peter Spierig direct this spooker about the widow of the man who invented the Winchester repeating rifle, who believes she is being haunted by those killed with the gun. To thwart the spirits, she never stopped adding rooms, staircases and other architectural details to her Northern California mansion. True story. Helen Mirren stars. Starts Fri., Feb. 2

ONGOING FREAK SHOW. After his beloved (but boozy) mom (Bette Midler) goes to rehab, teenager Billy Bloom (Alex Lawther) relocates to his estranged dad’s mansion, located somewhere in the South. There, Billy attends a fancy high school (curiously named for Ulysses S. Grant) where conformity and football reign. Undaunted, Billy, who loves glam and cross-dressing, arrives for his first day of school dressed as Boy George, circa 1984. Unsurprisingly, he is tormented and bullied — badly enough to end up in the hospital. Still, he makes a couple of friends, and somehow, in the face of so many obstacles and broken body parts, decides to take a new, and grander, stand: running for homecoming queen. Most of this coming-ofage film, directed by Trudie Styler, is played for gentle laughs, though there are the expected after-school-special messages about being kind, and being true to yourself, and so on.

Lawther, who you might have seen in Black Mirror (“Shut Up and Dance”) or the recent Netflix series The End of the F***ing World, is truly the bright spot in this work. Through Thu., Feb. 1. Harris (Al Hoff)

REPERTORY CONSTRUCTING THE TERRORIST THREAT. Deepa Kumar’s hour-long film examines how Muslims have become the predominant face of terror in U.S. news, even as more terror attacks are carried out by white extremists.

Screens as part of Duquesne University’s series of recent documentaries that highlight human-rights issues. 7 p.m. Wed., Jan. 31. Room 105, College Hall, Duquesne campus, Uptown.

412-396-6415. Free THE MIDNIGHT MAN. Never ever play that mysterious game found in the attic. Travis Zariwny directs this 2016 horror thriller which features Robert Englund and Louise Linton (now the infamous designer-clad wife of U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin). 7 p.m. Wed., Jan. 31.

Hollywood GROUNDHOG DAY. In this neo-classic 1993 charmer from Harold Ramis, Bill Murray plays a Pittsburgh weatherman who gets trapped in

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Human Flow a time loop while covering the annual festivities in Punxsutawney. 4 and 7 p.m. Thu., Feb. 1; 4 and 7 p.m.

Fri., Feb. 2; and 4 p.m. Sun., Feb. 4. Rangos Giant Cinema, Carnegie Science Center, North Side. $5-10.

412-237-3400 or www.carngiesciencecenter.org VIDAR THE VAMPIRE. In this recent Norwegian comedy from Thomas Aske Berg and Fredrik Waldeland, a Christian farmer is transformed into a bloodsucker. In Norwegian, with subtitles. 7 p.m. Thu., Feb. 1. Hollywood BLOW UP. In some aspects, Michelangelo Antonioni’s arty 1966 thriller is dated, particularly its setting in Mod London at the birth of the sexual revolution. But this provocative tale of a self-absorbed fashion photographer (David Hemmings) who becomes obsessed with unraveling the “truth” of a randomly snapped photograph still holds lots of style and intrigue. And if the plot seems familiar, recall that later films such as Coppola’s The Conversation and DePalma’s Blow Out are tipping their hats to Antonioni. Feb. 2-8.

Row House Cinema (AH) AAA

2012 and 2016. 2 p.m. Sat., Feb. 3, and 4:30 p.m. Sun., Feb. 4. Hollywood 5POINT ADVENTURE FILM FESTIVAL. For the first time, this program of short adventure and inspiring outdoors films comes to Pittsburgh. Food, drink and activities from 4-6 p.m.; screening begins at 7 p.m. Sat., Feb. 3. ASCEND Pittsburgh, 2141 Mary St., South Side. $5 in advance; $10 at door. www.5pointpgh.com CLOSE-UP. An Iranian man is mistaken for a wellknown filmmaker and exploits this handy confusion, convincing a wealthy Tehran family that they are the subject of his next film. Then his ruse is discovered and

L’AVVENTURA. The disappearance of a woman on a holiday trip draws together her friend and her boyfriend in Michelangelo Antonioni’s landmark 1960 drama. In Italian, with subtitles. Feb. 2-8. Row House Cinema RED DESERT. A disaffected woman (Monica Vitti), estranged from her husband, wanders through a grim industrial landscape in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1964 film, a critique of the modern world and our guileless adaptation to it. It was Antonioni’s first film in color, and the palette is evocative — bleak, washed-out buildings and vistas punctuated by artificial or unnatural colors (garishly painted barrels or pools of toxic waste). In Italian, with subtitles. Feb. 2-4 and Feb. 6-8.

Row House Cinema ZABRISKIE POINT. Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni made his only American film in 1970. Reflective of the times, it’s a trippy and visually intense riff on the counterculture, set in the American desert. A young Sam Shepard was one of four screenwriters (though cohesive narrative and dialogue are not this elliptical film’s strong suit), and the soundtrack features a number of bands now enshrined in the classicrock canon, such as Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones. Feb. 2-8. Row House Cinema EXHIBITION: DAVID HOCKNEY. Catch up with the prolific British artist known for both his paintings and photography. Phil Grabsky’s documentary features interviews with Hockney, as well as material from his exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Art in London, in

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HISTORY LESSONS

RANKING THE BEST NHL TEAMS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

This week in Pittsburgh Sports History {BY ALEX GORDON} FEB. 1, 2009 With 16 seconds remaining in the first half of Super Bowl XLIII between the Steelers and Cardinals, 31-year-old linebacker James Harrison picks off a red-zone pass from Kurt Warner and returns it for a staggering 100-yard touchdown. Harrison lies down in the endzone and catches his breath for what seems like all of half-time (understandably). The Steelers go on to win 27-23, nabbing one for the (other) thumb thanks to a stunning late touchdown catch from Santonio Holmes.

FEB. 2, 1967 Pittsburgh’s short-lived professional basketball squad is born in the inaugural year of the American Basketball Association. The Pittsburgh Pipers went on to win the first-ever ABA Championship, but from there everything got worse. The Pipers franchise moved to Minnesota the next year, then returned to Pittsburgh, changed its name to the Condors, and finally lost franchise status in 1972.

FEB. 5, 1988 Legendary baseball scout Howie Haak resigns from the Pirates organization after butting heads with then-GM Syd Thrift.

It’s not a particularly spicy story, but Howie Haak and Syd Thrift are some killer old-school baseball names.

FEB. 6, 2000 In his final season with the Penguins, right-wing Jaromir Jagr nets more than a million fan votes for his spot on the NHL All-Star Team. It’s the most votes any player had received at that time.

FEB. 6, 2010 Then-mayor of Pittsburgh Luke Ravenstahl is stranded at Seven Springs while attempting to take in a little skiing during the celebration of his 30th birthday, while the city is hit with more than 20 inches of snow. It’s still the fourth biggest snowstorm in Pittsburgh history dating back to 1871.

Connie Hawkins as a Pittsburgh Piper, 1968

FEB. 2, 1963 While maybe not as infamous as the 1982 Stanford/Cal early celebration (“the band is on the field!”), this one is pretty rough, too. In the 98th iteration of the Backyard Brawl, Pitt guard Dave Roman nails a last-second shot for a “final score” of 69-68. But as the celebration begins, officials announce that another Pitt player had called a timeout with one second remaining, nullifying the shot. The final attempt is a miss, leading to a 68-67 loss.

{CP PHOTO BY VINCENT PUGLIESE}

The Buffalo Sabres face the Pens at PPG Paints Arena in 2017.

[THE CHEAP SEATS]

POWER PLAY {BY MIKE WYSOCKI}

W

HILE SOME people are excited

for this week’s Super Bowl, a lot of us have decided to just turn our attention straight to the ice. All we have to look forward to now is the Pittsburgh Penguins’ quest for a third straight Stanley Cup. Last week, I unveiled Cheap Seats’ 21st-Century NFL Power Rankings and the Steelers won the silver medal. This week we look at the NHL. The Vegas Golden Knights are not included, but former Pen Marc-Andre Fleury is showing Sin City how it’s done with a 12-4 record and 1.77 goals against average. He could arguably be the best goaltender in the history of two franchises. The formula for the ranking that follows is based on playoff success. Ten points for winning a playoff series and an additional 20 for hoisting Lord Stanley. In the event of a

ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

tie, regular-season record determines the higher placement (playoff series wins in parentheses).

30. Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets (0). No series wins; heck, no playoff wins.

Both incarnations of this terrible franchise made the playoffs once and were promptly swept. They are the Cleveland Browns on ice.

29. Florida Panthers (0). In 1996, they beat the Pens on their way to the finals.

It was the last time they’ve won a series.

Even Jaromir Jagr bringing his talents to South Beach couldn’t lift this team.

28. Columbus Blue Jackets (0). The Jackets quickly adapted to the Ohio model of pro-sports futility. The six professional teams in the Buckeye state have one trophy since 1990. It was in basketball.

27. New York Islanders (1). Since knocking the Penguins from their quest

for three straight Stanleys in 1993, the Islanders have won one playoff series.

The curse of 1983 continues. That year the Isles, 76ers, Raiders and Orioles were World Champs. Not one of them ever won again.

26. Arizona Coyotes (2). Wayne Gretzky tried to right this ship, taking over as owner and director of operations. A few years later he gave up, proving that he is not as good an owner as Mario Lemieux.

25. Edmonton Oilers (4). They are the 49ers of the NHL. Both teams were 1980s dynasties, winning four championships.

Both added one in the 1990s. Both made it to the finals once this century, and both lost.

24. Toronto Maple Leafs (4). The last time they won a Cup was in 1967. At least the Hockey Hall of Fame is in Toronto, where fans can go to see some good players.

23. Calgary Flames (4). Jagr’s most recent team is a little better than it’s been most of the century, but not much.

22. Minnesota Wild (4). More like Minnesota Mild. If this franchise folded, no one would notice.

21. Buffalo Sabres (5). There really is nothing at all to cheer for in Buffalo, is there?

20. Dallas Stars (5). Another team that had a brief relationship with the great Jagr. At least it’s had more playoff success than the Cowboys.

19. Nashville Predators (6). Six playoff series wins, and three of those were last season. The Pens squashed their dreams last year and proved that Tennessee is the Ohio of the south.

18. Washington Capitals (6). They sent Kris Beech, Ross Lupaschuk and Michal Sivek to the Pens in exchange for Jagr. The Caps definitely won that battle, but the Pens won the war in 2017, ’16, ’09, ’01, ’00, ’95 and ’92 by knocking them out of the playoffs.

17. St. Louis Blues (7). In each of the Blues’ first three years of existence, they went to the Stanley Cup finals and got swept each time. Well, it’s been 48 years and they haven’t been back.

Legendary losers.

16. Vancouver Canucks (7). A steady but unspectacular franchise. They have the indignity of letting the Rangers win the Stanley Cup for the only time in 78 years.

15. Montreal Canadiens (8). Still the gold standard in terms of all-time history, but the luster is fading. They won it all in 1993, the last time a non-U.S. team did so. It’s up to them to Make Canada Great Again.

14. Ottawa Senators (10). Or maybe the Senators will. This century, they’ve been the best team north of the border. A pretty wellrun franchise that seems to be contenders every year.

13. Philadelphia Flyers (10). For Pens fans, when Jagr donned a Flyers uniform, it created a mind-exploding blast furnace of hatred that could be matched only if Tom Brady signed with the Ravens. The Flyers are good at losing in the Stanley Cup Finals; they’ve done it six times since 1975.

12. New York Rangers (11). Goalie Henrik Lundqvist is the king of nothing. The Rangers hoisted the Cup the year before Pearl Harbor was bombed and only once since. But the Madison Square Garden faithful loved Jagr when he played there.

11. Colorado Avalanche (8). The Cup

{CP PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK}

Evgeni Malkin has helped make the Pens the envy of the hockey world.

win in 2001 moves the Avalanche up the list, but it’s been 10 years since the team won a playoff series. At least its fans can get high.

10. Carolina Hurricanes (9). The Pens swept them on their way to the Cup in ’09 despite Bill Cowher in the stands rooting for the ’Canes. They never recovered and haven’t been to the playoffs since. But they won it all in 2006, before the Curse of the ’Stache doomed them to mediocrity.

9. Boston Bruins (9). Jagr looked wicked awesome when he donned this brand of black and gold. The Bruins’ Cup in 2011 is their only one since 1972. But their obnoxious fans still brag incessantly about it.

8. San Jose Sharks (14).

The highest-ranking team to not win it all. Fourteen playoff series wins is still pretty impressive.

They got close two years ago, but those Pens are dream-crushers.

7. Tampa Bay Lightning (12). The Bolts ’04 Cup was so shocking that the league had to shut down for the entire next season. Tampa is a very successful expansion franchise that counts Hulk Hogan among its fans.

Whatcha gonna do when the Lightning runs wild on you?

6. New Jersey Devils (12). Martin Brodeur won three Cups in his storied career, including one in 2003. The Devils were in the playoffs every year from 1990-2013.

They have declined significantly in recent years. But in 2014 their leading scorer was,

you guessed it, 42-year-old Jaromir Jagr.

5. Los Angeles Kings (10). When they get to the playoffs, they make it count.

They didn’t even make the postseason in eight of the past 16 seasons. But, Stanley Cups in 2012 and ’14 move them up into the elite top 5.

4. Anaheim Ducks (14). What? Yes, they have greatly improved since Emilio Estevez was let go. Fourteen playoff series wins and a Stanley Cup is pretty mighty.

3. Detroit Red Wings (17). The most consistent franchise in all major sports.

The Wings missed the playoffs last year for the first time in 27 years. They’ve won two Cups this century and faced the Pens in back-to-back classics in 2008 and 2009.

2. Chicago Blackhawks (16). Entering the 2010 season, the Hawks had not won a championship in almost 50 years. Since then, they’ve collected three Cups, good enough for second place.

1. Pittsburgh Penguins (21) They are the team of the century so far. Jaromir Jagr got his start here, but was just passed on the all-time Pens scoring list by Sid Crosby. The 21st century started out a little shaky, but Crosby, Malkin and the gang have made this franchise the envy of the hockey world. With 21 playoff-series wins and three Cups, nobody is better.

So Pittsburgh has the second-best football team in the country this century and the best hockey team in North America.

Remember that and savor it when the 21st century MLB Power Rankings come out in March. As with the upcoming Pirates season, don’t get your hopes too high.

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

MARC-ANDRE FLEURY COULD ARGUABLY BE THE BEST GOALTENDER IN THE HISTORY OF TWO FRANCHISES.

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{PHOTO COURTESY OF WWE.COM}

WWE Hall of Famer Amy “Lita” Dumas made her return to the ring in the historic Women’s Royal Rumble.

ALMOST PERFECT {BY MEG FAIR} THERE’S NO pay-per-view in the WWE

Universe that’s more fun than the Royal Rumble.

The main match is a kicked-up Battle Royale, built around the 30-person rumble-style match. It starts with two wrestlers, and every 90 seconds another entrant appears. In order to be eliminated, you must go over the top rope, and both of your feet have to touch the ground.

It’s the over-the-top spirit of such a match that makes it so joyous. It’s perfect for betting pools and easy for casual fans to jump in on without knowing the context of all the feuds. It’s also a great opportunity for the WWE to plant a bunch of storyline seeds in one fell swoop — if they can get it together.

But this year’s Royal Rumble was especially exciting because it made history. It featured the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble on WWE TV. It’s very rare that WWE has its women superstars’ main event as pay-per-view, but the women’s rumble was indeed the main event.

If you haven’t yet watched the rumble, turn the page; there are spoilers ahead.

The show started with a two-on-one handicap match for the United States Championship, featuring Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn against defending champion A.J. Styles. If Owens and Zayn won, they’d become co-champions. This match ended in controversy as A.J. Styles retained his ti-

tle by pinning Kevin Owens, even though it appeared that Zayn had not actually made a tag, a ruling that would have overturned Owens’ win.

This is a great step in the Zayn-and-Owens storyline, because the establishment has once again screwed them over, thus fostering their rebellion and frustration.

Philadelphia is not necessarily known as the friendliest sports city, but the crowd was incredibly hot all night with very few exceptions. It helps that the Rumble draws a national and international crowd to even out the rough-around-theedges Philly mob.

The crowd cooled off most for both tag-team title matches (Smackdown’s Usos defending against Gable and Benjamin before the men’s rumble, and RAW’s The Bar trying to snag the titles from Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan before the women’s rumble).

The men’s rumble was way more fun than last year’s, in which Roman Reigns entered at 30, frustrating everyone with its lazy story writing. Randy Orton ended up winning, which also was no fun, because he’s a particularly flat character.

SPOILER ALERT: WWE’S ROYAL RUMBLE WAS ALMOST PERFECT.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.31/02.07.2018

In an artful redemption, this men’s rumble featured some highlights: >> Heath Slater eliminating Sheamus in under a minute (comedy gold) >> Andrade Cien Almas and Adam

Former MMA star Ronda Rousey made her WWE debut following Sunday’s Royal Rumble.

Cole of NXT holding their own in the Rumble >> Rey Mysterio’s surprise return >> Shinsuke Nakamura eliminating Dolph Ziggler >> Shinsuke Nakamura winning the whole thing, as is right, just and good As a women’s wrestling fan in the WWE, the way to survive a big event with your heart intact is to set the bar low and be pleasantly surprised when they don’t entirely mess it up. But the women’s rumble was spectacular, and exceeded my expectations.

Stephanie McMahon on commentary was great, and her color commentary made the women much fuller characters and provided context to each woman’s presence in the rumble.

Here are some of the highlights from the match: >> Hall-of-Famer Lita returning to in-ring action wearing a Time’s Up belt on her gear, kicking mad ass and taking names >> Stephanie McMahon shouting out the importance of Chyna, a rarity in the WWE >> The return of the Bella Twins and Nikki’s ultimate betrayal of Brie >> Molly Holly, Lita, Trish Stratus and Beth Phoenix showing no signs of ring-rust >> Sasha eliminating Bayley — setting up their inevitable, emotionally charged feud >> Naomi saving herself from elimination by climbing over eliminated women and walking across the barricade to an office

chair that she used to scoot to the ring steps >> Asuka winning as is right, just and good My only major gripe of the night was WWE’s decision to have Ronda Rousey debut to interrupt Asuka’s celebration. This debut would have been equally as powerful on Monday Night Raw, so to interrupt Asuka’s historic moment seems incredibly unfair and also short-sighted.

For more pro-wrestling coverage, check out CP’s SMARK ATTACK blog at www.pghcitypaper.com, including a full rundown of WWE’s NXT Takeover live from Philly.

It’s important to contextualize this moment in WWE’s existence, though. Vince McMahon, chairman and CEO of WWE, has recently sold off his stock to reboot the XFL, an alternative football league. Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live currently air on the USA network, but networks are in talks to bargain for who next will get to air those shows.

By bringing in Rousey, WWE will bring a new set of eyes to its product.

Rousey draws the UFC and MMA crowd, and she’s a more widely known figure.

It’s a bargaining chip to get more money and attention.

But unfortunately, this conclusion to an otherwise thrilling night is a reminder that no matter how much fun these events can be, ultimately WWE cares far more about business than meaningful storylines, feminist progress or rewarding fans for their loyalty.

MEGFAIR @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER

CLASSIFIEDS FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO PLACE A CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISEMENT, CALL 412-316-3342 EXT. 189 Uber Technologies, Inc. has MULTIPLE POSITIONS open in Pittsburgh, PA for the following: Senior Hardware Engineer (Ref#A3RU9W) Dvelop high prformnce custm logic for percption & autonmy apps. Software Engineer (Ref#18JANSWPITT) Dsgn/archtct, dev &/or test SW apps using Uber’s tech stack. Software Engineer (Ref#ADZ3N9) Architect, dsgn, implmnt & test functionality for lrg-scale distributed systms using Uber’s tech stack.

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If you thrive in a fast paced deadline oriented environment and want to join a dynamic and fun media team then this is the opportunity for you. Pittsburgh City Paper is seeking a Digital Business Development Exec., that will secure new clients for the CP Digital Portfolio of advertising and marketing products within the Pittsburgh region. As a DBD Executive at Pittsburgh City Paper, you will conduct sufficient outbound cold calling, spend time in the field meeting with SMB’s and create successful advertising and marketing campaigns that help clients reach their goals and ensure renewal.

RESPONSIBILITIES: • Identify new business opportunities, aggressively pursue them and close new business.

• Provide strategic advice around the customer journey, as it applies to SMBs in the Pittsburgh Region • Understand and comprehend the digital advertising landscape

• Provide post campaign reporting and analytics to your clients • Continually learn new developments in digital advertising REQUIREMENTS: • Bachelor’s degree; OR equivalent experience • Creative, diplomatic, tenacious, interper-

Sealed bids will be received in the Office Of The Chief Operations Officer, Room 251, Administration Building, 341 South Bellefield Avenue until 11:00 A.M. prevailing time February 13, 2018 and will be opened at the same hour for the purchase of the following equipment and supplies:

Custodial Small Equipment Custodial Paper Products Custodial Chemicals/Soaps Packaging Materials Printed Forms General Information regarding bids may be obtained at the Office of the Purchasing Agent, Service Center, 1305 Muriel Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203. The bid documents are available on the School District’s Purchasing web site at: http://www.pghboe.net/pps/site/default.asp Click on Bid Opportunities under Quick Links.

The Board of Public Education reserves the right to reject any and all bids, or select a single item from any bid.

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• 1+ years of new business (hunter) sales in the Pittsburgh region with a history of goal attainment

Email resume to Justin@pghcitypaper.com • No Calls Please. EOE

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ACROSS 1. Dozing off for a moment 8. LOLcat greeting 11. ‘80s punk label that launched 40-Across 14. End the relationship 15. Matt Lauer’s soon-to-be ex-wife Roque 17. Moderate gaits 18. Some Arp work 19. Zings 20. Intricate ornamental metalwork 21. Make contact (with) 23. “Big Three” summit site 24. Last call for some places 25. Some Vans 27. Place near Sundance?

29. Shopper’s aid 31. Barnyard dams 32. Big test 33. Bowling spots 34. Loom string 35. Norse god who is 36Across’s brother 36. Norse god who is 35-Across’s

brother 37. Your lady friend’s 38. Painting on plaster 40. ___ Youth (punk rock icons) 42. Spanish homes 43. You’d better believe them 45. Soothsayers 47. Root (for) 49. Put in a separate spot 50. Startled 52. Like stampfree postage 53. Casserole dish 54. Compass dir.

55. Rocket man, once 56. Big bucks

extra ten seconds ...”

9. Sports talk radio types 10. Aloo gobi cuisine 11. Commence fighting 12. Group that barely runs by?

13. French head 16. Singer with the 1998 hit “Save Tonight” 20. Many pussyhat wearers 22. Healthy lunch 26. xxx-xx-xx ID 27. Casts out, as demons 28. Decide

democratically 30. Spanish honorific 32. Small character in fantasy 33. Infuser contents 37. Wallop 39. Bird in a coal mine 41. Central cores 44. Rounds in the playoffs 45. Coin with a torch 46. Start over 48. Contacts company 50. Law practitioner: Abbr.

51. Schumer’s party: Abbr. {LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS}

DOWN 1. “The Good Place” channel 2. King Abdullah, e.g.

3. Relating to prison 4. Intercepting weapon 5. Japanese flower-arranging 6. Pillow that helps breastfeeding moms 7. Google Maps setting 8. “___ taken an

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FOR THE WEEK OF

Free Will Astrology

01.31-02.07

{BY ROB BREZSNY}

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When I was in my early twenties, I smoked marijuana now and then. I liked it. It made me feel good and inspired my creativity and roused spiritual visions. But I reconsidered my use after encountering pagan magician Isaac Bonewits. He didn’t have a moral objection to cannabis use, but believed it withered one’s willpower and diminished one’s determination to transform one’s life for the better. For a year, I meditated on and experimented with his hypothesis. I found it to be true, at least for me. I haven’t smoked since. My purpose in bringing this up is not to advise you about your relationship to drugs, but rather to urge you to question whether there are influences in your life that wither your willpower and diminish your determination to transform your life for the better. Now is an excellent time to examine this issue.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Would you like to shed unwieldy baggage before moving on to your next big challenge? I hope so. It will purge your soul of karmic sludge.

It will prime you for a fresh start. One way to accomplish this bravery is to confess your sins and ask for forgiveness in front of a mirror. Here are data to consider. Is there anyone you know who would not give you a good character reference? Have you ever committed a seriously unethical act? Have you revealed information that was told to you in confidence? While under the influence of intoxicants or bad ideas, have you done things you’re ashamed of? I’m not saying you’re more guilty of these things than the rest of us; it’s just that now is your special time to seek redemption.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In all of history, humans have mined about 182,000 tons of gold. Best estimates suggest there are still 35 billion tons of gold buried in the earth, but the remaining riches will be more

difficult to find and collect than what we’ve already gotten. We need better technology. If I had to say who would be the entrepreneurs and inventors best qualified to lead the quest, my choice would be members of the Aries tribe.

For the foreseeable future, you people will have extra skill at excavating hidden treasure and gathering resources that are hard to access.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Stories have the power to either dampen or mobilize your life energy. I hope that in the coming weeks, you will make heroic efforts to seek out the latter and avoid the former. Now is a crucial time to treat yourself to stories that will jolt you out of your habitual responses and inspire you to take long-postponed actions and awaken the sleeping parts of your soul. And that’s just half of your assignment, dear Taurus.

Here’s the rest: Tell stories that help you remember the totality of who you are, and that inspire your listeners to remember the totality of who they are.

get your yoga on!

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Author Anaïs Nin said, “There are two ways to reach me: by way of kisses or by way of the imagination. But there is a hierarchy: the kisses alone don’t work.” For two reasons, Anaïs’s formulation is especially apropos for you right now. First, you should not allow yourself to be seduced, tempted or won over by sweet gestures alone. You must insist on sweet gestures that are synergized by a sense of wonder and an appreciation of your unique beauty. Second, you should adopt the same approach for those you want to seduce, tempt, or win over: sweet gestures seasoned with wonder and an appreciation of their unique beauty.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Are you more inclined right now to favor temporary involvements and short-term promises? Or would you consider making brave commitments that lead you deeper into the Great Mystery?

Given the upcoming astrological omens, I vote for the latter. Here’s another pair of questions for you, Cancerian. Are you inclined to meander from commotion to commotion without any game plan? Or might you invoke the magic necessary to get involved with high-quality collaborations? I’m hoping you’ll opt for the latter.

(P.S. The near future will be prime time for you to swear a sacred oath or two.)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In March 1996, a man burst into the studio of radio station Star FM in Wanganui, New Zealand. He took the manager hostage and issued a single demand: that the DJ play a recording of the Muppet song “The Rainbow Connection,” as sung by the puppet Kermit the Frog. Fortunately, police intervened quickly, no one was hurt, and the kidnapper was jailed. In bringing this to your attention, Leo, I am certainly not suggesting that you imitate the kidnapper. Please don’t break the law or threaten anyone with harm. On the other hand, I do urge you to take dramatic, innovative action to fulfill one of your very specific desires.

Kino MacGregor Feb 3-4

Teacher Training 2018

schoolhouseyoga.com 44

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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Many varieties of the nettle plant will sting you if you touch the leaves and stems. Their hairs are like hypodermic needles that inject your skin with a blend of irritant chemicals. And yet nettle is also an herb with numerous medicinal properties. It can provide relief for allergies, arthritis, joint pain and urinary problems. That’s why Shakespeare invoked the nettle as a metaphor in his play “Henry IV, Part 1”: “Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety,” says the character named Hotspur. In accordance with the astrological omens, Virgo, I choose the nettle as your power metaphor for the first three weeks of February.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Knullrufs” is a Swedish word that refers to what your hair looks like after sex: tousled, rumpled, disordered. If I’m reading the astrological omens correctly, you should experience more knullrufs than usual in the coming weeks. You’re in a phase when you need and deserve extra pleasure and delight, especially the kind that rearranges your attitudes as well as your coiffure. You have license to exceed your normal quotas of ravenousness and rowdiness.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In his “Crazy Lake Experiment” documented on YouTube, Harvard physicist Greg Kestin takes a raft out on a lake. He drops a tablespoon of olive oil into the water, and a few minutes later, the half-acre around his boat is still and smooth.

All the small waves have disappeared. He proceeds to explain the science behind the calming effect produced by a tiny amount of oil. I suspect that you will have a metaphorically comparable power in the next two weeks, Scorpio. What’s your version of the olive oil? Your poise? Your graciousness? Your tolerance? Your insight into human nature?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 1989, a man spent four dollars on a painting at a flea market in Adamstown, Pa. He didn’t care much for the actual image, which was a boring country scene, but he thought he could use the frame. Upon returning home, he found a document concealed behind the painting. It turned out to be a rare old copy of America’s Declaration of Independence, originally created in 1776.

He eventually sold it for $2.42 million. I doubt that you will experience anything quite as spectacular in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. But I do suspect you will find something valuable where you don’t expect it, or develop a connection with something that’s better than you imagined it would be.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In the 1740s, a teenage Capricorn girl named Eliza Lucas almost single-handedly introduced a new crop into American agriculture: indigo, a plant used as a dye for textiles. In South Carolina, where she managed her father’s farm, indigo ultimately became the second-most-important cash crop over the next 30 years. I have astrological reasons to believe that you are now in a phase when you could likewise make innovations that will have long-range economic repercussions. Be alert for good intuitions and promising opportunities to increase your wealth.

What’s the best, most healing trouble you could whip up right now? Testify at 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 38-year-old lesbian, very femme, very out. I have a coworker I can’t figure out. We’ve worked together for a year and gotten very close. I never want to put out the wrong signals to coworkers, and I err on the side of keeping a safe but friendly distance. This is different.

We are each other’s confidants at work.

We stare at each other across the office, we text until late at night, and we go for weekend dog walks. Her texts aren’t overtly flirty, but they are intimate and feel more than friendly. I’ve never had a “straight” girl act like this toward me.

Is she into me? Or just needy? Is it all in my head?

WORKPLACE OBSESSION ROILING KNOWING-IF-NERVOUS GAL

Five weeks ago, a letter-writer jumped down my throat for giving advice to lesbians despite not being a lesbian myself. Questions from lesbians have been pouring in ever since — lesbians apparently don’t like being told who they may or may not ask for advice. Three weeks ago, I responded to a man whose coworker asked him if he might want to sleep with the coworker’s wife and people jumped down my throat for entertaining the idea because it is NEVER EVER NEVER EVER OK to sleep with a coworker and/ or a coworker’s spouse. And now here I am responding to a question from a lesbian who wants to sleep with a coworker. Farewell to my mentions, as the kids say.

Here we go.

Your straight-identified workmate could be straight, or she could be a lesbian (lots of lesbians come out later in life), or she could be bisexual (most bisexual women are closeted, and others are perceived to be straight despite their best efforts to identify as bisexual) — and lots of late-in-lifers and/or closeted folks don’t come out until some hot same-sex prospect works up the nerve to ask them out.

If your coworker isn’t currently under you at work and you’re not an imminent promotion away from becoming her supervisor and your company doesn’t incentivize workplace romances by banning them, ask your coworker out on a date — an unambiguous ask for a date, not an appointment to meet up at the dog park. And this is important: Before she can respond to your ask, invite her to say “no” if the answer is no, or “straight” if the identity is straight. Good luck!

Burn it down, CTOACA. Call or email your partner’s old friend and tell him you think he’s a pushy, unpleasant and smelly and that you don’t want to hang out with him — not at his place, not on a trip and not at your wedding, which he not only won’t be officiating but, if you had your druthers, he wouldn’t be attending. That should do it.

I’m a 40-year-old lesbian in Alabama, and I work with a woman I find impossible to resist. The catch is she’s 66, straight, and has two children. I love her deeply, she loves me, but we don’t have sex. The odd thing is that she vacillates between heavily making out with me every time we are alone together and saying, “No, I can’t, I’m straight!” Why does she do everything but sex if she’s straight?

FEELING REALLY UNSURE SINCE THIS REMARKABLY AMAZING TEMPTRESS ENTERED DOMAIN

That nice straight lady from work is making out with you because she likes it, or she’s making out with you because she wants you in her life and believes — perhaps mistakenly — that this is the only way to hold your interest/fuel your obsession. If she likes it, then she’s a lesbian or bisexual, but so invested in her heterosexual identity that she can’t “go there.” If she’s making out with you only because she’s lonely and values your friendship and/or enjoys the ego boost of being your obsession, then you don’t want to keep making out with her — for her sake and for your own sake.

BEFORE SHE CAN RESPOND TO YOUR ASK, INVITE HER TO SAY ‘NO.’

I’m a woman in my early 60s with a healthy lifestyle and an even healthier libido. I’ve had almost exclusively hetero relationships, but I’ve been attracted to women all my life and all of my fantasies involve women. The older I get, the more I think about a relationship with a woman. The thought of being in love with a woman, making love with her, sharing a life with her — it all sounds like heaven.

The trouble is that it’s really hard to see how I’ll meet women who would be interested in me. There’s rarely anyone my age on dating apps. I don’t even know what age range is reasonable. What’s a reasonable age difference for women with women? Also, who is going to be interested in a rookie? Advice?

ENERGETIC LONELY DAME ENVISIONING RELATIONSHIP

I’m a lesbian, and my partner recently reconnected with a childhood friend; his pushy behavior really gets to me.

He texts her at all hours — and when he can’t get in touch with her, he bugs me.

When I refused to go on a trip with him and his husband, he guilt-tripped me for weeks. He constantly wants us to come to his house, but they’re chain-smokers. He also wants to officiate at our upcoming wedding! My partner won’t stand up for me when I say no to this guy. How can I get my partner to listen to me or get her friend to leave me be?

There are lots of lesbians out there in relationships with significant age gaps — and at least one lesbian in Alabama who desperately wants to be in one. So don’t let the lack of older women on dating apps prevent you from putting yourself out there on apps and elsewhere, ELDER. As for your rookie status, there are two examples of lesbians pining over rookies in this very column!

And remember: If you put yourself out there, you might be alone a year from now — but if you don’t put yourself out there, you’ll definitely be alone a year from now.

CAN’T THINK OF A CLEVER ACRONYM

Check out the Lovecast, www.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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GLAAD TIDINGS {BY RYAN DETO}

AFTER 12 YEARS of spreading awareness on a plethora of LGBTQ issues, Sue Kerr is finally starting to get some recognition. In Pittsburgh City Paper’s 2016 Best of Pittsburgh readers’-poll issue, Kerr was named best local blogger for her work telling LGBTQ stories.

Now, the blog she founded, Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, has been nominated for a GLAAD media award, which honors outstanding representations in the LGBTQ community across the country.

Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents provides original coverage of untold LGBTQ stories and highlights neglected LGBTQ angles in stories told by other outlets. Kerr also publishes a section on her blog called “AMPLIFY,” which provides first-person perspectives from out individuals throughout Western Pennsylvania.

Contributors to AMPLIFY come from within the Pittsburgh city limits and from rural parts of the region, like Elk County.

“I am a big believer in visibility,” says Kerr. “The more people that are out and can be out, that will bring benefits to the whole community. That is what AMPLIFY is about.”

Kerr says she is proud of the recognition, and says it’s fulfilling after she has been blogging for so long. But her work telling LGBTQ stories isn’t done yet.

{CP PHOTO BY JOHN COLOMBO}

GLAAD media award nominee Sue Kerr

in Pittsburgh aren’t necessarily seeping out into the region as a whole. She says discussions are needed to bring more LGBTQ voices to the entire Western Pennsylvania media landscape.

“We should have conversations about the disparities,” says Kerr about the lack of LGBTQ voices in the region’s media. “I would like to see us take a critical look at the LGBTQ news landscape.”

Kerr recognizes that maintaining an LGBTQ magazine in Pittsburgh would be difficult, but hopes the region could start a printed newsletter, like Erie’s Erie Gay News. A newsletter could keep people up to date on all the regional LGBTQ news, says Kerr; now, those stories go largely untold. She also hopes to see more consistently worded coverage by mainstream-media outlets in the area, noting that TV reports and newspaper articles can be

“THE MORE PEOPLE THAT ARE OUT AND CAN BE OUT, THAT WILL BRING BENEFITS TO THE WHOLE COMMUNITY.” “It is very flattering, but it is not about me, it is about the resource that the blog has become,” says Kerr. “The bigger issue is that the blog is one of the main things that we have right now in the area LGBTQ [media landscape]. We need more voices in the LGBTQ community. Especially for underserved communities, like the queer and trans community, and the queer and trans communities of color.”

Kerr is worried that the region is losing ground in terms of LGBTQ representation in the media and in the amount of LGBTQ stories told overall. She notes that Pittsburgh lacks a print LGBTQ publication. A local LGBTQ-focused magazine, Equal, ceased publication in 2015. And she says LGBTQ acceptance could be waning slightly nationally.

A 2018 GLAAD survey reported that 31 percent of non-LGBTQ Americans surveyed expressed some discomfort at seeing a samesex couple hold hands, a 2 percent increase from 2016. The same survey reported that 55 percent of the LGBTQ Americans surveyed reported being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, an 11-percent increase from 2016.

Kerr also notes that some of the pro-LGBTQ attitudes present

inconsistent in their usage of LGBTQ terminology.

Given the region’s dearth of LGBTQ-specific publications, Kerr says she will keep Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents running at full tilt to raise as much awareness as she can. She says LGBTQ blogs, like her fellow GLAAD nominees, have an important role in the community, one which has helped contribute to their longevity.

“I have no plans to stop,” she says. “I am really thrilled the other bloggers nominated also have a lot of longevity. LGBTQ blogs really circumvent the curve, compared to other blogs.”

And while Kerr is still motivated to blog about LGBTQ stories, she implores readers to support local blogs like hers by donating, buying advertisements, or even starting their own blogs to add more LGBTQ stories to Western Pennsylvania. And she has one more request to Pittsburghers who enjoy her work: a cupcake.

“I don’t expect a parade, but I would like a sandwich or a cupcake named after my blog,” says Kerr, who has relatives who work at the Priory Fine Pastries bakery in the North Side. “That would be more fitting, maybe just a cupcake. I may not be at sandwich level yet.”

RYANDE TO@ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM

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