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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
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Luna with special guest
Eleanor Friedberger
EVENTS 9.15 - 8pm TQ LIVE! A queer evening of dazzling performance, dance, poetry, comedy, music, and more. Please note this performance contains adult subject matter and strong language. Tickets $10/$8 members & students
9.16 - 8pm & 10 pm NIGHT OF 1,000 MARILYNS 8pm VIP & General, 10pm Late Night Tickets $200 VIP; $50 General; $25 Late-nite
9.21 – 8pm SOUND SERIES: SELECTOR DUB NARCOTIC WITH SPECIAL GUEST STRANGEWAYS The Warhol entrance space Free parking is available in The Warhol lot. Tickets $10/$8 members and students
9.26 – 10am - 5pm RADICAL DAY 2017, FEATURING FREE ADMISSION Bring the whole family to The Warhol for a unique day of art and fun. Free
9.29 – 8pm ERIN MARKEY: BONER KILLER The Warhol theater Co-presented with Carnegie Mellon University School of Art and School of Drama Please note this performance contains adult subject matter and strong language. Tickets $15/$12 members & students
11.15 – 8pm Carnegie Lecture Hall, This event is co-presented with WYEP. Tickets $25/$20 members & students; visit www.warhol.org or call 412.237.8300
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The Andy Warhol Museum receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency and The Heinz Endowments. Further support is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset District.
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
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08.30/09.06.2017 VOLUME 27 + ISSUE 35
[EDITORIAL] Editor CHARLIE DEITCH News Editor REBECCA ADDISON Arts & Entertainment Editor BILL O’DRISCOLL Associate Editor AL HOFF Digital Editor ALEX GORDON Staff Writers RYAN DETO, CELINE ROBERTS Music Writer MEG FAIR Interns HALEY FREDERICK, KRISTA JOHNSON, HANNAH LYNN, JAKE MYSLIWCZYK, MATT PETRAS
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{CP COVER PHOTO BY VINCENT PUGLIESE}
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[NEWS]
“Historically, the Roma have received hostility almost everywhere they have gone.”
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THIS WEEK
“CONSERVATIVES HAVE GENERALLY UNDERSTOOD THAT GROWTH IS POSITIVE.”
ONLINE
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This summer, Pittsburgh-area yogis have been practicing their owl poses with real owls. Check out our photos from the Humane Animal Rescue’s most recent Y-OWL-ga event at www.pghcitypaper.com.
The University of Pittsburgh’s football season kicked off this month. Scroll through our photo slideshow from Pitt training camp at www.pghcitypaper.com.
CP recently joined 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.
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{CP PHOTO BY CAROLINE MOORE}
California, Pa.’s new Roma immigrants can benefit the town, possibly by filling its recently vacated Orthodox Christian church.
SMALL-TOWN VALUE L
ATE THIS PAST winter, a new group
of residents began moving into the small, former coal community of California, Pa. The Mon Valley town, home to about 6,000, gained dozens of new inhabitants, made up mostly of traditional families — father working a blue-collar job; mother cleaning, cooking and caring for young children. These new residents hail from Europe and tend to honor their cultural traditions, which include craftsmanship, music, dance and entrepreneurship; they practice Orthodox Christianity. On paper, they resemble a good example of the kind of people a small town is looking for. But the new residents have been met with resistance; their apparent similarities with small-town Pennsylvanians
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couldn’t outweigh their differences. These immigrants from Romania are part of an ethnic minority known as Roma, sometimes derogatively called “gypsies.” Many don’t speak English, and
Despite anti-immigration sentiments among conservatives, some say there are benefits to embracing a new Roma community in California, Pa. {BY RYAN DETO} all are currently awaiting asylum hearings as part of a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement program called Alternative to Deportation. According to a
recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, the Roma claim they were persecuted in Romania, and moved to California because it’s peaceful and affordable. However, many in California say the newcomers have caused havoc. After a July borough meeting with hundreds of angry townspeople — hundreds more signed a petition to “end housing of illegal immigrants” — the conservative media went wild. Tucker Carlson, host of Fox News’ top-rated Tucker Carlson Tonight, inflamed rumors that the Roma were defecating in the streets and strewing trash across the town. Carlson also claimed the California Roma don’t “seem interested at all in integrating,” but his piece didn’t reference any interviews with locals.
Despite the outrage from some conservatives, pro-immigrant conservatives believe there’s good reason to embrace the Roma in California. Local Republican politicians have been mum on the issue, and some Mon Valley residents are torn, but others believe there is a friendly way forward. Historically, the Roma have received hostility almost everywhere they have gone. The Roma and their descendants are located all throughout the world, but most live in Eastern Europe, where they have been for more than 1,000 years. In medieval Europe, the Roma were slaves. Historically, the Roma are a nomadic people, but in the 1700s many European nations removed their right to own wagons and horses and forced them to assimilate. During the Holocaust, the Nazi regime stripped citizenship from the Roma, and an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 were sent to concentration and death camps. The Roma also haven’t really been welcomed in the U.S. In the 1860s, during the debate over the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted birthright citizenship, Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Sen. Edgar Cowan objected to granting citizenship to “a Gypsy born in Pennsylvania.” Cowan said immigrants like the Roma were invading the U.S., had no allegiance to the country, didn’t pay taxes or serve in the military, and shouldn’t be allowed to become citizens. Linda Chavez, the chair of the Falls Church, Va.-based Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative think tank with pro-immigration stances, says that Cowan’s objection to the Roma echo the current sentiments of some immigration hardliners today. Chavez says the Roma people’s history is one reason small-town residents should welcome them. But she adds that embracing Roma immigrants should go beyond humanitarianism. Chavez, who served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights under President Ronald Reagan, says new immigrants can revive struggling small-town economies. “They are going to be shopping in our stores, they are going to be paying taxes, they are going to be revitalizing an area,” says Chavez. “It may be the Roma in California, Pa., but before them it was the Vietnamese in small towns in Texas, and Mexicans and Guatemalans moving into the small towns in the South.” In fact, many small towns across the U.S. have benefitted from an influx of immigrants. And some are in Republican strongholds, like Sioux Center, Iowa, and Greenport, N.Y., both of which have seen
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economic benefits thanks to immigrants. Hazleton, Pa. has also rebounded after decades of decline thanks to an influx of Latino immigrants from the Dominican Republic. All three of these towns are represented in Congress by immigration hardliners, including Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Hazleton), who is running for U.S. Senate. Chavez says it’s hypocritical for many Republicans to adopt anti-immigrant stances, because Republicans tend to be staunch supporters of free-market capitalism. To bar newcomers, she says, is to advocate for less growth. “Conservatives have generally understood that growth is positive,” says Chavez. “You can achieve economic growth two ways: by increasing productivity or by population growth. It’s best if you can have both. I am always frustrated by my fellow conservatives who seem to understand economics when it suits them, but when you have newcomers, then suddenly all of those ideas are put aside. They revert to tribalism.” Politically, California, Pa. is represented primarily by Republicans. The town isn’t exactly a bastion of conservative politics, but its support for Republicans is growing. In 2012, President Barack Obama carried the town by 17 points, and incumbent U.S Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Hollidaysburg) lost California by 23 points, although Shuster won the seat anyway. In 2016, however, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won California by only 4 points, and Shuster actually won the town by a point, gaining 24 percentage points there in just four years. In the past, Shuster, State Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R-Monongahela), and other California representatives have espoused anti-immigrant and anti-refugee views. In a 2015 Facebook post, Bartolotta wrote that “many” Syrian refugees are terrorists and that the U.S. must close its borders. Pittsburgh City Paper reached out to all of California’s representatives, including Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, for comment on the new Roma community, but none responded. Regardless of politics, the Roma’s culture also appears to align with traditional small-town values. Carnegie Mellon history professor Emanuela Grama, a Romanian native, recently spent time
with about 15 Roma in California, Pa., while acting as a translator for PostGazette reporters. She says that the California Roma were extremely polite, and that they have similar values to other Roma from around the world. But she emphasizes that her observations reflect her personal opinion. According to Grama, Roma from Romania traditionally work as craftsmen of precious metals like gold, and are known to travel to sell their goods. “It’s a traditional society; they are very proud Roma,” says Grama. “They seem to value community and family most.” (CP attempted through multiple sources to interview the Roma, but didn’t receive any response.) Grama adds that some Roma were upset about being portrayed, in social media, as poor and looking for handouts. “These are not people who are poor,” says Grama. “Many people were telling me they would be willing to do any kind of work, painting and construction, blue-collar type of work. They are proud, they have a very clearly defined dignity, and that is what they felt was taken away from them.” Chavez says conservatives who fail to defend immigrants like the Roma are disregarding conservative values. “Even illegal immigrants are more likely to live in households with children, to be comprised of a mother and a father, to have a father who works full time,” says Chavez. “All of the things us conservatives are supposed to believe in.” Chavez also believes churches can play a role in welcoming immigrants to small towns. But area churches are sending some mixed messages. Rev. Samuel Smolcic, of Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in nearby Belle Vernon, says he understands that it can take time for any immigrants to assimilate. Smolcic says he doesn’t speak Romanian, but the Roma “are welcome to my parish, everyone is welcome.” But Rev. Gregory Peterson, of Holy Trinity Church, an Orthodox Christian church in Charleroi, just upriver from California, says he’s “not interested in illegal immigrants.” When CP reminded him that the Roma were here legally, he seemed skeptical, but said “We are a small community and we don’t have the means to take care of these immigrants.
“THEY ARE GOING TO BE SHOPPING IN OUR STORES, THEY ARE GOING TO BE PAYING TAXES, THEY ARE GOING TO BE REVITALIZING AN AREA.”
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
08.30/09.06.2017
If we got you any closer, you would need a field pass.
The best way to a Steelers game? If you are tired of fighting traffic and searching for a parking spot, try the T to Allegheny station. It’s just a first down away from Heinz Field and a whole world of hurt away from the options. Red and blue lines will get you there and the Park and Ride lots are wide open. For more info go to Port Authority.org.
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If a gypsy comes here, they are welcome, but we are not looking into that right now. They are not interested in church; they are interested in material things.” But longtime California resident Rosemary Capanna says that, despite the initial objections of some, relations with the Roma immigrants are already improving. Capanna, who is running for California mayor as a Democrat, says the reaction to the Roma shouldn’t be classified as hysteria, and that a lack of communication between residents and elected officials worsened the situation. She says many townspeople came to the July borough meeting upset because they witnessed some Roma speeding while driving on town streets. Capanna says that once the police chief announced that he had been issuing citations and working toward improving public safety, many residents had calmed down. However, Capanna realizes that some residents might have reacted too strongly initially. According to the Post-Gazette, some townspeople were upset that the Roma hadn’t yet assimilated, even though they had been in
town for only a few months. “Our reaction to their presence is something we are judged by,” says Capanna. “How long can you hold onto anger and outrage? But in the heat of the moment, people had legitimate concerns.” Capanna says people in town don’t really see themselves as conservative or liberal, and says that as long as the Roma are learning and obeying the laws they are welcome. She says local businesses like the beer distributor and convenience stores have already seen an uptick in sales thanks to the Roma. “We have a downtown area that we are looking to improve, like most Mon Valley towns,” says Capanna. “Improved commerce is good.” Capanna says the local magazine Pennsylvania Bridges is planning events to bring the Roma and native-born residents together. She believes things will only improve. “California really does well by its residents,” says Capanna. “I have faith they will do that when there is a need. I certainly feel there are enough people here who want to welcome [the Roma], and learn about their culture.” RYA N D E TO@ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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ONLY HOPE A new program in Pennsylvania could be key to keeping non-violent drug offenders from re-offending {BY REBECCA ADDISON} ACCORDING TO a 2014 report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, an economic-policy think tank, non-violent drug offenders account for approximately onefourth of all offenders in jail or prison. In 1980, by comparison, they accounted for just one-tenth of that population. And according to a 2014 report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the country’s highest re-arrest rates at the time were for non-violent drug offenders. But a program in Pennsylvania is working to reduce these numbers. And according to a preliminary study, that work is paying off. A recent report found that a new Department of Corrections pilot program is lowering the probability that an inmate will be re-arrested upon release. “We are working aggressively and strategically to reduce future criminality of individuals in our charge,” Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said in a statement. “These
results point to the fact that this new approach is showing positive outcomes.” Last year, through a partnership with researchers at Drexel University, the DOC implemented a new disciplinary program aimed at non-violent drug offenders. Known as SIP-HOPE, it was put into effect at two community corrections centers, including Riverside CCC in Pittsburgh, as
part of the State Intermediate Punishment (SIP) program. “The results of this study show an impressive 13-percent reduction in re-arrests among SIP-HOPE participants,” Bret Bucklen, director of research and planning for the DOC, said in a statement. “Further, SIP-HOPE participants spent fewer days in prison or jail, demonstrating the ability of this approach to not only reduce crime but also to reduce the use of costly prison beds.” The basic premise of SIP-HOPE is simple: Participants who violate the program’s ban on drugs and alcohol are punished immediately with a few days in jail. SIP is a 24-month sentence for non-violent drug offenders that incorporates both inpatient and outpatient drug treatment. As part of the SIP-HOPE program, participants are given a clear set of rules to follow. As reinforcement, the rules are prominently displayed on posters in the facilities. Participants are breathalyzed each time they enter the facility and are subject to random drug-testing. If an individual violates one of the rules, SIP-HOPE staff take what is known as a swift, certain and fair (SCF) supervision approach. First-time violators receive 24 hours in prison. Those committing subsequent offenses receive additional time in prison and risk expulsion from the program. Once the punishments are completed, inmates are allowed to continue through the program as if no violation had occurred. “It is becoming increasingly clear that the SCF supervision model is a leading ev-
idence-based model for improving public safety within community-based corrections,” Bucklen said. According to Bucklen, the results seen in Pennsylvania are similar to those found in a dozen other states that have implemented similar programs. Pennsylvania’s program was modeled after the Hawaii Opportunity Probation Experiment. Some have criticized Hawaii’s HOPE Project. In 2014, students at the University of Cincinnati produced a case study titled, “Is Project HOPE Creating a False Sense of Hope?” “Evaluations of HOPE and its adaptations are few in number and have produced mixed results,” reads the study. “They also are methodologically limited, in that these tests have not included various offender populations, an extended follow-up period, or direct assessments of the program’s ‘logic model.’” But statistically, the results of Hawaii’s program, first implemented in 2004, are hard to dismiss. After one year, participants were 55 percent less likely to be arrested for a new crime, 72 percent less likely to use drugs, 61 percent less likely to miss appointments with their probation officers, and 53 percent less likely to have their probation revoked than those who did not go through the program. Hawaii also did a study of participants 10 years later. Researchers found that those in a control group who had not gone through the HOPE program were slightly more likely to have new charges and even more likely to have multiple new charges. And the purported success of the SIPHOPE program builds on success being seen in the SIP program overall. According to the DOC, SIP saves the state $33,250 per participant and has saved the state approximately $79.9 million since the program was started. “At a time when everyone is looking to decrease costs and save money, programs like SIP are huge cost-savers,” Wetzel said in a statement. “In addition to saving money for the commonwealth, SIP also helps offenders break their addictions and change their behaviors resulting in their being more pro-social and crime free. Even after all of the work done to educate judges, district attorneys and public defenders about SIP, why more counties don’t take advantage of this win-win program is puzzling to me.” The DOC is planning to expand SIPHOPE to additional community corrections centers.
“THESE RESULTS POINT TO THE FACT THAT THIS NEW APPROACH IS SHOWING POSITIVE OUTCOMES.”
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
08.30/09.06.2017
THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH 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 September 19, 2017 and will be opened at the same hour for the purchase of the following equipment and supplies:
NOW HIRING FOR IMMEDIATE OPENINGS!
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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:
Applicants must be 18 years of age, have valid driver’s license and access to a vehicle.
http://www.pghboe.net/pps/site/default.asp Click on Bid Opportunities under Quick Links.
Call 724-933-5142 for more information To apply go to: www.invisionhs.org/careers/
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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In early August, Volusia (Fla.) County Beach Safety officers banished 73-year-old Richard G. Basaraba of Daytona Beach from all county beaches after it was discovered he was handing out business cards to young women, reading “Sugardaddy seeking his sugarbaby.” The mother of a 16-year-old said he approached a group of girls with his cards and continued to speak with the minor girl even after she told him her age. He also produced a bra padding, telling the girls he was “looking for someone who would fill it.” He told the 16-year-old she “would be perfect.”
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In a shocking display of mischief, an unnamed 60-year-old man in Singapore is under investigation for lodging three toothpicks in a seat on a public bus in July. If he is found to be the culprit, he could spend up to two years in prison. Singapore has an extremely low crime rate, and even minor offenses result in harsh punishments. For example, vandalism is punishable by caning. Police said at press time that the investigation was continuing.
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Practicing physicians in Cairo, Egypt, opened a surgery-themed restaurant called D.Kebda in July, where they wear surgical scrubs and prepare their only offering, grilled beef-liver sandwiches, behind a glass partition. Kebda is a popular street food in Egypt, but it can cause food poisoning if not prepared carefully. “We tried to take our career values and apply them to this other field,” said Mostafa Basiouny, one of the owners. “There is no contradiction between them; we are still practicing doctors.”
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On Aug. 7, 16-year-old Jack Bergeson, of Wichita, Kan., filed papers in Topeka to run for governor as a Democrat in the 2018 race. Bergeson, who won’t be able to vote in that election, said: “I thought, you know, let’s give the people of Kansas a chance. Let’s try something new.” The candidate says he would “radically change” health care and would support legalizing medical marijuana, but he’s conservative on gun rights. Bryan Caskey, director of elections at the Kansas secretary of state’s office, said there is no law governing the qualifications for governor. Bergeson’s running mate, 17-year-old Alexander Cline, will be 18 by the election and will get to vote.
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Residents of Hollis, Maine, were unnerved on the evening of July 25 as Corey Berry, 31, wearing a clown mask, walked around town with a machete duct-taped to the place where his arm had been amputated. When Berry, intoxicated, was taken into custody in nearby Waterboro, he explained to officers that he was copying other clown sightings as a prank on a friend. Karmen LePage, of Hollis, warned: “He’s not funny. We live in the woods; you think we don’t have guns? He’s ... lucky.”
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The South Carolina Emergency Management Division issued an alert on Aug. 9 in advance of the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 asking South Carolinians to be “vigilant” and look out for Lizardmen during the celestial event. “SCEMD does not know if Lizardmen become more active during a solar eclipse,” the note reads. “But we advise that residents of Lee and Sumter counties should remain vigilant.” The folkloric reptilian beast is thought to live in swampland around Lee County and frequent sewers in nearby towns. While some people thought the warning might be a joke, SCEMD said it “will neither confirm nor deny” the existence of Lizardmen.
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Customers at a Flying J truck stop in West Hanover Township, Va., got quite the show on Aug. 14 when Craig Troccia, 54, of Roanoke, smashed the windshield of his truck and poured a cup of urine onto the interior. Wait — did we mention Troccia was naked? He then yelled a racial epithet at a
black man and flashed his genitals at everyone within sight. Next (still naked), Troccia pointed a gun at the same man and then at another man and threatened to kill them both. After state troopers loaded Troccia into their cruiser, he “slammed his body and head on the various panels of the vehicle,” they reported. He was charged with 34 criminal counts, including public drunkenness.
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Jeremy A. Perkins, 27, was led astray by someone who told him “the purge” was happening on Aug. 12 in Kansas City, Mo. (The Purge is a 2013 horror film that envisioned a temporary decriminalization of all criminal acts, after which society collapses in chaos.) In response (and high on methamphetamines), Perkins climbed to the top of a building and began throwing rocks at passing vehicles. Perkins told responding officers that he perceived everyone as his enemy and was trying to protect himself. He added that if he had had a gun, he would have shot people.
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FIVE TO WATCH
STEELERS PREVIEW 2017
Storylines to monitor during the Steelers’ 2017 campaign
FEELING
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The first season following Dan Rooney’s death
From Panther to Steeler, James Conner may be one of the most popular backups in NFL history {BY CHARLIE DEITCH}
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CROWD OF REPORTERS and photographers gathered on the sidelines of Chuck Noll Field on Aug. 16 as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ .offense and defense squared off for 11on-11 training-camp drills. Head coach Mike Tomlin shouted instructions. Only it wasn’t to the players, as it had been all afternoon; this time, it was to the two dozen media members at the 50-yard line. “Hey, James Conner is about to carry the ball; get your cameras ready,” said the man starting his 10th season as Steelers head coach. It was Conner’s first action in pads since the first day of camp, when he sustained a relatively minor shoulder injury.
It’s hard to find someone who will say a cross word about Dan Rooney, the long-time Steelers owner, and ambassador to Ireland under President Barack Obama. Rooney had worked for the Steelers in some capacity since he was a little kid going to work with his dad, Art Rooney. His presence was missed in Latrobe this summer, and players and coaches are playing this season for him. “It’s been tough not seeing his cart, seeing him walking around,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger told reporters. “For me, 14 years of seeing him here, someone who means a lot. I know he means a lot to everyone, but a little something special to me, because I know on draft day, he went in and said, ‘Listen, we are taking him.’ It’s not the same, but he will always be here with us.”
the crowd cheered his two- or three-yard gain. They’d get a closer look on the following Sunday: In a preseason game against Atlanta, at Heinz Field, Conner made his NFL in-game debut, carrying 20 times for 98 yards. A pretty good first effort for a third-round draft pick. “This is awesome, right at home, right at Heinz Field,” Conner told reporters after that game. “To get to that first carry in a Steelers uniform is something special.” And it wasn’t just a special moment for Conner; it was a special moment for Steelers fans and Conner fans everywhere. Conner’s not your run-of-the-mill
“TO GET TO THAT FIRST CARRY IN A STEELERS UNIFORM IS SOMETHING SPECIAL.” Lenses pivoted right as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger led the team to the line of scrimmage. He took the snap and Conner, the rookie running back just nine months removed from the University of Pittsburgh’s backfield, charged the line and hit the hole upright. But Conner didn’t have the ball: It was a fake, and by the time reporters and defenders noticed, Roethlisberger had already rolled out to the right and thrown the ball 20 yards downfield to a receiver. Fans and reporters would have to wait until the next play to see Conner carry the ball; when he did,
Steelers rookie. He’s a Western PA kid, a star out of the University of Pittsburgh, and a survivor with a story that captivated not just local football fans, but people from all walks of life across the country. Before he ever touched a football while wearing a Steelers jersey, James Conner was already a superstar. He grew up in Erie, and was widely known, and recruited, as a defensive back. But his senior year in high school, Conner rushed for more than 1,680 yards and 26 touchdowns. When it came time to choose a college, Conner — according to a 2015 Pittsburgh Post-
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Will this season be Ben Roethlisberger’s last? After he agreed to come back for the 2017 season, Roethlisberger’s future plans are still very much up in the air. He said as much to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this past spring, and later told reporters something similiar early in camp. “I’m giving everything I have right now at the training camp to this season, to the first game. I commit myself 110 percent, and I will do that throughout the season. But I’m not going to look past — let alone the season — but look past today. I think we all are blessed to be here for this day. We wake up today, and tomorrow is not promised to any of us. So we should enjoy this moment right here, right now.”
Le’Veon Bell’s season after a lengthy holdout Bell is mystically good. He finds holes to run through that water couldn’t traverse. But, unhappy with the Steelers’ five-year, $60 million contract offer, Bell has decided to hold out until, allegedly, Sept. 1. What effect zero football activities will have on Bell ahead of the Sept. 10 season-opener is unknown at this point. He has a history of injuries and now has the super-popular rookie James Conner waiting in the wings. One thing is for sure, though: CONTINUES ON PG. 20
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Gazette story — was recruited by only three schools. And only the Pitt Panthers wanted to put him in an offensive backfield. As a true freshman in 2013, Conner rushed for more than 750 yards and eight touchdowns, coming on late in the season. His most memorable game that year was a 229-yard, one-touchdown effort in the horribly named Little Caesar’s Bowl, in Detroit. Conner was named the game’s MVP, and his performance set a record for the most rushing yards in a bowl game by a Pitt player — breaking a mark established in 1976, when Tony Dorsett rushed for 202 yards en route to Pitt’s nationalchampionship victory in the Sugar Bowl. Conner truly broke out in his sophomore year. He ran for more than 1,700 yards in 2014, and scored a conference-best 26 touchdowns. He was named the ACC’s player of the year and earned status as an AllAmerican. Things were bright for him until his junior year, when he tore a ligament in his knee. That injury, however, wouldn’t be the worst news he received that year. During rehab for the knee, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. By May 2016, however, Conner announced he was cancer-free. On Sept. 10 of that year, he ran all over Penn State at Heinz Field, carrying for 117 yards and four touchdowns. James Conner was back in
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{CP PHOTOS BY VINCENT PUGLIESE}
James Conner at play during the Aug. 20 preseason game at Heinz Field
“THIS IS AWESOME, RIGHT AT HOME, RIGHT AT HEINZ FIELD.” a big way. During that season, he rushed for more than 1,000 yards and scored 18 touchdowns. That led to a black-and-gold jersey and an extended relationship with Pittsburgh fans. During training camp this summer, fans incessantly called his name, trying to
get an autograph or shake the hand of the NFL’s most popular back-up running back. Conner’s popularity isn’t just anecdotal, based on how many footballs he signs after practice. Earlier this summer, the NFL announced that Conner’s jersey was the best-selling jersey of any NFL player. Better than Brady’s; better than Rodgers’; hell, even better than the jersey of the Steelers’ own Le’Veon Bell, the man whom Conner will back up this season. The gesture is not lost on Conner, but neither is the reality. “It’s a lot of support, a lot of love from
everybody,” he told reporters early in camp. “It feels good, but I haven’t taken a snap yet.” How significant a role Conner plays in the Steelers offense this year depends a lot on how big a role Bell plays. Obviously, one would expect Bell to be the Steelers’ featured back given his immense success in the past. But there will likely be openings for Conner. With the 2017 season just a couple of weeks away, Bell didn’t even show up for camp, and that was after skipping the Steelers’ spring minicamps. He’s holding out for a better offer than the $12.2 million he’ll earn this year once he signs the tender mandated when the Steelers labeled him with their franchise tag in the offseason. He also turned down a deal the team agreed to with Bell’s agent that was worth north of $60 million, with half of that paid out in the first two years. It’s been reported that Bell wants $15 million a year. However, the Steelers have never been an organization to let players hold them hostage. Bell — who has announced he’ll sign on Sept. 1 — is under organizational control until after the 2018 season, if the club gives him a second franchise tag. However, an emerging Conner would give the Steelers options if they decide to not give
Bell every penny he wants, especially considering his injury history — he’s played all 16 games only once in his career — and some disciplinary issues, including an arrest for marijuana possession. Ordinarily, a team’s failure to re-sign a player of Bell’s caliber doesn’t play well with fans. But if that player is to be replaced by Conner, fans will likely respond positively. But all of that is in the future. Right now, as of this writing, Conner is a promising young pro with one preseason game under his belt. Fans have already elevated him to prime-time status. But he’s still a rookie who needs to pay his dues, including spending time, as most players have, on special teams — something that Tomlin recognizes and is not afraid to point out. “James Conner for instance, played a heck of an offensive football game last time out, almost ran for 100 yards, but he was J.V. as a special-teams performer,” Tomlin said at his Aug. 24 press conference. “I’m challenging him in a big way. We expect him to give us quality contribution in the special-teams game when he’s not playing running back.” Don’t worry. With all James Conner has accomplished and overcome thus far in his life, perfecting the art of kickoff coverage should be a snap.
Do You Shop at Convenience Stores? Have you ever purchased energy drinks, cookies, or cigarettes from a convenience store? If so you may be eligible for a research study. The RAND Corporation, in Pittsburgh, is conducting a research study to learn about what ADULTS, ages 18-65, buy at convenience stores. Participation requires completion of a 10 minute phone or internet survey, one 90 minute visit to the RAND study center, and a short follow-up phone call. People who complete the study will be compensated for their time and effort with $75 in gift cards. Parking or bus passes will be provided. If you are interested and want to learn more about the study, please call 412-204-7353, e-mail adult-cstore-study@rand.org or visit us at www.rand.org/storestudy. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis.
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Head coach Mike Tomlin is tired of answering questions about his tailback’s status. “When he gets here, I’ll address the circumstances that we’re dealing with regarding him,” Tomlin said Aug. 23. “But until that time, I’ll just continue to focus on the guys that are here and working.”
A break-out year for Artie Burns? More than a few times during training camp, the secondyear cornerback could be heard cursing during practice. He was also seen a few times slapping at his helmet and ripping off his chinstrap in frustration. These were all good signs. Why? These moments of frustration occurred because Burns spent most of August guarding Antonio Brown, easily one of the league’s best receivers. Not many corners get the opportunity to hone their skills with the best player in the game. Even better news, Burns was able to have some success against Brown. Expect Burns to have a big year in 2017, because if you can stop Brown, even occasionally, you’re in pretty good shape with the rest of the league.
Will Martavis Bryant screw up again? Bryant is the tall, big-play receiver that Ben Roethlisberger likes. The problem is, he hasn’t played much since 2014 due to multiple violations of the league’s substance-abuse policies. He missed the first four games of the 2015 season and the entire 2016 season. He’s a gifted player, but that means little if he’s not on the field. CDEITCH@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
{CP PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK}
James Harrison
STEELERS PREVIEW 2017
JAMES’ GAME {BY CHARLIE DEITCH} ON PAPER, James Harrison shouldn’t still be
playing football. In fact, early in his career, it didn’t look like he’d ever play at all. He’s a 39-year-old outside linebacker who started his career as an undrafted free agent who was released three times by the Steelers between 2002 and 2004, and once by the Baltimore Ravens, in 2004. He was going to quit the game when the Steelers gave him one more chance. He mostly played special teams in 2004. Since then, he’s played in two Super Bowls; returned an interception for a 99-yard touchdown in one of them; been named the NFL Defensive Player of the year; been released for a fifth time in his career (this time for salary-cap issues); retired; and come out of retirement to become the Steelers’ all-time sack leader. Since coming out of retirement, Harrison has played like a freak of nature. Originally signed as a stop-gap in 2014 because of several key injuries to defensive personnel, he flourished. He had five-and-a-half sacks and 29 tackles in 2014, and earned himself a new two-year deal. He played even better under that deal and, earlier this year, he signed another two-year deal, this time worth a reported $3.5 million. The assumption coming into the season was that Harrison would once again start, and complete the remaining time on his contract. That seemed to be the case until a couple of weeks ago, when Steelers linebackers coach Joey Porter announced that
Harrison had been supplanted from his starting post by rookie T.J. Watt (see related story, page 22). For the first couple of weeks of camp, Harrison had been noticeably kept out of live practice in pads. He didn’t get his first action until the Steelers broke camp and returned to the team’s South Side training facility. At press time, he was slated to play in the Steelers’ third preseason game. The day after that announcement, Harrison found out about the switch when “y’all told me.” The “y’all” in this case was a crowd of at least two dozen media members angling to get Harrison’s reaction. We didn’t get much.
“I’M 39 YEARS OLD AND STILL PLAYING FOOTBALL.” When asked whether he hoped to start this year, Harrison replied: “You hope for a lot of things, but it’s whatever they ask you do.” When asked what went into the decision, Harrison answered: “You’d have to ask the coaches. I didn’t make the decision.” Asked whether being held out of practice hurt him in the position battle that he didn’t even know he was in, Harrison said: “Whatever they want to do, I’ll do. I’m not going to argue about not practicing at training camp.” While he wasn’t in pads, Harrison was seen almost daily working out on the field, wearing a heavy gray hoodie and sweat-
pants, soaking them through with sweat as he conditioned. Reporters kept trying to pull information from the always-stoic Harrison. What do you think of T.J. Watt? “He looks good.” How are you feeling? “I feel fine.” Without practicing in pads, are you in football shape? “I don’t know.” Do the coaches think it’s best to use you off the bench? “I don’t know what they’re thinking.” As a competitor, is it tough on you when they say, “We don’t want you to play as much?” “It’s fine. I’m not worried about it, man. Whatever they want me to do. I’m 39 years old and still playing football.” You know how to fight for your spot; haven’t you done that your entire career? “It’s all right. It is what it is. It’s not like I can play this game forever.” These questions and answers continued for a little more than five minutes. But as the session was ending, a mundane question elicited an interesting response. He was asked if he still planned to play until he was 40. “I want to win another Super Bowl. I want to get another Lombardi,” Harrison said before ending with, “I’m thinking of going to 40, if I can go to Vegas. Check out that Las Vegas Raiders team.” The comment drew chuckles from the crowd and a smile from Harrison. Besides, the Raiders won’t move to Las Vegas until 2019, when Harrison would be 41 years old. But if anyone is willing to give him a helmet and some playing time, whether that’s the Steelers or not, don’t be surprised if he goes for it. C D E I T C H @ P G H C I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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STEELERS PREVIEW 2017
WATT UP {BY CHARLIE DEITCH} WHEN DEFENSIVE end J.J. Watt was drafted
by the Houston Texans out of the University of Wisconsin, in 2011, there was a lot of excitement and speculation about how good the first-rounder would be. The answer, we now know, was extremely good. Flash forward six years and his little brother, T.J. Watt, makes a splash as an outside linebacker, also for Wisconsin. But while he was projected to be a firstround pick, there wasn’t as much hype surrounding this younger Watt. Everyone expected him to be capable and come along slowly, learning to play the right outside-linebacker position at the pro level behind 39-year-old James Harrison. But a funny thing happened on the way to the bench. T.J. Watt took to the pro game faster than most people thought he would. The NFL saw what he could do for the first time in the Steelers’ Aug. 11 preseason game against the New York Giants. Watt tallied three solo tackles and two sacks. He was effective in both passing and rushing defensive schemes. That game was on a Sunday. By Wednesday, Steelers linebackers coach Joey Porter announced that Watt was going to be the right-side starter opposite second-year pro Bud Dupree, sending Harrison to the bench. It took a couple of months, but the T.J. Watt hype-machine is already up and running. And while that preseason game was Watt’s coming-out party to the public, he has already been showing coaches what he can do. At training camp on Aug. 9, the Steelers running backs were squaring off in one-and-one drills with the linebackers. Rushers, mostly Fitzgerald Toussaint and veteran backup Knile Davis, had little trouble getting through or around their defensive counterparts, except for Watt. For most of the drill, he was extremely successful
{CP PHOTO BY VINCENT PUGLIESE}
T.J. Watt
at tracking the ball carriers, rarely falling for run fakes and usually bringing down his man. That was the game plan against the Giants.
“I AM TRYING TO WORK ON MANY DIFFERENT THINGS AND SEE WHAT WORKS BEST FOR ME.” “I wanted to go out there and rush the passer and make impact plays,” Watt said after the Giants game. “As an outside linebacker in the 3-4 scheme, you’re expected to make some plays in some moments. I just
wanted to go out there and put on display what I’ve been doing the past few weeks in training camp. … I felt like I did that.” Watt’s performance did fall off a bit in the team’s second game, against Atlanta. He recorded four tackles, but didn’t get a sack and he seemed ineffective in the pass rush. The performance was probably good, though, from a developmental standpoint. While no one expected T.J. Watt to be like his brother, his early camp performance may have given some fans lofty expectations. But whether he becomes James Harrison’s replacement this year or even next, the confident linebacker’s effort so far has shown that he has the talent to be a dominant outside rusher and an important part of the
Steelers’ defensive plans. Known for his pass rush at Wisconsin, Watt is working to get those skills NFLready, as well as work on other skills that are important to the Steelers’ game plan, such as using linebackers to drop back into coverage when necessary. “Obviously, people know me for my pass rush, but at the same time, I feel like I can really improve and open some eyes in my pass coverage, and try to break up some passes and cover some guys,” Watt told reporters early in camp. He added: “I’m not expecting to be successful at each and every attempt, and that’s why it’s training camp. I am trying to work on many different things and see what works best for me.” C D E I T C H @ P G H C I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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PUTTING YOUR FAMILY FIRST IN DIVORCE ATTORNEY LAUREN D. DARBOUZE addresses family law and
divorce-related problems. She provides assistance to clients by negotiating divorce agreements, or litigating divorce or family actions. With 13 years of experience, Lauren represents clients who require immediate assistance obtaining temporary or permanent orders and protective orders, from the Court. She is experienced in negotiating any type of agreement, litigating family or divorce matters, child One Oxford Center custody, alimony, equitable distribution of assets and debts, 301 Grant St, #4300, Pittsburgh protection from abuse, and the enforcement or modification of Court (412) 837-8369 orders. Lauren handles simple, as well as high income, high asset, or complex divorce situations. She is the current Executive Director of Christian Legal Aid of Pittsburgh. Visit: www.darbouzelawgroup.com
BY YOUR SIDE IN DIVORCE ATTORNEY PERNILLE FRANKMAR has helped hundreds of people with matrimonial & family law issues. Skillful and effective in the courtroom, she understands not only the relevant law, but also the trauma clients face during life-changing events. She serves her clients by answering their questions, helping them think clearly, and guiding them towards sound decisions. If an issue cannot be settled amicably, Pernille is always fully prepared to fight for her clients in 717 Liberty Ave court. With a background in Sociology, she has a personalized way of #410, Pittsburgh addressing clients’ emotional issues one-on-one. (412) 447-1405 Pernille will represent you throughout your divorce & post-divorce matters including child support, alimony, custody & visitation, domestic violence, restraining orders & property settlements. At her office, you get the personal attention you deserve.
QUALITY AFFORDABLE DENTISTRY PERFECT SMILE DENTAL GROUP’s dentists offer a full-range of
professional dental services for you and your family. Their goal is to educate their patients, allowing them to make informed decisions that enable them to keep their natural teeth for the rest of their lives in good health, comfort, function & beauty. 5 Convenient Locations The doctors provide preventive and personalized care, general (888) 622-4055 dentistry and cosmetic dentistry for porcelain crowns, whitening & veneers, periodontics, endodontics, restorations, crown/bridge services, and dentures, partials & removable appliances. Perfect Smile Dental and their friendly staff take pride in preventing dental disease, improving the appearance of your teeth, and protecting your valuable smile. Most insurance plans are accepted, including Medicaid. Locations in Altoona, Uniontown, Greensburg, Shadyside & Forest Hills. Visit: www.perfectsmilepa.com
AWARD-WINNING ANIMAL HOSPITAL To most pet owners, their pets are considered part of their family. Dr. Aileen Ruiz & staff at THE BIG EASY ANIMAL HOSPITAL understand the deep emotional bond that exists between you and your pet. They provide exceptional care in a kind & caring environment. Big Easy’s comprehensive services include urgent care, immunization & wellness care, pain management, dental care, microchipping, senior care, nutritional & behavioral counseling, radiology and surgery. Complete long-term services such as annual physicals & 12 McCandless Ave vaccination maintenance programs help prevent many degenerative Pittsburgh conditions. Their new state-of-the-art 15,000 sq-ft facility has added (412) 908-9301 on Dog Daze & Café, a doggie daycare, cat & dog boarding and grooming. Opening soon is a dog friendly Cuban Café. Walk-ins & appointments welcome. Se Habla Espanol. Visit: www.tbeah.com and www.bigeasydogdaze.com EVENTS
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STEELERS PREVIEW 2017
• WEEK 7
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Ben Roethlisberger injures himself early in the game. Ben tries to outrun Vontaze Burfict to the sideline and winds up crashing into Adam “Pacman” Jones’ parole officer. The NFL investigates why the Cincinnati Bengals are allowed to have several POs on the team’s sideline. Nevertheless, Bell and Conner each rush for 100 yards as the Steelers move to 4-2 with a 25-14 win.
Mike Wysocki’s annual Steelers predictions from the Cheap Seats {BY MIKE WYSOCKI} EVEN THE MOST cynical Steelers fans are
optimistic about the upcoming season. Loaded with offensive firepower, a good mix of young and old players, and a schedule where five of the final seven games are at home, the Steelers are one of 31 teams looking to prevent the Patriots from smugly holding up another Lombardi Trophy. For the past two seasons, I have predicted the Steelers’ record and been off by a single game each year. So, get ready to place your wagers as we look into the future … all the way to 2018.
• WEEK 8 Detroit’s Matthew Stafford gets sacked seven times as the Steelers defense shows emerging signs of dominance. The Steelers roll to a 31-17 win as Bell rushes for 208 yards and three touchdowns. The Steelers hit the season’s halfway point at 6-2.
• WEEK 10 {CP PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK}
• WEEK 1
Ben Roethlisberger
DeShone Kizer wrested the non-coveted job of Cleveland Browns starting quarterback from the former Mr. Hype, Brock Osweiller, during the preseason. It’s hard to tell them apart — they both have surnames that sound like German staff sergeants in an episode of Hogan’s Heroes — and it really doesn’t even matter who they put under center. Cleveland fans hope to build on last year’s single-win season and get their hopes up early. Le’Veon Bell is a bit rusty from skipping training camp and promptly fumbles on the first possession. Cleveland takes advantage and jumps to a 3-0 lead. Unfortunately for Cleveland, it’s the highlight of the season. Martavis Bryant and Antonio Brown each haul in two touchdowns as the Steelers roll to a 35-10 victory.
• WEEK 2 The Minnesota Vikings fragile signal caller, Sam Bradford, gets injured early after a ferocious hit from rookie T.J. Watt. Teddy Bridgewater runs in to replace him, but
gets hurt before reaching the huddle. The Steelers, meanwhile, let James Conner get some carries, and he scores on a 30-yard romp to lead the Steelers to 2-0 with a 27-16 win.
in the fourth to send the game into OT. Panic ensues in Steelers Nation about the credibility of the secondary. Calls for Jordan Dangerfield to be named the starting safety flood local sports-talk shows.
• WEEK 3
• WEEK 5
Mitch Trubisky, the second overall pick in the 2017 draft, gets his first start with the Bears. Trubisky, from Cleveland, starts off hot, then lets his inner Clevelander get the best of him. Artie Burns picks him off before the half and runs it back, damaging Trubisky’s confidence. The Steelers look a little flat, but simply outperform Chicago in a 20-10 triumph.
A bounce-back win over the pathetic Jacksonville Jaguars calms everybody’s nerves. Ben Roethlisberger throws for 475 yards, and Antonio Brown has to come up with three different touchdown dances. The Steelers move to 4-1 with a 49-13 rout.
• WEEK 4 Every year, the Ravens/Steelers games are close. The trend is not broken this season. The Steelers suffer their first loss of the year in a 33-27 overtime defeat. Safety Sean Davis gets burned by Mike Wallace late
• WEEK 6 The Steelers get a little too overconfident after the Jacksonville mauling and lose on the road in Kansas City, 17-13. This is the low point of the regular season, but luckily it’s only October. Head coach Andy Reid moves to 11th on the all-time NFL win list. Next up for Reid is Sewickley native Chuck Knox.
Following the Steelers’ bye week, New Castle’s Malik Hooker picks off Roethlisberger twice as the Indianapolis Colts jump to an early 14-point lead. Sales of Hooker jerseys skyrocket in Indiana. Martavis Bryant finally starts playing like a man who is not on drugs. Bryant goes off, catching 12 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns. The Steelers come from behind for a 36-33 victory. Steelers Super Bowl songs begin to saturate the market.
• WEEK 11 Just like in the Stanley Cup finals, Pittsburgh defeats a proven loser from the Volunteer state. Mike Mularkey has his Titans looking respectable, and Marcus Mariota starts living up to the hype. Until — you guessed it — Willie Gay intercepts him and returns it for another touchdown. The Steelers have a tough time with Tennessee, but ultimately prevail with a 29-21 win.
• WEEK 12 The four-game winning streak comes to an end in Green Bay, as it appears the Steelers were tired of winning. The secondary CONTINUES ON PG. 26
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{CP PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK}
Players do practice drills at Steelers Training Camp in Latrobe.
gets all the blame that is not directed at Mike Tomlin. The Steelers slip to 8-3, as it’s always tough to win at Lambeau. Green Bay 30, Pittsurgh 19.
Texans 38-10. A five-hour documentary on the Watt brothers precedes the game. At 12-3, the team announces that playoff tickets will go on sale this week.
• WEEK 13
• WEEK 17
A fight during the pregame warm-up gets players from both sides ejected before the coin toss. There is blame on many sides, many sides. Cincinnati jumps out to a big lead after Andy Dalton finds A.J. Green on two deep touchdown passes. But the Bengals Bengal themselves by celebrating a victory before it happens. A roughing-thepasser penalty by Pacman Jones set the Steelers up inside Cincinnati’s red zone with under a minute to play. The Boz, Chris Boswell, nails the game-winner as the Steelers celebrate a 24-21 win.
It’s New Year’s as the Browns wrap up yet another woeful season. Even with Pittsburgh resting its starters, the Browns still don’t put up a fight. James Conner and Darius-Heyward Bey each scores as the team shows off its depth. The Browns go home to prepare to make their annual terrible draft pick in four months. Steelers 25, Browns 3. The Steelers get the No. 2 seed in the AFC and have a bye week.
• WEEK 14 The Ravens are the opponent again, and it’s another close game. JuJu SmithSchuster gets the winning touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. The 17-13 win puts the Steelers at 10-3.
• WEEK 15 Tom Brady’s confidence spills over into arrogance as the Steelers get the best of him. It’s only the third time they have ever beaten the pretty boy in 14 games. The look of defeat on Brady’s face is enough to make Steelers fans giddy with schadenfreude. A 35-31 thriller gets the “Here we go” chants to a deafening pitch.
• WEEK 16 It’s another Christmas with a Steelers game to watch. Pittsburgh celebrates the holiday by trouncing the stupidly named Houston
• DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS The Steelers play the No. 3-seeded New England Patriots. Pundits and know-it-alls from all over the football sphere predict another victory for Brady, especially since the Steelers already beat him earlier in the season. But it’s fake news. The Steelers win again, knocking the defending champs off their throne with a 20-17 win. Cam Heyward’s jarring hit on Brady causes the fumble that leads to the playoff win.
• AFC CHAMPIONSHIP The euphoric victory over the Patriots leads to the inevitable emotional letdown as the season comes to an end. The Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders stun the Steelers 20-13, as Marshawn Lynch runs over the defense. The season ends at 14-4, with two wins over New England. But at least the Patriots don’t win another one. The Raiders don’t win either, as Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy leads his Packers to a win over the Raiders in the Super Bowl. I N F O@ P G H C I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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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 Slim Forsythe THIS IS SLIM FORSYTHE GETHIPRECORDINGS.BANDCAMP.COM
The best country-western songs are all about the lyrics, which tug at the heartstrings or plead for empathy. It might be easy to play songs by Hank Williams, but there’s no guarantee the performer can channel the same passion that made the originals so sincere. Slim Forsythe understands this. Armed with just an acoustic guitar and a voice, he fills half of his album with the songs of his forebears, and the second half with originals. Nine of the 10 tracks have spoken introductions that create anticipation. For “Mother, The Queen of My Heart,” the introduction offers a history lesson about Pittsburgh guitarist Slim Bryant, who wrote and played on the 1932 Jimmie Rodgers’ song; and “Riders in the Sky,” a chestnut recorded by everyone from Peggy Lee to The Outlaws, gets explained. Forsythe’s vocal delivery serves the songs well, occasionally adding pathos with a high-note yodel, but largely keeping things straightforward. For “Slim’s Been Everywhere,” he updates the standard “I’ve Been Everywhere,” by adding local neighborhoods and boroughs to the rapid-fire litany of cities originally sung by folks like Hank Snow and Johnny Cash. He puts a new spin on heartbreak with “I’ll Never Tear Your Memory From My Heart.” Forsythe closes on the more dramatic side with “Yesterday’s New Tomorrow,” which “starts out in a barroom and ends up at the apocalypse,” a modern sentiment that still seems fitting with these songs. BY MIKE SHANLEY
Decaffeinated Grapefruit DRIFT WWW.DECAFFEINATEDGRAPEFRUIT.BANDCAMP.COM
Decaffeinated Grapefruit plays with genres on Drift, seven songs that range from 1990s-drenched grunge to psychedelic experimentation with a prog-rock underbelly. From the audio samples to the rocking guitar solos, DG have a way of making the songs sound big, while pushing against narrow genre expectations, particularly on tracks like the instrumental “Sludge.” Drift is a record for classic-rock fans — those who enjoy proto-metal bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, and music with a slightly dramatic flair. Though the album feels dark, its rhythms keep it driving forward, as if pushing onward through a rainy, windy night, metaphorically speaking.
POWER
TO THE PEOPLE {PHOTO COURTESY OF OLIA EICHENBAUM}
{BY MIKE SHANLEY}
Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble
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N A CONVERSATION with Laetitia Sadier, the subject matter can easily veer from music to the current socio-political climate. The husky-voiced native of France — who first gained attention with the Moog-driven, prog-pop of Stereolab — speaks by phone from her tour van, “about 230 miles from Los Angeles.” It might not seem like the ideal time to delve into such heady territory as politics, but the subject looms large in her work, as it has since the days of her previous band. These ideas begin with the name of the band on the new record, Find Me Finding You, released on Drag City. After putting out three albums under her own name, she credits the new one to the Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble. “No one ever does anything completely alone. I thought that going under my own name all this time felt really absurd,” she says. “It’s true, I’m in the driver’s seat, yes. But really, all this music is the result of a lot of input. Nothing has changed, really, in how I do things for this album. But [the name choice] is about honoring the group
often connected to groups like the Black Panthers. “Reflectors” includes sentiments like, “Wars cannot overcome our troubles / Status, prestige, prominence, don’t mean a thing this time.” The album was recorded over a year ago, but the lyrics relate to current headlines. Sadier says that the current political landscape has roots dating back beyond recent events. “All this was going on before Brexit, before Trump, this shit fire,” she explains. “A lot of people don’t have a political say. [Now] they’re expressing their frustration, and that’s understandable. When you treat people like shit and ignore them and infantilize them, at some point they’re going to bite. It’s a normal phenomenon.” But while the situation might seem extreme, Sadier doesn’t believe it calls for radical reaction. “Maybe it’s a way of awakening, of realizing that violence, hatred, revenge is not a solution,” she says. “[That’s] not how we organize our life, or society. We have to think of other ways, think harder. And it’s not just [up to] intellectuals — people who already think about these things — [it’s]
and the collectivity, because anything that you hold in your hand, or any situation you have in your life, it’s the result of thousands of people’s effort.” The idea of an ensemble goes back to what Sadier calls a “chief origin” that is needed, in light of the political landscape in the United States and post-Brexit Europe, where she lives. “I think that we are now in a situation, in a political place in
LAETITIA SADIER SOURCE ENSEMBLE WITH MORGAN ERINA
9 p.m. Sat., Sept. 2. Club Café, 56 S. 12th St., South Side. $12. 412-431-4950
the world, whereby we have to awaken and start finding solutions together. Not through politicians but through ourselves, reorganizing ourselves,” she says. “That has to be done together.” Find Me Finding You opens with the line, “Power to the people,” the rallying call that originated in the United States,
BY MEG FAIR
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POWER TO THE PEOPLE, CONTINUED FROM PG. 27
T H E
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everybody! We’re all on the same boat here.” The same idea goes for her music. While her ideas sound ripe for an Anti-Flag thrasher, Sadier continues to mine a vast set of laid-back influences, from lounge music to Brazilian pop to dreamy synthesizer soundscapes. “Undying Love for Humanity” launches the album with spritely percussion, clean guitar chords and a choir of six friends scatting in the background like a jazz group. Guest vocalist Alexis Taylor, of the band Hot Chip, joins her on “Love Captive” for a dreamy duet which essentially espouses free love, pondering: “How to avoid the trap / of an exclusivity contract.” One song later, in “Psychology Active,” Sadier states that “to feel good all the time is my priority.” Pleasure remains important during heavier times. Sadier has her own unique approach to songwriting. “I basically collect musical ideas or lyrical ideas, as they come through,” Sadier says. “I throw them on a recorder. Then when it’s time to write a new album, I go to my little cupboard with the little bits and say, ‘Ooh, yeah, this one. I’m going to work on that one.’ And I also collect titles and images as well. Then I allocate everything.” The new album was recorded in Brazil, France and Switzerland. While trio mates Emmanuel Mario (drums) and Xavi Munoz (bass) play on nearly all the tracks, an array of guests lend their influences to the set. Canadian songwriter Chris A. Cummings (who has recorded under the name Marker Starling) wrote and performed on “Deep Background.” Jeff Parker, of Tortoise, arranged several of the choir parts, which were originally written for strings. Rob Mazurek, of the Chicago Underground Duo, adds some muted cornet blasts to “Love Captive.” The far-flung recording sessions all result in a diverse but consistent album. Sadier has a habit of ending albums on a mysterious note. The Trip’s final 29-second instrumental represented the idea of letting go of things that are transient. Silencio ended with an ambient recording made in a French church. “Sacred Project” concludes Find Me Finding You by proclaiming, “No opposite of love / no opposite of life / no opposite of joy.” When asked for an explanation of this direct statement, Sadier laughs. “Sometimes I aim way above my head! And really, I throw things out there that I’m going to be working on in the future for the next album. I think it’s just a more philosophical point of view of objecting.” In other words, it acts like a “to be continued” message in a film or program? “Right,” she says. “Nothing is ever concluded or finished.” I N F O@ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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{PHOTO COURTESY OF ZAK BRATTO}
Protomartyr
ACCIDENTALLY A MARTYR {BY IAN THOMAS} THE NERVOUS momentum that has propelled Protomartyr since its 2012 debut, No Passion All Technique, owes much to the disconnect between the band’s rousing, jagged instrumental choices and the unassuming vocal delivery of singer Joe Casey. It often feels like the components of the Detroit-based post-punk outfit are competing instead of coalescing. Amid that tension, as the guitar jangles into parts unknown, Casey holds to a tighter territory, vacillating between a bark and a croon. In conversation, one gets the impression that Casey is the type of artist who’s ill at ease in the spotlight, and even more so in explaining himself.
PROTOMARTYR, THE GOTOBEDS, MELKBELLY
8 p.m. Wed., Sept. 6. Cattivo, 146 44th St., Lawrenceville. 21 and older. $12-14. 412-687-2157 or www.cattivopgh.com
“I think I have a hard enough time calling myself an artist … but an artist can do whatever the hell they want. For me, I have to write about it, how I feel about it, and what I try to avoid is absolutes, because I’m not an expert in anything. I’m not a political expert,” he says. “But I am an expert in the way I emotionally respond to things, and the way I emotionally respond to things is complicated and vague sometimes and hard to explain, and I try to get that mood in the lyrics as best I can.”
This self-awareness is evident in Casey’s lyrics. They tell stories that don’t feel universal, exactly, but the band’s urgency and Casey’s narrative technique and economy of detail make them seem familiar, like remembering snippets of a dream. The lyrics on Protomartyr’s upcoming album, Relatives in Descent, explore the nature of truth in the current political moment. They were born of Casey’s experiences not just living, but performing. “It’s mostly just where you’re coming from, and that’s what I try to focus on in the lyrics, because I can’t speak for anybody but myself. I think, in America, you experience a disconnect from your social class. We don’t like talking about social classes in America, because we think they don’t exist. We think that they’re very fluid, and a person can move very easily from one to another, but from my experience, I know that not to be true,” he says And while artists may have license to go to strange places in pursuit of their expression, Casey argues that not everyone can take such liberties. When those beholden to objective reality act in bad faith, especially from a position of power, society suffers. “You really can plumb your own personal stories for lyrics. But then you have to go and perform them every night when you’re on tour, and you feel kind of weird about it. It’s bizarre to sing about very personal things. So, on this new album, I said, ‘I’m going to just make shit up that I can sing every night and not feel bad about it,’” Casey says. “Then the election happened, and this whole concept of what is true and what is not. … It’s one thing for singers and songwriters to be liars. It’s another when a president is a bald-faced liar.” I N F O @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M
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featuring Rusted Root with The Velcro Shoes, the Buckledowns and Andre Costello & the Cool Minors (Worldbeat/Rock/Pop)
$20 per vehicle requested donation benefits Allegheny County Department of Human Services Opening Bands at 5:00 pm Rusted Root at 8:00 pm
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18th Annual Allegheny County Music Festival
Emma Witmer, the Brooklyn artist who operates under the name gobbinjr, makes music that sounds like the sonic manifestation of a Rube Goldberg machine. As childlike and sweet as her songs are tonally, her two releases so far, 2016’s vom night EP and 2015’s manalang LP, are compositionally impeccable — much like the dynamic of one of Goldberg’s contraptions. Whereas many artists approach slowburners with linear, often predictable climaxes, Witmer zig-zags, loading each song with enough tuneful doodads to keep you marveling as the whole musical apparatus begins maneuvering like a near-sentient being. While songs like “perfect” and “may we all have space” from vom night begin with a destination in mind, the route they take to get there sets off a litany of bubbly, twinkly and whimsical little synths, digital effects and vocal harmonies that make it more about the journey than the end result. She also writes some of the best hooks in the game. “The most important thing to me is that it’s catchy,” she tells City Paper. “I want it to be stuck in people’s heads.” So far she’s succeeded. Despite how downright weird much of her catalog is, songs like “don’tchya kno” and “firefly” contain melodies that could genuinely be transformed into radio-pop anthems. The emphasis is on “could,” though. That’s not a route Witmer is even vaguely interested in taking. “I definitely want to keep it my way,” she says. “I’m not gonna let anyone produce it into some wack, Top-40 blownout shit. I kind of have a rule with it: I have to produce the gobbinjr stuff. So I don’t think it’ll ever go that way.” As far as tagging the style of music, an easy go-to would be bedroom pop, a name given to the swarm of homespun acts that began populating Bandcamp during the early 2010s. “A lot of people think bedroom pop is something just super lo-fi and just someone futzing around with their guitar and singing,” she says. “I don’t really like when people call it lo-fi.” “I’ve been calling it mean pop recently,” she adds. “It’s pretty accurate.”
08.30/09.06.2017
GOBBINJR, HUMAN PEOPLE, SOFT GIRL, THE CHILDLIKE EMPRESS, RUE 7 p.m. Sat., Sept. 2. Mr. Roboto Project, 5106 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. $5-8. www.therobotoproject.com
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[LO-FI] + TUE., SEPT. 05
There’s still time to squeeze in one more music festival before the end of summer. Or squeeze in your first one, if you’re a lazy bum like me. Starting tonight, the sixth annual R.A.N.T. (Rock All Night Tour) festival will spread throughout Lawrenceville, at venues including Cattivo, Nied’s Hotel and Arsenal Bowling Lanes. The fest features live music from local acts, including Murder for Girls, Photo Joe and the Negatives, Brittney Chantele, Black Ridge, and many more. Food options and assorted vendors will be at various venues. All this can be yours for the low, low price of zero dollars! Because this event is free! Hannah Lynn noon2 a.m. Free. All ages, or 21 and older, depending on venue. www.rant pittsburgh.com
When a band releases a cassette tape in 2017, it can be a real head-scratcher. Is it irony? Is it worth riding in your friend’s weird old car because it has a tape deck? But sometimes the music matches the medium, as is the case with Hoops, an Indiana band with a mellow, lo-fi ’80s sound. Its show at Mr. Smalls is the perfect place to jam out in a turtleneck and shoulder pads, with a cassette player clipped to your waistband. Joining Hoops are the sounds of local surrealists SPISH and indie rockers Searights. HL 8 p.m. 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $10-12. 18 and older. 412-821-4447 or www.mr smalls.com.
{PHOTO COURTESY OF CASEY MARZELL}
[FESTIVAL] + FRI., SEPT. 01
[GARDEN TUNES] + SUN., SEPT. 03 It’s the last Weather Permitting show of the season at Shadyside Nursery. This week, get a double dose of cumbia from opposite sides of the country — Chicago’s funky jam-band Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta and the psychedelic Latin rock of Austin’s Money Chica. Plus, catch local sounds from the Afro-fusion artist Mathew Tembo. As always, there will be an array of food, libations and kids running around blowing bubbles. HL 5-9 p.m. 510 Maryland Ave., Shadyside. $10; kids free. www.weatherpermittingpgh.com
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Revel in 90 minutes of hilarious improvised comedy and song all based on audience suggestions. Cast members Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Jeff B. Davis, and Joel Murray from the Emmynominated TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? will leave you gasping with the very witty scenes they invent before your eyes.
MONDAY SEPT. 18 . 7:30PM $38, $44, $50
THE PALACE THEATRE
724-836-8000
WWW.THEPALACETHEATRE.ORG
PalacePA
FREE PARKING FOR EVENING & WEEKEND SHOWS!
[FOLK/ROCK] + TUE., SEPT. 05 To say that folk-rock singer Erin McKeown has an eclectic portfolio would be an understatement; Murder for Girls her work ranges from a capella harmonies to moody piano ballads to bluesy guitar riffs. She released “The Queer Gospel” as an anthem against discriminatory laws. She wrote “Baghdad to the Bayou” with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. She wrote an anti-Christmas album with tracks like “Santa Is an A**hole.” Balancing the show at Club Café are Portland-based indie-rockers The Cabin Project. HL 8 p.m. 56 S. 12th St., South Side. $15. 21 and older. 412-431-4950 or www.clubcafelive.com
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JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. Bachelor Boys Showcase. 7 p.m. North Side. 412-904-3335.
ROCK/POP THU 31
BLACK FORGE COFFEE HOUSE. Darsombra, Bear Skull & The Van Allen Belt. 7 p.m. JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & Knoxville. 412-291-8994. SPEAKEASY. Kitchen Dwellers. CATTIVO. Zach Deputy. Ballroom. 8 p.m. North Side. 8 p.m. Lawrenceville. 412-381-6811. 412-381-6811. JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE. O’DONNA’S. The Scott, Rob & Greg of Bo’Hog Brothers. The Clarks. 8 p.m. 8 p.m. Beaver. Warrendale. 878-313-3418. 724-799-8333. MOONDOG’S. KEYSTONE BAR. ww. r w Alice Cooper’s band pape The Bo’Hog Brothers. pghcitym & the Dirty Charms. .co 7 p.m. Sewickley. Alice Cooper Pre-Show 724-758-4217. Party 7:30 p.m. Blawnox. 412-828-2040. REX THEATER. Haken. 7 p.m. South Side. 412-381-6811. MR. SMALLS THEATER. Centrifuge Thursdays. At the Funhouse. 9 p.m. BAJA BAR AND GRILL. Millvale. 412-821-4447. Told Ya So Band. 8 p.m. PERLE CHAMPAGNE BAR. Fox Chapel. 412-963-0640. Bobby D Bachata. 10 p.m. DOWNEY’S HOUSE. The Downtown. 412-471-2058. Gumband. 8:30 p.m. Robinson. 412-489-5631. JAMES STREET GASTROPUB ANDYS WINE BAR. DJ Malls & SPEAKEASY. MANIC Spins Vinyl. 5 p.m. Downtown. SOUL & Sweet Earth. 412-773-8884. album recording & release party. 9 p.m. North Side. 412-904-3335. RIVERTOWNE BREWING COMPANY. Lenny Smith & The Instant Gators. 7 p.m. North Side. 724-519-2145.
WED 06
FULL LIST ONLINE
DJS
THU 31
FRI 01
FRI 01
BRILLOBOX. Pandemic: Global Dancehall, Cumbia, Bhangra, Balkan Bass. 9:30 p.m. Bloomfield. 412-621-4900. THE FLATS ON CARSON. Pete Butta. 10 p.m. South Side. 412-586-7644. JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. 1337 Pittsburgh. 10 p.m. North Side. 412-904-3335. ONE 10 LOUNGE. DJ Goodnight, DJ Rojo. 9 p.m. Downtown. 412-874-4582. ROWDY BUCK. Top 40 Dance. 10 p.m. South Side. 412-431-2825. RUGGER’S PUB. 80s Night w/ DJ Connor. 9 p.m. South Side. 412-381-1330.
SAT 02 BELVEDERE’S. Sean MC & Thermos. 90s night. 9 p.m. Lawrenceville. 412-687-2555. CATTIVO. Illusions. w/ Funerals & 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.
MP 3 MONDAY GRAVELARKS
PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL SPECIAL
OR $11 5S LIFGH T BUCKETS
COOR
ENJOY THE ROOFTOP PATIO AND BAR WEEKEND DJ’S FOOD SPECIALS 1401 EAST CARSON ST. | SOUTH SIDE 412-481-3203 | CARSONCITYSALOON..COM
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
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BAJA BAR AND GRILL. NightLife Band. 8 p.m. Fox Chapel. 412-963-0640. CLUB CAFE. Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble. 8 p.m. South Side. 412-431-4950. MARIO’S DOCKSIDE GRILLE. Testify: A Tribute To Stevie Ray Vaughan. 9 p.m. Oakmont. 878-313-3144. VINOSKI WINERY. Groove Merchants. 1 p.m. Greensburg. 724-872-3333.
SUN 03 THE R BAR. Billy the Kid’s Steel Town All-Stars. 7 p.m. Dormont. 412-942-0882. SHADYSIDE NURSERY. Chicha Summit w/ Dos Santos, Money Chicha, & Mathew Tembo. 5 p.m. Shadyside. 412-251-6058. VINOSKI WINERY. Ferrante & Leonard. 1 p.m. Greensburg. 724-872-3333.
TUE 05 CLUB CAFE. Erin McKeown. 7 p.m. South Side. 412-431-4950.
{PHOTO COURTESY OF CANDICE MCDERMOTT}
SAT 02
Each week, we post a song from a local artist online for free. This week, we’re hearing from an inventive and melancholic indie-rock three-piece called Gravelarks. Its debut, Sublimation, released earlier this month, tips its hat to a handful of styles and influences, but smart harmonies and pleasantly unusual riff work run throughout the nine tracks. Start with “Ruby,” which you can stream or download for free on FFW>>, the music blog at pghcitypaper.com.
HEAVY ROTATION
SAT 02 CIOPPINO SEAFOOD CHOPHOUSE BAR. Lucarelli Jazz w/ Peg Wilson. 7 p.m. Strip District. 412-281-6593. JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. The Tony Campbell Jam Session. Speakeasy. 5 p.m. Jessica Lee. 8 p.m. North Side. 412-904-3335. THE MONROEVILLE RACQUET CLUB. Jazz Bean Live. 7 p.m. Monroeville. 412-728-4155.
Here are four songs CP digital editor Alex Gordon can’t stop listening to: The Field
“The Follower”
Glo Phase
OTHER MUSIC
RILEY’S POUR HOUSE. Jazz Happy Hour w/ Martin Rosenberg. 5:30 p.m. Carnegie. 412-279-0770.
SPEAKEASY. Billy Prince. 8 p.m. North Side. 412-904-3335. RIVERTOWNE BREWING COMPANY. StrangeBrew. 7 p.m. North Side. 724-519-2145. TUGBOAT’S. The 4 Jukes w/ Mark Cyler & Randall Troy. 7 p.m. East Pittsburgh. 412-829-1992.
TUE 05
SUN 03
THE GOLDMARK. Pete Butta. Reggae & dancehall. 10 p.m. Lawrenceville. 412-688-8820.
BAJA BAR AND GRILL. Jill West and the Blue Attack Band. 2 p.m. Fox Chapel. 412-963-0640.
WED 06
JAZZ
SMILING MOOSE. Rock Star Karaoke w/ T-MONEY. 9:30 p.m. South Side. 412-431-4668.
HIP HOP/R&B SAT 02 SATALIO’S. To2 Different, FlyGuy, I am Uglyface, Yt lfuplz, MilliBoii, Tae, Benjiz & Canary Yellow. album release. 9 p.m. Mt. Washington. 412-431-9855.
BLUES
THE BLIND PIG SALOON. Erin Burkett & Virgil Walters w/ Eric Susoeff & Max Leake. 7:30 p.m. New Kensington. 724-337-7008.
CLUB CAFE. Bill Deasy. 6 p.m. South Side. 412-431-4950. VINOSKI WINERY. The Hitchhikers. 6 p.m. Greensburg. 724-872-3333.
GREENTREE PARK. RML Jazz. 7 p.m. Green Tree. 412-370-9621. JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. Roger Humphries Jam Session. Ballroom. 8 p.m. North Side. 412-904-3335. RILEY’S POUR HOUSE. Jazz Happy Hour w/ Martin Rosenberg. 5:30 p.m. Carnegie. 412-279-0770. VALLOZZI’S PITTSBURGH. Eric Johnson. 5:30 p.m. Downtown. 412-394-3400.
SAT 02
The 5th Judicial District of Pennsylvania and
BEER HEAD BAR. Eclectic Acoustics. 8 p.m. North Side. 412-322-2337.
Allegheny County Pretrial Services urges you
SUN 03 HAMBONE’S. Calliope Old Time Appalachian Jam. 5 p.m. Lawrenceville. 412-681-4318.
to enjoy your weekend out in Pittsburgh but
WED 06
ANDORA RESTAURANT FOX CHAPEL. Pianist Harry Cardillo & vocalist Charlie Sanders. 6:30 p.m. Fox Chapel. 412-967-1900. DOUBLETREE MEADOWLANDS. Roger Barbour Band. 8 p.m. Washington. 724-222-6200. THE WOODEN NICKEL. RML Jazz. 7:30 p.m. Monroeville. 412-370-9621.
M A I N F E AT U R E
VINOSKI WINERY. FlowerChild. 7 p.m. Greensburg. 724-872-3333.
FRI 01
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CLUB CAFE. Employees Of Funk. 10 p.m. South Side. 412-431-4950. LINDEN GROVE. Good Guys. 9 p.m. Castle Shannon. 412-882-8687.
HARMONY OPERA HOUSE. Science! 8 p.m. Harmony. 724-400-6044. RIVERS CASINO. The Hawkeyes Acoustic. 7 p.m. North Side. 412-231-7777.
FRI 01
NEWS
FRI 01
THU 31
JAMES STREET GASTROPUB & SPEAKEASY. Charlie Barath. 6:30 p.m. North Side. 412-904-33351. NOLA ON THE SQUARE. Jimmy Adler Band w/ John Gresh’s Gris Gris. 8 p.m. Downtown. 412-471-9100.
JAMES STREET GASTROPUB &
LINDEN GROVE. Karaoke. 8 p.m. Castle Shannon. 412-882-8687.
ACOUSTIC
FRI 01
SAT 02
THU 31
SAT 02
WED 06 ROWDY BUCK. Top 40 Dance. 10 p.m. South Side. 412-431-2825. 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.
PIRATA. The Flow Band. 9 p.m. Downtown. 412-323-3000.
VINOSKI WINERY. Willow Hill. 1 p.m. Greensburg. 724-872-3333.
TUE 05
“It’s Happening Again”
THU 31
SUN 03
HAMBONE’S. Ian Kane, Ronnie Weiss & Tom Boyce. Jazz Standards, showtunes & blues. 6:30 p.m. Lawrenceville. 412-681-4318. VINOSKI WINERY. Avi Diamond. 1 p.m. Greensburg. 724-872-3333.
Agnes Obel
REGGAE
COUNTRY
MON 04
“Boone’s Farm”
SEVICHE. Hot Salsa & Bachata Nights. 10 p.m. Downtown. 843-670-8465.
BAJA BAR AND GRILL. The FLOW Band. 2 p.m. Fox Chapel. 412-963-0640.
LA CASA NARCISI. Erin Burkett & Virgil Walters w/ Eric Susoeff & Mike Tomaro. 2 p.m. Gibsonia. 724-444-4744. ROCKS LANDING BAR & GRILLE. Tony Campbell, John Hall, Howie Alexander & Dennis Garner. 7 p.m. McKees Rocks. 412- 875- 5809.
“Truth”
TUE 05
MON 04
SUN 03
Kamasi Washington
WORLD
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make the right choice,
ALLEGHENY ELKS LODGE #339. Pittsburgh Banjo Club. 8 p.m. North Side. 412-321-1834. J. GOUGH’S TAVERN. Academy Pickers. 8 p.m. Greenfield. 412-315-7029. PARK HOUSE. Shelf Life String Band. 9 p.m. North Side. 412-224-2273. WHEELFISH. Jason Born. 7 p.m. Ross. 412-487-8909.
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What to do August 30-September 5 WEDNESDAY 30
CLUB CAFE South Side. 412-431-4950. With special guest The Sweaty Already String Band. Over 21 event. Tickets: ticketweb.com/opus one. 8p.m.
7 Bridges: The Ultimate Eagles Experience JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE Warrendale. 724-799-8333. With special guests James Drake. Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 8p.m.
IN PITTSBURGH MONDAY 4
CINDY WILSON HARD ROCK CAFE SEPTEMBER 5
Labor Day
TUESDAY 5 Cindy Wilson (of The B-52s)
John Avalon
HARD ROCK CAFE Station Square. 412-481-ROCK. With special guest The Telephone Line. Over 21 event. Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 8p.m.
FORT LIGONIER MUSEUM Ligonier. 724-238-9701. For tickets and more info visit fortligonier.org. 6p.m.
Lee Dewyze CLUB CAFE South Side. 412-431-4950. With special guest Frank Viele. Over 21 event. Ticket: ticketweb.com/ opusone. 8p.m.
FRIDAY 15
Deep Purple & Alice Cooper
THURSDAY 31
KEYBANK PAVILION Burgettstown. With special guest The Edgar Winter Band. Tickets: livenation.com. 6:30p.m.
Haken
REX THEATER South Side. 412-381-1681. With special guests Sithu Aye & Nova Collective. Over 18 event. Tickets: ticketfly.com or 1-877-4-FLY-TIX. 8p.m.
Flashbulb Fridays: Jamie Gruzska THE FRICK Point Breeze. Free with exhibition admission. For more info visit thefrick pittsburgh.org. 2p.m.
Kaelber THE PALACE THEATRE Greensburg. 724-836-8000. Free event. For more info visit thepalacetheatre.org. 6p.m.
The Stray Birds
Thomas Wendt AGNES KATZ PLAZA Downtown. 412-456-6666. Free event. 5p.m. one. 10:30p.m.
SATURDAY 2
Laetitia Sadier Source Ensamble
Employees of Funk
CLUB CAFE South Side. 412-431-4950. With special guest Morgan Erina. Over 21 event. Tickets: ticketweb.com/ opusone. 9p.m.
CLUB CAFE South Side. 412-431-4950. Over 21 event. ckets: ticketweb.com/opus Tickets:
Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival all
WEST NEWTON. For tickets and more info visit pittsburghrenfest.com or 724-872-1670. Through Sept. 24.
Burning Bridges & Shadow of Corvus. All ages event. Tickets: ticketweb.com/opusone. 7p.m.
SUNDAY 3
HARTWOOD ACRES PARK. With special guests The Velcro Shoes, The Buckledowns and Andre Costello & the Cool Minors. Free event. For more info visit alleghenycounty.us/ summer. 5p.m.
Identity X
MR. SMALLS THEATRE Millvale. 412-421-4447. With special guests Patron Saint, Big Atlantic, The Art of
Rusted Root
Bourbon & Cigar Night EIGHT ACRES BAR & KITCHEN Plum. 724-519-7304. For more info visit eightyacres kitchen.com/events. 7p.m.
Erin McKeown CLUB CAFE South Side. 412-431-4950. With special guest The Cabin Project. Over 21 event.Tickets: ticket web.com/opusone. 8p.m.
We’re your sexual partner.
$88
Experts who listen, answer without judgment, and never freak out.
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We’re more than just cleaning. * $88 new customer special includes two professional maids, cleaning for a two hour maximum with our environmentally friendly cleaning products.
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
* Homes that have 3 or more bedrooms or require a more involved cleaning will fall under the $88 new customer special, or $20 an hour after the first two hours.
08.30/09.06.2017
Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania
-Birth Control -STD Testing -Gynecological Care -Pregnancy Testing -Emergency Contraception 933 Liberty Ave. 1.800.230.PLAN www.ppwp.org @PPWPA
[BOOKS]
“I’M A CHRONIC COLLABORATOR.”
Reviews of the first 50 pages of works by local authors {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL}
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JOHN RIEGERT. The 2016 SPACE gallery exhibit John Riegert was a Pittsburgh first: some 250 portraits of the same person, by 250 different artists. So why not commemorate it with a 700-page book? Most of this gorgeous, coffeetable-sized hardcover is a long essay by Eric Lidji, documenting the exhibit’s making — mostly local character Riegert’s encounters with many of the contributing artists. Lidji shadowed Riegert for more than a year, and his writing is clear, funny and sensitive. These sketches of the artists, and ruminations on the nature of art, themselves comprise a group portrait of a cross-section of Pittsburgh’s contemporary art community. But if the book’s principal project is a literary portrait of the charming, guileless and sometimes troubled Riegert, a moving subplot recounts the growing relationship between him and Lidji. Graphic designer Brett Yasko, Riegert’s friend who conceived the show, self-published the book (with support from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and others) and supplies many of the copious photos. Images of all the portraits in the exhibit are also included. John Riegert ($50) is available on Amazon and at the Carnegie Museum of Art bookstore and Caliban Books. At 6 p.m. Wed., Sept. 6, Lidji reads from John Riegert at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Main Branch. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. www.carnegielibrary.org
{PHOTO COURTESY OF FRANK WALSH}
Left to right: Beth Corning, Laurie Van Wieren and Sally Rousse in CorningWorks’ six a breast
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PARADIGM SHIFT KNUCKLE SANDWICH. Tapping inspirations including absurdist playwright Alfred Jarry, and Douglas Hofstadter’s classic book Godel Escher Bach, local art imp tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE offers this good-humored, self-published 407-page journey into mathy thought experiments, number games, logical conundrums and the nature of language. The general idea is that what we call “reality” can be improved upon, and that “paradigm shifts in consciousness can occur from ‘violent’ conceptual shocks to the (consensus reality?) system” that induce changes in the physical world. In Tent’s view, games where the rules change continuously are not only legit, but preferable to games with consistent rules. Obscure? A bit. But you don’t have to understand much math to be engaged by his wide-ranging intellectual curiosity and irrepressible sense of play. As Tent himself writes, “I don’t know where I am, but I won’t let that stop me from navigating thru the chaos of believing in nothing at the same time I believe in everything.” Paradigm Shift ($20) is available on Amazon and at Caliban Books, Copacetic Comics, and White Whale Bookstore.
[DANCE]
WOMEN’S WORKS {BY STEVE SUCATO}
A
S COUNTLESS dance works over the years have noted, our culture treats women and men unequally. But you can expect humor as well as poignancy from one new dance-theater work on the subject, CorningWorks’ six a breast. The 12th annual Pittsburgh Glue Factory Project production (for dancers 45 and over) finds dancer/choreographer Beth Corning and guest performers Sally Rousse and Laurie Van Wieren weighing in Sept. 6-10, with five performances at the New Hazlett Theater. “The lives we are all assigned by society are so absurd on so many levels, no matter what the gender, but women got the mother lode,” says Corning, speaking by phone recently from Minneapolis, where
the trio of old friends was rehearsing. Corning herself has explored this theme before to different degrees, in works including 2010’s A Seat at the Table
CORNINGWORKS PRESENTS
SIX A BREAST Wed., Sept. 6-Sun., Sept. 10. (Lobby event The Bare Arms Series — woman talking about woman, 7:15 p.m. before Sept 7-9 shows.) New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. $25-30; Sept. 10 show is pay-what-you-can. 412-320-4610 or www.corningworks.org
and 2014’s Recipes Our Mothers Gave Us. With six a breast, Corning goes allin on the absurdity of social manners
and mannerisms when it comes to women. And while the work focuses on the absurd lives of women, Corning says it is also “not anti-male in any shape or form.” The queen of metaphor, Corning never lectures audiences or beats them over the head with the obvious. Instead, she weaves a tapestry of possible moments of self-discovery for viewers within the emotional content and subject matter of her works. For six a breast, Corning says, she challenged herself as a choreographer by taking a very different approach to the structure and delivery, adopting a format that plays off the popular 1960s television comedy show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In’s
DRISCOLL@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
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WOMEN’S WORKS, CONTINUED FROM PG. 35
WE DO PARTIES!
AERIAL SILKS & CIRCUS CLASSES FOR YOUTH AND ADULTS. DISCOUNTS FOR FULL TIME COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH PROPER ID
Locations in Bloomfield, Ben Avon & Washington PA PITTSBURGHAERIALSILKS.COM • 412.681.0111
rapid-fire series of gags and sketches. To do so, Corning says, she needed to distill her ideas to their very essence. Ideas she would normally have developed into longer vignettes now come at the viewer, á la Laugh-In, in short, rapid-fire, non sequiturs. “This, albeit a lot of tongue and cheek, is still born out of my concerns of where we [women] are as a gender and a society,” says Corning. The hour-long, intermission-less work is set to a range of music from Eddie Cantor and Bach to circus tunes. It offers observations on the experiences (some of them generational) of many women in feeling like they walk on eggshells, that their lives are spinning in circles, and that they are constantly caught up consumerist dictates about how they are supposed to look, plus a whole lot more. “Yes, it is funny but there is also beautiful dancing in it,” says Van Wieren. An award-winning Minneapolis-based dancer/choreographer, Van Wieren says she adopts a number of personas in six a breast, including a woman distracted by self-conscious thoughts and one who has difficulty with domestic chores. Rousse, a former ballerina and co-founder of Minneapolis-based James Sewell Ballet, inhabits other personas, such as a neurotic
woman, a seductress, and one who constantly apologizes. Both veteran dancers say working on six a breast has been a rewarding and challenging experience. “Beth is very particular about what she wants,” says Van Wieren. “That’s a great thing in doing someone else’s work.” For Rousse, the initial challenge became understanding how to contribute to the process. “I’m a chronic collaborator,” she says. “Even when I am making my own work, I crowd-source solutions [to choreographic problems].” Unlike many past Glue Factory Project works, six a breast employs minimal sets and props. However, “There are more costume changes in this than the Folies Bergère,” says Corning. She also says company lighting designer Iain Court will have his work cut out for him. Adding further texture and nuance will be the inclusion in the production of “Come and Go,” Samuel Beckett’s 1965 “dramaticule.” Corning originally wanted to use the brief physical-theater piece in her 2015 work BECKETT & beyond, but says that including it in six a breast turned out to be a match made in heaven. The moving play features three women in stylish chapeaus sitting on a bench in a round-robin conversation consisting of only 130 spoken words. I N F O@ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
Oakland Fashion Optical Customize your glasses to your
PERSONALITY Music and Lyrics by John Kander & Fred Ebb Book by David Thompson
Original Direction and Choreography by Susan Stroman
Directed by Tomé Cousin
September 8-24, 2017 Ronald AllAn-Lindblom • Artistic Director
Kim Martin • Producing Director
box office 412.392.8000 or pittsburghplayhouse.com
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
08.30/09.06.2017
311 SOUTH CRAIG STREET • PITTSBURGH, PA 412.621.2523 WWW.OAKLAND-OPTICAL.US
[ART REVIEW]
WIDER ANGLE {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL} IRVING PENN: Beyond Beauty gives us
plenty of what we expect from Penn: those luminous black-and-white photographs from the 1950s, many from Vogue, apotheosizing mid-century haute couture. Images like 1952’s “Woman in Dior Hat with Martini (Lisa Fonssagives-Penn),” whose chicly suited model, in silhouetted profile — her face half-covered by the bonnet-like white hat — draws the sparkling glass in her gloved hand to parted lips; the photo’s title neglects only the smoldering cigarette between her fingers. Yet as its own title suggests, this nationally touring Smithsonian American Art Museum retrospective of some 150 photographs spanning seven decades, now at The Frick Pittsburgh, reveals other sides of Penn, who would’ve turned 100 this year. Highly intriguing is his earliest stuff: what the New Jersey native called the “camera notes” he shot in New York and Philadelphia starting in the late 1930s. It’s street photography, sometimes peopled, often not, with a fondness for shop windows and commercial signage, exposures influenced by then-au courant European surrealism. Through Penn’s lens, straightforward images of real dressmaker’s dummies, or the giant eyes in an optician’s storefront, seemed “surreal.” That helps explain Penn’s transition from minimally salable street photography to lucratively imagined embodiments of consumer desire in the pages of Vogue: On one level, as exhibit text notes, Penn innovated by treating women’s gowns and suits as “shapes to be perceived as sculpture.” As styles evolved, his approach reached another high with work like 1990’s nearly abstract, endlessly fascinating “Issey Miyake Fashion: White and Black.” Penn was also a sublime portraitist, eliminating props and even conventional
{IMAGE COURTESY OF SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM; © THE IRVING PENN FOUNDATION}
“Issey Miyake Fashion: White and Black,” by Irving Penn (New York, 1990, printed 1992)
multi-framed “12 Hands of Miles Davis and His Trumpet.” Generous samples of Penn’s less-seen documentary/travel/ethnographic work is also here, much of it studio-based, including his empathetic early-’50s “tradesmen” series (chimney-sweep, fishmonger, etc.) and veiled Taureg dancers in early-’70s Morocco. One does pause, though, at unclothed images of women from Africa and New Guinea, like “Nubile Young Beauty of Diamaré.” Penn might have intended to challenge Western notions of beauty, but in an age of heightened awareness of cultural appropriation, a few of these photos feel a bit problematic. While Penn had always experimented (including some strikingly modern nudes from the 1940s), exhibit text indicates he did so more starting in the ’70s, as haute couture declined and photography became more widely seen as art. His images of street trash (cigarette butts, chewing gum) both in studio and in situ, are intriguing — but don’t miss his Vanitas Still Lifes series, with exposures of lion and zebra skulls rendered practically tactile by masterful lighting. His color images, usually reserved for commercial work, date to the 1940s. Andy Warhol made art that recalled ads; but even when shooting ads, Penn made art. D RI S C OL L @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
IRVING PENN: BEYOND BEAUTY continues through Sept. 10. Frick Art Museum, 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze. 412-371-0600 or www.thefrickpittsburgh.org
studio space for rivetingly stark but intimate full-body renderings of artists, writers and intellectuals. His late-’40s images of a spider-like Salvador Dali, a gimleteyed Le Corbusier, ballet star Tanaquil Le Clercq, and Truman Capote lost in his overcoat, are iconic. Later portraits tended toward close-ups, including 1986’s splendid,
Image: Irving Penn, Salvador Dalí, New York, 1947, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation
F I N A L W E E K S! T H R O U G H S E P T. 10
THEFRICKPITTSBURGH.ORG 412-371-0600 7227 REYNOLDS STREET PITTSBURGH, PA 15208
Admission: $10, Members free.
NEWS
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Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with generous support from ART MENTOR FOUNDATION LUCERNE, Sakurako and William Fisher, The William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment Fund, The Lauder Foundation – Leonard and Judy Lauder Fund, Edward Lenkin and Roselin Atzwanger, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Margery and Edgar Masinter, The Margery and Edgar Masinter Exhibitions Fund, the James F. Petersen Charitable Fund in honor of Tania and Tom Evans, The Bernie Stadiem Endowment Fund, and the Trellis Fund. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the museum’s traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go.
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{PHOTO COURTESY OF HEATHER MULL}
Patrick J. Ssenjovu (left) and Scott Parkinson in Quantum Theatre’s Red Hills
[PLAY REVIEW]
HILLS AND HOLLOWS {BY STUART SHEPPARD}
AUGUST 26
HARD DAYS NIGHT Beatles Tribute Band
SEPTEMBER 8
SALIVA 8PM 222 MAIN STREET • DOWNTOWN IRWIN 724-367-4000 • LAMPTHEATRE.ORG 38
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BIG MEALS are not always filling, especially when they’re pumped full of empty calories. I came away from Quantum Theatre and En Garde Arts’ world premiere of Red Hills feeling like I had eaten an enormous and visually sensational meal, but was still remarkably hungry. Hollowness might be the salient metaphor of this show, which is staged in an immense recycling warehouse in the Strip District. One suspects that playwright Sean Christopher Lewis had just read Waiting for Godot before writing this work. There are two main characters, a mound of dirt, and a central object — in this case, a brokendown car instead of a sorry tree. Yes, Deb O’s apocalyptic set does offer a few more prop cars and some shrubbery, but any sense of dramatic intensity is thoroughly diluted by the massive space. It’s like having a candlelit dinner for two in an airplane hangar. Before seating, the audience is divided in half and given a talk by one of the principal characters, in our case David, who introduces himself as a professor, and then drones on like a used-car salesman reminiscing about his last vacation in Maui. This becomes portentous, as the show’s pace is laborious, like a train that never picks up speed. While the problem may be rooted in the script, director Katie Pearl tries to turn this bug into a feature, perhaps banking on the assumption that eschewing any intermission would in itself produce energy. It doesn’t. Scott Parkinson plays David, who travels back to Rwanda 20 years after having
visited there and written a book about the experience. He looks like director François Truffaut when he acted in his own films, often putting his hands in his pockets or folding them over his chest, as if he doesn’t know what to do with them. Patrick J. Ssenjovu delivers an impressive performance with great range as the character God’s Blessing, a Rwandan who reads David’s book and summons him back by informing him that what he wrote “was a lie.” The real stars of this show, however, are the technical crew. Sound designer Steve Shapiro has to overcome tremendous environmental obstacles to achieve a stunning array of acoustic embellishments, from subtle insect chirping to battle-scene clamor. And C. Todd Brown’s lighting designs are masterful across a space that is more landscape than stage. Fellini would have loved him.
RED HILLS continues through Sept. 10. Quantum Theatre at the Recycling Building, 32nd and Smallman streets. $38-58. 412-362-1713 or www.quantumtheatre.com
Red Hills does tell us a lot about the Rwandan genocide, and the very complicated issues that have evolved in its aftermath, but the impact of this production comes off as forced and overly grand, like the third Godfather film, which tried to make itself into an opera. The giant video overlays and faux-noir shadow projections of axes and machetes are just too inflated, like special-effects porn. It’s certainly spectacular, and I’m a huge fan of Quantum’s site-specific adventures. But this one has unfortunately jumped the shark. I N F O@ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
FOR THE WEEK OF
FreeEvent Ellen Chisdes Neuberg has run Gallerie Chiz for 22 years, almost all of it in the gutted former laundromat she bought and renovated two decades ago on Ellsworth Avenue. While art sales rise and fall, Neuberg (pictured) says the past two years were the first when she was unable to at least break even. Add the recent departure of assistant gallery director Fred Blauth, and Neuberg’s own desire to spend more time painting, and it seemed wise to call it a day at Chiz. The show opening Sept. 1 will be the gallery’s last; after it closes, Neuberg will temporarily move her studio into the storefront while she looks for a buyer for the building. Neuberg, a New York native, came to Pittsburgh in 1969; she lives in Shadyside with her husband, David Greenlee. She says a rise in online art sales has made life harder for brick-andmortar galleries. The gallery’s closure will leave a gap on Ellsworth, where it was one of a handful of venues on the monthly FirstFriday ArtWalk. Likewise, Neuberg’s tastes — typified, though hardly limited to, an interest in outsider artists like Daniel Belardinelli and Scott Griffin — will be missed, as will her enjoyable opening receptions (usually featuring live music) and attractions like live artmaking by exhibiting artists. Iconic local artist Bob Qualters calls the atmosphere at Chiz “more open [and] lively” than at most galleries. Chiz featured artists from both Pittsburgh and around the world. One former assistant gallery director at Chiz, who still sells her jewelry and drawings there, is local artist Lizzee Solomon. Says Solomon of Neuberg, “She has stuck [it out] and kept an aesthetic that I feel is pretty unique. Definitely eclectic.” Chiz’s final show is Inside US, Outside US, featuring hand-crafted wooden furniture, painting and graphic art by Jason Shell, Manuela Holban, Tadao Arimoto, and JAPA, four artists who are either emigrants from or immigrants to the U.S. BY BILL O’DRISCOLL
08.31-09.07.17 Full events listed online at www.pghcitypaper.com
{PHOTO COURTESY OF DOUGLAS DUERRING PHOTOGRAPHY} {P
^ Sat., Sept. 2: Festival of Combustion
thursday 08.31 Tanya Solomon, a Brooklynbased magician who has found nd success in the male-dominated ed magic scene, hits up The Glitter ter Box Theater tonight on her national Truth Assassin tour. The hour-long show features a variety ariety of familiar tricks, like blindfolded ded knifetossing, but Solomon is known wn for injecting shows with her distinct quirky y and comedic personality. She also offers unique nique tricks, like one where she miraculously usly creams some corn in a can. Pittsburgh-based ed cellist Midge Crockett opens with nerdy and nd comedic songs. Matt Petras 8 p.m. 460 60 Melwood Ave., Oakland. $10. theglitterboxtheater.com heater.com
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COMEDY On Comedy C Central’s The Half Hour, Drew Michael expla explains his confusion about marriage. He imagines a couple in bed professing their love. One says say “Holy shit, we should let the run the DMV know.” The Chicagopeople who ru comes to the Pittsburgh Improv for six based comic com tonight. Michael, a writer for Saturday shows starting tonig released comedy albums including Funny Night Live, has release to Death. MP P 8 p.m. Continues through Sun., Sept. 3. The Waterfront, Homestead. $20. 166 E. Bridge St., Th www.pittsburgh.improv.com 412-462-5233 or w
STAGE Sometime in the mid-20th century, ntury, a producer gambles it all that a wünderkind kind playwright will turn out another hit comedy. But ensconced at a luxury Arizona resort, the writer’s a wreck who can only do tragedy; an anxious ous assistant and
Reception: 5:30-8:30 p.m. (free). Exhibit continues through Sept. 30. 5831 Ellsworth Ave., Shadyside. 412-441-6005 or www.galleriechiz.com NEWS
duped starlet are also involved. So goes Robert Caisley’s in A Masterpiece of Comic … Timing, a new comedy getting its local premiere premie starting tonight at Little Lake Theatre Company. Compan James Critchfield directs local favorites Art DeConciliis DeConci and Greg Caridi. Bill O’Driscoll 8 p.m. Continues through Sept. 16. 500 Lakeside thro Drive South, Canonsburg. $12-20. 724-745-6300 or Canonsb www.littlelake.org
MAGIC
SCREEN Beginning to tonight and running through the weekend at the Melwood Screening Room are multiple multipl opportunities to catch Takashi Miike’s Dead d or Alive trilogy. The prolific and controversial filmmaker is known for his controversia s l Ja JJapanese a
> Thu.,, Aug. 31: Tanya Solomon {PHOTO COURTESY RTESY OF ADRIAN BUCKMASTER}
CONTINUES ON PG. 40
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SHORT LIST, CONTINUED FROM PG. 39
EVERYONE IS A CRITIC
Improv Appetizer, part of the EVENT:
Pittsburgh Comedy Festival, Henry Heymann Theatre, Oakland
CRITIC: Will Weiner, 26, a consultant from Braddock WHEN: Fri.,
Aug. 25
outrageous, darkly comic and often violent work, including this gangster epic. The first Dead or Alive (1999) pits yakuza gangs against Chinese triads in Tokyo; Dead or Alive: Birds (2000) shuffles the first film’s actors into new characters; and Dead or Alive: Final (2002) re-sets the gang conflicts in the future, adding cyborgs. All three films screen, in sequence, all four nights. Al Hoff Films at 6, 8 and 10 p.m. Continues nightly through Sun., Sept. 3. 477 Melwood Ave., Oakland. $8 (single screening); $15 for all three films. www.pghfilmmakers.org rg
friday 09.01 I thought it was some really good improv. It was interesting to see the mixes. The first group [Listen, Stupid] was a little twisted and zany. [Well Known Strangers,] I really love them, [they’re] high-energy, crazy, and then [Friendship Club,] it was awesome, it was weird. Improv is sometimes a mixed bag. I thought this was really, really good with all three; they were different, they all knew what they were doing, it wasn’t dragging, and it was nice to see the variety. It was nice to see a good hour, hour-and-ahalf of pretty good improv. I actually went to college with [the Friendship Club duo], and didn’t do improv specifically but theater with them, so I’ve kind of known them and seen them advance. It’s awesome they’re coming in here [from New York], because I know they’ve done a ton of travel. B Y M ATT P ETRAS
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ART In a Town by the Forestt on the Shore: The Life of Urmo Hipock is Murphi Cook’s new performance work. Cook, ok, of the nationally touring, wildly imaginative tive Pittsburghbased puppetry duo Miniature niature Curiosa, tells the story of the lostt final film of an obscure filmmaker; Cook’s ok’s show takes the form of “an illustrated ted lecture performed hourly” and employs both artifacts from the film and “a sizable hand-puppet collection.” .” Her show is Bunker Projects’ piece of Unblurred, tonight’s monthly gallery ry crawl on Penn Avenue, involving g a dozen or more venues all along this East End corridor. Cook’s performance mance will repeat during her Sept. 14 gallery talk. BO 7-10 p.m. m. (free). 5106 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. field. bunkerprojectsinfo@gmail.com mail.com
saturday 09.02 FESTIVAL Fire and metal: Those are re your themes at Rivers of Steel Arts’ annual nual Festival of Combustion. Today, in the shadow of the decommissioned blast ast furnaces of the Carrie Furnaces National tional Historic Landmark, observe the practice of various fire-based craftss — glassflame working, raku ceramics, ramics, metal fabrication, welding, ing,
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< Thu., Sept. 7: Jonathan and an Drew Scott
^ Fri., Sept. 1: In a Town by the Forest on the Shore: The Life of Urmo Hipock
aluminum and iron casting — and even sword-swallowing and fire-breathing by CoffinBox Sideshow Team. Go handson by designing your own glass mosaic or firing your own ceramic vase. There’s also refreshments for sale, and live rock by The Seams. BO Noon-7 p.m. Carrie Furnace Boulevard, Rankin. $10-15 (free for kids under 18). www.rosarts.org
STAGE Pittsburgh’s longest-running project to bring Shakespeare to launches its 13th season the people, for free and outdoors, laun with Henry V. V Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks stages a family-friendly 90-minute version of the t famed wartime drama over the next four weekends in three different city parks. Alan Irvine directs the happy few — a cast of ha eight, all in multiple roles save Lamar K. Cheston, a New York-based Off-Broadway veteran, in Off-Broad the iconic title role. There’s also a some audience participation. The production debuts with shows today and tomorrow at Frick Park’s tomor blue-slide playground. playground Bring refreshments, and chairs or blankets. blanke BO 2 p.m. Also 2 p.m. Sun., Sept. Se 3 (Beechwood Boulevard and Nicholson, Squirrel Nich Hill). Continues through Sept. 24 thr at Highland, Arsenal Arsen and Frick parks. Donations encouraged. www.pittsburghshakespeare.com www.pittsburghs
SCREEN In August 2016, P Pittsburgh’s raised more Locust Street Entertainment Ente Kickstarter than $6,000 on Kic comedy-horror webto fund a comedy-h and the Professor. series called Theo an The whole series — ssix 25-minute episodes — debuts ttonight at the Oaks Theaterr before hitting Amazon online trailer gives a Marketplace. An on investigative duo: taste of the titular in certifiably strange, The professor is cert left constantly and poor Theo is le frustrated. In classic genre-show hunt a different fashion, the two hu episode. MP monster every episo Allegheny River Blvd., 6 p.m. 310 Alleghe Oakmont. $10. 4 412-828-6322 or www.theoakstheater.com www.theoaksth
{PHOTO COURTESY OF ALEXANDER DENMARSH}
^ Mon., Sept. 4: National Aviary
sunday 09.03 EXHIBIT Just as it’s the final weekend for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s The Power of Poison (an interactive exhibit about poisonous plants and animals in nature and culture), so is it the first full weekend to see the museum’s newly renovated Age of Mammals: The Cenozoic Era. The exhibit, tracing the evolutionary history of mammals over 66 million years, includes fossil skeletons of a Columbian mammoth, a saber-toothed cat, dire wolf and giant ground sloth. It also features the hands-on Bonehunter’s Quarry, where kids can dig for dinosaur fossils. The Carnegie is also open on Labor Day. BO 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. $11.95-19.95 (free for kids under 2). 412-622-3131 or www.carnegiemnh.org
monday 09.04 BIRDS ^ Sun., Sept. 3: Carnegie Museum of Natural History While many of us are acting like sloths to celebrate Labor Day, the National Aviary is one local cultural institution that’s keeping its doors open. As per usual, you can visit loads of birds there. There are also several feedings throughout the day, including sessions for rainbowcolored lorikeets and bats, and even one for a sloth named Valentino. Some events cost extra on top of general admission — for example, for $75 per person, you can be surrounded by a flock of flamingos. MP 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 700 Arch St., North Side. $14-15. 412-323-7235 or www.aviary.org
thursday 09.07 TALK You may know Jonathan Scott and Drew Scott from the HGTV series Property Brothers, where they turn everyday homes into something extraordinary. But they’re more than house renovators. The Scotts come to the Byham Theater tonight as part of their national “House Party” tour. In the spirit of their new collaborative memoir, It Takes Two, the brothers will speak about their lives and share behind-the-scenes details from their shows. All ticket-holders will receive a copy of the book. MP 7:30 p.m., 101 Sixth St., Downtown. $49.75-69.75 (VIP: $150). 412-471-6070 or www.trustarts.org
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THE LAMB WAS FORK-TENDER AND PLEASINGLY GAMY
CHILE TODAY Intrepid travelers to New Mexico know that the state has its own cuisine worth seeking out— a mélange of Mexican, American and indigenous influences that is both familiar (tacos, tamales) and unique. Chiles dominate, and orders for breakfast, lunch and dinner ask “red, green or Christmas?” That is, do you want your food topped with red chile sauce, green chile sauce or both. New Mexican casual fare has come to Pittsburgh via Mesa, which has taken over the longstanding Conflict Kitchen take-out spot in Schenley Plaza. New Mexico was variously under the control of Native Americans, Spain and Mexico, before becoming part of the U.S. after the MexicanAmerican War, if you’re still looking for conflict. But a little green alien stands by Mesa’s tip jar, perhaps reminding us that the people of Earth need to stick together. At this currently peaceful spot, diners will find a compact selection of regular items, with vegetarian options. The aforementioned tamales are available as: pork with red sauce, or calabacitas squash (sautéed with onions and peppers) with green sauce. There are also tostadas (beef or chicken), enchiladas (chicken or green chile and cheese), and a New Mexican chopped salad, with corn, black beans and tortilla strips. Or try a mildly spicy pork and potato stew, flavorful from chiles, and served with a warm flour tortilla. Beans are an integral part of New Mexican cuisine, and Mesa’s creamy, seasoned ones are an excellent side dish. Weekends feature additional brunch items, including entrees topped with fried eggs, such as bacon and cheese tamales, and the delicious hot mess that are chilaquiles (tortillas sautéed with peppers and onions, and served with green chile). If all that chile sauce is making you thirsty, Mesa offers an assortment of beverages, including housemade fruit sodas, Piñon coffee (hot or iced), aguas frescas and Topo Chico sparkling mineral water. Save room for dessert: Sopaipillas are fried dough puffs, drizzled with honey, and not to be missed. AHOFF@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
Schenley Plaza, Oakland. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. www.mesapgh.com
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Pork tamales, with rice and beans {CP PHOTO BY AL HOFF}
{BY AL HOFF}
{CP PHOTO BY VANESSA SONG}
Heirloom tomato salad, with burrata cheese, avocado mousse, watercress and olives
FRENCH COMFORT {BY ANGELIQUE BAMBERG + JASON ROTH}
T
WELVE YEARS is a long time in the
restaurant industry. Some local restaurants that last that long are destined to become institutions, places everyone, whether citizen or visitor, must dine to earn their Pittsburgh cred. Others grow tired and fade away. A fixture of the Cultural District since 2005, Sonoma Grille took a different path: deliberate self-reinvention. Last year, chefowner Yves Carreau refreshed Sonoma’s menu and its practice of California foodwine pairings. He stayed true to the Northern Californian concept but updated it with trendy ingredients and a looser approach to wine. Then, abruptly, Carreau shut Sonoma Grill down this spring. Swiftly revamped, it has now re-opened as a French restaurant, Le Lyonnais, named after and in-
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spired by Carreau’s hometown of Lyon. Le Lyonnais (pro tip for non-French speakers: the “s” is silent) maintains Sonoma Grille’s original decor, which
LE LYONNAIS 947 Penn Ave., Downtown. 412-697-1336 HOURS: Mon.-Thu. lunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m., dinner 5-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat 5-11 p.m. PRICES: Small plates, soups, salads, sandwiches (after 9 p.m.) $6-16; entrees $18-35 LIQUOR: Full bar
CP APPROVED is designed to make dining in the nearcavernous interior feel like relaxing in the courtyard of a Napa Valley winery. Even the mural of California vineyards remains; the resemblance to southern France must be close enough.
As for the new menu, Carreau describes the concept as “French comfort food,” acknowledging that that may not be the typical American expectation of French cookery. Certainly, Le Lyonnais’ offerings are far from the haute cuisine of Escoffier, but it’s been decades since that style defined French food in America. We found Le Lyonnais to be very French indeed: not too fussy, but unafraid of rich flavors and ingredients, all expertly combined and meticulously prepared. Many of the recipes are ones Carreau himself grew up eating, and are said to have been in his family for generations. Our meal began, deliciously, with a board of warm baguette from the magnificent Five Points Artisan Bake Shop (quite a feather in its cap to be the chosen baguette supplier of a French-run kitchen),
served with an exquisite house-made herbed honey butter. Sweet, salty, creamy and freshly flavored with herbs without tasting like grass, this butter slathered on baguette might have been peasant fare, but it tasted fit for a king. From there, we ordered two items from the menu’s array of categories we would characterize as “smaller than entrees”: Amuse-Gueules, Salades, Soupes and Tartines. Heirloom tomato salad was splendid, as only a summer tomato salad can be. Chunks of a variety of tomatoes of different colors and acidities were arrayed on the plate around an egg-shaped ball of fluffy, creamy burrata cheese. These were sprinkled with watercress and oil-cured olives, and drizzled with a chaste amount of rich avocado mousse and smoked tomato vinaigrette. The flavors were naturally intense, perfectly complementary and beautifully balanced. Tartine Bourguignonne was just as gorgeously presented — two toasts topped with caramelized onions and tender braised beef, dolloped with housemade Boursin. The texture of the meat was exquisite, but its flavor was surprisingly under-seasoned, a flaw made more apparent in bites where the sweet onions took the upper hand, exposing the meat’s lack of savor. The rich gravy was a necessary crutch to this beef hitting its stride. The entreé list is brief but varied, ranging from the familiar — steak frites — to the novel, such as quenelle Lyonnaise. In this dumpling-esque dish, white fish — in this case, striped bass — was combined with enriched breadcrumbs to form a sort of mousse cake, which was in turn poached and served with a luxurious lobster cream sauce. Unlike a meaty fish filet or the tooth-and-claw combat of eating a whole lobster, this was a deceptively delicate dish. Mild, yet rich, it was ultimately quite satisfying. At its most basic, pithivier is a savory tart wrapped with puff pastry. But lamb pithivier was far from basic. In addition to a round of airy, crisp pastry, Le Lyonnais’ version also included thick celeriac purée and hay-roasted beets, as well as a rich, glossy sauce. The lamb was fork-tender and pleasingly gamy, though again a bit under-seasoned. Indeed, the meat wasn’t quite savory enough to balance the sweet beets, so that Jason ended up with a small pile of them left over. Seasoning can always be adjusted; authenticity cannot. After 12 years of California cuisine, we’re thrilled to see Yves Carreau turning his talents toward his own roots in the culinarily rich city of Lyon. INFO@ PGHC ITY PAP ER.CO M
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[PERSONAL CHEF]
PASTA SUBSTITUTE {BY KELLY ANDREWS, GREENFIELD} Summertime is intolerable, save for locally grown zucchini. But the beach! The sunshine!, you might say. And sure, those things are fine if you’re into being hot and sweaty while sitting around in your underwear. But I don’t have a small shrine devoted to Willis Carrier, inventor of the air conditioner — may that beautiful, brilliant man rest in peace — for nothing. Zucchini makes the months of high temps worthwhile. Plus, it’s a super-versatile vegetable that can masquerade as bread, French fries or pasta. Recently, I invested in a solid spiralizer, one that has different blades you can swap in and out, etc. The ability to make “zoodles” (term courtesy of the internet) is bringing me new life. It’s perfect if you’re trying to eat more veggies, but find yourself fantasizing about napping on a bed made entirely out of fresh-baked Italian loaves, which, upon waking, you could roll over and eat your way out of.
Now Open!
412-252-2877 Check us out @ frontporchgrille.com
FARM TO TABLE DINNER
9/6 at Kentuck Knob
Find the 3 course menu & tickets on
www.eightyacreskitchen.com
INGREDIENTS • 1 zucchini, small to medium size • 1 jar pasta sauce of choice (or homemade — go crazy) • Parmesan cheese, grated for garnishing • 1 loaf French bread • garlic salt • 2 tbsp. butter
The Downtown lunch café you’ve been waiting for…
INSTRUCTIONS Pick up a small, hand-held spiralizer if you aren’t ready to commit to zoodles for life. Buy a zucchini that’s of the smaller phallic size (as far as zucchinis go) for easy pressing into the blades. Slice the ends off; stick the zucchini into the proper place; and then turn that long, hard veggie into thin little noodles. Boil a pot of water and throw the zoodles in for about one or two minutes, then drain. Press the water out with a paper towel while heating up the spaghetti sauce. If you aren’t ready to say goodbye to all the carbs, you can make homemade garlic bread. Butter both sides of the bread slices, liberally coating with garlic salt, and bake at 425 degrees for approximately 10-15 minutes. Pour the sauce onto your zoodles and sprinkle with fresh Parmesan cheese.
SANDWICHES WRAPS SALADS SOUPS CATERING COFFEE 808 PPenn A Avenue - In I The Th Cultural C lt l District Di t i t HOURS: HOURS 412-745-2233 WWW.CAFE808PGH.COM 7 AM to 2 PM Mon. - Fri.
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Kelly Andrews is a poet who plans to stick around Pittsburgh indefinitely. You can find more sad, healthy (and funny) meals on her blog sadhealthymeals. wordpress.com. WE WANT YOUR PERSONAL RECIPES AND THE STORIES BEHIND THEM. EMAIL THEM TO CELINE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM.
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Formerly the
Tin Angel
REYNA FOODS
INVITES EVERYONE
TO THE FARM!
Dining with a
SUNDAY, SEPT. 24 10 AM - 8PM FOOD VENDORS DEMONSTRATIONS BEER • WINE • LIVE MUSIC ART/CRAFT/CLOTHIER VENDORS FARM TOUR • KIDS ZONE • WALKING TRAILS • FREE PARKING CONTESTS & MUCH MORE
1200 GRANDVIEW AVENUE • MT. WASHINGTON 412-381-1919 • VUE412.COM
WHITE OAK FARM 3314 WAGNER RD ALLISON PARK
Authentic traditional handcrafted Hungarian cuisine
{CP PHOTO BY KRISTA JOHNSON}
Behind the bar at The Pines
[ON THE ROCKS]
A SIMPLE DRINK {BY CELINE ROBERTS} THE SPACE that opened in late July as The
Pines has seen many iterations over the past decade. Most notably, it’s the former home of the pioneering and much-beloved bar and performance space Shadow Lounge. When it joined the family of spaces co-owned by Justin Steel and Kevin Cox (who also own Bar Marco and the adjacent The Livermore), there were plans to make it hum with life again. For four years, the space (then called the Cloak Room) was used mostly for private events, but the group wanted something more.
THE PINES A LEGACY BAR & GRILL
627 E North Ave in Pittsburgh’s Northside
412-322-8795 huszarpittsburgh.com 44
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5972 Baum Blvd., East Liberty. 412-361-0060
“As the neighborhood has developed around it ... we realized there weren’t a lot of places to get a simple drink,” says general manager Zachary Maddox. “Within a hundred feet of here in any direction, you can get fancy cocktails. We wanted to try something different and a little bit more casual.” Enter The Pines, an eclectic bar that feels like your hip, slightly bohemian friend’s living room ... in the ’90s. This sense of casual comfort is what Brogan McGowan, the bartender and artist who spent about a year developing the space, is going for. “It was very intentional,” says McGowan. “It rounds out the three-tiered bar system where we have a wine bar, we have a cocktail bar, and now we have a beer-and-a-shot bar.” The building’s age would make installing a draft system enormously expensive, so the bar will stick to bottles and cans. Five
or six widely available cheap beers will be supplemented by regional selections from breweries like Full Pint, Tröeg’s and Victory. The menu is completed by an abbreviated classic-cocktail list and a shelf of “more frequently called-for spirits” like Grey Goose, Jim Beam and Hendrick’s. “Everyplace else we have, you need a menu to know what you want. Here, pretty much everything’s on the shelf. It’s non-confrontational,” says Maddox. Shots are offered, with a cheap beer-and-shot option for a total of $7 at all times. Oh, and the menus are printed on a set a multi-colored floppy disks on a single binder ring. Before opening, the staff hid a few around the city, promising a “treat” to whoever returned it. East Liberty is rapidly gentrifying, and the staff is intent on acknowledging the space’s history and making it inviting to everyone. “We are hoping that by having an accessible thing at a reasonable price point, and a friendly, diverse staff, that everyone will feel welcome,” says Maddox. Steel and Cox have also been working with Juice UP 412, a black-owned popup business and longtime collaborator of theirs. McGowan and bartender K. Gerard Painter Jr. are also dedicated to keeping the space creative, inviting performers for a kind of “living-room variety show.” Renowned queer Pittsburgh artist and performer moon baby has a weekly 12:30 a.m. performance slot on Sundays, and McGowan is seeking additional acts. “We’re extremely open to suggestion of any community events that might want to be held here,” he says. C E L I N E @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
BOOZE BATTLES {BY CELINE ROBERTS}
Each week, we order the same cocktail at two different bars for a friendly head-to-head battle. Go to the bars, taste both drinks and tell us what you like about each by tagging @pghcitypaper on Twitter or Instagram and use #CPBoozeBattles. If you want to be a part of Booze Battles, send an email to food-and-beverage writer Celine Roberts, at celine@pghcitypaper.com.
THE DRINK: RUM AND MINT
Family Owned and Operated
AUTHENTIC & FRESH VS.
Smallman Galley
Butcher and the Rye
54 21st St., Strip District
212 Sixth St., Downtown
DRINK: This Magic Moment INGREDIENTS: Plantation pineapple rum, Smith & Cross rum, Fernet Branca, mint, macadamia nut OUR TAKE: This cocktail tasted like a caramel-coated thin mint, with just a hint of tropical fruit and no sugary sweetness. The Fernet Branca warms the palate with mellow herbal notes on the front and back of the drink. A touch of sweetness lingers at the end.
5523 Walnut Street • Shadyside • 412-621-6220
mercuriosgelatopizza.com
DRINK: Italian Holiday INGREDIENTS: Branca Menta, Cruzan light aged rum, sugar cane, lime, mint OUR TAKE: Bracingly minty and sweet, this rum cocktail takes its cues from candied mint. The rum has slightly woody flavors and a definite presence in the drink’s profile, even though it takes second place to the Branca.
LET S GET ’
S CIAL
Learn more about Pittsburgh’s food scene on our podcasts Sound Bite and Five Minutes in Food History online at www.pghcitypaper.com.
One Bordeaux, One Scotch, One Beer Byrrh Grand Quinquina Prices vary “It’s a fortified and red-wine-based [vermouth]. It’s very complex with tons of flavors and has quinine in it, which adds com distinctive bitterness. It’s a little sweet and makes a good a di replacement for sweet vermouth.” rep RECOMMENDED BY EVAN MASON, FRONT-OF-HOUSE MANAGER AND BARTENDER, LE LYONNAIS
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Byrrh Grand Quinquina is available at Le Lyonnais, Morcilla, Allegheny Wine Mixer and Spoon.
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PATTI CAKE$ IS HEARTFELT AND GENEROUS TO ITS CHARACTERS
SOCIAL STUDIES {BY AL HOFF} It’s madness under the sunny skies of Southern California in Matt Spicer’s debut, the dark comedy Ingrid Goes West. Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) already got in trouble for cyber-stalking a young woman from her hometown. Now released from the psychiatric hospital, she’s right back on her drug: Instagram. There she discovers Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen), who documents the ideal life, where it’s all trips to Joshua Tree, avocado toast, boho dresses, and dogs with names like Rothko. Taylor is an “influencer,” whose confident edicts are preceded by “#,” as in #ridethesky and #bestdogever. Ingrid, meanwhile, is a social-media striver, the sort of person who when making a joke backspaces over “hahaha” and then “heheheh,” before settling on “heh heh” and pushing send.
They see us rolling: Siddharth Dhananjay and Danielle Macdonald
JERSEY HARD
#readingDidion: Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza)
Ingrid decides to be like Taylor: She moves to Venice Beach, rents an apartment from a guy (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) working on a speculative Batman script, and is soon stalking Taylor and her artist husband (Wyatt Russell). A few bold (and inappropriate) moves later and Ingrid is friends with Taylor (#omg). Plaza is an ace at playing demented women, and Olsen does a good job conveying Taylor’s enviable vapidity. Their over-excited girls’ trip to the desert is the film’s comic highlight. Here, life is performance, whether to be played in the moment (accompanied by too-loud laughter) or “produced” for posting on social media. In theory, Ingrid is an indictment of such living, the quest for style points over substance, but it lacks punch. It’s after such lowhanging fruit, and yet I wished Ingrid could be sharper in its critiques of self-curated internet lives, and what impact these seemingly real unrealities have on folks. Technology is moving faster than mores, and it’s making fools out of plenty of us. But the film can’t decide whether pursuing validation through social media (by any means necessary) is a good thing; whether Taylor is savvy or soulless; and whether Ingrid is a figure of fun, pity, ingenuity, desperation or horror. Starts Fri., Sept. 1
{BY AL HOFF}
T
WENTYSOMETHING Patricia Dombrowski — a.k.a. Killa P, Patti Cake$ — lives in a grubby house in Bayonne, N.J., with her boozy mom and sick grandma, and tends bar in a dive. But she has goals: Get out, and do it using her rapping skills. That’s the hope, anyway, in Geremy Jasper’s winning debut feature, Patti Cake$, which follows Patti’s modest journey from nobody to somebody. With her buddy Hareesh (Siddharth Dhananjay), Patti (Australian actress Danielle Macdonald) puts together a tape, with help from musically gifted oddball Basterd (Mamoudou Athie) and Patti’s Nana (Cathy Moriarty). It’s a quixotic pursuit, but her lyrics are sharp, as is her delivery. Yet she knows the biggest thing preventing her success is the one thing she can’t change: She’s an overweight white girl trying to break into an entertainment business that demands she look otherwise. (The jerks call her “Dumbo” and “White Precious.”) But Patti’s got heart — as much as she’s defeated by being
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dismissed, it’s also what drives her. Yet her tough Jersey-girl exterior barely masks a lot of hurt and vulnerability, much of it stoked by her mom, Barb (Bridget Everett), who has her own busted show-biz dreams. But Patti Cake$ is heartfelt and generous to its characters. Barb is a difficult, infuriating mom, but your heart breaks for her, too. (I would watch a series about just these two women getting by, noting that everyday fraught mother-daughter relationships are universal, yet criminally unexplored in entertainment.)
PATTI CAKE$ DIRECTED BY: Geremy Jasper STARRING: Danielle Macdonald, Bridget Everett, Siddharth Dhananjay
CP APPROVED Patti Cake$ gets how performance functions as a temporary yet powerful escape from one’s dreary life. It’s not just Patti’s big dreams of rapping alongside
her famous idols — it’s Hareesh beatboxing in the fluorescent-lit tedium of his drug-store job; it’s Barb, still belting out Heart songs for half-a-dozen drunks at the bar; it’s the middle-aged cop with his weekend rock band; and it’s Basterd, shrieking his rage at the open-mic night. Even Nana finds that rapping is more fun than another stultifying afternoon of daytime TV. The film follows the standard trajectory of similar yearning-for-stardom tales — and comparisons to other bootstrap musical stories like The Commitments, Hustle & Flow and 8 Mile are fair — but it stays fresh. (You’ll either love the “magical” nature of Basterd and his art cabin, or find it jarring set against the grittier lifeis-grind aspects of the film.) It helps that Jasper keeps the tale grounded: Patti may dream of stardom, but the “big break” she’s aiming for is only a minor rap battle in Newark. Realistically, her goal there is less a true career than a validation of her worthiness — for herself and to others. A HOF F @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
Japanese director Takashi Miike’s outrageous, violent gangster mash-up? Over the long weekend, take in one, two or all three of his yakusa series; see them all in one night, or parcel them out over three. In 1999’s Dead or Alive, gangs in Tokyo fight back Chinese triads. Dead or Alive: Birds (2000) finds two contract killers crossing paths and discovering they are childhood friends. In the last film, Dead or Alive: Final (2002), the gangster action is set in a post-apocalyptic Yokohama, and features a cop and an android. The films screen in sequence nightly, at 6, 8 and 10 p.m. Thu., Aug. 31, through Sun., Sept. 3. Melwood. $8 (single screening); $15 for all three films. www.pghfilmmakers.org
FILM CAPSULES CP
= CITY PAPER APPROVED
NEW THE GIRL WITHOUT HANDS. This new handpainted animation from Sébastien Laudenbach adapts a Brothers Grimm fairy tale with lots of visual flair. The tale itself is a classic cautionary one. A miller sells his daughter to the devil in exchange for gold. The devil requests that the young woman come to him dirty and smelly, but her tears cleanse her hands. Thus, the devil orders the father to cut off the hands; he does, and the understandably distressed girl runs away. What follows is her journey to survive, forgive and perhaps find happiness in a world marked by war, greed and violence. The deceptively simple illustrations are evocative and painterly. The 80-minute film is OK for older kids who don’t mind the “grimmer” sorts of Grimm tales, and share the European sensibility for depictions of ordinary nudity, such as bathing and breast-feeding. In French, with subtitles. Starts Fri., Sept. 1. Row House Cinema (Al Hoff)
APRIL AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD. Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci’s engaging 2015 animated adventure takes place in an alternative timeline, in which 1940s Paris is a polluted, plantless dystopia, run haphazardly by coal and steam. The world got into such a bleak state after scientists were kidnapped (thus, electricity, internal-combustion engines and so on never got invented). Among those disappeared were the parents and grandfather of April, a science-oriented teenager who, along with her talking cat, Darwin (a scene-stealer), initiates a search for her family. It all leads to a very strange place that viewers should just discover on their own; suffice to say, if the first half of the film is a familiar steampunk affair, replete with lots of grimy Victoriana and standard villains, the second half is more of a loopy scifi romp. Should be fun for older kids, especially those who like gadgets, discovery and lizards. Sept. 1-6. Row House Cinema (AH)
The Girl Without Hands
I DO … UNTIL I DON’T. The institution of marriage gets a kicking around in Lake Bell’s ensemble comedy. A documentarian (Dolly Wells) has decided marriage should be a seven-year contract only (with an option to renew), and she hits a Florida town looking for unhappy couples to take part in her project. She finds: Alice (Bell) and Noah (Ed Helms), financially stressed; Harvey (Paul Reiser) and Cybil (Mary Steenbergen), bored and bitter; and Fanny (Amber Heard) and Zander (Wyatt Cenac), reputedly polyamorous free spirits. It’s a good cast, and there are a few bits that generate a laugh or two, but the overall concept seems as dusty as a 1950s sitcom. Ideally, this should have been a dark comedy, unafraid to buck convention, but it’s no surprise that the film winds up back at the altar … where the “trouble” all started. Starts Fri., Sept. 1 (AH)
PERSEPOLIS. Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s animated 2007 film, adapted from Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novels, is an intelligent work that successfully marries the messy histories of contemporary Iran and a teenage girl. As a coming-of-age narrative and personal window into Iran’s Islamic revolution, Persepolis offers a strong female perspective, rich with insight, candor and wit, seldom explored in cinema. The film always forefronts Marjane’s dedication to preserving who she is, her rich history and her potential, even if the costs wrought are terribly bitter. Ultimately, Marjane has no home to return to. Like Persepolis, Persia’s ancient capital which lies now in ruins, her formative world — with its lively culture, personal histories and exciting future — has been destroyed by a restrictive ideology that bars her full participation. In French, with subtitles. Sept. 1-7. Row House Cinema (AH)
CP
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
April and the Extraordinary World
PERSON TO PERSON. Dustin Guy Defa’s ensemble dramedy is the day-in-a-life of assorted New Yorkers as they navigate various situations. Among the featured actors are Michael Cera, Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) and Isiah Whitlock Jr. Starts Fri., Sept. 1. Harris REEL ABILITIES FILM FESTIVAL. The fifth annual festival showcasing films about the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with different abilities begins Wed., Sept. 6. The program offers five films, plus a program of shorts, as well as special guests, discussions, openingand closing-night receptions, and a pop-up art exhibit. The opening-night film is an Irish comedy, Sanctuary, directed by Len Collin, about teenage romance between a lad with Down’s syndrome and a girl with epilepsy. The full schedule is at pittsburgh.reelabilities.org. 7 p.m. Wed., Sept. 6. SouthSide Works. $12 RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD. Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana’s documentary poses a new question in the already well-documented history of rock ’n’ roll — what were the contributions of Native Americans? — and comes up with some fascinating material. The film begins near the middle, with Link Wray, who grew up poor and Shawnee in North Carolina. His 1958 single “Rumble” introduced two of rock’s critical components: distortion and the power chord. (Because the tune sounded so “dangerous,” it had the rare distinction of being a banned instrumental — so you know it was good.) Then the film travels back to early and influential performers such as blues artist Charley Patton and
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THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE. Sylvain Chomet’s brilliant 2003 film ranges from the whimsical to the macabre, and captivates without resorting to cutesiness or stereotyping. When some ne’er-do-wells kidnap Madame Souza’s cyclist grandson, Champion, she and faithful, overfed dog Bruno follow the trail to the metropolis of Belleville, where three eccentric musical crones prove unlikely but effective allies. Triplets recalls the wry, observational, dialogueless humor of Jacques Tati along with more manic comedy styles; it’s peopled by both gentle caricatures and grotesques worthy of animator Bill Plympton. Sept. 1-7. Row House Cinema (Bill O’Driscoll)
CP
A Trip to Spain jazz singer Mildred Bailey. Throughout the film, compelling arguments are made for how Western forms of music incorporated the rhythms and vocal stylings of traditional Native American music. (New Mexican Randy Castillo began drumming as a child with a traditional instrument, and then memorably pounded the kit for Ozzy Osbourne’s band.) Performers (such as Buffy Sainte-Marie and The Band’s Robbie Robertson), music historians and others talk about how Native American contributions to popular music were often overlooked, not just because the industry often marginalizes those who are not white males, but because so many performers downplayed their ethnic heritage due to existing prejudices. Among those who didn’t were the 1970s group Redbone (“Come and Get Your Love”), who wore native-inspired costumes and miked the floor to do traditional foot-stomping dances. Starts Fri., Sept. 1. Hollywood (AH) A TRIP TO SPAIN. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon take another journey, this time through Spain, eating and conversing along the way. The Michael Winterbottom comedy continues the run of amusing travelogues begun with The Trip (2010) and The Trip to Italy (2014). Starts Fri., Sept. 1. Manor
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VALLEY OF BONES. A paleontologist gets a tip about a dig site in the Badlands from a recovering drug addict. But his ties to a drug cartel might ruin everything. Dan Glaser directs this drama. Starts Fri., Sept. 1
REPERTORY
ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS. David Bowie and his band busily epitomize the more theatrical strain of glam rock in this time capsule of a concert film, shot at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in 1973. D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary tracks Bowie and his adoring fans through 16 songs and six costume changes. The film captures the way Bowie is all business backstage, and on it, too: His seductive white-soul vocals complement a born showman’s smile that seems positively Anthony Newleyish in these post-punk days of scowling rockers. The stage show, too, now registers as somewhat bare and quaint, but the band crackles. And it’s hard to resist the sight of a posed, backlit Bowie, the plumage of his feather boa and red shag hairdo picked out in orange light against the black maw of the crowd. Midnight Sat., Sept. 2. Row House Cinema (BO)
DOLLAR BANK CINEMA IN THE PARK. Jason Bourne, Wed., Aug. 30 (Schenley Park: Flagstaff Hill). The BFG, Thu., Aug. 31 (Brookline). Films begin at dusk. Free. 412-255-2493 or www.citiparks.net RISKY BUSINESS. Paul Brickman directs this 1983 comedy about a teen (Tom Cruise, in Ray-Bans) who throws a big party when his parents are away. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Aug. 30. AMC Loews Waterfront. $5 A LIFE IN WAVES. Brett Whitcomb’s new documentary profiles the life and innovations of composer and electronic-music pioneer Suzanne Ciani. In the lobby before the film, check out vendors of electronic music, as well as synthesizer demos. Doors at 6:30 p.m.; screening at 7:30 p.m. Thu., Aug. 31. Hollywood DEAD OR ALIVE TRILOGY. Need a heady dose of
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“GUYS UNDERSTAND THEY’RE GOING TO NEED TO PLAY MULTIPLE POSITIONS TO HELP OUR TEAM.”
HISTORY LESSONS This week in Pittsburgh Sports History {BY CHARLIE DEITCH} AUG. 31, 1929 Pitcher and off-season speakeasy owner Heine Meine throws a three-hitter while Pie Traynor gets five of the Pirates’ 21 hits to beat the Chicago Cubs 15-0.
AUG. 31, 1952 Former Pirates shortstop Arky Vaughan, two years into retirement, drowns when the fishing boat he and a friend are operating overturns on Lost Lake in Eagleville, Calif.
Hack Wilson
SEPT. 1, 1890 The Pittsburgh Innocents and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms play major-league baseball’s first tripleheader — one of only three in MLB history. The Pirates, as the Innocents would later become known, played in the final one, against Cincinnati, on Oct. 2, 1920.
RE MO TOS PHOLINE. ON ww r at w ape
SEPT. 1, 1965 The Pirates sweep a doubleheader against the Dodgers, beating both Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
In the year of the epic Mark McGuire/ Sammy Sosa home-run derby, Sosa hits his 57th home run, moving past Ellwood City’s own Hack Wilson on the all-time home-run list.
SEPT. 5, 1969 Pirates pitcher Steve Blass not only pitches Pittsburgh past Chicago in a 9-2 win, he hits his first and only home run, plus three other base hits for good measure.
SEPT. 5, 2014 Steelers linebacker James Harrison retires from the NFL with an announcement at the Steelers’ South Side practice facility. If you want to see how that retirement went, turn to page 20 of this issue.
{BY JODY DIPERNA}
I
T’S 10 A.M., and it’s already Alabamahot on the soggy turf of the Beano Cook Fields at South Side’s Rooney Sports Complex. The morning downpour has recently abated, saving players, coaches and the five attending media members from weathering practice in a late-summer storm. Even so, it is positively terrariumlike, and the paunchy clouds are so low it feels claustrophobic. Young Thug’s “Tomorrow ’Til Infinity” blasts from the loudspeakers while players line up for flexibility and agility drills — the first official segment of practice open to the media. A few players are trying to work out cramps in what head coach Pat Narduzzi calls “camp legs” in the mini-PT/ triage unit adjacent to the field. Appropri-
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Pitt offensive tackle Brian O’Neil and his linemates will be a key part of the Panthers’ success this season.
PITT FOOTBALL PREVIEW
SEPT. 1, 1971 The Pirates become the first major-league team ever to start a lineup comprised only of minority players: Rennie Stennett (2B), Gene Clines (CF), Roberto Clemente (RF), Willie Stargell (LF), Manny Sanguillen (C), Dave Cash (3B), Al Oliver (1B), Jackie Hernandez (SS) and Dock Ellis (P).
SEPT. 4, 1998
{CP PHOTOS BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK}
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ately enough, Narduzzi had addressed this in his morning briefing, citing the need to push through mentally and physically: “This is the time teams would become great. Or, level off and just become an average football team.” Does this 2017 Pitt team have what it takes to be great? Or will it once again land in the dreaded “average” zone that Narduzzi dismissed? Last year’s Pitt Panthers had moments of real greatness — thrilling wins over national champion Clemson (the only loss the Tigers suffered) and blood-rival Penn State in the resurrection of a long-dormant but never extinct statewide enmity. On the other hand, the overall 8-5 record was disappointing and included heartbreaking losses
to Oklahoma State and an equally average University of North Carolina. With an electrifying offense averaging nearly 41 points per game, Pitt was rarely out of any contest. But with running back and local legend James Conner gone, along with quarterback Nate Peterson and several stand-out offensive linemen, this will be a largely new cast of characters. Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson replaces Matt Canada (who left to take the same job at LSU in the SEC), making this an entirely different team. Even if Watson can replicate or surpass that offensive creativity and opportunism, and even if redshirt senior QB Max Browne and running back Qadree Ollison can step into the big shoes left behind, the offensive
line may be key to it all. The Panthers are taking a unique approach to getting the “bigs” upfront ready to play. “Cross-training” is what Narduzzi and line coach John Peterson call it. There are seven players who could see snaps on the line, and all of them are practicing multiple positions. Mount Lebanon’s Alex Bookser has taken snaps at all five positions, for instance. And we could see Brian O’Neill, one of Pitt’s best O-lineman, at either right or left tackle. “It’s more of a collective feel in terms of leadership,” O’Neill said after practice. “But there’s a more focused group effort. I think guys understand they’re going to need to play multiple positions to help our team. That’s something we’ve worked on all summer, too. It’s not just something we’ve worked on this fall.” The team still has to address its biggest weakness: the defensive secondary. Last season, Pitt’s defense ranked 127 out of 128 Division I teams in passing yards allowed per game, and dead last in total completions permitted. Add in the three-game suspension of Jordan Whitehead, arguably the team’s best defensive back, for undisclosed violations of team policy, and it puts an even bigger question mark on the defensive secondary, particularly in that second game at Happy Valley. The defensive line and linebacking corps will likely be called upon to cover up a multitude of sins by the secondary by being disruptive in both schemes and timing. Sophomore Saleem Brightwell has moved from outside backer to inside, where he will be called upon to make the defensive calls and audibles. “I feel like our main strength is going to be flying to the ball and playing fast,”
Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi
Brightwell said of the defensive unit. The road won’t be easy. The Panthers’ schedule is positively riddled with landmines against ranked teams. Preseason rankings are fairly preposterous, but at the same time, these are traditionally powerful programs, teams which are, on paper at least, better than Pitt. Penn State is ranked sixth; Oklahoma State is 11th, Virginia Tech is 22nd, and Miami is 18th. But for now, those discussions seem far from this venue. After several hours of boilerplate drills in the late-August heat, some players dunk themselves in large Rubbermaid pools filled with water and ice just beyond the fence, while a good number sit on a bench under an awning away from the now-biting sun. An unlucky few are tossed to the media to give boilerplate answers to boilerplate questions. But Brightwell is telling the truth when he says, “I feel like we do have a chip on our shoulder and want to prove everybody wrong.” He is no fool. He knows that if Pitt is going to make the next step, from an average team to one that can at least contend in ACC, the defense will have to be better. I N F O @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M
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CLASSIFIEDS FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO PLACE A CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISEMENT, CALL 412-316-3342 EXT. 189
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OFFICIAL ADVERTISEMENT THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH
Sealed proposals shall be deposited at the Administration Building, Room 251, 341 South Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15213, on September 5, 2017, until 2:00 P.M., local prevailing time for the following:
Pittsburgh Obama 6-12 •New Storage Shed and Emergency Generator Installation •Electrical and General Primes Project Manual and Drawings are available for purchase on August 7, 2017 at Modern Reproductions (412-488-7700), 127 McKean Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15219 between 9:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. The cost of the Project Manual Documents is non-refundable. Project details and dates are described in each project manual.
Smokers Wanted The University of Pittsburgh’s Alcohol and Smoking Research Laboratory is seeking participants for a three-part research project. To participate, you must: • Currently smoke cigarettes • Be 18-55 years old, in good health, and speak fluent English • Be willing to fill out questionnaires, and to not smoke before two sessions.
Earn up to $150 for completing this study. We are an equal rights and opportunity school district. Parent Hotline: 412-622-7920 www.pps.k12.pa.us
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1. With 28-Down, surfing annoyances 6. Close pals, initially 10. BuzzFeed fodder 14. Team building 15. ___ Grey 16. Compulsion 17. Escargot piece 18. Get the hell out 19. Bit of sparkle 20. Christmastime rental 23. Capacity measure used in HVAC 24. Attention to detail 25. Yankee hurler Masahiro 29. “On the other hand ...” 30. Compass dir. 31. It’s got an electric motor 32. Embalmer’s subj. 35. Bourbon Street necklace (around Mardi Gras) 36. Jokey way to describe the food truck industry ... and a hint to this puzzle’s hidden theme 41. Painter Margaret who does “big-eyed waifs” 42. Nintendo platform 43. Relating to money 45. Afternoon timeout 47. NL team with
the most World Series wins, 11 50. He may make your skin crawl 51. ICU staff 52. Org. with range rovers? 53. Place for battle planning 56. “Like that’s gonna happen” 59. Scum 60. Do the honors, as in November (or October, if you’re Canadian) 61. Man of the hour 62. Bit of light reading? 63. Barq’s rival 64. Funk 65. Fuel-inefficient vehicles 66. Ancient poet
DOWN 1. Elapse 2. Very decorative 3. M&M variety 4. Condo building 5. Place for a king 6. Previously 7. “Keep dreaming!” 8. Stew over 9. Holmes, e.g. 10. Female with drones 11. Bitly result 12. Kroger rival 13. Religion that champions gardening 21. Homes for
hermanas y hombres 22. “Let me get back to you” 26. Diminishing sea 27. “___ these days!” 28. See 1-Across 33. Blackbird 34. TV show whose theme song is “Falling” 36. Israeli stateswoman Golda 37. Peace of mind 38. Someone up in a tree? 39. Jumped up 40. Celebrity chef Eddie whose autobiography was the basis for the TV show “Fresh
Off the Boat” 41. Bucket chain 44. Navigation systems 46. First film to show a flushing toilet 47. Edda writer Sturluson 48. Treasure amounts 49. Most corny 51. Second-incommand, in some states: Abbr. 54. Baseball family name 55. Narc’s attack 56. Vietnamese noodle soup 57. Gave victuals to 58. Do you might pick out {LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS}
FOR THE WEEK OF
Free Will Astrology
08.30-09.06
{BY ROB BREZSNY}
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the miraculous communication system that we know as the World Wide Web. When asked if he had any regrets about his pioneering work, he named just one. There was no need for him to have inserted the double slash — “//” — after the “http:” in web addresses. He’s sorry that internet users have had to type those irrelevant extra characters so many billions of times. Let this serve as a teaching story for you, Virgo. As you create innovations in the coming weeks, be mindful of how you shape the basic features. The details you include in the beginning may endure.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The sadness you feel might be the most fertile sadness you have felt in a long time. At least potentially, it has tremendous motivating power. You could respond to it by mobilizing changes that would dramatically diminish the sadness you feel in the coming years, and also make it less likely that sadness-provoking events will come your way. So I invite you to express gratitude for your current sadness. That’s the crucial first step if you want to harness it to work wonders.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Don’t hoot with the owls at night if you want to crow with the rooster in the morning,” advised Miss Georgia during the Miss Teen USA Pageant. Although that’s usually good counsel, it may not apply to you in the coming weeks. Why? Because your capacity for revelry will be at an all-time high, as will your ability to be energized rather than drained by your revelry. It seems you have a special temporary superpower that enables you both to have maximum fun and get a lot of work done.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
authorities decreed that as punishment, none of his descendants could ever wed a member of the Cohen tribe. But Hadad did just that, which prompted rabbis to declare her union with Masoud Cohen illegal. I bring this tale to your attention as a way to illustrate the possibility that you, too, may soon have to deal with the consequences of past events. But now that I have forewarned you, I expect you will act wisely, not rashly. You will pass a tricky test and resolve the old matter for good.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Want to live to be 100? Then be as boring as possible. That’s the conclusion of longevity researchers, as reported by the Weekly World News. To ensure a maximum life span, you should do nothing that excites you. You should cultivate a neutral, blah personality, and never travel far from home. JUST KIDDING! I lied. The Weekly World News is in fact a famous purveyor of fake news. The truth, according to my analysis of the astrological omens, is that you should be less boring in the next seven weeks than you have ever been in your life. To do so will be superb for your health, your wealth and your future.
During this phase of your astrological cycle, it makes sense to express more leadership. If you’re already a pretty good guide or role model, you will have the power to boost your benevolent influence to an even higher level. For inspiration, listen to educator Peter Drucker: “Leadership is not magnetic personality. That can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people.’ That is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, raising a person’s performance to a higher standard, building a personality beyond its normal limitations.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
“One should always be a little improbable,” said Oscar Wilde. That’s advice I wouldn’t normally give a Capricorn. You thrive on being grounded and straightforward. But I’m making an exception now. The astrological omens compel me. So what does it mean, exactly? How might you be “improbable”? Here are suggestions to get you started. 1. Be on the lookout for inspiring ways to surprise yourself. 2. Elude any warped expectations that people have of you. 3. Be willing to change your mind. Open yourself up to evidence that contradicts your theories and beliefs. 4. Use telepathy to contact Oscar Wilde in your dreams, and ask him to help you stir up some benevolent mischief or compassionate trouble.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A modern Israeli woman named Shoshana Hadad got into trouble because of an event that occurred long before she was born. In 580 B.C., one of her male ancestors married a divorced woman, which at that time was regarded as a sin. Religious
“We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems,” said businessman Lee Iacocca. You are currently wrestling with an example of this phenomenon, Aries. The camouflage is well rendered. To expose the opportunity hidden beneath the apparent dilemma, you may have to be more strategic and less straightforward than you usually are — cagier and not as blunt. Can you manage that? I think so. Once you crack the riddle, taking advantage of the opportunity should be interesting. Close your eyes and imagine this: You and a beloved ally get lost in an enchanted forest, discover a mysterious treasure, and find your way back to civilization just before dark. Now visualize this: You give a dear companion a photo of your face taken on every one of your birthdays, and the two of you spend hours talking about your evolution. Picture this: You and an exciting accomplice luxuriate in a sun-lit sanctuary surrounded by gourmet snacks as you listen to ecstatic music and bestow compliments on each other. These are examples of the kinds of experiments I invite you to try in the coming weeks. Dream up some more! Here’s a keynote to inspire you: sacred fun.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
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CANCER (June 21-July 22): Author Roger von Oech tells us that creativity often involves “the ability to take something out of one context and put it into another so that it takes on new meanings.” According to my analysis of the astrological omens, this strategy could and should be your specialty in the coming weeks. “The first person to look at an oyster and think food had this ability,” says von Oech. “So did the first person to look at sheep intestines and think guitar strings. And so did the first person to look at
a perfume vaporizer and think gasoline carburetor.” Be on the lookout, Cancerian, for inventive substitutions and ingenious replacements.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): When famous socialite Nan Kempner was young, her mother took her shopping at Yves Saint Laurent’s salon. Nan got fixated on a certain white satin suit, but her mean old mother refused to buy it for her. “You’ve already spent too much of your monthly allowance,” mom said. But the resourceful girl came up with a successful gambit. She broke into sobs, and continued to cry nonstop until the store’s clerks lowered the price to an amount she could afford. You know me, Leo: I don’t usually recommend resorting to such extreme measures to get what you want. But now is one time when I am giving you a go-ahead to do just that. Send news of your favorite mystery — an enigma that is both maddening and delightful. Freewillastrology.com
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On its album Jefferson’s Tree of Liberty, Jefferson Starship plays a song I co-wrote, “In a Crisis.” On its album Deeper Space/Virgin Sky, the band covers another tune I co-wrote, “Dark Ages.” Have I received a share of the record sales? Not a penny. Am I upset? Not at all. I’m glad the songs
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are being heard and enjoyed. I’m gratified that a world-famous, multi-platinum band chose to record them. I’m pleased my musical creations are appreciated. Now here’s my question for you, Gemini: Has some good thing of yours been “borrowed”? Have you wielded a benevolent influence that hasn’t been fully acknowledged? I suggest you consider adopting an approach like mine. It’s prime time to adjust your thinking about how your gifts and talents have been used, applied or translated.
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Savage Love {BY DAN SAVAGE}
My brother just broke up with his girlfriend for the second time in eight months. They had been together for twoand-a-half years, and she became pretty discontented when she finished college and my brother entered law school, because all his time and attention weren’t revolving around her. In January, she staged this bizarre, soap-opera-esque situation to make my brother jealous, and then broke up with him when he reacted predictably. (This is not speculation — she admitted to it.) After the breakup, my brother became a mess of a person — sobbing all the time and talking about her to anyone and everyone. At the risk of sounding insensitive, he was unbearable. Then, against the advice of my family, he started talking to her again, and they got back together. The second breakup came after he snooped and found out she had been texting her ex-boyfriend. She was telling that guy that she was trying to line up her next boyfriend while still dating my brother. They broke up again, and he’s now back in the same situation. He started back at school yesterday. He almost fucked that up last time because of her bullshit, and I don’t want to see that happen again. Additionally, I feel bad this happened — I really do — but I don’t have the time or patience to have the same conversation with him a million times. It’s exhausting and annoying. NOW OVER BROTHER’S RELATIONSHIP OBSESSION
wasting another minute of my life discussing her with you. So how about Jon Snow getting out that frozen lake full of zombies, huh? Apparently hypothermia isn’t a thing in the Seven Kingdoms.” My ex-boyfriend and I were together for a year and a half. He is a silver fox who is significantly older than me. I was 23 when we met, and he was 58. It was supposed to be a fling, but it evolved into a beautiful romance. But after much consideration (he has a vasectomy and already has four kids and will be retiring soon), we ended it three months ago. It was heartbreaking, but we made a conscious decision to be close friends and talk every day. Out of the blue last week, he asked me if I had a boyfriend. I don’t, but I was coincidentally about to go on my first date since the breakup. He proceeded to tell me he “kinda” has a new girlfriend, a woman closer to his age. This was not something I wanted to hear, which he could tell from the silence that met this disclosure. This conversation ruined my weekend. I have been unable to eat or sleep. The guy I went on a date with was sexy — not a love connection, but a bangtown prospect — but I was too emotionally fucked to do anything with him. Do I explain these thoughts to my ex? Let time do the healing? Why did my ex feel the need to tell me about his new girlfriend?
“YOU NEED TO GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE — AND GETTING ON THAT NEW GUY IS A GOOD PLACE TO START.”
Your brother is an adult. (I mean, presumably he’s an adult — they’re not letting minors into law school these days, are they?) And since he’s an adult, NOBRO, you can’t stop him from making terrible choices or the same terrible choice over and over again. But here’s the good news, NOBRO: You’re an adult, too! And just as you can’t force your brother to stay away from this toxic POS, your brother can’t force you to converse with him all day long about politics or his POS ex or Game of Thrones turning into Star Trek. (Suddenly, only characters we don’t care about die on GoT. I half expect to see red shirts on the extras in Season 7.) And if your brother makes the mistake of getting back together with this woman a second time, your adult ears don’t have to listen to his adult ass complain endlessly about the by-now-predictable consequences of his terrible choices. If you’re feeling anxious about conversations you fear being dragged into, NOBRO, let your brother know you’re done listening to him sob about his ex. “It was idiotic to take her back the first time,” you could say. “But, hey, we all do idiotic things from time to time, particularly where our love lives are concerned. You would have to be an idiot, however, to take her back a second time. Personally, bro, I don’t think you should waste another second of your life pining for that manipulative piece of shit. I’m definitely not
HEARTBROKEN OVER NEW EX’S YUMMY
Your ex told you about his new girlfriend because you two are close friends, right? And close friends typically confide in each other about their love lives, don’t they? And that’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Backing up: It’s always inspiring when two people manage to salvage a friendship after their romantic relationship ends. But it’s not possible — it’s certainly not on anyone’s list of breakup best practices — to go in an instant from lovers to besties who talk on the phone every day. You got your heart broken, HONEY, and only time can cauterize that particular wound. Your reaction to the news that your ex has a new girlfriend proves your post-breakup friendship wasn’t a “conscious decision,” but an ill-advised rush. And while the physical aspect of your relationship with Mr. Silver Fox ended three months ago, you never got out of each other’s pants emotionally. (A bruised ego might also be contributing to your inability to eat or sleep — he got over you faster than you got over him.) I don’t think you should explain anything to your ex right now, HONEY, because I don’t think you should talk to your ex for the next six months or so. You need to get on with your life — and getting on that new guy is a good place to start. On the Lovecast, parents, talk smart to your kids about sex: 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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YOUTH LEADER {BY MICHAEL BERCIK}
I FIRST MET Charles “Chuck” Senft in 1989, at the Brookline Recreational Center. I’d always had an interest in boxing, and Chuck ran the Brookline Boxing Club, better known as “Charlie’s Angels.” Chuck’s years of coaching in Brookline convinced me that the athletes’ well-being was a priority, and that his gym was the place to be in the Pittsburgh amateur boxing scene. But Chuck wasn’t involved only in boxing. He also loved football, and had played at the North Side’s Allegheny High School. Even that’s only a small part of his story, though. Through his work in Pittsburgh’s Citiparks department beginning in 1955, Chuck became an important part of his community by coaching and working with area youth, especially those who were troubled; there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for a child. Chuck Senft died on July 26, 2016, at the age of 83. And though he’s been gone a year, his loss to the community is still felt, and his memory and legacy deserve to be celebrated not only because of what he accomplished, but because of the type of man he was. As a young man, Chuck dropped out of school to help support his mother, Martha, and siblings. In 1952, he married Rozella. At the age of 19, Chuck joined the army and served until 1955. Upon returning home, Chuck sought a job with Citiparks. Chuck was a perfect fit for the department because of both his athletic and coaching abilities. Seeing his talent for coaching and working with youth, Chuck’s superiors assigned him in 1958 to Brookline’s rough-and-tumble Moore Park. Chuck struggled daily for his own physical survival as well as to maintain discipline and control at Moore Park.
Maybe it was because of his time in the service as an army physicalfitness instructor, but Chuck always wanted people to act as a single unit, a single team. He applied that philosophy to the community centers he ran and the teams he coached. There were three fundamental elements to Chuck’s success as a leader and coach. He treated everybody the same; he let his athletes, especially his boxers, know that he was looking out for their safety and well being; and, finally, no cliques were tolerated. Chuck believed that all of his athletes would work and accomplish everything as a team. Although Chuck is gone and he is missed, his legacy continues to live on in the community, especially through those whom he coached and mentored.
HIS LEGACY LIVES ON IN THE COMMUNITY. “It was the first time that I encountered the growing drug, drinking and social problems that were developing in the South Hills and at our centers,” Chuck said in an interview published on brooklineconnection.com, a website dedicated to preserving the community’s history. “This was a real challenge.” Chuck once told me of rescuing a young child who was encircled by five older youths. How much of an impact did that gesture have on the boy? He would send Chuck a Father’s Day card every year until Chuck’s death in remembrance of this act of fatherly deliverance. There were days when Chuck would routinely disarm street toughs of their weapons and go home tired, bruised and sore. Regardless of what the day was like, however, you could be sure of one thing; Chuck always showed up the next day just as committed to coaching and caring for our young people as he had been the day before. Chuck wasn’t the only dedicated Senft, however. Without the support and patience of Rozella and their daughter, Terry, he never would have been successful. Their home was besieged by countless calls from people with questions about center activities, especially boxing. I have to admit, I was one of these frequent callers.
One of those people is boxer Robert “Muscles” Healy. Because of Chuck’s influence, Healy operates his own boxing gym in South Park, where he utilizes Chuck’s coaching techniques and philosophy. Healy says Chuck helped him at a critical time in his life. Healy’s parents divorced when he was very young, and he found refuge at the Brookline Recreation Center. Healy says he looked at Chuck Senft as a true father figure and never wanted to disappoint the man. Former Pittsburgh City Councilor and state Rep. Michael Diven says, “Chuck gave Brookline an identity as a community.” Jack Conway, who runs the Bronson House boxing gym in Washington, Pa., wasn’t actually a member of the Brookline Boxing Club, but Chuck allowed him to train at the rec center. “Chuck could have kicked me out of the gym at any time.” When we lost Chuck Senft a year ago, we didn’t just lose a dedicated public servant; we lost a part of our community’s heart. Chuck could have easily spent his decades as a public employee doing just enough to get by, marking his time until retirement. But he didn’t do that. He didn’t do anything close to that. Here’s hoping that more public servants follow in Chuck’s footsteps. Although those are some mighty big shoes to fill. I N F O@ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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