Jan. 10, 2018 - Pittsburgh City Paper by Pittsburgh City Paper

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

The

2018

SPIRIT KING of

Award Ceremony

This annual award honors lifetime achievement in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Port Authority is proud to present Katie Everette-Johnson as the 2018 Spirit of King honoree. The ceremony takes place Thursday, January 11th 10:00 am at The Kingsley Center, 6435 Frankstown Avenue.

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CITIZEN POLICE REVIEW BOARD The following calendar maintains the tradition of meeting at 6:00 P.M. on the FOURTH TUESDAY of every calendar month except as noted. The several meetings proposed for Council Chambers attempt to respond to the public recommendation that meeting at a centralized location may encourage increased public attendance

JAN

COUN NCIL CHAM MBE ERS S

23 2018

510 CITY - COUNTY BUILDING 414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (412) 255-2142 office

FEB

COUN NCIL CHAM MBE ERS S

27 2018

510 CITY - COUNTY BUILDING 414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (412) 255-2142 office

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PERSAD CE ENT TER R

27 2018

5301 Butler Street, #100 Pittsburgh, PA 15201 (412) 441-9786

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COUN NCIL CHAM MBE ERS S

24 2018

510 CITY - COUNTY BUILDING 414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (412) 255-2142 office

MAY

COUN NCIL CHAM MBE ERS S

22 2018

414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (412) 255-2142 office

JUN

26 2018

510 CITY - COUNTY BUILDING

CARN NEGIE LIBR RARY Y OF PITT TSBURG GH | SQUIRR REL HILL L 5801 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 (412) 422-9650

C OUNC CIL CH HAMBERS JAN 510 CITY - COUNTY BUILDING

23 2018

24 2018

COM MBIN NED WITH SEPTEM MBE ER

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23 2018

AUG

C OUNC CIL CH HAMBERS JAN 510 CITY - COUNTY BUILDING

SEP

414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (412) 255-2142 office

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

2018

23 2018

25 2018

B ANKS SVILLE E PARK JAN Crane Avenue and Carnahan Road

OCT

414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (412) 255-2142 office

23 2018

COM MBIN NED WITH DECEM MBER R

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CO OUNC CIL CH HAMBERS JAN 510 CITY - COUNTY BUILDING

DEC

Pittsburgh, PA 15220 (412) 255-2370

23 2018

414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (412) 255-2142 office

The public will be notified of any change of date or location through media publication. For Further Information: 412-765-8023

JUL

CONFIDENTIAL TIPLINE: 412-255-CPRB

2018

04 2018

Life is better with friends. 01.10/01.17.2018 VOLUME 28 + ISSUE 02

[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 EMILY BENNETT, JAKE MYSLIWCZYK, LAUREN ORTEGO

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{CP COVER PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK}

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“SO THEY’RE BARGAINING ON BEHALF OF THE RESIDENTS, YET NOT PROVIDING TRANSPARENCY.”

www.pghcitypaper.com

Last week marked the start of Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s second term. Check out our photos from the inauguration at www.pghcitypaper.com.

Last year, City Paper took you to the sky with intern Jake Mysliwczyk’s #AbovePittsburgh drone photography series. Check out a video compilation of the footage at www.pghcitypaper.com.

CP is part of ProPublica’s Documenting Hate project aimed at collecting reports of hate crimes and bias incidents. If you’ve been a victim or a witness, tell us your story at www.pghcitypaper.com.

{CP PHOTO BY JOHN COLOMBO}

Mayor Bill Peduto at his Jan. 3 inauguration

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N OCTOBER 2016, as Mayor Bill Peduto was approaching the final year of his first term, the city’s Department of Innovation and Performance debuted a new app called Burgh’s Eye View. The app is an interactive map that displays different city-related data sets: 311 requests (non-emergency municipal services like reporting graffiti), building permits, code violations, public-safety incidents, arrests, city assets, and public records on property in the city. Last summer, the app was listed as “one of the top ten data applications in the world” by WeGo, an international organization that promotes resources for smart cities. Burgh’s Eye View is one of the many transparency initiatives Peduto has launched since taking office in 2014.

During his campaign, improving government transparency and accountability had been top priorities, in stark contrast to his notoriously tight-lipped predecessor,

Mayor Peduto promised transparency and accountability. Did his first term deliver? {BY ALEX GORDON} Luke Ravenstahl. But while transparency and accountability are charming political talking-points, it was unclear exactly how mayor-elect Peduto would live up to those goals. In hi s first year as mayor, Peduto

clariﬁed his intentions by establishing the Department of Innovation and Performance. That department, which had a total 2017 budget of $10,381,964, was created to “foster technology innovation in city government and the broader community, and facilitate efﬁcient and effective city services by supporting data-driven decision making and continuous process improvement.” While such efforts have earned their fair share of praise, critics wonder whether these accomplishments have amounted to more than good PR. Some feel the technological achievements are undercut by instances where the administration has been less than transparent. These modernization efforts are impressive, but are they actually helping CONTINUES ON PG. 08

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

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citizens? Is it true accessibility, or just the appearance of it? How far has the city actually come? Exploring the story of how Pittsburgh brought its digital presence into the 21st century reveals a complicated picture of an administration making strides in modernization, while falling short in other areas. THE CITY’S open-data efforts began in

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earnest in 2015, when the DIP partnered with Allegheny County and the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research to establish the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, a platform for sharing city data with Pittsburgh’s citizens. While the platform was dynamic and detailed, the Data Center struggled to get the information to the general public “beyond a handful of researchers and civic-data enthusiasts,” Mayor Peduto wrote at the time. Building the Burgh’s Eye View app was a way to present the data to Pittsburghers in a more accessible, coherent package. The next step was bringing the city website out of the dark ages. “When we took office in 2014, it was a 1990s website. It was definitely a couple generations behind where you expect a city like Pittsburgh to be,” says Laura Meixell, assistant director of DIP. “There were tens of thousands of pages on the old website. They just never deleted anything. If at some point in 2002, one of the rec centers was closed for a day due to a water leak or something, we still had a web page about it in 2013.” In August, the city launched a new official website stacked with additional resources: tools to book city facilities,

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access to budgets dating back every year to 1996 (and even a few from earlier decades), applications for city jobs, snowplow tracking and many, many more. Done in-house at DIP in less than two years, the redesign took a clean, if a bit trendy, approach to decluttering the site. The images are bigger; there are fewer links scattered across the margins; the fonts are more readable. A search bar asking “what can we find for you?” sits front and center on the landing page. (Meixell jokes that a surprisingly large number of visitors use this feature to find Penguins tickets.) Scrolling farther down, you’ll see a grid of 24 apps represented with cute, clearly designed logos. There’s one for interactive crime reports (represented by a siren), one for city council’s meeting schedule (a calendar), one for the city’s collection of contracts, called “open book” (an open book). Some are a little insider-baseball, like those labeled CAFR or PAFR (comprehensive annual finance reports and popular annual financial reports, respectively). The new website is impressive. But

Meixell says the administration’s biggest first-term accomplishment is Burgh’s Eye View. Since launching, the app now has more than 30,000 active users. Compiled from info from the Data Center, Burgh’s Eye View was built to provide frequently requested data directly to citizens, such as property assessments and car-crash data. It’s ideal for mobile (the app, like the website, was designed mobile-ﬁrst) and is updated every night. “Data is only as good as it is fresh,” Meixell says. The map shows the city dotted with different kinds of icons, which was initially intimidating and hard to view. Thanks to an update last summer, the data points were itemized into three types of information: places (bridges, libraries, etc.), parcels (property data) and points (311 requests, arrests, ﬁres, code violations). There are a number of areas cited by the DIP where these statistics have been, or are in the process of, being used for actual changes on the ground. One example is related to the opioid crisis. Zan Dodson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pittsburgh’s

JENSORENSEN

School of Public Health, used data on the concentration of opioid-related arrests to see which areas could use more “clean needle exchanges, Narcan kits, and readily available medical aid,” according to a DIP blog post from October. Similarly, the RAND Corporation is using city data sets like blighted properties and public-safety statistics to get a more comprehensive picture of inequality in Pittsburgh. Using these indicators, RAND will give Pittsburgh its first “equality score” in 2018. So far, this work might address the issues only in a research context, but Meixell says the app is regularly used by government departments for boots-onthe-ground changes as well. This includes improving bike safety, reducing blight, and identifying areas of inequality in the city. Still, criticisms of this administration’s claim of transparency have lingered throughout its first four years. Many have questioned whether the administration is leaning on flashy new technology to give the appearance of accessibility and transparency, without actually delivering. In 2015, Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, told City Paper, “I think you have to go give kudos to [Peduto for]

being more open than his predecessor. But that was a pretty low bar.” Concerns early in Peduto’s term focused on the city’s response to a policebrutality case at PrideFest in 2014, in which an officer was accused of using excessive force on a teenage girl. The administration promised a quick investigation via an outside firm, but exonerated the officer almost three months later, without releasing video evidence of the altercation. Another early controversy involved Peduto failing to disclose the sources of donations given as part of his appearance on the TV show Undercover Boss, in 2015. “He’s done things that give him all the appearances of ‘I desire and am attempting to provide transparency,’ [...] but in reality that’s not what’s happening,” Gerald Shuster, a communications professor at the University of Pittsburgh, told CP in 2015. Most recently, criticism of Peduto’s administration has focused on the city’s bid for Amazon’s HQ2. In November, the city rejected nonprofit news organization

PublicSource’s Right To Know request to access Pittsburgh’s pitch. Though many other cities bidding for HQ2 released their pitches to the public, the city defended the rejection by saying that it had signed a non-disclosure agreement with private developers in its pitch. Some considered that explanation a way of passing the buck. “The only entities that such [non-disclosure] agreements harm are the taxpayers and the residents,” says Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner. “So, they’re bargaining on behalf of the residents, yet not providing transparency.” “[W]hen you look at some of our largest and most impactful issues in the city, I don’t believe that the rhetoric always matches up with the actions,” says Wagner. “So, to say that you can see where a snow plow is, but you can’t see the agreement with Amazon, I think that’s something that is very telling.” The administration’s handling of the Amazon pitch might not ﬁt in with a wholly transparent government. A different question is whether the tools implemented in Peduto’s ﬁrst term are

“DATA IS ONLY AS GOOD AS IT IS FRESH.”

actually helping citizens. Are citizens using the website and its apps? Do they even know they exist? According to Meixell, the new website has received more than 700,000 unique page views since launching last summer. Those numbers are difﬁcult to contextualize, because citizens wouldn’t need individual tools on a daily basis, but it shows that these resources are being put to use. And Meixell said outreach for new users is an ongoing process. (The DIP has arranged more than 350 outreach meetings since the launch of the Data Center, including via partnerships with Carnegie Libraries to reach populations with less access to internet and computers). As Mayor Peduto begins his second term, critics will continue to scrutinize whether his administration is living up to its vow of transparency and accountability, and whether the technological innovations are delivering what they promised. For Meixell and the DIP, the next four years will be about employing existing data to affect actual change on the ground. “That’s a corner that we feel we turned a little bit ago,” says Meixell. “That’s deﬁnitely where we want to go.” A L E X G ORD ON @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM

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I think it’s a genuinely a more effective way of communicating.

City Paper talks sex- and body-positivity with two sex-industry insiders

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH STIS IN YOUR WORK OR TALKING TO THOSE THAT ARE OR MAY BE AFFECTED BY THEM?

{BY CELINE ROBERTS} ZL: I like to disclose that I had three falsepositive HIV tests and two false-positive hepatitis tests in my lifetime. I’ve lived periods of my life where I thought there was a decent chance I was HIV-positive. In reality, the only STI I’ve ever had is gonorrhea, and I was only ever having protected sex, literally even protected blowjobs, because this was after my ﬁrst two scares. Still got gonorrhea. You’re truly never safe. ... Every sex act is different and with varying risk level, but it’s all risky. It’s no reason to be abstinent though. My best advice is to go about it the way you have a conversation with [a potential sex partner] about it. How do they talk about it? Are they comfortable? Are they defensive?

LAWRENCEVILLE lingerie shop Calligramme

just celebrated its third anniversary on Dec. 13, and owner Marissa Vogel wanted to mark the occasion by starting a sex- and body-positive speaking series in the shop, called Let’s Talk About Sex. The inaugural talk featured two young people who are working for positive change in the sex industry from the inside. Zoë Ligon, the self-proclaimed Duchess of Dildos, is a sex educator, journalist and porn collage artist based in Detroit who is also CEO of sex shop Spectrum Boutique, and uses she/her pronouns. Tatiana Farfan-Narcisse, a Pittsburgh-based musician, artist and sex worker, uses they/them pronouns. Ligon is currently working on a collaboration with Calligramme, where Farfan-Narcisse is an employee. City Paper sat down with both to talk sex, safety and the self.

Tatiana Farfan-Narcisse modeling lingerie, left, and Zoë Ligon, right

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX 7 p.m. Sat., Jan. 13, at Calligramme, Lawrenceville. The topic is Kink and Power Exchange Relationships. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/calligramme.us/

HOW CAN PEOPLE SUPPORT THE MOVEMENT TOWARD GENDER NEUTRALITY/GENDER FLUIDITY/ NON-BINARY WITH YOUNGER PEOPLE AND THEIR SEX EDUCATION? TFN: I think about that pretty often as someone who is gender-ﬂuid and orientation-ﬂuid. Growing up, I didn’t realize that I was non-binary until I really knew there was a language for it. These are things I’ve felt my entire life. People think it’s a new thing, that it’s an internet trend. Nonbinary and trans people have been around since ancient civilizations. As far as informing younger people, I feel like just talking about it and having it being known. It’s as simple as giving kids the

opportunity to know that they dictate whatever it is that they are. For people who are older, I think including [gender diversity] in porn, ’cause I know with me, my sexual exploration came largely from watching porn, and this was the early 2000s, so it was very straight. We have so much stuff out there right now, and it makes me tingle just knowing that there’s things out there for trans people. That they’re just included, and it’s not a weird separation like a kink, because it’s been there but as a fetishized category.

ZL: Everything is a spectrum. Obviously, the name of my business is Spectrum, but it truly boils down to sexuality itself. Some of us are asexual and in-between. It’s the same with vulva and a penis, and that’s exactly why I don’t gender the toys. I think it does a better job of representing the whythey-are-used. Instead of saying a “clitoral stimulator,” the clit is an homologous body part to the head of a penis. While we call these visual conﬁgurations of ﬂesh different names, there are so many people who also have what maybe a doctor would visually say is a penis, but they don’t call that their penis. I don’t think it makes sense to say, “This is for a penis, this is for a vulva.” ... It’s so easy to remove the [gender] assignments of things and, in the end,

TFN: If I could tell anything to any younger person, it’s “be fucking safe with your body, especially if you’re seeing multiple partners.” Be respectful of yourself and your partners and disclose and communicate. When you get to having fun, that’s not always your ﬁrst priority, but that’s what I want people to know. Have your good, sexy loose fun, but please, please communicate. Being sexual with other people is such a vulnerable, wonderful thing and people make it so ugly when they withhold information. You shouldn’t be shunned and shamed if you have an STI, but just be honest. It’s this bullshit [cultural] idea of purity and cleanliness, and it sets a negative connotation with things that are just normal. They happen so much to so many people and it’s not going to ruin your life.

“EVERYTHING IS A SPECTRUM.”

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[PITTSBURGH LEFT]

TIME TO POLITICALLY WHACK STACK {BY CHARLIE DEITCH} IN AN ONLINE City Paper piece published

Jan. 3, I did something that I never thought would ever happen — I wrote a column agreeing with Republican state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, a.k.a. the Supreme Leader Snoke of the Pennsylvania House. Metcalfe had sent a surprisingly wellreasoned letter to Gov. Tom Wolf asking Wolf to release the results of an investigation into the way Lt. Gov. Mike Stack and his wife allegedly verbally abused state employees, including state police officers who were assigned to them, and their staff at the lieutenant governor’s state-owned residence. Among the allegations were that the Stacks would get profanely belligerent when officers refused to activate the vehicle’s emergency lights and siren, so that the couple could move through traffic more quickly. Wolf asked for the Office of Investigator General to look into myriad complaints against Stack. Last spring, when the investigation was ordered, Wolf said that he’d consider releasing it. But while the initial report was finished in early December, Wolf has declined to release it, partly because Stack’s wife is being treated for a mental-health issue. “I’m not gonna release it,” Wolf told reporters. “My concern back in the summer was to make sure the employees, police officers, the staff of the residence were safe and were not in a bad job situation.” He said he saw the release of the report as “piling on.” But Metcalfe said the governor’s move smells of politics. “Your recent decision to not release this important report into inappropriate behavior by an elected official is inexplicable and unacceptable. You have chosen to release reports conducted by the inspector general in the past, such as the report regarding the investigation into the State Police Academy cadets. As the lieutenant governor is a public figure, this information is relevant to the taxpayers, voters and citizens of the Commonwealth. ... Your administration has claimed that ‘transparent government that works’ is a priority, but this decision makes it appear that your priorities may be more appropriately labeled ‘secretive government that works for me.’ It should be routine practice to release inspector general reports, instead of selecting which reports you find convenient to al-

low the public to access,” Metcalfe wrote. You know what? The little weasel is right. Now, to be clear, Metcalfe, being a backward, right-wing troll, is only playing this up for political benefit. If the shoe were on the other foot and it was Tom Corbett or Mike Turzai doing the same thing, Metcalfe would find some reason to support the move. Still, he and every other Republican running in a state race should be using this against Democratic candidates because the party’s support of Stack is an embarrassment. Stack has decided to run for re-election despite the large-scale shit show he created by failing to act like a decent human being. This is a campaign issue, and a decision to not release this report does smell of political gamesmanship. The day after Wolf’s decision, several Democratic members of the state Senate endorsed Stack. Pittsburgh’s own Jay Costa was among them, saying, “Nobody has been a stronger advocate for democratic ideals than Lt. Gov. Mike Stack. ... He’s ready to continue to do the job and, more importantly, he’s ready to be called upon, if ever needed, to do the position of governor if that occurs.” This may be one of the most ridiculous endorsements I’ve ever heard. Stack will face at least five Democratic challengers, including local candidates Aryanna Berringer, of Murrysville, and Braddock Mayor John Fetterman. It might have served those senators well to hear from these challengers before backing a controversial candidate. The 2018 midterms are supposed to be a huge pivot-point for Democrats. Donald Trump has screwed up so many things in his first year and has already shown in Alabama that his ability to get Republicans elected is compromised. But instead of backing candidates with character, Dems are rallying around a man who completely lacks common sense and control. If 2017 taught Dems one lesson, it should have been that the public no longer accepts seriously flawed candidates lacking character and common sense. The Democratic Party and Gov. Tom Wolf need to realize that before it’s too late.

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S SUPPORT OF MIKE STACK IS AN EMBARRASSMENT.

NEWS

CD EI TC H @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M

Editor’s note: Portions of this article ran online Jan. 3 at www.pghcitypaper.com.

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When 5-year-old TyLon Pittman of Byram, Miss., saw the Grinch stealing Christmas on Dec. 16 on TV, he did what any civic-minded citizen would do. He called 911. TyLon told Byram police officer Lauren Develle, who answered the call, that he did not want the Grinch to come steal his Christmas, reported the Clarion Ledger. Develle made TyLon an honorary junior officer and had him come down to the station on Dec. 18 to help her lock away the Grinch, who hung his head as TyLon asked him, “Why are you stealing Christmas?” Although the green fiend apologized, TyLon wouldn’t release him from the holding cell. Police chief Luke Thompson told TyLon to come back when he’s 21, “and I’m going to give you a job application, OK?”

In Gilgandra, New South Wales, Australia, on Nov. 29, sheep-shearer Casey Barnes was tramping down wool, and her father and boyfriend were working nearby, when her long, curly hair became caught in a belt-driven motor. Horrifically, the motor ripped her scalp off from the back of her head to above her eyes and ears. Barnes was flown to Sydney, where doctors performed an emergency 20-hour surgery to save her scalp, but were ultimately unsuccessful. Barnes will have artificial skin attached to her head instead, reports The Sun. A GoFundMe page has been established to help with her medical bills.

The Tea Terrace in London is offering a new way for customers to enjoy themselves — literally. On Dec. 16, the shop began selling the “Selfieccino,” an image of the customer’s face in the frothy topping of either a cappuccino or a hot chocolate. Patrons send a photo to the shop via an online messaging app, and the “Cino” machine takes it from there, reproducing the picture with flavorless food coloring in about four minutes. “Due to social media,” shop-owner Ehab Salem Shouly told Reuters, “the dining experience has completely shifted. It’s not enough anymore to just deliver great food and great service — it’s got to be Instagram-worthy.”

Pam Bisanti, a 31-year resident of Mount Dora, Fla., has approached the city council more than once about the speeding traffic along Clayton Street, where she lives. On Nov. 27, Bisanti made good on her threat to take matters into her own hands if the council didn’t by wielding a handmade sign reading “SLOW DOWN” as she stood next to the roadway during rush hour wearing her pajamas and robe. “The mothers up the street who send their kids down to the bus stop should have every expectation that those kids will be able to cross Clayton without being killed,” Bisanti told the Daily Commercial, saying she plans to continue her protest until the city takes action. “I am frustrated, angry and fed up. There needs to

be a solution sooner than later. Remember that vision of me in my pajamas,” she added.

Melissa Allen, 32, was arrested on Dec. 19 after attempting to shoplift more than $1,000 in merchandise from a Framingham, Mass., Target store, reported the Boston Globe. On hand to help in the arrest were more than 50 police officers who were at the store to participate in the annual “Shop With a Cop” holiday charity event.

Stephen Allen of Tukwila, Wash., moved in with his grandmother years ago to help care for her. When she died last year, he invited his brother, a convicted drugdealer, to move in, but along with him came drug activity, squatters, stolen property and debris. Allen eventually asked police to raid the home, but when they did on Dec. 15, they evicted Allen as well, leaving him homeless. “It’s all legal, but it’s wrong,” Allen told KIRO-7 News. “I can’t do anything about it.”

Tracy Hollingsworth Stephens, 50, of Alachua, Fla., answered nature’s call on Nov. 25 by stopping her car in the middle of County Road 232 and stepping outside. An officer of the Florida Highway Patrol soon took notice as he had been searching for Stephens following her involvement in a two-car collision in the parking lot of a nearby T.J. Maxx store earlier that day. Stephens subsequently underperformed on a field sobriety test, according to The Independent Florida Alligator, and was arrested for driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.

Workers at Captain Hiram’s Sandbar in Sebastian, Fla., resorted to calling police on Nov. 17 when customer William Antonio Olivieri, 63, refused to leave the bar after a night of drinking. Olivieri told Sebastian police he had arrived by boat, but when a quick walk down a nearby dock failed to uncover the boat, he said perhaps he had driven himself to the bar in a black Hyundai. Throughout the interview with police, reported the Sebastian Daily, Olivieri also maintained that he was in downtown Melbourne, Fla., where he lives. Finally, he was arrested on a charge of disorderly intoxication and taken to the Indian River County Jail.

Sumter County, Fla., sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to The Villages on Nov. 19 where resident Lori Jo Matthews, 60, reportedly barked at her neighbor’s dogs, then entered her neighbor’s yard, yelling at the neighbor and finally slapping the neighbor after being told to leave. Deputies caught up with Matthews as she attempted to enter her own home, where she was handcuffed and arrested on charges of battery and resisting arrest. Alcohol, reported Villages-News.com, may have been involved.

S E N D YO U R W E IRD N E W S ITE M S TO WE I RD N E W S T I P S@ AM UNI V E R S AL . C O M .

THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH Sealed proposals shall be deposited at the Administration Building, Room 251, 341 South Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15213, on January 23, 2018, until 2:00 P.M., local prevailing time for a Service Contract for the following:

PGH. CARRICK HIGH SCHOOL Various Asphalt and Concrete Repairs General Prime

PGH. MILLER, WESTWOOD AND GRANDVIEW Replace EM Generator Systems General and Electrical Primes

PGH. DILWORTH PREK-5 Various Asphalt and Concrete Repairs General Prime

PGH. COLFAX K-8 Heating and Ventilation at Pool Area General, Asbestos, Mechanical and Electrical Primes

PGH. LANGLEY HIGH SCHOOL Various Asphalt and Concrete Repairs General Prime

PGH. SUNNYSIDE PREK-8 Unit Ventilator Replacement Mechanical Prime

PGH. OLIVER CITYWIDE ACADEMY Various Asphalt and Concrete Repairs General Prime.

PGH. CHARTIERS, SPRING GARDEN, MONTESSORI AND CRESCENT SCHOOLS Water Cooler Replacement – Phase 2 Plumbing and Electrical Primes

PGH. CAPA 6-12 Basement Water Infiltration General, Plumbing, Mechanical and Electrical Primes

PGH. BRASHEAR HIGH SCHOOL ADA Toiler Room Renovations – Phase 2 General, Asbestos, Plumbing, Mechanical and Electrical Primes

PGH. CUPPLES STADIUM Concrete Bleachers Repair General Prime

Project Manual and Drawings will be available for purchase on January 2, 2018 at Modern Reproductions (412-488-7700), 127 McKean Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15219 between 9:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. The cost of the Project Manual Documents is non-refundable. Project details and dates are described in each project manual. We are an equal rights and opportunity school district. Parent Hotline: 412-622-7920 www.pps.k12.pa.us NEWS

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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 Skeletonized DEFLESHED SKELETONIZED.BANDCAMP.COM

Defleshed, Skeletonized’s latest cassette, is a raucous cacophony of saxophone, bass, drums, synths and electronics. The sounds, as arranged and constructed, are erratic, but the group manages to hang onto each other, locking into unconventional grooves. Unlike the self-titled release that came out a year ago, Skeletonized has split this new full release into seven individual tracks on Bandcamp, as opposed to featuring the two entire sides as one piece each. That being said, the release plays just as well as an uninterrupted listen, each track flowing into the next with subtle samples or threading synths. Defleshed feels far more representative of natural themes, whereas the earlier selftitled felt a bit more industrial. Listening to this release feels like getting dropped into the sonic equivalent of a glowing grotto, raging river or windy mountaintop.

Amuck FOR MY OWN AMUSEMENT AMUCK412.BANDCAMP.COM

Amuck’s rhymes are full of nerd-culture references, punk attitude and funny bars. It’s clear that Amuck prioritizes fun over anything else. “I’m like the tastiest atheist in the damn world,” he exclaims on “Amuck, No!,” while promising to kick out at two-and-a-half, if anyone tries to hold him down on “Swedish Fish.” A lot of the vocal melodies in the hooks are reminiscent of Portugal. The Man and K.Flay, while some of the harder verses and vocalization pull influence from Zack de la Rocha (of Rage Against the Machine). Dadadoh’s feature on “Amuck, No!” is as smooth as butter and full of funny one-liners, a nice pairing with Amuck’s manic style. In spite of the quips and the humor, Amuck does bring a political bent, especially on “Ghost Town,” during which he exclaims, “I love this country, but I hate the inhabitants who put a delusional ape in command of it.” References to anarchy, flag-burning and the violence of fracking pop up throughout the record, wedged between songs about fatherhood, role-play games, action figures (“Swedish Fish”), and getting double hamburgers, “animal style,” on “Red Meat.” Amuck is happy to entertain, but is still aware enough to know there’s plenty to be frustrated about, too. It’s that duality that makes For My Own Amusement compelling.

{PHOTO COURTESY OF BEYOND: MICROTONAL}

David Krakauer

MICROTONALLY

INWARD {BY MIKE SHANLEY}

HILE ASSEMBLING the program for the second Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival, the organizers wanted pieces that connected with the theme, “Cultural Roots/Cultural Intersection.” Western composers use the term “microtonal” for music built with pitches and tunings that expand beyond the 12note equal temperament that has been the standard since J.S. Bach. (The notes from middle C and the C an octave higher on the piano represent the 12-tone scale.) Microtonal music utilizes more notes, allowing for quarter tones (i.e. pitches between C and C-sharp, for instance), leading to concepts like instrument builder/composer Harry Partch’s own 43-tone scale.

BY MEG FAIR

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

But there isn’t one set standard for microtonal music, nor do musicians from other countries use that term. “There are so many microtonal [variations]. It’s all looked at through the Western eye,” says

BEYOND: MICROTONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL & SYMPOSIUM Thu., Jan. 11-Sat., Jan 13. See www.music.pitt.edu for times, locations and more information. 412-624-4125

Mathew Rosenblum, co-director of Music on the Edge, which co-presents the festival with The Andy Warhol Museum’s Sound

Series. “If you talk to an Indonesian artist or someone from another culture, they don’t think of it as microtonal.” All composers have some sort of cultural roots, Rosenblum adds. So this festival — the second one, three years after its maiden voyage — explores the idea of “reaching into one’s own cultural roots, or some other inﬂuence, and looking at it through the lens of microtonality,” he says. Rosenblum’s own “Lament/Witches’ Sabbath” is one of the compositions premiering on Thu., Jan. 11. David Krakauer, a featured clarinet soloist on the piece, says the work doesn’t require extensive knowledge of microtonality to enjoy it. “It’s visceral. It’s a journey,” he says. “I think people will sit

and listen to it, and it’s not going to be about, ‘Oh, I have to have an owner’s manual to understand this.’ It’s very direct and expressive. And dramatic and powerful.” The same holds true for the whole festival. Krakauer and Rosenblum have known each other since both attended the High School for Music and Art in New York, and explored the city’s diverse music scene in the early ’70s. The clarinetist, best known for his fresh take on traditional Klezmer music, has been a frequent visitor to Pittsburgh. On one trip, Rosenblum, also a professor of music at the University of Pittsburgh, expressed a desire to write a piece that would recall Hector Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique and incorporate the story of his grandmother. “At Passover seders in the Bronx in New York, I heard this story about how my family escaped the Ukraine in 1919,” Rosenblum explains. “They crossed the border to escape the massacre in the town. My grandmother tied her silverware to her legs and sold it [later]. She gave birth to my mother while they were fleeing in the woods. “There was one time that my grandmother told this to me, that was the most powerful. In retrospect, I realized it was this Eastern European lament style: She was sobbing and storytelling, narrating this story in a very specific, interesting way. It made a huge impression on me as a little 6- or 8-year old.” When he recounted the story to Krakauer, the compositions started to fall into place. “Hey, man, that’s the personal connection to the piece,” Krakauer told him, “and then you can do the ‘Witches’ Sabbath.’ We need to start with the lament.” Rosenblum says the writing process was driven by the sound of the voice. He researched Ukrainian and Jewish laments, incorporating field recordings of them into the piece, along with recordings of his grandmother speaking when she was in her 80s. This pre-recorded audio will be interwoven into the music during its performance. Krakauer’s connection to Jewish music — which acknowledges cultural heritage and puts a modern spin on it — makes him a natural soloist in the piece. At the Carnegie Music Hall, he joins an orchestra that also includes Iraqi oud performer Rahim AlHaj and members of the New York ensemble Loudbang. (All three acts also perform at other times during the three-day festival.) “Lament/Witches’ Sabbath” offers the perfect example of the cultural roots coming together in a contemporary way. Rosenblum has been interested in world music since college when he transcribed Persian and Javanese music. Now his work is “turning the camera around and looking at myNEWS

MOLLY TUTTLE

self,” he says. “It’s about connecting with my own family history and cultural roots, with this idea of an Eastern European lament as a starting point, which has microtonal qualities to it. But it’s also really about the sound. It’s all bundled into one sound.” In addition to the music performances, which will be streamed live via Facebook, two symposia offer perspectives on the reach of microtonal music. With one, “Creation, Performance, Politics,” Rosenblum hopes to address the role of the artist today. “We have all these microtonal musicians and composers,” he says. “[We can] think of intercultural intersections and intercultural references, and talk about the role of composers and musicians in today’s political climate today as well.” The other symposia will discuss Partch, the “grandfather” of American microtonal music. Overall, the festival includes six musical premieres, with performers that include new local groups NAT 28, Kamraton and WolfTrap. As Krakauer talks about the music, he stresses the accessibility of it, which is tied the performance of the players. “People put their life force into it. It’s all about the life force. Mathew has put his entire life force into this piece, and it’s really something,” he says, as his voice softens to a murmur. “And I will match in kind.”

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20 ;OL ÄYZ[ ^VTHU L]LY UHTLK .\P[HY 7SH`LY VM [OL @LHY I` [OL 0U[LYUH[PVUHS )S\LNYHZZ 4\ZPJ (ZZVJPH[PVU HUK H ]PY[\VZV ZVUN^YP[LY ^OVZL Z[HY PZ VU [OL YPZL

HARPETH RISING WITH RYANHOOD SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10

4P_PUN MVSR UL^NYHZZ YVJR HUK JSHZZPJHS [OL` MVYNL UL^ NYV\UK L]LY` [PTL [OL` WPJR \W [OLPY PUZ[Y\TLU[Z

PHIL WIGGINS HOUSE PARTY SATURDAY, APRIL 14

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

BELVEDERES

;OL /V\ZL 7HY[` PZ HU HJV\Z[PJ IS\LZ LUZLTISL [OH[ YL\UP[LZ [OL KHUJL [YHKP[PVU ^P[O 7PLKTVU[ HUK V[OLY JV\U[Y` IS\LZ Z[`SLZ

AN EVENING WITH BRUCE COCKBURN

ULTRA-DIVE THURS JAN 11

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2

COVEN • DARK DANCE MUSIC DJ JOSEY

( SLNLUK

FRI JAN 12

KANYE NIGHT DJ ADMC

SAT JAN 13

SADDERDAY • EMO NIGHT DJ ADMC

CALLIOPE: BRINGING LIVE MUSIC TO PITTSBURGH FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS

MON YOGA 8PM TUES KARAOKE 10PM

Carnegie Lecture Hall, Oakland Tickets: calliopehouse.org / 412-361-1915 / or at the door

4016 BUTLER STREET PITTSBURGH, PA 15201 412-687-2555 WWW.BELVEDERESULTRADIVE.COM

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FEELING THE SPACE

LATIN LOVER {BY MIKE SHANLEY}

{BY MEG FAIR} THE TITLE OF Just Fern’s full-length All

the Space I’ve Taken Up can be traced to a single moment in Illinois, as she and her band lay in a Zen garden. “We were a little more than halfway through the tour. We’d played a show every night so far, and it was the ﬁrst silence we’d had,” explains Fern Burgess, a Pittsburgh native who is also in Softgirl. “I was lying there, and I was thinking about all the space I’ve taken up, the space that I’m taking up now, and all the places I’ve been to, where I’ve been a body in space. You can’t even begin to visualize how that affects the world.” All the Space I’ve Taken Up is an album that reﬂects the feelings that had been swirling within Burgess, from 2015 to up to just a week before the album was released last November. As a result, it’s deeply personal — painfully sad at some moments (“Julian”) and bittersweet at others (“Let’s Rob A Bank”). There’s heartbreak and longing, loathing and selfdestruction, dysphoria and self-love. The music is packaged in bursts of

{PHOTO COURTESY OF AUDREY ROMERO}

Fern Burgess, of Just Fern and Softgirl

catchy surf rock, psychedelic-tinged strolls and poppy melodies, all tethered together by Burgess’ appreciation of the Beach Boys and The Beatles, as well as an unbreakable punk spirit. “What blew me out of the water when I put out this record was how many people connected to the themes [of self-care,

gender, inequality] and have told me that these songs have touched their lives and made them better,” Burgess says. “That’s nutbars! Like, that’s a level of inﬂuence I can’t even begin to understand.” The songs on the record reﬂect on and speak to struggles that Burgess has since moved past but nonetheless felt important to share. “I think to make good art in any medium you have to look inside yourself, because nobody is going to look inside you for you,” says Burgess. “That’s how you discover things about yourself.” Burgess is committed to making vulnerable, honest art, but she says one of the darker songs on the record, “Julian,” did give her pause. “I spent a good six months debating whether or not ‘Julian’ was going to be on there. I wrote it earlier [in 2017] about a version of myself that was really depressed three or four years ago. I wasn’t sure if it was too dark without a disclaimer that I don’t feel that way anymore,” she says. “I ended up leaving it on there, and that’s the song I get the most messages about.” Now that the record has been out for a few months, Burgess is busy putting out music videos like the recently released self-directed and -edited video for “Ember,” as well as diving into writing new songs. “The songs I’m writing now explore my relationship with how I feel personally, and the things that I go through, and the world. That’s something I’ve never really written about before, so that’s been a learning experience,” says Burgess. “I’m really excited about it.” ME GFAIR @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

Alto saxophonist Richie Cole, a local resident since 2014, continues to add to his prolific catalogue with Latin Lover, a set of songs arranged in a Latin jazz style. He avoids obvious classics that helped establish that genre, playing instead a batch of originals and covers, several of which aren’t usually cast in a bossa nova style. As Cole often does onstage, he starts off with humor, before moving on to material that might be considered more serious jazz. Latin Lover opens with a brisk bossa version of “If I Only Had a Brain,” the catchy number from The Wizard of Oz. “The Lonely Bull” — the song that launched Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass — gets an even more elaborate arrangement, avoiding the temptation to ham it up, even when Cole’s crew maintains the brief vocal sections of the song. Neil Sedaka’s “Laughter in the Rain” might be pop fluff, but the saxophonist realizes something this writer has always felt: The tune’s well-placed key change gives it some great melodic possibilities. Then Cole the comedian gives way to Cole the serious soloist in the later portion of the set, with several of his own compositions. “Girl From Carnegie,” with a sly quote from the Latin classic “Desafinado,” brings bossa nova to his new neighborhood. “Island Breeze,” which he first recorded in the 1970s with vocalist Eddie Jefferson, offers a lilting groove that feels especially welcome during cold winter days. On the record, Cole is joined by the same unit that made 2015’s Richie Cole Plays Ballads and Love Songs; guitarist Eric Susoeff, bassist Mark Perna and drummer Vince Taglieri all return. Cole also adds pianist Kevin Moore to the group. Susoeff knows this style well, having led with Salsamba for several decades, and he adds crisp accompaniment and his own strong solos. Moore switches between acoustic and electric piano which adds to the ambience of the concept. While Cole can breathe fire with the faster, straight-ahead music, Latin Lover gives him a chance to bring the mood down, without sacrificing any of the impact of his rich tone. I N F O@ P G H C I T Y PA P E R. C OM

www.richiecole.com

CRITICS’ PICKS “Amazingly elastic . . . with an exuberance of sound!” - Financial Times

Sisters of Shaddowwe

THIS WEEKEND! THIS FRIDAY AT 8:00 P.M. THIS SUNDAY AT 2:30 P.M. HEINZ HALL

DEBUSSY: Printemps

(PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PREMIERE)

IBERT: Flute Concerto RAVEL: Valses Nobles et Sentimentales STRAVINSKY: Suite from The Firebird (1919)

[HXC] + FRI., JAN. 12 Boston has a penchant for producing meanass hardcore music, and Saint Ripper is no exception to the rule. Its aggressive hardcore punk has a bite, but it’s also the kind of music that begs to be enjoyed in a mosh pit full of friends. Joining Saint Ripper is Boston’s darkpunk/post-punk outfit Sisters of Shaddowwe, an eerie trio with tunes that ooze mystical power. The blistering hardcore punk of EEL and punk-tinged no-wave Come Holy Spirit are from two bands perfectly curated to round out the show’s sound. This gig is in the Babyland Garage, also known as the basement of the Bloomcraft Building. Meg Fair 8 p.m. 460 Melwood Ave., Oakland. $5. All ages. 412-482-7329

[ALT-FOLK] + FRI., JAN. 12 As agreeable as they are enticing, the sounds of alt-folk group Driftwood are rooted in the land, but elevated to folk-pop radio standards. The band features a masterful fiddle player and offers warm live vibes, so it would be a shame to miss the kickoff of its winter tour at Club Café. For openers, Arlo Aldo is more than worth a mention — having left its mark in the world of American alt-folk with its swirling harmonies and cathedral-esque organ — and Pittsburgh’s cowboy-pop standalone Sam Stucky is guaranteed to deliver some sweetness. Emily Bennett 9 p.m. 56-58 12th St., South Side. $12. 412-431-4950 or www.clubcafelive.com

[FOLK] + SAT., JAN. 13 Singer-songwriter Mark Dignam, a Pittsburgher by way of Dublin, will celebrate his 50th birthday

NEWS

tonight by giving you a gift at the Funhouse at Mr. Smalls. Dignam lends his distinctive voice to heartfelt/heart-wrenching lyrics. He’s sure to do the awesome “Tallahassee,” about a guy who finally fucked up his relationship for the final time. “I know I’ve really done it now, you say you’re not coming back / My heart’s an origami project that’s been stamped on flat / Now I’m screaming down the highway, trying to find where you have gone / Don’t think I’ve made a mess like this, in oh so very long.” Also, there’s just something amusing about a Dubliner based in Pittsburgh singing a song named after the Making capital city of Movies Florida. Or maybe {PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN SLATER} that’s just me. Charlie Deitch 8 p.m. 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $10. 412-821-4447 or www.mrsmalls.com

LEAD SPONSOR

SUPPORTING PARTNER

SUPPORTED BY

PHYLICIA RASHAD, HOST AND NARRATOR

SATURDAY, JAN. 20 AT 8:00 P.M. HEINZ HALL

BOSTIC: The August Wilson Symphony (WORLD PREMIERE) SMALLWOOD: An Anthem of Praise plus, a tribute to Hill District photographer Teenie Harris... and more!

[LATIN ROCK] + TUE., JAN. 16

RACHMANINOFF’S BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH CONCERTO NO.2

Making Movies isn’t new to the music scene (boasting creds with Arcade Fire and Los Lobos, to name a few). But the Kansas City-based band is fresh to the political scene, having dove headfirst into the 2017 political climate, by posing with a tarp reading, “We are all immigrants.” Armed and dangerous with its newest full-length, I Am Another You, the band, composed of two sets of brothers, combines Latin American styles with Midwestern sounds to deliver a tasty synthesis of Afro-Latino flow and psychedelia. A portion of proceeds from the latest album goes to the National Immigration Law Center. Head to Mr. Smalls tonight and give them your money. EB 8 p.m. 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $10-12. All ages. www.mrsmalls.com

MUSIC

ARTS

EVENTS

FENCES PARTNER

JANUARY 26 & 28

FEBRUARY 9, 10, & 11

HEINZ HALL Rafael Payare, conductor • Kirill Gerstein, piano

HEINZ HALL Osmo Vanska, conductor • Vilde Frang, violin

CARREÑO: Margariteña

KABALEVSKY: The Comedians STRAVINSKY: Violin Concerto RAUTAVAARA: A Requiem in our Time

(PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PREMIERE)

RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 2

(PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PREMIERE)

MAHLER: Symphony No. 1

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5

TICKETS START AT $20! GET YOURS TODAY! *GKP\ *CNN $QZ 1HƂEG | 412.392.4900 | pittsburghsymphony.org BRING YOUR GROUP AND SAVE! 412.392.4819 +

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

FRI 12

ROCK/POP

ANDYS WINE BAR. DJ Malls Spins Vinyl. 5 p.m. Downtown. 412-773-8884. CRAFTHOUSE STAGE & GRILL. THE FLATS ON CARSON. Gone South. 8 p.m. South Hills. Pete Butta. 10 p.m. South Side. 412-653-2695. 412-586-7644. HOWLERS. Swampwalk, Satyr/ ONE 10 LOUNGE. DJ Goodnight, Elfheim, DJ Amadea & Futurism. DJ Rojo. 9 p.m. Downtown. 9 p.m. Bloomfield. 412-682-0320. 412-874-4582. P-TOWN. Jellyfish. Monthly queer dance DIESEL. Keystone party. New wave + Vibe, Chase and The italo disco + post-punk. Barons, James Drakes 10 p.m. Oakland. & the Chris Taylor . www per 412-621-0111. Trio, Medicine Man. a p ty ci pgh m RUGGER’S PUB. Winter Rock Challenge .co 80s Night w/ DJ Round 2. 7 p.m. Connor. 9 p.m. South Side. 412-431-8800. South Side. 412-381-1330. HOWLERS. King Fez w/ Love TOM’S DINER/VASTA Dumpster. 9 p.m. Bloomfield. LOUNGE. DJ RayJack. 10 p.m. 412-682-0320. Dormont. 412-531-2350. THE LAMP THEATRE. Green River. A tribute to Credence Clearwater Revival. 8 p.m. Irwin. 724-367-4000. BRILLOBOX. Beleza: SMILING MOOSE. The Sounds of Brazil. 9:30 p.m. Hazeytones w/ Horehound & Jakethehawk. 9 p.m. South Side. Bloomfield. 412-465-0872. 412-431-4668. DIESEL. DJ CK. 10 p.m. South Side. 412-431-8800. PERLE CHAMPAGNE BAR. BAJA BAR AND GRILL. DJ Tenova. ladies night. 9 p.m. Second Shift Band. 9 p.m. Downtown. 412-471-2058. Fox Chapel. 412-963-0640. DOWNEY’S HOUSE. Chase & The Barons. 9:30 p.m. Robinson. 412-489-5631. KOPPER KETTLE. King’s Ransom. 9:30 p.m. Washington. 724-225-5221. THE LAMP THEATRE. Jay Gates. A tribute to Barry Manilow. 8 p.m. Irwin. 724-367-4000. PEPPERS N’AT. Lenny Smith & The Instant Gators. 8:30 p.m. Braddock. 412-660-0600. VINOSKI WINERY. Millgroves Crossing. 1 p.m. Belle Vernon. 724-872-3333.

THU 11

FRI 12

FULL LIST ONLINE

SAT 13

REMEDY. 2 Hype! Dance Party. 10 p.m. Lawrenceville. 412-475-8409.

TUE 16 THE GOLDMARK. Pete Butta. Reggae & dancehall. 10 p.m. Lawrenceville. 412-688-8820. THE SUMMIT. Dig Now Sounds w/ Hot Honey. 9 p.m. Mt. Washington. 412-918-1647.

WED 17 TOM’S DINER/VASTA LOUNGE. RayJack. 10 p.m. Dormont. 412-531-2350.

BLUES THU 11 O’DONNA’S. The Bo’Hog Brothers. 8 p.m. Beaver. 878-313-3418.

FRI 12 CIOPPINO RESTAURANT & CIGAR BAR. The Midnight Express Band. 7 p.m. Strip District. 412-281-6593. MOONDOG’S. The Matt Barranti Band. 9:30 p.m. Blawnox. 412-828-2040. RUMFISH GRILLE. Jill West and Blues Attack. 7 p.m. Bridgeville. 412-914-8013.

MP 3 MONDAY MATT AQUILINE AND THE DEAD END STREETS

SUN 14 THE R BAR. Billy the Kid’s Steel Town All-Stars. 7 p.m. Dormont. 412-942-0882. SMILING MOOSE. New Year, Steady Flow Tour with Dizasterpiece, God Hates Unicorns, Back Alley Sound. 7 p.m. South Side. 412-431-4668.

DJS THU 11 THE FUNHOUSE @ MR. SMALLS. Centrifuge. Nongenre specific electronic music night showcasing aspiring fresh talent to veterans alike. 9 p.m. Millvale. 412-821-4447. PERLE CHAMPAGNE BAR. Bobby D Bachata. 10 p.m. Downtown. 412-471-2058.

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

Each week we post a song from a local artist online for free. This week, it’s “Dead End Streets,” by Matt Aquiline and the Dead End Streets, a rock-tinged country song about turning off the GPS and learning to get by (and around) on your own. Stream or download “Dead End Streets” for free on FFW>>>, the music blog at pghcitypaper.com.

HEAVY ROTATION

SAT 13 THE HOP HOUSE. Jill West and Blues Attack. 9 p.m. Green Tree. 412-922-9560. MOONDOG’S. Miss Freddye’s Blues Band. 8:30 p.m. Blawnox. 412-828-2040.

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

JAZZ

Rue

“It Could Be You”

THU 11 SAVOY RESTAURANT. Roger Humphries & RH Factor. 8 p.m. Strip District. 412-281-0660.

SAT 13

Frankie Cosmos

JOHNNY’S RESTAURANT & LOUNGE. Roger Barbour Band. 7:30 p.m. Wilmerding. 412-824-6642. THE MONROEVILLE RACQUET CLUB. Jazz Bean Live. 7 p.m. Monroeville. 412-728-4155. THE SPACE UPSTAIRS. Second Saturdays. Jazz-happening series feat. live music, multimedia experimentations, more. Hosted by The Pillow Project. 8 p.m. Point Breeze. 412-225-9269. WALLACE’S TAP ROOM. Tony Campbell Jazzsurgery. 5 p.m. East Liberty. 412-665- 0555.

“Outside With the Cuties”

Mixtapes

“Basement Manners”

Hop Along

“Happy to See Me”

SUN 14 EMMANUEL EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Jazz at Emmanuel. An ecumenical jazz service free and open to all. This months service is titled Mood Indigo. Our musicians include Dr. James Johnson Jr, Pamela Johnson, Tony DePaolis, Lou Schrieber and James Johnson III. 5 p.m. North Side. 412-231-0454. ROCKS LANDING BAR & GRILLE. Tony Campbell, John Hall, Howie Alexander & Dennis Garner. 7 p.m. McKees Rocks. 412-875-5809.

HAMBONE’S. Ukulele Jam. 6 p.m. Second Sun. of every month Acoustic Brunch. Acoustic Brunch welcomes all styles of music, poetry, spoken word, comedy in an open mic format.We also have one ‘Feature Artist’ sandwiched in the middle of our show. 10:30 a.m. Lawrenceville. 412-681-4318.

MON 15

WED 17

HAMBONE’S. Ian Kane, Ronnie Weiss & Tom Boyce. Jazz Standards, showtunes & blues. 6:30 p.m. Lawrenceville. 412-681-4318.

ALLEGHENY ELKS LODGE #339. Pittsburgh Banjo Club. 8 p.m. North Side. 412-321-1834. PARK HOUSE. Shelf Life String Band. 9 p.m. North Side. 412-224-2273.

TUE 16

REGGAE

RILEY’S POUR HOUSE. Martin Rosenberg. 7 p.m. Carnegie. 412-279-0770.

ACOUSTIC FRI 12 BAR 3 MILLVALE. Todd and Dale. 8:30 p.m. Millvale. 412-408-3870.

SAT 13 DOUBLE WIDE GRILL. Right TurnClyde. 9 p.m. Mars. 724-553-5212.

SUN 14 CALIFORNIA COFFEE BAR. Paz & Ukulele Eddie. 12 p.m. Brighton Heights. 412-766-0444.

NEWS

WESTMINSTER CHOIR IN CONCERT: LISTEN. 5 p.m. Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside. 412-661-0120.

OTHER MUSIC THU 11 RIVERS CASINO. VDJ Rambo. Levels. 6 p.m. North Side. 412-231-7777. STAGE AE. Umphrey’s McGee. 7 p.m. North Side. 412-229-5483.

565 LIVE. The Flow Band feat. Finneydredlox, Joe Spliff, Deb Star, Sam Fingers & D Lane. 8:30 p.m. Bellevue. 412-522-7556.

MR. SMALLS THEATER. Steel City Ruins, Captain the Sky, Sleep Movies, Define Irony & Heavy Chest. album release. 7 p.m. Millvale. 866-468-3401. RIVERS CASINO. Olga Watkins Band. Levels. 9 p.m. Terrance Vaughn Band. Drum Bar. 9 p.m. North Side. 412-231-7777.

TUE 16

SAT 13

GRA MU LOUNGE. The Flow Band feat. Finneydredlox, Joe Spliff, Deb Star, Sam Fingers & D Lane. 7 p.m. Penn Hills. 412-241-0322.

RIVERS CASINO. Artistree. Drum Bar. 9 p.m. Nick Fiasco. Levels. 9 p.m. North Side. 412-231-7777.

PIRATA. The Flow Band. 9 p.m. Downtown. 412-323-3000.

ROCKS LANDING BAR & GRILLE. Tony Campbell feat. Teresa Hawthorne. 7:30 p.m. McKees Rocks. 412. 875.5809.

SUN 14

FRI 12

THU 11

WED 17

CLASSICAL

FRI 12

COUNTRY

THE FUNHOUSE @ MR. SMALLS. Making Movies. 8 p.m. Millvale. 603-433-7465.

FRI 12 NIED’S HOTEL. Slim Forsythe w/ Jane West, Molly Alphabet, Zack Keim & Queen of the West. 62nd birthday and vinyl release party. 7 p.m. Lawrenceville. 412-770-8150.

MUSIC

TUE 16

WED 17 STAGE AE. Black Veil Brides & Asking Alexandria. 5:30 p.m. North Side. 412-229-5483.

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[DANCE]

BODY WORK

BATES’ PROCESS EXPLICITLY DISRUPTS LANGUAGE

While soccer might be Brazil’s best-known export, one of its most esteemed cultural products, dance company Grupo Corpo, returns to the Byham Theater on Jan. 17 courtesy of Pittsburgh Dance Council. The company was founded in 1975 and is led by brothers Paulo and Rodrigo Pederneiras. With its unique blend of classical technique, modern dance and Afro-Brazilian forms, it’s an audience favorite worldwide. The 21-member troupe will present two works that premiered in 2015, one reflecting on its own past and the other looking toward its future. Choreographed by Rodrigo Pederneiras, the 42-minute group work “Dança Sinfônica” was created in honor of Grupo Corpo’s 40th anniversary. It combines “a memorialist theme” with reprised and original choreography set to a recorded symphonic score featuring music from several of the company’s recent works, composed by Marco Antônio Guimarães and performed the Philharmonic Orchestra of Minas Gerais and Brazilian instrumental group Uakti. As a backdrop to the dancing, set designer Paulo Pederneiras compiled a retrospective slide show of more than 1,000 informal photos of Grupo Corpo’s dancers, ballet masters, teachers, producers, set designers, and lighting and costume technicians from over the years. Contrasting “Dança Sinfônica”’s nostalgia, “Suite Branca” will be something many fans of the Brazilian troupe most likely have never seen — a work performed by the company choreographed by someone other than Rodrigo Pederneiras. Cassi Abranches, a dancer with Grupo Corpo from 2001-2013, is only the second person to choreograph on the company. Her 32-minute group work is set to an original instrumental score by Samuel Rosa, frontman for Skank, one of Brazil’s best-known pop rock bands. The set features a glacial, white-on-white scenic design and white costuming, giving it an appropriately wintery feel for Southwestern Pennsylvania in January. Suggesting an interaction with the laws of gravity, “Suite Branca,” with its undulating arms and hips, pendular movements, suspensions and floorwork, is distinct from Rodrigo Pederneiras’ choreographic style, but shows his influence. Online dance magazine Fjord Review said of the work: “In shape-shifting patterns that defied our gestalt tendencies, the dancers were rhythmic gymnasts, tallying points for each miniscule pose … tossing themselves into the air, falling to the floor, and sailing over each other, landing with intentional control and soundlessness.” INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

GRUPO CORPO 8 p.m., Wed., Jan. 17. Byham Theater, 101 Sixth St., Downtown. $10-60. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org

Grupo Corpo’s “Suite Branca” {PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSE LUIZ PEDERNEIRAS}

{BY STEVE SUCATO}

{PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM LITTLE}

“Black Vs Blue Dont Shoot,” by Jo-Anne Bates

[ART REVIEW]

PAPER TRAILS {BY CARRIE MANNINO}

N HER Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

Artist of the Year exhibit, Exploration of Color, Jo-Anne Bates focuses on the mono print: a one-of-a-kind piece. The exhibit is beautiful and joyful as you enter the gallery, ﬁlled with color and unique abstract shapes. Each piece is individual down to its form and surface. Bates plays with depth by creating hills of shredded paper pulp, thick palpable lines of paint, and matte two-dimensional blocks of color that trick the eye into seeing folded edges. Each print has a phrase or sentence written across it, and the placement of this text also varies; sometimes it reads straight across, sometimes it requires the reader to jumble the words into their proper order. In certain pieces, the text is the ﬁrst thing the viewer notices,

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

such as “True Beauty,” which allows the words to inﬂuence how the viewer approaches the object. Others, such as “My Pride is Black Pride,” require the viewer to really stare at the image and ﬁrst develop

2017 ARTIST OF THE YEAR JO-ANNE BATES: EXPLORATION OF COLOR continues through Feb. 11. Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. 412-361-0873 or www.pfpca.org

a familiarity with the form before discovering its relation to text. This variation in viewer approach and imagery made the show incredibly exciting to experience. Placed alongside one another, circling

the walls of the gallery, the pieces create a stunning tableau. Bates cites a trip to South Africa as inspiration for her exploration of color, and her desire to mimic that landscape is exhibited in her map-like pieces, which have veins of color running like roads and jagged edges akin to territory and river boundaries. Some of the shapes suggest abstracted human ﬁgures, forming portraits against which their colors and text are framed, especially “Destiny” and “All That Glitters Ain’t Gold.” The shapes are amorphous enough that they are open to many interpretations, and allow viewers to project their own understanding of the language and color onto the shape itself. Bates’ works are effective and moving because she blends the personal with the

political. One that spoke to me was “True Beauty,” which I read as a comment on the pressures of femininity and womanhood. The core colors of the piece are bubble-gum pink and lavender purple, colors associated with little girls and princess dresses, but the pink is distorted. This piece has the most pronounced visible paper shreds. Instead of forming into mounds, the shredded areas burst out of the lines of the shape, perhaps representing the rupturing of expectations or the fracturing of individuals under the pressure of “Real Beauty” standards. Bates plays with language in multiple ways; the typed print that stretches across each of her prints incorporates language from the Black Lives Matter movement, from media and news sources, and from everyday moments. She cites grandmotherhood as one of her inspirations, and incorporates language and concepts ranging from the intimate and personal to the broad and political. One piece whose language really stands out is “Black on Black in Black.” It is one of two prints that are entirely black, though not at all uniform: the color varies depending on the surface it inhabits, highlighting the furrows and mounds of the shape. The piece is beautiful to look at, and pulls the viewer in to explore all of its nuances. Its words mimic language often used to describe, and callously dismiss, violence in black communities. Bates’ process also explicitly disrupts language by using shredded texts to form the textures in her work. Not only is the legible text pasted over the surface often subversive and always relevant, but the surface itself deconstructs language as well. Bates has been a Pittsburgh-based artist and arts educator for many years. She has won numerous awards for her print works and is a member of several local artist organizations. She has been both a teacher and a faculty coordinator for the Pittsburgh Public Schools (notably at the Pittsburgh High School for the Performing and Creative Arts), and creates opportunities and inspiration for her students. She was chosen as the PCA’s Artist of the Year in recognition of the signiﬁcant impact of her work as well as her contributions to the artistic life of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The work in Exploration of Color was created for this show. Make sure not to miss this exhibit, and while you’re there, pop upstairs to see an exhibit by Women of Visions, Inc., one of the organizations to which Bates belongs. The exhibit includes more pieces by Bates, and a mockup of her workspace and process that show the shredded paper and texts she uses so well.

[BOOKS]

BRAIN STORM {BY AMANDA REED} After Carnegie Mellon University math professor Deb Brandon was released from the hospital following three brain surgeries in 2007, she took to books and the Internet to try to understand what life would be like. Although there were plenty of resources about the trauma that caused the injury, there was nothing about living with one. Finally, a decade later, Brandon came to a realization.

Grupo Corpo 8pm B y h a m T h e a t e r

Deb Brandon

“It occurred to me that if I write about it, not only would it help me deal with it, it might help other brain-injury survivors at the same time, and it would help family and friends understand what I’m going through,” she says. But My Brain Had Other Ideas: A Memoir of Recovery from Brain Injury (She Writes Press), Brandon’s first nonacademic work, details life after three surgeries to fix cavernous angiomas — tangled brain vessels that had leaked blood in her brain. In order to write the book, Brandon hired a writing coach to help with everything from securing an agent to putting words to a page, and even with pacing the work of writing itself. “She could tell from my writing if I was in trouble, and could tell when I had ‘bad brain days,’” Brandon says. While My Brain is in part an account of life with a brain injury, Brandon, 57, also wants it to help people understand what it’s like to live with invisible disability in general, like multiple sclerosis and depression. Brandon returned to teaching about a year after the surgeries. She says that both students and colleagues have reacted positively to her debut book, attending signing events and praising her in the hallways of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Although life post-surgery has been, and remains, difficult, Brandon said the journey, with all of its losses and gains, has led her to find a new passion: writing. “I can’t say, ‘I wish I hadn’t gone through it,’” she says. Brandon is currently working on a book about textile techniques from around the world (for release later this year) and a collection of photo essays with CMU professor of photography Charlee Brodsky. More information is at www.debbrandon.com.

INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

NEWS

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WED 1.17.18

TICKETS START AT $10 TRUSTARTS.ORG/DANCE 412-456-6666

INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

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[ART]

THE OTHERS {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL} IN DECEMBER, following the high-proﬁle U.S. Senate election in Alabama, social media buzzed with the big discrepancies in support for each candidate between voters from different demographic groups: black women, white women, black men and white men. Christiane Leach had an additional question: “I wonder how the rest of us voted?” For two years, Leach has been convening the #notwhite collective, 11 women artists who identify as biracial, multiracial, multicultural, immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. The members discuss and explore cultural identity in a society where whiteness is the norm and white supremacy the rule — and they make art about it. On Fri., Jan. 12, the #notwhite collective presents its inaugural exhibition at the South Side’s Brew House gallery. In Between the Middle, curated jointly by the 11 members, features works by them and about 20 invited artists, not all of whom are women (and some of whom identify as white). One goal is to draw more attention to the narratives of people who don’t ﬁt neatly into existing cultural categories.

“The Controller,” by Miguel Hoyos

“I feel as this country slowly moves forward on the discourse of race, our experiences are not considered or included,” writes Leach in press materials. “For me, if change is to happen, all voices need to be heard, listened to.” In a phone interview, Leach adds, “I’ve gathered fellow artists together to ask difﬁcult questions and go down rabbit holes ﬁercely and fearlessly.” Leach’s own contribution to the show is a block-print self-portrait incorporating things people have actually said to her, including: “I don’t know whether I should talk to you as a white person or a black person.” Most of the works in the show are paintings, drawings or video, Leach says. Artist and educator Maritza Mosquera

contributes “Mujer,” a series of drawings of her fellow 10 collective members, incorporating text from the answers each gave to three questions, including: how they identify culturally and “What is something you want people to know about not being white, about being you?”

IN BETWEEN THE MIDDLE Opening reception:6-8 p.m. Fri., Jan. 12 (free). Exhibit continues through Feb. 23. Brew House Association, 711 21st St., South Side. 412-381-2000 or www.brewhousearts.org

For instance, says Mosquera, “In this country, I’m Latina … but I feel like an Equatoriana” — a native of her home country of Ecuador, which she left at age 10. Collective members include Sarah Aziz, Veronica Corpuz, Amber Epps, Fran Flaherty, Geña, Carolina Loyola-Garcia, Liana Maneese, Maggie Negrete and Christina Springer. Opening night features a talk titled “Betweenness: The Mathematics of Being Between,” by Carnegie Mellon University math professor Tim Flaherty. Supplementary programming includes a Feb. 1 evening of poetry and spoken word; a Feb. 16 Dinner Party/Conversation that recreates a #notwhite gathering; and the Feb. 23 closing reception, with performances by Calle Bomba and The Beautiful Ugly. Mosquera stresses that neither the collective nor the exhibition is about “calling out” bigotry. Rather, the idea is that in a society based on oppression, everyone suffers, even oppressors. “This is human liberation,” says Mosquera. D RI S C OL L @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

FOR THE WEEK OF

01.11-01.18.18 Full events listed online at www.pghcitypaper.com As usual, there’s too much Martin Luther King Jr. Day stuff going on to fit in just one day (or one column of newsprint). Anticipate the Jan. 15 holiday with the August Wilson Center’s Second Annual Poetry Unplugged, presented on Fri., Jan. 12, in honor of MLK Day. The all-star lineup of visiting, nationally known spoken-word artists includes host Mahogony L. Browne (pictured), curator and host of New York’s Nuyorican Poets Café, with DJ Jive Poetic;

Prentice Powell (a favorite on TV’s Verses and Flow); Nuyorican Poets Café legend Jamaal St. John; Vanessa Hidary, “The Hebrew Mamita”; and guests from the Brooklyn Poetry Family. Starting Sat., Jan. 13, partake of another MLK Day tradition: The 11th annual Let Freedom Sing Concerts, featuring the Heritage Gospel Chorale of Pittsburgh; community singers from throughout the region performing as the MLK Festival Choir; and dance troupes. Lynne Hayes-Freeland hosts the Jan. 13 show, at Ebenezer Baptist Church, in the Hill District, and the Jan. 15 reprise, at the Byham Theater. On Jan. 15, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh holds an all-day MLK Day event, including civil-rightsmovement-themed art activities and King for a Day, which lets visitors take the podium to read MLK speeches into a mic, courtesy of radio’s Saturday Light Brigade. Also on Jan. 15, the Mattress Factory art museum hosts an afternoon Martin Luther King Jr., Birthday Celebration, a party (complete with cake and a DJ) and an “I Have a Dream”-themed art activity.

{PHOTO COURTESY OF VENTURE OUTDOORS}

^ Sun., Jan. 14: Beginner Snowshoeing Class

friday 01.12 MUSIC

BY BILL O’DRISCOLL

Poetry Unplugged: 8 p.m. Fri., Jan. 12 (980 Liberty Ave., Downtown; $10-15; www.trustarts.org) Let Freedom Sing: 7 p.m. Sat., Jan. 13 (2001 Wylie Ave., Hill District; free, donations accepted), and 7 p.m. Mon., Jan. 15 (101 Sixth St., Downtown; $1-50); www.letfreedomsing.net Children’s Museum: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (10 Children’s Way, North Side; $14-16, and free for kids under 2; www.pittsburghkids.org)

COMEDY If you’re a fan of the Dark Knight Trilogy but can’t find the time to watch all three, try One Man Dark Knight: A Batman Parody as a comedic alternative. In his 70-minute performance, Charles Ross takes you on a journey through Batman’s origins to his battles against some of Gotham’s biggest super-villains, sans sets, costumes or a cast beyond himself. Following the success of his previous one-man trilogies parodying both Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, Ross brings his quick wit to the Byham Theater for

saturday 01.13 EXHIBIT Leave the frigid temperatures behind and allow the Orchid and Tropical Bonsai Show to transport you to a warmer destination. This Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens show includes floor-to-ceiling orchid

Mattress Factory: Noon-4 p.m. Mon., Jan. 15. (500 Sampsonia Way, North Side; give what you can; www.mattress.org) NEWS

blooms of bright yellows and oranges in addition to showcasing the ancient Japanese art of bonsai, trees dwarfed and trained to mimic their larger counterparts. The show, which runs six weeks, opens today and includes numerous talks and workshops on both orchids and bonsai. Lauren Ortego 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Exhibit continues through Feb. 25. One Schenley Park, Oakland. $11.95-17.95 (children under 2 free). 412-622-6914 or www.phipps.conservatory

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra opens the year’s programming with an evening of works by four iconic composers, led by guest conductor Juanjo Mena. The program, set for tonight and Sunday, opens with a somewhat belated Pittsburgh premiere: Printemps, an early work by Debussy. Ibert’s Flute Concerto follows, featuring principal flutist Lorna McGhee. A virtual dance set by two 20th-century masters follows: Ravel’s suite of waltzes titled Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, and The Firebird, the 1919 version of Stravinsky’s score for his first major ballet. Bill O’Driscoll 8 p.m. Also 2:30 p.m. Sun., Jan. 14. 600 Penn Ave., Downtown. $20-94. 412-392-4900 or www.pittsburghsymphony.org

^ Sat., Jan. 13: Orchid and Tropical Bonsai Show {PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL. G. WIEGMAN}

CONTINUES ON PG. 24

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SHORT LIST, CONTINUED FROM PG. 23

EVERYONE IS A CRITIC

{PHOTO COURTESY OF MATT BEARD / ©CIRQUE DU SOLEIL 2017}

one night of fun for fans from all walks of life. LO 7:30 p.m. 101 Sixth St., Downtown. $25-50. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org

EVENT: Pittsburgh-premiere screening of Quest at the Regent Square Theater, Edgewood

CRITIC:

STAGE Puppet artist Zach Dorn was out of town for a while — you know, his little year in Japan on a Julie Taymor World Theater Fellowship. But tonight he offers the Pittsburgh premiere of An Excruciatingly Ordinary Toy Theater Show. Dorn, known here for his work with Miniature Curiosa, has performed this 2015 show in cities around the U.S. It’s a wry anthology of 10 short autobiographical stories set in Pittsburgh and built around his efforts to reclaim a security deposit from his landlord; the performance is presented via live video feed from cameras zooming through “tiny illustrated worlds.” The evening at Glitter Box Theater also includes short performances by comics artist Nate McDonough, artist DS Kinsel, and puppeteers Murphi Cook, Felicia Cooper and Dave English. BO 8 p.m. 460 Melwood Ave., Oakland. $15. www.facebook.com (“excruciatingly ordinary”)

Emily Peets, 38, an

HR consultant from Highland Park

WHEN:

Fri., Jan. 05

This was the premiere of a documentary that was filmed over the course of 10 years, with a main theme of community, being brought together, and showing the life of a family heavily involved in it. I thought it was an amazing project, and showed a really intimate portrait of this family and their real struggles. I very much enjoyed the relationship between the [Rainey family] and their neighborhood, and how they seemed to support each other when things got tough, specifically when their son was diagnosed with cancer. Between them taking care of his son, and their daughter, PJ, getting shot and losing sight in her eye, everyone just took care of each other — no questions asked, it was just expected, which was beautiful. The photo gallery before the [documentary] was good, although I was not there for too long. I would suggest this documentary to anyone hoping to further their knowledge of families and community, definitely.

sunday 01.14 OUTDOORS We’ve already had plenty of time this winter to ponder reasons not to go outdoors, like days on end of single-digit temps. One good reason to leave the couch, though, is learning a new sporty skill. Today, at Laurel Summit State Park, Venture Outdoors staff teach a Beginner Snowshoeing class. VO promises snowshoeing is “as simple as walking” but lets you traverse snowy terrain you couldn’t with skis or hiking boots; it’s something like floating over snow. BO 10 a.m.1 p.m. Linn Run Road, Rector, Pa. $29 (including snowshoe rental). Registration required at www.ventureoutdoors.org.

monday 01.15

B Y LAUR E N ORTEGO

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

TALK José Ángel N. emigrated illegally from Mexico in the 1990s. He had a ninth-grade education. But he worked his way

< Wed., Jan. 17: Moshe Baran

^ Wed., Jan. 17: Crystal

through graduate school, became a professional translator, and in 2014 published Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant. The acclaimed memoir unveiled the life of a man living the American dream in plain sight but outside the law. Tonight, in his first Pittsburgh appearance, N. reads from his memoir in a free event at City of Asylum’s Alphabet City. BO 8 p.m. 40 W. North St., North Side. Free. Reservations recommended at www.alphabetcity.org.

tuesday 01.16 SCREEN Jazz great Betty Carter gets her due in “… But Then, She’s Betty Carter.” Michelle Parkerson’s 1980 documentary catches the vocalist in mid-career and celebrates her legacy of staunch independence, from refusing to commercialize her sound to founding her own record label (in the ’60s!) and raising two sons as a single mother. Tonight, the hour-long film continues the 9th International African Film Festival, the Sembène — Film & Arts Festival’s program exploring the culture of the African diaspora. The festival continues into April at Alphabet City with six more films from five different countries. BO 7 p.m. 40 W. North St., North Side. Free. www.alphabetcity.org

wednesday 01.17 TALK The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh could hardly have picked someone better to launch its Generations Speakers Series, designed to tell the stories of Holocaust survivors and their families. The series begins tonight with a free talk by Moshe Baran, a Polish-born Jew who during World War II escaped a Nazi labor camp and spent two years in the forests of Eastern Europe, fighting with the Partisans. Baran, who has lived in Pittsburgh since 1993, is 97 but still speaking and blogging on genocide and hate. He speaks at Squirrel Hill’s Community Day School

LET’S BREAK THE ICE. * New clients only, first visit. If used on combo services, discount applied to highest priced service only. Not valid with other offers.

412.219.6254 Pittsburgh f @WaxingLawrenceville waxingthecity.com

^ Sat., Jan. 13: An Excruciatingly Ordinary Toy Theater Show

with his daughter, Avi Baran Munro, head of the school and the child of two survivors. BO 7 p.m. 6424 Forward Ave., Squirrel Hill. Free. 412-421-1500 or www.hcofpgh.org

CIRCUS Crystal is Cirque du Soleil on ice. That’s a first, as the world-renowned troupe takes its high-concept, often surreal circus aesthetic onto frozen water with a cast of 40, including skaters (some of whom also do acrobatics) and acrobats and aerialists (some of whom skate). On the rink at PPG Paints Arena, watch the story of Crystal, a girl who runs away from home, falls through the ice, and goes on an Alice-in-Wonderland journey of discovery. The cast of this two-hour show with live music includes veteran professional skater and Cincinnati native Mary Siegel. “It’s all new territory that we’re exploring,” says Siegel of Crystal, speaking by phone. “It puts a new focus on skating. People will see things they’ve never seen before.” The first of eight shows is tonight. BO 7:30 p.m. Continues through Sun., Jan. 21. $40-124. www.cirquedusoleil.com

thursday 01.18 TALK The University of Pittsburgh’s Black Futures Series continues at Heinz Memorial Chapel. ^ Tue., Jan. 16: 9th International African Film Festival Tonight’s event features a reading by acclaimed scholar and poet Fred Moten, followed by a lecture and a discussion between Moten and LaToya Ruby Frazier, the Braddock native and MacArthur “genius grant”winning photographer. Moten — whose résumé includes a stint as a janitor at the Nevada nuclear test site — is an author and a scholar of black studies, performance studies and more, as well as a professor at the University of California, Riverside. His poetry collections include 2014’s The Little Edges. BO 7:30 p.m. 326 S. Bellefield Ave., Oakland. Free. www.caapp.pitt.edu

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“WOMEN’S HEALTH AND SAFETY KEEPS THIS WORLD MOVING FORWARD.”

SUPERFOOD ALERT {BY REBECCA ADDISON} In a few months, residents in Lawrenceville and the Strip District won’t have to travel too far to access hard-to-find superfoods like chia, flaxseed, hemp seeds and fermented vegetables. This summer, Pittsburgh Juice Company will be opening the Heirloom Superfood Market in the space formerly occupied by the 31st Street Pub, at 3101 Penn Ave. “The superfood market was a logical step in the development of the Pittsburgh Juice Company, because we’re ordering these hard-to-find things all the time and making different products with them. It only made sense that we’d also sell them in bulk to our customers,” says Naomi Homison, of PJC. “In the Lawrenceville, Strip District area, there is no opportunity to purchase these items.” Heirloom Superfood Market will be a collaboration between PJC, Pure Grub, Fickle Fox Fermented Foods and Frontier Cultures. The companies all produce organic, gluten-free products using items that can be hard to track down. “Heirloom is really filling a need for a health space that is collaborative,” says Samantha Stephan, of Fickle Fox. “It’s going to expose Pittsburgh to healthier options.” In addition to raw ingredients, customers visiting Heirloom can expect to find options like cashew-based yogurt, homeopathic tonics made from applecider vinegar and spiced vegetables, and ready-to-order foods that are gluten and dairy free. In the next few weeks, PJC will be launching an Indiegogo campaign to help those interested in superfoods get involved in the project. For more information, follow Pittsburgh Juice Company on Facebook and Instagram.

{CP PHOTO BY VANESSA SONG}

Csilla Thackray preparing pasta at The Vandal

EAT WELL. DO GOOD.

RADDISON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

{BY CELINE ROBERTS}

the

FEED

One literal bright ht d spot to the dead at of winter is that n this is when he markets stock the rus more exotic citrus fruits. Perfectt for e you, snacking (we see pomelos); for marmalades (try the bitter Valencia oranges); and desserts (grab a bag of fresh Key limes, for the perfect Key lime pie).

HEF CSILLA (pronounced Chill-a)

Thackray wants you to take a seat at her table. The 26-year-old chef has been cooking professionally for four years, having made a big impression in the Pittsburgh dining scene at the helm of The Vandal. She’s been the chef there since Joey Hilty opened the Lawrenceville restaurant four years ago. However, Thackray is interested in making more than just pretty plates. Now she’ll use her culinary skills to raise money for Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania with a new 2018 dinner

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

series called At Her Table. Before starting in the restaurant industry, Pittsburgher Thackray was a social worker in children’s behavioral services. “I left because I always felt like I had this creative side,” she says. “I grew up playing piano, and I always wanted to help my mom cook. But she was a single mom, and I think her primary concern was that I was going to have ﬁnancial independence.” Thackray planned to go to law school, but met chef Jamilka Borges through a former boyfriend. (“That’s pretty much all he was good for,” she deadpans.) Soon

after, Borges took her under her wing at Bar Marco, in the Strip District. “I just showed up at Jamilka’s doorstep and said, ‘Let me come in and do work, unpaid prep stuff.’ And then later she let somebody go and hired me.” At Her Table is a series of four dinners spread out over the seasons. Thackray will collaborate with a different chef for every dinner. Each dinner will take place at a location in the city that holds importance to the guest chef; the food will also align with that chef’s personal style as well, such as whether they like to cook family-style

or compose smaller plates. Guests will be capped at 50 seats, and 50 percent of the profits will be donated to Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania; the rest will go to food cost. Labor from chefs and other staffers will be donated. Thackray had previously tried to raise money for the organization after the 2016 election. “I lightly dabbled in working with Planned Parenthood. You could get this small menu on Wednesdays [at The Vandal], and that would get donated. It just didn’t take off in the way I wanted it to. I thought, ‘Let’s pull some names in here and make a to-do about it.’” The series will begin locally, but Thackray hopes to push it nationally later. As of press time, the date for the first Pittsburgh event has not been set. As the series is At Her Table, all the participating chefs will be women. The lineup hasn’t been finalized, but Thackray says Jessica George and Mary Weber, of Legume; Jamilka Borges, now the executive chef at Spoon; Kate Romane, of Black Radish Kitchen; and Beth Zozula, of Whitfield, have expressed interest. Every aspect of the series involves collaboration among women, even down to the logo. Atiya Jones, an artist living in Lawrenceville, designed the art that announces the dinner series. “I was attracted to the [AHT] series because of the passionate and important work both PP and Csilla provide/produce for people,” Jones writes, in an email to City Paper. “Collaboration is how society achieves all measures, so I seize those opportunities when they come.” Her design, done in accumulative line work, was inspired by Victorian-era seating mores. “During this period, the only time women and men were found in the same room (primarily) was during dining hours. Even sharing a meal is a privilege women have had to fight for,” writes Jones. Thackray’s support for Planned Parenthood is impassioned. “It’s just so obvious to me,” she says. “I might be being narrowminded, but women’s health is just such a given to me, and hearing it get brought up in the way that it did during the election, I thought, ‘this is just asinine.’ I’m getting worked up thinking about it. Women’s health and safety keeps this world moving forward. If you give women with lower SES [socioeconomic status] access to health and wellness, then a whole generation gets brought into this world that’s already off on the right foot.”

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She also acknowledges that such stands can be personal and politically charged for her staff, so participation is voluntary. “I’m happy to hear all opinions,” she adds. “If they want to get involved, they do get involved; if they don’t, they don’t have to.” Planned Parenthood is grateful for any help in this current political climate. The organization staffed a table at the small launch for At Her Table held at The Vandal in December. “It’s been even more challenging [to provide services this year] because of the defunding attacks, and all the political stuff that’s going on that really is taking away our resources to provide services to people in the community. We feel very fortunate to be getting such great community support,” says Kim Evert, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania. Over the past four years, Thackray has challenged herself, including taking on the chef position at the new Vandal, which she calls “a massive, scary risk.” She has also continued her learning through stages, or unpaid culinary internships in the kitchens of other chefs, including one in San Francisco last spring and another at Fat Radish, in New York City. “In no way, shape or form am I done learning. I’m still very much a cook in my own head,” she says.

EVERY ASPECT OF THE SERIES INVOLVES COLLABORATION AMONG WOMEN, EVEN DOWN TO THE LOGO.

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BOOZE BATTLES {BY CELINE ROBERTS}

Each week, we order the same cocktail at two different bars for a friendly head-to-head battle. Go to the bars, taste both drinks and tell us what you like about each by tagging @pghcitypaper on Twitter or Instagram and use #CPBoozeBattles. If you want to be a part of Booze Battles, send an email to food-and-beverage writer Celine Roberts, at celine@pghcitypaper.com.

THE DRINK:

HOT TODDIES {PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIC MOORER}

Table at L’Ivress

[ON THE ROCKS]

LESSONS FROM PARIS Pittsburgh sommelier Eric Moorer learns abroad {BY CELINE ROBERTS}

Smoke Smok 4115 Butler St., Lawrenceville DRINK: Loretta INGREDIENTS: Bourbon, lavender, lemon, ginger, honey OUR TAKE: Tart and throat-soothing, this take on a hot toddy was floral and bright. Using sweeter bourbon helped lighten the profile of the drink, while honey added wildflower notes to the mix.

VS.

DRINKING WINE in Paris for a month-anda-half sounds like a vacation. But for Eric Moorer, sommelier at or, The Whale, it was a philosophical deep dive into wine and restaurant culture outside of the U.S. Last May, Moorer got married, and he and his wife’s Airbnb in Paris sat above L’Ivress Sentier, a wine bar in the 2nd Arrondissement where they often closed a night with a glass of wine and a chat with co-owner Loris Limousin. Each helped the other with language skills, and Moorer and Limousin decided to work together someday. Six months later, Moorer took a leave from or, The Whale with the chef’s blessing and went to consult on the Parisian bar’s wine list. “Beyond anything, what’s important

to Dennis [Marron, executive chef of or, The Whale] here is growing people. He’s somebody who supports people doing what they feel they would like to be doing and putting them in a position to be successful on their own terms,” says Moorer. It’s not usual for those in ﬁne dining to work for short periods at other establishments in order to expand their knowledge. Limousin sent Moorer to trendy wine bars in Paris and throughout France and Europe to learn what made them successful. “I found that the appeal of a lot of these other wine bars is that they

are on the edge of being trendy without compromising what they actually believe,” says Moorer. “I think French wine bars are a lot more based in being classic and timeless.” Many of the wineries and wine bars he visited made or served only a select few wines, in contrast to the U.S. tendency toward broad proﬁles with “a little something for everyone.” “Culturally, it’s so different because here [in the U.S.] everything is based upon pleasing the customer, not that there’s anything wrong with that. We obviously want people to be happy, and we wouldn’t be here otherwise, but a lot of it has to come back to who you are and what you do well,” says Moorer. “That’s what I took most out of this experience, is that people are afraid and not afraid of change at the same time.” In Moorer’s view, the problem with the tyranny of choice that can accompany long wine lists is that it discourages people from trying something new. He found that in France, menus and drinks were highly choreographed to enhance each other, rather than simply expanding customer choice. “[In the U.S.,] I think it comes down to customers trusting the people who were put in, say, my position, to execute a meal or an evening out for them,” he says. “I think people here like to curate their own experiences. I think that you should let each restaurant experience evolve and do its own thing.” So next time you want to order the same cabernet, Moorer recommends trusting a knowledgeable staff member to give you something new. “I think that that’s what dining out is about,” he says.

“PEOPLE ARE AFRAID AND NOT AFRAID OF CHANGE AT THE SAME TIME.”

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

Pork & Beans 136 Sixth St., Downtown DRINK: Hot Toddy INGREDIENTS: Bulleit bourbon, honey syrup, hot water, lemon, orange and lemon peels, cinnamon stick OUR TAKE: Boozy, soothing and tart, the cocktail is perfect at the end of the day. Cinnamon lends a little spice, and orange notes add depth to the citrus flavors typically dominated by bright lemon.

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One Bordeaux, One Scotch, One Beer Amaro Nardini $9 / 1½-ounce pour “I think of this as being a beginner’s Fernet Branca. I’ve fallen in love with it. It’s so easy to drink. It’s not too bitter, and the sweetness comes through. There are spearmint and tobacco flavors — very earthy and enjoyable.” RECOMMENDED CAMERON LEHMAN, MUDDY WATERS OYSTER BAR BARTENDER AND BAR MANAGER

Amaro Nardini is available at Muddy Waters Oyster Bar in East Liberty.

IT IS QUITE THE ROUND-UP OF RESPECTABLE BRITISH ACTORS

DIVINE COMEDY {BY AL HOFF} It’s a four-pack of John Waters classics filling up the screen at Row House Cinema, starting Fri., Jan. 12. In today’s seen-it-all culture, these former midnight movies can never be as shocking as they once were, but they still offer enjoyable tasteless humor. Each film stars Waters’ greatest collaborator, Divine. MULTIPLE MANIACS. Waters’ 1970 spectacle of filth and depravity, a.k.a. his low-budget and hilarious dark comedy about a bunch of Baltimore no-gooders who travel under the sideshow banner of “Lady Divine’s Cavalcade of Perversions.” It stars Divine and Waters regulars including Mink Stole, David Lochary and Edith Massey. Jan. 12-15, Jan. 16 and Jan. 18

{PHOTO COURTESY OF LAWRENCE IRVIN}

Mink Stole and Divine in Multiple Maniacs

PINK FLAMINGOS. It’s been decades since its outrageous debut, but there are still squirms left in Waters’ hilarious 1972 homage to/send-up of the filthiest people on the planet (or, minimally, the greater Baltimore area). Some shocks have paled or been chitchatted to death; others remain jaw-dropping. One delight amidst all the flat “acting” is Divine, whose believable character seems so genuine, both in outrageousness and warmth. This film rests in great part on her ample form. Jan. 12-15 and Jan. 17-18 FEMALE TROUBLE. It’s Christmas in July! This 1974 cult classic opens with some seasonal mayhem: Divine goes on a rampage after not finding the cha-cha heels she wanted under the tree. Such domestic trouble jumpstarts this epic tale of unrepentant bad girl Dawn Davenport (Divine), from her early years in the 1960s as hair-hopping juvenile delinquent to her defiant death in the electric chair. Here, Waters cranks up one of his favorite obsessions — twisted beauty. The hairsalon scenes are hilarious, the costumes and ’dos fantastic, and no other film features the mainlining of eyeliner. Jan. 12-15, Jan. 16 and Jan. 18 POLYESTER. Suburban mom Francine Fishpaw (Divine) struggles to keep her troubled family together: Her husband’s having an affair, her daughter is a hellcat, and her son has some serious psychosexual foot issues. What Francine needs is a romance: Enter dreamboat Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter). Straddling Waters’ earlier gross-out works with his soon-to-come mainstream efforts, 1981’s Polyester is a luridly colored social satire, skewering the suburbs, family and Hollywood romance. Jan. 12-18

Getting the marmalade made

RETURN FARE {BY AL HOFF}

N THE GLOOM of January — often a

dumping ground for uninspired movies that nobody was going to see anyway — comes a rare bloom: Paddington 2, the sequel to 2014’s Paddington, is better than the first film. Yes, this is still a rather silly movie about a talking bear, but we look for light where we can. Paul King is back in the director’s chair to bring to life another tale of the amiable, if clumsy, bear, once of “darkest Peru,” now of London. Paddington — named for the train station where he was discovered by the Brown family — is the much-beloved literary creation of Michael Bond; the bear has had many adventures over the decades, but contemporary cinematic effects have made them considerably flashier. King has rounded up the old gang for this second outing: Ben Wishaw voices the computer-animated Paddington; Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins return as Mr. and Mrs. Brown; and Imelda Staunton, Michael Gambon, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and Peter Capaldi reprise their various roles. New are: Hugh Grant, in the prized

comic-villain role; Brendan Gleeson, as a soft-hearted prison cook; and Tom Conti and Joanne Lumley in small roles. It is quite the round-up of respectable British actors, and it all helps to keep this pifﬂe motoring along nicely.

PADDINGTON 2 DIRECTED BY: Paul King STARRING: Ben Wishaw, Hugh Grant, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville

The shaggy-dog plot involves Paddington’s desire to purchase an old book, which requires him to ﬁrst bumble through a few odd jobs, such as barbershop assistant and window-washer. But before he can buy the book, it’s stolen by Phoenix Buchanan (Grant), a dastardly washed-up actor who knows the book is actually a treasure map. (Buchanan’s quest involves Grant donning a number of amusing disguises.) A hammy actor as the bad guy is a much more entertaining foil than the

rather bizarre mad taxidermist that Nicole Kidman portrayed in the first film. Also, some of that earlier film’s franticness has been toned down; when a film’s big climax involves a steam train, one can hurtle only so fast. And familiarity with the characters means less time spent establishing them, and more time for just enjoying who they are. Of course, things still must go comically sidewise for our plucky bear. Through a series of misunderstandings and bad haircuts, Paddington winds up in jail, where he wins over the hardened criminals by whipping up a batch of his preferred sustenance, marmalade. This subsequent culinary awakening and a laundry mishap that turns the prisoners’ outfits pink greatly expands Paddington’s wink-wink fascination with feminizing men; a highlight of the first film was Bonneville — best known as the stuffy Lord Downton — passing himself off as a cleaning lady. And don’t miss the end credits, which — while stealing a gag from a long-ago Simpsons episode — nonetheless is a total campy delight.

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FILM CAPSULES Yeah, it’s cold.

Really, really cold. We’re PITTSBURGHERS. The cold can’t stop us. The City Paper Winter Guide has info on all the Winter activities in the Pittsburgh area. Hits the stands January 24.

= CITY PAPER APPROVED

NEW THE COMMUTER. The guys Liam Neeson plays in movies never get a chance to rest. In Jaume Collet-Serra’s thriller, a train commuter gets entangled in a criminal conspiracy. Starts Fri., Jan. 12 DAVID HOCKNEY’S A DAY ON THE GRAND CANAL WITH THE EMPEROR OF CHINA. In honor of the British artist’s 80th birthday and a career retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this 45-minute 1988 film from Philip Haas has been restored. In it, Hockney acts as an art historian, using a 17th-century Chinese scroll painting — Wang Hui’s 72-foot-long “The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Seven” — to discuss one of his fascinations, spatial perspective. Jan. 12-14 and Jan. 1618. Harris I, TONYA. Margot Robbie stars as the infamous figure skater Tonya Harding, whose career was marked by hard work, powerful jumps and her entanglement in a 1994 pre-Olympics assault on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. Allison Janney stars as Harding’s mother; Craig Gillespie directs. Starts Fri., Jan. 12 THE POST. Set in 1971, Steven Spielberg’s docudrama covers the do-we-or-don’t-we over publishing the “Pentagon Papers” in The Washington Post. Shouldering this decision are editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) and publisher Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep). The film is in part an ensemble work, highlighting the doggedness of reporters determined to break news and impact history. The other thread is the “birth” late in life of Kay Graham, treated as a figurehead in room after room of men, into a powerful and formidable publisher. Streep gives one of her quieter performances, just an older woman completing a trajectory from cautious to confident, and securing a satisfying second act. There is an excellent cast of supporting characters who are fun to discover clad in unflattering 1970s garments. But the big uncredited player is Donald Trump, whose nonstop contemporary assaults on “fake news” make the film crackle with immediacy, even as Spielberg threatens to kill any frisson with his underlining and bold-facing. Starts Fri., Jan. 12 (Al Hoff)

PROUD MARY. Taraji P. Henson portrays a hitwoman for a Boston gang. Then she meets a young boy who has been impacted by her work. Babak Najafi directs. Starts Fri., Jan. 12

ONGOING DOWNSIZING. This science-fiction-flavored satire from Alexander Payne (Election, The Descendants) is perhaps more ambitious than successful, but I haven’t lately seen too many films I’ve thought about longer. Matt Damon plays a regular Joe named Paul, a Midwestern occupational therapist with money troubles who embraces our near future’s solution to both overpopulation and the cost of living: He gets shrunk to 5 inches tall and decamps to LeisureLand, a planned community for the small. The fizzy set-up is full of sight gags, inventive takedowns of consumerism, and implicit but pointed questions about what we value and why. The plot turns abruptly on the arrival of Ngoc Lan (Hong Chau), a similarly shrunken Vietnamese refugee, and Paul’s discovery that even LeisureLand has an immigrant underclass. Another sudden plot twist gives the film an unexpected (but not unwarranted) pre-apocalyptic feel. But Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor main-

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Downsizing tain their sense of humor, even if the film ultimately feels less like satire and more like a poignant brief for humanism. (Bill O’Driscoll) THE LAST JEDI. For many fans, “Star Wars” is as much about ritual as anything, and this second installment of the franchise’s third trilogy ably restates the dynamic: It’s the mythic Hero’s Journey as filtered through a tale of Shaolin monks versus Nazis in outer space. Writer-director Rian Johnson’s entry revisits Rey (Daisy Ridley) as the new Luke Skywalker; Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) as the neo-Darth Vader; Poe (Oscar Isaac) in the Han Solo role; and Luke himself (Mark Hamill) more or less becoming Obi Wan Kenobi. Last Jedi admirably offers even more strong roles for women, with Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) joining General Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher, in her final role) as a space boss. The charismatic John Boyega returns as Finn, the former storm trooper now helping the Resistance battle the imperial First Order, with its hissing and hissable villains, in well-staged fights on new planets populated by bizarre creatures. At two-and-a-half hours, with about nine separate cliffhanger endings, it’s a bit long, but Johnson’s keen visual sense, doses of humor and a couple of cameos buoy the film. He keeps things interesting even as the franchise marches on, on the whole, exactly as it must. (BO)

REPERTORY HOT FUZZ. The gang behind the zombie romcom Shaun of the Dead followed up with this affectionate and obsessive 2007 pop-culture spoof of a pair of genres heretofore never combined: the English-village murder cozy and the gun-heavy, highoctane American cop-buddy actioner. That the twain should never meet — and do — is the spine upon which writer-director Edgar Wright and his co-writer and star Simon Pegg hang many gags and clever asides (just note the characters’ names). For every obvious gross-out joke or pratfall, the pair lay a landmine for a brilliant pay-off in the chaotic last reel (I laughed hardest when co-star Nick Frost simply asked, “Pub?”). There’s a busload of British TV and film thespians onboard, and the homages run the gamut from Agatha Christie and The Wicker Man to such stone-cold classics as Point Break and Bad Boys 2. At nearly two hours, it’s a trifle self-indulgent, but what beloved shoot-’em-up — and BBC mystery series — isn’t? Lock and load, lads. Midnight, Sat., Jan. 13. Row House Cinema (AH)

HIDDEN FORTRESS. Two poor farmers on the run join a general (Toshiro Mifune) who is seeking a cache of gold and also hopes to free a princess, in Akira Kurosawa’s lightly comic samurai action film. The 1958 film has been cited by George Lucas as an inspiration for Star Wars. In Japanese, with subtitles. 6 p.m. Sun., Jan. 14. Regent Square BUT THEN, SHE’S BETTY CARTER. Michelle Parkerson directs this 1980 behind-the-scenes doc about American jazz singer Betty Carter. 7 p.m. Tue., Jan. 16. Alphabet City, 40 W. North St., North Side. www.alphabetcity.org. Free

MOST OF YOU ARE LEARNING WHAT I FIGURED OUT YEARS AGO, THAT OUTSIDE IS FOR SUCKERS

HISTORY LESSONS This week in Pittsburgh Sports History {BY CHARLIE DEITCH} JAN. 11, 1906 The University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball team plays its first game, a loss to Wooster. The team would finish the season but not play again until 1911.

JAN. 11, 1983 Steelers wide receiver and future Hall of Fame inductee Lynn Swann retires.

JAN. 12, 1975 The Pittsburgh Steelers win their first Super Bowl, 16-6 over Minnesota. Dwight “Mad Dog” White tackles Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton in the end zone for the first safety in Super Bowl history.

JAN. 14, 1951 The first-ever NFL Pro Bowl is held in Los Angeles. The Steelers are represented by Bill Walsh, Joe Geri and Jerry Shipkey.

JAN. 14, 1996 The Steelers win their first trip to the Super Bowl since 1980 when they narrowly defeat the Indianapolis Colts, 20-16. Colts quarterback Jim Harbaugh nearly wins the game on a last-second Hail Mary pass that falls incomplete in the endzone after being batted down by the Steelers’ “Boo” Bell. The play is dubbed the Immaculate Deflection.

JAN. 15, 2006 Ten years after the Colts and Steelers met in the Immaculate Deflection game, the two teams face each other in another postseason contest that comes down to a miracle play. The Steelers, ahead by three, give the ball to Jerome Bettis on the two-yard line. Spinning into the end zone, Bettis fumbles for the first time all season. The ball is picked up by Indy’s Nick Harper, and it appears Harper will score with ease. However, a diving Ben Rothlisberger manages to tackle him by the shoestrings. Indy’s Mike Vanderjagt then misses a 46-yard field-goal attempt, giving the Steelers the win.

Johnny Unitas

JAN. 12, 1969 Beaver Falls native Joe Namath, of the New York Jets, squares off against Mount Washington’s Johnny Unitas, of the Baltimore Colts, in one of the most famous Super Bowl games ever. The Colts, of the NFL, were a huge favorite to beat the AFL’s Jets. Prior to the game, Namath made his infamous guarantee of victory. Few believed the Jets could win, but Namath led his team to victory, 16-7.

Tom Brady sucks, even digitally

TEMPS DOWN, GAME ON {BY CHARLIE DEITCH}

T’S ONLY January, but the weather outside is already as frightful as the thought of James Harrison plowing over Ben Roethlisberger in the event that the Patriots and the Steelers play each other in the upcoming AFC Championship. As I write this, the East Coast is currently being smacked around by something called the Bomb Cyclone. So, at this point most of you are learning what I ﬁgured out years ago — outside is for suckers. But those of you who insist on getting exercise and the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin D from the sun likely have no idea what to do with yourselves as you’re stuck indoors for what’s shaping up to be a pretty harsh winter. The answer is simple — video games. Playing video games gives you the illusion of doing something meaningful with your life, while sitting around pantsless in the toasty, warm house. I’ve taken the

liberty of making a short list of video games you might want to get into as the temperature continues to drop.

Madden NFL ’18 It will be tough for you to buy this game because there is a photo of Tom Brady on the cover. I was originally happy to see him there because the Madden coverboy usually suffers a season-ending injury. But, alas, this fair-haired sonofabitch is still walking around. This is the long-reigning king of sports games, and this year it is even more awesome thanks to a well-developed story mode. Also, for fun, I like to play as the Cleveland Browns and change all the players’ names to things like: A. Loser, Terry Bull or, simply, Dumb Ass.

Assassin’s Creed Origins This sequel in the AC franchise transports you to Egypt and gives you the chance to explore a huge, open world. Sure, there’s a

story — a pretty good one, in fact — but you could spend ﬁve snow days within this game, and there’d still be plenty of land to explore. This game is immersive and addicting and one of the best in the franchise; certainly, the best to hit nextgeneration platforms.

Overwatch If you’re stuck inside playing video games, it’s easy to become lonely. But thanks to Overwatch, the hottest massive multiplayer game on the market, you can make friends easily. This title has taken online ﬁrst-person shooters to another level in terms of gameplay and content. It’s one of the few well-done shooters that has been Rated T (teen). Another plus is that this game contains a large number of positive female characters, a trait lacking in a lot of video games. And if you need more proof that it’s a perfect winter game, it’s made by Blizzard Entertainment.

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{CP PHOTO BY LUKE THOR TRAVIS}

Mike Lewis II in the 2016 City Game

[THE CHEAP SEATS]

UP WITH THE DUKES {BY MIKE WYSOCKI} I KNOW what you’re thinking: “Oh, here

comes Wysocki writing about Duquesne basketball again.” And, yes, you’re correct. I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about how both the men’s and women’s teams are due for a resurgence after years of less-than-mediocre performances. Well, I’m not here to repeat myself. Because the revolution on the Bluff is here, and it’s time for city hoops fans to get on board. In the past four seasons, the men’s team has struggled to a 52-75 record. The team would ordinarily get an obligatory mention at the end of a local TV sports report and that was pretty much it. Just last season, the Dukes ﬁnished the year with a 1022 record and it appeared as though a level below mediocrity had been accepted as the norm. But here we are in early January, and the Dukes have already eclipsed last year’s win total and stand at 11-4, tied atop the Atlantic-10 Conference standings. For all the good things happening to the men’s team, the only bad news is that they might not even be the best basketball team on campus. That’s because the women’s team is 12-3. Women’s coach Dan Burt has his team a half-game behind George Mason in the Atlantic-10 standings. Burt has nabbed some of the area’s best high school players, starting with superstar Chassidy Omogrosso, the Blackhawk High grad, whose 17.2 points per game

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bests all but three players in the conference. Carlynton’s Conor Richardson is third on the team in scoring, with more than nine points a game. Plus, freshman Kiersten Elliott, from Glenshaw, is earning minutes on a very talented roster. Burt crossed state lines to recruit Ohio’s Paige Cannon and Libby Bazelak. But while some coaches round out their rosters with a road trip to see a potential recruit a few hours away, or take a cropduster to some backwoods Midwestern town, Burt put in a little more effort. He went all the way to Serbia to bring back the sensational Julijana Vojinovic. The junior drops threes like Ray Allen or Reggie Miller. She’s currently fourth in the conference from behind the arc, shooting 44.2 percent. Add to that junior KadriAnn Lass, of Estonia, who was sixth in the conference last year in blocks. After that, Burt went to Hungary and brought back Eniko Kuttor and her 8.5 rebounds per game, which makes her fifth in the A-10. If that’s not enough European flavor, he’s got Helmi Tulomen from Finland, a freshman who is averaging 12 minutes and four points a game. Burt recently recorded his 100th win faster than any coach in team history. Of the team’s three losses this year, two of them were by fewer than five points and the other one was to the University of Connecticut. But sometimes it’s tough to beat a program that is 163-2 since 2013. Only the Harlem Globetrotters have a higher winning percentage than UConn. This month you can see the women’s team host LaSalle on Jan. 17, and the St. Bonaventure Bonnies on Jan. 25. But the big showdown is Jan. 21 against George

Mason, in a battle for A-10 supremacy. On the men’s side, coach Keith Dambrot is getting a lot of credit for turning that team around. Dambrot knows about winning; it’s all he did in 13 straight seasons with the Akron Zips. The last time coach Dambrot had a losing season as head coach was 1993, at Central Michigan University. That was before anyone on the Dukes’ current roster was even born. The reality of the turnaround was conﬁrmed last month, when the Dukes defeated rival Dayton. If there are three things that Pittsburghers hate most, its people who think they are big shots, Hunt’s ketchup, and any team named the Flyers. The Dukes punched back at their eternal bullies with a big December win. The eight wins in December was the most by a Dukes team since the 1971-72 season. A season-ticket-holder who attends every game described the victory simply as “glorious.” His 10-year-old daughter, also a devoted hoops fan, had circled the Dayton game on the calendar because she couldn’t stand Dayton and its obnoxious fans. Well, those Dayton fans left the Palumbo Center that day knowing that the balance of power had shifted. The long-

awaited smile on the girl’s face equaled the exuberance of the Duquesne faithful. Freshman Eric “E-Dub” Williams Jr. leads the A-10 in rebounds with 9.9 per game and throws down 14.7 points each time to go with it. Fellow freshman Tydus Vorhoeven is a versatile 6’8” Californian with arms as long as redwoods. Not to mention sophomore Mike Lewis II, who leads the team in scoring with 15.7 points per game so far this season. Junior Tarin Smith, a transfer from Nebraska, is fourth on the team in scoring behind Butler transfer Rene Castro-Caneddy, a graduate student from Boston. Fellow graduate student Jordan Richardson and sophomore Kellon Taylor also are big contributors off Dambrot’s bench. The aforementioned Taylor got a late start this season because he was busy catching passes for the Dukes football team. The Dukes host the LaSalle Explorers on Sat., Jan. 13, and George Mason on Jan. 20; the Richmond Spiders take a shot at the revamped program on Jan. 24. A revolution has come to the Bluff. Let this serve as your last warning to get on the Duquesne bandwagon. There are plenty of good seats available, but not for much longer.

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DOWN

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Free Will Astrology

01.10-01.17

{BY ROB BREZSNY}

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Three centuries ago, Capricorn genius Isaac Newton formulated principles that have ever since been fundamental to scientists’ understanding of the physical universe. He was also a pioneer in mathematics, optics and astronomy. And yet he also expended huge amounts of time and energy on the fruitless attempt to employ alchemy to transform base metals into solid gold. Those efforts may have been interesting to him, but they yielded no lasting benefits. You Capricorns face a comparable split. In 2018, you could bless us with extraordinary gifts, or else you could get consumed in projects that aren’t the most productive use of your energy. The coming weeks may be crucial in determining which way you’ll go.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A rite of passage lies ahead. It could and should usher you into a more soulful way of living. I’m pleased to report that this transition won’t require you to endure torment, confusion or passive-aggressive manipulation. In fact, I suspect it could turn out to be among the most graceful ordeals you’ve ever experienced — and a prototype for the type of breakthrough that I hope will become standard in the months and years to come. Imagine being able to learn valuable lessons and make crucial transitions without the prod of woe and gloom. Imagine being able to say, as musician P.J. Harvey said about herself, “When I’m contented, I’m more open to receiving inspiration. I’m most creative when I feel safe and happy.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): th

The Kalevala is a 19 -century book of poetry that conveys the important mythology and folklore of the Finnish people. It was a wellspring of inspiration for English writer J.R.R. Tolkien as he

composed his epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. To enhance his ability to steal ideas from The Kalevala, Tolkien even studied the Finnish language. He said it was like “entering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavor never tasted before.” According to my reading of the astrological omens, Pisces, in 2018 you will have the potential of discovering a source that’s as rich for you as Finnish and The Kalevala were for Tolkien.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’m happy to inform you that life is giving you permission to be extra demanding in the coming weeks — as long as you’re not petty, brusque or unreasonable. Here are a few examples that will pass the test: “I demand that you join me in getting drunk on the truth,” “I demand to receive rewards commensurate with my contributions” and “I demand that we collaborate to outsmart and escape the karmic conundrums we’ve gotten ourselves mixed up in.” On the other hand, Aries, ultimatums like these are not

get your yoga on!

admissible: “I demand treasure and tribute, you fools,” “I demand the right to cheat in order to get my way” and “I demand that the river flow backward.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Are you familiar with the phrase “Open Sesame?” In the old folk tale “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves,” it’s a magical command that the hero uses to open a blocked cave where treasure is hidden. I invite you to try it out. It just may work to give you entrance to an off-limits or previously inaccessible place where you want and need to go. At the very least, speaking those words will put you in a playful, experimental frame of mind as you contemplate the strategies you could use to gain entrance. And that alone may provide just the leverage you need.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): While thumping around the internet, I came across pointed counsel from an anonymous source. “Don’t enter into a longterm connection with someone until you’ve seen them stuck in traffic,” it declared. “Don’t get too deeply involved with them until you’ve witnessed them drunk, waiting for food in a restaurant for entirely too long, or searching for their phone or car keys in a panic. Before you say yes to a deeper bond, make sure you see them angry, stressed or scared.” I recommend that you take this advice in the coming weeks. It’ll be a good time to deepen your commitment to people who express their challenging emotions in non-abusive, non-psychotic ways.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

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Teacher Training 2018

My high school history teacher Marjorie Margolies is now Chelsea Clinton’s mother-in law. She shares two grandchildren with Hillary Clinton. Is that something I should brag about? Does it add to my cachet or my happiness? Will it influence you to love me more? No, nah and nope. In the big scheme of things, it’s mildly interesting but utterly irrelevant. The coming weeks will be a good time for Cancerians like you and me to renounce any desire we might have to capitalize on fake ego points like this. We Crabs should be honing our identity and self-image so they’re free of superficial measures of worth. What’s authentically valuable about you?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): If I were your mentor or your guide, I’d declare this the Leo Makeover Season. First I’d hire a masseuse or masseur to knead you firmly and tenderly. I’d send you to the nutritionist, stylist, dream interpreter, trainer and life coach. I’d brainstorm with the people who know you best to come up with suggestions for how to help free you from your illusions and infuse your daily rhythm with 20 percent more happiness. I’d try to talk you out of continuing your association with anyone

schoolhouseyoga.com 36

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.10/01.17.2018

or anything that’s no damn good for you. In conclusion, I’d be thorough as I worked to get you unlocked, debugged and retooled.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “It takes an extraordinary person to carry themselves as if they do not live in hell,” says writer D. Bunyavong. In accordance with the astrological omens, I nominate you Virgos to fit that description in the coming weeks. You are, in my estimation, as far away from hell as you’ve been in a long time. If anyone can seduce, coax or compel heaven to come all the way down to earth for a while, it’s you. Here’s a good way to get the party started: Gaze into the mirror until you spy the eternal part of yourself.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In accordance with the astrological omens, I encourage you to move the furniture around. If you feel inspired, you might even want to move some of that old stuff right out the door and haul it to the dump or the thrift store. Hopefully, this will get you in the mood to launch a sweeping purge of anything else that lowers the morale and élan around the house: dusty mementoes, unflattering mirrors, threadbare rugs, chipped dishes and numbing symbols. The time is ripe, my dear homies, to free your home of deadweight.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): When he was 16 years old and living in New York, Ralph Lifshitz changed his name to Ralph Lauren. That was probably an important factor in his success. Would he have eventually become a famous fashion designer worth $5.8 billion if he had retained a name with “shitz” in it? The rebranding made it easier for clients and customers to take him seriously. With Ralph’s foresight as your inspiration, Scorpio, consider making a change in yourself that will enhance your ability to get what you want.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 1956, the prolific Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The award committee praised his “high spirit and artistic purity.” The honor was based on his last 13 books, however, and not on his first two. Waterlilies and Souls of Violet were works he wrote while young and still ripening. As he aged, he grew so embarrassed by their sentimentality that he ultimately tried to track down and eradicate every copy. I bring this to your attention, Sagittarius, because I think it’s a favorable time for you to purge or renounce or atone for anything from your past that you no longer want to be defined by. I’ve gathered all of the long-term, big-picture horoscopes I wrote for you: www.bit.ly/Your GloriousStory2018.

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

Savage Love {BY DAN SAVAGE}

I’m a 67-year-old gay man. After a breakup 15 years ago, I believed the possibility of emotional and sexual intimacy with a partner was over for me. Then a couple of months ago, my desire for sexual contact increased dramatically. For the first time, I began using apps, and I felt like the proverbial kid in a candy store; it seemed strangely similar to when I first came out in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood in the early 1970s. Also, I was surprised — not unpleasantly — by the whole Daddy phenomenon, never imagining that this old face and body would interest younger men. You can probably guess what happened next: I was contacted by a 22-year-old man who revealed himself to be mature, intelligent, sweet and, fatally, the physical type that arouses me most. I fell hard, and he seems to like me too. Am I a creep? A fool? Is my judgment impaired? DUMB AND DADDY

The sexy “Daddy” thing — which has always been with us — seems to be undergoing a resurgence. Perhaps our omnipresent abusive orange father figure is giving us all daddy issues that are manifesting (in some) as a burning desire to service kinder, sexier, more benevolent daddies. Or perhaps the internet is to blame — not for creating more people interested in intergenerational sex and/or romance, but for making it easier for people to anonymously seek out the kind of sex and kinds of sex partners they truly want. Even if the initial looking is anonymous, DAD, discussing one’s desires with others who share them helps people grow more comfortable with their desires and themselves — nothing melts away shame quite like knowing you’re not alone — and more people are coming out about their non-normative sexual desires, partner preferences, relationship models, etc., than ever before. That said, DAD, if the affections of a consenting adult 40-plus years your junior is your particular perk of aging, go ahead and enjoy it. Keep your expectations realistic (a successful STR is likelier than a successful LTR), don’t do anything stupid (see Father Clements, below), and reacquaint yourself with my constantly updated and revised Campsite Rule: When there’s a significant age and/or experience gap, the older and/ or more experienced person has a responsibility to leave the younger and/or less experienced person in better shape than they found them. No unplanned or planned pregnancies, no sexually transmitted infections, no leading the younger partner to believe “forever” is likely. Do what you can to boost their knowledge, skills and self-confidence while you’re together, and do your best to stick the nearly inevitable dismount — the chances that you’ll be together forever are slim, but you can forever be a friend, mentor and resource. While the age difference will creep some out, DAD, that doesn’t mean you’re a creep. Don’t want to be a fool? Don’t do anything

foolish. Worried about infatuation-impaired judgment leading you to do something foolish? Ask a few trusted friends to smack you upside the head if you start paying his rent or lending him your credit cards. And just as you don’t want to take advantage of this young man, DAD, you don’t want to be taken advantage of, either. We associate age with power, but youth and beauty confer their own kinds of power, and that power can be abused — it can also lead seemingly sensible men to sign their life savings over to 24-year-old Romanian “models.” For example: “A 79-year-old retired priest has been left heartbroken and homeless after his 24-year-old husband left him just after their home was put into his name,” LGBTQ Nation reported. “Philip Clements sold his home in Kent, England, for £214,750, before moving to Romania and purchasing an apartment for the couple to live in in Bucharest. He signed over the property to Florin Marin, so that Marin would have security after he passed away. … Marin broke things off just weeks after the apartment was put in his name, and Clements found himself homeless.” Keep Father Clements’ sad story in mind, DAD, but don’t be paralyzed by it. Because there are lots of examples of loving, lasting, non-creepy, non-foolish relationships between partners with significant age gaps out there. So enjoy this while it lasts, and if things start to get creepy — if he starts shopping for an apartment in Bucharest — then you’ll have to pull the plug. But if this turns into a loving, lasting, healthy and unconventional LTR, DAD, then one day he’ll get to pull your plug.

“ARE YOU A CUCKOLD OR IS THIS A HOTWIFE THING?”

Someone at work — not my boss — asked me to fuck his wife. He’s a nice guy, his wife is hot, and I’m single. This is a first for me. Besides STI status, what questions should I ask? HELP INTERESTED STRAIGHT BOY UNDERSTAND LUST’S LIMITATIONS

1. “Are you a cuckold or is this a hot-wife thing?” (Considering your sign-off, HISBULL, either you’ve assumed he’s a cuckold or he’s told you he is one. If he is a cuck, he may want dirty texts and pictures — or he’ll want to be in the room where it happens. Is that OK with you?) 2. “Have you done this before?” (The reality of another person sleeping with your upto-now-monogamous spouse can dredge up intense emotions, e.g., jealousy, sadness, anger, rage. If they’ve done this before and enjoyed it, you can jump right in. If they haven’t, maybe start with a make-out session at a time or in a place where you can’t progress to sex.) 3. “Can I speak directly with your wife?” (You’ll want to make sure she isn’t doing this under duress and that she’s into you, and you’ll want to independently verify the things he’s told you about their arrangement, health, experiences, etc.) On the Lovecast: Finally, a toy to help you DO YOUR KEGELS! Listen at savagelovecast.com.

SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET AND FIND THE SAVAGE LOVECAST (DAN’S WEEKLY PODCAST) AT SAVAGELOVECAST.COM

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The recent frigid temperatures have frozen Pittsburgh’s mighty three rivers. The Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio have accumulated inches of ice in many spots. This week has temperatures above the freezing point, but Lee Hendricks, of the Pittsburgh office of the National Weather Service, says that doesn’t mean all the ice will melt rapidly. “The 1-to-2-inch-thick ice will begin to rot and slowly move out,” says Hendricks. “But the thicker ice, we are not really expecting it to be gone quickly. Right now, it is looking like it will take time for the ice to move out.” So, enjoy the warmer temperatures, but also marvel at the infrequent phenomenon of the Allegheny, the Mon and the Ohio being blanketed by ice. (Disclaimer: Please don’t walk on the river’s ice; it’s very dangerous.) BY RYAN DETO // CP PHOTOS BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK

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