March 21, 2018 - Pittsburgh City Paper

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PITTSBURGH’S LEADING ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT NEWSWEEKLY

MARCH 21-28, 2018

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Is Pittsburgh’s hyperloop just a fantasy?

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650 Smithfield Street, Suite 2200 / Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412.316.3342 / FAX: 412.316.3388 / E-MAIL info@pghcitypaper.com

EDITORIAL Editor CHARLIE DEITCH Arts and Entertainment Editor REBECCA ADDISON Associate Editor AL HOFF Digital Editor ALEX GORDON Food Writer CELINE ROBERTS News Writer RYAN DETO Music Writer MEG FAIR Interns EMILY BENNETT, SABRINA BODON, JAKE MYSLIWCZYK, LAUREN ORTEGO

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MARCH 21-28, 2018 // VOLUME 28 + ISSUE 12

ART Director of Operations KEVIN SHEPHERD Production Director JULIE SKIDMORE Art Director LISA CUNNINGHAM Graphic Designer JEFF SCHRECKENGOST

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

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PUBLISHER EAGLE MEDIA CORP.

ON THE COVER: “So far, all we’ve seen are some hyperbolic press releases with questionable claims and slick renderings.”

News+Views 6 Food+Drink 16 Arts+Entertainment 22 Calendar 36 Classifieds 43

C OV E R IL L U ST R AT IO N B Y V INC E DO R SE

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

5

NEWS +VIEWS

IMAGE COURTESY OF CMU HYPERLOOP

Carnegie Mellon University’s hyperloop design

.TRANSPORTATION.

CRAZY TRAIN Is the proposed hyperloop taking the focus away from advancing feasible transit solutions in Pittsburgh?

BY RYAN DETO // RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

H

EADLINES IN the Rust Belt region for the hyperloop, a proposed high-speed pod that promises to shuttle passengers at speeds up to 700 mph, would have readers believe that the futuristic project is already in the works.

A Feb. 22 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was titled “Proposed hyperloop to Chicago could be in line for federal infrastructure funds.” A Feb. 27 article in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reads, “Great Lakes Hyperloop consortium sees ClevelandChicago link possible in 3 to 5 years.”

The proposed technology would thrust a light-weight pod through a vacuum-sealed tube at near-super-sonic speeds, either above or below ground. The tech company Hyperloop One has said a trip from Pittsburgh to Chicago could take about 30 to 40 minutes. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto added his own com-

ments on Twitter, speculating just how awesome hyperloop would be for Pittsburgh travelers. “That could mean lunch breaks in Chicago,” he wrote in September 2017.

But Pittsburgh hyperloop dreams could easily remain a fantasy. Although Pittsburgh has been chosen to get a hyperloop station from two different tech companies, fully functional hyperloops don’t actually exist anywhere in the world. Also, the fastest hyperloop tested has only reached top speeds that are a fraction of what the tech companies are claiming is possible. Even local hyperloop engineers, who are giddy about the prospect of seeing hyperloop become a reality, say the technology is years away from being ready.

Transit experts say people should be skeptical of hyperloop’s prospects in Pittsburgh and other Rust Belt CONTINUES ON PG. 8

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CRAZY TRAIN, CONTINUED FROM PG. 6

A FREE TALK

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cities. They say there are other, more realistic transit and infrastructure projects that deserve support, and hyperloop could be serving as a distraction.

Hyperloop is far from the first futuristic transit proposal to capture the imagination of Pittsburgh. In the 1960s, a remotely operated Sky Bus line was proposed to carry passengers on elevated platforms all throughout Allegheny County. But Sky Bus’ cost and labor concerns eventually killed the project, and busways and light rail were built instead. In the 1990s, a Maglev project from Greensburg to the Pittsburgh International Airport gained momentum and even attracted $28 million in federal funds. The project promised to propel passengers at 250 mph on train-like tracks where cars levitate above super-powerful magnets. In 2011, the company running Pittsburgh’s Maglev went bankrupt.

But these past failures haven’t decreased excitement and support for hyperloop. The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, a regional-transit coalition supporting the Columbus region, has contributed $2.5 million to a feasibility study for the tech company Hyperloop One’s proposed line connecting Pittsburgh, Columbus and Chicago. Pittsburgh’s regional-transit coalition, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, is also supportive of that proposal. SPC even sent staff to watch Hyperloop One’s competition in Nevada this January, during which engineers tested their hyperloop prototypes in a quarter-mile-long tube to see which pod could travel the fastest.

In March 2017, SPC president James Hassinger sent a letter to Hyperloop One stating that hyperloop in Pittsburgh and beyond would “benefit the entire Midwest and provide new opportunities for the rapid spread of information and expansion of trade among industry leaders.”

David Cole, a Seattle-based architect who has designed transit proposals for cities like Cincinnati and Seattle, says hyperloop isn’t nearly far enough along in implementation to deserve such attention. “I’m highly skeptical,” wrote Cole in an email to Pittsburgh City Paper. “So far, all we’ve seen are some hyperbolic press releases with questionable claims and slick renderings. It hasn’t yet transported a single passenger.”

In 2017, Germany’s Technical University of Munich won Hyperloop One’s contest commissioned by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The German pod weighs 176 pounds and reached speeds of 201 mph in a quarter-mile-long test tube. While an impressive feat for a new technology, high-speed rails in China currently travel faster while carrying hundreds of passengers.

TOP SPEEDS OF MASS TRANSIT

656 mph

High-speed train: China’s Fuxing trains

217 7 mph mp ph

Commercial plane: Boeing 747

U.S. train: Acela Express

201 mph

Hyperloop: Technica Technical University of Munich prototype

Rishav Khemka is the business lead for the Carnegie Mellon University hyperloop team, which competed in the 2017 hyperloop competition. Even he knows that hyperloop technology isn’t anywhere near real-world implementation. “We are not that close yet, a couple of years at the minimum,” says Khemka. “But once it becomes more concrete, CMU will play a big role.”

Khemka understands the skepticism surrounding hyperloop. For example, hyperloop boosters have floated the idea that the tube could run underground, but Khemka says that seems unlikely in Pennsylvania and Ohio, with the states’ abundance of underground mines and fracking wells.

But Khemka is still confident hyperloop will become a reality. “With any new technology there is always criticism,” says Khemka. “People had some concerns with drones, but now they are the norm. The same with self-driving cars.”

Chris Sandvig, a transit expert with the nonprofit Pittsburgh Community Redevelopment Group, doesn’t fault people for getting excited about hyperloop since it’s such an innovative transit project. But he worries the hyperloop proposals could be offering some false promises.

Another tech company, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, has proposed a Great Lakes hyperloop line from Toronto to Chicago, with a connecting line from Pittsburgh. According to their proposal, the Great Lakes hyperloop system “would not require government subsidies” and “would have a low cost of implementation.”

Sandvig says, “No transportation system in the world is created without subsidies in some way by the public. I don’t know if putting something in a tube is going to change that.” He estimates a large-scale hyperloop project would cost billions of dollars.

Sandvig thinks the excitement for

150 mph

hyperloop is positive development, but wishes equal energy would be put to proposals that address more immediate transportation issues that focus on improving communities. He says Pittsburghers need more options to help improve their local commutes, not new infrastructure that allows them to live more than 100 miles away from their jobs in Downtown Pittsburgh. Sandvig says commuter rail to Pittsburgh suburbs and more daily Amtrak trains to Harrisburg are a more immediate need for Pittsburghers. Sandvig also sees the expansion of the East Busway to Monroeville and a possible Bus Rapid Transit system to the airport as more pressing transit projects for Pittsburgh.

“I’M HIGHLY SKEPTICAL.” “We need to take seriously, investing in mass transit,” says Sandvig. “I would rather [be] asking what sort of transit solutions we need now and what problems [do] we want to solve in the next 10 years. We really need to think multimodal to help our communities thrive.”

Transit architect Cole agrees. He wrote to CP that hyperloop proposes a technology solution to a political problem. “We already know how to quickly move large numbers of people between Point A and Point B: subways, light rail and high-speed rail,” wrote Cole.

He believes hyperloop is just another “convenient shiny object” that Rust Belt politicians can market as a sign of the region’s progress, without improving more immediate needs like public transit, housing and public schools. “Hyperloop … gives anti-transit politicians a convenient excuse to sabotage needed transit investments while painting skeptics as antiprogress,” wrote Cole.

•

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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.NEWS.

BIKE PATH

BY RYAN DETO RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

F

OR ALL the criticism of bikes, bike

lanes and bike-riders, there is one legitimate bike-related criticism that sticks: Bike-share systems often don’t help low-income and minority neighborhoods. In Washington, D.C., in 2016, only 4 percent of bike-share riders were African-American, despite being 50 percent of the city’s population. In Pittsburgh, the one Healthy Ride bikeshare station located in the Hill District is often the least-used station among the 50 located throughout the city.

Officials at Pittsburgh Bike Share, also known as Healthy Ride, recognize this disparity, and are tackling it headon with a recently announced expansion. By the end of 2018, Healthy Ride should have 125 additional stations, for a total of 175 stations throughout the city of Pittsburgh. Many of the stations are strategically located to increase connectivity to business districts and public transit, and some are moving into predominately black neighborhoods where there currently are no stations. More than 20 bikeshare stations are coming to unserved parts of East Liberty, the Hill District, Homewood, Larimer and predominately black areas of the North Side.

Healthy Ride spokesperson Erin Potts says the decision to expand into some of Pittsburgh’s black neighborhoods was always part of Healthy Ride’s plans.

“I think it comes down to our mission statement,” says Potts. “We are here to provide active-transportation options to Pittsburghers, regardless of their neighborhoods. We were missing out on neighborhoods in need of better transit.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF PITTSBURGH BIKE SHARE

Family riding bikes in the North Side

Potts says Healthy Ride started reaching out to low-income communities in 2016, about a year after the bike share launched in May 2015. Bike infrastructure hasn’t always been welcomed by low-income communities, but Potts is confident Healthy Ride’s new expansion can change some minds.

“A lot of people have preconceptions of what bike-share means for the community,” says Potts. “That is why we have been engaged. We don’t want [bikeshare] to be just for a certain demographic, and we don’t want this to be perceived as something not for them.”

Potts says another benefit more people can utilize is Healthy Ride’s partnership with the Port Authority of Allegheny County. Transit riders can tap their ConnectCards on Healthy Ride bikes to get a free 15-minute ride, even if riders don’t have a credit card. With more stations, Potts says it will be easier for Pittsburghers to complete the last mile of their commute.

In addition to the station expansion, Healthy Ride was also recently awarded a grant from New York-based Better Bike Share Partnership to increase engagement in low-income and minority

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neighborhoods. By this summer, Healthy Ride will hire an engagement coordinator and six stipend-based neighborhood ambassadors to run programs and teach riding classes in neighborhoods, such as Homewood and Larimer. Potts says ambassadors will be from the neighborhoods they are serving, and Healthy Ride will be partnering with organizations like the Thelma Lovette YMCA, in the Hill District, and the Homewood Children’s Village.

“We are really excited,” says Potts.

“We are really going to be relying on community.”

•

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.EDITORIAL.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: After the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette implemented certain changes, I decided to cut back drastically on my subscription by getting the Sunday only. I have noticed that the tenor of the paper is changing in a negative way. I had become uneasy.

After your editorial of Feb. 5 [“Pittsburgh Post-Gazette appointment of new editorial-page editor will make things worse”] regarding Keith Burris, an out-of-towner taking over the [editorials] desk, it confirmed my suspicions. I called to cancel my subscription effective March 25.

Today in the editorial section, he endorsed [Rick] Saccone for congress. I called the newspaper and expressed my opinion that a person not residing in the area should not be telling people who to vote for.

Respectfully, Lawrence D’Angelo Mount Lebanon

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LAMB’S WIN MARKS TURNING POINT

M

AKE NO mistake — Demo-

crat Conor Lamb’s win in last week’s special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District was a landslide.

It may sound strange to call an election decided by fewer than 700 votes a landslide, but consider this. Since the district was redrawn in 2000 to intentionally favor GOP candidates, Congressman Tim Murphy only received less than 60 percent of the vote once. (Murphy, a prolife Republican, was forced to resign last year after he counseled the woman with whom he was having an affair to get an abortion.) Republicans were not supposed to lose this district, but they did last week.

Lamb laid out a roadmap to Democratic victories in Trump country. Paul Ryan and Donald Trump say Lamb won because he’s essentially a Republican.

Well, they are essentially wrong. Lamb won because his platform and his background are representative of the communities he will serve. He’s a moderate Blue Dog Democrat who was able to speak to Democratic voters who voted for Trump in 2016.

Some Dems may be surprised that Blue Dogs still exist following the party’s deliberate and public migration to the far left in recent years. But many of these politicians were all more moderate until polling data told them to get on board more progressive causes. Do we like where Conor Lamb stands on some issues, like gun control? Absolutely not. But he is a solid vote for Dems in the House of Representatives, and he knows how to campaign to rural Democrats: talk about their financial situations; talk about the opioid epidemic; stand strong on the Second Amendment; and regardless of how he really feels about the president, talk about him as little as possible. Instead, talk about how coal and steel jobs haven’t

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

returned to the area; how steel tariffs will actually hurt existing business; and talk about the tax-cut plan that is so bad that Lamb’s Republican opponent stopped campaigning on it.

The only way to make big change is to gain control of the U.S. House and Senate. Conor Lamb > Conor Lamb

showed us the game plan to retake control. It involves being inclusive and listening to everyone’s issues, even when they don’t perfectly mesh with our own ideologies.

•

The City Paper editorial board is Charlie Deitch, Meg Fair and Celine Roberts. Send comments, questions and letters to info@pghcitypaper.com

JENSORENSEN

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The “School of Hard Knocks” is an old-fashioned idiom referring to the unofficial and accidental course of study available via life’s tough experiences. The wisdom one gains through this alternate approach to education may be equal or even superior to the knowledge that comes from a formal university or training program. I mention this, Aries, because in accordance with astrological omens, I want to confer upon you a diploma for your new advanced degree from the School of Hard Knocks. (P.S.: When Ph.D. students get their degrees from Finland’s University of Helsinki, they are given top hats and swords as well as diplomas. I suggest you reward yourself with exotic props, too.)

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13

.GUEST EST OPINION OPINION.

SHORT CHANGED

BY DOUGLAS J. GLADSTONE // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

blogh.pghcitypaper.com

Work yourself into a lather.

Rinse. Repeat.

E

IGHTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD Curt Raydon went to his grave March 3 no doubt believing that the “suits” who run our national pastime had turned their backs on him.

Raydon was a pitcher for the 1958 Pittsburgh Pirates. In 31 games, 20 of which he started, Raydon won eight games, one of which was a shutout; saved one more; and pitched two complete games. In 134-and-a-third innings, he compiled a 3.62 Earned Run Average.

A celebration of his life occurred on March 9 in Jasper, Texas, where he lived for the past 27 years. And there’s a lot to celebrate — just read his obituary. By all accounts, Raydon was a great guy. Yet this great guy was one of the 646 non-vested retirees without a Major League Baseball pension.

Raydon didn’t receive one because of a rule change that happened during the summer of 1980. At the time, a retired player needed four years of service to be eligible for the league’s health-coverage plan and to receive a monthly pension. However, in an effort to avert a strike, the league and the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (MLBPA) agreed that, moving forward, all a player would need to qualify for health insurance was one game day of service on an active MLB roster. To get a pension, the player needed just 43 game days of service on an active roster.

Mind you, that’s 43 game days on the bench. Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon might make seven or eight starts in 43 game days. But he gets 43 game days of service credit, not seven or eight.

The problem was, the union didn’t request that this rules change be made retroactive for men like Raydon — players with more than 43 game days of service, but less than four years.

Retirees like Raydon were instead thrown a bone in April 2011. For every 43 game days they were on an active MLB roster, each man received a payment of $625 for his service, up to $10,000. So Raydon was receiving $2,500 every year up until the day he died. Meanwhile, do you know how much vested retirees receive? Between $34,000 and $220,000 per year.

And here’s the kicker — the payment Raydon was receiving can’t be passed on to his spouse of 57 years, Donna. I don’t wish either MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred or MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark any ill will. I just wonder if they want to be treated in retirement the way they’re treating these non-vested men?

Remember gentlemen — karma, like curveball, is a bitch.

THERE’S A LOT TO CELEBRATE — JUST READ HIS OBITUARY.

•

Douglas J. Gladstone is a freelance writer and author of A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB & The Players’ Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve.

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2018

WE’RE BACK!

Think you know who rocks the ‘Burgh?

Nominate your local favorites.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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MORE FOOD CONTENT ONLINE: CHECK OUT OUR FISH FRY REVIEWS AT WWW.PGH CITYPAPER.COM

FOOD+DRINK

CP PHOTOS BY JOHN COLOMBO

Judy Ruskowski, volunteer naturalist, demonstrating to scouts

.FOOD.

MAPLE SYRUP TIME “It takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.”

BY CELINE ROBERTS // CELINE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

16

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I

T’S THE NEARING the end of Pennsylvania’s maple-

sugaring season, so put down the Log Cabin and spring for the real stuff. Nearby Somerset County has a collection of maple camps, but closer to the city in Fox Chapel, there’s a small educational operation run by Scott Detwiler, an environmental educator for the Audubon Society at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve. For the last 18 years, Detwiler has been tending the property’s “sugar bush,” or grove of maple trees, and teaching groups about the process of making maple syrup.

Long before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans here and throughout the Northeast were producing maple sugar to flavor their food and as a valuable item for trade.

(Sugar is more shelf-stable and can be reconstituted into syrup.) Colonists learned the technique from Native Americans and used maple sugar in place of cane sugar, which

was then an expensive luxury.

According to the American Maple Museum, maple sugar was also promoted by Quakers and abolitionists as an alternative to slave-produced cane sugar. “Until the late 1800s, it was the main source of sugar here,” says Detwiler. “When cane sugar was industrialized, it became more affordable, and it took over the sugar market. That’s when they switched over to maple syrup.”

According to the Somerset (N.J.) County Park Commission, the United States peak-production year for maple syrup was 1860, with 6.6 million gallons produced. The United States Department of Agriculture reports 2017 syrup production at 4.27 million gallons.

Producing maple syrup is a study in patience. A maple tree that’s large and mature enough to tap is about 40 years old. A tap is made by drilling a small hole in

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Scott Detwiler with a maple-syrup tap bucket

the trunk of the tree and funneling the sap into covered buckets; in modern operations, sap drips through plastic tubing hung from multiple trees into bags for efficiency. “You have to put a new tap hole in every year. The reason is, the wood stops carrying sap in that particular area around the tap. I won’t get sap out of it, if I tap too close to an old tap,” says Detwiler. The tree will heal over time and, barring unlikely infection, isn’t harmed by tapping. Larger trees can accommodate three to four taps, also called spiles, a season.

Syrup can be made from any type of maple, but sugar-maple sap, at 98 percent water and two percent sugar, produces the best syrup because it has the highest sugar content. More sugar means less time spent cooking the sap down. Since cooking takes up the majority of the production process that time saved can make a difference. “When it comes out of the tree, it looks like water because that’s mostly what it is,” says Detwiler. “It takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, if you’re using sugar maples.”

Other less-ideal varieties of maples, like the box elder, require as much as 70 gallons of sap to create one gallon of syrup.

A higher volume of sap requires a longer cook time, and the flavor suffers as a result. It takes about eight hours of cooking to take a batch of sap to syrup, and care must be taken not to burn it during the process. Detwiler uses a large wood-fired stove at Beechwood Farms. “It’s a specially shaped stove, like a maze. The sap goes back and forth

[across the cook top]. You can add the sap in this corner, and it will cook and move along. When it comes out the opposite corner, it will be maple syrup,” says Detwiler. This smaller-sized stove will accommodate the amount of syrup drawn from five to 50 taps. Beginner’s commercial stoves are typically eight feet long and are able to accommodate a larger volume. They also are more likely to use propane or diesel to heat the syrup, fuels which are easier to regulate than wood. After it’s cooked, the syrup must be filtered through a cloth sleeve, and then it’s ready for bottling.

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PRODUCING MAPLE SYRUP IS A STUDY IN PATIENCE. In Pennsylvania, the tapping season runs from January to the end of March; in more northern states, tapping can extend into May. Tapping for syrup requires a specific set of weather conditions. The temperature must be below freezing at night and above freezing during the day, and then freeze again in order to get the sap flowing in the dormant tree. Once spring comes, the tree will use the sap for growth, and tapping won’t be effective. “It used to be nobody tapped much before late February. But with the crazy weather patterns we have now, you have to tap earlier and earlier, just to be there in case you get a run [of sap],” says Detwiler.

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HOT TAKE: The mark of a good chef is not facility with the extravagant, but perfection with the simple, where there is no room to hide. And thus, the chocolate-chip cookie, with its few basic ingredients, should find the perfect balance between cookie and chocolate, crisp and chewy.

Cakery nails it. Cookie is big enough to share, or small enough to eat alone.

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.ON THE ROCKS.

TRENDING: CANNED WINE

BY CELINE ROBERTS // CELINE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

W

INE DRINKERS are used to buying wine by the glass, the bottle and, yes, by the box. But now there’s a new option: wine by the can. Recently, wine packaged in cans has been gaining popularity among wine drinkers who want to try something new or indulge in a more casual method of imbibing. Wine is a big business, with global wine sales cited at $100 billion by the Society of Wine Educators study manual. In 2016, in the U.S., the total wine sales were estimated at $59.5 billion according to the Wine Institute, with canned wine sales amounting to just $14.5 million, according to Nielsen. Though canned wine makes up just a tiny fraction of the total wine market, that’s certainly no chump change.

Megan Miller, a certified specialist of wine with Vine Street Imports, is a local wine representative in Pittsburgh and has seen the interest in canned wine start to catch on. “[Cans of wine are] great if you’re out somewhere, like you’re going to the movies and want to throw some in your purse.

[If you’re] somewhere mobile, and you just want to be able to toss it or recycle it,” says Miller. Cans also give the drinker the option of opening a smaller amount of wine, instead of cracking open a bottle and having to store the remaining portion. Miller also argues that packaging wine in this way is more sustainable, since it’s more easily crushed and recycled than glass.

Canned wines come in three sizes depending on the brand: 187ml, 250ml and 375ml (about a quarter, a third and half of a bottle, respectively). “Sometimes, the smaller sizes are more approachable,” says Miller. “Some people are sort of scared of these 375ml cans, because they might pay eight dollars for this. When if you think about it, you could have, for $16, a whole bottle of wine that’s a little better quality.” Quality does vary dramatically with canned wines, and some companies are starting to make vintages better suited for being canned.

Miller provided a few cans for sampling, including two rosés, a sparkling, a red blend and a chardonnay. I tried them all, both in the can and poured into a glass. To my palate, all of them were superior drunk from the glass and away from the tinny flavor of the can. But even sipped from a glass, most were fairly one-note on flavor. The sparkling wine, Frico Frizzante, stood out as the exception, with pleasant carbonation, slight minerality and a good level of dryness. I can imagine putting it in my pack for a hike in the summer and being pleased to drink it along the way.

“SOMETIMES THE SMALLER SIZES ARE MORE APPROACHABLE.”

•

CP PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK

Inside Kaibur Coffee

.FOOD.

NEW ON THE BLOCK

BY CELINE ROBERTS // CELINE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

L

ILI CAFE was long the touch-

point for punks in Polish Hill.

The cafe shared a building with Cruel Noise Records and The Copacetic Comics Company, making up a nerdy, punk trifecta.

A few months ago, when Lili’s owner, Heidi Tucker, decided she wanted to close her business, she asked one of her employees, Chris Laffoon, if he would be interested in the spot. Laffoon was already taking steps to open a coffee truck, but changed course to set up shop in the space. “This is such a good spot. The customer base is here. The community is really great. The location in general is perfect,” says Laffoon.

On March 4, two weeks after it had closed as Lili, the shop was reopened as Kaibur Coffee and Cafe.

KAIBUR COFFEE 3138 Dobson St., Polish Hill. www.facebook.com/kaiburcoffee/

Laffoon, who has a blue lightsaber tattoo gracing one middle finger, named the shop after the kyber crystals the Sith and Jedi use to construct lightsabers, in Star Wars. “I have a lot more Star Wars stuff,” he says, smiling, “but I just sprinkle it in where I can. It can’t be too much. Although, I never think there’s too much.”

The space is clean, modern and bright. “Now that the windows are more

open, it feels a lot bigger,” says Laffoon.

He also added a bar with a few stools and expanded the kitchen. “Lili was always the ‘day bar’ of Polish Hill,” says MJ Flott, who runs the pastry program for the cafe. “Now that we have this countertop, it can truly be the day bar.”

Snackable content to read on the go.

“THE COMMUNITY IS REALLY GREAT.” Flott, who has been making vegan pastries under the name Wolf Teeth Donuts for about a year, was also a former Lili employee. She and Frankie Mulheran, another Lili employee, were asked to stay on and run the kitchen for Kaibur. The expanded kitchen helped the staff develop new recipe ideas and test them. Flott and Mulheran have kept some Lili classics, like the Moonstruck, an egg-in-a-hole with cheddar cheese, avocado and spicy vegenaise. “[The customers] know the menu and the coffee. It’s just been updated,” says Laffoon. “I’m just trying to bring new stuff in the same location. We want to keep the same community feel, but with my spin on it.” The menu is almost entirely vegetarian, with many vegan and gluten-free options. Kaibur gets its coffee from Elixr, in Philadelphia, and it pairs nicely with the vegan donuts, pie, cinnamon rolls and other treats that Flott dreams up.

•

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Saga continues to excite!

For many years, the Pittsburgh food scene was not acclaimed for its international food options, but in recent years, that has all changed.

The region has seen a surge in dining options that don’t involve french fries as a topping. Not that we are judging fries on salads — it’s delicious! However, it is refreshing to see dining options become more international.

Saga, a family business, is under the new direction and ownership of Susan Lin; her brother originally opened the first location in Akron, Ohio in 1999. Since then, the business has expanded to four locations across Pittsburgh, including South Hills (now under new management), Robinson-Settlers Ridge, Cranberry and Monroeville locations.

Lin says, “At Saga, we strive to bring the freshest and highest-quality ingredients to our clients to experience fun and interactive dining.

Whether you are looking for a relaxing dinner in our Sushi Lounge or the excitement of tableside hibachi, Saga has it.”

Saga is an obvious choice for group celebrations, as it’s a fun and entertaining dinner option. In addition to dining options, Saga has a full bar featuring a multitude of sake choices.

When at Saga, try one of Susan’s favorite sakes at the South Hills location. Sake, an Asian rice wine is often served warm, but it can also be served chilled. Some of the drinks, are smooth in flavor, slightly sweet with hints of pear. It is very similar to a regional fruit wine you might find in Pennsylvania.

An interesting dish is the chef’s choice of sashimi, nigiri and maki rolls.

The maki rice is cooked perfectly and the fish has a wonderful texture.

Another notable menu item is the South Hills “Japanese salad.” It’s a non-traditional American creation, with a Japanese flair: seaweed salad, fresh sashimi, marinated octopus and spicy mayonnaise combine to create a fresh take on a Chirashi bowl. When you’re in the South Hills, you’ll want to check out this local creation.

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Eighty Acres Kitchen & Bar offers a refined, modern approach to contemporary American cuisine with a strong emphasis on local, farm-to-table products.

MERCURIO’S ARTISAN GELATO AND NEAPOLITAN PIZZA 5523 WALNUT ST., SHADYSIDE 412-621-6220 MERCURIOSGELATOPIZZA.COM Authentic Neapolitan pizza, artisan gelato, and an inviting atmosphere are just a small part of what helps create your experience at Mercurio’s Gelato and Pizza in Pittsburgh, PA. It’s not your standard pizza shop; in fact, this isn’t a “pizza shop” at all.

CASA REYNA 2031 PENN AVE., STRIP DISTRICT CASAREYNAPGH.COM Find our Mexican hideaway just downstairs from Reyna Foods in the heart of the Strip District. Fresh tortillas come off the line and onto your plate, as you watch through the window. The menu is exciting; the dishes are fresh, local and delicious. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable, and the atmosphere inviting. Come for the tortillas, stay for the extensive tequila list and homemade artisan Mexican chocolate ice cream.

PIAZZA TALARICO 3832 PENN AVE., LAWRENCEVILLE 412-652-9426 PIAZZATALARICO.COM Piazza Talarico and Papa Joe’s Wine Cellar is a small, family-owned restaurant and winery in Western Pennsylvania serving authentic Italian peasant food. Enjoy the fresh food on site or take out. Specializes in “Baked Maccheron”, an al forno dish of rigatoni, Grandma’s sauce, cheese, pepperoni and boiled eggs.

FULL PINT WILD SIDE TAP ROOM 5310 BUTLER ST., LAWRENCEVILLE 412-408-3083 / FULLPINTBREWING.COM Full Pint Wild Side Taproom is Full Pint Brewing company’s Lawrenceville location and features a full service bar, huge sandwiches and half-priced happy hour. Open 4 p.m.-midnight, Mon.-Fri., and noon –midnight on Saturday. Check us out on Facebook for upcoming shows and events.

SAGA HIBACHI 201 SOUTH HILLS VILLAGE MALL, BETHEL PARK 412-835-8888 SAGAHIBACHI.COM Saga in the South Hills is now under new management. Stop in for exciting table-side preparations and the famous shrimp sauce. Or sit in the sushi-bar area for the freshest sushi experience, with both traditional preparations and contemporary variations.

BROAD STREET BISTRO 1025 BROAD ST., NORTH VERSAILLES 412-829-2911 / BROADSTBISTRO.COM Broad Street Bistro is a neighborhood restaurant offering daily specials.

ALL food is prepared fresh and made to order. It is family friendly with a special kids’ menu.

SENYAI THAI KITCHEN 5865 ELLSWORTH AVE., SHADYSIDE 412-441-4141 / SENYAIPGH.COM Immersed in authenticity, Senyai Thai Kitchen creates an intricate fusion of food and design, where every detail transports you to a faraway place.

Traditional favorites and new creations like jumbo lump crab curry make Senyai a destination.

PIZZA WEEK 2018 HAS BEGUN!

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

21

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT

CP PHOTOS BY JOHN COLOMBO

Peggy Yoo and Elisa Kohanski, of IonSound Project, in East Liberty’s Giant Eagle on Sun., March 18

.MUSIC.

OVER HERE “We’re trying to interrupt anxiety, stress, and possibly boredom or tedium and frustration.”

BY REBECCA ADDISON // RADDISON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

O

VER THE PAST several weeks, musicians with IonSound Project have been popping up in retailers around Pittsburgh. One day you might find them at Costco, another day, the melodious notes coming from their instruments can be heard wafting through the aisles of Trader Joe’s. But the musicians aren’t playing for the customers at these stores — they’re there for the employees.

“There’s this experience that all of us have had, where we might be having a terrible day, and then we hear live music coming from an open window somewhere,” says Joy Katz, who has been collaborating on the project. “And just for a moment or two, it changes your body — you stop what you’re doing and suddenly become a part of a larger sphere again. Just for a moment, it interrupts whatever was going

on or causing you anxiety.”

IonSound set out to make that experience happen intentionally.

The Pittsburgh-based contemporary classical-music chamber group currently serves as ensemble-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh. And this season, it was interested in doing a more socially engaging project.

That’s why the group turned to Katz, a poet and essayist who specializes in social-practice art. Together, the members decided on a series of pop-up performances that would target shift workers, wage workers, construction workers and affective laborers, those people whose jobs require them to present a cheerful image throughout their shift.

IonSound’s mission isn’t to distract these workers.

CONTINUES ON PG. 24

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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OVER HERE, CONTINUED FROM PG. 22

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This isn’t a flash mob that calls on people to drop what they’re doing and watch. Instead, the musicians have been playing in places where they can be overheard by workers, while not getting in their faces.

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“We’re not trying to interrupt people as they’re working,” says Katz.

“We’re trying to interrupt anxiety, stress, and possibly boredom or tedium and frustration.”

So far, song selections at these pop-

•

.PHOTOGRAPHY.

SATURDAY, MAY 19, 7:30 PM CARNEGIE LECTURE HALL

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IONSOUND PROJECT 7 p.m. Sat., March 24. Bellefield Hall, 315 S Bellefield Ave., Oakland. Free. www.ionsound.org

ups have included everything from a piece by classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach, to a song by bass guitarist Steve Wright, played partly by manipulating beer bottles filled with water. In addition to retailers, IonSound musicians have also appeared at construction sites, restaurant kitchens, loading docks and post offices.

IonSound’s OverHear/OverHere series will culminate with a final concert on Sat., March 24. It will include pieces from the workplace performances, along with music by Michael Torke, Bohuslav Martinu, local Pittsburgh composer Roger Zahab, Steve Reich and a new work by Jason Treuting. The event promises to invite audience participation and upset concert-going norms.

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DIVERSE LAUGHS

BY CHARLIE DEITCH // CDEITCH@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T

HIS WEEKEND two comics hit town in separate shows, highlighting the

diversity of national talent that swings through local clubs and theaters.

Actor, writer and comedian Deon Cole will do five shows at the Pittsburgh Improv on March 22-24. On March 23, drag queen and insult comic extraordinaire, Bianca Del Rio plays stage AE.

+

Deon Cole is best known for his work on the hit ABC sitcom, Blackish. But long before that, he was a writer for Conan O’Brien and has been doing standup since the late 1990s.

In fact, Cole may be one of the best obDEON COLE servational comics working in clubs today. “I 8 p.m. Thu., March 22; 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. was at a bar one time, and I was the only black Fri., March 23; and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Sat., dude down there. I asked the waitress about March 24. Pittsburgh Improv, 166 E. the drink specials, and she said, ‘We have waBridge St., The Waterfront, Homestead. $25-75. www.pittsburgh.improv.com termelon mojitos,’” Cole says, in his 2017 appearance on the Netflix series The Standups.

“Watermelon mojitos? That sounds delicious. I never heard of a watermelon mojito. can t order But then I started thinking — damn, I’m the only black dude down here, I can’t ears if I order that. So, I that shit. I’ll set black people back 10 years use me, white woman, got a white woman to order for me. ‘Excuse os, please?’” can you order me 17 watermelon mojitos,

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The winner of Season 6 of RuPaul’s l’s Drag Race, Bianca Del Rio (a.k.a. Roy Haylock), is an insult comic in the classic sense of the word. getic. “So, since you She’s quick, deliberate and unapologetic. esbian,” she asks were 14, you’ve known you were a lesbian,” e of her cabaret a front-row audience member at one shows, who answers t, why “Wait, BIANCA DEL RIO shyly. do you feel awk8 p.m. Fri., March 24. ward now? You’re Stage AE, 400 North Shore rkenwearing BirkenDrive, North Side. $45-85. www.promowestlive.com stocks, bitch — own it.”

Besides that, she’s also got great stories based on her life. “I did meth once … u You know how when you do drugs, you go to the bathroom to check yourself? Well, m and when I did meth, I went to the bathroom retiled the whole goddamned thing!”

Bianca Del Rio

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

25

.CD REVIEW.

LOCAL BEAT

BY MEG FAIR MEGFAIR@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

BAD CUSTER >>

BY BAD CUSTER SELF-RELEASED WWW.BADCUSTER. BANDCAMP.COM

Bad Custer’s self-titled debut begins with the song “We Don’t Play Rock ’n’ Roll,” a curious title for a record of nine distorted-rock tracks. This statement is comically amplified in the final chorus, as Jesse Davis (guitar/vocals) and Phil Giammattei (bass/vocals) belt out the title of the track over an extravagant guitar solo.

But humor, especially the dark kind, is kind of Bad Custer’s thing. On “I’m Doing Good,” the lyrics are twisted, detached from reality and served over upbeat, jangly riffs: “You see Buddy Holly and he offers to buy you a flip phone / but it’s OK because Buddy Holly is dead.” This attitude returns on “Andrea,” the story of a woman whose life decays into alcohol-fueled tragedy, served in a bouncy tone with an early-Beck vibe.

Not every song is all laughs — “Bones Like Lightning” is a sinister, meandering jam that plays on the classic revenge trope.

Whether Bad Custer is being silly or ominous, either way it’s rock ‘n’ roll, and pretty good rock ’n’ roll at that. •

, 2018 MARCIEHRE AB3 O–UT2FI5NDING HOME

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Halle Mastroberardino and Kurt Kemper in 42nd Street

.PLAY REVIEW.

PROPER SEND-OFF

BY TED HOOVER // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

N

EXT SEASON, the Pittsburgh Playhouse disappears.

It won’t vanish, but it will cease to exist as a performing-arts space when the theater and dance students of Point Park University move to a newly-built space Downtown. There are a few more shows left in the season, but the current production, 42nd Street, is the last musical that’ll ever be seen at this fabled Pittsburgh landmark. And I can’t think of a better send-off.

42ND STREET continues through Sun., March 25.

Pittsburgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Ave., Oakland. $10-24. www.pittsburghplayhouse.com

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Based on the 1933 film, 42nd Street opened on Broadway in 1980 and is the quintessential backstage musical: Peggy Sawyer lands a spot in the chorus of a big B’way show and winds up going on in the leading role. (“You’re going out there a kid, but you’ve got to come back a star!”) It’s fitting that a space which has hosted so many musicals would take a final musical bow with a show saluting musicals.

But that’s just the half of it. Over the last few centuries, I’ve seen a number of glorious theatrical events at the Playhouse. This production of 42nd Street ranks as one of the best.

Director/choreographer (and Point Park alum) Eileen Grace was in the

first national tour of 42nd Street and has used original director/choreographer Gower Champion’s work as the vehicle to spotlight a cast of such forceful, scalding talent that, at times, you’re overwhelmed and breathless.

The friend with whom I saw the show couldn’t believe these students weren’t adults with years of experience under their belts.

Thanks to the mesmerizing work of Grace, every single person on that stage explodes their considerable talents straight to the heavens. Whether dancing, singing or playing the comedy, there is — and I know this sounds impossible — not a single flaw to be seen.

Halle Mastroberardino is a whirling flash of energy and charm as Peggy, with tap-dancing skills that’ll leave you slack-jawed. Jeremy Spoljarik and Nora Krupp, as the show-within-theshow’s director and diva, turn in velvet performances, textured and expertly underplayed. Kayla Muldoon and Gabe Reed get deserved laughs in their character roles, and Kurt Kemper and Emily Stoken sing and dance like they invented it.

I happily salute the incredible work of musical director Camille Rolla and her orchestra; Michael Montgomery’s costuming; and Johnmichael Bohach’s settings, lit by Calvin Anderson.

Whoever is buying the building may not need to hire bulldozers to knock it down, since the power of this production is practically nuclear.

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CP PHOTO BY SARAH WILSON

Brenda Leeds, of Old Game

.MUSIC PREVIEW.

KNOWLEDGE SHARE

BY MEG FAIR // MEGFAIR@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T

HE WORLD of do-it-yourself music can seem foreign and daunting to those

not born into it. Sure, you could mine punk and riot-grrrl zines from the 1990s, or heed the adage of “ask a punk.” But all of that can be intimidating, especially if those punks don’t look like you.

Brenda Leeds, of local rock band Old Game, and Sasha Alcott, of When Particles Collide (formerly of Maine, currently of New Hampshire), are aware of this. A few months ago, Alcott pitched Leeds on holding a workshop where attendees could learn how to book and efficiently tour in the DIY style — no labels, booking agents or managers involved. On Fri., March 23, that workshop comes to Pittsburgh.

For Alcott and Leeds, it was important that the event focus on female-identifying musicians, since there is still a perception that DIY-style touring and music is a boys’ game. It can be intimidating to ask questions about everything from tour planning to gear, if you feel like you’re not the majority in your community.

Leeds has previously organized workshops for guitar-pedal talk and experimentation for women in the Pittsburgh scene. “We were less fearful to ask each other questions, and felt more comfortable to be vulnerable or admit we didn’t know something,” explains Leeds.

TALK & ROCK WORKSHOP 7 p.m. Fri., March 23. The Glitter Box Theater, 460 Melwood Ave., Oakland. $7-10. www.theglitterboxtheater.com

The women-led touring workshop, Leeds hopes, will replicate that safe space for curiosity and education. “[The workshop] is meant to be a space to share knowledge with each other: how to be safe on tour, how to be successful, network, be organized, socialize,” says Leeds.

Alcott, a former chemistry teacher and current full-time musician, will be leading the session and performing acoustically. Leeds will also be performing an acoustic set.

Leeds has been a part of Old Game since 2014, but she began touring just over a year ago and is excited to learn more about DIY touring herself.

Speaking of Alcott and her husband, Leeds says: “Being able to hear their journey in a chronological way for the first time is exciting: How long it took them to get where they are, the energy it takes to get where they are and how they did it. They’re very creative, but they have this other side that allows them to sustain themselves full time financially.”

This will be the first workshop When Particles Collide has taught, and Alcott plans to do more. Although When Particles Collide isn’t from here, the duo decided to hold the first workshop in Pittsburgh.

“They really care about the Pittsburgh fans and friends, which is why they chose Pittsburgh,” says Leeds. “They know we have a lot of talented musicians here.”

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

27

THE SURPRISING ROMANTIC COMEDY

“SOARING. THRILLING!” — The New York Times PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAVIS FULLERTON/VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Edgar Degas’ “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen”

.

.ART

DOMESTIC COLLECTION

BY REBECCA ADDISON // RADDISON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

P

PERFORMED IN THE ROUND!

BY

SIMON STEPHENS (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) DIRECTED BY Pittsburgh favorite ROBIN ABRAMSON

Two-time Tony nominee ANTHONY HEALD

TRACY BRIGDEN

412.316.1600 BUY ONLINE PPT.ORG March 8 – April 8 CALL

O’REILLY THEATER

ITTSBURGH’S NATIVE son, Paul Mellon, might not be as well remembered as his father, banking titan Andrew Mellon, but the contributions he and his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon, made to the art community are widely recognized.

Over the years, the pair donated more than 1000 works to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Last week, part of their collection came to Pittsburgh. The exhibit, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas: The Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, will be on display at The Frick Museum through July 8.

“This collection was very precious to them,” says Frick Executive Director Robin Nicholson. “It’s what they lived with.”

The exhibit includes more than 70 works by prominent artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including Gustave Courbet, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cézanne, Pierre Bonnard and more. But Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh are the stars here.

VAN GOGH, MONET, DEGAS Continues through July 8. The Frick Museum, 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze. $15. thefrickpittsburgh.org

Upon entering the exhibit, the landscapes portion of the collection is the first viewers see. On display here is Van Gogh’s “The Wheat Field behind St. Paul’s Hospital, St. Rémy.” Completed in 1889, the oil painting depicts the view from Van Gogh’s window in the hospital where he stayed to deal with his mental health issues.

In the next room, Degas’ “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” takes center stage. While the sculpture, cast in bronze and complete with a cloth skirt tutu and satin hair ribbon, is Degas’ most famous, it caused some controversy in its day. Reaction to the piece varied widely but, according to Frick’s chief curator Sarah Hall, some people thought it was ugly.

Another of the pieces in the Frick exhibit is “Irises by a Pond,” a nearly floorto-ceiling oil painting by Monet. Composed mostly of shades of green, yellow, brown and blue, pops of violet, springing from the canvas, draw the eye.

The works comprise an intimate domestic collection that reflects the tastes and even interests of its former owners. Mellon was a horse breeder, and there is a whole section of the exhibit dedicated to paintings of the animal.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has housed the collection for decades, but the museum is currently undergoing renovations. After the collection’s first stop in Pittsburgh, it will make several more on a nearly two-year international tour before returning home.

Says executive director Nicholson, “It possibly will never travel again.”

•

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.WEBSERIES.

WELCOME TO HELL

BY ALEX GORDON ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

A

STORY as old as time: You accidentally shoot and kill your best friend with an antique revolver, so you move to rural Ohio with your boyfriend to take a teaching job, where the dead, still-blood-covered best friend comes back in ghost form to haunt and help you, while dipping his toes in the local theater scene.

That’s the storyline at the heart of [Blank] My Life: Goodbye New York, Hello Hell, a surreal comedy webseries created by Carnegie Mellon alum and Pittsburgh-area actor Alex Spieth.

This is technically the third season of the show, though if you’re familiar with the first two outings of BML, you’ll notice a distinct change in the latest one. What started as a collection of vignettes, tracing the life of a twentysomething New Yorker dealing with some very twentysomething New

PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL KOHLBRENNER

Frozen over: Alex Spieth in [Blank] My Life: Goodbye New York, Hello Hell

[BLANK] MY LIFE: GOODBYE NEW YORK, HELLO HELL Debuts fall 2018. www.blankmylifetheseries.com

Yorkerish issues, is now something far more fleshed-out and chronological.

The pivot, says Spieth, was due to a rough breakup, but also an overall

desire to bring BML out of the lowly world of “webseries” and into something that could be taken a little more seriously.

She now prefers the term “series.”

“If you talk about making a short film, there seems to be more reverence, and even a ‘pilot’ is better,” Spieth wrote in an email to City Paper. “Even though the quality and viewership may be on par, the term ‘webseries’ is hip and flimsy.”

So “series” it is.

Aside from Spieth’s Pittsburgh connection, previous seasons have leaned heavily on local talent, including Fuller House’s Adam Hagenbuch (CMU ’13), Pittsburgh mainstays Randy Kovitz and Laurie Klatscher, and CMU professor Gregory Lehane.

Goodbye New York, Hello Hell — shot in Pittsburgh in January 2018 and due out this fall — may sound like it travels at least some well-trodden material (leaving New York, grief, small towns, zombie BFFs). But if the previous seasons are any indication, the writing, acting and production will lift the material into something novel. Dark, surreal comedy is not rare these days, but based on the trailer (small sample size, granted), this outing of BML looks like it’ll strike a nice balance of serious and silly, dipping into absurdity while keeping its feet on the ground.

“Consciously, I was writing to give the [cast and crew] the most opportunity for fun, and subconsciously, I was writing about heartbreak,” Spieth wrote to CP. “All of a sudden (in 10 days), I had a new script about a girl being haunted by the ghost of the best friend she has recently killed. And, like God on the seventh day, I knew it was good.”

•

FREE READING! National Book Award-Winning Poet

March 29, 7:30 p.m.

ACE HOTEL Gymnasium

120 S. Whitfield St. (Near Penn Ave. & Baum Blvd.)

Pittsburgh, PA 15206

Sponsored by University of Pittsburgh Press & the Center for African American Poetry & Poetics For information call 412-383-2493 PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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Kick it with a

TASTY GROOVE Djs are every Wed, Fri, & Sat. 10pm - 1am. Bands start between 8 - 9 pm on Thursday nights.

March 22nd

Accoustic open mic with Jake & Murphy

March 29th Told Ya So

April 5th Juan & Co.

April 12th

The Cause (dead cover band)

April 19th

From top, Spoor, Bombshell: The Life of Hedy Lamarr and Life and Nothing More

Told Ya So

.FILM.

April 26th

FACES OF (IN)EQUALITY

Ridgemont High (80s covers)

BY CP STAFF // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T DJs & LIVE MUSIC Outdoor seating now open

EatShady.com

412-697-0909

5500 Walnut Street, Shadyside

HE CARNEGIE Mellon International

Film Festival: Faces of (In)Equality runs Thu., March 22, through April 8, with more than a dozen feature films and documentaries. Unless noted, films screen at McConomy Auditorium, on the CMU campus, in Oakland, and tickets are $10 ($5 students/seniors).

The opening-night film, Life and Nothing More, Antonio Méndez Esparza’s drama about an African-American teenage boy trying to find his place, is $15 ($10 students/seniors), and includes a reception. A complete schedule, including guest speakers and specials events, is at www.cmu.edu/faces.

Below are reviews of some of the films screening: SPOOR. In Agnieszka Holland’s drama, we meet Duszejko at daybreak. She’s a loner and an eccentric older woman

with a soft heart for animals, living in a small religious hunting town in Poland. The day her dogs go missing begins a series of deaths. As Duszejko searches for a way to end the violence and the illegal poaching in the area, she discovers that every person in town is carrying their own painful secrets. Broken up by the hunting season, this movie’s natural beauty, drama and mysterious characters are engaging. In Polish, with subtitles. 3 p.m.

Sat., March 24. McConomy (Celine Roberts) FOR AHKEEM. We first meet 17-yearold Daje Shelton on her way to court, where she’s sentenced to an alternative school after she’s busted for fighting. The rest of Landon Van Soest’s coming-of-age documentary follows Daje over several years in predominately black St. Louis, where she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son, Ahkeem. She struggles,

CARNEGIE MELLON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: FACES OF (IN)EQUALITY March 22-April 8. McConomy Auditorium, CMU campus Oakland. www.cmu.du/faces

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wanting to give him a better life, while male classmates keep getting killed; then, further disbelief: news footage of Michael Brown being shot by police in nearby Ferguson. There’s minimal soundtrack, and the film’s broken up with Daje’s diary entries. Throughout the movie, there is also one constant: Daje’s smile. You can’t help but want to keep rooting for her. 7 p.m. Sat., March 24.

McConomy (Lisa Cunningham) BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE). Robin Campillo’s ensemble drama focuses on ACT UP Paris, a group of AIDS activists in the early 1990s. They hold lengthy, informative meetings; stage headlinegrabbing actions against pharmaceutical companies; and support each other through tough times and late-night dance parties. Slowly emerging from the depiction of the group’s mission is a sweet and emotionally wrought love story between two members, one who is HIV+ and lives “his politics in the first person.” A powerful document of a heartbreaking, yet hopeful, period. In French, with subtitles. 7 p.m.

For Ahkeem

Thu., March 29. McConomy (Al Hoff) THE DEPARTURE. Lana Wilson’s documentary follows Ittetsu Nemoto, a Buddhist priest who’s dedicated his life to counseling suicidal people. His calendar is filled, leaving little time for himself, his wife and toddler, or the dance clubs he visits to blow off steam. Some of the sessions are held one-on-one over soup, some take place in group retreats at the temple, but he’s consistently able to leave his subjects on a hopeful note. Nemoto is a mesmerizing and gifted counselor, and as the film goes on, you get the sense that he should take some of his own advice. He’s aloof at home and his health is fading. The film, like its main subject, is a quiet exercise in empathy that’s likely to leave audiences more hopeful than defeated, if only by a hair. 7 p.m. Fri., March 30. McConomy (Alex Gordon) BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY. The Viennese actress was known for her stunning good looks and her sultry roles in Hollywood film like Algiers and White Cargo. But until recently, the world never knew that Lamarr was also an invet-

erate inventor, with a keen scientific mind.

Determined to help the U.S. during World War II, she helped invent a radio communication technique known as “frequency hopping.” Don’t yawn: Your smartphone uses it today. Alexandra Dean’s documentary will fill you in on Lamarr’s remarkable, if troubled, life. 7 p.m. Fri., April 6.

McConomy (AH) Other films screening are: The Doctor From India, a doc about a doctor who uses alternative-medicine techniques in his practice (March 23); the Tunisian sexual-assault drama, Beauty and the Dogs (March 25); Sacred Hearts, a Romanian period drama set in the 1930s (March 28); Clash, a drama set in Egypt’s recent political turmoil (April 1); Risk, a doc about WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange (April 4); the doc Mali Blues, featuring musician from the West African country (April 5, screens at Carlow University and Carnegie Museum of Art); Pendular, about Brazilian artists working together (April 7); Human Flow, Ai Wei Wei’s doc about forced migration (April 8); and a short-film competition (March 31, at Melwood).

DUQUESNE LIGHT WILL BE HOSTING AN INFORMATION AND NETWORKING SESSION FOR OUR ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM. Network with Duquesne Light Professionals and Learn about our EDT Program!!!

•

THURSDAY

APRIL 5

.MUSIC.

MP 3 MONDAY >> VENUS IN FURS Each week we post a song from a local artist online for free. This week, it’s “Gary,”

by Venus in Furs. The grimy, synth-tinged alternative-rock number oozes longing. It would sound at home in a neon-lit warehouse club full of sweaty bodies.

Stream or download “Gary” for free on FFW>>>, the music blog at pghcitypaper.com.

5:00PM WESTIN HOTEL DOWNTOWN 1000 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222

For additional information, Visit our careers site at www.duquesnelight.com/careers and register using requisition ID 10981 PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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Experience the creation of a new musical!

MARCH 26 - APRIL 8 Get your festival pass NOW! • pittsburghCLO.org/SPARK

PHOTO COURTESY OF KRISTI JAN HOOVER

Shamika Cotton and Ngozi Anyanwu in Citizens Market

MC KEESPORT LITTLE THEATER PRESENTS...

g n i d a e L Ladies A COMEDY BY

Ken Ludwig

MARCH 22, 23, 24, 25, 2018

Friday and Saturday performances at 8:00p.m.; Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.

TICKETS ARE $15, $10 ON THURSDAYS - GROUP RATES AVAILABLE. HANDICAPPED ACCESSIBLE.

1614 COURSIN STREET • McKEESPORT • (412) 673-1100 FOR RESERVATIONS VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.MCKEESPORTLITTLETHEATER.COM

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.PLAY REVIEW.

NEW AMERICANS

BY ALEX GORDON // ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

I

T’S NOT uncommon for people

working in close quarters, for long hours and under stressful circumstances, to forge strong bonds, friendships, romances and even a surrogate sense of family. And there’s no shortage of workplace dramas in film, television, theater and literature to remind us of that phenomenon.

While some of those stories can veer into hokey sensationalism, the best of them allow the connections to form organically, in small moments accumulating over time. That slowburning approach to the genre is the key to Citizens Market, an unconventional workplace drama staged at City Theatre through March 25.

CITIZENS MARKET Continues through Sun., March 25.

City Theatre, 1300 Bingham St., South Side. $38 for adults; $15 for those under 30 (call in advance). www.citytheatrecompany.org

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The workplace in this instance is, well, a market on 119th Street in New York City called the Super Union. The set, by Toni Ferrieri, creates a stunningly realistic interior replete with aisles of dry foods, an upstairs office, and fruit you’ll want to eat off the rack.

The other half of the play’s title is a nod to the sense of community the shop provides, and the anxiety over the legal statuses of the people who work there. Each of the shop’s em-

ployees is an immigrant, though the “legality” of each is unclear and the threat of deportation hangs over the ensemble throughout.

The characters come from all over the world — Ghana, Ireland, Sierra Leone, Romania — but they’re all united in the belief that with enough hard work in their new country, they’ll be able to build better lives for themselves.

The market’s manager, Jesus (Juan Francisco Villa), dreams of saving up enough to buy the Super Union from its owners; Akosua (Ngozi Anyanwu) has a newfound confidence after receiving her green card and plans to go to school; and Ciara (Shamika Cotton) selflessly works so she can provide for her family back in Sierra Leone. Their problems are unique, but the script, by Cori Thomas, succeeds by focusing on the sympathy the characters have for each another; they’re all essentially dealing with the same issue: how to build a new life in a strange land.

This approach could easily devolve into a hundred minutes of hugs and handholding, but that’s not what Market delivers. Instead, it’s a nuanced story with no shortage of humor, verbal jabs, racial tension and ambiguous characters.

Thomas writes in the program notes that she hopes the audience will leave the show “realizing that an America where everyone is not welcome to try to work and live alongside those already here, is not America.” She has succeeded.

•

TOP 5

HARMLESS TWITTER BOTS THAT WON’T AFFECT ANY ELECTIONS

BY ALEX GORDON ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Screenshot of tweet by @TVCommentBot

ICE T SVU “Medical examiner says she was high on somethin’ called Mannequin Time Warp.

It’s a nootropic for sloths.”

Simple: computer-generated Ice T dialogue for Law & Order SVU, by @icetsvu.

TV HELPER Closed captioning is an imperfect science, and @TVCommentBot highlights some of its oddest and funniest failures.

ACCIDENTAL HAIKU Though it is not planned, sometimes people tweet haikus, without knowing it. @Accidental575 shares them with the world.

MOBY DICK There are more than 200,000 words in Melville’s classic whale tale, and they’re tweeted out line by line every two hours by @MobyDickAtSea.

OLD FRUIT PICTURES Old paintings of fruit, it turns out, are super relaxing.

By @pomological. Enjoy!

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

33

.BOOK REVIEW.

ON OUR SHELF

BY REBECCA ADDISON RADDISON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

TWO SIDES, THREE RIVERS >>

BY SHARON DILWORTH BRIDGE AND TUNNEL BOOKS WWW.BRIDGEANDTUNNELBOOKS.COM

A cemetery picnic. A quaint home in the Mon Valley. The settings in Sharon Dilworth’s new short story collection will be familiar to Pittsburgh-area readers.

But the themes in the collection are universal. Many stories explore how people deal with grief. In several, characters set off in search of truth, or an answer to a question that will surely heal their pain. But whether it’s information gleaned from consulting a medium or hiring a private eye, when these characters find what they seek, they’re usually worse off.

Other stories examine how loss defines people. In one, a man reflects on his mother’s miscarriage two years before he was born.

“She let it define her because she could remember her tragedy any way she wanted to — somehow the mother of a dead baby was more important to her than being the mother of four kids,” Dilworth writes.

All of these stories are set against the backdrop of a city very much in transition. A lot of today’s headlines regarding our fair city emphasize how Pittsburgh has overcome its Rust Belt roots. But Two Sides reminds us that those roots, and the people emblematic of them, are what make this city such a treasure. •

LET S GET ’

S CIAL

)ROORZ XV WR ƓQG RXW ZKDWōV KDSSHQLQJ @PGHCITYPAPER Ř FACEBOOK.COM/PITTSBURGHCITYPAPER

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PHOTO COURTESY OF LUKE EWING

Carver, one of the interviewees

.FILM SERIES.

PULLING AWAY FROM GOD

BY CELINE ROBERTS // CELINE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

A

REFRAIN among some politicians is that “America is a Christian nation.” And according to a 2015 Pew research study of 35,000 Americans, there is some truth to this. In 2014, about 70.6 percent of those surveyed claimed Christian beliefs. However, this was a decline from 78.4 percent in 2007.

The Pew study attributes some of this decline to the flight of millennials from organized Christianity.

GROWING UP, BOTH MEN WERE STEEPED IN EVANGELICAL CULTURE Pittsburgh filmmakers Luke Ewing and Dan Winne can relate. Now in their early thirties, they’re former evangelical Christians who left (or exited, as they call it) the church. Ewing left the faith six years ago, and Winne left four years ago. Now they identify respectively as a skeptic and an agnostic.

Their film series, Exodus, created through their small video-production company, MothFx, explores millennial flight from religion.

Growing up, both men were steeped in evangelical culture. Ewing is the son of a missionary, and Winne is the son of a pastor. The two met at the Moody Bible Institute, in Chicago, and then both moved to Pittsburgh to start MothFx. As both men began to doubt their faith, they became interested in the stories of others going through the same

thing. “Us and a bunch of friends were going through a bunch of doubts and questions about our faith. In leaving, it was pretty traumatic with our families. They didn’t take it well. It just felt like these stories were interesting and different,” says Winne.

Both men enjoy the chance to connect with others over these stories. “You might be good friends with somebody and still not know all of the details of their experience, and may not have the opportunity to ask all the questions you would want to. This gives us an opportunity to ask those questions,” says Ewing.

For the past two-and-a-half years, Ewing and Winne worked on Exodus, intending to make a feature-length film.

They did interviews with friends and neighbors who left their churches, as well as those who have doubts and have chosen to stay. “Recently, we realized we’re still a year or two out from getting this out as a feature film,” says Ewing.

So the pair decided to release fiveminute cuts on YouTube every week to see if they could build a following. The segments feature a single interviewee discussing his or her experience in the church, and what changes in life have occurred since. Each person seeks to capture the cultural nuances that come when separating from a group. Thus far, all of the interviewees have been local to Pittsburgh and from Christian sects, including one Mormon, but Ewing and Winne plan to expand the geography of the project.

•

The interview clips are released every Thursday through April. Visit exodusdoc.com for more information.

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EARLY WARNINGS SPONSORED UPCOMING EVENTS FROM CITY PAPER’S FINE ADVERTISERS

WED., APRIL 4 KRUNOSLAV KIĆO SLABINAC 8 P.M. JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE, WARRENDALE. 724-799-8333. $35-50. 724-799-8333 or ticketfly.com.

WED., APRIL 4 WOLF ALICE DOORS OPEN AT 7 P.M. STAGE AE, NORTH SIDE. ALL-AGES EVENT. $15-17. 412-229-5483 or ticketmaster. com. With special guest The Big Pink.

WED., APRIL 4 MUMMENSCHANZ YOU & ME 7 P.M. BYHAM THEATER, DOWNTOWN. $30-40. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

WED., APRIL 4 CHELSEA HANDLER

MON., APRIL 9 JESSE COOK

7:30 P.M. BENEDUM CENTER, DOWNTOWN. $43.25-153.25.

412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

THU., APRIL 5 LOCASH 8 P.M. JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE, WARRENDALE. $35-75. 724-799-8333 or ticketfly.com.

THU., APRIL 5 SOCIAL CLUB MISFITS 8 P.M. REX THEATER, SOUTH SIDE. $20-22. 412-381-1681 or greyareaprod. com. With special guest Riley Clemmons.

THU., APRIL 5 ROOTS OF A REBELLION 8 P.M. MR. SMALLS FUNHOUSE, MILLVALE. OVER-18 EVENT. $10. 412-421-4447 or mrsmalls.com.

With special guests Keystone Vibe & Stationary Pebbles.

FRI., APRIL 6 RONNIE MILSAP 7:30 P.M. THE PALACE THEATRE, GREENSBURG. 724-836-8000 or thepalacetheatre.org.

With special guest Northern Comfort.

FRI., APRIL 6 KHRUANGBIN 9 P.M. REX THEATER, SOUTH SIDE. OVER-21 EVENT. $15-18. 412-381-1681 or greyareaprod. com. With special guest The Mattson 2.

JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE

FRI., APRIL 6 BILL BURR

MON., APRIL 9 JESSE COOK

7 AND 10 P.M. BENEDUM CENTER, DOWNTOWN. $49.25. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

8 P.M. JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE, WARRENDALE. $35-49.

724-799-8333 or ticketfly.com.

SAT., APRIL 7 BOBBY BONES

TUE., APRIL 10 RICHIE KOTZEN

7 P.M. CARNEGIE OF HOMESTEAD MUSIC HALL, MUNHALL. ALL-AGES EVENT. $33.50-83.50. 412-462-3444 or ticketfly. com. With special guest Brandon Ray.

SAT., APRIL 7 JAKOBS FERRY STRAGGLERS 8 P.M. MR. SMALLS FUNHOUSE, MILLVALE. OVER-21 EVENT. $10-12.

412-421-4447 or mrsmalls.com.

With special guest Bess Greenberg.

SUN., APRIL 8 TRUTHSAYERS: ANNA DEAVERE SMITH

8 P.M. HARD ROCK CAFE, STATION SQUARE. $15-17. 412-481-ROCK or ticketfly.com.

With special guest Highland Rose & Big Atlantic.

TUE., APRIL 10 JAKE SHIMABUKURO 8 P.M. OAKS THEATER, OAKMONT. ALL-AGES EVENT. $29-59. 412-828-6322 or ticketfly.com.

TUE., APRIL 10 MAKS, VAL & PETA

7 P.M. AUGUST WILSON CENTER, DOWNTOWN. $35. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

8 P.M. BENEDUM CENTER, DOWNTOWN. $43.75-450. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

SUN., APRIL 8 LEWIS BLACK

TUE., APRIL 10 SAN E & MAD CLOWN

7 P.M. THE PALACE THEATRE, GREENSBURG. $49.50-75. 724-836-8000 or thepalacetheatre.org

8 P.M. AUGUST WILSON CENTER, DOWNTOWN. $35. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

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CALENDAR MARCH 22-28

^ Fri., March 23: Lex Brown’s “Lip Gloss Alurt,” at REVOLT/RESTRAINT

THURSDAY MARCH 22 MUSIC Spin-kick your winter woes away at The Smiling Moose tonight with an early, all-ages hardcore extravaganza. The first time I saw headliner Homewrecker was in a sweaty basement in the band’s home state of Ohio. The gig has people hanging from the pipes and kicking everything in sight, going absolutely bonkers to the metal-influenced powerviolence. There won’t be pipes to hang from, but there will be Pittsburgh

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WWW.PGHCITYPAPER.COM

metal/hardcore act Resistance Wire and death-metal hardcore band Acolyte, as well as one of the most intense, chaotic hardcore bands in Pittsburgh, 156/Silence.

Meg Fair 6:30 p.m. 1306 E. Carson St., South Side. $10. www.smiling-moose.com

BOOKS To promote the upcoming release of her novel about a small town with a big mystery, Jessica Strawser is visiting Penguin Bookshop today for a discussion of her work and a book-signing. Her latest Not That I Could Tell is the tale of a group of moms on a Saturday night of kid-free fun and casual drinking. By Monday, one goes missing. Publishers

Weekly calls it “a psychological thriller of the highest order.” A Pittsburgh native herself, Strawser has written for The New York Times and Writer’s Digest, where she’s the editorial director. Her previous book was Almost Missed You, but you shouldn’t miss her. Lauren Ortego 7 p.m. 417 Beaver St., Sewickley.

Free. www.penguinbookshop.com

FRIDAY

MARCH 23 BOOKS In 2001, hairstylist Lorraine Massey

introduced the world to the “curly girl method” with her book, Curly Girl: The Handbook. The method is an approach to hair care for people with naturally curly hair that recognizes that different hair textures have different needs.

Now, Massey is doing for the grayinghair community what she did for the curly-hair community: revolutionizing it. Like the curly-hair movement, which encouraged people to stop chemically relaxing their hair, Massey’s new book Silver Hair, A Handbook Book asks people to embrace their grays. Tonight, Massey visits Kelly Elaine Inc. — A Curly Hair Salon & Such. She’ll be signing copies of her new book and providing advice for

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^ Fri., March 23: The Little Mermaid

@PittsburghCityPaper people looking to transition back to their natural hair color. Rebecca Addison 6 p.m. 12810 Frankstown Road, Penn Hills.

Free. www.kellyelaineinc.com

DRINK Since Wigle Whiskey’s joined the craft-distilling scene in Pittsburgh, there’s been a whole lot more whiskey (and fun) to go around. This evening, come help Wigle celebrate its sixth birthday and toast it into a new year. The new Millie’s ice-cream truck will stop by with sweet treats made with Wigle’s spirits. The Pgh Po’boy truck will be also be on location to fill bellies.

In honor of the day, kids can decorate birthday cupcakes, made by Threadbare Cider House & Meadery’s pastry chef. Adults can enjoy treats too with special cocktails pulled from Wigle’s vault.

Celine Roberts 6 p.m. 1291 Spring Garden Ave., North Side. Free. www.wiglewhiskey.com

FILM The monthly LUNA Park Experimental Film & Media series continues with REVOLT/ RESTRAINT: How We Refrain, a two-day program of films, readings and discussions ^ Fri., March 23: Lorraine Massey

at the Melwood Screening Room.

Tonight, renowned filmmaker Deborah Stratman screens and discusses her experimental documentary, The Illinois Parables, on original 16mm. The 2016 hour-long film features vignettes, or “parables,” about violence, resistance and technologies, among other topics. The Saturday program features New York City-based emerging women artists, including Lex Brown, Brook Hsu, Tamara Santibanez and guest curator, Audra Wist. The whole thing wraps up with a panel discussion relating these works to Chantal Akerman’s influential 1975 film, Jeanne Dielman.

Al Hoff 7 p.m.; also 7 p.m. Sat., March 24.

477 Melwood Ave., Oakland. $7. cinema. pfpca.org

STAGE Disney’s The Little Mermaid is a beloved children’s classic. The animated film deals with themes of female empowerment and even racism, if you look close enough — Ariel and Eric are from different worlds, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be together.

Pittsburgh Musical Theater’s stage adaptation of the story, running through Sun, March 25, holds true to the film.

There’s toe-tapping favorites from the film — “Under the Sea,” sung by Tru CONTINUES ON PG. 38

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

Compassionate Certification Centers Presents the 2018

Co-hosted by

MEDICAL CANNABIS

The Intersection of Cannabis Culture EVENT HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: • On-site • Cannabis Career Fair with local and national companies • Campaign For Compassion on-stage fundraiser • 4.2 Mile Run/Walk in partnership with the 420 Games • Riverboat cruise and fundraiser for the Disabled American Veterans and Make a Wish Foundations.

Nearly 6,000 attendees are expected to attend the second-annual event, including hundreds of exhibitors.

April 12-14, 2018 David L. Lawrence Convention Center | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

www.cccregister.com PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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PHOTO COURTESY OF BRYAN CONLEY

^ Sun., March 25: Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon

Verret-Fleming as Sebastian, is on par with the original — and there are new songs composed by eighttime Academy Award-winner Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater. PMT’s production stars Larissa Overholt as Ariel, David Toole as Eric, Joe York as Scuttle, Sandy Zwier as Ursula, and Brady Patsy as Triton. RA 7:30 p.m. Also, 7:30 p.m. Sat., March 24; and 2 p.m. Sun., March 25. Byham Theater, 101 Sixth St., Downtown. $9.25-59.75. www.trustarts.org

MUSIC It’s very possible you could mistake these women for Crosby, Stills, and Nash — not just because of their unbending musicianship, but also for their equally impressive songwriting abilities. Backed by a sturdy rhythm section, the three swap vocal roles and instruments — trading off electric and acoustic instruments willy-nilly. If you’ve slept on The Wild Reeds, it’s time to wake up. The act has been catching radio attention, including on KEXP, in

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Seattle, where John Richards said of the single “Only Songs,” “We just decided this is the best song ever.”

Catch The Wild Reeds with the similarly named and spirited Wild Child, of Austin, Texas. Emily Bennett 8 p.m.

Rex Theater, 1602 E. Carson St., South Side. $15. www.rextheater.net

MUSIC Just like regular ol’ human beings, bands go through productive breakups, too. Sometimes you just have to call it quits, moodily and hastily pack up your guitar, and travel to a cabin 20 miles outside of Nashville and write some songs. That’s exactly what the members of the psychedelic Okey Dokey did after cutting ties with their respective bands. The result? A record for the good times. Zuli will also be stopping

by Club Café tonight to put on a show sure to be filled to the brim with trippy, 1970s-influenced, hip-swaying jams.

Come out and daydream a little. EB 9 p.m. 56 S. 12th St., South Side. $8. www.clubcafelive.com

SATURDAY MARCH 24 GREEN Winter in Pittsburgh might be here for a little longer, but for those anxiously awaiting spring, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens’ Spring Flower Show: Scents of Wonder has you covered. And today marks Phipps’ first used-bulb sale of the season, giving gardeners the chance to take a piece of the Spring Flower Show home.

Offerings include hyacinths, daffodils and lilies. Patrons are asked to ^ Fri., March 23: Zuli

bring their own bags to help conserve resources. The sale is scheduled to take place in the outdoor garden, but in the case of inclement weather, it will be moved to Phipps’ production greenhouse. RA 9:3011:30 a.m. 1 Schenley Drive, Oakland. $11.9517.95. www.phipps. conservatory.org

PROTEST After the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., took 17 lives, many cynics assumed politicians would send their “thoughts and prayers,” and then Americans would forget the tragic event and move on. But the Parkland students have been busy organizing and successfully building a coalition of support, with the goal of pressuring

legislators to enact stricter gun-control measures. Today, millions are expected to march in more than 720 March for Our Lives events across the world. In the Pittsburgh area, three marches are planned; the Greensburg march is on Fri., March 23. Ryan Deto Noon, 436 Grant St., Downtown, and noon, 810 Third St., Beaver. Free. www.marchforourlives.com

7 DAYS

OF CONCERTS

BY MEG FAIR MEGFAIR@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

blogh.pghcitypaper.com

Every time you click “reload,” the saints cry.

THE ONLY INDOOR RIFLE RANGE OPEN EVERY DAY!

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ONE ON ONE CLASSES AVAILABLE 7 DAYS A WEEK

Primitive Man, Spectral Voice, Taphos Nomos ^ Sat., March 24: UNIIQU3

MUSIC Make your manicure appointment, and let them know you’re getting something particularly spicy. At Spirit Lodge, UNIIQU3 is bringing her electric, party-ready hip hop for a night of the Nailz N Ponytailz tour, with Dai Burger.

UNIIQU3 and Dai Burger make music, wrapped in an addicting electronic package, that encourages being a bad-ass boss, shaking your booty with heart and being confident. It’ll be impossible to not shake your demons away, while being served feminist, queer-friendly hooks all night long, especially with DJ FEMI holding it down for the 412 to kick off the party.

MF 10 p.m. 242 51st St., Lawrenceville. $12-15. www.spiritpgh.com

SUNDAY

(AS LITTLE AS 1 DAY NOTICE)

FREE RANGE PASS Free range time or gun rental your choice expires 3/31/18

7 p.m. Cattivo, Lawrenceville. www.cattivopgh.com

FRIDAY Kafana PGH: Balkan Music Dance Party

CLASSES SAVE $20 (MONDAY-THURSDAY)

& SHOOTING CENTER

2980 LEBANON CHURCH RD. • WEST MIFFLIN, PA 15122 • 412-469-9992 W W W . A N T H O N YA R M S . C O M

9:30 p.m. Los Sabrosos Dance Co., Garfield. www.pgh.lossabrosos.org

SATURDAY “Weird Al” Yankovic 7 p.m. Rex Theater, South Side. www.rextheater.net

SUNDAY Octave Cat 7 p.m. Club Café, South Side. www.clubcafelive.com

MONDAY

MARCH 25 EVENT Have you ever found yourself deep in Wikipedia and wondered who edits these articles? Wonder no more,and join the Carnegie Museum of Art at its Pittsburgh Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon. Four years ago, Art+Feminism noticed a severe lack not only in femaleidentifying artists and creators, but a lack in female-identifying Wiki editors.

No previous knowledge of editing on Wikipedia is needed — just a laptop, a power cord and a desire to help improve thousands of pages for artists. The event organizers wholly practice intersectional

Tioga 6:30 p.m. The Smiling Moose, South Side. www.smiling-moose.com

TUESDAY In Tall Buildings, Bananafish 7 p.m. Club Café, South Side. www.clubcafelive.com

WEDNESDAY Rap Against Fascism 5: Return of the RAF 7:30 p.m. Mr. Roboto Project, Bloomfield. www.therobotoproject.com

CONTINUES ON PG. 40

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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feminism, and all are welcome — trans, cis, non-binary. Come and edit. LO 10:30 a.m. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

Free. www.cmoa.org

MUSIC If you know a little or a lot about Infinity Cat Records, you know that grunge-pop collective Daddy Issues is an incredibly accurate representation of the grody, lo-fi record label created

by JEFF the Brotherhood members. In fact, DI could be the poster children.

And the band has got to be something really special, considering Infinity Cat signs a whopping one band per year.

Pre-show prep: Put on your dad sweater, smoke a quarter-pack of American Spirits, and look at yourself in your dirty mirror until you are transported directly to Cattivo by the sheer power of punk. For fans of Bully, White Reaper, Rozwell Kid. EB 6:30 p.m.

146 44th St., Lawrenceville. $10. All ages. www.cattivopgh.com

STAGE Buddy Holly was the inspiration for dozens of famous rock ’n’ roll artists — The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Elton John, — and now his legacy lives on in the hit jukebox-musical Buddy — The Buddy Holly Story. Staged at the Palace Theatre, Buddy tells the life and times of how Buddy got his start, had some hits and died tragically young in a plane crash. Now in its 17th year of touring, the musical makes its way to the Pittsburgh area. The Boston Globe said that the show “sends people out of the theater on an unstoppable high … sensational,” and The Chicago Tribune raved: “Terrific … even the chandeliers start to swing.” You won’t want to miss it. LO 7 p.m.

21 W. Otterman St., Greensburg. $24-79. www.thepalacetheatre.org

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL G. WIEGMAN

^ Sat., March 24: Phipps Spring Flower Show

MONDAY

MARCH 26 STAGE Today marks the start of the Pittsburgh CLO’s SPARK, a festival designed to include the audience in the stages of production usually saved for directors and cast members. The festival will be feature 10 of the CLO’s latest works

staged in various forms, such as workshop productions, readings and staged readings. Tonight is the Meet the Artists Welcome Party, where guests will be able to converse with the writers and composers of the shows. The festival runs through April 8 and will include late-night events open to the public. LO 5:30 p.m.

CLO Academy, 130 CLO Academy Way, Downtown. $250 for a full premier pass. www.pittsburghclo.org/spark

BOOKS As part of Pittsburgh Lectures’ Ten Evenings series, Pakistani-British novelist Mohsin Hamid is headed for the Carnegie Music Hall tonight to discuss Exit West, a story about a couple embarking on a quest for love in a country on the brink of civil war. Hamid has had other best-selling books, with both Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist earning spots in The New York Times’ CONTINUES ON PG. 42

Tickets on Sale Now! $30 General $45 VIP Price includes: Drink Tickets, Light bites & General Nonsense

April 6, 7 - 10 PM CLP – Main (Oakland) • carnegielibrary.org/afterhours 40

WWW.PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Over 21 Event

MEET THE CANDIDATES!

PITTSBURGH’S PREMIER DERBY EXPERIENCE.

Saturday May 5th 4:30 - 7:30 pm

Rivers Casino Drum Bar

TICKETS ON SALE NOW COOLTIX.COM

The Pittsburgh City Paper and Women for the Future of Pittsburgh are hosting a Candidate Forum so you can get to better know a candidate. Join them as they explore the visions and policy stances of candidates in PA Districts 21, 34, 38, and Congressional District 17.

When: Thursday, April 12th, from 6:00 – 9:00 Where: Spirit, Lawrenceville Moderators: Representatives from the City Paper and WTF Pittsburgh Admission to this event is free, and it is open to the public. Just like the City Paper isn’t your typical publication, and WTF Pittsburgh isn’t your typical PAC, this will not be your typical forum. Expect fast-paced, fun, and as always, informative.

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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PHOTO COURTESY OF TORI STIPCAK/CYCLE FORWARD

^ Tue., March 27: Rivers of Steel

Notable Books of the Year. His essays have appeared in a variety of papers and magazines, including The Washington Post and The New Yorker. LO 7:30 p.m.

4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. $15-35 ($10 students). www.pittsburghlectures.org

TUESDAY

MARCH 27 GREEN This evening, Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, a local preservation and conservation organization, hosts a workshop where attendees will hear from women who say trails and spending time spent outside has transformed their lives.

How Getting Outside Changed My Life will feature “stories of women whose experiences highlight the aspirational and the accessible capacity of trails to enhance our quality of life.” The women will discuss the importance of making trails accessible for all. Panelists include: Jayne Miller, Kerry Gross, Lucia M. Aguirre, Valerie Beichner and Heather McClain. RA 7 p.m.

Brew House Association, 711 S. 21st St., South Side. Free. www.riversofsteel.com

FILM A Raisin in the Sun author Lorraine Hansberry was a visionary playwright who took on issues like race, human rights, women’s equality and sexuality.

These issues, now at the forefront of public discourse, are at the center of Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, the first-ever documentary about Hansberry. The film features actress Anika Noni Rose, as the voice of Hansberry, as well as interviews with Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte and Louis Gossett Jr., and narration by LaTanya Richardson Jackson.

Tonight, the film, created by Peabody Award-winner Tracy Heather Strain,

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PHOTO COURTESY OF JILIAN EDELSTEIN

^ Mon., March 26: Mohsin Hamid

screens at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture. Afterward, there will be a panel featuring the creative team behind the film and a reception with hors d’oeuvres and live music by female jazz trio, A.I.R. RA 7 p.m. 980 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $23.25. www.trustarts.org

WEDNESDAY MARCH 28 ART Jane Jackson is a curator and photography adviser, who has, among other things, opened her own gallery in Atlanta and was the director of Elton John’s photography collection. She visits Pittsburgh tonight to share her wisdom and inspire other photography enthusiasts.

Presented by PGH Photo Fair, Jackson has decades of experience, including working with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and many others. She is currently serving on the executive board for the High Museum of Art, in Atlanta. LO 6 p.m. Ace Hotel Pittsburgh, 120 S. Whitfield St., East Liberty. Free. www.pghphotofair.com •

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER

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

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A LOVING couple dreams of adopting your newborn. Promising secure life and forever LOVE. Exp. Pd Jen & Rich 1-800-296-8455 www.jandrhopetoadopt.com

CAREER TRAINING Massage Therapy at Career Training Academy Our accelerated Massage Therapy program teaches many different techniques of massage and bodywork. At CTA, you won’t just learn what it takes to do the job well; you’ll learn what you need to stand out from the crowd, adapt, and succeed. To plan a visit to our Pittsburgh Campus, call 412-385-7903 or visit careerta.edu.

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Job placement assistance.

Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 800-725-1563 (AAN CAN)

OFFICIAL ADVERTISEMENT THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH

Sealed proposals shall be deposited at the Administration Building, Room 251, 341 South Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15213, on April 10, 2018, until 2:00 P.M., local prevailing time for a Service Contract for

NOTICES CITIZEN POLICE REVIEW BOARD REGULAR BOARD MEETING LOCATION CHANGE

6 PM, Tuesday, 03/27/18 PERSAD Center 5301 Butler Street, #100 Pittsburgh, PA 15201 Location Changed to: City Council Chambers 510 City-County Building 414 Grant Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (same date and time) Questions may be directed to: (412) 765-8023

HELP WANTED IT MANAGER II PPG Industries, Inc. seeks IT Manager II to work in Pittsburgh, PA & to be responsible for planning, directing & overseeing Mfg. & Quality Projects in company’s corp.

IT dept. Must have Master’s or foreign equiv. in Comp.

Sci., Comp. Engnrng or academic discipline dir. rltd to IT or Bus. Admin. + 2 yrs of exp. as IT Functional Analyst, IT Supervisor/Mgr, or IT Project Mgr. Alt. req’t: bachelor’s or foreign equiv. in Comp. Sci., Comp. Engnrng or academic discipline dir. rltd to IT or Bus. Admin. + 5 yrs of post-bacc. & prgrssvly responsible exp. as an IT Functional Analyst, IT Supervisor/Mgr, or IT Project Mgr. Must have 2 yrs of exp., or for alt. req’t, 5 yrs of exp. w/each of following: Oracle inventory & process mfg tools & processes as well as exp. in 2 or more of following Oracle Functional Areas: order mgmt, warehouse mgmt, or financials; leading 5 or more Oracle EBS R12 OPM (process mfg) implementations; IT supervisory exp.; applicable process mfg exp., incl. operations, order mgmt, & planning (exp. in a mfg facility w/actual processes); & IT project mgmt exp. (specifically managing 50+ day projects). Send resumes to PPG Industries, Inc., Corporate HR Department, Attn: MPHR36W-100, One PPG Place, 36th Fl., Pittsburgh, PA 15272

OFFICIAL ADVERTISEMENT THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH

Sealed proposals shall be deposited at the Administration Building, Room 251, 341 South Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15213, on March 27, 2018, until 2:00 P.M., local prevailing time for a Service Contract for the following:

the following:

• PPS Administration Building Upgrade Electrical System General, Mechanical and Electrical Primes Project Manual and Drawings will be available for purchase on March 5, 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.

• Pgh. Colfax K-8 Heating and Ventilation at Pool Area Asbestos Prime • Pgh. Various School Locations PPS Exterior Envelopes Bid Package 3 General and Asbestos Primes Project Manual and Drawings will be available for purchase on March 5, 2018 for Pgh. Colfax K-8 and March 9, 2018 for Various School Locations 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.

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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SUMMER PHOTO INTERN WANTED We are looking for a student photojournalist with an artistic eye.

Editorial work will include shooting for news, music and arts, both in print and online. Weekend availability is required. Prior student newspaper work and an outgoing personality a plus.

Send a résumé and a link to an online portfolio to art director Lisa Cunningham, lcunning@ pghcitypaper. com, by March 23, 2018.

The internship includes a small weekly stipend.

No calls, please.

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ACROSS 1. Shit to do around the house 7. Internet jokey greeting 10. Shaking 13. Kosher-certified 14. Stitching stuff 15. Get sour 16. Stack of computer connections?

18. Singer Rita ___ 19. Wallop 20. Wallop 21. Not really there 23. Camry manufacturer defies authority?

26. Dude on Tinder, likely 27. Nickname for a tall man 28. Punish an alternative reader monetarily?

32. Put in the cloud 35. Pindaric work 36. [Is this mic on?]

38. Answer for “More Grenache and Brie?”

39. Gratin dauphinois ingredient 43. Decorative container at a courthouse?

47. Smartphone pics 49. Going both ways: Pref.

50. Arm bone moments of decline?

54. Without

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being said 55. Soprano Ponselle 56. Drops a line on Facebook 58. Sense of importance 59. All the latest about the ducts from the kidney?

63. “R U Talkin’ ___.

Re: Me?” (Scott Aukerman and Adam Scott’s podcast) 64. Engages in crew 65. Its capital is Taipei 66. Anger 67. Name on a frozen tub 68. Starts off

DOWN 1. AMD product 2. Dank weed 3. Circumnavigate the world 4. Return to the factory settings, say 5. Mrs. Hitler 6. Emit 7. Poems that are in / A 5 7 5 form like / what I did right here 8. Bean bag toss’s path 9. Come into later in life 10. Half moons?

11. Rich cake 12. Doesn’t go anywhere 14. Rec. center that wouldn’t have made

sense for the Village People to sing about 17. Watch lever 22. TV actor Ventimiglia 24. “___ first!”

(Editor’s note: this would have been a better title for this puzzle) 25. Pair in a qt.

28. Dandy dude 29. Words with a ring 30. Bottom line 31. Polish off 33. Port.’s home 34. Loud noise 37. Accolade 40. Berry in a smoothie

41. Thankless neverending job, say 42. Opening number?

44. Gives out 45. Washboard ___ 46. What one is liable to do in their made bed, proverbially 48. Completely madcap 50. Egg holders 51. Pint selection 52. Piles and piles 53. Diving ducks 57. Swing at a fly 60. Sir Stewart 61. Credit card application encl.

62. ___ Bol (toilet cleaner brand) LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 21-28, 2018

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Savage Love {BY DAN SAVAGE}

I’m a 26-year-old cis queer woman. My best friend has identified publicly as asexual for the past two years. She constantly talks about how since she doesn’t “need” sex, this means she is asexual. She does have sex, however, and she enjoys it, which I know isn’t disqualifying. But she also actively seeks out sex partners and sex. But, again, she insists that because she doesn’t “need” sex the way she presumes the rest of us do, she is asexual. I have an issue with this. I’ve never had partnered sex and never really felt the need or desire for it.

I’m plenty happy with emotional intimacy from others and masturbation for my sexual needs, and I do not particularly desire a romantic or sexual partner. My friend gets offended if anyone questions her label, which occurs often in our friend group as people try to understand her situation.

I usually defend her to others since she’s my friend, but as a person who is starting to identify more and more as asexual, I’ve grown annoyed at her use of “asexual” as her identifier, to the point that this may be starting to affect our friendship. I’ve kept silent because I don’t want to make her feel attacked — but in the privacy of my own head, I’m calling bullshit on her asexuality.

I don’t particularly want to come out as asexual to her, given the circumstances. Am I just being a shitty gatekeeping asexual?

Do I need to just accept that labels are only as useful as we make them and let this go?

ACTUALLY COITUS EVADING

Asexuality — it’s a real thing.

“Several population-level studies have now found that about 1 percent of individuals report not feeling sexual attraction to another person — ever,” Dr. Lori Brotto writes in the Globe and Mail. Dr. Brotto has extensively studied asexuality, and the data supports the conclusion that asexuality is a sexual orientation on par with heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. “[Asexuality] is not celibacy, which is the conscious choice to not have sex even though sexual desires may endure,” Dr. Brotto writes. “Rather, for these individuals, there is no inherent wish

for or desire for sex, and there never has been.

They are asexuals, though many prefer to go by the endearing term ‘aces.’”

Asexuality — it’s a point on a spectrum and it’s a spectrum unto itself.

“There is a spectrum of sexuality, with sexual and asexual as the endpoints and a gray area in between,” says whoever wrote the General FAQ at the Asexual Visibility and Education Network website (asexuality.org). “Many people identify in this gray area under the identity of ‘grayasexual’ or ‘gray-a.’ Examples of gray-asexuality include an individual who does not normally experience sexual attraction but does experience it sometimes; experiences sexual attraction but has a low sex drive; experiences sexual attraction and drive but not strongly enough to want to act on them; and/or can enjoy and desire sex but only under very limited and specific circumstances.

As for your friend, ACE, well, according to the Protocols of the Elders of Tumblr, we’re no longer allowed to express doubt about someone’s professed sexual orientation or gender identity. Maybe she’s asexual in the “gray-a” sense, i.e., under certain circumstances (awake, aware, conscious, alert, sentient), she experiences sexual attraction. Or maybe she’s not a gray-a who identifies as ace but an actual asexual who is having sex for “other reasons.” A person doesn’t have to be celibate to be asexual or to identify as asexual, ACE, and until there’s an asexual accreditation agency — which there never will be and never should be — we’ll just have to take your friend’s word for it.

But just as asexuality is a thing, ACE, so too is bullshit. Denial is a thing, and sex shame is an incredibly destructive thing. Like the guy who has a lot of gay sex but refuses to identify as gay or bi, it’s possible your friend is just a messy closet case — a closeted sexual, someone who wants sex but doesn’t want to be seen as the kind of person who wants sex since only bad people want sex. Some people twist themselves into the oddest knots,

so they can have what they want without having to admit they want it. But even if it sounds to you (and me) like your friend’s label is suspect, you should nevertheless hold your tongue and allow her to identify however she likes. Ask questions, sure, but challenging her label will only damage your relationship (or further damage it) and make you feel like a closeted, gatekeeping ace.

Settle a dispute between friends? I’m a straight man who gets hit on fairly often by women, mostly at the gym. I usually respond with a variation on “I would be interested but I’m married.” Some of my friends argue that by saying, “I’m interested but I’m married,” I’m telegraphing an interest in some sort of affair. That isn’t my intent.

I mean it as a compliment. What I’m trying to communicate is “You’re an attractive person who put yourself out there and I don’t want to crush your spirit with a curt ‘No.’” What is your take, Dan?

WE’RE NO LONGER ALLOWED TO EXPRESS DOUBT ABOUT SOMEONE’S PROFESSED SEXUAL ORIENTATION.

MUTUAL ATTRACTION RARELY RESULTS IN EROTIC DALLIANCES

Which is it, MARRIED: “I would be interested but I’m married” or “I am interested but I’m married?” Because there’s a difference between “I would” and “I am” in this context.

When you say, “I would be interested but I’m married,” you’re shutting it down: We could fuck if I wasn’t married, but I am so we can’t. But when you say, “I am interested but I’m married,” that can be read very differently: I’m down to fuck but — full disclosure — I’m married. If that’s OK with you, let’s find a stairwell and do this thing.

Would be politely shuts the door, MARRIED, am opens the door a crack and invites the sweaty woman at the gym to push against it to see if it’ll open all the way.

On the Lovecast, Alana Massey on the misguided Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act: savagelove cast.com.

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

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EAT, DRINK & PLAY RECEIVE TWO

MATCH PLAY VOUCHERS FOR EACH BUY-IN

MARCH 13–APRIL 2 50¢ WINGS & $1.50 CHEESEBURGER SLIDERS

REGISTRATION BEGINS AT 6PM TOURNAMENT STARTS AT 7PM

During ALL Tournament and Championship games.

GUARANTEED $1,000 PRIZE POOL!

Receive $10 Match Play with a purchase of a dozen wings!

Make it to the final table to receive an invite for our $25,000 winner-take-all tournament!

777 CASINO DRIVE, PITTSBURGH PA 15212

RIVERSCASINO.COM

GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER. Must be 21 years of age or older to be on Rivers Casino property. Restrictions apply. Complete set of rules available at the Rush Rewards Players Club.