Review: A Christmas Carol at Carnegie Stage Gets Dickens Right

Spoiler – this adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic gets everything right about the systemic and institutional issues Dickens addressed without the sentimental Christmas washing we are usually handed. The playwrights here understand, as I like to say, that it wasn’t so much that Scrooge’s change of heart saved Tiny Tim as that fair wages, […]

Christmas Spirit Trumps Scrooge In Pittsburgh

Bill Peduto Toys for Tots

Yesterday, the Marines kicked-off a two-day ‘Open House’ for families throughout the region who wanted to access the Toys for Tots donations. This annual distribution is open to members of the community who have the necessary paperwork and the means to get to the Strip District location, as well as to transport their items home. […]

Yinz ‘R Scrooged Explores Classic Themes With Pittsburgh Twist

yinz 'r scrooged

If you haven’t been to a performance of Midnight Radio at Bricolage theater, you are missing a terrific show (or shows) in the style of a 1940’s radio program.  The final show of the season is a ‘Pittsburgh flavored’ take on the Charles Dickens holiday classic. Written by Tami Dixon, Yinz ‘R Scrooged introduces us […]

Can You Save Xmas Without a White Savior Complex?

Pittsburgh Saves Christmas

Perhaps not the direction you expected me to go after spending the day asking you to donate to help the #PghSavesXmas project? Actually, writing that hashtag over and over really had this question front and center for me all day long. I was resisting using phrases like “It’s a miracle” or “I’m crying” when someone […]

Update On My Pgh Holiday Things To Do

Kennywood

In early November, I published a list of holiday things that I’d like to do this year. My plans were unexpectedly derailed when I learned that my 13 year-old dog has cancer. In fact, just today he had surgery to remove the growth and will spend the next two weeks recuperating. So my holiday things-to-do […]

Ten Pittsburgh Holiday Things To Do

holiday serving tray

For the first time in a decade or longer, I’m not working on a holiday gift project of some type like a toy drive or a food or blanket drive. No drives. Organizing a drive or a giving tree is exhilarating and rewarding, but it consumes hundreds of hours. My personal seasonal activities were usually […]

Love Thy Neighbor

Duck Dynasty Phil Robertson