Heavy metal thunder This letter is in regards to the annual Klammies awards. I am on your preliminary voting panel this year, and my question is: What does the Pitch have against original heavy rock and roll? This year, when I was actually offered an opportunity to nominate bands from this particular sector of rock, I was thrilled! All of…
Archives: March 2000
The case of the missing Fiero
Thurman Williams loves his car. It’s a red 1988 Pontiac Fiero, a mid-engine, fiberglass body collector’s car he bought while in college six years ago to replace a prized 1968 Ford Mustang. Fewer than 3,600 Fieros like it exist. Williams, a well-dressed, articulate, soft-spoken man who works for a national nonprofit neighborhood revitalization organization, doesn’t believe in buying cars that…
Former councilman promises a new Freedom Inc.
Mark Bryant is an attorney at one of the most prestigious and conservative law firms in Kansas City. So how did he become the new leader of the eastside political club that earned a reputation for fighting for social and economic change? Bryant answers that question, like most, in a reserved and soft-spoken manner. His response comes like words off…
The Cost of the Game
The gates at Kauffman Stadium swing open in April. If the Royals’ front office has chosen wisely during the off-season, young power hitters will have ample support to hoist the team into the upper echelon of the American League Central Division. Meanwhile, winning team or no, with Jumbotron replays and “take me out to the ball game” sing-alongs, “The K”…
International house of pasta
International house of pasta The first International House of Pancakes opened in 1958, catering to Americans’ newfound interest in the concept of international dining and turning the lowly flapjack into something glamorous by giving it a cosmopolitan spin. Toss some lingonberries on a pancake, it was Swedish. Lighten up the batter and — voilà! — a French crêpe. That’s essentially…
Giving Kansas City the Bird
23Thursday Who could forget the funny yet poignant movie with Julia, Dolly, Daryl, Sally, Olympia, and Shirley? Julia got Sally’s kidney and then bit the dust anyway. Steel Magnolias, the bittersweet story about relationships between women, hasn’t seen its last production yet. March is National Diabetic Awareness Month — diabetes is the reason Julia needed Sally’s kidney. In the…
Giving the ‘Ultimate’
Brad Jones is 215 pounds of pure muscle. Standing 5-foot-7, with a buzz haircut, a deep purple shiner below his right eye, and a booming voice, he draws attention in the small training room at Moffett’s Gym in Shawnee when he walks in. But those staring at this 31-year-old Ultimate Fighting Challenge (UFC) veteran are not fellow gym rats…
Ready, aim, fire
The rules of filmmaking, driven by Hollywood and a voracious public appetite, are simple: Write a good story centered around compelling characters; make this story unfold over approximately 90 minutes; throw in some sex and violence if at all possible; and, of course, compose the film to fit on a single, wide screen. Most directors accept these rules, breaking…
Around Hear
For 13 years, the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music and Media Conference has accorded the South revenge on an industry controlled by the East and West Coasts. Hundreds of international bands, record execs, publicists, and music fans gather in sunny (except this year) Austin, Texas, for five days of waiting in lines to get into shows. It’s a fair barometer…
DAVE DOUGLAS
Pianist Mary Lou Williams was one of the true jazz originals. Her beautiful harmonic language and technical virtuosity inspired everyone from Thelonious Monk to Dizzy Gillespie. Virtuoso trumpeter Dave Douglas pays nominal tribute to Williams’ legacy with this collection of solidly written, wonderfully performed tunes. Oddly enough for a purported tribute album, Douglas attacks a list of tunes that were…
ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT
Often, bands release compilation CDs posthumously (too late) or after merely a few records (too early). Far too often, these discs are full of throwaway material that only the select hardcore fans really dig. Such is not the case with Rocket From The Crypt. Since forming in 1990, RFTC has churned out quality rock and roll consistently, releasing four proper…
JOE CARTWRIGHT QUARTET
With its blatant sex appeal and brazen insouciance, Latin music is unquestionably today’s hot new thing. Jennifer Lopez’s ass aside, the current vogue in Latin pop is hardly breaking any new ground. Jazz musicians, such as Dizzy Gillespie, began mining the polyrhythmic beats of our southern neighbors years ago, and Afro-Cuban jazz has long been considered one of the music’s…
Popcorn music
Do you have any idea the kind of shit I’m going to get on Oscar night? The magnitude will approach that suffered by the poor bastard who scotched the $100 question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? a couple months back. My pain has a name, and it’s Phil Collins. Actually, it’s Disney, but we’ll get to that. See,…
Sunday, March 26
Together, the Cash Money millionaires and Ruff Ryder clique have more hits than baseball great Pete Rose, but their combined concert tour is no gamble. These two hip-hop conglomerates have dominated commercial urban radio in the past few years with their distinctly different sounds. Mannie Fresh, the producer who popularized “bounce” music, drops the beats for Cash Money artists, and…
Wednesday, March 29
Just five days after fellow spiritual supergroup Newsboys brings its inflatable arena to an area parking lot, Creed will play to thousands of fans at a much more traditional venue. The contrast is fitting, because while Newsboys favor glitzy, dance-oriented tunes well suited for a blow-up stage, Creed plays tried-and-true, grunge-influenced rock tunes that are at home when resonating through…
Lickety split
In retrospect, Lit seems to be a well-chosen name. After all, the band lit up the charts with its major label debut, A Place In the Sun, and its pop-rocking first single, “My Own Worst Enemy.” So it’s not surprising that guitarist Jeremy Popoff is quite content with the name he and his three cohorts chose more than a decade…
Home sweet dome
It’s a Twilight Zone-type premise: A band visits a different city every night, but the venue is always exactly the same. Everything about the building — from the stage design to the contours to the acoustics — remains constant regardless of its geographic location. However, in the case of the Newsboys, who are living this scenario, there’s a simple explanation…
Final Destination
Another entry in the current youth-market horror cycle, Final Destination has the twisted humor and gruesomely elaborate deaths associated with the genre. It also has X-Files veteran James Wong as its director, which guarantees a slick, brooding style and at least an average level of intelligence. Devon Sawa plays a high school student who, thanks to a premonition, narrowly…
Waking the Dead
Hollywood tends to spoon-feed easy-to-digest stories to audiences so people can leave the multiplexes humming “happy” songs. Waking the Dead is a thinking person’s love story that leaves viewers with a nasty scar that will not heal until long after they’ve left the theater. Actor-turned-director Keith Gordon (Mother Night) injects doses of realism into a story that crawls along at…
Other Reels
The Kansas City Benefit Premiere screening of Robert Altman’s Jazz ´34: Remembrances of Kansas City Swing will kick off a celebration and tribute to Kansas City’s Jazz Heritage on Thursday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. at the Manor Square Tivoli Theatre in Westport. The documentary featuring some of the best young jazz artists working today will be followed at 9:30…
The Miracle worker
Although the sordid content of popular entertainment has been discussed at length, there has been no shortage of stories about religion. From Touched by an Angel to Stigmata to Dogma to God, The Devil, and Bob, spiritually themed works have been legion. Still, faith is a serious subject, and none of these shows has given the topic the depth it…
Beyond the Mat
It features epic battles between beefy warriors; throngs of thousands howling for blood; and garish, overblown spectacles to spare. Is it the barbaric battles between gladiators in the Roman Coliseum? Nah, it’s just another day in contemporary pro wrestling. Sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and religious leaders can speculate to their hearts’ content on why these modern-day carnie acts have become so…
The Third Miracle
A detective story doesn’t have to be about discovering who killed the rich socialite or who framed the corrupt senator. Occasionally, it can be about a search for a larger truth. The Third Miracle is a film rife with religious ideology but also steeped in the atmosphere of a classic detective novel. Frank (Ed Harris) is a postulator for the…
Pitch Forks
WE WERE HOPING IT WOULD SHORTEN THE CEREMONY … Willie Fulgear, a Los Angeles salvage man, found 52 of the 55 missing Oscars while rummaging through a trash bin in the city’s Koreatown section. The statuettes had been stolen from a shipping company in Bell, Calif., a week before the Academy Awards ceremony. Fulgear didn’t immediately realize what valuable merchandise…
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