Nothing brings the scene together like a little bit of friendly competition. That’s something provided once a year at KJHK 90.7’s annual Farmer’s Ball, where eight bands go head to head in a battle royale, the eventual victor receiving the opening slot at Day on the Hill and recording time at Red House Studios. As always, combatants are initially spread…
As the tulips blossom, or the robins return, or the last pre-finals marijuana is harvested, so do we know the approaching spring by the announcement of Sandstone Amphitheatre’s concert schedule. But as usual, the initial offerings are heavy on musicians closer to the September of their years than the afternoon of a fawn. Has anybody looked at a calendar lately?…
From the opening seconds of I Am Shelby Lynne, when “Your Lies” tumbles violently from the speakers with the sudden, contained fury of a pound of firecrackers exploding in a garbage can, it’s all new. Like Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis, the album signals a musical rebirth, the emergence of an artist who has shed the Sunday dress picked out…
It’s hard to be exposed to Chan (pronounced “Shawn”) Marshall — on her albums as Cat Power, watching her perform in that guise, or in her dryly circumscribed interviews — and not say to yourself, “I hope she’s going to be okay.” The same goes for talking to her on a cell phone while she’s driving, which is how she…
Back from hellDuring a career that’s seen him front three diverse but equally sinister cult bands, Glenn Danzig has played at some truly odd venues. From the requisite seedy punk clubs he visited during the early days of The Misfits to a concert in Phoenix with his group Danzig during which he performed inside a wrestling ring surrounded by a…
If Harvey Keitel’s name is in the credits, I never expect to see his ass, but I’m not surprised if I do. In one scene from Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, Keitel performed in full-frontal nudity, turning male nudity in film into a statement. When Keitel bared himself, he infused his character with a neediness that explained his later actions….
A secret society of white males establishes a cult based on the violence of war and participates in corrupt activities that supercede the law for political gain. No, this is not a documentary about the New York City Police Department; The Skulls is a story about fraternities on steroids. Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson, Dawson’s Creek) attends an Ivy League college…
Judging from the previews, Keeping the Faith looks like a two-hour “a priest and a rabbi walk into a bar” joke. Granted, a priest does walk into a bar, but the punchline is a lot more interesting than any moldy comedy routine. Edward Norton (who also directs) plays a New York City priest whose best friend since childhood (Ben…
Race relations is one issue Americans have never been able to deal with effectively. Black and White, a film that tries to examine cultural curiosity but fails miserably, proves how complicated this task remains. Writer-director James Toback (Two Girls and a Guy) creates an environment in which rich white kids fascinated by black culture hang out with rap cats…
Like a lot of recent comedies, The Big Tease would have been a lot more enjoyable as a 10- to 20-minute sketch than as a feature. There are some truly inspired moments, but the dead time that predominates is hard to excuse. Craig Ferguson from The Drew Carey Show stars as Crawford Mackenzie, a Glasgow hairdresser whose skill with…
Sigourney Weaver was hailed as an early Oscar contender for her role in this adaptation of Jane Hamilton’s best-seller. Although she lost out on the nomination, Weaver gives the kind of performance that deservedly wins awards, bringing an often-muddled film into focus with the sheer power of her presence. Weaver plays Alice Goodwin, a school nurse in a small…
With its preordained outcomes of matches and campy theatrics, pro wrestling is a perfect subject for satire. Somehow, Ready to Rumble still manages to miss what should have been an easy target. Thanks to the movie’s condescending tone and elephantine execution, one begins to resent the way it ridicules the sport and its fans. The derision starts early. Gordie…
Response to a ‘frothing malcontent’ Before reading Mina Furr’s demented diatribe on Kansas City (Mail, March 30-April 5), I had thought that this was a pretty good place to live. But now I’m not sure that I feel entirely safe in the same city as this frothing malcontent. I don’t have a clue what her reasons for staying in “the…
IT INTERSECTS WITH “LARRY FLYNT BLVD.” …A proposal by Chicago alderman Burton Natarus to honor Playboy founder Hugh Hefner with a street sign has met strong opposition from female politicians. “I don’t care how many great things he could have possibly done, I still could not vote for the naming of a street for a person who has earned his…
When on April 6, WDAF Channel 4 morning anchor Heather McMichael described grass-fire footage shot by the station’s news helicopter, Sky Fox 4, as something “no other helicopter in Kansas City” had, some viewers may have been confused. Just the day before, Sky Fox 4 would have been the only news helicopter in town. But not now. And McMichael’s…
Opponents of ROTC up in arms about military presence in schoolsOnce a week, gunshots ring out within blocks of Shawnee Mission North High School. The alarm that may be felt from hearing those sounds is tempered by the discovery that what is heard comes from pellet guns being fired as part of the school-sanctioned junior ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps)…
Back in the early 1980s, Louisburg, Kan., was a very small town sitting on a lonely stretch of U.S. 69 Highway about 30 miles south of metropolitan Kansas City. Most people in the city didn’t know much about Louisburg. What was known was that driving south to the town in Miami County at night meant dark — and depending…
Many students in the Kansas City, Missouri, School District (KCMOSD) will be unable to read this article. A greater percentage can read the article but will not be able to comprehend what they have read. Herein lies the biggest problem the KCMOSD faces as it sits on the verge of being stripped of its accreditation by the State Board of…
In the heart of a very Midwestern strip mall sits a Spanish-Mexican restaurant that, by local Mexican-restaurant standards, has more in common with the tony Café Allegro or Hannah Bistro than its bustling downtown cousins, with their neon beer signs and unabashedly casual service style. In fact, while sitting at Guadalajara Café (1144 W. 103rd Street), I wondered whether the…
6 ThursdayThe first order of today’s business is to learn how to pronounce Linda Zagzebski’s last name. Somebody buy her a vowel. Zagzebski is the guest tonight at Rockhurst’s Visiting Scholar Lecture Series, where she’ll discuss “Religious Diversity and Social Responsibility.” Although many wouldn’t touch this topic with a 10-foot pole, this Kingfisher College Chair in Philosophy of Religion and…
If you don’t know your Worlds of Fun history, you can’t join the club.Worlds of ‘Funatics’Do you know what book inspired Worlds of Fun’s design? How about the date that the “number-one tourist attraction in Kansas City” opened? Well, if you happen to be a member of the Worlds of Fun Fanatics Association, or WOFFA (the group itself is up…
Contrary to the “rock star” mentality being nurtured in the growing garden of MTV’s music for vegetables, numbing our collective musical palate with fruity bubble gum flavors and manufactured sound bites, not everyone wants to be a rock star. Just ask Amy Farrand — Kansas City’s alternative to assembly-line musical parts and mass-produced fast food sounds. “‘Rock star’ is about…
The unfortunate truth about poetry is that anyone can pick up a bound, blank journal with curlicues or an Impressionist painting on the cover and fill it with what might loosely be called “poetry.” But when the Guggenheim Foundation starts paying people to do so, literate individuals must protest. Erotikon, a new book of poetry by Susan Mitchell (HarperCollins,…
The American Heartland Theatre struck oil two seasons ago with Joe DePietro’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, a delightful musical review chronicling the perils and pitfalls of being single. With DiPietro’s new show, Over the River and Through the Woods, that well is discovered to be not so deep. The show is akin to a television sitcom that…
