The following is a list of women who have been raped, mutilated, tortured, enslaved, crippled, or murdered—and quite often, all of the above. In some cases, these women have also suffered miscarriages, been rendered infertile, contracted horrific diseases, and gone insane. Some of them have even been killed twice, perhaps because theirs was not a gruesome enough death the…
My father smoked a cigar every night until my mother ordered new curtains for the house and banned his Corona Grandes forever. She hated the rich, pungent smell of the cigars and never would have picked one up to smoke it herself; to her, cigars were masculine, coarse, and nasty. That memory returned to me as I sat in the…
18 Thursday With only 12 months in a year, it’s amazing how many months are designated to certain causes and celebrations. Among other things, May is Mental Health Month, and The Mental Health Association of the Heartland wants to share its stories of success. “Teaming for Success and Wellness” takes place tonight from 6:30 to 8:30 at Old United Methodist…
The Grand Old Lady of 12th Street has had dates with Humphrey Bogart and Groucho Marx; she’s been a house of burlesque, run adult movies, and been the stage for the world’s most celebrated classical artists. The stories housed in her steel and wooden bones go back a century, and she’ll have another story to tell as the Folly closes…
It’s no coincidence that freedom of expression is protected in the First Amendment rather than the Fifth or Sixth. Americans are an opinionated lot and as such hold dear their right to spout off. Many times, however, such passionate opinions are coupled with a need to suppress those conflicting with our own. Then censorship rears its ugly head, making it…
The optical illusion that is Starlight Theatre’s new stage takes a few minutes to register. After $10 million and a marketing campaign that promises “you’ve never seen Starlight like this,” the initial perception is that the performance area is smaller, seemingly pinched on three sides by a rectangular proscenium arch. But as you move among the nearly 8,000 seats, a…
Beautiful letterpress posters sparsely scattered around Lawrence advertised Design Farm, a University of Kansas Center for Design Research project purported to be rebelling against the current trend in “vanilla” consumer-based design in America. A manifesto also was posted; the “for the people” tone, with its idealistic leanings, was a much-needed approach to this society’s rampant, ill-acknowledged consumerist greed. Design Farm…
To witness Bob Costas is to become a slave to cliché. Thousands of times people have commented on his youngish, John-boy Walton looks. Volumes have been written about his gift for speech. But to see him in person is to be slammed with a tidal wave of eloquence. Search for a noun-verb disagreement, unplanned pause, stutter, or stammer, and…
Having to overpower a boisterous band playing in a different part of the venue makes for an ideal setting for a punk rock group. Unfortunately, it also makes for a nightmarish forum for a singer-songwriter, which is why indie-rock icon Sarah Dougher was visibly rattled when she discovered that she’d have to deliver her subtle songs while Parlay’s Ernie…
Seeing Henry Rollins on VH-1 five nights a week, hosting the network’s incredibly lame and tasteless show The List, might make this punk icon’s fans think he has sold out (if they didn’t already abandon him after his appearance in the Charlie Sheen epic The Chase). After all, it doesn’t get more corporate and whitewashed than MTV’s older unwed…
Penny Dreadful is another KC-based five-piece, one that shares Mercury’s love for warm, sun-inspired tones and affinity for casual profanity. That, however, is where the similarities end. Penny Dreadful plays midpaced, foggy metal, with clear introductory guitar parts leading into sludgy assaults. Lyrically, singer Rodzilla takes a Fear-style anti-p.c. stance, taking shots at Bill Clinton and O.J. Simpson between making…
The sun has not yet set on the popularity of jam bands, as the Dave Matthews Band and Phish both scored coveted early-fall slots at Sandstone, which means their enthusiastic dancing fans won’t be in as much danger of suffering from heat exhaustion. On Mercury’s (thankfully, this KC-based quintet changed its name from Soul Shoes) debut release, singer-guitarist Philip Lehr…
For the past 11 years, the Free Speech Coalition has brought Kansas City a unique week of events called Culture Under Fire, during which a certain anticorporate ethic that rarely gets lip service in this region takes center stage and the motto “freedom of expression is social evolution” inspires every event. Fittingly, the cornerstone of this year’s four-day event, which…
Like a horror-movie villain or a cockroach immune to Raid, Gee Coffee has proved nearly impossible to kill. The venerable venue has been presumed dead on several occasions, yet, like South Park’s Kenny, it soon reappears, unscathed and ready to weather the next assault. However, given the mayfly-like life span of most all-ages clubs in the area, Gee’s patrons are…
Those who purchased the soundtrack to the MTV-Movie-Awards-dominating film Cruel Intentions might have been impressed by “Comin’ Up from Behind,” a brilliant contribution from the previously unspectacular outfit Marcy Playground, although the liner notes reveal that the tune was actually penned by Two Ton Boa frontwoman Sherry Fraser. Her band’s mutant-jazz version, which is immeasurably enhanced by her commanding vocals,…
This sublimely silly English trio makes music that’s heavenly to hear but difficult to describe. From its brilliantly buoyant 1995 debut, I Should Coco, to its somewhat somber sophomore effort, In It For The Money, to its newest release, Supergrass has made a career of hopping the fences that separate genres. Supergrass’ eclectic offerings have thus far won the group…
Confidence and time can make the difference between a merely good band and one that excels. On its second full-length album, The Casket Lottery has grown by leaps and bounds in confidence and has done so in an amazingly short time. While its earlier releases showed amazing potential, Moving Mountains is nothing short of a masterpiece. With songs that flow…
After straying farther and farther from the vintage sounds unveiled in his classic decade-old debut, Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em, The Reverend Horton Heat has jumped back into the past. Spend a Night In the Box trades in the alt-rock feel of Space Heater and the heavy grind of Liquor In the Front for a return to stripped-down swingin’…
Nothing betokens effete intellectualism quite as readily as the image of Charles Emerson Winchester III sitting alone in his tent, listening to Caruso arias in the midst of the Korean War. The producers of M*A*S*H knew a great visual (and audio) cue when they saw one, and this image seemed to sum up the fusty snobbishness of Charles’ personality. Opera…
Although many casual radio listeners have written off Chumbawamba as a one-hit wonder now that the anarchistic ensemble’s “Tubthumping” has started to fade from airwaves, movie trailers, and sports highlights clips, longtime fans might recall that the group’s artistic apex came more than a decade ago. On albums such as Pictures of Starving Children Sell Millions and Never Mind the…
There’s good news and bad news for Oasis, the British lads earmarked for superstardom five years ago on the strength of their huge, addictive syrup tap, “Wonderwall.” The good news is that they have survived those bloated expectations and significant lineup changes to produce a cohesive, if not very good, new album. The bad news is that they have kiboshed…
Blues guitarist Scott Ellison’s new disc is called One Step From the Blues, but he’s really more like 16 hours from the blues. Riding the momentum of an album that delivers a serious dose of the Tulsa, Okla., sound, Ellison is collaborating with acclaimed producer Dennis Walker — by Federal Express. “I put the whole track down myself: guitar, bass,…
Where can you see gun-toting Chinese waiters, a suicidal animated pie, and butt jokes about George W. Bush? Not at the local megaplex, that’s for sure. In its eighth year, the Culture Under Fire Film Festival brings another round of independent short films to the Fine Arts Theatre on Sunday, May 21. Featuring 16 films, six of which are…
Kevin Spacey (American Beauty), Danny DeVito (Man on the Moon), and Peter Facinelli (Can’t Hardly Wait) are Larry, Phil, and Bob, three businessmen for an industrial lubricant company visiting Wichita for a convention in the screen adaptation of Roger Rueff’s play Hospitality Suite. The titular “Kahuna” is a manufacturing president the trio thinks can save the sinking company. However,…
