Devout Scientologist John Travolta has told those who fear that his new movie, Battlefield Earth (which is based on a massive novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard) is a recruiting tool for the cult not to worry. Both the actor-producer and the late Hubbard have stated that the tale was merely designed to entertain. If we take them…
Up at the Villa has drama, romance, intrigue, and mystery. It’s based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham and features an attractive and talented cast. So why is it so boring? Most of the problem lies with the main characters. Mary Panton (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a British widow living in a villa outside Florence in 1938, when the…
The trailer had promise — more than five minutes of wordless imagery involving massive dinosaurs residing in their natural setting. Witnessing the beasts’ trials — escaping predators and foraging in their prehistoric environment — was as compelling as any Discovery Channel nature documentary. But the trailer, exhibited last summer before Disney’s animated triumph Toy Story II, was just a misleading…
Free — but not cheap I read Allie Johnson’s article on Topeka State Hospital and Dr. Cynthia Turnbull (“On Dangerous Grounds,” May 4-10). I am the attorney who represented TSH in that case. Johnson’s article devoted little space to our defense. It was told almost entirely from Dr. Turnbull’s perspective, even though Johnson had access to the transcripts, evidence, and…
It was winter of 1998, and then-24-year-old Jennifer Krieff was working 80 hours a week to pay off the $6,000 credit card debt she racked up in college. She would spend eight daytime hours designing seasonal greeting cards at Hallmark. After that, she would rush off to wait tables at Genghis Khan Mongolian Grill, a popular west side restaurant on…
Located in the attic at Scofield Hall on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, up narrow stairs and past tiny windows in what used to be the chancellor’s office, is the High School Science, Mathematics, and Technology Institute (HSSMTI). Appropriately, a student, working her afternoon job, acts as receptionist. Jan Alderson, director of the institute and high school science teacher,…
When Eric Minor accepted an offer to manage an auto parts store in Overland Park, Kan., and move his young family from its lifelong home in Alton, Ill., last spring, he just wanted to settle into a small, peaceful town like the one they left. “When I got to the Kansas City area, (my co-workers) told me that Louisburg, Kan.,…
This was to be a column extolling the daring and inventiveness of a very groovy Sci Fi Network television show called good vs. evil, in which two dead men, a fro-sporting, cool-spouting brutha and his pale-faced partner, try to save the souls of those who have made Faustian deals with the devil’s minions, among them Emmanuel “Webster” Lewis and LeAnn…
Longtime Kansas City diners who step through the revolving glass doors leading into the six-week-old McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant, located on the second level of the as-yet-uncompleted Valencia Place complex on the Plaza at 47th and Pennsylvania, will probably feel a sense of déjà vu. The restaurant is the first Kansas City outpost for the Portland, Ore.-based McCormick &…
11 Thursday Die-hard dance-music fans who frequent The Hurricane on Thursday nights might have been dismayed to notice that Nash Kato, having lost the Urge (Overkill), will drop by the venue to showcase his solo acoustic stylings. But fear not, glowstick brigade, because the evening’s nightcap delivers record-spinner extraordinaire Timo Maas, a Billy Idol lookalike from Germany. By throwing techno,…
Dana Bartimus’ mild-mannered appearance belies her fury. The smell of her perfume matches her brand-name shirt and diamond-studded earrings, which combine to give more of an impression of a Johnson County shopper than an anti-gun-violence activist. Either way, Bartimus is a mother who, concerned about her children, is organizing a Kansas City rally in support of the Million Mom March,…
His pierced lip, beard, and army-green fatigue hat make 24-year-old Michael McCormack hard to miss. With an avant-garde appeal, he looks as though he was made to revolt. Born and raised in Kansas City, it took his going coastal to open his eyes to issues that can be easily ignored in the Midwest. Three years ago he moved to…
On the first Monday in May, “Youth” strode out to the mound at Kauffman Stadium. Youth took a few warm-up pitches and signaled that he was ready. A batter stepped up to the plate. The face of Youth checked the catcher for the sign. The eyes were intense, but even in a squint, they were without crow’s-feet. Experience had…
Every so often you have to thank your higher being of choice for the musical Annie. It is a show that gives young girls with acting aspirations the chance to exercise them, and those it doesn’t chew up are spit out into bigger and better things. Such is the case with the three teen and preteen female stars of…
The H&R Block Artspace has on display work by this year’s crop of graduates from The Kansas City Art Institute. This is a respectful move by the school, one that acknowledges four years of toil and dedication. Although the work is housed within a new, expansive space, it’s difficult to take everything in, but one experiences a palpable joy amid…
Three artists at Joseph Nease Gallery share a penchant for unique materials. Instead of paint, James Brinsfield uses tape, paper, and markers on his large-scale canvases. Rachel Hayes sews together patches of polyester fabric and vinyl. And John Torreano constructs palm-size balls out of wood, acrylic gems, and krylon paint. In his statement, Brinsfield explains that his materials “aren’t…
Poster Children/Appleseed Cast/Elevator DivisionEl Torreon — Monday, May 8, 2000There were some unexpected pyrotechnics during the set change between Appleseed Cast and Poster Children, when a fuse blew on stage. A larger explosion would have been more fitting, however, because the Poster Children easily blew away the sizable (for a Monday night) crowd. “This is the last day of…
Circus entrepreneur P.T. Barnum once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Infamous pop-art icon Andy Warhol once said, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” Most recently, Jimmy Pop, lead lunatic for the Philadelphia-based Bloodhound Gang said, “A lap dance is better when the stripper is crying.” That despicable quote is actually the title of…
Let’s be honest: The magnetic force that pulls the hygiene-challenged to an average jam band has a lot to do with the fact that a chemically addled brain can store only so much information. Like song titles. Not that Medeski, Martin & Wood have strewn record-store aisles with an unreasonable amount of product, but just try committing to memory the…
Those lucky enough to be in attendance at the Kid Koala show Thursday night at The Bottleneck witnessed a rite of passage, a wonderful and natural life transformation. On this spectacular night, roughly 200 hundred fans saw Kid Koala become a man — a ladies’ man, a working man, a mannish man. For a few life-altering hours, Kid Koala…
Westwind proudly bears the label “modern country” (the phrase appears on its business cards next to its lasso-wielding-cowboy logo), but this KC-based quartet avoids the pratfalls that plague many of its peers. Anthony Williams’ nearly twang-free voice is more reminiscent of James Taylor than Clint Black, while the band’s songs eschew the blinding pop polish preferred by some top-charting crossover-country…
On songs such as “Deep Diving” and “Nothing At All,” this band seems to be under the influence of a dangerous amount of Viagra. On the first tune, grungy vocalist Jay Jiovenale belts out such lines as I love to caress your flesh and You look so good to me when you’re down on your knees over a mildly funky…
The first few seconds of The Dress Rehearsal suggest that The Welterweights are about to break into some punchy alt-pop, when suddenly Nathaniel Williams’ throaty voice and twangy guitar appear, radically rearranging the song’s texture. This quartet plays rock and roll with a country undercurrent, cranking up the volume on the ode to debauchery, “Honeymoon,” and slowing things down for…
Jim Strahm medical fundraiser number two takes place this Saturday, May 13, with a star-studded lineup at the City Market, featuring Southern Culture on the Skids, Alejandro Escovedo, Parlay, a reunited Billy Goat, and an acoustic set from Paw. For more proof of Midwestern Music mainstay Strahm’s historic involvement in the scene, Paw’s Grant Fitch offers this brief but…
