At about 7 a.m., a few intrepid fans started getting comfortable in front of the Uptown Theater, a scene that marked a throwback to the days before ticket lotteries, a time when camping out for tickets was a necessity rather than a sure sign of fanaticism. This earthy-looking all-female group, some of which thoughtfully brought chairs to add to their…
Neko Case proved herself a gifted singer on the good but uneven The Virginian. Furnace Room Lullaby is more than good; it’s damn near perfect. Case even turned up in Time magazine recently as evidence of what an alt-country singer looks like. God love an underground heroine (and ex-punk drummer) who makes music a Republican could cozy up to. Like…
When you’re one of the world’s leaders in big, loud, dumb rock, there is little need to change the formula. So it goes with AC/DC. While age hasn’t stopped the band members from strapping on guitars and cranking their Marshall stacks, their audience and the formulaic nature of their revved-up blues rock has kept them from making any sort of…
A sticker on the cover of Mindless Self Indulgence’s debut album baits would-be purchasers to “be the first on your block to throw this new album out,” and quite a few horrified listeners might take the band up on this offer. Although obviously tongue-in-cheek, songs such as “Bitches” and “Dicks Are For My Friends” aren’t for everyone, and the group’s…
Lying somewhere in the middle of being a critic’s darling and an obscure footnote, folksy popster Elliott Smith has always made records that connected with his listeners. Starting off crafting homemade recordings and releasing them on indie labels, Smith has since graduated to the big time. This, his second major-label release, finds Smith at an odd juncture in his life…
When a band waits more than four years to release an album, expectations skyrocket. Fans and critics demand the impossible, looking for the band to maintain the sound that made it popular while simultaneously injecting groundbreaking elements that would justify the wait. Miraculously, some groups are able to pull off this implausible task, as No Doubt proves with its astounding…
“Walter Cronkite made me what I am today,” laughs Eric San from his hotel room in Montpelier, France. “I began manipulating this old Time/Life floppy record called The Swing Era with his narration on it when I was, like, 12. My sister had this old-fashioned console, a combination record player and radio that I’d been playing around with. Instead of…
Memo to Eddie Van Halen: If you still need a lead singer, consider Nash Kato. The former Urge Overkill guitarist and singer has the mop and the vocal chops to belt out “Panama” and party like it’s 1984. Plus, he’s a covers genius — from “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” the Neil Diamond song recorded by Urge Overkill…
Are you ready to rock? Are you ready to rip it up? Do you know what I’m talking about? When sung by Henry Rollins, the opening lines from his version of Thin Lizzy’s arena inciter “Are You Ready” makes it wallopingly clear that Rollins knows what he’s talking about when it comes to rocking. The Rollins Band’s latest album, Get…
Certain actors just seem to belong with certain directors. Film history is full of actor-director teams that, when their efforts are combined, develop a chemistry that results in movie magic. John Ford had John Wayne. John Houston had Humphrey Bogart. Federico Fellini had Marcello Mastroianni. Today it would seem odd for Neil Jordan to make a film without Stephen…
In 1946, Stalin opened his arms to all Russian expatriates, claiming that all was forgiven and imploring them to come home to help rebuild the motherland. Most of those who naively returned were summarily executed for treason. A few, those with useful skills, were allowed live. This political drama tells the story of a Russian-born doctor (Oleg Menshikov, Burnt…
American Beauty marked the stunning film debut of acclaimed British theater director Sam Mendes. One can easily understand why many film and theater buffs have been eagerly anticipating the first cinematic effort of another veteran of the English stage, Deborah Warner. Here, however, the expectations were too high. Although respectable, Warner’s low-key approach to her material makes for a…
Sitting through I Dreamed of Africa is about like watching a slide show of someone else’s exotic vacation. Some of the sites look great, but it’s difficult to invest much enthusiasm unless the presenter can make audience members feel as if they’re part of the action. Director Hugh Hudson (who’s responsible for much better films, such as Chariots of…
The poster for Center Stage helps indicate why this look at would-be professional ballet dancers is often entertaining. The focal point of the photo is the dancers’ feet. Their seemingly dainty shoes are frazzled and covered with dirt. Early in the movie itself, we see a long sequence where the dancers pummel their shoes to give them more traction…
Isn’t it ironic … don’t you think? Your cover story on the trends following the sale of Sun Publications to a national newspaper giant is a bit ironic, isn’t it (“Total Eclipse of the Sun,” April 20-26)? I can’t help but wonder if that’s why you ran it, or whether it was an effort to flex your editorial muscle with…
Maybe if I had been in battle with them, maybe if one of them had gotten killed, I would remember their names. But as it is — and call it a by-product of military training — I remember only where they were from. Unlike other vets, being reminded that 25 years ago the Vietnam War ended didn’t jog my memory….
Fred Whitehead is tired. And wearing a tie and a corduroy jacket on a warm April day doesn’t add to his comfort level. He rubs his eyes; Whitehead reads a lot. A longtime humanities professor at the University of Kansas (KU) Medical School in Kansas City, Kan., he is more used to intellectual struggles than disputes with school administrators. But…
Tim Miller has an unusual hobby. As a religious studies professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Miller spends some of his free time as an independent media watchdog. Seated in his small, almost closetlike basement office in Smith Hall on the KU campus, Miller explains that he’s been interested in newspapers since he was in second grade, when…
Criticism marked this year’s release of Sonoma State University’s (California) Project Censored’s list of stories. With Project Censored in its 24th year, objections concerning the choice of stories and how they were chosen are nothing new. Every year the use of the term “censored” comes under fire because some of the stories that make the annual list were reported in…
Peter Becker is the most important man in the movie business, even though you have no idea who he is. Becker himself would not cop to such a description; he, like few others in the business called show, does not put himself before the work. To describe what he does for a living would be akin to listing a dozen…
Its name is more likely to evoke the image of a disco than a restaurant, but just try to get a dinner reservation at Moscow Nights (4515 W. 90th Street) on a Friday or Saturday night. “We are booked, booked!” yelled the heavily accented voice at the other end of the phone when I called on a Saturday morning to…
4 Thursday The University of Kansas Department of Music and Dance is providing a potpourri of what it should: music and dance. The University Dance Company’s Spring 2000 concert showcases some of the most challenging ballet maneuvers, tackles environmental issues (like the latest oil spill off of France’s Atlantic coast), addresses the struggle between sanity and madness, and, of course,…
Grilled cheese and hookahsIn 1970, 20 people went into the woods armed with a keg, a pig, and two acoustic guitars. They weren’t searching for anything — well, perhaps a cure for the boredom and a passage to summer or somewhere else. What they found they left in the woods, returning each year to unearth their psychedelic relics. Thirty years…
Leave it to CleaverUnder the Clock, KCUR 89.3 FM’s live radio program, is named after the KC saying of long ago: “Meet me under the clock at Union Station.” For the millions of travelers, especially soldiers, who passed through this mammoth structure, those words became a connection to loved ones left behind and those reunited — ask any local…
