A friend of mine once told me how a savvy local entrepreneur used to make the delicacy called “Pizza on a Stick,” which she sold at fairs and festivals. She started with a hot dog, of course, because every Italian dish that Americans co-opt gets Americanized in the worst possible way — such as tiramisu made with cream cheese instead…
It’s been eons since downtown Kansas City was a hotbed of happening restaurants, so it’s always good news when any new restaurant opens north of the booming Crossroads District. In the case of Sienna Bistro, the pocket-size dining room just off the narrow lobby of the Quality Hill Playhouse, the news is especially hopeful. Why? For one, it’s an…
28 Thursday With narration by the likes of Edward James Olmos and Mumia Abu-Jamal and music from such rabble-rousers as Rage Against the Machine and Ozomatli, Big Noise Films’ Zapatista offers a unique view of the indigenous struggle in Chiapas, Mexico. The hourlong documentary involves a firsthand account of the Zapatista movement, which rose up at the dawn of…
Kansas City is experiencing a theater-ratio emergency — more theater groups producing more plays with fewer stages. But rather than discourage creative sorts, the stage shortage seems to inspire them. It’s like having too much gold in your jewelry box. The latest troupe on the scene is FlyOver Productions, and the hunt for a venue in which to present The…
Cheryl Carey’s guard donkey lost its job five years ago — to a llama. “We lost three sheep in May, two in July, and four in September to coyotes. Since we got a llama we haven’t lost any,” she says. Carey’s 225 ewe graze a 19-acre pasture 7 miles south of Sterling, Kansas. Two llamas, Bailey’s Irish Cream and…
The pleasures of American Heartland Theatre’s production of Deathtrap come into focus via the play’s pretzel logic: If the plot were laid out on a map, it would go back and forth and in and out, twisting all expectations around its clever center. Plays-within-plays are usually fun; here it’s as if the audience were witnessing the play’s creation on…
For a group of people that had either snatched up all available tickets in mere hours or purchased their tickets second-hand on the street (or from Internet auctioneers) at astronomical prices, Weezer’s fans were a relatively calm, well-behaved lot. When the group’s glittering logo was hoisted high, the adoring hipsters cheered, jumped a bit, and got ready to rock without…
Modest Mouse appreciates the power of a good hoax, whether it’s spreading rumors about its major-label debut being based on the scribbled ramblings of a deranged fan or having a fellow on crutches hobble out and testify as to how the band changed his life, only to have singer Isaac Brock burst the bubble later by revealing “he’s not really…
Even at its best, modern punk rock tends to lack real revolutionary content. Bands such as Good Riddance, Propagandhi, and Anti-Flag produce smart, well-written politically charged songs, then set them to the same catchy light-speed backdrops preferred by groups that sing about farts, mullets, and sex-change operations. But Le Tigre is the rare animal ambitious enough to make the…
“Hi, we’re Jade Raven,” introduced bubbly singer Holly King, much to the disinterest of the Hurricane crowd. It was the group’s CD release party, complete with cake, and its members could have cried if they wanted to about this icy reception, but instead they kicked out some catchy power-pop, and by the end of their third song they were…
One Foreigner fan, rejoicing at the opening strains of “Cold as Ice,” turned to her partner and exclaimed “This is a classic!” “This is Foreigner,” he corrected. “They’re all classics!” Such was the attitude at Station Casino, where the dirty white boys (and girls) in attendance eagerly devoured every selection from their heroes’ jukebox. Years of touring have severely constricted…
Though Odor of Pears recently relocated from Columbia, Missouri, to Berkeley, California, the band continues to represent the strong Goth community that spawned it. On Crown of Thorns, its second full-length, the group strays from the synthesized melodies that powered its previous work, choosing a more abstract approach that features sparse industrial beats and unobtrusive backmixed vocals. Diana Blackwell’s often…
Rocker turned avant instrumentalist Mark Reynolds titled his most recent release I Used to Be a Pedaljet, but it could just as easily have been named I Was Once a Fabulouse or, most luridly, Formerly a Chick with a Dick. Evils of Stealing, Ludicrous Behavior, and Castration rank among the other band names on Reynolds’ lengthy resume, which reflects 20…
Considering the head-spinning frequency of its lineup changes and the sole authorship of its songs, Whiskeytown has no reason to continue now that leader Ryan Adams has released a solo disc, other than its cool name and the fact that there’s probably a contract somewhere with Adams’ signature on it for a label bigger than Chicago’s peerless Bloodshot. Like Bob…
Learned music consumers recognize that “compilation” is just a dignified, concise word for “mixed bag.” Whether it’s a label sampler, soundtrack, tribute album, or concept album, multiband CDs follow a strict format: a few great songs by great bands, cool moments from promising newcomers, perhaps a surprise or two, and a wide array of filler that ranges from forgettable to…
Since co-producing Wishbone, Eleni Mandell’s dazzling debut, Jon Brion has become a studio “It” man, having composed the Magnolia score and lent his distinctive, dense sound to Fiona Apple’s acclaimed latest release. Meanwhile, Mandell remains one of modern music’s most overqualified unsigned artists — nearly unanimous praise for Wishbone has failed to translate into a major-label bidding frenzy. Thrill, her…
The Revolvers most certainly have gotten a bang out of 2000. Kicking things into high gear last February, the band opened up for The Get Up Kids at El Torreon, still one of the then-green venue’s most highly attended shows. Throughout the year, the Revolvers secured the opening slot for many of the area’s biggest punk concerts, with their fast-paced,…
If hip-hop offered vocational training, universities where budding artists could learn the finer points of rhyming, DJing, breakdancing, and creating graffiti, the Lyricist Lounge would rank among the most prestigious institutions. Offering a degree in lyricism, the Lounge offers proven job placement and an influential list of alumni. The late Notorious B.I.G., music mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs, multiplatinum-selling Eminem,…
Immediately after taking the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month, Moby plastered a “Gore/Lieberman” bumper sticker on the presenters’ podium. It was a subtle gesture, one that inspired only lukewarm applause and grabbed much less attention than Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford’s scaffolding-climbing stunt, revolutionary for reasons surely to be explained later. But it…
Despite a subtly scintillating cast of characters played with pitch-perfect verve, London — in this case, working-class, unpretentious South London — is the main character of Michael Winterbottom’s gritty yet kindly Wonderland. Navigating the labyrinthine streets and suburbs charted in Laurence Coriat’s debut screenplay (which evolved under the title Snarl Up and hasn’t lost that attitude), Winterbottom boldly takes us…
Remember the Titans — based on a true story about how a football team brought together the segregated town of Alexandria, Virginia, in the early 1970s — is the first film from producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s Technical Black production company, which is meant to offer more contemplative and slower-paced films than his hollow, slam-bang filmography (Flashdance, The Rock, Con Air,…
Club Dead Everything’s great when you’re downtown: I couldn’t agree more with Bruce Rodgers regarding moving the clubs out of Westport into the downtown area (“Move the Clubs,” September 21). Funny thing is, back in my day — the late ’70s and early ’80s — I seem to recall a respectable amount of club action downtown. There was the Haberdashery,…
Goin’ to Kansas City?: What a difference six years makes. On September 23, 1994, a thousand business leaders donned tuxedos and gowns. They dined on smoked duck and crab to celebrate the newly expanded Bartle Hall. “Kansas City is now on the cutting edge of growth and development in this nation,” then-Mayor Emanuel Cleaver said. The new convention center had…
On the list of bad things being done to the earth, billboards aren’t up there. Their ranking would be way below, let’s say, herbicide and pesticide contamination of our nation’s waterways and drinking water, a definite newsmaker. Still, in terms of unnecessary environmental havoc, billboards have to be a little ahead of littering. Littering doesn’t make the news much. A…
