Kathy Johnson’s Labor Day weekend stunk. She had hoped to do some yard work at her home in Cameron, but after a few minutes working with the soil she was sickened by the smell of human bowels. She fled to the safety of her home, the last holiday of summer ruined. But that weekend was just another three days in…
Hispanic employees at Kansas City Power & Light complained to their bosses for years about the same problems black employees encountered at the company: a lack of representation in management and on the board of directors, inadequate recruitment, and a climate of discrimination. Carlos Salazar, a city and county affairs representative for KCPL (he lobbies for the company at the…
Ron Davis runs his fingers over an old, yellow hard hat. “Sick,” he says in a low voice. “Just sickening.” The hat takes Davis back to 1967, his first year working for Kansas City Power & Light. He was a groundsman, using a pulley to get tools and equipment to the linesmen who repaired power lines from up on top…
Almost Famous is the movie Cameron Crowe always wanted to make—and the movie he tried to keep from making as long as he could. The writer-director insists he didn’t want to make a film about his wonder years as a Rolling Stone writer in the 1970s, because he didn’t want to look like an egomaniac. That’s why he spent…
Home brew: A recipe for beer — the potent alcohol-filled kind — has been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, so it only makes sense that herb-based medicinal brews date back nearly that far. But in America, we have the Temperance movement to thank for the popularity of the carbonated beverage we now know as root beer. When boozy saloons started…
There’s a great idea bubbling behind Fitz’s Bottling Company, the restaurant and root beer “plant” on the lower level of Union Station. But an idea — even an inspired one — can fizzle out faster than a glass of warm soda if it’s not executed with some professionalism. During four visits to Fitz’s I enjoyed the bottomless mug of root…
14 Thursday It’s been the longest-running thriller on Broadway. Now American Heartland Theatre in Crown Center kicks off its new season with Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, a mystery about a washed-up playwright who cooks up a scheme to kill one of his students and steal a surefire script. Hilarity ensues. For tickets, call 816-842-9999. 15 Friday Kent Haruf has said…
LaDonna Harris will never forget that day in 1970, when Congress returned Blue Lake to the Indians. “Here were all of these ancient Taos people in the balcony of Congress. We broke protocol and we all cheered.” For 75 years, the people of New Mexico’s Taos Pueblo had worked for the return of the sacred water. “So,” Harris says, “those…
The last time Bernadette Peters performed with the Kansas City Symphony — at the Music Hall in downtown Kansas City, Missouri — she made an unexpected comment at her introduction that left the packed auditorium groaning: “I’m so happy,” she blurted out, “to be back in Kansas.” The audience forgave her, however, and Peters surely was set straight by her…
Back when the hi-fi was the center of American living rooms, original cast albums made the record charts as often as did Elvis. The Pajama Game and West Side Story were just two of the recordings that helped the landlocked feel a part of Broadway until the tour came to town. And within each show were the showstoppers, those numbers…
That was yesterday? Flash back a couple of decades and witness the decline of rock and roll as various journeymen bands divvied up their talent to form even less talented groups. The mitosis of Spooky Tooth (itself already operating in its second lineup) gave us Foreigner by way of guitarist Mick Jones. With the addition of an American singer with…
The University of Kansas, like many other large public institutions, has had its share of well-known eccentrics, from the Tan Man of yesteryear to the That’s My Dillon’s Man of today. In the mid-’90s, students could count on encountering such free spirit on a daily basis — that is, if they rode the bus. Ron Gleason, better known as…
Just when the mournful moans about the Lazer’s change of format finally seemed to have died down, along came Spirit Fest to resurrect the lamentations. In years past, the station hosted a modern-rock stage that drew cutting-edge acts, such as Moby, while allowing local bands to perform in front of the sizable crowds those artists attracted. By contrast, Spirit…
There’s really nothing subversive about Frisbie’s debut effort, The Subversive Sounds of Love, although releasing a pure, prefix-free (not teen-, power-, or punk-) pop album counts as an act of mild rebellion at a time when such records are a rarity. Calling listeners to attention with a rousing let’s go at the beginning of “Let’s Get Started,” the band urges…
By mixing perky, horn-fueled tunes with strident political lyrics and its rebellious name, Against All Authority offered one of the ska/punk scene’s most intriguing enigmas. Its albums’ artwork focused on anarchy signs and images of oppressive fat cats, but the songs covered their bitter core with a sweet-sounding melodic coating. With 24 Hour Roadside Resistance, the gimmick is gone. The…
Woody Guthrie was a true American poet who wrote honest, dry, and wry accounts of America’s working class, mainly taken from his own travels and experiences; setting his words to contemporary music, if done indelicately, could have drained them of their gritty power. Instead, when Billy Bragg and Wilco paired unreleased Guthrie lyrics with their own compositions, the resulting Grammy-nominated…
It says something about the hard-rock scene that when a band refrains from sexist and/or homophobic lyrics, it’s more of a unique selling point than a given. (At this point, I’m still hopeful enough to think it wouldn’t be a sales hindrance.) But the members of Taproot seem to be nice enough guys. Unlike similarly hyped newcomers Glassjaw, they don’t…
The name Ugly Boyfriend conjures up certain images: a fortunate, undeserving sort who managed to attract a mate despite an utter lack of charm; a pleasant fellow who makes up in personality for what he lacks in striking good looks; or perhaps a conventionally attractive indie-rock sort playing the underdog card in an ironic fashion. Different people create different images…
Back in 1989, singer/songwriter Jeff Black packed his bags, loaded up the car, and headed out of Kansas City en route to the famed music city, Nashville, Tennessee. Since then, he’s released 1998’s critically acclaimed Birmingham Road and continued to tour, with the path across the country occasionally bringing him back to his hometown for a brief reunion with his…
There’s a trio of duets in Duets. The film is set in the world of karaoke singing, but the title really refers to three sets of paired-off actors performing pas de deux to the tune of John Byrum’s Golden-Age-of-Television-ish dialogue. Only one of the three duos shakes fully to life, but that, along with the film’s naturalistic look and…
In a perfect world, any documentary about televangelists narrated by RuPaul and a couple of sock puppets would be hailed as the unquestionable conceptual masterpiece of the year. Alas, those stodgy Academy voters just don’t understand cross-dressers, religious broadcasting, or foot-warmers made to look like dogs. And so the best The Eyes of Tammy Faye can hope for is…
Guy’s and Dolls Not only was I deeply appalled by the actions taken by this seemingly “swell guy and community leader” (Dan Harper), but I was also disgusted by the comments made by those who thought they knew him. Loyalty to a friend or colleague is one thing, but to claim that these crimes were a result of parental neglect…
The morality patrol: We’re still waiting for news that the Internal Revenue Service has revoked 501(c)(3) status for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Nonprofit organizations with the coveted tax-exempt status must turn the other cheek when it comes to endorsing candidates. But it sure looked as though that was what was going on last month, when Republican vice presidential candidate…
Not many white people witness Reverend Tom Neely going about his work. Those who do most likely are cops, EMTs, social workers, or maybe passing bus drivers. Most black people won’t cross paths with Neely, either. Given the means, they’ve left the neighborhood around 39th and Prospect, repeating a migration started by middle-class whites decades ago. It’s the poor,…
