Far from home in the Bering Strait, beneath looming mid-August skies the color of gun smoke, Eskimo hunting boats circle a wounded gray whale. The whale is bleeding and furious; he is 45 feet long and weighs 55,000 pounds. Rather than dive for cover, he turns to fight. Nineteenth-century commercial whalers called gray whales “devil fish” for their fierce attacks…
Dining at the trendy new re:Verse (see review) is one thing. Dining at another restaurant that has reversed its decision about Sunday brunch turned out to be quite another. After several years of serving one of the nicest Sunday brunches in town, Remington’s in the Adam’s Mark Hotel (9103 East 39th Street) discontinued its buffet in April. It was “a…
What better time to look back at the Beat generation than during a period of national unrest? The bohemian writers and poets who found success during the Cold War — Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs and Corso — were restless souls with many different causes and passions, and their philosophies may be useful today. The late William Burroughs (novelist, drug-taker, wife-killer…
25 Thursday Exhibits at the Nelson-Atkins Museum and Jan Weiner Gallery offer unique perspectives on the African-American experience. At the Jan Weiner Gallery (4800 Liberty) mixed-media works by Radcliffe Bailey build on black-and-white photographic portraits of unidentified African-Americans (mostly from the nineteenth century). Bailey adds paint, text and drawing to the images, creating a collage effect. This is the…
Once upon a recent midnight dreary, attorney Paula Acconcia pondered the idea of celebrating Halloween by doing more than wearing costumes and imbibing spiked witch’s brew. “When I found out it was only $50 to rent the Just Off Broadway space, I said, ‘I gotta have a party,’” she recalls. Beginning at 8 p.m. on October 30 and ending at…
Not every old house in Kansas City is haunted, but ghost stories abound, such as the one involving the home at 66th and Edgevale where Pretty Boy Floyd planned one of his robberies. Floyd survived, but one of his cronies didn’t. The home’s former owner, Dennis Cross, says the late gangster is still a mischievous presence in the house. But…
Adriana Sandoval’s set design for the Unicorn Theatre’s production of Arthur Kopit’s BecauseHeCan almost tells more of the story than the playwright. The Elliots, Joseph (Stuart Rider) and Joanne (Melinda MacDonald), have a home on Park Avenue, and their living room is like an austere hotel lobby. Black leather and chrome dominate the symmetrical space, which is broken up…
Since the September 11 attacks, even high-profile musicians have displayed a restored sense of perspective. Everyone from Paul McCartney to Michael Jackson to the now-embattled veteran metal outfit Anthrax has donated services to benefit shows, acting as not-for-profit entertainers. On the local front, heavyweights such as Season to Risk, Shiner and Onward Crispin Glover performed a couple weeks back at…
There’s a certain glory inherent in ending a career that’s still in its prime, and Big Jeter, calling it a day after a little more than a year as Kansas City’s best comedic country/performance-art outfit, should be at the top of its game for its final show, a Halloween gig that will give it ample opportunity to model its countless…
For skeptics, reggae in the Midwest has always been a silly scenario: a bunch of landlocked suburban kids earnestly empathizing with the political struggles of poverty-stricken Jamaicans. (Think of the clueless “right on, mon” dreadlocked white Rastas in Ten Things I Hate About You.) But the people who actually became involved in Kansas City’s scene know that it overcame this…
As a group with buzz (a New York Times front-page piece about its dominance of garageband.com’s charts) and commercially viable talent (its melodies and lighthearted lyrics echo those of platinum-sellers Blink-182), Lawrence’s mi6 was the area’s most eligible bachelor, dealing with admirers on its own terms. In a reversal of the usual send-and-wait process, labels such as Dreamworks and Epic…
Thulium, the silver-gray metallic element, was discovered in 1879 by Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve. Classified in the lanthanide series of the periodic table, where its atomic number is 69, Thulium is the rarest of the earth materials. Fast-forward more than a century from its discovery, however, and it’s much easier to find (without digging or messy excavation) Thulium, a…
if you’re looking to see Snoop Dogg kick some boo-tay as an undead drug dealer with lycanthropic tendencies in Ernest Dickerson’s new horror movie Bones, you’ll have to wait at least an hour. But even then, the killings are often abrupt and sudden, symptomatic of the movie itself. Full of fits and starts, Bones never really gets going, stalling at…
Julie Davis’ All Over the Guy is yet another entry in the ever-growing genre of gay romantic comedy. Ten years ago, one would have led off by saying, “It’s a romantic comedy, but with a twist: They’re both men!” or “It’s When Harry Met Sully…!” It’s a step in the right direction that such films have become commonplace enough…
“Part of having a parade permit for a race is that you have to notify every address along the route in writing of your event ten days prior to the race. Plus, put a map of the route in a public publication.” — Karen Raymer, on the red tape that must be cut to stage the Rib Run. GH: After…
What do Columbia, Wichita and Springfield have that Kansas City lacks (other than civic pride that’s not constantly battered by hapless hometown professional sports teams)? A runners’ marathon, of all things. This fall, Kansas City earns another embarrassing distinction: It’s the largest American city not to have an official marathon coursing through its neighborhoods. Kansas City Power and Light has…
Desk Jockeys Board of the flies: After reading Joe Miller’s “Taylor Made” (October 4), I am so glad I moved my family out of the KCMO School District three years ago. The only way to fix this horrible system is to fire all of the current board members and let the state take control. Then and only then will there…
The Twilight District, Episode Six: Fast talk made all the difference for Robert Stringfield Tuesday night as he flattered his way into the hearts of Kansas City school board members, winning a biracial majority as two runners-up with stronger and better-spelled résumés fell victim to — what? — the board’s fear of selecting a stereotype? “I have multi-experience and loyality…
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. On Sunday, October 7, B-2 Stealth bombers thundered into the sky from Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster. They roared to Afghanistan, where they punished Taliban targets with 5,000-pound bombs. Thou shalt not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above. In the following…
On November 4, some 1,800 television personalities—actors, writers, producers, show-runners, network executives—will, finally, parade into a Los Angeles theater to award their peers and themselves for a job well done. They will, at long last, hand out the golden statues known as Emmy, just as it has been done every year since the award was first presented on January…
The stench of animal waste assaulted Leavenworth County sheriff’s deputies as they opened a barn door at Marc Thiry’s small farm near Tonganoxie, Kansas. Flea-infested cats and dogs huddled in cramped, urine-soaked quarters. Empty food bags littered the floor. Two Great Danes lay in 3-foot-tall cages with no room to stand or move. “Some were walking in and turning around,…
Someday, through a miracle of science, hogs could become spare-parts factories for drunks who need new livers, for stroke victims who need healthy brain cells or for schoolgirls who want toenails that glow in the dark — permanently. Scientists at the University of Missouri in Columbia have successfully crossed a pig with a jellyfish (well, sort of), creating a litter…
If you’ve seen the film version of Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel High Fidelity, you’ve heard The Beta Band. It’s The Beta Band’s Champion Versions EP that John Cusack’s character (owner of record shop Championship Vinyl) boasts he will sell five copies of after he plays the Scottish group’s “Dry the Rain” in the store. In a movie that celebrates music…
Two weeks ago, it would have been possible to use the name of the man interviewed below; indeed, it would have been expected, as he is no mere “spokesman,” the only identifier by which he is to be referred. Two weeks ago, it would have been possible to point out the specific location of his headquarters, the University of…
