Words to Live By, 2001 “In Johnson County, we prefer substance over symbolism.” — County Commissioner Doug Wood, explaining why he opposed a paid day off for county employees to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, January 15 “Target is a sexy tenant … Target is very hot.” — Ward Parkway leasing representative Danielle Short, discussing news that the discount retailer…
Over a cup of coffee — not a great cup of coffee, but a fair one — with my luscious bread pudding at the Cornbread Café (see review), a friend of mine who no longer drinks the stuff revealed the ugly, hidden history of restaurant coffee. We had both started our careers as waiters back in the 1970s, when most…
Do people really eat more when times are bad? My parents were both children of the Depression, when the most popular restaurant concept was the cafeteria. Even as relatively well-off adults in the 1960s, they loved sliding a tray across a stainless steel serving line and heaping it with stuff they couldn’t get in nicer restaurants: congealed gelatin salads,…
There’s no place like home for the holidays, unless that “old devil moon” — which is full during the stressful week between Christmas and New Year’s — turns the spirit of the season into a downright foul, irritable monster. When that happens, none of the cheery Christmas movies, spiked eggnog drinks or mistletoe opportunities in the world can put…
Director Michael Cuesta’s ambitious and daring film, L.I.E., had a brief commercial run in Kansas City this fall, making the Tivoli Cinemas one of the few movie houses in the country that dared to show it. It bore the show-business equivalent of Hester Prynne’s scarlet letter — the NC-17 rating — which meant that many theater chains wouldn’t screen…
When he first auditioned for Any Given Sunday director Oliver Stone to play quarterback Willie Beamen, an embittered bench-warmer prone to fits of vomiting before each snap, Jamie Foxx was sure he’d blown it. Stone, as subtle as an ice pick to the cornea, said as much—loud enough so Foxx, walking away with head in hands, could hear him….
Outstanding Sports Talk Radio Host: Kevin Kietzman, WHB 810 2001 was not rife with sexy local sports stories, but that didn’t stop Kevin Kietzman from occasionally throwing a tattered wet T-shirt on a pig and calling it Britney. When presented with no story, Kietzman has quickly learned that the way to the top of talk-radio ratings is to invent one….
Scott Wilson Top Ten Albums 1. Ben Folds Rockin’ the Suburbs (Epic) What a relief. Missing only the manic energy and harmonies of Robert Sledge and Darren Jesse, the other two-thirds of Ben Folds Five, Folds’ solo debut refines his former group’s formula rather than starting from scratch. He’s his own remarkably effective power trio, playing all the bass…
Oh, to be a movie reviewer. Assuming that an average of five movies are commercially released each week, that makes about 250 films to consider when crafting top-ten lists. Sounds tough, but whole genres can be dismissed (goodbye, teen comedies!). Plus, there’s no need to sit through an entire stinker — laudatory performances almost never occur during otherwise execrable…
Anyone with any experience sharing toys, attention and uncomfortably long car rides on the way to dreaded family vacations will recognize some familiar personality types and situations in Tortilla Soup. Directed by the Spanish-born Maráa Ripoll, best known in this country for her English-language film Twice Upon a Yesterday, Soup is about three adult sisters who still live at home…
Filmmakers don’t get any more sensitive than Paul Cox. When it comes to jerking a tear or tugging a heartstring, this Dutch-born, Australian-raised veteran is a master. Just ask anyone who saw My First Wife (1984), in which a workaholic disc jockey falls to pieces when his neglected wife has an affair, or Cactus (1986), in which a young…
Editor’s note: Kansas State Senator Kay O’Connor made national headlines in September after she reportedly told a representative from the League of Women Voters that she didn’t favor the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — the one granting women the right to vote. O’Connor later argued that The Kansas City Star had misrepresented the comments — but she didn’t…
It took Andre Dubus just eighteen pages to communicate the grief that fills every frame of Todd Field’s two-hours-plus In the Bedroom, a wrenching bit of filmmaking based on Dubus’ short fiction “Killings.” Both story and film tell the same tale in the same solemn and gripping tone — with the same horrific and poignant results. In a small…
‘ve always maintained that if a restaurant’s food is good, no one gives a damn whether the dining room is attractive. Cases in point: the original Stroud’s (1015 East 85th Street), Arthur Bryant’s (1727 Brooklyn) and Cascone’s Grill (20 East Fifth Street). None of them will win any interior-design awards, but the swarms of customers don’t seem to notice. On…
The City Market would seem a natural spot for a bustling restaurant community. Many local chefs buy their produce and herbs fresh there on weekends, when the outdoor stalls are packed with vendors. So why aren’t there more restaurants? If the neighborhood had been able to survive the explosive days of the ill-fated River Quay in the 1970s (those…
Bruce Yonemoto, whose video installations are showing at the Kemper Museum, uses cinema to show us what we can’t see: the inside of the globe, the backs of our own heads, the paths of clouds. His mission might seem problematic — if we can’t see it, how can he show it to us? — but Yonemoto reminds us that…
Most Kansas Citians chuckle self-deprecatingly at the idea of window shopping downtown. Too many storefronts aren’t just unseasonably devoid of sweaters and tea sets — they’re boarded up. But art peddling is alive and well, and downtown’s gallery-district windows offer joyful alternatives to the usual department-store fare. Outside the Dolphin Gallery, a display showcases nine square canvasses evenly spaced…
David Salo’s colleagues and classmates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have absolutely no idea how he spends his free time. It’s not that the 32-year-old linguistics grad student is ashamed of his hobby (or obsession), which has occupied him for some 26 years. They simply cannot be bothered with it. “Most linguists feel that it’s enough of a pain dealing…
“It’s a damn football game; it’s not a big deal. People are treating it like it’s a civil-rights movement and someone is being denied access to freedom. It’s no freaking big deal that Nebraska is playing in that national championship game. Everybody should just shut up.” — Jason Whitlock, WHB 810 GH: This from a guy who has spent the…
The University of Missouri’s and the University of Kansas’ football seasons had finales that ranked with the ugliest in the schools’ histories. KU seniors ended their careers in Lawrence with a 27-14 win over Wyoming in front of a mere 6,500 fans. So few students were on campus that a high-school band was recruited to serenade the Jayhawks as they…
In the song “If Love Were All,” Noel Coward writes that a person might be blessed if he is possessed of nothing but “a talent to amuse.” Certainly the cast of the New Theatre’s Lumberjacks in Love has that and more; the actors’ credits run from Broadway shows to films like Ang Lee’s Ride With the Devil to the television…
Asylum St. Spankers Christmas Spanking (Bloodshot) “Seems y’all been very naughty,” Asylum St. Spankers percussionist Mike Henry says during the introduction to his group’s live album, Christmas Spanking. “We think that’s nice.” So to reward its ruddy-faced, red-nosed hometown fans for their rowdy behavior, this completely acoustic (no microphones or amps) Austin-based outfit slaps its distinctive handprint on fifteen holiday-themed…
For the most part, Christmas-season entertainment options are snow-pure: Barbra Streisand singing carols, Tim Allen in a fat suit, “family-friendly” films and countless characters in countless sitcoms and TV dramas dropping their differences and learning how to love again. But there are a few deviant possibilities, such as the disturbing Santa-as-hefty-hacker Silent Night, Deadly Night film series, the excellent Beavis…
Winning a Grammy award is a lot like being named to an All-Star team, being elected to the Senate or even becoming the pope: It gives you a title that will precede your name for the rest of your life. But as one of the few polka groups recognizable to anyone under age sixty, Brave Combo earned a respectable…
