A long, long time ago (the ’80s) in a land far, far away (New York, before Giuliani), there existed a band that made strangely beautiful music rooted in rage and psychosexual orchestral maneuvers. The group, Swans, resembled what the Velvet Underground might have become had it stayed together to make Transformer with Lou Reed. Now, some twenty years removed from…
Whenever anyone asked Mean Dean Edington, host of KJHK 90.7’s metal show “Malicious Intent” and unofficial hype man for several local heavy acts, about his ultimate career goal, he’d always say “the radio gig at Relapse Records.” Not that he expected to attain that position. Relapse, the Pennsylvania-based home to all varieties of extreme hard rock, isn’t the type of…
Today is a two-show day. Around 5 p.m., actor David Fritts is up from a nap and ready to return to the Missouri Repertory Theatre for his evening performance as Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol. At the same time, Larry Greer, who is playing Ebeneezer Scrooge’s late partner, Marley (among other roles), is involved in a game of…
It seemed too good to be true: Jack Black, whose initial big break came when he played a snotty record-store clerk named Barry in High Fidelity, would be hopping behind the counter to reprise his role at Recycled Sounds, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Championship Vinyl, the film’s indie-snob music shoppe. (“It’s almost embarrassing how that…
Even the most jaded soul is at least this bit interested in Michael Jackson’s latest — a disc three-plus years in the making, at the cost of some $30-$40 million. Nostalgists wonder what happened to the kid they once adored; they shake their heads, cluck their tongues and lament how so vital a performer can become an afterthought barely into…
Breathy gasps occupy empty space on Vespertine, Björk’s newest and best album, as though she’s drowning in nectar. Elsewhere on the record, snow melts in her mouth, water surrounds her thighs, ripe black lilies swirl. She ingests little glowing lights and warm golden oil. A world of sensuality seems to consume her, and the musical accompaniment traces these interactions like…
Imagine being defined by your voice all your life and then discovering that your voice is gone. Sure, a few singers maintain their voices into their golden years, delaying somehow the inevitable consequences of age, smoky clubs and constant use — take Tony Bennett, now 75, who has only just recently begun to show signs of slipping. More often, though,…
Not every Chiefs fan is rooting for the home team during the final weeks of this season gone wrong. After finishing 7-9, 9-7 and 7-9 the past three seasons, this year’s 3-8 Chiefs are in a position they haven’t seen since Carl Peterson drafted Derrick Thomas in 1989 — going into the NFL draft with a top-five pick. Utter failure…
“This bullcrap that we’ve got the best fans is the biggest crock going. If you win, sure, but lose a little bit and they’re gone. This city can barely support one professional sports franchise. If things are good, people jump on it. These people are content with what they have. No owner in their right mind would bring any of…
“Mr. Human Rights,” they once called him, and though his was never the most famous name on the bill—that was Bono or Bruce Springsteen, Sting or Peter Gabriel—as the organizer of the Conspiracy of Hope concerts in 1986 and the Human Rights Now! world tour two years later, Jack Healey was very much the public face of Amnesty International. He…
1954 was a very good year for Christmas. That was the year Paramount released White Christmas, the movie musical starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney. The same year, Kansas City Power & Light unveiled its All-Electric Model Home in Prairie Village, a state-of-the-art ranch house with the latest built-in appliances, including a crackling electric “fire” in the living…
Most people consider sixth grade the most appropriate time for holding bake sales to raise money for purchases such as risers for a music class or scooters for the gym. Adults who contemplate the bake-sale approach to fundraising usually succumb to a bullying form of pride that prevents them from standing on street corners with signs reading “Proceeds go toward…
The renewed interest in French fare that led to this year’s openings of Aixois and Café Provence (see review) hasn’t allowed French-Creole to cross over to Olathe. The New Orleans-inspired The Big Easy Café (15202 West 119th Street) closed October 6. “After September 11, the business just went to the dogs,” says owner Jim Eddy. “It dropped 30 percent.” Eddy…
There is little evidence of the historic French influence on Kansas City except the northland trafficway and the demolished-but-soon to be-rebuilt bridge named for Francois Chouteau, who established a trading post on the Missouri River bluffs in 1821. Soon after, in “Kawsmouth,” where the Kansas and Missouri Rivers come together, French Catholics settled the area we now call the…
The local music landscape has changed quite a bit recently. In a city that once had a reputation for being a brutally negligent parent of all-ages clubs, El Torreon has survived and even thrived, pulling in attractions that range from the demented (Girlie Freak Show and Genitorturers have literally shocked the masses) to the unexpected (Sam Shepard’s play State…
Casper the Friendly Ghost was at a wishing well, and then he fell in,” Daniel Johnston says in the halting voice of a wide-eyed child. “When I was a kid, I always wondered how he died, so I came up with that.” Elements of cartoons, youth and death form an irresistible mix for Johnston, who felt such an affinity…
Tape, a film by Richard Linklater, isn’t. It’s high time for some cinematic clarification: If a project is shot on celluloid, with light searing images onto emulsion, then it’s a film. If it’s recorded with magnetic frequencies or digital code (as is the case here), then it’s a video. Of course, there are gray areas involving amalgamation, transfer and projection,…
The lights go down, and the puzzlement begins. Ensemble cast of superstars? Check. Loose remake of amusing curiosity? Check. Built-in, pre-fab sense of cool? Check. A little something for wistful fans of Dino and Sammy? Check. So … wait a minute. Is this The Cannonball Run Redux? With his ambitious but unnecessary remake of Ocean’s Eleven, director Steven Soderbergh…
Traffic Slam Pain in the grass: I found it ironic that in the November 15 issue, you had two articles regarding parking problems: Casey Logan’s article about Solomon’s Porch (“Love Thy Neighbor”) and Andrew Miller’s “Around Hear” about the Madrid Theatre. On one hand, the Pitch seemed very critical toward a church (whose parking probably bothers the neighbors once or…
That’s just SO 1984: Of 159 scofflaws photographed running red lights in September at a troublesome Overland Park intersection, eleven were caught on film September 11, the day Osama Bin Laden’s terrorists struck the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Perhaps the attack created a sense of urgency in drivers rushing to reach their loved ones. Or perhaps the lead-foots were…
It was a warm Thanksgiving night on the Plaza. Paula McLaughlin wailed “America the Beautiful.” The evening’s host, Oldies 95 disc-jockey Dick Wilson, mistook Chiefs lineman Tony Gonzalez for some sort of head of state and asked him to share his thoughts on September 11. Then Gonzalez and Governor Bob Holden’s sons switched on 280,000 twinkling lights to lure shoppers…
Robert Rowe doesn’t regret getting the blow job. Even after serving 75 days in jail, spending money on an attorney, being forced to retire early and enduring that humiliating day in court wearing orange, he doesn’t regret the blow job. “The deal was where it happened, and that was stupid,” Rowe says. “But had it been at his place or…
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in May, former Lone Jack internal-affairs investigator Thomas Goodner accuses the town’s 33-year-old police chief of botching a murder investigation, creating phony documents, locking juveniles up in adult jail cells and allowing officers to sexually harass female city employees. Goodner, who was fired by Chief Jeffery Jewell after reporting falsification of…
Bernie Standiford awoke, startled from a heavy slumber as his wife stood over him in her pajamas and insistently shook his shoulder. “Bernie!” she said, a sharp edge of worry in her voice. “Didn’t Mike come home? He’s not in his bed!” Their teenager should have been home hours earlier. Bernie jerked his head up and looked around the living…
