Floyd Hermann is surrounded by signs of war. He lives in the three-story apartment building at John Knox Village in Lee’s Summit. He’s in his early nineties, but his friends say he doesn’t look a day older than 73. Though his stride is clipped by a slight limp, he treads the retirement community’s long corridors quickly, passing dozens of American…
At the Blue Koi (see review), Cantonese-style roasted duck comes chopped and tucked into a flour wrap or heaped on top of noodles. The whole duck is marinated and slow-roasted — in other words, it’s cooked thoroughly. I don’t eat my duck breast rare, but reader William Bruning prefers it that way and got his tail feathers ruffled reading my…
For most Kansas Citians, Chinese food has always meant the Americanized Cantonese dishes — stir-fried meats, rice bowls and lo mein noodles in oyster sauce — that have been served in the city since the days of Hung Far Low. (I’m serious about that name, too: Hung Far Low was one of the few Oriental restaurants listed in the…
New York Times cartoonist Jules Feiffer is coming to the Reading Reptile this weekend because his wife told him to. “I got a letter, which I didn’t open for two or three weeks, which is the way I usually handle the mail,” Feiffer says. In the letter, Reading Reptile owner Pete Cowdin explained that one of the authors he had…
The last time Late Night Theatre staged a benefit show, it was to say goodbye to the company’s soon-to-be-demolished Old Chelsea space in the River Market. The September 10 production was eerily — in light of the next day’s world-changing events — called Eve of Destruction. Six months later, cross-dressed approximations of Courtney Love, Stevie Nicks and Joan Jett…
Just last week, the makers of a film called Pendulum gathered in a brand-new Dallas movie theater to screen their picture. The event was a fund-raiser for both the Susan J. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s Race for the Cure and the trust fund for the children of Pendulum co-star Alissa Alban, who died last year of brain cancer—six months…
“The picture is definitely provocative. I picked the picture because I think it shows a strong, sexy, confident woman, and I’m comfortable with myself. I don’t try to be a soccer mom. I embrace my femininity, and I think that sets me apart from the masses in the locker room. I’m not doing this for my fellow journalists — my…
Two years ago, Mike Miller, a 6-foot-8-inch college sophomore, hit an improbable off-balance buzzer-beater to advance Florida in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The video of Miller’s game-winning shot became the signature of Florida’s run to the championship game, which the team lost to Michigan State. Miller didn’t start for Florida during the NCAA tourney, but NBA…
Creation myths from virtually every region of the world assert that man, and often woman, were created from clay. In China, for example, the female god Nunga used clay from the Yellow River to form humans. In West Africa, two ruling spirits hid their children, who had been fashioned from clay, in fire; their varying skin tones resulted from…
Sex, drugs and rock and roll — it’s over, declares a laconic Miss Kittin on “Madame Hollywood,” the first of three songs she contributes to Kittenz and Thee Glitz. Oddly enough, the album itself revels in rock-star glamour and debauchery; the only thing missing is the rock. Instead, house producer Felix da Housecat has woven an album of future-retro electro,…
In press materials for Stop, 34 Satellite stresses that it’s a band “living in the right now.” No doubt that claim is intended to underscore that the new album marks a significant shift in direction. Radar, the group’s debut, had reviewers describing the band with the word “twangy” and comparing it to alt.country favorites the Jayhawks. But this time, the…
Like the fictional Commitments, County Galway’s Saw Doctors have lived the sort of feel-good, populist tale we Yanks are such suckers for. After rising from obscurity on a 1988 Waterboys tour, the backwater pub rockers scored the biggest-selling single in Irish history with “I Useta Lover,” a controversial lust-at-mass rave-up. And while its previous domestic releases haven’t caught fire in…
In the mid-’90s, Mobb Deep dropped gritty crime rhymes over cinematic-style scores, earning a solid following while making high-profile enemies such as 2Pac and later Jay-Z. On the duo’s latest album, Infamy, Prodigy and Havoc abandon their trademark style, pulling lyrical punches and taking the edge off their backdrops. Cameos by R&B group 112, singer Lil’ Mo and soul veteran…
You’re a blues traditionalist, and someone says to you, “Hey, have I got the CD for you — this avant-jazz dude hitting Sun Studios, doing stuff like ‘Little Red Rooster,’ ‘Dimples,’ and ‘Fattening Frogs for Snakes.’ He even sounds a little like John Lee Hooker.” You respond with a little noncommittal sound, sort of a gurgling “gick” noise. You’re an…
As blasting crews smashed through tons of bedrock to carve a valley for Bruce R. Watkins Drive in the mid-’90s, nearby residents felt the shock waves. Walls trembled, windows shook, and a tall oak was uprooted and crashed across the front lawn of Darthard Perry’s home. For him, the destruction still symbolizes the freeway’s impact on his neighborhood. Despite its…
A former city accountant has sued Lone Jack, alleging that cops talked daily about sex at city hall, thrusting their pelvises and speculating about which woman the department’s chief would “slide into” next. In two federal suits, accountant Terri Davison and former city clerk Debbie Brewington accuse Chief Jeffery Jewell of creating a “hostile, offensive and intimidating” environment where they…
Crossed wires: Regarding Mark Kind’s Kansas City Strip (February 21): 90.1 KKFI has changed hands recently in a rather abrupt fashion. Friends of Community Radio is campaigning to restore 90.1 to democracy, transparency and accountability in its affairs. It’s unclear what direction the new board and management have for 90.1, but clearly it’s not for community radio as we understand…
If We Were Soldiers smells at all familiar, perhaps you’re confusing it with the stink emanating from a nearby theater screening Black Hawk Down. Both movies are based on books that recount true-life battles that claimed the lives of American soldiers. Both offer painful and prolonged visions of hell’s battlefield. And both drop you in landing zones overcome by…
Despite the recent success of Smoke Signals, films by or about Native Americans make up a tiny lot. Writer-director Randy Redroad’s The Doe Boy, the February Indy Film Showcase selection of the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee, significantly ups the ante. Eleven-year-old Hunter Kirk (Andrew J. Ferchland) is the son of a Cherokee mother (Jeri Arredondo) and a white father (Kevin…
When Ben Folds Five released what turned out to be its swan song, 1999’s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, Ben Folds told Details magazine he wanted the band’s next record to be “the Thriller of modern rock,” a disc packed with “eight hit songs.” Folds’ facility for composing titanic hooks was already evident on the band’s three releases, though…
Like Queens back East, Oakland out West and Detroit in the middle, Manchester is a proud, blunt town of the people. British historian A.J.P. Taylor called it “the only place in England which escapes our characteristic vice of snobbery.” If that’s so, Slaughter and the Dogs, unpretentious and full of heart, is the ultimate Manchester band. And if that’s more…
On February 20 at 10 p.m., the unthinkable happened: 98.9 KQRC The Rock, the station that moves more Pink Floyd catalog albums than Wizard of Oz-related rumors, the station that keeps grunge’s comatose corpse-to-be on life support and provides sanctuary on the dial for otherwise gone and unlamented artists such as Ugly Kid Joe and Skid Row, played a song…
Last week, comedian Will Durst recorded a performance for release on CD. But if he can’t put it out by the end of March, he probably won’t at all. A teller of mostly topical jokes, Durst craves freshness and figures that his audience doesn’t want to be fed a time capsule when it could still be laughing at Enron now….
At 1701 Baltimore, a brick building with huge windows continues to undergo rehab work started by the Nicholson Group months ago. The vacant building’s windows are adorned with strips of red, yellow and blue vinyl attached to flashing lights. The deliberate color scheme is unusual for artist James Woodfill, who prefers to use “off the shelf” materials. But because…
