He gets good head: What’s seven and a half inches of smooth, hard plastic with a jiggling head? The new Jason Whitlock bobblehead doll, of course. What did you think we were talking about, you perv? In honor of the behemoth Star sports columnist’s quest to run/not run the Humana River Crown Plaza Marathon on November 2, Whitlock’s employer is…
The B’Nai Jehudah Temple at 69th and Holmes is a spiraling concrete form that swirls into the air like a tepee. Its designer, Ted Seligson, was enamored with tents — large, welcoming, communal spaces — and he preferred high ceilings held up by a few interior columns. The sanctuary has just one. The building, says Seligson, is the only Kansas…
The fate of Kansas City’s most precious real estate lies in the hands of a polka band. Fortunately, it’s not just any polka band. Brave Combo takes the old oom-pa-pa and mixes it with everything from sexy salsa to über-cool Japanese pop, a postmodern melange that sounds great when a listener is bubbly with beer. And this Friday, when Brave…
I had dinner a few years ago with a vegetarian friend who pleaded with the restaurant manager to bring her something meatless. He agreed and returned with his idea of a vegetable plate: black olives, gherkin pickles, chopped radishes and carrot slices. “It’s a plate of garnishes!” my friend said. Even as a contented carnivore, I can understand why Kansas…
It’s no surprise to me that my vegan friends are totally dippy over Udipi Café. The first local outlet for a national chain, this vegetarian Indian restaurant opened at 90th and Metcalf five months ago. My vegan dining companions Zodie and Alethea love the fact that they can order anything from the menu (except the mango milk shake and…
When the ultrasuccessful rock musical Rent popped up on the cultural radar, it was an unmistakable homage to (and, some said, rip-off of) the Puccini opera La Boheme — albeit set on New York City’s grungy Lower East Side. Whereas Puccini’s starving Parisian artists dabble in oils and pastels, Rent’s young aesthetes work in video and performance art. Mimi, the…
Steve Tulipana, singer for the band Season to Risk, has a huge collection of really bad movies. Really bad movies. Ones with laughably dubbed lines such as, “One day I will have my revenge, Doctor Bagelstein!” Whether it’s ghouls and lots of tits and ass (1987’s Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-rama) or love-funk ’70s novelties (1976’s The Van with…
“I have these fantasies,” Anne Austin Pearce confides. “I get up in the morning, and my feet are clean, and I stick them inside shoes that don’t have any weird sticky stuff on the soles, and then I jump in my clean car and trot off to work on time.” Pearce would like to straighten up her studio, her…
“It’s a risk, but it’s not reckless. If I didn’t know Trent Green like I know him, we probably would not have done it. But we know this kid. … I’d like to think he can run it better because he’s been in it longer.” — Dick Vermeil, after giving up a first-round pick to trade for the rehabbing Green,…
Sitting on the sunbaked concrete steps, Rick Byers watches his football players finish their post-practice run. The temperature is in the mid-’90s and the dry, lumpy practice field resembles the surface of the moon. “Come out tomorrow ready to work,” Pius X’s head football coach calmly reminds them as they file past him toward the locker room. Silently, one player…
At 31, Michael Sidney Fosberg takes on adult challenges that fling him back to feeling like a kid. First, his mother and stepfather decide to divorce. This spurs him to ask about the biological father whose entire history his mother has effectively buried. He feels “like a jigsaw puzzle with a big piece missing” until he meets his real father…
Really rich people don’t understand that the domestic help always has more interesting stories than the employer. Watching Robert Altman’s recent Gosford Park, you’d rather knock back with Emily Watson’s maid than with Kristen Scott Thomas’ dilettante because she would rather air dirty laundry than clean it. What makes the character of Alonzo Fields so compelling in American Heartland…
Since the Swimfan flick is essentially a youthful rip-off of 1987’s Fatal Attraction, it makes perfect sense that its soundtrack is waterlogged by up-and-comers with nothing new to add to the rock lexicon. The gasping-for-air trend that is the nü-metal power ballad gets what should be its final lap across the shallow pool of collective consciousness, and forgettable outfits such…
Three tracks in, Clipse tells listeners where it comes from: In Virginia we smirked at the Simpson trial/Yeah, I guess the chase was wild, but what’s the fuss about?/See plenty of my partners feeling like O.J./Beat murder like the shit is OK/That’s what our dough say. When, say, Ja Rule drops something similar, you know he’s just going back to…
No matter how you roll Black Dice, two distinct sides likely will emerge to debate the band’s merit: those who claim the band pushes the limits of all things aural and those who find its anti-melodies abrasive and unimaginative. The press release accompanying the experimental noise outfit’s Beaches and Canyons pleads, “Don’t let this music confound you. We promise ……
Other New York City bands stage hype-fueled invasions. Interpol lurks in the shadows with all the subtlety of a multinational crime fighter. Sure, with its members’ jagged haircuts and tailored suits, the band could easily be mistaken for the media darlings du jour. But Interpol has a cache of talent to back up its style, so while everyone else was…
Before delving into the musical contents of Mali Music, a bit of background information: Mali is a small country in West Africa, home of one of the world’s most fascinating music cultures. Damon Albarn is a British musician famous for being the frontman of Blur and Gorillaz. Mali Music is the result of Albarn’s eight-day journey to Mali, where he…
If Eminem could take a breather from baiting Moby, a move that’s impressing no one given the malnourished vegan’s less-than-intimidating stature, His Eminence might find a better fight here in KC. Just a few weeks ago, local unsigned power-poppers Anything but Joey topped the Sweet Seven at Seven countdown on KRBZ 96.5, garnering enough listener requests to beat out two…
More than a decade into its critically acclaimed, commercially negligible career, Luna plays on. Formed in 1991 from the ashes of Galaxie 500, the New York ensemble has cranked out a series of overlooked records, the best of which, 1994’s Bewitched, contained “Tiger Lily,” the closest Luna has come to having a hit. Though its lineup has seen more changes…
Jimmy Thackery’s regular swings through Kansas City never get old, primarily because he’s constantly changing what he’s doing. His most recent album, We Got It, showcases the music of Eddie Hinton, a vastly underappreciated white soul singer and guitarist best known for his work with Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers. Hinton, who died young in 1995, made several great…
You’ve gotta love a harmonica man who not only mastered his harp under the tutelage of George “Harmonica” Smith but also did so under the band name Bacon Fat. Rod Piazza’s résumé includes years working with the Dirty Blues Band, too, but he’s been leading an actual blues band, the Mighty Flyers (who won W.C. Handy awards for best blues…
Higher Burning Fire’s lushly orchestrated In Plain Song deserved a slot on the area’s — if not the nation’s — short list for best albums of 2000. Yet the group never really attracted the attention it deserved, mostly because its flame seldom flickered close to home. While the local scene’s higher-profile acts spiked power-pop punch with bittersweet tears, the Higher…
There’s been almost no dissent about Bruce Springsteen’s new album, The Rising, which flew up the flagpole July 30 accompanied by a 21-media-outlet salute and a slew of moist-eyed reviews. The rock press’ five-star consensus extended beyond The Rising to forgive an unprecedented (for the Boss) media blitz that plunked Springsteen onto Nightline, Late Show and Today the week before…
Nearly a year ago, the long-empty, newly renovated Madrid Theatre was Midtown’s most controversial issue. A towering concert hall a few doors down from the moderately sized Grand Emporium and Unicorn Theatre, the Madrid served as a lightning rod for neighborhood residents who poured acid rain on the venue’s parade. Fed up with video-camera-toting vigilantes, national concert promoter House of…
