Back when the Romanelli Grill (see review) opened in the 1930s, it was a neighborhood bar that also served food. In those days, there were distinct differences between a restaurant and a bar and grill. But the lines were fuzzier when it came to coffee shops. A coffee shop was like a diner or luncheonette, putting the emphasis on food…
When I was a young, thoughtless waiter, I used to cringe at elderly customers. They were fussy and demanding, they were lousy tippers, they never liked whatever it was they’d ordered (“It had a lot of garlic in it” or “This meat is awfully pink”) and they were always pulling out free coupons at the last minute. My friend…
A handmade book from the Cuban printing press Ediciones Vigia feels vulnerable. The most hard-core bathtub reader wouldn’t dare hold one of these books over a pool of water. Nor would the groggiest, droolingest reader nod off before carefully placing the text back in its proper place. Holding it, you wish you were wearing gloves. Jeanne Drewes, a librarian…
If there’s one thing everybody seems to understand when it comes to mysterious teen-agers, it’s that they’re reckless because they don’t realize they’re mortal. That concept is taken to its extreme in John Webb’s movie Vampire Clan, in which members of a Florida goth gang strive for immortality by drinking each other’s blood. That it’s a true story makes this…
Paul Feig remembers everything about his childhood you want to forget about yours—the ass-kickings, the name-calling, the overwhelming smell of a classmate’s vomit commingling with the odor of the red sawdust used to sweep it up, the tingling sensation down there brought on by climbing a rope in gym class, the humiliation of being made dodge-ball target, the horror of…
“I believe Ahman Green is the best back in the NFL. That’s just what I believe.” Bill Maas, choosing the Packers’ Green over Priest Holmes, WHB 810 GH: Green is a great back but he has Brett Favre in his backfield to force defense to respect the deep-passing game. Holmes is crafting his incredible season despite playing against defenses that…
Dick Vermeil hasn’t lived up to his name. In other words, he hasn’t done dick since he arrived in Kansas City as Carl Peterson’s longtime buddy and savior. Exactly halfway through his three-year, $10 million contract, the 66-year-old wine connoisseur is 11-13 as the Chiefs’ head man. Vermeil took over at Arrowhead in January 2001 after Gunther Cunningham learned he’d…
The weirdest thing about British bad-boy artist Damien Hirst’s work is how beautiful it is. His glass-enclosed pharmaceutical shelves — with fictitious drugs and cure-alls — have lovely symmetry yet imply chemical overload. His dead shark suspended in ocean-blue formaldehyde is a masterpiece of wistfulness — it gives some people the willies, but no one can shrug off its…
The only thing wrong with last year’s film adaptation of Lord of the Rings was the mellow-ass New Age soundtrack. Tolkien disciples Led Zeppelin would’ve been the best choice to score the movie, but Plant and company are notoriously hard to license for film projects. Perhaps it’s not too late for someone to slip a copy of Queens of the…
Upon first hearing this marriage of band name and album title, some might ask, “Is this some bizarre combination of goth rock and Brazilian tropicalia?” And the answer would be, well, yeah — and the band has piled even more styles on top of that. The Black Heart Procession’s fourth full-length marks an ambitious departure, and not just because it’s…
Every conceit that makes heavy metal both goofy and great is encapsulated on Nile’s colossal In Their Darkened Shrines. Sure, it might be hard to suppress chuckles at these guys’ preoccupation with Egyptian mythology, which leads them to name-drop ancient gods, dub their sound “Ithyphallic Metal” and, most inexcusably, speaketh in Olde English from time to time. But all this…
When Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted was released in April 1992, it didn’t create a revolution of Nirvanic proportions. Instead, it generated a quiet storm that was just as influential, if not as sexy and dramatic. Slanted helped popularize lo-fi slacker rock, influencing everything from Beck and Liz Phair right up to the Strokes and Weezer. With 48 tracks filling two…
Scarface began his career as a gun-slinging Geto Boy, angrier and more militant than nearly all his peers. The Fix represents the culmination of his gradual evolution, the album on which a mature, focused writer injects inspiration into hard-core rap without sacrificing strength. Face delivers sermons without being preachy: I thank the Lord for every morning He allows me to…
After years of singing along with onscreen characters, pondering just why there are so many songs about rainbows with Kermit the Frog, and sharing platefuls of deliciousness with Cookie Monster, kids can share songs with a real-life Sesame Street character. Roscoe Orman, better known as simply Gordon, opens the inaugural season of the Folly Family Series with an afternoon of…
There’s something oddly familiar about the first few cuts of Josh Joplin’s latest release, The Future That Was. Chalk it up to flashes of the Beatles’ heady post-Rubber Soul, pre-Sgt. Pepper’s days, glimpses of a hungry young R.E.M. and echoes of an Attractions-backed Elvis Costello. Maybe Joplin owes his diverse approach to his transient lifestyle. Starting at age sixteen, he…
iSOLA named itself after a record by one of its influences, Kent. Following that line of thinking, the guys just as easily could have chosen the Bends to honor Radiohead or the Man Who to celebrate Travis. The shift-key-defying quartet formed last year in San Marcos, Texas, and quickly earned a following. In March, voters in the Austin Chronicle…
Hearing the Appleseed Cast (pictured) reconfigure its ambitious studio odysseys in a live setting is always a treat — the Lawrence quartet is smart enough not to overplay its hometown. That’s not to say local music fans can’t catch AC members moonlighting on a regular basis: Guitarist Aaron Pillar fronts Hundred Hands, which also features AC singer and guitarist Chris…
Smokey Robinson is renowned for having one of Motown’s great voices, but it’s his songwriting skills that cemented his status as a legend. Famously, Bob Dylan once called him America’s greatest living poet, and Robinson’s signature numbers — “Shop Around,” “The Tracks of My Tears,” “I Second That Emotion” and dozens of others — certainly back up the claim….
In a genre that takes pride in near-mechanical precision, Kid Koala’s playful antics have polarized listeners. No one doubts the turntablist’s skills — Koala scratches vinyl into oblivion and stacks an amazing number of samples into dense compositions. But when the Kid added how-to-manual excerpts and video-game effects to his tracks, some fans of the form deemed his tunes childish….
Slobberbone’s pugnacious charm has won over crowds during each of the band’s past few visits to the area. Playing for a fast-fading audience as the third group on a weeknight bill, Slobberbone has been able to shake audiences awake. Touring in support of its just-released disc Slippage, the group will be showcasing all-new rural power chords. Too often lumped into…
Kansas City’s entertainment options for Halloween look pretty sweet. Pocket Space dresses up Pink Floyd’s tunes at the Bottleneck. And ghosts of devil’s nights past visit the Madrid, with tributes to Bauhaus, Joy Division and Black Sabbath; the fact that none of those bands will be active on October 31 adds to the appeal. As they watch members of Season…
Forty miles west of Kansas City/Down a county road like a lonely soul. So opens “Stull Pt. 1,” Urge Overkill’s oblique ode to a microscopic Kansas town. It’s not surprising that a Chicago-based band would name a song after an obscure Midwestern burg; such references are common among no-coast acts looking to celebrate their shared culture. However, it was more…
At this point, everyone associated with the Kansas City gospel music scene literally knows Omer Coleman Jr.’s name backward and forward. Not only does Coleman organize and cohost the Omer Awards but he also runs Remo Records, whose roster includes almost a dozen local artists. What’s not widely known is that the calm, collected label head and R&B crooner has…
Now here’s an innovative narrative: Two shticky goofs of different races get stuck with a ridiculous mission and must overcome their mutual antagonism to save the day. Been there? Done that? You bet! Yet somehow, amazingly, the new I Spy dishes out fresh and funny antics while simultaneously spewing forth the routine conventions of the action romp, the buddy movie…
