There have been other films dealing with the Jewish ghettos during the Nazi occupation of Poland — some of them very good — but The Pianist, the latest feature from Roman Polanski, may be the best. Of course, it has a huge advantage: The 69-year-old Polanski is probably the only working filmmaker to have personally experienced the Nazi persecution of…
Adaptation is the most overrated movie of the year (of all time?), lauded by people who should know better. Film critics have either been suckered by its gimmick (Being John Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman can’t adapt a book for the big screen and winds up writing himself into his screenplay — genius!) or they’re too afraid to look stupid…
Peace of mind: It was fascinating to open the Pitch and read C.J. Janovy’s coverage of the anti-war action in Bond’s office. My jaw dropped while looking at mug shots of the five “old schoolers.” Simply based upon their deep convictions, bare faith and courage, these grandparent citizens showed us an illuminating example of moral, peaceful action. These people are…
It was cold and sunny last Friday as Danny McGuire waited in the St. Elizabeth parking lot at 75th and Main for his fellow weapons inspectors. “Maybe they got detained,” the Eagle Scout and Penn Valley freshman said dejectedly. Eventually two people showed up: Sue Wilson, a middle-aged Johnson Countian fresh from her first anti-war vigil at the J.C. Nichols…
Lois Anderson just wanted what she thought should rightfully belong to the people of Claycomo. Now she’s standing in the path of a lawsuit filed by Ford Motor Company. Anderson, the village administrator who keeps the small town running, was fed up with scraping by each year while Claycomo put off making expensive repairs to its sixty-year-old clay-pipe sewer system….
One time, Amy Crowder and her boyfriend, Jeff Cady, stopped by the AutoZone at 63rd and Troost for a can of oil. “Damn! Look at that tiny waist!” bellowed a man at the front counter. “It’s that lady on TV!” Crowder and Cady hurried toward the rear of the tiny auto-parts store. There, customers gawked at Crowder, who stood 5…
In all of our bar slutting about town, we’ve realized that what this city lacks is a bit of bartender flair. We’re not talking about oh-so-’80s bottle flippage, like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. But some cool hippy-hippy-shake action — like a stacking of the glasses or the multiple pour — would be appreciated every once in a while. Call us…
OK, so maybe 2002 wasn’t the best year for local restaurants. Just think of the big names that closed during the past twelve months: Café Allegro, the Stolen Grill, Oldham and the two upscale Lawrence restaurants Bleujacket and PrairieFire Bistro. That’s not even counting Metropolis, which closed and reopened, or PB&J’s Paradise Grill, which was reincarnated as one of the…
There’s a bar — and a nice one — at Harry’s Bar & Tables in Westport. But there’s no Harry there. And not many tables, either. So what exactly does it have? After three meals in the joint, I’m still not sure. The eight-year-old cigar bar and restaurant lost a great deal of joie de vivre when its founding triumvirate…
It sounds too good to be true: Climb into a sweat lodge and start off 2003 with a renewed spirit and a freshly detoxified body. But what might have been perfectly natural to American Indians may sound suspiciously New-Agey and unattainable to people who still haven’t recovered from all of the stuff that’s so festively toxic this time of year:…
A century from now, historians will note April 6, 1999, as the day that either saved or ruined musical theater. At London’s Prince Edward Theatre, it was opening night of Mamma Mia!, the show that revamped Abba songs in the context of a traditional book musical. The lucky few who saw preview performances weren’t surprised when the show became…
Now in their eighth year, the SOFA (Sports media’s Outstanding and Forgettable Achievement) Awards are as much a part of the New Year’s tradition as college bowl games — and just as debatable. Here are the best and worst of 2002. Best sports-talk radio show: Crunch Time, 9-11 a.m., WHB 810 Bill Maas and Tim Grunhard have the same kind…
The top prize in the Gorilla Theatre’s 2001 Inaugural Dramatist Festival went to Kato McNickle, whose To Die for Want of Lobster follows all the rules of conventional playwriting. A conflict and a cliffhanger end the first act. Characters aren’t, at first, what they seem. There’s even a gun, which would be a cliche if Americans weren’t so gun-crazy. In…
Following on the heels of its critically acclaimed spring effort Romantica, Luna returns with its second release in six months — a sprightly move for a band famous for foot-dragging tempos. Lauded for its winking in-concert covers, Luna includes a pair of surprisingly straight-faced renditions on the Striking EP: the Rolling Stones’ “Waiting on a Friend” and Kraftwerk’s “Neon Lights.”…
Boston’s lone hipster credential remains Kurt Cobain’s claim that he pilfered the signature riff from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” off the opening salvo of “More Than a Feeling.” In a cruel twist of fate, Nirvana is long gone, but Boston trudges on. Founding guitarist and studio geek Tom Scholz remains the band’s mastermind, and the return of helium-throated wailer Brad…
Local yokels who’ve grown tired of bashing Puddle of Mudd finally have a new KC group to despise. Sort of. Bassist Lance “Kuk” Collier and self-described sample operator Church are veterans of the area hard-rock scene, having endured stints in Canvas. Like POM, downthesun is an indistinguishable unit, but this one follows Slipknot’s blueprint rather than copying Creed. Songs such…
Over the years, the Elephant 6 collective has become a highly droppable name among the indie-rock intelligentsia. So drop-friendly, in fact, that the musical alliance showed up in last fall’s Vanity Fair “Rock Snob’s Dictionary,” described thusly: “Loose collection of interrelated neo-psychedelic bands with power-pop leanings, anchored by the Apples in Stereo and their leader, Robert Schneider. Apparent requirements for…
December 16, 1996, is a night that will live in Brazilian death-metal infamy. Moments after stepping offstage at a London concert hall, Sepultura singer and guitarist Max Cavalera announced he was departing the group he had founded twelve years earlier. At issue was Cavalera’s marriage to band manager Gloria Bujnowski, with whom the rest of the group was unhappy. That…
A best-of compilation and boxed set rolled into one, Björk’s Family Tree is something of a two-headed hydra. Hardcore fans will likely consider the Greatest Hits disc inadequate — a Björk for Dummies — whereas they’re probably the only ones who will appreciate the five EPs that make up the balance of the larger collection. Divvied up under three headings…
You know a North American music trend has gone completely mainstream once it hits Japan. During the ’80s, the SoCal spandex scene produced a Far East counterpart called Loudness; in the ’90s, Shonen Knife turned heads with lo-fi quirkpop. Now Peelander-z, a self-described “Japanese Noodle Samurai punk band,” threatens to do for pop-punk what Honda did for gas mileage….
Leon Russell ranks among rock’s legends behind the legends. As a member of the Los Angeles-based “Wrecking Crew” in the ’60s, a loose conglomeration of studio musicians that included Glen Campbell and Mac “Dr. John” Rebbenack, Russell can be heard on some of the biggest recordings to emerge from that era, working with the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones,…
After Reflector’s members parted ways a couple of years ago, drummer Jake Cardwell devoted the bulk of his energies to becoming a professional sideman. In addition to stints in the New Amsterdams (Get Up Kid Matt Pryor’s folk contrivance) and Tijuana Crime Scene (GUK producer/collaborator Alex Brahl’s all-star undertaking), the frizzy-‘froed skinbasher has cropped up on discs that, amazingly,…
Dressed in menacing black and sporting enough scary tattoos to make Mötley Crüe envious, Imperative Reaction never fit the bookish stereotype that plagues many electronic acts. Formed in 1996 from the ashes of seminal laptop-rock act D.N.A., the Los Angeles-based outfit set the indie world ablaze with its sophomore effort, Eulogy for a Sick Child. Featuring distorto vocals, robotic synth…
A brief entry in the 1974 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records cites the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum as the “World’s Most Closed Public Institution” — one that operated for only 47 days of its 34-year existence. Shuttered after crowds gathered in Manhattan’s meat-packing district for a “free salamander exhibit” (they were greeted instead with a staged fire…
