One of our favorite comedy bits is a Kids in the Hall sketch in which a teetotalling Dave Foley is introduced to the joys of the froufrou drink. After becoming addicted, he slips into the supply closet at work with a flask — and whips out a blender and fruit. His coworkers are befuddled by the suspicious whirring noise. When…
ant to open a restaurant? Attorney and landlord Chip Schmelzer is looking for you! Two months ago, Schmelzer’s building at the northwest corner of Westport Road and Southwest Trafficway boasted “Coming Soon” signs on two different storefronts. The former Stolen Grill location had been leased by Paul Boesche and Jim Crandall for a bistro they planned to call Collage (“Art…
It may be a bit premature, in the days leading up to Lent, to already start talking about resurrection. But sometimes restaurants rise from the dead, too. That’s exactly what has happened in the case of Michael Forbes Grill, which from 1985 to 1999 existed as a dimly lit, clubby little joint tucked into a Waldo shopping strip. Even…
Howard Lyman used to be a vegetarian’s worst nightmare. As a dairy farmer and cattle rancher in Montana, Lyman turned the organic farm that had been in his family for generations into a million-dollar agribusiness with 5,000 head of cattle. He loved eating food from his farm. A typical day’s fare included half a dozen scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon,…
Thursday, February 27, 2003 Ozzy Osbourne and Reese Witherspoon are among the trendsetting celebrities at today’s show put on by the Department of Fashion Merchandising and Design at Johnson County Community College. OK, so it won’t be the A-listers themselves but rather glammed-out impersonators sporting celebrity-inspired, student-designed ensembles and gear from local retailers. The fashion victims arrive via limo…
At the end of Andrew Vachss’ new book is an author’s bio that must intimidate the hell out of any rebellious young nieces or nephews he might have. Vachss has investigated sexually transmitted diseases as a federal caseworker, directed a maximum-security prison for violent youth and acted as a defense lawyer in juvenile cases. So it comes as no…
This should really piss you off: What follows is a story about a very funny movie you will have absolutely no chance of seeing any time soon. The powers that be who distribute movies—who copy prints, print up posters, deliver them to theaters, collect receipts, split profits (well…)—do not want to distribute this one, which is called Martin &…
“It’s going to be interesting to see what happens, see who steps up. We’ve got some guys in the starting rotation who have some incredible arms.” — Jason Grimsley, Royals relief pitcher, KMBC Channel 9 GH: Channel 9’s Karen Kornacki and her camera operator conducted first-week interviews with the Royals in Arizona. Read on. “I’ve been very impressed with the…
No one could have been more excited than I was by the idea of minor-league baseball in Kansas City. When I heard that the Duluth-Superior Dukes were moving their Northern League baseball club to Wyandotte County, it was easy to get lost in visions of my family stretched out in a new stadium on a warm summer evening, with cotton…
Girls are mean in ways boys can’t imagine. Whereas boys usually hide nothing and hit everything, girls pummel their rivals within an elaborate system of side glances, eye rolls and implication. Bruises heal but the scars of a well-orchestrated shun can last a lifetime. Bullying among adolescent girls is the subject of Rachel Simmons’ best-selling book Odd Girl Out:…
Recently, Sprint has announced that its top executives are leaving the company amid damaging headlines about questionable tax shelters. That can only further rattle Sprint employees — the ones who are already nervous after the latest round of layoffs. Fortunately, 750 works of art line the walls of the company’s 3.7 million-square-foot campus in Overland Park. Sprint Art Curator James…
Rising from the ashes of Dischord’s Bluetip and early hardcore heroes Garden Variety and Swiz, Retisonic rocks in the most J Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines)-produced of ways. Although its crunchy, hand-clap-and-tambourine-embellished party tunes aren’t as gratuitously riffy as, say, AC/DC, the sentiment’s certainly there. Bass lines rise to mirror guitar structures, the drummer pours the fills with a heavy hand,…
The split EP has been around the indie-rock world for eons, competing with the shared single as an obligatory DIY move. Generally, there’s little point: two bands throw in a few songs that weren’t good enough to be released on a proper album, and the fans belly up to the bar. Kudos, then, to Small Brown Bike and Casket Lottery…
Chrissie Hynde seems the same age now as when “Brass in Pocket” was a big deal, which, by the way, was in 1980. Two decades later, Hynde still makes music that makes sense in vinyl pants — perhaps only in vinyl pants — and 3 a.m. mascara. On the Pretenders’ latest disc, Hynde sings about making mistakes, the right moves,…
Since Jeff Buckley’s death in 1997, the alt-folk wailer has showed up on a seemingly endless stream of posthumous releases, from an unfinished album to a live record. Now Columbia gives us this five-CD collection, The Grace EPs, which culls material from commercial and promotional discs issued around the time of Buckley’s only complete album, Grace. Such treatment isn’t unprecedented…
Two rules bands must never break: Don’t mix rap with rock, and don’t let the roadie sing. The Transplants break both and almost get away with it. The trio’s mix of dingy punk and aggressive hip-hop makes sense, blending the righteous fury of two incendiary movements. But the group’s sound sours when it passes the mike to Rob Aston, who…
In an annual snub, for the eighth year running, Canadian sorta-reggae rapper Snow has rudely been left off the bill of the tour that takes his name, Snocore. Instead of celebrating the man who brought the world 1993’s chart sensation “Informer,” Snocore deigns to celebrate angsty post-stuff rock. This year’s avalanche includes the driven-in emo punk of Sparta (pictured), Glassjaw’s…
A hint for the slang-impaired: Mad is the new bad, another well-established word seeping back into this fine language with renewed meaning. Although the adjective can still mean angry, as in “This bastardization of English makes me mad,” mad can also replace quantity descriptors such as super to dramatic effect, as in “You best shut up, professor, or I’ll…
Since its inception in 1994, Low has fashioned sandman-summoning songs that beg for a joint and a comfy chair. Listeners who succumb to slumber, though, will most likely have twitchy nightmares; Low spikes its sleeping pills with an emotionally jarring vibe, stretching well-crafted pop songs to the breaking point. For its sixth album, Trust, Low — Zak Sally on bass…
Decades after the Runaways secured their sphere of influence, members of today’s leading all-female rock groups still prefer the naughty-girl outfits and pop-punk riffs that Joan Jett and Lita Ford pioneered. Fabulous Disaster seems more mature than its peers, with teen angst giving way to adult lust and sharp riffs taking the place of simpler chord progressions. In the studio…
After dancing around the fringes of the spotlight for a few years, guitarist and songwriter Rich McCulley is adjusting to the full force of its glare. Though McCulley has already proved his worth as a sideman — first with the Big Blue Hearts and Sweet Vine and later as a member of Victor Sanz’s touring band — it’s his determined…
Ever since Bob Marley met his untimely end in 1981, his visage has become to hippies what the pissing Calvin image is to rednecks: something to be worn on the bumper with pride. And it’s not only the decal industry that’s still reaping benefits from the “natural mystic”; it seems that everyone who can claim at least a tenuous Marley…
It formed in a Johnson County garage. Its members are young, cute and play angst-ridden valentines that make teenyboppers swoon. It took a really bad name (Thulium) and changed it to one that’s even worse. It’s also fast becoming one of KC’s standout success stories. No wonder so many people hate Anything But Joey. Those detractors haven’t been paying attention….
Each year, the Blues Society’s Mardi Gras Club Crawl delivers a glimpse at the music mecca Kansas City could easily become. The trick isn’t the outstanding talent — D.C. Bellamy, Bobby Carson and the crawl’s other artists play locally almost every week. Nor do the venues change their tune for this annual showcase — most book solid acts nightly. No,…
