All right, we’ve refrained from getting all girly on you thus far, because nothing annoys us more than those subpar, Bridget Jones wanna-be chick-lit books in which the protagonist waxes ecstatic over the joys of shopping, chocolate, boys and cosmos. Give us some scotch, we say, and let us read Sports Illustrated instead. Or watch some hockey. That said, here’s…
One long-circulating rumor in the restaurant community is that the Hallmark empire’s dining division, Culinary Concepts LLC, has rarely — if ever — made a profit from its three Crown Center establishments: Milano, Crayola Café and Golden Harvest Bakery. Last week, Culinary Concepts handed over the trio’s management duties to the Hyatt. Culinary Concepts did, however, keep control of the…
If baby-faced restaurateur and part-time actor Michael Garozzo had been born several decades before 1955, he might have had a chance to make his mark as a movie tough guy back when gangster — not gangsta — films were rolling out of Hollywood nearly every week. With his gravelly voice and swarthy Sicilian looks, Garozzo could have held his…
FRI 3/26 For baby boomers who grew up during the reign of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, the comedy show’s cast members are more than TV footnotes. On the show, Jo Anne Worley delivered political humor amid transparent naughtiness. “It became a game to get things past the censors,” says Worley, who was known for holding up a pair of…
SAT 3/27 Wispy angels shimmering and skittering among the platforms, pursued intently by a 12-foot-tall lumbering beast, his devilish cohorts in tow … welcome to Masquerade 2004: Mythopolis. The evening promises lighthearted entertainment fused with something a little darker and more dramatic and (gasp!) a shocking finale. Masquerade is the Kansas City Art Institute’s biennial student-scholarship benefit. This year’s…
3/25-3/30 Recently, a research firm suggested that the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament costs American businesses a billion dollars in lost productivity. Luckily, the Olathe-headquartered National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ postseason carries no such stigma. True, several of the games take place during workdays, but bracket pools aren’t a factor, and the games aren’t televised, so only those dedicated…
THU 3/25 Shortly after the World Trade Center fell, New York artists created a light sculpture to replace the twin towers. Two great beams rose into the night sky from a site just north of Ground Zero for a monthlong “Tribute in Light” that reclaimed the skyline, honored the people who died on September 11 and celebrated the spirit…
Admit it: Few people can honestly say they’ve never been infatuated with The Price Is Right. Even if it’s just for a moment, while flipping through channels, it’s always thrilling to see a contestant win a new car or, better yet, a trash compactor. Who can resist checking out the creative T-shirts that contestants design to profess their love…
Thursday, March 25, 2004 This week, the University of Kansas campus clears out for spring break. While the student body fans out across the country to practice feats of superhuman drinking, KU’s Natural History Museum (1345 Jayhawk Boulevard on the KU campus in Lawrence) dons figurative tights and a cape to teach the secrets of Superhero Science. The museum intends…
In every coffeehouse, baristas struggle against time, nature and chemistry in their efforts to steam heavy foam and pull perfect espressos. Even more nerve-racking, the Midwest Regional Barista Competition boils contestants’ work down to just 12 perfect cups of coffee. Aaron Duckworth, who owns Espresso d’ell Anatra, will compete for the first time this weekend. After five years working at…
Tom Hanks is who Tom Hanks is today because of something he did about 14 years ago. One afternoon, Hanks walked into his agent’s office and told the man who takes 10 percent, “I don’t want to play pussies anymore.” He had spent the better part of the 1980s being a pussy: the pussy with a mermaid fetish, the…
Everyday Heroes The Coterie’s favorite playwright of late, Laurie Brooks, deconstructs the concept of heroism in this intense drama for ages 12 and up. Presciently written before 9/11, the play features a cataclysmic event and a complicated firefighter among its plot turns, most of which involve a sad teenage boy trying to carve a sense of self from the…
The Cherokee word tittekaka means serial-killer bloodbath. Or so claims cunning linguist Ron Megee, who wrote and stars in Late Night Theatre’s latest extravaganza, The Killings at Kamp Tittekaka. Having built a modest dynasty reinterpreting and gender-bending such films as Carrie and Valley of the Dolls, Megee breaks his own mold with Killings, an original “rockabilly opera” with references…
George Catlin and His Indian Gallery Back in the 1830s, George Catlin made his first trip west from St. Louis, recording his observations of Native American Plains tribes by sketching and painting their portraits, ceremonies and landscapes. During Catlin’s lifetime, representatives from the U.S. government (which was busy passing the Indian Removal Act) ignored his efforts to sell them…
For The Disembodied Spirit, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art presents a body of work assembled by Alison Ferris of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. It’s a gorgeous collection of primarily photographic art dealing with spirits and ghosts. It’s also overwhelmingly creepy. The gallery is brightly lit but haunted by eerie sounds — specifically, carnival music and film-reel ticking…
An alien walks among us. And he’s not only exponentially more fabulous than the little green men we’ve been expecting; he can also rock a lot harder. His name is Mercury 2, and together with the rest of the glamtastic foursome Vibralux, the lead singer tunes in to his mascara-heavy forefathers on the band’s debut album, Trans-Mission. Running ’70s riffs…
That fabled fine line between clever and stupid exists solely for records like this. Dynamite Hack or Amazing Grease Records guitar-pop for 15-year-olds played by American dudes creeping toward middle age? Sorta creepy, somewhat embarrassing. That same guitar-pop played by Swedish dudes creeping toward middle age … but sung in Americanized English? Hmmm. “Emo-core,” someone mumbles. But Chester Copperpot has…
Garnier is a French techno OG. A prominent DJ since the late ’80s (he spun at Manchester’s Hacienda and fueled the Stone Roses’ and Happy Mondays’ interest in dance music), he has consistently put a cheekily reverent Gallic slant on Chicago house and Detroit techno, combining melodic elegance and bumptious rhythms with abrasive textures and jazzy embellishments. Whereas 2000’s Unreasonable…
Whether you grew up in the early ’70s or just worship the days of Watergate, angel dust and white flight, the Go is your Camaro ride into the past. Pop in the album. Close your eyes. Once again, Gerald Ford is at the helm of the troubled U.S.S. America. Gas prices are soaring, and Foghat is at the height of…
Is it too much,” Lucinda Williams once asked, “to demand … cool quiet and time to think?” Anyone who listens to much contemporary pop radio can only assume that, for most listeners, it really is too much to ask. Thank goodness for Norah Jones, whose much-celebrated 2002 debut, Come Away With Me, argued for other options. Radio’s reliance on noisy,…
It was so easy to despise the Vines when they emerged like creatures from the garage lagoon with 2002’s Highly Evolved. The Australian quartet was jammed down our throats ad nauseam. In Craig Nicholls, they had a nitwit, room-trashing poseur of a frontman, and the band unabashedly ransacked the Nirvana catalog — when it wasn’t dabbling in half-baked neopsychedelia. And…
There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. At least that’s what they say. More precisely, that’s what our favorite pigtailed daughter with the magic shoes and soft spot for dudes with issues said. And indeed, it’s good to be home if you’re the Belles. The Lawrence duo just blew into town after…
Norma Jean should not be playing March 28 at the Spitfire. You should be able see the group only on the Nature Channel; in person is just too dangerous. Why? Because the sound of Norma Jean’s sophomore release, Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child, can be described only as a hive full of angry bees. The album, produced by…
When Ian Moore issued his self-titled solo debut in 1993, he was just another bluesy, Austin-based guitar slinger looking to start a Texas flood. Six years later, with the release of the eclectic Got the Green Grass, he abandoned that goal in favor of melodic soul-pop that owed more to Stevie Wonder than to Stevie Ray. The best part of…
