The Fiddler wasn’t much of a conversationalist. At least not the first time I met him. Granted, he was lying in state at the Watkins Brothers funeral home, so it was understandable that he didn’t have much to say. But it was just as well. He wouldn’t have gotten a word in edgewise. Hundreds of people had flocked to pay…
Someday it will happen. Hell will freeze over. Pigs will fly. Every star and planet in the universe will align in perfect harmony, and the original Guns N’ Roses lineup will reunite for an album and a tour. Don’t hold your breath just yet, but it’s bound to occur eventually. The original, die-hard GN-fuckin’-R fans will accept no substitute. No…
Psychiatric Evaluation Report Patient name: Dinsdale, Nathan Entry Date: August 22, 1997 Location: La Pine, Oregon Synopsis: Responded to a frantic call from a recent high school graduate. Found patient disheveled, disoriented and curled up behind a washing machine, holding a portable stereo. Hair was in disarray. Eyes were bloodshot. He was rocking back and forth and muttering, “I guess…
If even one of the major networks had a successful sitcom in the vein of Friends — but with an all-black cast — movies like Breakin’ All the Rules would have no reason for existence. Part of an ever-expanding subgenre that includes The Brothers, Two Can Play That Game, and Deliver Us From Eva, Breakin’ All the Rules serves…
In the mood to launch a thousand ships? Fine, but it’s gonna cost you. Depending on who’s counting, Warner Bros. ponied up between $175 million and $250 million for the would-be blockbuster Troy. But all we get is one lousy walled city, circa 1200 B.C., and in the end it gets burned to the ground. Before that happens, however,…
Rotten meat: In response to Tony Ortega’s KC Strip article ” Precious Moments” (May 6), I am appalled and shocked that the Pitch would allow the printing of Alonzo Washington’s cartoon without a disclaimer, or at least render the inflammatory word as “n——-” instead of printing the entire word twice. This is 2004 — what intelligent journalist or editor would…
The Strip enjoyed David Martin’s description of Congressman Sam Graves and his mudslinging ways in this week’s cover story, “Goon Squad” (page 13). Graves is the conservative Republican who represents North Kansas City; he made an appearance in this column several weeks ago, when the Strip questioned his grasp of biology basics. The 40-year-old farmer claims that there’s no point…
Last fall, Tom Dooley, who’d been working for only a few months as Goodwill Industries’ head of market development, got a complaint from an irate thrift-store shopper. “I went to your store looking for a ’70s outfit to wear for Halloween, and I couldn’t find anything,” the caller griped on Dooley’s voice mail. Dooley took it as a compliment. Not…
Bob Fairchild, a retired assistant high school principal and head football coach, stood with his mouth open on the day an aide to U.S. Rep. Sam Graves came to his house and tried to intimidate him. Fairchild lives in Chillicothe, Missouri, where he’s a beloved figure. Before retiring in 1998, he coached the local high school’s football team to 307…
Here’s a cautionary tale: Though a Friday-night drinkfest is the perfect antidote to a long week of work, the side effects can put a damper on the rest of your weekend. This isn’t breaking news; any regular lush has experienced this phenomenon. Yet do we ever learn from it? Sadly, no. To wit: our most recent bender. It happened on…
The culinary consulting relationship between Joseph Avelluto, who owns Il Trullo Restaurant (9056 Metcalf in Overland Park), and chef Dennis Kaniger (formerly of Venue and City Tavern) lasted barely two months before Avelluto said arrivederci. This comes after Avelluto’s two sons, John and Joe Jr. , took their own sabbatical from the restaurant. “An Italian chef can be complicated, you…
Gimme a pig foot and a bottle of gin, sang Bessie Smith in 1933. Move me, ’cause I’m in my sin. Well, I wasn’t gnawing on a pork stump, but I was sinning, all right, last Monday at the new Red Vine Cajun Restaurant in Kansas City’s historic Jazz District. No, I didn’t fall off the wagon, though the long…
5/7-6/6 Plenty of male vocalists have grabbed the spotlight singing songs by the composing team of John Kander (a Kansas City native) and Fred Ebb. Frank Sinatra is one obvious example — his version of “New York, New York” came from the Kander and Ebb musical of the same name. However, musical-theater fans rightfully insist that the duo’s real forte…
5/7-5/31 Meredith Burton’s drawings look like gigantic, elaborate doodles. Black lines, some thin, some thick, swirl around the edges and through the middle of expansive white sheets of paper. After looking at the geometric patterns made of lines and dots for a few seconds, things begin to appear in Burton’s whirling eddies: eyeballs, tiny landscapes of fir trees, messages written…
SAT 5/8 Die-hard football fans might find this hard to believe, but their favorite game evolved from soccer. Yeah, that’s right. Some English soccer dude in the 19th century got bored kicking the ball around, so he picked it up and ran with it. Rugby was born. A few decades later, the rules of rugby were changed to allow…
FRI 5/7 When creativity and commerce collide, commerce almost always kicks creativity’s ass. The Crossroads Arts District is no exception. The Downtown Neon Gallery made its home in a space at 19th and Wyandotte streets until the neighborhood got too hip, the rent got too high and its owner, Thomas Cobian, had to find a cheaper space. So last September,…
Sure, the advent of e-mail has been a wondrous thing. But does anyone else miss the romance of good, old-fashioned letter writing? Or the thrill of finding a card — or anything that’s not a bill — in the mailbox? And has anyone else’s handwriting gone to hell since we’ve been clackety-clacking away on our keyboards all the time? Fortunately,…
Thursday, May 6 We’re embarrassed to admit it, but we aren’t as versed in the fine points of the Patriot Act as we ought to be. So we did a little research and found that it’s one scary bitch. They (and by “they,” we mean the enemies … oops, the FBI) can monitor our library account, for Christ’s sake. Records…
Strangely enough, Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates Mexico’s 1862 victory over the French army at the Battle of Puebla, is celebrated more in the United States than in Mexico. In Kansas City, one celebration is Fiesta in the Heartland, sponsored by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City and scheduled for this weekend at Crown Center. “Cinco de…
The African Art Experience It isn’t often that Kansas City audiences have a chance to see a collection of non-Western art as diverse as the one on display at the Belger Arts Center. The majority of the pieces in The African Art Experience are three-dimensional objects made of wood, clay, metal or natural materials such as woven and dyed…
The BFG As entertaining as it might be, The BFG isn’t about Badass Fearful Gangstas. The acronym stands for Big Friendly Ghost, the affable colossus who delivers dreams to children by blowing through their windows. In this children’s story by Roald Dahl, the BFG is a runt among the behemoths ruling the land, and if that doesn’t set him…
Roger Ramjet, a strong-chinned cartoon character from the 1950s, boldly defended the American way against an evil organization called NASTY (National Association of Spies, Traitors and Yahoos). Relying on his famous Proton Energy Pill, which gave him the power of twenty atom bombs, he was unstoppable. Roger McBride, of Kansas City’s Historic Northeast neighborhood, wears a yellow hard hat with…
Watching the Unicorn Theatre’s production of Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange, I couldn’t help thinking there was a hell of a play in there somewhere struggling to come out. This drama about the British mental-health-care system — which made an unheralded stop off-Broadway before landing here — suffers because it wants to be about too many things, none of them developed…
You have to be an absolute genius or a complete idiot to name your band Choad. Depending on where you went to junior high, choad generally refers either to a penis that is wider than it is long or to the anatomical no man’s land located between, shall we say, your pee-pee and your poo-poo. Either way, it’s hardly the…
