Thursday, July 22 The only thing scarier than going 230 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, where a diver can easily get lost in the minimal visibility and strong underwater currents, is being 230 feet underwater in a Nazi graveyard. But that’s where two scuba divers repeatedly found themselves over the course of 6 years as they…
Punk rockers don’t grow up. They grow pompadours. At least this is what we’re led to believe after speaking with Jody Hendrix, a punk rocker turned rockabilly greaser and one of the organizers of Rockabilly vs. Punk. “All the rockabilly folks were punk-rock kids who got older and kind of found something a little more musically mature,” Hendrix says. “Whereas…
Art If a rich yet unpretentious collector friend pays a fortune for a white-on-white canvas that the experts have dubbed art, who’s to argue? Well, his two best chums, for a start. Such is the first coat of Yazmina Reza’s wonderful Art, which won the 1998 Best Play Tony and the 1996 Olivier for Best Comedy. Other topics Reza…
Polly Apfelbaum Like any good artist, Polly Apfelbaum makes complex work. But it is also dazzlingly beautiful, which in the past has caused some snooty art-world folk to dismiss it as mere décor. “People don’t want you to deal with beauty,” Apfelbaum says. “I was interested in the decorative arts. I was interested in the everyday. Screw you. If…
On June 4, Tom Deatherage officially reopened the Late Show in its new location. He’d moved the gallery from his home on Charlotte Street in Hyde Park to 1600 Cherry, on the outskirts of the Crossroads District. “I was slowly going to lose it at the other place. I couldn’t keep showing in Hyde Park,” Deatherage says. “The Crossroads…
Hector Casanova and Renee Laferriere, who own the Green Door Gallery, have one of those apartments in which everything looks deliberate. Colorfully packaged bottles of hot sauce line a kitchen shelf. Cabinets have been made out of salvaged wood doors, sawed to fit. To test discerning eyes, there’s the horse sculpture by Laferriere that’s mounted on the living-room wall; close…
Free your mind, and your ass will follow? For DJ Logic, the opposite holds true as well. Among the most cerebral of spinners, Logic enjoys enthusiastic support from fans of everything from hip-hop to art-house. He has collaborated with Vernon Reid, Melvin Gibbs, Medeski Martin & Wood, and even Bob Weir’s Ratdog, with which Logic resurrected the ghost of Jerry…
The stagnant midsummer heat has settled over the city, which means it’s time for the unbearable chaos of the outdoor concert series at the City Market. As Howie Day and O.A.R. (Of a Revolution) swagger into town, you may question the pair’s appeal. Neither act is hugely popular or truly mainstream. Yet both boast cult followings that will nonetheless lure…
There are reasons why Keith Sweat is the most prominent graduate of the first class of new-jack swing. One reason is Bobby Brown’s instant disqualification. Another reason is Sweat’s 1987 jam “I Want Her,” from his debut album, Make It Last Forever. Then there are his handful of hit singles spread over eight studio albums, the first five of which…
What’s more alluring than a handsome, young, singer-songwriter, adult-contemp dude? A handsome, young, singer-songwriter, adult-contemp dude who pens a scathingly hilarious pop-music column in Esquire. The multiplatinum-selling John Mayer knows his way around a guitar. But his whole scruffy-yet-cute thing will get old eventually, and he’ll be relegated to the clogged sidelines of music history. Then the rock critics of…
Those looking to kick-start the Warped Tour a day early (or those who prefer to avoid the heat and the Avril Nation altogether) may want to get to the Bottleneck Sunday night for an all-ages fest starring Finch. The California quintet hasn’t released an album since 2002’s What It Is to Burn, but that doesn’t mean the band has been…
Not even the most prescient handicapper could have picked Kansas to arrive at its thirtieth-anniversary tour more or less intact. Lately there have even been rumors of a Kerry Livgren return! Yet here they are with lyrics celebrating the Old West every bit as feverishly as all those Lewis and Clark anniversary wingdings (strike one), and with Robby Steinhardt’s…
Melora Creager likes creepy things. The Rasputina leader also prefers the playful edge of otherwise sinister music. But this is a woman, after all, whose first composition — at the ripe old age of 5 — was a piano piece about alleged ax murderer Lizzie Borden. Creager’s music hasn’t really changed much since her days as an outcast growing up…
Although it’s probably not hyped on the press release — assuming the Rick James street team could stop speedballing long enough to send one — this tour is designed to take advantage of the headliner’s status as a national punch line. For all his funk skills, James is more famous these days for his mistakes: coke sniffing, ho slapping,…
It’s hard to believe that the Warped Tour is 10 years old. The decade anniversary of this annual punkapalooza is the envy of all the other festivals. Warped’s organizers have been successful because they haven’t altered a strategy that packs the sheds every summer, even as Lollapalooza collapses because of disinterest. Warped also continues to offer plenty of faux-hawk bang…
PD: Is playing Hershey, Pennsylvania, kinda dull after playing Kuala Lumpur? CK: I guess it would be if I wasn’t from here. I grew up in a small town about 14 miles from Hershey. Any spots you hit when you’re home? Oh, yeah. There is this place called Flapjacks. It’s the only bar in my town. Well, it’s not technically…
Unless you’ve been spending your days whittlin’ birch limbs, swiggin’ bathtub gin and strummin’ “Flop-Eared Mule” on a cigar-box banjo while sittin’ on the front porch — hi, mom! — you might be aware that this here is an election year. And after careful consideration, I’ve decided to cast my vote for a man of few words. A man with…
ichael Anthony used to drink Jack Daniel’s straight from the bottle. The fleshy Van Halen bassist — whose body once looked as if it were held together with Bisquick and bourbon — would gulp the stuff down right onstage, happily draining liter bottles of Tennessee’s finest to no end but his own. The guy was the life of the…
It never works. You may think it does. But — we interrupt for a special bulletin — it doesn’t. You know, the Pink Floyd Wizard of Oz freakout. Cue the movie. Pause the CD. Wait for the MGM lion to roar three times. Press play. “The Great Gig in the Sky” spins with the tornado. Far out. “Money” plays as…
The opening moments of The Door in the Floor are not promising. A little girl stands on a chair in a hallway of photos, pointing at the images and speaking about them. Nearly every photograph shows two boys, brothers, as blond as the girl. “Dead means they’re broken?” she asks her father. The scene is both self-consciously explanatory and overly…
Without risking much critical credibility, it can be said that Catwoman succeeds on its own feline terms. Much like a cat, the movie is a sleek, self-absorbed, superfluous gob of fluff with an attitude that ranges from idiotic to nasty. Its antics will amuse you and drop your IQ about 40 points. As soon as it departs, you’ll likely…
Roasted on the spit: Regarding spitter Jeff Sullens’ claims about turning the tables on war protesters (KC Strip, “Red, White and Loog,” July 15), Jerry Lembcke’s book The Spitting Image (New York University Press, 1998) examined reports that returning Vietnam vets were spat upon. The author found no confirmable episodes of spitting on soldiers. Proof of anything, however, seems irrelevant…
Threads Off the rack and on the town. Granfalloon, 12:20 a.m. Friday They look like typical barroom knockouts: curvaceous brunette in a black long-sleeve, leggy blonde in a white sweater. The Pitch’s official fashion expert, a straight guy named Bud, notices that the blonde is clutching a green, shield-sized bag emblazoned with tiny L’s and V’s. Her sweater hangs loosely…
Emanuel Cleaver has been the subject of so many Jamie Metzl salvos in the scrappy 5th District Democratic congressional primary, maybe it’s not surprising that the good reverend found himself stepping ankle-deep in mud recently. The Strip was witness to the event as it attended a smelly old time at one of the final evenings of the Shakespeare Festival in…
