Thomas Gill came to work as Jackson County’s deputy medical examiner, doing autopsies and lab work, in November 2002. After 21 months, it didn’t surprise him to see his face on the evening news last week, just like he had 3 years ago in Northern California. He keeps a folder of documents ready for reporters who demand that he explain…
The Rev. Jerry Johnston is telling an Overland Park room filled with about 150 Kansas City-area church leaders on July 6 about a certain group of unrepentant sinners who may bring about the end of the world. According to Johnston, the Almighty’s wrath is so great, he may very soon call down Armageddon on the people of the Earth. Such…
When we heard that the Boulevard Brewing Company was sailing a raft made of beer kegs down the Missouri River as a “backhanded — and backward — toast to the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark expedition,” we knew we had to be on it. We corralled our parrot and polished our wooden leg in preparation for our adventure on…
The enormous success of reality TV shows like The Swan and Extreme Makeover are proof that most of us love to see ugly ducklings turned into cosmetically enhanced beauties. Ditto for the interior-design segments of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. It occurred to me that one of the many reasons that the local Tippin’s…
A couple of years ago, a friend and I were visiting London, and because our hotel was in the theater district, we spontaneously decided to see a play. Without knowing a thing about that season’s big musical hit, Bombay Dreams, we purchased tickets and stumbled into the theater lobby, where we were surrounded by dozens of beautiful young Indian…
7/16-7/19 With They Came From Just Off Broadway! opening this week at (where else?) Just Off Broadway Theater (3051 Central), artistic director Steven Eubank dares to shun the better part of musical theater history — at least the traditional shows from that scrapbook. Eubank notes flippantly on his Web site, “If you love an old-fashioned Broadway musical, head to…
THU 7/15 Marjolein Bastin’s art might be a little too, shall we say, Hallmarky, but there’s no denying she has an awesome life. She divides her time among her prairie ranch here in Missouri, her country home in Holland and a tropical retreat in the Cayman Islands. At each spot, she takes long walks, draws and paints. We should…
7/16-7/18 Ask skateboarders about the nature of their four-wheeled activity, and, sarcastic answers aside, they’re sure to explain that skateboarding has but one simple goal: fun. There are no winners, no losers, no ranking system, no coaches and, though older generations may assert otherwise, no uniforms for these youthful anarchists. But fret not — this weekend, the KC Indoor Skatepark…
FRI 7/16 When photographer Garry Winogrand died in 1984, he left behind 2,500 undeveloped rolls of film. His incessant urge to, as he put it, “see what things look like photographed” drove him to wander the streets of New York City, shooting what he saw, and led to a sizable body of work, including the 1975 series Women Are…
“If you want to go to a picnic and play softball — great, do it, have fun,” says Eric Chaikin. “But if you want to play Major League Baseball, you’re going to have to pump some iron.” It’s not the first analogy he tosses out in our conversation — just the most unexpected one. After all, he’s talking about Scrabble….
Thursday, July 15 Ever get so sick of the piece of shit you’ve been driving for 8 years that even a test drive of another car — without any intention to buy, of course — sounds fabulous? We think it would be fun just to sit in a BMW, engulfed in a cloud of new-car smell, without a cigarette…
When a young George Hagen moved with his parents from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to London, he brought along a book of fairy tales. “It had the most incredible character drawings,” he says. “They were all black. They were the most gorgeous things I’d ever seen.” His British friends weren’t interested in the pictures, though. They wanted to know how a…
Composite Kansas City-based fiber artists Holly Swangstu and Mary Beth Yates create work that goes together like peanut butter goes with jelly — they’re both pretty tasty on their own, but they’re even better combined. Swangstu layers thin, roughly textured strips of cloth like house siding. She frames many of her pieces with unfinished, splintered pieces of wood. Yates’ work,…
Waco Resurrection, a computer game included in Grand Arts’ show Join Us: Calls to Ecstasy From the Edge of Oblivion, is voice-activated. To begin, the player must first don a helmet shaped like the head of Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh and say, “I am David Koresh.” The mission of the game is to defend the Mt. Carmel…
California straddles a volatile fault line. Still, thousands blithely flock there every day. Stormy weather can flip a 10-story ship like a paper plate, yet families pack pleasure cruises. And every time I board a plane, I think about that Hawaiian jet whose roof came apart at 30,000 feet, instantly sucking out a flight attendant. The odds may be…
If a shadowy, smoky joint remains in Kansas City where mod guys can hang out in plush booths and ogle girls go-go dancing in cages, then the house band must be Emma Feel. Thanks to the proliferation of shitty metal pornography, it’s rare for sleaze to sound as exciting as it does on Red Leather Period. Emma Feel mixes primal…
Before striking out on his own, singer and guitarist Zach Rogue was a bit player with San Francisco screwballs the Desoto Reds. Out of the Shadow couldn’t be more different from the work of his former cohorts. Originally self-released in 2002, the debut from Rogue’s new foursome, Rogue Wave, is being reissued by Sub Pop as a catchy byproduct of…
It takes a mighty dank pair of ganja goo balls to call it quits at the peak of your popularity. And that’s exactly what this Vermont phoresome and Simpsons punch line has done, announcing that the band will dissolve after this summer’s Coventry, the band’s annual two-day celebration of peace, love and self-indulgence. But the band known for flouting industry…
The last time pop stars put their collective spin on old Cole Porter songs was 1990’s Red, Hot and Blue, a compilation doing double duty as an AIDS awareness project. Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop’s “Well Did You Evah” was the quirkiest of the cuts, Neneh Cherry’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” had the best beats and K.D. Lang’s…
Velvet Revolver has been hyped as a much-needed return to real guitar-based music. And thanks, no doubt, to a massive media campaign, the album topped the charts its first week of release. The question is whether the shotgun wedding between Guns N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots is worth more than the sum of its parts. The answer is no….
When it comes to depression, there are two typical responses: apathy and anger. The Cure’s recent output, especially 2000’s midnight-hued Bloodflowers, felt bogged down and listless. But with nü-metal instigator Ross Robinson coproducing with moptopped singer Robert Smith, The Cure comes out fighting; it’s the band’s most vibrant, emotionally charged release in years. Psychedelic swirls and hints of gray-scale piano…
This just in: Will Ferrell is a freaking comedic genius. His new movie, Anchorman, could be a complete shit taco for all I know, but the man is brilliant on the soundtrack. And his character — fictional ’70s newscasting sleazeball Ron Burgundy — is all over the album. Introducing songs. Munching waffles. Guzzling liquor in the bathtub. Weeping throughout Henry…
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Global DJ Tours. Our featured entertainment this summer will be the New York City duo Astro & Glyde. You may remember Astro & Glyde — Gaby Dershin and James Bem to their parents — from “The Jam,” their breakout remix of “Pump Up the Jam.” You may also know them from their turntable…
You can always tell when you stumble upon a great storyteller. It’s not just the words but also how they convey the passionate punch of every thought and every syllable. John Hiatt is a great storyteller. The man has been lauded by some of the best in the business and has had his songs covered by Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King,…
