What are the two most beautiful words in the English language? Open bar. Well, either those or swizzle stick. We recently enjoyed free-drink nirvana at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art’s tenth-anniversary gala for the benefactors on October 9. Our friend Charles had an extra ticket, and he kindly invited us. Of course, we’re all about any event that involves…
After my review of Bell Street Mama’s (“Mama’s House,” October 14), I got an e-mail from Kim Long in Baltimore — the “Beehive Hairdo Capital of the United States” according to filmmaker John Waters, who hails from that great city — chiding me for the historical information. In that review, I’d written that jazz singer Queen Bey had “raved about…
Three weeks ago, I ran across the news story that a team of archeologists working on the grassy steppes of Mongolia supposedly had unearthed the long-lost palace of the 13th-century warrior Genghis Khan. Legend has it that Khan, the fearless warlord who created the world’s largest empire, was actually buried close to his palace. But over the centuries, no…
SUN 10/31 No matter where we are after hours on Election Day, we’re getting drunk and belting out “We Are the Champions” when the results are in. To get primed, we’ll hear the Kansas City Civic Orchestra’s symphonic tribute to Queen at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Scottish Rite Temple (1330 Linwood). Call 816-333-9115. —Jason Harper Trippin’ Out Beam…
10/28-10/30 Whether it’s Georgetown University’s “Philosophy and Star Trek” course or Oprah’s teaching stint at Northwestern University, we’re always fascinated when academia and pop culture collide. This weekend, the University of Kansas squeezes no less than Godzilla himself under the intellectual microscope. In Godzilla’s Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage brings international scholars of anthropology, culture…
10/28-10/31 Consider the most stylish girl you know, who always manages to meld the unmatchable. Her diverse closet conceals chiffon frills among structured motorcycle jackets; she pairs masculine pinstripes with pretty blouses and heels. She’s the closest thing to Kate Moss you’ve met. But does she have a cowboy-inspired belt buckle? Because if not, you’ve just found a way…
ONGOING Little-known fact: Kansas City’s scariest haunted houses, Edge of Hell and The Beast, are just a block away from a halfway house for ex-cons. For years we’ve been hearing rumors that the West Bottoms spook joints sometimes hire residents from these quasi-correctional facilities to work as monsters. Though most of these recently freed folks are benign, some are inveterate…
Exploring haunted houses can be risky. And we’re not talking about the scare factories under the 12th Street Bridge. The poltergeists that infect real residences won’t break character if you kick them in the shins, and they won’t shut down their shenanigans at a curfew-friendly closing time. Local ghosts aren’t as vengeful as the cat-voiced child and crab-crawling woman dramatized…
Thursday, October 28 Of the 55 stories American literary patriarch John Updike selected in 1999 for the Best American Short Stories of the Century, 41 were written before 1980. Hemingway, Faulkner, O’Connor — all the usual suspects were there. But one writer we didn’t read in high school whom Updike deemed worthy to stand alongside the greats is Gish…
Having adopted the slogan “W Stands for Women,” the Bush campaign is doing its best to have a healthy relationship with women voters. To that end, the campaign is also pushing the otherwise reluctant Mrs. Bush out the door to exhort women voters to see the masculine resolve in her husband’s burning, steadfast gaze. Unfortunately for the White House lovebirds,…
Fifteen Minute Window Clocking in at about 20 minutes, Fifteen Minute Window is the perfect vehicle for those who find one-act plays too time-consuming. This collaboration between the UMKC Theatre Department and the downtown revivalists known as Urban Culture Project is a thought-provoking trip through the current political zeitgeist. Sequentially revealed behind two windows of the Jenkins Music Building…
Five Locals, No Carbs, No Genomes, More Flavor In this show depicting work by five local artists — Jessica Johnson, Meredith Burton, Sean Semones, James Trotter and Pat Alexander — part of what you see is process. On the day of the opening, Johnson began drawing on the gallery wall as part of her installation. She was still at…
For some workers, casual day is a break from the rigid grooming standards of corporate life. But instead of rolling out of bed 15 minutes later than usual and putting on jeans and sneakers, Nate Kelley decided to go to work at Barnes & Noble in costume: giant, gogglelike sunglasses; a yellow Afro wig; white bell-bottom pants with vertical blue…
Before Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain elevated the band to indie stardom, Pavement was just a pair of Fall fanatics with a drunken drummer, a fetish for historical contexts, and a respectable cult following. After Rain, Pavement became America’s prototypical indie band — slack, snarky smart alecks staggering majestically through country-rock thickets. The message here? That everything you want to believe…
What if the Tri-Lambdas hadn’t won at the end of Revenge of the Nerds? What if, embittered yet determined, they’d gone on to program leering, jeering dance music about horny geeks who dream of becoming robots and vice versa — club bangers for the pocket-protected? Wonder no more. “I Am the Robot” and “Sex Machine” are as crank-piped and slimed-ore…
The Prodigy came of age when big pants and bigger beats reigned supreme in England, but the band became known to most Americans in 1997 with the sadistic metal twang of “Firestarter.” Outgunned is the group’s first proper studio album since then (and its first without spiky-haired singer Keith Flint), but things haven’t changed much from the electroshocked rock that…
Emo elitists might flinch at the suggestion that Jimmy Eat World conjures the hookfests of the Goo Goo Dolls on its latest album, but it’s not an entirely pejorative comparison. After all, before vocalist Johnny Rzeznik morphed into a Bon Jovi doppelgänger, Goo had the heart of a brash bar band. Futures practically booms with such blackened sugar. Somersaulting riffs,…
RJD2 can make a room shake its collective ass with the best of them. That’s right, Kenny Loggins, RJ is calling you out. Dodging the soul-crushing boredom that usually comes with watching a DJ spin records onstage, RJD2 bounces among four turntables and a sampler while keeping audiences guessing with games such as Name That Tune. And that’s when he…
It takes a lot more than heaviness to be, um, heavy these days. Sheer brawn, anger and conceit just don’t cut it like they used to. Which isn’t to say that Fear Before the March of Flames comes off wimpy. The band has wit and individuality but also enough grim aggression to pull it off. To say nothing of a…
Back in 1987, during Punk Heyday 3.1, the Beastie Boys were beardless twerps who caged women onstage, screamed “Brass Monkey” and handpicked Murphy’s Law, a cartoonish bunch of Queens skate thrashers, to open for them on tour. In the intervening years, the Boys have matured, established families and gone old-school all over again, but Murphy’s Law continues to viciously play…
Given the insular nature of revivalist hip-hop, Arcane (meaning known only to the initiate) is an apt name for a fledgling crew. These four white guys from New Jersey defend hip-hop’s honor with valor, though the less than smooth lyricists flow like the sputtering nozzle of a knotted hose. Timmy Grins, Malprak and JB earn points by avoiding the rap-only-about-rap…
The folked-out rock and popped-up bluegrass of Nickel Creek ain’t just pretty — we’re talkin’ whiplash, drool, wolf-whistle gorgeous. Naturally, bluegrass purists hate it with an intensity once reserved for electric fiddles and the wah-wah pedal. But open-eared listeners want to lick it all over. The mandolin, fiddle and guitar trio double-fists influences from, well, everywhere. Note their formation of…
The latest Britpop invasion is tapering down to a trickle heard most often over the supermarket PA. But even though Coldplay’s warbly melancholy is a fine companion when deciding which frozen ham to buy, the Delgados’ sophisticated sound, marked by the tradeoff vocals of Alun Woodward and Emma Pollock, is actually worthy of a headphone session or two. In fact,…
Ghoulish face paint? Check. “Fire-‘n’-Brimstone” eyeliner? Gotcha. “Chicks Dig Scrawny Pale Guys” black T-shirt? Yep. Spiked dog collar? Uh-huh. Extra padding to absorb nightstick blows? Never leave home without it. After all, we are headed to the Freaker’s Ball, the annual Halloween rawk fest sponsored by KQRC 98.9, where it never hurts to come too prepared. Last year’s installment ended…
