We don’t know about you, but over at Night Ranger Headquarters, 2004 has been the year of the random penis encounter. For example, just a few months ago, we were out reviewing a bar on a fairly quiet night. We were worried that we wouldn’t have enough material to fill our column. Then, long story short, we met a guy,…
If The Capital Grille (see review) is serving up the costliest dinners in town, there has to be — if you believe Newton that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction — a cheaper but equally delicious alternative. Restaurateur and chef Ray “Pete” Peterman, the head squid at The Sour Octopus (11129 North Oak Trafficway), believes he…
Holly Golightly is alive and well and sitting in the very loud, very smoky bar at the Capital Grille. OK, not the actual character from Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s but rather several elegantly dressed, extremely pretty and self-assured local versions completely in spirit with the literary icon. I saw several of them perched at bar tables or squeezed…
FRI 12/31 Despite the faux facades around 18th Street and Vine, Kansas City has no equivalent of Beale Street. But Memphis comes to KC on Friday, when the famed avenue’s queen bee, Ruby Wilson, pays a visit at 8:30 p.m. at the Blue Room, 1616 East 18th Street, 816-474-2929. Tickets are $50. — Jason Harper Recycled Sounds Broadway makes Contact…
SAT 12/1 To ease the fear of failure, we recommend setting the bar low and making New Year’s resolutions that are doable. Take our sister’s list from a few years back: “Smoke more. Make pie.” Did she ever make a banana-cream confection? Nope. But was she able to up her nicotine intake? Most definitely. We haven’t interrogated artist Paul Flinders…
1/4-1/9 Boasting a smorgasbord of fishing, hunting and camping toys, the Kansas City Sportshow, which runs Tuesday, January 4, through Sunday, January 9, at Bartle Hall (301 West 13th Street), is in danger of being a flannel-shirt-dad droolfest. But thanks to the forest-felling vixens of Timber Tina’s World Champion Lumberjills, who demonstrate the womanly arts of log rolling, underhand chopping…
FRI 12/31 On New Year’s Eve, KC artist and Grinders Pizza owner Stretch feels as though he should be able to do whatever he wants. This may include dropping a 300-pound steel ball at midnight to “watch it bounce,” bringing in scores of fifth-graders to play chopsticks on seven pianos or blocking off the street so merrymakers can circulate between…
No one alive can recall a time before Christmas or Hanukkah existed. By contrast, plenty of people remember how they spent their winters before Kwanzaa emerged in 1966, and many more remain largely oblivious to it — or erroneously refer to it as “the black Christmas.” Scholar Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa to introduce the nguzo saba, seven guiding principles for…
Thursday, December 30 Six years after opening the low-key capital of the River Market, Cup and Saucer (412-B Delaware) owner Jill Erickson still feels like a pioneer. Because even though it has a few good shops, restaurants, attractions and a couple of hot nightspots, the River Market’s quest to become downtown’s answer to the Plaza is progressing at a painstaking…
When the multifaceted Bar Natasha at 1911 Main officially opened last New Year’s Eve, it filled a void the city didn’t even know existed. It’s been a favorite watering hole for this writer, whose experiences there include a chat with London-based playwright Pauline Flannery, an impromptu rendition of “And the World Goes Round” by local musical theater chanteuse Teri Adams,…
Diane Arbus, Family Albums The mother who challenged compulsory prayer in public schools. The doctor who treated poverty and its side effects (hunger, parasites) as diseases needing cures. Diane Arbus assembled these and many other figures for Family Albums, a project the photographer left uncompleted before her death. We recognize some of the subjects for their blood relationships: Lee…
The Times Square thing is overhyped. So many people feel this need to celebrate some Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve-type thing, complete with party favors, streamers, goofy glasses, noisemakers and a “the more, the merrier” atmosphere. If you want a more intimate New Year’s jubilee, then heading down to the Jackpot to see Minus Story and Old Canes may…
Fresh from rocking the ‘stans this past September (as in Afghanistan and Pakistan) and shaking Djibouti — as well as Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — as part of a whirlwind tour for American troops stationed overseas, perennial party band Pomeroy is ready to help Kansas City rock in the new year. Though this funky five-piece remains a…
With sorrowful string arrangements and a percussive pace that recalls cars crawling through a pedestrian-packed Plaza intersection, In the Pines is no party band. Its rustic folk ruminations will have revelers contemplating the past year’s ill-fated advances and squandered opportunities as they add to their beer tabs. The Life and Times cranks up the volume, with every drum blast landing…
A Billy Dean New Year’s Eve show really ought to come with a parental-advisory sticker. As soon as Dean (not to be confused with sausage king Jimmy Dean) busts into his chart-climbing “Let Them Be Little,” every parent in the Beaumont is going to start missing his or her child, no matter how much tail-wagging greeted the babysitter. The night…
Before all you crunchy granola types start laying exclusive claims to the art of the extended jam, try to remember that the best bluesmen and merry funksters have been laying down long grooves since day one. Maybe that’s why there’s little surprise that the Texas-based Greyhounds have been so quickly embraced by the Birkenstock set. This talented trio puts a…
He’s not as cute as John Mayer. He’s not as quirky as Jason Mraz. But what sets Gavin DeGraw apart from the rest of the sensitive pretty boys is his tendency to rock the piano every once in a while. DeGraw’s engaging melodies, the kind that can’t help getting stuck in your head, have made him a perfect fit for…
The Dresden Dolls were entrusted with easing the disappointment of P.J. Harvey’s absence at the Halloweenie Roast in October. They succeeded. When Dolls drummer Brian Viglione — decked out in a top hat, suspenders and white face paint — pounded his way through a blistering cabaret-pop version of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” one awestruck fan exclaimed, “That mime is blowing…
Toby Keith, Greatest Hits 2 (Dreamworks). Son or daughter lose a limb searching for those pesky weapons of mass destruction? Significant other catch a little friendly fire? Not to worry — there’s nothing like a Toby Keith CD to keep that “Mission Accomplished” feeling all year long. John Michael Montgomery, Letters From Home (Warner Bros.). Flag wavers might turn off…
Steve Earle, “The Revolution Starts … Now” (Artemis). Americana never sounded so, well, American as it did the day Steve Earle issued this stomping call to arms. Eminem, “Mosh” (Shady/Aftermath). Those who thought that Slim Shady was all dick jokes and Britney Spears pokes had to be surprised when he released this relentless “Fuck Bush” screed just before the election….
P.J. Harvey, “What the Fuck?” (Island). On the surface, this threadbare tantrum seems like P.J. Harvey’s most intense outburst, but her less-obvious material is much more rewarding. Snow Patrol, “Run” (A&M). Its Light up/As if you have a choice chorus makes “Run” seem like a dull documentation of drug addiction, but it’s actually a treacly ode to optimism set to…
Green Day, American Idiot (Warner Bros.). This overwrought rock opera lacks compelling characters, pensive lyrics and the musical momentum to sustain its grotesquely bloated running time. Handsome Boy Modeling School, White People (Atlantic). Rambling jokes and stunt-casting cameos damn this intermittently amusing album with a novelty-record shelf life. The Killers, Hot Fuss (Island). The Killers raided the ’80s, stole two…
A. Graham & the Moment, “Glorious” (Sonic Unyon). A turn-that-frown-upside-down ode to anyone who reacted to being pissed on by picking up a thesaurus and a twangy guitar before shouting, Glo-ri-ous, tri-um-phant, op-ti-mis-tic, tran-scen-dent. The Architects, “Sixty-Eight Gold” (Anodyne). A deliriously convincing nah-nah-nah throwback custom-fitted for putting the top down and the gas pedal through the floor — even if…
Ad Astra Per Aspera, Cubic Zirconia (Big Brown Shark). Intricate art-rock disrupts the space-time continuum by cramming more layered textures, brooding atmospherics and squawking freakouts into 21 minutes than anyone thought possible. Stephen Hawking is pissed. The Casket Lottery, Smoke & Mirrors (Second Nature). All the frayed nerves, wrenching lyrics and conflicted emotions you might expect of a faltering local…
