To those who did not come of age (read: discover sex and Led Zeppelin) in Lawrence, this little town with a big ego is like the island in Pinocchio where the wicked boys were sent to overindulge in cigar-smoking and pool until they transmogrified into donkeys — at least until, in what appeared to be the last vestige of a…
Back in high school, I was one of those kids who ditched prom. Having gone as a sophomore, I wasn’t fooled by the hype. At 17, I already knew that prom was Not My Thing. So why, oh why, did I go to the Grandview High School prom just last weekend, with my 28th birthday right around the corner?…
Does the world really need a new film from Woody Allen every year? Yes, he is one of America’s great auteurs. Yes, he’s responsible for some very fine movies, many of them comedies (Annie Hall), several of them tragedies (Crimes and Misdemeanors, Another Woman) and some hovering in that bittersweet territory between the two (Hannah and Her Sisters). But must…
Sahara is a stunning piece of work — stunningly inept, stunningly incoherent, stunningly awful in every way imaginable. How this didn’t go direct to video or cable or airplane or bootleg is unfathomable. Actually, that’s not entirely true. It gets a proper blockbuster theatrical release through Paramount Pictures because its director, Breck Eisner, is the son of former Paramount…
Xanga con: Justin Smith posted a link to Nadia Pflaum’s “Meaner Girls” (March 31) on my Xanga. Why? Because I had left him a message after I learned about how he deceived people regarding the sensitive issue of gay bashing — which was just wrong and immature. But as I read her article, I realized that he wasn’t the only…
Jimmy the Fetus Hey, kids, Jimmy the Fetus here, your guide to moral values in the Midwest, helping everyone see that what we learned in Sunday school really matters. Dear Jimmy: What do you think about cloning? Can the Bible guide us in debates about this complex issue? Mark Shawnee Dear Mark: Take it from someone whose stem cells are…
Even though it’s been a few weeks since the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day spring fling, the Strip continues to hear griping about the way it all went down. The Strip understands that after last year’s shooting and other loutish behavior, organizers wanted to get the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade under control. So we can get behind the changes…
I want to know the last time Phill Kline went to the doctor and what for. I have clear reason to suspect that he could have booked an appointment with the board-certified surgeons at the Hair Transplant Center of Greater Kansas City. I’m not suggesting that these doctors have done anything wrong. I do, however, have a compelling interest in…
Four years ago, the Pitch titled a profile of Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields “She Rules” because of her reputation for getting her way in county politics. The progressive Democrat, who was then about to be re-elected to her third term as the county’s CEO, was known as much for her aggressive and controlling style as she was for her…
