Hey, kids, Jimmy the Fetus here, your guide to moral values in the Midwest, helping everybody see that what we learned in Sunday school really matters. Dear Jimmy: I’ve never understood why some born-agains hate the Harry Potter books so much. Will I go to hell for reading them? Jenny Roeland Park Dear Jenny: Absolutely. Yeah, there’s no question you’ll…
This meat patty is continually amazed at how some people in this town just can’t seem to get along with other folks who don’t look exactly like them. Kelvin Williams feels the same way. He figures Independence police would have hauled him away the minute they realized that a black man in the 92-percent-white town had threatened to slit the…
On Friday afternoon, Barbara Cornelius sounded like a woman badly in need of the canoe trip she was leaving for at the end of her shift. After all, for someone who spends most of her time inside the Westport Flea Market, a little sunshine and fresh air can never hurt. But for the longtime general manager of the Westport burger…
Last year, the Travel Channel took viewers to places where barbecue is a point of civic pride. Naturally, the tour included Kansas City — which one writer described as “the Constantinople of the barbecue world.” For their Kansas City visit, the producers of Food Wars: Barbecue came up with a predictable itinerary: Arthur Bryant’s, the place native son Calvin Trillin…
Some Kansas Citians take things a little too literally, which is why restaurateurs have to be wary of names that are too clever for their own good. For example, Pete Peterman may change the name of his Sour Octopus when he moves the restaurant from its far north location to a more accessible venue near Columbus Park in the next…
It might not be sweeps month, but that didn’t stop us from recently trying to bust some ass, TV-style, with a good, old-fashioned sting operation. The target: Mickey’s Irish Pub, a new bar near Oak Park Mall. We had received an e-mail from savvy reader Callie Liggatt, who alerted us to some purported pretentiousness at this JoCo hot spot. Callie…
This room used to be the ladies’ john,” my friend Lillis said matter-of-factly before taking a sip of white wine. We were sitting in one of the smallest dining rooms at Pierpont’s. The space is now called the Rose Room in honor of the large, orange-red floral painting that dominates it. Her announcement was only slightly jarring, because I knew…
FRI 7/15 Take it away from an impending gang rumble, and a switchblade opening can be a compelling time-lapse artistic phenomenon — like the blooming of a flower or the decay of an apple. Painter Erick Warner captures such a blade in four stages, from its first emergence until its full erection from a flame-decorated ivory case. The sexual overtones…
7/16 & 7/18 Metalheads often include synonyms for the word pain in the names of their bands. We assume it gives angry types a certain satisfaction to specify the emotion that plagues them and then permanently attach it to their identity — just so there’s no chance of accidentally forgetting how tortured they really are. For an anguished (and redundant)…
Wednesday, July 20 through Saturday, July 23 The idea of an evening at the county fair may seem passé, but the venerable Platte County Fair — which claims to be the oldest fair west of the Mississippi River — is worth a second look. It originated in 1863 and has grown to be one kick-ass jamboree. In addition to lots…
Friday, July 15 Big breaks don’t come easy for visual artists. Painters battle lottery odds for much-needed grants, contend for limited studio space and pray that their one First Friday opening in a three-year window doesn’t coincide with a rainstorm. But the Kansas City Artists Coalition’s 23rd Annual River Market Regional Exhibition gives local talents an open-mike-style chance to showcase…
When it comes to contemporary art, we’re hard-pressed to think of anyone doing interesting landscapes. In fact, when we take photography out of the mix (sorry, Ansel Adams), we can’t remember the last time we saw exciting work in a gallery that included trees, sky and clouds. Clearly, the landscape is in serious need of reviving. Maria Park might be…
Thursday, July 14, 2005 Happy Bastille Day, French friends! We will be celebrating our love of chocolat (the food, not the sappy-ass Juliette Binoche movie) with tonight’s Chocolate Extravaganza at Café Trio (3535 Broadway, 816-756-3227). The complimentary appetizer-and-dessert buffet features a chocolate fountain, which, in our opinion, the City of Fountains has been sorely lacking for some time. The…
Tea will overtake coffee as the American beverage of choice. This is the grand prediction of Brenda Hedrick, owner of Anna Marie’s Specialty Tea Shoppe in Liberty. Her claim may seem outlandish. But, she reminds us, tea has been around for 5,000 years, during which much of the world has been guzzling it religiously. “In America, we kind of dropped…
The Bad Seedling Late Night gives its standard treatment to ’50s horror flick The Bad Seed, the tale of a homicidal 8-year-old girl, here played by a 6-foot-tall man. Expect cross-dressing, sight-gags and lots of raunchy (and sometimes groaningly obvious) double entendres. But the show offers more than that. Ron Megee’s script rises above the schtick, and both Megee…
Ghada Amer Barbie clothes always have some kind of ridiculous waistband tailored to the fashionable doll’s strangely shaped torso. Ken’s midsection is no less bizarre. Nothing highlights this more clearly than seeing Barbie and Ken clothes enlarged to fit real people. One of Ghada Amer’s most well-known early pieces — “Barbie Aime Ken, Ken Aime Barbie (Barbie Loves Ken, Ken…
I’m supposed to like Jay Norton’s Raze: A Declaration of Independence. It’s a liberal art show, and I’m a liberal from way back. In sixth grade, I was mocked for being the only kid in the class whose parents voted Democratic. In the face of other kids’ taunting, sing-song opposition, I caved in for about 30 minutes, marching home…
As I sat though From My Hometown,a good-hearted but lunkheaded show that seeks to pass Crown Center off as the Apollo Theater, I took my notes and clapped politely, but mostly I racked my brain, wondering: Is there a term that describes what it feels like to be miserable when everybody else is having a great time? I mean,…
Shortly after midnight marauders around the world learned of A Tribe Called Quest’s breakup in 1998, rumors of a reunion began to surface. But despite false reports, years of under-the-radar solo projects and a handful of live shows together, Tribe has yet to begin recording a new album under its old moniker, though no one has denied the possibility. On…
What kind of music should one expect from two white brothers in their early 30s who were born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, where each owns his own remodeling company? Blue-collar blues? Kitschy, hardcore metal? Eminem-style confessional rap? Thankfully, none of the above. Instead, Dedric and Delaney Moore, the brothers who make up Monta, produce ambient electronic music steeped…
Fronted by Eamon Hamilton of the ragged and mysterious (but a bit more poppy these days) British Sea Power and fleshed out by members of the Electric Soft Parade and Tenderfoot, Brakes isn’t quite an English supergroup — but it’s definitely more than the sum of its Brighton-spawned parts. Hamilton’s slinky voice, sounding something like Bryan Ferry wedged into Wayne…
Postmodernism loves a ripe, juicy contradiction. Words such as bittersweet and achingly tender sum up the beautiful tragedy of millennial existence, the quest to make meaning out of mystery. They also describe the wistful, faded glory that the National’s third full-length lowers on the listener. There’s an almost palpable autumnal sensation that is, like transition, powerfully pungent as long as…
Röyksopp’s debut disc, Melody A.M. , soundtracked 2002’s hippest scenester seductions and drug-aided epiphanies. The Understanding starts in the same vein, with placid piano and a gentle percussive pulse, but then it turns the beat around, disco-style. Like party-planning professionals, Röyksopp has created a checklist of celebration essentials. Bop-gun bloops, quick-click drums, hand claps, an awestruck-choir effect, synthesizer swells, a…
When a cut off an upcoming album that’s just supposed to be a filler track is leaked to the masses on the Internet by some unscrupulous insider, one would expect that either heads would roll or shoulders would shrug. But when said song winds up in steady rotation on Top 40 and urban radio stations across the country, the only…
