Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? So asked Louis Armstrong, long ago, and it looks like we all might have to find out. It’s looking more and more like the city won’t be back to anything close to normal for a long time. God forbid, it could be lost forever. Sadly, at this writing, the pearl…
The tired, thirtysomething punk rocker believed his musical career was over. After chasing his dreams for so many years, it was finally time to give up — maybe even get a real job. Then everything changed. “When I joined Interpol, I was past 30 already,” says drummer Sam Fogarino, the New York City band’s oldest member by five years. “I’d…
Fans of the last two Miramax films from Swedish director Lasse Hallström — Chocolat and The Shipping News — may be happy to know that he has stuck to the exact same formula for his latest, An Unfinished Life. Like its predecessors, this is the tale of an itinerant single parent with a precocious daughter who comes to a small…
The questing hero of Hans Petter Moland’s The Beautiful Country is a slender, big-eyed young man named Binh (California-educated Damien Nguyen), who has little going for him but his obsession. Ostracized in his homeland because he’s the offspring of a Vietnamese mother and an American G.I. father — bui doi, he’s called, “less than dust” — he has grown…
Long shot: Thank God someone other than myself realized how stupid it was to give the key to the city to any rapper (Backwash, August 25). Because if the concertgoers are not being shot, the rappers themselves are the ones being shot. I think Terry Riley, as well as Kay Barnes, are both fools, and when their terms are up,…
Hip-hop MC Priceless Diamonds describes herself as a “boss bitch” who grew up boosting clothes and turning the occasional trick. She swears that she’s leading a straighter life now, but we figure she’s still learned lots of good life lessons. So listen up, y’all. Is accepting copious gifts in exchange for sex the same thing as taking cash? It depends…
It was the cars that got me at the Labor Day Parade a couple of Saturdays ago. But it wasn’t the tedious Shriners in their 1960s Cutlasses, ’48 Lincolns, Vietnam-era Mustangs and convertible Delta 88s that caught my attention. No, it was the regular guys, the ones whose chrome was considerably less polished, those were the ones I had come…
The KC Strip sleeps easy knowing that the editorial writers of The Kansas City Star keep such a vigilant watch over the best interests of our town. Shyeah, right. Actually, this sizzler loves getting a chance to say “We told you so!” At the end of a steamy summer, the Strip’s thoughts have been turning to a sentence that appeared…
This summer, the South rose again. The uprising started in June, when Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt gave his blessing to a one-day flying of the Confederate flag in a Higginsville Civil War cemetery in honor of Confederate Memorial Day. The flag hadn’t flown on state-owned soil since January 2003, when then-Gov. Bob Holden banned it. The incident sparked protests, including…
Barn of the Naked Dead (Koch Vision Entertainment) The Bela Lugosi Collection (Universal) Bruce Springsteen: VH1 Storytellers (Sony Music) Charmed: The Complete Second Season (Paramount) Crash (Artisan) The Deer Hunter: Special Edition (Universal) Dragnet: Volumes 1-3 (Delta Music) Fat Albert’s Halloween Special (Ventura) Fraggle Rock: Season 1 (Hit Entertainment) Greta Garbo: The Signature Collection (Warner Bros.) Harry Potter: Years 1-3…
The Blues Brothers 25th Anniversary Edition (Universal Studios Home Video) Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman’s modern-day revival of the Blues Brothers is less a stroke of comedy genius than a dose of karaoke night at Hooters. Fight off those thoughts and pop in this 1980 classic. John Belushi and Aykroyd, a couple of white-guy hacks when it comes to music,…
Master P
Other than the four main downtown hotels, there aren’t that many places to get a decent hot breakfast between 16th Street and the Missouri River. Yes, there are the two longtime standbys, the venerable Cascone’s Grill (17 East Fifth Street) and the somewhat grittier City Diner (301 Grand). And, yes, there’s the charming Succotash (15 East Third Street), which is…
What do you call a pub crawl using the MAX bus system? Well, over at the Pitch, we’ve deemed it The First-Ever Night Ranger Drinktacular! ™ We recently had the epiphany of riding the new rapid bus service for lush-like purposes when we noticed that, hey, there are a shit-ton of bars within walking distance of many of its stops….
Kansas Citians like to think that their town’s most famous contributions to the American cultural landscape are jazz, barbecue and Harry S. Truman. But the real Kansas City export that changed life in America was the Country Club Plaza, the nation’s first suburban shopping center. This concept, created by real estate developer J.C. Nichols in 1922, unwittingly set the wheels…
FRI 9/2 Picture this: In 1,000 years (or perhaps tomorrow), humanity is toast. Dead, gone, forgotten. But here’s the silver lining: Art, albeit created by unlearned, untrained robots, survives. For area dwellers prone to apocalyptic visions — or for those sensitive to a droid’s needs — the future is now. Oakland-based “naïve art” curator Eliot K. Daughtry makes a trip…
FRI 9/2 Fresh on the heels of his first win at the Pitch Music Awards, hometown hip-hop darling DJ Sku joins Datura Records labelmates Approach and SoundsGood for a Friday night spin show at Lucky Brewgrille (5401 Johnson Drive, Mission; 913-403-8571). We’re warned that it’s a don’t-miss event: Supposedly they’re all amped because invitations to perform in the ‘burbs…
9/2-9/4 Being Irish isn’t just about such lowbrow generalizations as drinking Guinness and dancing jigs. We’ve got limericks to write, too. Kidding! The Irish are cherished as both a symbol of our fair city’s history and a vital fabric in the cultural patchwork of America’s heartland. That’s why we’re going to Irish Fest at Crown Center Square (24th and…
FRI 9/2 Ask Amber Hodgson why she’s a hairstylist, and her answer might surprise you. “Honestly? To piss off my parents, who wanted me to go to Baylor,” she says. Hodgson’s kidding — we bet her parents are proud to see the Texas transplant celebrate the opening of her first salon, The Darling Room (1800 Baltimore, 816-898-3118) just in time…
Aaron Gach, artist-in-residence at Grand Arts, has just been informed of a problem with his baby, TICU. The acronym stands for Tactical Ice Cream Unit, which is the mock-military term for an ice cream truck that dispenses frosty treats and progressive propaganda from Gach’s organization, the Center for Tactical Magic. The TICU is the star of the gallery’s September opening,…
Thursday, September 1 Remember back in 1997, when nail polish and guys went together like Kate Moss and Johnny Depp? We miss those times. And not just because Pete Doherty is such a wretched offering for our favorite model’s boyfriend du jour. It was fun to have at least one shared interest with the boys we were kissing in high…
Rather than ask Terry Sanchez what he sells at his store, Weird Stuff Antiques, it might be easier to look at the back of his bright-yellow business card: “WANTED! Weird Stuff! 1950s bicycles, pedal cards, Cushman and Vespa motor scooters, oversized items, vintage watches, neon clocks and advertising signs, vintage guitars and mics, Coke machines, motorcycle jackets and related items,…
The entire “urban core” of Mt. Vernon, Missouri, is smaller than the average city block. Crumbling from years of neglect, the flimsy-looking cluster of buildings sits empty with the exception of a few quaint novelty stores selling quilts and strawberries. What used to be the grocery store is for sale. Lawrence County’s jail is right around the bend. The town,…
If you really want to know about the art in a museum, talk to the security guards. Curators know the art’s context and its historical importance, and PR people can sell you on the show. But who, besides the security guard, spends eight hours a day staring at the displays, stopping only to remind visitors to put away their pens…
