Hey, local bands, want to get on TV? Here’s how. KSHB Action News, the NBC affiliate, which is channel 41 on my rabbit-ears-endowed set, is putting area acts on TV this summer. I could sum it up, but I’m lazy, so here’s the press release: Kansas City Live is kicking off their first annual Summer Concert Series Friday June 30th….
I just got word that Oz McGuire, who once did such a great job of getting shy girls to dance back when he and Fat Sal held down a residency at Jilly’s (ah, the good old days), is spinning tonight at Karma in Westport. His bulletin reads: “Karma has an identity crisis, but maybe we can fix it? I will…
Right now, I’m wearing the same pants that I wore to the Peanut downtown two nights ago for Hip-Hop and Hot Wings. The club was overcrowded and sweaty and gross because for some reason, the upstairs was closed. I Febrezed my jeans yesterday; that’s about it. Ladies, is that gross? Or do you like a man who lives, loves and…
I’m on vacation — in fact, I’m supposed to be vacationing now, but I love you so hard I couldn’t just leave without giving you something to keep yourself sane with in my absence. Here are some suggestions: SUNDAY Stik Figa & Godemis at Hip-Hop and Hot Wings HH&HW at the downtown Peanut isn’t just a hang-out-and-drink party; there are…
When David Blaine got into his giant goldfish bowl, we were sort of freaked out. Then, midstunt, we saw a photo of his hand — which did not look like it belonged to a living thing — and we were really scared. The lesson we’ve learned? Get out of that damned bathtub after 20 minutes. Perhaps magicians have been suffering…
Picnics seem charming in theory, but often the reality is that you’re sitting outside with small insects crawling over your limbs and your food. The wind blows stuff around, and you realize that this activity may be better left to children — or the movies. We have the same ambiguous feelings about kite flying, even though we haven’t held a…
Africa Screams (Image) April’s Shower (Liberation) Back Door to Hell (Fox) Bloodrayne (Uwe Boll Productions) The Closer: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros.) Deadwood: The Complete Second Season (HBO) The Devil’s Miner (First Run) The Dirty Dozen: Two-Disc Special Edition (Warner Bros.) The 4400: The Complete Second Season (Paramount) Game 6 (Hart Sharp) The Goebbels Experiment (First Run) High School…
Yet another Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has come and gone, and this one was the biggest yet. Exhibitors know all too well that a strong showing at E3 — an event heavily covered by both industry and mainstream press — can turn a great product into a blockbuster and a lackluster one into a laughingstock. It’s also a great…
Boston Legal: Season One (Fox) David E. Kelley’s latest legal drama is nothing more than a TV show about TV shows; hence the casting of Captain Kirk and Murphy Brown, with guest shots by Diane Chambers, Golden Girl Rose Nylund, and Alex Keaton. It’s like a Nick at Night mash-up, with the laugh track muted, but the dumbstruck chuckles…
The Birds This crossdressed pantsing of Hitchcock’s classic gives us Late Night at its best … and worst. When the troupe members shake together Hollywood satire, chintzy drag glamour and bitchy wit in a cocktail of a half-dozen set pieces, the show’s a heady gas. Too often, however, this Birds substitutes showy pop references for actual jokes and relies heavily…
Empty Thoughts, Lame Excuses, and Decorative Lies Ryan Humphrey’s first solo museum exhibition consists of four pieces: “Vantasy,” the driver’s side of a tricked-out, 1971 C-10 Chevrolet van; “Honky Spaceship,” a battery-powered installation panel that pumps out the beats of Public Enemy and Run DMC; “Rear Window,” the tail section of a Ferrari mounted on plywood; and “Velocity of…
Here’s some fresh inspiration from Mitch Albom, the famous feel-good author of Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven: “A nigger to you is just somebody stupid.” This insight comes from Lenny, the lone black character in Albom’s calamitous new play, a comedy whose title — à la the George Foreman grill — comes goofily…
Falling Rian Johnson’s teen indie drama Brick a piece of stunt work might seem tantamount to hitting it with a pie, but it’s a high-speed wheelie of a strangely daring variety. Try this thumbnail definition on for size: a high school noir, complete with a Dashiell Hammett-derived plot and a fearless fidelity to antiquated gangster patois. The potential for film-school…
When kids of all ages discuss comic books and superheroes, there is one question that comes up time and again: If that one guy and that other guy had a fight, who would win? Comics companies occasionally indulge these debates with special issues pitting, say, Wolverine versus Spider-Man, but the results are rarely satisfactory. There’s good reason not to…
Last month, I was having dinner with an old friend in the spacious dining room of a midtown restaurant. It was a weeknight, and the place wasn’t busy at all. I was having such a nice time, I didn’t even look up when the attractive trio of adults, accompanied by a small child, were seated in the next booth. I…
The summer before I graduated from college, I had this feeling that maybe a bachelor’s degree wouldn’t be enough to propel me into the fame and fortune that still, unfortunately, eludes me. It was this prophetic instinct that led me to enroll at the International School of Bartending, where I spent a couple of weeks learning how to make a…
When it comes to talk of blue balls and sticking fingers in holes, it’s understandable that some might get all skeezed out. However, we’re talking about Pin-Up Bowl, a cool new bowling alley near the Kansas Speedway. Located in the Legends at Village West, Pin-up Bowl isn’t your typical beer-and-stanky-shoes type of bowlatorium. It’s more like Velvet Dog with…
Located in downtown Overland Park’s revitalized shopping district, Tonic is JoCo’s hottest, chic-bleeding nightlife spot with one of the sexiest staffs on either side of the state line. Since its grand opening this past winter, capacity crowds have lined up every weekend. Now the establishment is looking to turn out your midweek humps on Wednesday nights with resident DJ Shad,…
In many ways, the past few years have been more like a bad breakup than a music career for Matt Pryor. In early 2005, after months of disinterest and heartbreak, the KC native parted ways with his first love, the Get Up Kids, to spend more time with his on-again, off-again fling, the New Amsterdams. So it comes as no…
The Church lost many fans in the 1990s, when it began to favor meandering grooves that seduced with atmosphere rather than with hooks. But even though the absence of accessible pop gems meant that the prolific Australian quartet disappeared from the airwaves, its ability to bend melodies into heart-fluttering beauty never wavered. After 2003’s disappointing Forget Yourself, it’s heartening to…
Mike Patton is a genius, at least in a mad-scientist sort of way. He’s perfected the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde dichotomy, veering back and forth between suspiciously calm crooning and vicious tirades. The former Faith No More leader’s projects lately have become increasingly diverse and elusive to mass consumption. Three years in the making, Peeping Tom delves further into…
Given a large, vacant parking lot, a car with a good set of tires, and a few inches of fresh snow, winter doughnuts can make for a pretty fine time. Desert Doughnuts? Not so much — not literally, and not when it comes to Metallic Falcons’ debut. The former’s a bust because it’s too easy to get stuck in the…
Like bastard twins separated at birth, hip-hop and punk rock have always had an unspoken connection. Both were born in the same era but wound up in different boroughs, so it’s nice to see the two come together locally. For starters, C.E.S. Cru (pictured) and Anti-Crew should feel right at home around a punk audience. Both hip-hop outfits bring it…
If the Meters’ classic drum sound (which you’ve heard, whether you know it or not) were a stack of pancakes, G. Love’s reproduction of that sound would be a stack of pancakes topped with a gallon of butter. It’s a bit much. Not that Love and his cohorts aren’t faithful. In fact, that’s just it — maybe they’re a little…
