Dear Gabachos: Bienvenidos to the world’s foremost authority on America’s favorite beaners! The Mexican can answer any and every question on his race, from why Mexicans stick the Virgin of Guadalupe everywhere to our obsession with dwarves and transvestites. Awright, cabrones: laugh and comprende! Dear Mexican: Why do Mexican soccer fans chant “Osama! Osama!” when their side plays the United…
Recently, the Strip sauntered into the McDonald’s at 14th Street and Prospect. Any place where beef is broiled, grilled or chemically reconstituted is a familiar stomping ground for this well-done roast. But the McDonald’s on Prospect isn’t just an artery-clogging eatery. On weekday mornings, it becomes the east side version of a French salon, where fiftysomething men banter the…
Travis Swanson sits between two twentysomething models on his black leather couch in the home he rents in Overland Park’s gated Jefferson Pointe neighborhood. The women are his newly hired go-go dancers. He met them on MySpace.com. Emily Trimmell, an animated brunette with a blinding white smile, works as an Estée Lauder makeup artist. Cassie Whatley, a University of…
I don’t often comment on the actions of our cross-Crossroads rivals at the Kansas City Star because I have little reason to. “Pop critic” Tim Finn does a good job bringing national music to his readers, and he and his freelancers often help boost awareness of some local goings-on. I mean, it’s nowhere near as comprehensive, in-depth or dead-sexy as…
This came in today from Pitch contributor Alan Scherstuhl, fresh from answering a survey from the Rev. Al: Here’s a long-winded summation of our fun at the Rhythm & Ribs Fest, located right there behind that museum I’d call the 18th & Vine Jazz Mausoleum if it didn’t looks so much like a suburban library. We felt real excitement in…
If you’re in the mood for live music this weekend, here are some gigs to consider getting your ass to. SATURDAY Ghost in Light, the Stella Link and This Alibi at the Record Bar Sorry, other bars in the area. I really don’t love the Record Bar more than anyone else (except my own grandmother); I just wanted to relay…
After posting Wednesday’s blog, I figured it would be a good service to go out and see if Wednesday really was the new Friday in Westport. It is…almost. OK, it’s not the new Friday, but it’s a damn good night to go out. I started at the Westport Beach Club, where I’ve never gone before on purpose, and was pleased…
All Aboard! Rosie’s Family Cruise (HBO) Aquamarine (Fox) Beavis and Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 2 (Paramount) Before the Fall (Picture This) The Betty Grable Collection: Volume 1 (Fox) Cemetery Man (Anchor Bay) End of the Spear (Fox) Fatwa (Ventura) A Good Woman (Lions Gate) Green Street Hooligans (Warner Bros.) Guardian of the Realm (Velocity) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang…
Gamers are so used to Mario that the fundamental weirdness of his exploits no longer raises an eyebrow: A dumpy Italian plumber journeys through a fairy-tale land, where turtles throw hammers, mushrooms bestow magic powers, and a kingly turtlebeast holds a princess captive. Where other videogame plots might have been scrawled in a spiral notebook by the scary kid in…
Valley of the Dolls Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Fox) Behold The Godfather and Godfather Part II of drag-queen cinema — two movies that provide the gateway to a lifetime of wig addiction. The films couldn’t be more different in temperament — the 1967 original is mile-high Hollywood kitsch, while Russ Meyer’s in-name-only 1970 follow-up visualizes the sex-drugs-psychedelia counterculture…
Collect All Four How about if we collect two instead? Julie Farstad uses stark imagery to convey a nightmarish reality, placing painted toy baby dolls in compromising positions; the slightly grotesque, shiny baby fat in her paintings is indelible. In “Bad Bad Girls,” one doll lifts the dress of the other for a spanking against an austere, glowing-red background. In…
Like many galleries in the industrial east Crossroads, the #8 Gallery is easy to miss. Originally built in 1885 as the No. 8 Hose and Reel Firehouse, it’s the oldest still-standing fire station in the city. Formerly filled with the clang of alarms, it now stands quiet, subdued by frosted windows and a “For Lease” sign. It doesn’t look like…
The folly in Talley’s Folly involves a boathouse nobody wanted, a tumble-down edifice dipping into a river that’s probably the Niangua. The structure is half-gazebo and mostly rotted, put up years ago by some fanciful uncle who never let Midwestern practicality dampen his sense that the things we build should be beautiful. And beautiful it is. In the Kansas City…
Remember what a fun couple Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves were in Speed? Well, forget that. In the slow, heavy The Lake House, Bullock and Reeves play the mopiest lovers to hit the big screen since Tony and Maria channeled Romeo and Juliet on the fire escapes of New York City. It’s hard to imagine a pair of sacks sadder…
There is no movie more overrated in recent history than Napoleon Dynamite. Each time someone tries to explain its appeal — deadpan comedy that plays like Bergman drama, geek love that smells like self-loathing, catchphrases that drop like rat pellets — it just slips a little further from my grasp. (I might watch a movie entirely about Uncle Rico and…
The last time I heard from the gregarious Max Chao, the brother of Red Snapper owner Kua-Ching “Casey” Chao (see review), he and his wife, Kim, were in the process of packing up the pots, pans and chopsticks from their popular downtown restaurant, Max’s Noodles & More (1728 Main). After more than two years in business, that low-slung building was…
My friend Linda just returned from a trip to Shanghai, which turned out to be an eating extravaganza. “You can’t even imagine the number of restaurants there,” she said. “They’re practically on top of each other, and one is more fabulous than the next. Going out to eat is a big part of the social scene there. A Chinese friend…
As you know, the world didn’t end back on June 6, 2006. That’s 6/6/06, Damien. But the day still gave boozers who pay attention to things like eerie dates a convenient excuse to go drinking. And that’s exactly the type we like to meet on a Tuesday night. We also figured that if the date 6/6/06 were going to create…
A wise man once said, “One man’s progressive house is another man’s trance.” Either way, the elegant, magnetic style of electronica that John Digweed helped spread throughout the ’90s has become a staple in basement venues from Hong Kong to a dance club near you. Scheduled to perform at the Madrid with KC’s Bill Pile, Digweed is known for blowing…
Remember Bowfinger? In that movie, Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is so dead-set on having Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) star in his sci-fi B-movie that he shoots his flick guerrilla-style, hijacking Kit in public with video cameras, psycho actresses and slime-spewing aliens, unintentionally exacerbating the deep paranoia from which the made-up megastar already suffers. This new album from Kansas City’s Dukakis…
Kansas City MC Approach claims he isn’t a mix-tape guy, but he makes an exception on The Nu, a compilation of borrowed-beat tracks put together by a slew of mostly local producers (Nezbeat, Johnny Quest, etc.) and beat-matched and mixed live in one session by Approach’s turntablist partner, DJ Sku. From the outset, it’s clear that this disc is a…
For all the security lockdown and insane hype over the Walkmen’s third release, the disappointment is almost angering. Central to this annoyance is singer Hamilton Leithauser’s voice, which has reached new heights of obnoxiousness on a largely tedious and boring album. What started off as a promising journey from charming, jaunty dance tracks (see first album Everyone Who Pretended to…
In an era when iTunes has eliminated much of the recording industry’s bloat and bulk, there’s still one nasty big-label habit that won’t die — the undeserved album reissue. Now, though, the majors aren’t the worst offenders; it’s the just-below-mainstream indie labels that seem hell-bent on cashing in on their recent acquisitions’ past successes. This time around, Victory Records churns…
Just six months old and with its first show only a week under its belt, Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk has managed to create some of the most lovely, haunting music to hit the area in recent memory. The exciting quartet absorbs its influences while avoiding the copycat trap. Jameson Piedmonte’s vocals take after Jón Birgisson of Sigur Rós, and…
