Though the thought of waking up Lemmy Kilmister to do an interview might seem like a scary proposition (1 p.m. may as well be dawn to Lemmy), the Pitch was almost shocked by his friendly, easygoing manner. We caught up with the legendary Motorhead frontman at home in Los Angeles, readying for this weekend’s Freaker’s Ball and a subsequent European…
You were all here last Saturday. It was the worst day of autumn so far — wet, cold, the whole city like a drowned rat. There was nothing to do but watch YouTube videos or go shopping. I chose the latter. I headed down to Little Red Rooster, that new record store in the basement of Prospero’s Books, and picked…
The sky is pitch-black and pissing rain as the four members of Super Black Market play the last few songs of a Tuesday night practice session in early October. There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about a dark and drizzly evening in early fall in the Midwest. But here, tonight, the blackness is suffocating. There’s not a single place near Kansas City…
I’m with you on the idea of mailing your Hall of Fame plaque to Cooperstown.< We need to fix it first. Any chance you could do it over next week? Buck was the first African-American coach in the majors (batting coach, Chicago Cubs), but he was never a manager in the majors. "Baseball's Greatest Ambassador" should be on the plaque...
There have been some friendly accusations thrown around in the past couple of weeks regarding this newspaper’s alleged aversion to Slimfast, a radio personality for KRBZ 96.5, the Buzz. Prompted by an omission of his name in our Best of issue, Slimfast launched an on-air campaign to buy a cover of the Pitch and submitted a letter to the editor…
The Mutual Musicians Foundation has had a different mojo ever since the city stomped out its speakeasy status. Until recently, the foundation was the ultimate underground after-hours spot, where the party continued long after the bars had closed. Patrons happily paid $8 at the door for the right to buy cheap beer by the can, sit on folding chairs at…
Kansas City’s skyline was all over CNN last week. Lou Dobbs, the network’s stern, fatherly celebrity, had decided that our town was the perfect place to promote his book. No, wait, he came to conduct an earnest, thorough, hard-hitting and heart-rending exploration of the War on the Middle Class — coincidentally, the title of his new book. On October 17,…
Dear Mexican: How can you explain the disparity between Japan and Mexico? Japan, a nation a fraction the size of Mexico, with zero natural resources, suffered a devastating war of four years that included two atomic bombs, yet has reached the highest in educational achievements, technological ad-vancements and economic power. Then there is Mexico: a much larger nation that…
The Strip rarely passes up an opportunity to get sauced, especially when the booze is free and the party advertises a chance to throw one back with Mayor Kay Barnes. So a couple of weeks ago, this freeloadin’ filet crashed the groundbreaking for a new housing development high on the West Side hill above Interstate 35. The festivities drew more…
On a Tuesday in August, Alison Saunders encountered a familiar face at the Westport Sunfresh. Clay Chastain was collecting signatures for yet another petition to build light rail in Kansas City. Over the years, Chastain has spent a lot of time outside supermarkets, clipboard in hand. He has placed five different transit proposals on the ballot since 1998. He remains…
Because we were only able to run an excerpt of the exclusive, last-minute interview we were able to get with Lemmy Kilmister to preview Saturday’s Motorhead-lining Freaker’s Ball at the Community America Ballpark, I thought I’d post the complete interview here. Enjoy it in all its hoary glory. The interview was conducted by Saby Reyes-Kulkarni, whose questions are in bold….
Colin and Annie and I got to the Pistol — which is booking shows, I mean, parties again now that it’s no longer sweltering hot upstairs — around 9:30 last Wednesday. Cans and bottles of beer stuffed into their coat pockets and I with my Sun Fresh bag full of PBR (preferred luggage for any occasion, actually — fuck those…
Not all in-office music experiences can be tragically hip. Local underground literary heavyweight Chris Packham, who’s currently working at a title company, knows this painfully well. Here’s the story of a typical day in his occupational — but not vocational — life. Phil’s microphone might as well be directly connected to my office. Here at Sub-Strata Title Co. , we…
Ice hockey isn’t for the weak of heart. It’s a bruising, fast-paced game, featuring large sticks, razor-sharp blades, and far too many angry Canadians. Of course, hockey’s scrappy style is exactly why people love the blue-collar sport. For chrissakes, Stanley Cup winners chug Labatt’s out of the trophy during the off-season. If only there were a videogame that could capture…
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season Two (Universal) Anytown USA (Film Movement/Repnet) Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil (Fox) The Big Black Comedy Show (Fox) Big Love: The Complete First Season (HBO) The Break-Up (Universal) Clean, Shaven: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) Feast: Unrated (Weinstein) Frankenhooker (Anthem) Charmed: The Complete Sixth Season (Paramount) C.S.I. New York: The Complete Second Season (Paramount) The…
American Dreamz (Universal) Until this movie, Paul Weitz had a stellar filmography, a career in ascension: American Pie (good), About a Boy (great), In Good Company (absolutely perfect). But this, er, satire about a dumb American president trying to get smart (Dennis Quaid), a cynical wannabe singer trying to get famous on an American Idol knockoff (Mandy Moore), and a…
Darkness, an Evening With Edgar Allen Poe Premiering on Friday the 13th and running through Halloween, this anthology show from Minds Eye Theatre — adapted from Poe’s work by director Kevin Eib — is literally old-school. Yes, it’s after creeping horror more than Saw III shock, but it’s also being staged at the Alcott Arts Center, which Minds Eye’s Sara…
Terri Bright: Inner Order Terri Bright says she’s a stranger in most of the places where she takes pictures. Her goal is to document the tension between the disorder of her actual surroundings and her internal desire for pictorial order. As a result, her series of photographs is about color, light, shape and symmetry — among her chromogenic prints, we…
This time of year, some of the city’s best acting isn’t on local stages — it’s in the dark and foggy passageways of the city’s legendary haunted houses. The Catacombs Location: 1100 Santa Fe, in the West Bottoms Cost: $18 Length: 35 minutes General feeling: Ambitious but threadbare Memorable characters: A killer clown; a gangly ghoul with a scratchy goatee,…
A single photograph, we’re told early in Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, can win or lose a war. But sometimes, a photo shows only part of the story, whether it’s the part we don’t want to see — slaughtered villagers at My Lai, tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib — or the part we do, with heroes front and center…
Magic lies front and center in director Christopher Nolan’s latest, The Prestige, adapted by Nolan and his brother, Jonathan Nolan, from Christopher Priest’s novel about two competing prestidigitators in turn-of-the-20th-century London. Like many of history’s and literature’s great adversaries, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) begin as allies, working as audience plants for a successful stage illusionist…
Drop-dead hip or clueless? Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, a candy-colored portrait of France’s infamous teen queen, is a graceful, charming, sometimes witty confection — at least in its first hour. Famously shy writer-director Coppola may be an inscrutable personality, but her bold exposé of royalty opens with a big wink and a few crashing chords, courtesy of Gang of…
Over the years, I’ve worked with a rogue’s gallery of chefs: temperamental bullies, creative geniuses, skirt chasers and chicken hawks, a part-time porn novelist, a surprisingly high number of alcoholics and drug addicts, at least one convicted felon, and a one-eyed sous-chef who insisted that we all call him “Patch.” But until I stopped into Bar Natasha (1911 Main) last…
No Kansas City neighborhood has been more overdue for a restaurant renaissance than Brookside. Perhaps because the area is so close to all those dining venues on the Country Club Plaza, locals haven’t demanded much more than the few places they’ve had: a couple of saloons, a coffeehouse, two no-frills sandwich shops, Joe D’s Winebar Café, Carmen’s, Sharp’s and…
