The person who coined the term side project is long overdue for a smackdown. Granted, the phrase has its applications — say, Michael Jordan’s brief and hilarious tenure with the Chicago White Sox. But such triteness does a disservice to the fully realized visions of songwriters such as John Stirratt and Pat Sansone, aka the Autumn Defense. These two well-groomed…
Tortillas Flat Dear Readers: Mucho comments about my recent column regarding the metamorphosis of Mexican names into seemingly wacky nicknames — Nini from Alejandrina, for instance, or Chely from Araceli. I argued such changes occurred thanks to linguistic laws; some of you had other theories. Here are the best. Dear Mexican: Here’s what a Chicano studies professor at East Los…
Burnt Ends, February 8 The Seiden Adventure I loved the article “Seiden Gone Wild.” Joshua Seiden truly is a freedom fighter in the making, and he is a role model all of our children can look up to. I encourage all of the snooty suburbanites out in Johnson County to hit the polls on February 27 for the primary and…
Hey, “creative” advertising types! In the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day, spare our airwaves from the nauseating leprechaun adverts and all those phony Irish accents. We’re not subjected to seeing stereotypical Al Johnsons dancing on our screens during Black History Month. So why do we have to endure this shamrockery shite that you shovel out every March? Who created these…
Since 1989, href=”http://www.pitch.com/bestof/award.php?oid=oid:16352§ion=oid:14654&year=2004″ target=”_blank”>Middlebird T-Shirt Creations has operated as Mission’s gag-gift and T-shirt-press headquarters. But if you’ve been by 5815 Johnson Drive lately, you may have noticed the giant yellow sign in the store’s window proclaiming “75% OFF — EVERYTHING MUST GO!” We called Rob Odell, who started working there when he was a student at Bishop Miege High School…
Despite our best attempts, we here at the Department of Burnt Ends are still in the dark when it comes to Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt’s favorite underwear. But it’s safe to say that when Blunt went to Mexico to meet President Felipe Calderon last week, he wasn’t sporting a pair of custom boxers being hawked by local activists. Blunt took…
Unrealistic expectations. A dwindling endowment. Pleas for a bailout. Union Station? No. Liberty Memorial. Restored in the 1990s and recently outfitted with the National World War I Museum, the Liberty Memorial appears to be headed down the same disappointing path as Union Station, the beautiful but dysfunctional old train station that Kansas and Missouri residents joined hands to save. Actually,…
Finally it seemed that the Board of Public Utilities would come clean about those expensive meals at the Savoy Grill. In January, the utility’s ethics commission found that high-ranking BPU officials had abused company credit cards by expensing thousands of dollars for meals, beer and tickets to sporting events. At the January 17 meeting of the board that oversees the…
On a clear, cold day, two men stand on the sidewalk in front of 3715 Broadway, smoking mini cigars. One of the men, Carlos, wears a one-piece, navy-blue mechanic’s jumpsuit; the other wears a sweatshirt and worn-looking pants. They’re outside ZLB Plasma Services, a one-story white building with heavy white drapes pulled across each window. They look as though they’re…
If you’re not feelin’ the 18th Street Parade (and Lord help you if you aren’t — it’s f***ing awesome), and if you’re in Westport for the big crawl, you might stop by the Beaumont for the Architects, National Fire Theory and Walter Alias. A note on the latter: Walter Alias, is a little-known local band who blew me away at…
Hey, the Last of the V8s have shot a video. Or at least made a video. Rather than the footage of onstage antics you might expect from the rawest, bloodiest live rock band in town, the V8s have mashed up a Talking Heads video for their song “Demon Machine.” First, Talking Heads: Now, V8s: the last of the v8s: demon…
DJ Iggy Baby, Snuff Jazz and Street Jizz. Sunday, February 18, at the Record Bar. Review by Jason Harper Last night, I showed up to the Record Bar around 8, expecting Mark Southerland’s Dimanche Gras show featuring DJ Iggy Baby, Snuff Jazz and Street Jizz to already be underway, because that’s what Mark told me when I talked to him…
Ladies & Gents, we’ve picked our finalists for this year’s Pitch Ultra Music DJ Contest. They are: DJ Sku, Spinstyles, DJ Shad, DJ Soap and J Fortune. We got 26 submissions for the contest (27 if you count a guy who didn’t read the call for entries very carefully and sent us a mix from his home base in California)…
Asylum St. Spankers. Thursday, February 15, at Knuckleheads. Review by Chris Packham I attended an evening of acoustic, mostly unamplified old-timey-esque music by the Aylum Street Spankers at Knuckleheads Saloon last night, down in Kansas City’s spectacular Railyard District. If Knuckleheads is any indication, Kay Barnes’ railyard revitalization program is finally yielding a more exciting nightlife, like Denver’s much-vaunted railyard…
One of Kansas City’s most beloved (or, well, at least in the top 50 or so) corners went up in smoke this morning, and several businesses, including Kennedy’s quasi-Irish sports bar, are no more. Former Pitch calendar editor Annie Fischer found out somehow, and sent us this very distraught message: i spent my 21st birthday there! damn it! Our Night…
A visit to the planetarium was one of our better school field trips, but even at a young age we found the effects pretty dated. We’re intrigued by laser light shows at planetariums, but aside from discovering that flashing lights synched to Dark Side of the Moon is totally trippy, what are we learning? Linda Hall Library (5109 Cherry), the…
Bicycle Thieves: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) The Boy From Lebanon (Picture This) The Butcher Boy (Warner Bros.) The Cave of the Yellow Dog (Tartan) The Departed (Warner Bros.) Devil’s Den (Starz) F**K (ThinkFilm) Green for Danger: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) The Hills: The Complete First Season (Paramount) Hustle: Complete Season Two (BBC Warner) Infamous (Warner Bros.) Man About Town (Lions…
Lately, the Nintendo DS has become a virtual Monster.com. You can play a defense attorney (Phoenix Wright), surgeon (Trauma Center), and even a cook (Cooking Mama). Now, thanks to Hotel Dusk: Room 215, you can add private eye to that list. But don’t expect the sexy detective work of Chinatown. Instead, you’ll spend hours trudging up and down the…
Marie Antoinette (Sony) Sofia Coppola’s third feature grabs you by your frilly lapels from the jump, with Gang of Four’s “Natural’s Not in It” showering guitar chords all over the credits as Kirsten Dunst nods to the audience, as if to say, Hang tight — this thing’s gonna be a gas. Only it never is: This tale of Marie’s…
As arts patrons file into the new Copaken Stage — the satellite venue for the Kansas City Repertory Theatre that’s tucked into the headquarters of the globe-straddling company that botched my taxes two years back — they’ll bear witness to a birth and a funeral. First, that birth — or at the least a christening. The Copaken is a…
The Giver It’s Junior’s First Utopian Nightmare down at the Coterie, where shows made for kids are often better than the adult-content theaters in staging, style and intelligence. Coterie shows are shorter, too, and more likely to make a point. This time, director Jeff Church takes on Lois Lawry’s Newberry-winning novel about a “perfect” future in which peace and politeness…
Current Works, 2006 The Society for Contemporary Photography closes with a loose examination of the difference between land and property. Jeff Krolick’s digital prints could be glossy sympathy cards with a rural postmark: “Sorry about that road coming through.” Kansas City Art Institute junior Katie Watson’s collapsed furniture suggests catalog photos from a Bizarro Restoration Hardware more than a warning…
In Wayne Thiebaud’s hands, the tempting spheres of cakes and candy apples, the zigzags of a cut melon, the oval tops and pointed ends of ice-cream cones, and the sharp corners of club sandwiches are cause for quiet celebration. Everyday Delights: Prints by Wayne Thiebaud, at the homey Kemper East, reduces Thiebaud to his austere best. The show, culled…
On the whole, this year’s Oscar-nominated animated shorts are stronger than the live-action contenders. Nine of the 10 nominees, along with five other 2006 animated shorts, open Friday at the Screenland Theatre (1656 Washington). Even the weakest entries offer a high level of craftsmanship. Disney’s handsome The Little Matchgirl, adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen story, overwhelms the narrative with…
