The future of online radio is looking bleak — the Copyright Royalty Board raised the rates earlier this month — but KEXP 90.3 isn’t sweating it. The University of Washington-owned station has made the jump from FM to dot-org gracefully, taking a Webby Award for best radio Web site in 2004. Along with streaming its diverse musical programming in high-quality,…
The hype that surrounded the White Stripes’ — er, Jack White’s — ascendance to musical messiahdom finally died about a year ago, and with it ended the nation’s brief love affair with the Detroit garage-rock scene that White helped birth. Then again, maybe it just means a whole host of bands won’t have to be compared with the White…
I am not the Wayward Son. Nor am I Megan Metzger, who’s now taking over this space every once in a while for a column called Heartbeat City. No, I am the Buckle Bunny. The name Buckle Bunny implies a loose woman who collects belt buckles from champion cowboys. I like bull riders all right, but most nights it’s a…
We weren’t sure whether Guitar Hero Night at the 403 Club would be competitive or laid-back, but we brought a ringer, just in case. Research Assistant John owns the PlayStation 2 game, which involves matching the buttons on a toy guitar to the color-coded highway of notes on a TV screen. On a recent Monday night at our new favorite…
It’s not quite 11 o’clock on a Tuesday night, but Alicia Solombrino already looks dressed to kill. While the other three members of her band, the Beautiful Bodies, are lounging in T-shirts and jeans in the living room of bassist Luis Arana’s cavernous three-story house, Solombrino — the singer and spiritual founder of the fledgling project — is decked out…
Dear Readers: Muchas, muchas responses to my March 15 column asking whether I should keep this column’s gold-toothed, mustachioed, sombrero-wearing fat-Mexican logo and what I should name him. The overwhelming majority of ustedes supported amnesty for the wab, but a few folks also made articulate arguments in favor of deportation. Following are pro and con letters from gabachos and wabs…
Letters, March 15 Dream Catcher Regarding the letter that said, “For all those white, racist, gabacho readers: Mexicans come here for a better life! Isn’t that your so-called American dream?” I work hard for what I earn, and I pay for my so-called American dream with taxes, medical insurance, car insurance, rent. I pay. Do you? I am sick of…
Hey, you, Abercrombie & Fitch. I don’t mind that you market to teeny-boppers. But do your stores have to smell like them, too? Anyone who has ever finished puberty knows rule No. 1 about cologne: Don’t overspray. But at Oak Park Mall, you can smell the upstairs boutique from the downstairs coffee shop. And at Independence Center, the sickly sweet…
We may have found the reason that Royals slugger Mike Sweeney has too much junk in his trunk. It could be those beer-battered, deep-fried portabella mushroom slices at the sports bar 810 Zone. Served with a side of Cajun dipping sauce, the $6.95 appetizer is called Sweeney Sticks. In recognition of Sweeney’s special sticks, we’ve come up with a list…
A few months ago, a Kansas Citian named Jennifer signed an e-mail petition to Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, urging him to rethink his opposition to same-sex marriage. Jennifer isn’t much of a political activist, but she’d like to marry her girlfriend someday. She never got a response. So it was a big surprise when an e-mail from Missourians for Matt…
Kay Barnes came out swinging. Six days before voters picked a new mayor, Barnes called a press conference to rage against Mark Funkhouser, The Kansas City Star and other critics of the way that Kansas City has used tax-increment financing. This probably wasn’t how she thought things would end. The mayor undoubtedly imagined spending the last days of her…
A 22-year-old Kansas Senate intern had all the guys’ eyes during the 2005 legislative session. The Washburn University senior was an intern for Senate President Stephen Morris. She was friendly and confident, energetic and gregarious; her smile was sweet and her eyes piercing. One legislator took a special interest in her. It started as a bet on a basketball game….
Smartpunk.com is hosting an online contest to get bands onto its stage at the Warped Tour. A few local groups have registered and are asking fans for votes through May 15. Go here and pull up the menu to vote. The KC bands in the running that I recognize: Dead Girls Ruin Everything, the Esoteric, Flee the Seen and Super…
A mere three hours after the Jayhawks’ ignominious defeat to UCLA on Saturday, brand-new(ish) Lawrence band Fourth of July took the stage at the Record Bar. Lead singer, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter Brendan Hangauer was disappointed by the Hawks’ loss and voiced his dismay at the beginning of the set, throwing in a few choice words. For an indie-rock…
For those of you who think “penultimate” means “more ultimate than ultimate,” it actually means “second to last,” and this is the second-to-last weekend of the horrible month of March, so let’s celebrate its imminent demise by going out to some local shows. First, read the music section. See anything good? Maybe? There’s also… FRIDAY The Rich Boys, Super Black…
Little Brazil, with Radiant. Thursday, March 22, at the Record Bar. Review by Crystal K. Wiebe My best friend lives in Omaha and has a history of dating indie rock boys even though she thinks indie rock boys can’t sing (or try to sound bad on purpose). I guess she hasn’t been hanging out at Little Brazil shows over the…
The democratization of film, spurred by widened access to cheaper equipment, Internet video sites and individual creativity, is fostered by groups such as the Independent Filmmakers Coalition. The IFC of Kansas City promotes regional independent film and video, and provides educational and material resources for local filmmakers. The group meets at the Westport Coffee House (4010 Pennsylvania, 816-756-3222) each Wednesday…
For a multimedia party with a literary groove, check out tonight’s Pit Poetry readings at Prospero’s Books (1800 West 39th Street, 816-531-9673) at 7:30 (and the fourth Sunday of alternating months). Co-owner Will Leatham describes the event as “an art party.” Prospero’s would like to emphasize that this is not an open mic, so don’t bring copies of your…
Back in college, a slightly dippy roommate threw a pink-drink party with her best friend. Dressing in matchy-matchy pastel-pink Ralph Lauren turtlenecks, they took turns whipping up batches of Bacardi frozen strawberry daiquiris. Pink turtlenecks still make me shudder. The Pink Drink Party at Blue (13424 Santa Fe Trail in Lenexa, 913-999-2365) will probably be a little less — uh,…
Potluck Productions’ 12th-annual Kansas City Women’s Playwriting Festival clocks in at almost 160 minutes. With 11 plays to get through, a long evening is no surprise — but couldn’t we lose one or two? That one-joke sketch about how lovers can break up but Best Friends 4-Ever can’t stretches out like purgatory multiplied by western Kansas. Then there’s the groaner…
Batman Beyond: Season Three (Warner Bros.) The Bridge on the River Kwai (Sony) Burning Annie (Warner Bros.) The Caine Mutiny (Sony) The Care Bears Movie: 25th Anniversary Limited Edition (MGM) Come Early Morning (Weinstein) Eragon (Fox) The Guns of Navarone (Sony) JAG: The Third Season (Paramount) Justice League Unlimited: Season Two (Warner Bros.) Killing Machine (Image) Maude: The Complete First…
There’s one similarity between Ghost Rider and most videogame movie tie-ins: Get too close to either, and your ass will probably get burnt. Though it stars goofy Nic Cage and Sam Elliott sound-alikes, Ghost Rider claims only to be an offshoot of this year’s soul-sucking blockbuster — not a direct videogame adaptation. The game even boasts an original script…
Blood Diamond (Warner Bros.) Ed Zwick’s Blood Diamond, about the civil war over diamonds that devastated Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, plays like a guilt-ridden Jerry Bruckheimer movie. It’s little more than action-adventure pulp drenched in someone else’s blood — which it tries to wash off by proselytizing to the audience about the evils of the diamond trade….
The American Songbook: Music of the 1950s The latest Quality Hill Playhouse cabaret revue might sound like the same old same old, but that’s probably true only for those with a grudge against consistent excellence. This time, J. Kent Barnhart’s crooning quartet revels in the last decade in which their beloved American songbook was steadily adding new chapters. Expect highlights…
