For the aging videogamer, nothing’s as sorely missed as the corner arcade. Unlike the family-friendly Dance Dance Revolution discos you see today, classic arcades were seedy little dives tucked into strip malls — dark caves thick with the musty bouquet of cheap carpet and adolescent stench. They were also thick with competition. These were the modest battlegrounds where geeks squared…
Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (New Line) You probably already know where you stand on Tenacious D, the pudgy hard rock comedy duo that made Jack Black famous. And if you haven’t heard of them, this isn’t the place to start: Their DVD of short films and music videos is much better. But fans of Black and Kyle…
Sissel Tolaas: The Fear of Smell, the Smell of Fear Norway-born “olfactivist” Sissel Tolaas collected sweat from nine men who had been put into fear-inducing situations. She then synthetically reproduced their sweat pheromones and embedded them into paint applied to Grand Arts’ walls in nine off-white, 5-foot-by-8-foot panels. Patrons scratch and sniff, and the smells recall people and places (such…
A Dog’s Life While we remain skeptical that theme — as opposed to stories or characters — is where a playwright should strike first in search of heart and humor, the American Heartland’s long string of themed shows — marriage, menopause, Christmas — has boasted big hits and, in last month’s Leaving Iowa, at least one critical darling. A Dog’s…
It’s all about the body beautiful. The Naked and the Nude, an intimate 14-piece exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, is a perfect midwinter respite. In organizing these 19th- and early-20th-century prints and drawings from the museum’s permanent collection, curators have borrowed a theme from hidebound art historian Kenneth Clark’s 1956 ideas of naked and nude. He declared “naked”…
The fourth-annual True/False Film Festival takes place Thursday through Sunday, March 1 through 4, in Columbia. Following are previews of some of this year’s most fascinating films. A complete schedule of films and events, plus venue and ticket information, can be found at www.truefalse.org. Air Guitar Nation (Alexandra Lipsitz). Any film that kicks off with Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” has…
No director works closer to his unconscious than David Lynch, and, stimulated by the use of digital video technology, his latest feature ventures as far inland as this blandly enigmatic filmmaker has ever gone. A movie about Lynch’s obsessions, Inland Empire is largely a meditation on the power of recording: The first image is a shaft of projected light; the…
When editorial cartoonist turned amateur sleuth Robert Graysmith published Zodiac, his sprawling, meticulously researched account of the eponymous San Francisco serial killer, he wrote that the tale was “the most frightening story I know.” It was easy to understand why. Graysmith was writing in 1985, some 16 years after the Zodiac’s last confirmed attack and seven since his final, cryptic…
Four restaurants are now closed on the 39th Street restaurant corridor — Nichols Lunch, Café Rumi, Macaluso’s and Addis Ababa Ethiopian Café. At least one of those former tenants is concerned that the street once known as Restaurant Row might have seen its day. “Everything runs in cycles and, who knows, 39th Street’s cycle might be over,” says gravel-voiced Tom…
Back when I was a bartender in a crummy Chinese joint, I learned to mix a lot of fruity drinks. The cocktail menu was loaded with potent concoctions that all required paper parasols or cherries and pineapple skewered on plastic swizzle sticks. It never occurred to me then — or later, toying with swizzle sticks in other bars —…
We knew that KSHB Channel 41 Action Weather god Gary Lezak had rabid fans — and we’re not talking about his dogs. But we had no idea that the gale-force winds of Lezak luv also blew threw Glow, the Lava Room’s new upstairs lounge. On a Friday night, we were hanging out with Research Assistants Laura, David, Cece and John…
Lawrence singer-songwriter Tanner Walle toes a highly accessible line between alternative crooners (John Mayer, Teitur, Gavin DeGraw) and electronica-infused pop. Incorporating the impassioned vocal inflections of Sting and the jazzy chord changes of Steely Dan, Walle creates polished tunes with mainstream appeal and pro-grade musicianship. Friday he toasts his sophomore LP, The Future of Tape, a slick collection of loop-and-tweak…
Bandleader Allen Karpinski has always been drawn more to intros and middle interludes than to hooks and sing-along choruses, which explains the Six Parts Seven’s (mostly) instrumental format. More distinctly, however, Karpinski — who plays guitar and anchors the band’s nucleus — gives the music a reflective spin. This is mild-mannered indie rock, lightly peppered with vibraphone, pleasant melodies and…
After two failed runaway attempts as a kid, Wyatt Hull escaped Inman, Kansas, at 18 and made a beeline for Los Angeles. Two years later, in 2003, he helped found the Colour, an outfit that marries the brash firepower of the Stones with pearl-smooth atmospherics that’d make Brian Eno lift an eyebrow. Hull’s vocals could slice granite — no frayed…
The Moody Blues has spanned the emotional spectrum in service of “Nights in White Satin.” In 1967, the group cried in the studio while recording this epic depiction of unrequited love. Three decades later, it performed a parodic version of the song-closing poem, “Late Lament,” on The Simpsons (“Coldhearted Homer ditching his wife”). By then, the band was past its…
Anyone who has seen Glenn Kotche’s stick bag (as documented in The Wilco Book) knows exactly why he is the ultimate badass drummer. Bamboo rods, superball skewers, pingpong balls filled with shot — these are the tools of Kotche’s trade. Such sound innovations are presumably the reason he was hired to drum for Wilco, but Kotche’s realm extends into modern…
Rock, punk, funk, electro, pop. According to the band’s self-referential track “File 2 the Metal,” it’s all in the Mad Happy mix, and many will discover a natural ability to bounce to the echoing sound. Those who don’t may experience shame or a perceived lack of belonging. To that, Mad Happy cannot abide; instead, the group crusades to eradicate the…
Formerly affiliated with Kansas City’s Flavor Pak ‘zine, DJ Ice has been roaming the Wilshire District of Los Angeles since 1988, but he hasn’t forgotten his roots. Featuring tracks by some of KC’s hip-hop stalwarts, Ice’s Letters First, vol. 2 mix just took the DJ and his Seventh Letter crew on tour to Tokyo and Taipei. It’s the songs from…
Although Fall Out Boy lyricist and dreamboat Pete Wentz is inveterately verbose, his words aren’t profound, and that’s a big reason for his band’s success. Plenty of emo acts have a limited audience because of all that freakin’ emotion. But instead of turning songs into platforms for pain, Wentz eschews angst in favor of knowing glibness that’s a lot more…
There’s something vaguely unsettling about not being able to find the words to describe an album that doesn’t have any words to begin with. All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, the fifth studio album from Explosions in the Sky, is the kind of epic, introspective soundscape that fans have come to expect from the Austin, Texas, all-instrumental demigods. This…
Getting the band back together has never been more popular, and after last year’s comeback tour, the members of Dinosaur Jr. have learned to tolerate one another’s flannel-clad presence, at least long enough for a live DVD and new album. Slated for a May release, Beyond marks the first LP in nearly 20 years to feature all of the band’s…
Not all of John Sebastian’s music dwells in the Hall of Criminally Underrated Pop. The leader of the Lovin’ Spoonful (whose “Summer in the City” is still on constant oldies rotation) had a No. 1 hit in 1976 with the theme to the John Travolta sitcom Welcome Back Kotter and, more recently, helped stoke the old-time revival with his jug…
As Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Mike West and Katie Euliss, holed up 700 miles away in a dingy, neon-lit bar in St. Petersburg, Florida, watched while their beloved hometown of New Orleans was thrashed to pieces. “When we left a few days earlier, heading east, weather forecasters were predicting that the storm would hit near Jacksonville,” says…
A judge’s ruling on Friday ordered the Pitch to remove from this Web site an article about the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities. The article was based on a confidential letter written to BPU officials by the BPU’s attorney, Stanley Reigel of the law firm Stinson, Morrison Hecker. The letter concerned issues about BPU power plants. The BPU…
