Hey, you, server, bartender, owner of Grinders. Can I get a drink? Oh, Grinders, I do want to love you so. With your great pies, wings, Philly cheesesteaks and the best beer selection in town, why can’t you get some great service, too? As a member of the service industry, maybe I’m a little jaded about the level of service…
This summer, dogs across the metro were up in arms about the persecution of their pit bull comrades. Now they have something new to bark about. On April 6, a Lab mix named Muttsy was minding his own business while owner Richard Rostenberg grabbed a cup of joe at Muddy’s Coffeehouse. Muttsy was taking` cover from the treacherous weather when…
Even before Mark Funkhouser is sworn in as the city’s next mayor, it’s clear that there are a few things he hates: potholes, tax breaks for wealthy developers, low door frames. Oh, and Steve Glorioso. The aide to outgoing Mayor Kay Barnes has drawn the ire of Funkhouser, who has labeled Glorioso and his cronies as political hitmen. In other…
Carl DiCapo lives on a street that bears his name. The former restaurateur owns a condominium in Santa Fe Place at Crown Center, where Carl DiCapo Drive begins. DiCapo’s family owned Italian Gardens, one of downtown’s most iconic restaurants before it closed in 2003. When he wasn’t tending to dinner guests, DiCapo volunteered for the Boy Scouts, the Don…
Linda and Rodney Lierz were halfway out of the farmhouse when they saw the smoke. The fine white smolder of a grass fire over the fields is nothing unusual — farmers burn off dead brush regularly. But in early spring 2005, in drought conditions, when the ground was dusty and winds were blowing at 60 miles per hour, only a…
For those planning on getting their noise-rock freak on to Lightning Bolt & Co Friday night, the show has been moved to a bar called the Embassy. It’s at the T-intersection of Westport Road and Main, where Muddy’s used to be. I was there last Friday. At this show, you’ll also see local one-man-band This Is My Condition, a fury…
A friend faulted me for being “tacky” in my last entry. I was all “What?,” and he was all, “Dude, you made fun of an old black lady who got assaulted in her home,” and then I was all “…Oh.” Honestly, my amusement at the idea of someone being hit by a giant pair of scissors trumped my human…
…and other observations from one of our favorite Kansas City thinkers, David Cantwell, who writes mostly about music — and everything music’s about, which is all of life — over at Living In Stereo. Whitlock’s this week’s national media lovechild because of recent columns he’s written about Don Imus, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. “I’m far less agitated by…
Bored at work? Want to watch local people in their most private of moments but don’t want to spend 99 cents a minute? We can’t guarantee any skin, but if you want to keep a Big Brother-like eye on some local joints, we have a list of sites that have live, streaming cameras. Here are some links and a…
The Faint. Saturday, April 14, at Day on the Hill Review by Crystal K. Wiebe Day on the Hill, KU’s annual April rockfest on the Lied Center lawn, wasn’t really on a hill. Well, you got your tickets at the crest of a hill. And then you slid through mud to a valley below, where four bands played Saturday under…
I went out with the camera this past weekend, joining the ranks of the dangerous shutterbug scenesters who have proliferated like locust since it became so easy to share pictures with the world. I’m no bloody Cartier-Bresson, and red-eye reduction on the camera was either not working or not turned on, but anyway, here’s what Kansas City looks like…
Ever since some web-savvy writer came up with the idea of putting diaries online to be read by everyone from the West Side to West Timor, the tradition has been that bloggers are a faceless group. Even Tony Botello, who has received some accolades for the anti-gay jokes he writes in his mom’s basement, has never offered up a…
If this weather holds up, I’m gonna reassemble the plastic Christmas tree and make up a steamy batch of wassail, which I will then dump on tomorrow’s predicted accumulation of snow, not so much for all my dead homies – mostly to clear the walk in front of the house. Categories: News Tags: kansas city public library, Late Show…
BANDS WHAT ARE PLAYING THIS WEEKEND That We Didn’t Write About Already 1. The Irish Band Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Maggie, the Elders are playing both nights this weekend at the Record Bar. Some people think the Elders are big cheeseballs. They kind of are. Some think they’re fookin’ great. They kind of are. Persnickety Irish folk geeks think…
The Cinematics, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, and Mute Math. Thursday, April 12, at The Granada. Review by Crystal K. Wiebe Someone … Yeltsin The Cinematics opened an early, all-ages show at The Granada last night with a set of sculpted, vaguely goth rock that was often much dancier than the audience seemed willing to accept. “Maybe Someday,”…
Several readers wanted to know what they could do after we wrote about the cops breaking up the late-night fun at the Mutual Musicians Foundation last fall. Well, here’s your chance. Categories: News Tags: Mike Talboy, mutual musicians foundation, Mutual Musicians’ Foundation
Filmmaker Lisa Marie Evans, the subject of this Pitch cover story, is still piecing together her next documentary, Stalking Daddy, about meeting her biological father for the first time. But she still has work to do. Evans is looking for other stories of estrangement and reuniting. Share your story with Evans by e-mailing her here. Then there’s the matter of…
A deacon at Tri-City Ministries in Independence claims in an online forum that I botched facts when I wrote about his church two years ago. But the paper trail tells another story. Categories: News Tags: Carl Herbster, Martin, Tri-City Ministries
The residents of Mount Olympus haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep since Kratos moved in. Not only is the new god of war a grumpy, self-professed god-hater, he got the throne by killing Ares, something that naturally makes the other gods a little . . . jumpy. It’s not long before Zeus — who presumably can’t stomach sharing a bathroom…
The Aura (Genius) Avatar: The Last Airbender — Book 2: Earth, Volume 2 (Paramount) The Batman: The Complete Third Season (Warner Bros.) Beneath Still Waters (Lions Gate) Bobby (Weinstein) Coming Soon (Lions Gate) Dead and Deader (Anchor Bay) A Guide for the Married Woman (Fox) Life of the Party (THINKFilm) Major League: Wild Thing Edition (Paramount) Mystery & Murder: 25…
Sleeping Dogs Lie (First Look) Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait takes a subversive concept (honesty is overrated) and marries it to an outrageous scenario (a woman’s family learns that she once, uh, performed for a dog) to create . . . a romantic comedy? Well, sort of. Like Goldthwait’s underrated Shakes the Clown, Sleeping Dogs Lie stakes out territory in the land…
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…
Summer Farrar: Folks Summer Farrar doesn’t paint faces — she stitches them. A recent graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, she works from a snapshot or from memory, employing various fabrics — scraps from clothing, upholstery and other materials — to create an image. “Jori,” a portrait of a local art-scene personality, is the fuzziest picture, using for its…
Divinity through fashion is not just a church thing, of course. But one cringes to consider what the pious ladies of Crowns would make of the dolls in The Girly Show, an unruly (and utterly lovable) drag cabaret breaking all the commandments it can every Monday night at Bar Natasha. Fundamentally, it seems to be about the same thing as…
