Feature: “Capitol Bully,” March 29 What He Wants I seldom respond to any of the items I read. I simply accept, dispute or go on with my day. But Justin Kendall’s article on Kansas Sen. Jim Barone was an exception! I have to compliment Kendall on his coverage and attention to detail in the article. This is what I want…
Hey, you, Claire McCaskill. I feel so cheap and used. You used to call me all the time. Morning, noon and night. You called when I was sleeping, eating, working, reading and watching TV. I understand that you needed my support at a critical time in your life, but it was really kind of creepy. It was like you were…
Last Monday, Sprint unveiled its answer to Apple’s much-talked-about iPhone, a cell phone that doubles as an iPod. The iPhone has a sleek design, an LCD touch screen and a steep price tag: $500. Sprint’s version vaguely resembles a black remote control, flips manually from phone to music database, and will retail for $150. It’s called the UpStage. Just after…
Recently, Burnt Ends investigators discovered what had to be a world-record pothole, on 16th Street between Grand and Walnut. It was more than 15 feet long, 7 feet wide and a half-foot deep — big enough for Mark Funkhouser to lie down in and stretch out, with room to spare. We contacted Dennis Gagnon at the Department of Public…
Mark Higley is the dude who wears the fake Afro and pounds the keyboards for the retro band Disco Dick and the Mirror Balls. When he’s not onstage, however, he calls himself an “EVangelist” and preaches the gospel of electric vehicles. This month, he hits Earth Day events for his debut as Kansas’ only gas-free auto dealer. Higley says…
Here’s a little story about two smoking guns in the Missouri House of Representatives. Bryan Pratt and Brian Yates are guys in their 30s who represent eastern Jackson County. They also work at a law firm that, more than once, has been compared with Bendini, Lambert & Locke — the make-believe lawyers who kept mob secrets in John Grisham’s…
In October 2006, a few months after Allen DeCamp of Shawnee had buried his father, Robert, he received a letter that made him suspicious. It was from a retired Army lieutenant colonel named John Angolia. “I have read of the passing of your husband and can understand the grief you are feeling,” Angolia wrote. “I see that he was…
Life was dangerous for Germain Devia before he ever came to Kansas City. Now a short, stocky man of 31, Devia was born in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city. Sugar and coffee barons built the city’s fortunes in the early 20th century. It was a key stop as tropical exports traveled to Western ports, and investors poured money into the…
Shiner Making Love (Anodyne) By Andrew Miller Evolution is just a theory, Allen Epley quips cryptically at the beginning of Shiner’s just-reissued 1999 EP, Making Love. Musically speaking, though, this recording provides evidence in favor of evolution. Making Love opens with four live tracks, split evenly between Shiner’s first two full-lengths, Splay and Lula Divinia. Several of Shiner’s signature elements…
Sterilize Stereo Bugs and Daymares (self-released) By Jason Harper From a band named Sterilize Stereo, one would expect punk rock, maybe, or some kind of minimalist German techno. One would be wrong. This fledgling KC-Lawrence band sounds like gypsy freak folkers doing numbers from a lost 1930s protest musical. Though the instrumentation is unconventional — bowed cello instead of bass,…
Mike Sanders might be the Jackson County executive, but frankly, we don’t know what he does in his free time. But apparently, according to an e-mail sent out by his peeps today, he’s a fan of dressing in Victorian-period clothing and leaning against a parlor chair. Categories: News, Politics
For those of you who missed it, Kansas was well represented in reality-TV-land last night on the premiere of The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman. Of course, “well represented” in reality TV translates to full-blown freak show. Lindsay, a 22-year-old college student from Lawrence, covered enough territory to brand herself into a punch line in just one episode. Categories:…
Son, how can I put this? Sometimes, when a cable installer loves a half-naked subscriber very much, he slides off his tool belt and gives her a “hug.” That’s the kind of love Karl Hungus had for Bunny La Jolla in Logjammin’, and also the kind of love fans feel toward cult-classic The Big Lebowski. Categories: News
The Pitch group blog is now active, and it’s called Plog. It’s going to kick ass. Keep coming here for music news, but go there for everything else. And be sure to note the new URL for this blog. Tip your bartender. Be kind to goldfish. Categories: Music Tags: Plog
It was after 11 p.m. on a recent Thursday when the end credits for the late showing of 300 rolled. My boyfriend and I exited the AMC theater in Olathe (Strang Line Road? BFE!) all bleary-eyed and ready to brave the rainy night outside. That’s when we encountered a couple of dozen Olathe South High School students hanging out…
What do you say to a stinky waiter? My friend Carmen is still ranting about the waiter at a trendy downtown bistro who had such potent body odor that she was nearly knocked out of her chair. “I’m in the service industry, and I think it’s incredibly unprofessional for a waiter to smell so bad that it ruins your appetite,”…
(A Musical Travel Adventure Odyssey/Report by Crystal K. Wiebe) Last weekend, I took a break from KC to check out another nearby scene. St. Joseph, Missouri, is where Jesse James got shot and the last place I lived before KC. At least two new music venues, the Scallywag and Magoon’s, have sprouted there since I moved a few months ago….
Shriners support children’s hospitals. But recently, the fez-wearing fraternity of middle-aged guys was blasted in a New York Times investigation. The Times reported that more than half of the $32 million that Shriners raised in 2005 went to fraternity costs – such as booze, trips and miniature parade cars. (Shrine hospitals are supported mainly by a $9 billion endowment.)…
After the March 29 issue of the Pitch detailed accusations that Kansas Sen. Jim Barone had accosted women and used his power for his son’s professional gain, Barone issued this statement. The handwriting on the document is Barone’s. We’ll refrain from additional comment. Categories: News
1. There aren’t many people for whom a liter bottle of Maker’s is not a more than adequate token of gratitude. (JH) 2. Don’t Date Him Girl: useful resource or haven for slander? (CW) 3. The Jell-O shots at Sidekicks are surprisingly lethal. (JC) Heathcliff would not approve of Sidekicks’ use of Jell-O. 4. Pat Nice, a respected local (but…
I just got an email from Namelessnumberheadman’s Chuck Whittington saying that a new album is soon on the way, the first full-length since 2004’s Your Voice Repeating, a definite local classic. You can get tracks from Your Voice and also the all-covers EP Whispers, Ums and Eyebrow Raises and some old tracks off the band’s site. The new album is…
