The three past Charlotte Street Award winners exhibiting their work in Systems, Working Drawings easily demonstrate why they earned those awards. James Woodfill, Marcie Miller Gross and Anne Lindberg, all primarily known for their sculptures, have redrawn their sculptural impulses here. A working drawing is often a preparatory sketch, a way to work out a structural problem in a work…
Holland’s gift to world cinema, Paul Verhoeven, can be a very bad boy and a very good filmmaker. Any of his movies could be titled Basic Instinct — not least his epic World War II thriller Black Book, in which a Jewish chanteuse, who saw her family massacred by Nazis, struggles to survive in occupied Holland, joining the Dutch resistance…
What is it with the third installments in superhero film franchises? They always strike out swinging their third time up to bat. It happened with Superman III, when Richard Pryor became a superfriend hatching the ridiculous plot that spawned Office Space. It happened with Batman Forever, when director Joel Schumacher hired Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey and turned the…
After restaurateur Alex Pryor sold his stylish Crossroads restaurant Zin (1900 Main) to chef Michael Smith (formerly of 40 Sardines, which is still overseen by chef Debbie Gold, Smith’s ex-wife), the Zin staff quickly found jobs at other restaurants. Some of them didn’t seem to work out that well. One former Zin waiter was fired from a midtown bistro after…
My alarm clock started beeping the other morning at 6 a.m. Without even lifting my head from the pillow, I reached over and grabbed the little plastic annoyance and tossed it across the room. For good or bad, the battery-operated clock is sturdy enough to withstand this morning ritual, which serves the same purpose as a snooze button. And…
Since releasing Dog Problems last year, the Format has become a Spin magazine darling, nabbing a four-star review and posting a tour blog to Spin.com. The Peoria, Arizona, indie princes are known for being clever, with unexpected instrument arrangements and witty lyrics about young love. In its last stop before Spain, the Format summons its shaggy haircuts and tight track…
“God Knows I’m Trying” by the Rounders, from Wish I Had You (Blind Pig): Oklahoma City’s the Rounders whip up a soulful mojo of hill-country stomp blues, Southern rock and ragtime melody. The hard-touring quintet joined the respected company of blues label Blind Pig for its latest LP, Wish I Had You. The accomplished collection offers nuggets for the jam…
After a four-year absence, former Royal Trux bad girl Jennifer Herrema re-emerged as RTX, releasing 2004’s The Transmaniacon on Trux’s former label, Drag City. Transmaniacon and RTX’s just-released Western Xterminator echo the grimy, sludgy swagger of Herrema’s old rock band. In fact, the sound doesn’t stray too far from Herrema’s ex-bandmate Neil Michael Hagerty’s current project, Howling Hex (also on…
“Big Sister’s Radio” by Tommy Castro, from Painkiller (Blind Pig): Hoping to re-create the raucous feel of his annual seaborne showcase for landlocked Midwesterners, Blues Cruise founder and former Grand Emporium owner Roger Naber has teamed with California-based guitar slinger Tommy Castro to establish the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue. Castro’s quintet serves as the house band, with boogie-woogie pianist…
The sad truth may be that most of America knows George Clinton as the rainbow-haired dude who funked up PCU, but the rest of the world knows him as the King of Interplanetary Funksmanship with the Parliament Funkadelic collective. Still going strong at age 67 (his granddaughter recently joined the ensemble), Clinton flavors his hard funk with hip-hop, doo-wop and…
It may seem audacious for a group that’s released only two full-length albums to call itself the Veteran Click. But Dun Deala, the Weapon, E-Skool and S.G. have paid rap dues since the mid-’90s, and it shows on the local group’s sophomore album, which came out last year. Whereas most rap records with 15-plus tracks hold a lot of dead…
If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, the cover of Volunteers’ self-titled debut album — an image of a Hammond organ set ablaze — tells a story all by itself. Musically, of course, the organ is the cornerstone of the Lawrence foursome’s increasingly popular live show. It’s no slouch on CD, either. With the assistance of some other…
Matt Mahaffey is probably best-known as the guy behind the Expedia.com jingle, which is a shame. His indie-pop outfit, Self, is just as catchy. It’s been seven years since Self put out a legitimate release (DreamWorks refused to release Self’s 2004 LP, Ornament and Crime), but Mahaffey promises via MySpace that a new set of songs is in the works….
When you’re in a band, things happen. You lose a bass player. Or your drummer threatens to quit. Or your marriage turns into a train wreck, and making music for a living seems like financial suicide. But No River City, Atlanta’s finest countrified rock band, has survived all of the above — though at the additional price of its cello…
By day, Josh Powers sports a professional look: button-down shirts, neatly ironed slacks, rimless glasses and a nondescript haircut. By night, he dons the handle Scenebooster — a New Orleans term that refers to the hype man for street bands and parades — and morphs into a beat-slinging DJ. With more than 3,000 records and 12 years of experience…
I’m awake in a dark room. Except for a half-empty bottle of Jim Beam, with which I will have no further dealings, I am alone. The mirror at the foot of the bed reflects the sunlight beaming over the blackout curtains. There’s a knock on the door, and a high-pitched, male voice says, “Housekeeping.” I’m in Warrensburg, Missouri. The voice…
The fact that the temperature hovered around 80 degrees on the recent sunny Saturday afternoon that the Royals battled the Twins wasn’t the best part of the day. Nor was it the fact that the game was actually somewhat exciting. Nope, the most hilarious moment happened on Kiss Cam, when two guys made like they were going to make…
The several, several days and nights of waiting to hear from someone — anyone —with a Kings of Leon pedigree finally conclude with a nearly last-minute cell-phone hookup with Matthew Followill (cousin to Caleb, Jared and Nathan), guitarist and one-quarter of Kings of Leon. “On Call” by Kings of Leon, from Because of the Times(RCA) To celebrate, I ride the…
Dear Readers: The Reconquista has arrived! On May 1, Ask a Mexican came out in book form, gracias to the literary madmen at Scribner. It has all the same stuff you read here, but más — more essays, more illustrations from Mark Dancey and more questions. Below are just a sample of the preguntas answered by The Mexican exclusively in…
Martin: “Spoils of War,” April 19 War Chest Keep it up, David Martin. Your Liberty Memorial reporting of patronage and nepotism, while soooo Kansas City, is important journalism. Bruce Rodgers, Prairie Village Fundamentals of Fundraising This letter is to raise Carl DiCapo’s awareness — and hopefully to increase general public awareness as well — about a phenomenal cadre of professional…
Hey, you, rock promoter. I’ve had it up to my white belt with your failed attempts to get me to go to “your shows.” Did you write the music? No? Are you playing in any of the bands on the bill? No? Then, sorry, dude, they aren’t “your shows.” Second, handbills almost never get bodies into venues, especially when you…
Jamie Farr, who played a hairy cross-dresser on M*A*S*H, is performing in the New Theatre Restaurant production of Busybody. Farr is one of several actors best-known for a 1970s television series to appear on the Overland Park stage, where Nick at Nite meets dinner theater. Test your knowledge by connecting the pre-cable star to the meal-conducive play in which he…
We knew that Mark Funkhouser was a man of the people back when, as city auditor, he sent his kids to KCMO public schools. But then the new mayor announced that he planned to drive his ’97 Toyota instead of the Lincoln that outgoing Mayor Kay Barnes had leased for him. Stretch, that’s blue-collar. We tried to imagine a ride…
I’d always wanted to hear Kansas Rep. Dennis Moore sing “This Land Is Your Land.” I knew that he played the guitar and “This Land” was his favorite, but I’d never seen a performance. Finally, I would get my chance, on April 3, when Kansas City, Kansas, libraries launched the “Big Read” campaign to get everyone to read The…
