Archives: May 2007
Wayward Cast Se7en
You know, I never thought “Se7en” really ever looked like “Seven” but that didn’t stop me from doing another podcast. Also, I’ve been told I look like a cross between Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Download it as an MP3 by right-clicking HERE and doing the “Save Target As” thing or, if you have a Mac, Option+click it. You’ll…
New New Tragedies
At the core of the New Tragedies is husband-and-wife couple Aaron and Bev Weidner. They’re joined by Jason Wright on drums, Dustin Kinsey on lead guitar and Nate Hofer on pedal steel. Aaron writes the songs and plays rhythm, Bev plays bass, and they team up on singing in a virtually constant duet manner reminiscent of Low. And like…
An Economic Hangover
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran this Memorial Day story about the prospect of the NBA’s Supersonics leaving – and possibly coming to Kansas City. Summing up what this would mean for Seattle, the paper offered: If the Sonics should go — and privately many people close to the situation expect exactly that — there are a few things the Emerald…
Local Blogroll
I don’t have much to report today, so I thought I’d direct your attention to a couple of local bloggers who might be able to help you while away this Tuesday-that-feels-like-Monday afternoon. At the half-year-old Midwest Music and More, they love them some indie and college rock. And at the year-and-a-half-old Don’t Need Anything, the tastes are pretty eclectic. You’ll…
Missing Muscle
Here’s something you probably didn’t see this weekend: the Muscle Mayhem Championships at the Folly Theater. Categories: News
Memorial Day Jams
Whatcha gonna do when you get out of jail? I’m gonna have some fun! What do you con-si-der fun? Fun, natural fun! Truer words than these were never spoken. Thank you, Tom Tom Club. Genius of Love you say? Nay, Genius of LIFE! It is with this mindset that we approach that most liberating kind of weekend in our American…
Memorial Weekend Blasphemy
SPOILER ALERT: According to Mark 3:29, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” It’s the one “Calvin Pissing” window decal God won’t overlook. At blasphemychallenge.com, the Rational Response Squad – which is kind of like the theological equivalent of the Committee to Fire Katie Horner – is offering a…
A Fitting End
Last night, I put on plastic skeleton earrings and went with a big group of friends to the Cinemark Palace on the Plaza to see the third movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy: At World’s End. I was hoping the third part of the Johnny-Depp-driven series would make up for No. 2, Dead Man’s Chest, which, besides…
Let Your Dimmu Light Shine
If a cartoon snake – or G.I. Joe’s nemesis Cobra Commander – ever embarked on a music career, Shagrath, the frontman for Dimmu Borgir, would have to provide the vocals. I caught Dimmu at the Beaumont Club earlier this week. It was a performance I’d been looking forward to since 2004, when I discovered the band on Ozzfest’s main…
That Toddlin’ Town
5:25 p.m. An unidentified toddler dances across the Drepung Gomang Monastery’s mandala before being hustled out of Union Station by a woman, presumably the child’s mother. Two days’ worth of intricate sand painting is decimated in seconds, forcing eight visiting Tibetan monks to begin their task again. 5:45 p.m. Construction workers see the toddler enter the Sprint Center construction…
King of Pain: Morrissey at the Uptown
Morrissey. Wednesday, May 23, at the Uptown Theater. Concert Review by Jason Harper No one can say that Morrissey went about things the wrong way last night at the Uptown. Arriving on stage in a dapper blue suit, which the nearly 50-year-old singer rapidly shed as his sweat glands kicked into fifth gear, the Moz looked like a suburban…
Comedy Sports
Improv comedy group Comedy Sports is, according to their website, “competitive, improvisational humor. Two teams, the Sharks and the Jets, compete for points by playing a series of improvisational games. The whole match is officiated by a referee who keeps order on the field.” Fridays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 & 7:30 p.m., 2005 Tags: 249, Night & Day
Seafood Fusion
If you payed attention to the last mayoral race, you might have an opinion about tax breaks for Briarcliff Village. Whatever. Check out the posh shopping center’s new Trezo Mare Ristorante (4105 North Mulberry Drive, 816-505-3200), where there’s fusion-inspired seafood as well as a classy vibe that isn’t too stuffy, all in a building that feels like a stone castle….
T-Bones Market
Eschewing the look-but-don’t-touch attitude of a certain fountain-festooned major league stadium, the Kansas City T-Bones are digging themselves deeper into the hearts and kitchens of baseball fans with a new Saturday Farmers’ Market at the CommunityAmerica Ballpark (1800 Village West Parkway in Kansas City, Kansas, 913-328-5600). “We heard a lot from our baseball fans that they really like the ballpark…
Swim Free
It ain’t summer ’til your hair stinks of chlorine. That chemically cleaned water sure does feel good when you’re splashing around on a hot day, diving for pennies and doing the dead man’s float. Pool rats without enough pennies (it usually takes 200) to get past the cashier need not fear a dry season. Five Kansas City pools offer free…
Our top DVD picks for the week of May 22:
Afro Samurai (Funimation) Airwolf: Season Three (Universal) Alone With Her (IFC) Breaking Point (Fox) The Complete Matrix Trilogy (Warner Bros.) Epic Movie (Fox) Escape to Canada (Disinformation) Fay Grim (Magnolia) The 40-Year-Old Virgin: Unrated 2-Disc Double Your Pleasure Edition (Universal) The Good German (Warner Bros.) The John Wayne Collection (Paramount) Kitchen Confidential: The Complete Series (Fox) Letters From Iwo Jima…
Superzero
There’s a unique challenge in designing superhero games: How do you make it fun to play a character who, by definition, is vastly more powerful than his opposition? Hulk encounters a purse-snatcher: Hulk smash! Hulk win! Hulk bored. With battles that one-sided, the thrill of being superheroic quickly wanes — which is probably why there has never been a decent…
Good Clean Smut
Porky’s: The Ultimate Collection (Fox) When writer-director Bob Clark was killed by a drunk driver in April, the obits trumpeted his holiday classic A Christmas Story . . . but were somewhat reluctant to mention that, oh, yeah, he also wrote and directed Porky’s. But there’s no question which is the more important movie — and it’s not the one…
Stage Capsule Reviews
Proof The Barn Players’ pendulum, which typically swings between cheery community-theater fare and more difficult stuff, has stopped in the middle lately. Urinetown and The Full Monty took more guts to mount than, say, The Music Man, but even most Mennonites wouldn’t have been offended by them. David Auburn’s Pulitzer- and Tony-winning Proof is another one straight up the middle,…
Life’s Just Great
A few weeks back, in its challenging The Syringa Tree, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre presented the first in an unannounced series of bouts pitting young girls — well, adult actresses playing young girls — against the horrors of the 20th century. In that play, the girl won, of course, licking apartheid on technicalities and, in the process, growing…
Art Capsule Reviews
Kim Casebeer: 10 Miles From Home There are no boring places, only boring people. The regionalist Kim Casebeer stakes her work on this claim, and she’s interesting enough to pull it off. All of the subject matter here lies within a 10-mile radius surrounding the artist’s childhood home in the Flint Hills of Kansas. Most clever is the tongue-in-cheek pastel…
Hot Shot
Rusty Leffel’s 245 Blocks of Broadway, NYC, USA is a photographic powerhouse. On every block along Broadway from Battery Park up through Harlem, Leffel recognizes the impulse and critical allure of street photography. And New York’s most-renowned street provides ample occasion for visual pleasure. With this work, Leffel earns his place in street photography’s significant lineage. Artists such as…
Find The Pitch
