In terms of the yawning chasm between what was promised and what has been delivered, Lair earns the distinction of being the biggest letdown ever for PlayStation 3. Worse, it’s also one of those games where massive prerelease hype merely ended up underscoring its flaws, transmogrifying a game that would’ve been simply second-rate into a $60 personal affront on…
Knocked Up (Universal) Apparently, as Judd Apatow was making Knocked Up, he was also prepping for its DVD release, as most of the bonuses here were shot during breaks on location. And they’re no small treats, either — finally, here’s a “collector’s edition” worthy of the moniker. Chief among the bounty affixed to this comedy about impending and imploding parenthood…
Bad Dates With this one-woman, one-stage comedy comes a pistol shot heralding the start of the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s first two-stage season. The ol’ stage at UMKC remains the home of the Rep’s patented splashy takes on the canon, whereas the new Copaken indulges in the “intimate.” A friendly little show, interested in shoes and clothes and the troubles…
Orly Cogan and Elizabeth Huey Tiered white cake, sprinkle-sotted doughnuts, whipped meringue, cakes erupting with perfectly spherical maraschinos, crosshatched apple pie, cupcakes beckoning with a bright confetti of fixings. Orly Cogan makes pretty pastries from doilies, macramé, ribbons, pom-poms and yarn, all with the impeccable presentation of a perfectionist home-ec-teacher-cum-pastry-chef. This table of inedible treats is the physical centerpiece of…
Here’s something new, kind of: a show billing itself as outrageous that actually offers outrage. That’s not a recommendation, exactly, but it is praise. If your artistic aim is to rattle, it’s better that you actually rattle — as Minds Eye Theatre does with its production of Women Behind Bars. Usually, the “shocking” new shows oozing our way from New…
Black men hanging out in trees, as opposed to being hung from them.” That’s the kind of beautifully provocative statement that centers New York artist Sanford Biggers’ work for us. The line comes from the brochure for his exhibition at Grand Arts. Biggers is describing “Cheshire,” his projection on an exterior wall of the Gem Theater a few blocks away,…
“NASA is, at bottom, a myth-spinning public relations machine, a giant image factory whose principal goal is to hype metaphors of human frontiers — both physical and intellectual — in exchange for enormous sums of taxpayer money.” So wrote Texas Monthly earlier this year, in a piece that lambasted the waste and needless risk of NASA in general and the…
The Kingdom is the first film from Peter Berg since the actor-turned-director’s Friday Night Lights, which spawned an acclaimed, if struggling, franchise for NBC. There will be no small-screen spinoff of The Kingdom — there are too many corpses lying around to populate a sequel, much less a series. Besides, it would be redundant: The Kingdom is essentially C.S.I.: Riyadh,…
A lot of waiters and waitresses in town — including a few at famous, long-established restaurants — have been complaining to me that dinner business has been off since the subprime lending fiasco knocked the stock market on its rear. When I was a waiter, any blip in the economy kept diners at home for a few weeks. That was…
Restaurateur Lorenza “Poco” Gutierrez and I have a mutual friend, a charming and intelligent young man who has reinvented himself so many times that I’m now immune to surprise whenever I hear what new career path he has chosen. He started out as an actor and over the years has veered off into at least a dozen different jobs,…
When we were young, we played Atari and Nintendo games. Thanks to Crystal Castles, we can boogie down to their 8-bit soundtracks. Taking its name from an Atari 2600 game, this Toronto duo samples and re-creates the beeps and blips that accompanied the halting movements of pixellated tanks, gems, fruit and monkeys across the screens of faux-wood-paneled TV sets of…
Midlake’s full-length debut, Bamnan and Silvercork, sounded like a long-playing “Strawberry Fields Forever,” with its warped keyboards, pastoral melodies and impressionistic lyrics. The album vaulted the Denton, Texas, group into a rarefied stratosphere that’s occupied by astral knob tweakers such as Grandaddy and Sparklehorse. The group then promptly dodged pigeonholing by reinventing itself completely for last year’s The Trials of…
“The Universe!” by Do Make Say Think, from You, You’re a History in Rust (Constellation): Too often, math rock gets caught up in its complexity without constructing enough openings to let in light. That’s not the case with Montreal’s Do Make Say Think. Its flowing, postrock soundscapes boast plenty of color and inviting warmth that blend ringing acoustic guitars…
Icons for drunken, adolescent debauchery, the Black Lips travel with a hard-earned reputation for dangerous, lewd and unfathomably wild behavior. Piss, puke and nudity may have helped the Atlanta foursome score a few headlines, but it’s their howling, punked-up garage sound that packs gigs and sells records. Whereas the band’s last release, Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo, made perfect sense…
“Black Mirror” by the Arcade Fire, from Neon Bible (Merge): Since playing separate, underbooked shows in Lawrence within the past few years, each of these bands has gone on to become an indie megadarling, worshipped by kids and loved by critics. Hailing from the buzz oven known as Montreal, Quebec, Arcade Fire went volcanic overnight with its 2004 release, Funeral,…
You can’t help but admire the D.I.Y. success behind Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Through self-promotion, blogger buzz and a bit of sweat equity, the Brooklyn art-rock outfit managed to sell more than 100,000 copies of its self-titled debut without ever signing a record deal (though it did have to outsource its overseas demand to Wichita Records). The band won’t…
Joss Stone needs no introduction. By now, you’ve either heard her supernatural voice or seen her — barefoot on any number of award shows, in Eragon, in a Gap ad. With two megaselling albums, Stone clearly isn’t unknown. Nonetheless, the British chanteuse chose to title her latest record Introducing Joss Stone. We asked her why. The Pitch: You’ve said this…
Nobody pulls the plug on Mortal Reign. Promoters running a show at the Governors’ Exposition Building, near Kemper Arena, learned that nearly two decades ago, when they shut off the sound after the band’s second song. From his view atop an 18-foot riser, drummer Mike Sylva watched the chaos that led to the cancellation — hundreds of people churning violently…
Check Into Cash. Halfy’s Thrift Boutique. Honson & Honson Eye Care. Won’s Coin Laundry & Dry Cleaning. These businesses, plus a paintball-supply chain store called Jungletoy and a soon-to-open LaMar’s Donuts, have a new neighbor. It’s the scene’s newest all-ages concert venue. As if it isn’t obvious, this joint’s in the suburbs — Johnson Drive in downtown Mission, specifically, inside…
I’ve always maintained that the best way to explore a neighborhood is a bar tour, and a recent trip through Mission and Shawnee didn’t prove me wrong. Along Johnson Drive through these two cities, my friends and I witnessed a near catfight and heard a touching story about a barroom’s healing powers. Before I heard about the Miracle Man of…
“Goodnight, Rose” (sample) by Ryan Adams: Imagine if Ryan Adams had left this mortal coil seven years ago, shortly after the release of his critically exalted solo debut, Heartbreaker. It’s a safe bet he would now be canonized as a brilliant shooting star, shot from view far too soon. His four recordings to that date would be fetishized: one perfect…
In this week’s Pitchcast, Steve Sanders, straight from the movie King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, explains how he became known as the man who cheated at Donkey Kong. Get it through iTunes by clicking here, download it on the Web by clicking here or click the bar below to listen: Categories: News Tags: Apple iTunes, Columns, steve sanders
Goodbye, dead mall! Hello, orange slices! South Kansas City is on the verge of wiping away a nasty bit of blight, and 9-year-olds in shinguards are going to help. The owners of the Kansas City Wizards have come forward with a plan to redevelop the Bannister Mall area. Replacing the carcasses left when J.C. Penney, Wal-Mart and other retailers packed…
Pitchcast at Pitch.com: “Calling Out Michael Moore,” August 9 Mad Mom I am writing about Eric Barton’s utter disrespect for contacting Michael Moore and the Weinstein Company. I am not pleased with this at all! I never spoke to Barton or even knew his name until I heard his podcast on your Web site. Justin Kendall wrote a wonderful article…
