The Strand Test is a series of introspective works by Lawrence artist Molly Murphy, inspired by an invasive, anxiety-inducing test. The 10 ink and colored-pencil drawings on display at The Bourgeois Pig (6 East Ninth Street in Lawrence, 785-843-1001) through September 22 are based on the premise of hair-strand testing, which is often used to determine whether someone has used…
In the first few minutes of Eastern Promises, the striking new thriller from David Cronenberg, a throat is sliced, a uterus hemorrhages, and a newborn baby, slimy and palpitating, emerges from the womb of its dead mother. None of which comes as much of a surprise from the maker of A History of Violence — to say nothing of The…
We’re not sure what sort of festivities went on inside this storefront at 3935 Main (it’s just a few doors down from Stan Glazer’s old mayoral campaign headquarters at 3911 Main), but damn, everything in this photo reminds us that the party’s over. (Photo by Sarah Rae) Categories: News Tags: Columns, Sarah Rae, Stan Glazer
Andre Rieu: Live in New York (Denon) Away From Her (Lionsgate) Bones: Season Two (Fox) Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO) Casper Meets Wendy: Family Fun Edition (Fox) Charmed: The Final Season (Paramount) DOA: Dead or Alive (Weinstein) Ever Again (Starz) Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes — Volume Two (Fox) The Fly Collection (Fox) From Beyond: Unrated Director’s Cut…
Typically, first-person shooters are a lot like virtual shooting galleries: Great fun, yes, but not exactly thought-provoking. So it’s nice when an FPS comes along that’s trying to be something more — and even better when it actually succeeds. Sometimes you know it in the first few minutes. Take Half-Life: Unlike every FPS before it, the landmark game didn’t start…
The Graduate: 40th Anniversary Edition (MGM) Fifteen years after its last home-video commemorative edition (extras from which appear here), The Graduate once more gets the bonus-laden makeover — and if ever a movie deserved its kudos, it’s Mike Nichols’ masterwork. That said, the movie is its own bonus; not since its release has an American film approached its beauty and…
Making art out of available, recyclable materials is nothing new. Many artists do it out of necessity, with varying results — sometimes junk looks like junk, especially if you’re just using it because you’re broke or cheap. But often an artist does it out of an interest in resurrecting, extending or expanding upon the feelings contained in objects. Recent Brooklyn…
It’s pretty much a toss-up which I love more: gorging on cinema or getting up at noon. And so, on the first day of the Toronto International Film Festival, in lieu of contemplating Bela Tarr’s The Man From London, I lingered in my pajamas anticipating The Breakfast From Room Service. Duly fortified, it was time to face facts, though my…
In his astonishing new film, Brand Upon the Brain! (7:10 p.m. Friday), director Guy Maddin captures the flicker and shadow of early cinema without sacrificing modern sophistication. It is the work of a master dreaming of the past. He revels in archaic technique, psychosexual rigmarole and the stuff of storytime — mad scientists and kid detectives both figure in the…
A few nights after my second meal at Lucia’s Ristorante & Bar (see review), I went to dinner at another popular neighborhood Italian restaurant, this one way over on the south side of the metro: Johnny Cascone’s in Overland Park (6363 West 91st Street). As at Lucia’s, the dining room here has a slightly pink glow, and the tables are…
When I was growing up, almost every neighborhood in my hometown had an independently owned Italian restaurant. These were not fancy places. “Saloons with pasta and pizza,” my Italian-American father called them. He was a liquor salesman, and a number of those dark little dining rooms were owned by his clients, so my siblings and I ate in a…
Even though Westport still attracts a substantial hip-hop crowd in these dwindling days of summer, none of the clubs in Westport advertise their hip-hop DJs as playing the kind of music that such spinners ought to play (hip-hop, dummy). Nevertheless, DJ Just continues his reign as one of Kansas City’s best and most recognizable purveyors of the genre every Tuesday…
Local mix-tape don DJ Fresh claims that next to Tech N9ne, Mad Marlon of Kansas City, Kansas, has the best live show in town. That’s a bold claim, but Marlon’s latest, Mixtape Gods, gives it credence. Like a tornado siren blowing across the border, Marlon’s big, full voice and undeniable cadence ought to wake up the Missouri side to the…
Kansas City-based producer, MC and DJ D-Will recently told us that he makes at least five beats a day. Though an admirable claim, we didn’t think much of it until we remembered a line that beat guru Kanye West once rapped: You can’t fathom my love, dude/Lock yourself in a room doin’ five beats a day for three summers/That’s a…
“The Loge” by the Fucking Champs, from VI (Drag City): The exact significance of a band name like the Fucking Champs may be oblique (are they the champs of fucking or are they the fucking champs?), but the message is clear: Our band gives your band a bad case of whiskey dick. In a landscape dotted with hideous, impotent unicorns…
“Heretic” by Andrew Bird, from Armchair Apocrypha (Fat Possum): Original gangster Andrew Bird wields a glock — a glockenspiel. The former Squirrel Nut Zipper, hot sideman and rising solo act plays violin, guitar and percussion in the studio and, depending on the night, onstage. When he takes the spotlight alone, as he will tonight, Bird plucks, picks and strums more…
Click here to listen to “Clifton Bridge” by Mark Olson It took Mark Olson more than a decade to release a proper solo album following his departure from the Jayhawks, the highly successful band he helped found. Just as the Jayhawks’ Tomorrow the Green Grass was finding big success in 1996, Olson was off to tour with a new band,…
As the Russians and the Canadians race northward to plunder the newly accessible oil fields of the Arctic Circle (yay, global warming!), the Arctic Monkeys cross the ocean from Sheffield, England, bringing their catchy brand of dirty, swaggering, poo-flinging rock and a boatload of hype. The band’s Mercury Prize-winning debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, had…
Matt Pond never seems to stick with the same bandmates, nor does he still reside in Pennsylvania, making us wonder why he still bothers with the PA appendage. Matt Pond NY would seem more appropriate. The now Brooklyn-based indie rocker returns later this month with a new lineup for his seventh LP, Last Light. Check out some of the new…
“White Girls” by the Bureau: After meeting with three-fourths of St. Louis dance-rock outfit the Bureau at its central command center, one thing immediately becomes clear: These guys picked the right name. Their practice space is lined from floor to ceiling with boxes of files, old computer monitors and office furniture. You’d think the band was running some kind of…
Our tawdry little town is infamous for its boomerang effect. You know this, kids. You can strike out on your own and seek your fortune in a bigger city. Burn every g’damn bridge you ever crossed. But more often than not, you’re coming back. Filmmaker Bob Moczydlowsky is a 32-year-old Colorado native and a Los Angeles resident, but he spent…
There I was at 1:46 a.m. in a Grandview strip mall, watching a guy ride up to me on a horse. Yep, horse, as in neeeiiigh, clip-clop-clip-clop. How did I get to this point? How did I get to Grandview, considering that I grew up on the edge of the school district but never actually hung out there? It started…
“Pennies, Nickels, Dimes” by Sal Retta: When Sal Retta went searching for her first guitar, she came across a queer classified ad. One guitar, two canaries: $150. “I got the guitar and the birds for a really good price, so I kept the guitar and let the birds go,” Retta says. “It seems kind of wrong to have them…
In this week’s Pitchcast, Louis Lombardi — who played Edgar on 24 — clears up that Italian-American gangster stereotype. Lombardi will be in town this weekend to show his film, Dough Boys, at the Kansas International Film Festival. Get the Pitchcast through iTunes by clicking here, download it on the Web by clicking here or click the bar below to…
