“Overlong,” “talky” and “turgid” are three of the words film pundits have used to describe the 1957 film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. But why take advice from a bunch of sour grapes? After all, the film was the lavish last gasp of Gone With the Wind producer David O. Selznick, and he spared no expense trying…
Though autumn ushers in handsome hues of yellow and red, it also decays the fruits of spring’s labors. Many yards become overornamented with tree droppings. Most beleaguered are those living under or near trees losing hedge apples (or hedge balls), which can easily bruise a noggin or scar a lawnmower’s blade. Help control the fruit population today at Eureka’s…
It’s fair to say that the expansion of presidential powers in the post-9/11 political environment has exceeded the intentions of the Constitution’s framers. In a recent interview on the Web site of Guardian America, Sen. Hillary Clinton said, “There were a lot of actions which took that were clearly beyond any power the Congress would have granted or that in…
The guitar riff, originally performed by British guitarist Vic Flick, is one of the most famous in the world — instantly recognizable and generally associated with Sean Connery’s canonical performance as James Bond. Of course, we’re talking about the opening bars of the James Bond theme, which you can hear live tonight at 8 at the Paseo Academy for…
The Second City is the Chicago-based laugh collective responsible for decades’ worth of Saturday Night Live icons. Wednesday night at 7, the touring company comes to the Lied Center of Kansas (1600 Stewart Drive in Lawrence, 785-864-3469) to perform One Nation Under Blog. Tonight, the same comedians are in KC, goofing for a personal cause: the kickoff fundraiser for…
Film critic, historian and author David Thomson worries that a decline in movie quality signals a divided culture on the wane. “Today, Hollywood easily falls into jaundiced, ignorant views of the Midwest and most other parts,” he writes in an e-mail to The Pitch. “I hate this because I think it only widens the gulf that is destroying the…
Catherine Siegel’s photographs show the uncertainty-plagued life of refugees. She maps the geography of those uprooted by violence in The Displaced Person, a photographic thesis that blossomed out of her work with asylum seekers in Hong Kong earlier this year. Siegel hopes to bring awareness to this neglected population by documenting their new lives in culturally, socially and politically…
Architect Stephen Holl’s work on the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s Bloch Building is examined and celebrated by dozens of area artists, writers and poets in a fancy new book called The Sixth Surface: Stephen Holl Lights the Expanded Nelson-Atkins Museum. The book — which readers may find conveniently sized for coffee tables — gets its launch at tonight’s release…
The Classic Cup hosts a Wine Club the last Sunday of every month (except in December or on Super Bowl Sunday) from 4-6pm. The cost is $30 which includes a sample of 4-5 wines, appetizers, 2 bottles of a pre-selected wine to take home, the possibility to purchase wines sampled, and a very entertaining time by host Stephen Malloy. Last…
It’s probably for the best, what with some 237 new pieces of contemporary art, that Johnson County Community College went ahead and constructed the Nerman Museum (12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, 913-469-8500), JoCo’s first and only museum of contemporary art. “Most of it was acquired through the Oppenheimer Foundation,” says Curator of Education Karen Gerrity, referring to benefactors Tony and…
Few things are more revolting than the thought of John Travolta in drag and a fat suit. Thankfully, he doesn’t play chubby ’60s-era mama Edna Turnblad in the touring production of Hairspray, which comes to Lawrence tonight. The play was adapted from the movie — the original cult classic, not the lame Travolta-starring remake. Ricki Lake, who didn’t need a…
Chief Washington Correspondent for ABC News, and the anchor of This Week With George Stephanopoulos.. Tue., Oct. 30, 8 p.m., 2007 Tags: ABC Inc., George Stephanopoulos, Night & Day
In some exhibits, artists and their environments may be far removed from each other. But the 13th-Annual Lawrence ArtWalk, which features 70 Lawrence area artists, seeks to connect art with where it’s created. Today and Sunday, the free, self-guided tour takes place at 34 locations throughout Lawrence, with local artists opening their studios and showcasing work in ceramics, digital…
For a native Nebraskan, studying at the International Institute of Puppetry in France must have been quite a culture shock. But Paul Mesner survived. After completing his degree in puppetry, Mesner moved to Kansas City to found Paul Mesner Puppets Inc., an updated edition of the Puppet Theater Museum he had started a few years before. The group has become…
Wear a costume and get a discount. Wed., Oct. 31, 2007 Tags: Night & Day
The dense, interconnected nature of the following art exhibits is complicated, like Kennedy family genealogy, so please pay attention; there will be a quiz. Tim Barber, erstwhile Vice magazine photographer and founder of tinyvices.com, last Friday opened an exhibit of his photography called Everything Must Go, at the Paragraph Gallery (23 East 12th Street). Meanwhile, a traveling group exhibit of…
Hellraiser writer-director Clive Barker recently confirmed that he plans to work with a new creative team on a re-imagining of the 1987 film, scheduled for 2008 release. In an interview earlier this month, directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (who helmed this year’s exceedingly bloody French release Inside) said the new Hellraiser “will have a new Pinhead.” That might…
According to some couture theories, models should be skeletal and husk-light to function like clothing hangers: inconspicuous, unobtrusive and devoid of personality. The result is a little like a floral still life — beautiful but boring. Designer Halliday Bertram doesn’t cave to such exquisite monotony. She chooses models with personality from almost every possible demographic, including one very conspicuous local…
Costumes and makeup are synonymous with any performance by the Ssion. Mustachioed ringleader Cody Critcheloe likes to prance around in funny suspenders and paint his nose brown. Sometime-collaborator Shannon Michalski favors women’s power suits. And the artsy disco-punk collective’s revolving cast of pretty-boy dancers often wears close to nothing at all. Now that it’s damn near Halloween, Critcheloe and crew…
Bat Boy: the Musical is not the song-and-dance telling of Bruce Wayne’s only son. The shocking story of love, acceptance and interspecies group sex is actually ripped from the headlines of a hard-hitting newspaper. Weekly World News first started running its accounts of the child raised by bats in 1992. Since then, Bat Boy reportedly has led a rich and…
Comedy. Thu., Nov. 1, 2007 Tags: Night & Day
Back in the mutinous ’60s and ’70s, a much needed, oft-known second wave of feminism reared its purty head. The message? Women could be anything they wanted to be. A completely reasonable proposition but unfortunately — and like many manifestos before it — one that has been distorted over time. The not-so-fabulous truth is that grown women and growing girls…
Only the music genre that fostered timeless hits such as “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and “Hitch Me to Your Buggy and Drive Me Like a Mule” could get away with something called a “blowoff.” But nothing’s shocking at venerable blues venue B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ (1205 East 85th Street, 816-822-7427). The joint has been simmering slow-cooking blues for 17 years,…
“All ages are welcome, but please be considerate of the living.” So goes the casting call for Lawrence’s first ever Zombie Walk — a living-dead flash mob that overtakes downtown Lawrence tonight. Zombie infestations have been spreading lately, with zombiewalk.com acting as a hub for undead apocalypses from New York to Australia. Ideally, the zombie mob takes on a life…
