Forget TRL. These days, the best music on MTV gets played during the reality shows, during the truly emotional moments. Like on this recent episode of The Real World (Sidney), when mean, old Trisha gets sent home. The totally appropriate acoustica about “pissing off all of your friends” that plays as everyone hugs is a song called “Friends” by none…
By CHRIS PACKHAM Look: We admit it. We were scooped by The Kansas City Star Thursday so forcefully that a tiny, vital part inside of us broke. Now we can feel it rattling around inside, like a cigarette butt in a beer can. I’ve personally apologized to our entire editorial staff for the complete failure of The Pitch’s Night &…
Playing in the Grand Marquis must be one of the best gigs in Kansas City. After all, the band’s been together for years and plays constantly, bringing the energetic gospel of old-timey jump blues and swing jazz same juke joints every week. Not only has the Marquis stayed together all this time without a break, they’ve just minted a new…
Whereas the recent reunions of the Pixies and Alice in Chains have largely been nostalgia packages, the 2005 revival of the Lemonheads marked an artistic resurgence for Evan Dando. It came after eight years of spotty solo recordings and a brief stint fronting the MC5 (seriously — for 41 shows). Backed by the Descendents’ rhythm section (now touring with Dando…
With last year’s Sacrament, Lamb of God continued its decade-long evolution into a more nuanced metal monster. Having ditched the shock-value moniker Burn the Priest in 2000, the Virginia band has found subtler ways to incorporate religious iconography, such as the communion wafers scattered on Sacrament’s cover. After several albums filled with pointed anti-Bush diatribes, Sacrament targets ambiguous enemies. (For…
If the trick to writing mystery novels is finding a niche, Excelsior Springs authors Lawrence and Suella Walsh have succeeded by setting a whodunit in Missouri’s humble wine country. “We have not read a mystery based in Missouri. That’s why we wanted to set our novel here,” Lawrence says of the couple’s first adult mystery, The Last O’Neil. “It’s time…
Near the beginning of a recent Riddle of Steel show at St. Louis venue the Bluebird, guitarist and singer Andrew Elstner’s amp went on the fritz. As he crouched down onstage to fix it, bassist Jimmy Vavak and drummer Rob Smith started improvising. It turned into a regular “Jazz Odyssey,” with faint hints of fusion and hefty doses of funk…
For skiers and snowboarders, the vertically unintimidating geography of the Midwest presents a challenge. Or, rather, not enough of a challenge. Consequently, many Plains-states dwellers haven’t experienced the combined joys of gravity and snow-covered slopes.Tonight, powder will fly at a screening of Warren Miller’s Playground at Tivoli Cinemas (4050 Pennsylvania, 913-383-7756). Playground zips viewers around the globe as high-definition…
The Nutcracker is a Christmas tradition pretty much everywhere. Here, the show’s history with the Kansas City Ballet reaches back 35 years. “It’s big. It’s beautiful,” says Marketing Director Mike Alley. “It’s the biggest production of The Nutcracker in, like, a 15-state region.” On December 14, KC Nutcracker alums from the past three decades of performances will gather at…
You probably already know this, but the first Sunday of the month is Family Fun Day at the Kansas City Museum (3218 Gladstone). Not that the museum has a specifically family-unfriendly day, but with all of the First Sunday activities — hands-on projects, multicultural performances and musicians — the museum really goes the extra mile for you and the small…
There are good reasons for Chiefs fans to hate AFC West opponents Denver and Oakland. There are the memorable defeats at the hands of the Broncos, and the Chiefs share a long, violence-filled history with the Raiders. But San Diego? Despite playing two or more games a year for several decades against the San Diego Chargers, familiarity doesn’t necessarily…
Ever feel like going back in time? Say, to the year 1914? If so, the place to visit is Pierpont’s at Union Station (30 West Pershing, 816-221-5111), a crown jewel among KC historical preservations.Alas, there’s no newfangled time machine on hand waiting to zap you back in time at Union Station (yet), but what is available is Pierpont’s Fantastic…
Next time you catch yourself bitching about how life in this decade yanks everyone in too many directions at once, consider Unicorn Theatre Artistic Director Cynthia Levin. There she is, chin-deep in rehearsals on one show and in rewrites on two others, and somehow she still conveys instructions to the contractors charged with prepping the Unicorn’s Next Stage for…
If the phrase Christmas fashion conjures images of bulky, garish appliqué sweatshirts and yarn necklaces hung with bells, check out the far more hip holiday trappings at local fashion dynamo Wearhaus’ designer market. The Foundation Room (1221 Union) is the site of this year’s market, Style Rocks. The market offers a happily homegrown alternative to the toddler-choked corridors of megamalls….
It’s a good thing that members of the band Sigur Rós aren’t from, say, Lubbock, Texas, or that city in China where they dispose of the world’s computers. Sweeping shots of waffle houses in the 10th largest city in Texas or piles of industrial waste just wouldn’t do justice to the band’s ethereal wall of sound.Luckily for Dean DeBlois,…
As sobering reminders of grim realities go, Jennifer Baichwal’s documentary Manufactured Landscapes is more aesthetically pleasing and less confrontationally grotesque than, say, a cinematic examination of the nasty trip that holiday hams take from the pigpen to the table. However, this 2006 film, which follows photographer Edward Burtynsky into China’s mechanized abyss, reveals the squalid conditions in which many…
Like any band that’s been around since the late 1960s, Poco has had its share of troubles. Just as it built a following back in the day, the band had to change its name — from Pogo, which was lifted from a cartoon. Then, there were the frequent lineup changes; two former members of Poco traded up to the Eagles….
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 17,000 Americans die from HIV/AIDS each year. Tonight, the Douglas County AIDS Project holds a candlelight memorial service at the University of Kansas’ World War II memorial campanile and carillon — the tall, gray tower on the south side of the Lawrence campus. The service commemorates those whose lives have been…
For performers groomed for the moment, improvisers can be awfully reflective. Josh Steinmetz, of the promising new comedy troupe Tantrum, guesses that he has performed in 800 improvised comedy shows over the years. Experience has taught him what his chosen art needs to survive its awkward adolescence. “It’s vital that people bring good stuff to the stage,” he says….
Fresh from their appearance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, the Express Personnel Clydesdales will lead hundreds of horses and riders in Lawrence’s 15th-Annual Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade today. Beginning at 11 a.m. at Seventh Street, horses and various horse-drawn rigs will travel down tree-lined Massachusetts to 12th Street. “It’s very well-attended, and everyone makes a real effort…
Admit it. You still have visions of settling into a lower-level seat at the Sprint Center, proudly sporting a Kansas City Penguins Sidney Crosby jersey. You can see it now: Crosby retrieves a loose puck at center ice, dodges Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher and decks the goalie for the game winner. The crowd erupts with a cheer that shatters…
You don’t have to be on the state oenophile registry to know that a glass of wine goes well with a DVD at home. What? It means lover of wine, perv. Anyway. Break your natural inclination to stay inside by enjoying fine cinematic entertainment somewhere other than your living room at the Tuesday Movie Night at Boozefish (1511 Westport Road,…
Hey, kids, can’t think of what to ask Santa to bring you this year? Check out the Burnt Ends catalog of KC-themed gifts. A. Let your dog’s thirst be the tenant of this Sprint Center-shaped bowl. Thirty-year payment options available. Replacement glass panels sold separately. B. The talking Frances Semler Fashion Doll spouts such classics as “Close the borders!” and…
It’s just after 8 on a chilly autumn morning. Jamel Sandidge sits at the kitchen table of a two-story house in a cozy neighborhood north of the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Remnants of this morning’s breakfast clutter the counters. A child and a pet have scattered toys throughout the adjacent living room. The homeowner — we’ll call him…
