Less a war drama than a set of dueling position papers, Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs may be the gabbiest movie ever made about American foreign policy — and it wasn’t even written by Aaron Sorkin. Hot young screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan is fresh off his alpha-male script for The Kingdom. That helps explain the presence early on in…
DOWNLOAD: Mercury Mad and the Plastic Bitches: “Single” MP3 On Halloween night at the Uptown Theater, a red-wigged drag queen screams into the mic, “I’m Mercury Motherfuckin’ Mad!” And don’t you motherfuckin’ forget it. Not that you could. The leader of Mercury Mad and the Plastic Bitches is a polarizing force — beautiful or raunchy, freaky or empowering, depending on…
Bountiful Nora Othic’s archetypal figures and her dynamic, posed compositions evoke regionalists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood but also such mid-20th-century muralists as Anton Refregier and Milton Bellin. In “Mean Bull,” two laughing ranch hands dive over a fence, chased by an enraged bull. The masterly “Diner” is an energetically composed image of two waitresses tending a…
Your favorite Kansas City music blogger is taking the rest of the week off. I didn’t have time to prepare a series of blog entries to post while I’m away — well, there is one; look for it on Friday — so here’s a video from our favorite YouTube-preserved era (late ’70s Britain) and a goodbye kiss. Mwah! Feel free…
The deluge of radio and TV ads for Avenue Q insist that the Broadway musical playing at the Music Hall through November 11 is for everyone – bachelors, college dropouts, college graduates, people who are wearing underwear and people who aren’t. At the same time, the spots issue a warning: Avenue Q, with its porn-addicted and suicide-pushing puppets, isn’t…
Yo guys, the show featuring A Life Once Lost that was written up in this week’s issue? Well, the show, which is still on Monday, November 14, has been moved to the Mission Theatre at 5903 Johnson Drive. The Static Bar was downtown on Southwest Boulevard, but due to liquor license issues is moving. Shows that were booked there…
The Chiara String Quartet, a touring classical ensemble that likes to hang around in bars, is playing this Saturday at the Brick. Pitch staffer Chris Packham has anticipated your questions and provided answers. Q: Is chamber music the new punk rock? A: Yes. Q: Is the Chiara String Quartet the new Sex Pistols? A: No, the Chiara String Quartet…
It’s not as though Tom Wyker (second from left in this photo) was moonlighting as Johnny Invisible Skater, but somehow, a driver didn’t see the 30-year-old as he road his skateboard home from McCoy’s in Westport on Saturday, October 27. In the alley between Teadrops and Harpo’s he was mowed down “hit-and-run style,” says Zach Wilson. “He was pretty…
It’s hard to go to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and not want more. Sure, the stories offered up on the info cards give you a good overview, and the mementos behind glass show a rich history of the likes of the late and great Kansas City icons, Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neil. But it’s hard to walk out of…
Tegan and Sara Monday, 11-06-07 The Granada Better than: “The Next Great American Band” Review and Photos by Richard Gintowt Tegan & Sara are twin sisters from Calgary (ya know, up there in Canada, eh?) who part their mullets the same way and play in a band together. They’re a bit punk, a bit folk, and a whole lotta pop….
BY ANDY VIHSTADT B-Side Wins Again Photo by Bill Sitzmann Last year, Omaha’s Cursive challenged its fans to remix the single, “Bad Sects,” from the Happy Hollow LP. The winning entry earned the flipside on the 12” single, which is finally available this week. Have a listen to the “Bad Sects (A Crude Mechanical Mix)”, as well as the runner-ups…
Last Friday night saw the culmination of seven months of pent-up artistic frustration. At around 6 p.m., local singer-songwriter Sterling Witt, clad in a women’s blouse, arrived at the sidewalk outside The Pitch office to retaliate against an accurate — sorry, unjust and cruel — review that I, Jason Harper, had written of his latest album, Sea Things, this past…
Elementary-school-age kids wearing Catholic school uniforms have been hitting up Country Club Plaza visitors for donations. Cynics may be wondering: Are the children filled with genuine school spirit, or did a deadbeat with a lot of kids devise an awesome panhandling scam? Alas, the children attend a real school: St. Vincent de Paul Academy, which is near 31st and the…
Before I begin, I, Valerie Plame, want to inform the people that this investigative report was intended to be available to the public the day after the incident on which I am about to report. However, it was deemed necessary by Dick and Donald that they review said report for any and all content containing W. . Subsequently, the release…
Charles Hollingsworth III, the man who hanged self-appointed homeless lobbyist David Owen, will spend the rest of his life in prison. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the 19-year-old Hollingsworth was sentenced yesterday to life plus a consecutive 17-year sentence for kidnapping Owen. Categories: News
Kansas City band Lovers in Transit played its final show at the Brick last night to a fairly packed house. Here’s some snaps by the intrepid Michael Forester. Categories: Music
Tragically, The Weekly World News, America’s only newspaper, went out of business earlier this year. I have absolutely no idea what it was like working at the WWN photo sweatshop, but the editors were clearly excellent at fostering creativity. When I think back on the 1990s, it’s with vivid memories of Bill Clinton’s summits with space aliens, apocalyptic New Year’s…
A Baltimore jury levied a judgment of nearly $11 million against Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church for picketing the funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq. Albert Snyder sued the church and its leaders after they picketed the funeral of his son Mathew in 2006. I caught up with an overjoyed Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of Westboro founder Fred Phelps, earlier this…
Gogol Bordello October 31 Liberty Hall Better than:Doing the Dance Of Joy with Cousin Larry Review by Berry Anderson, with photos by Scott Spychalski I don’t think I have ever heard much of anything positive about gypsies. As a kid, my sister referred to herself proudly as a “blue-eyed gypsy” in reference to her penchant for successfully shoplifting cheesy undergarments…
On November 6, voters will decide whether to move seven schools located in western Independence from the Kansas City, Missouri, School District to the Independence School District. Trying to clear up some of the ballot’s less-than-clear language, we called sources on both sides. Categories: News
The formerly migratory MudDauber Studio — now more or less permanently established at 7438 Jarboe in an outbuilding, a two-car garage and the back of a house — holds an Open Studio event today and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Proprietor and mixed-media artist Michael Schonhoff joins a coalition of Kansas City artists for this two-day meet-and-greet. “It’s…
A field of dirt and 9,000 red poppies — each flower representing a thousand dead soldiers — lies beneath the entryway to the National World War I Museum (100 West 26th Street, 816-784-1918). Inside, Europe begins to disintegrate as nations industrialize in the early 20th century. When war breaks out, it’s a heartbreaking amalgamation of such old tools as horse-drawn…
Just through the front doors of the All American Indoor Sports complex in Lenexa stands the new Ride4Ever Sports shop (8875 Rosehill, 913-888-7433). Inside, the store feels like a Colorado ski lodge, complete with wood-paneled walls, flat-screen TVs and a soft couch. Ride4Ever specializes in extreme boarding, including snowboards for shredding slopes, wake boards for raking water and long boards…
Former Slobberbone frontman Brent Best began a new musical chapter when he connected with singer and keyboardist Chad Stockslager and singer and bassist Keith Killoren of the Dallas band Budapest One. The excitement spilled out on a 70-minute debut album of brawny Texas rock and pop that surely pleased Slobberbone devotees as well as fans of heartland rockers such as…
