Last Friday night, when Cynthia Levin, the artistic director of the Unicorn Theatre, burst onstage to offer her customary opening-night remarks, she did so with even greater energy than is her wont. Talking up the 18-month collaboration that nursed playwright and composer Greg Coffin’s Rightnextto Me from concept to 90-minute world-premiere musical, Levin, the show’s director, rhapsodized about the sloppy…
“Who’s the Guy Owns This Shithole?” by Riddle of Steel: 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,”…
For a game that’s considered Microsoft’s premier 360 title this holiday season, it’s amazing how sloppy Mass Effect is. Graphical glitches distract from otherwise fascinating character designs and alien vistas, constant stops and stutters lengthen load times, and the inventory system must be the worst in history. And just as you’re gnashing your teeth at this appalling lack of polish,…
The Girl Next Door (Anchor Bay) If the horror of Saw was a poblano pepper, this here is the habañero. Derived from Jack Ketchum’s infamous novel, sometimes word-for-word, The Girl Next Door — based on a true story — is a sort of Hostel meets Stand By Me: A group of children gather at the house of proto-“cool mom” Ruth…
It never occurred to me to ask any of the employees at Lawrence’s historic Eldridge Hotel why the restaurant there is called Ten. I recently had a couple of fine meals at this venerable Massachusetts Street lodge — the building dates back to 1925 — and asking about the restaurant’s unusual name must have slipped my mind. But wait! The…
At age 28, Billy Joel sang “Only the Good Die Young,” an assertion that, three decades later, carries negative implications about the still-living singer’s quality. Even Joel’s harshest critics and most disillusioned former fans probably don’t fantasize about his making that proclamation prophetic, but they might wish that he had disappeared into J.D. Salinger-style hermitage around 1982. Joel used…
A couple of weeks ago, authorities declared two popular nightclubs, Karma and NV, unsafe (due to overcrowding and fire-safety issues, respectively), and both joints were temporarily shut down on the same night, midparty. Downtown club Madrigall reaped the refugees on the night of the closings; ever since then, business has been good. No one is happier about this than resident…
Dear Mexican: I was born in beautiful El Paso, Texas, and my parents are from Juaritos. I always wondered why Mexican restaurants en los Estados Unidos use queso amarillo — which I associate with los Estados Unidos — on their food instead of queso asadero or queso Oaxaca, which taste so much better. And who came up with Tex-Mex or…
Letters, November 22 Neo Letter The last couple of lines of my recently printed letter were incorrect. My original letter intended to note that Derf’s November 1 “The City” cartoon proved that anything connected to George W. Bush will be attacked by neo-libs. Calvin Oyler, Claycomo Martin: “The Dance,” November 22 Power Failure Thank you for David Martin’s column about…
To reach the bathrooms in the restaurant and lounge at the Eldridge Hotel (see review, page 31), one must walk down a hallway, past the front desk, up a flight of stairs and beyond a stone fireplace. It’s a jaunt, which was a good thing on my last visit because there was no way to dry my hands — no…
Since the dawn of punk, no band name has captured the furies associated with the genre quite like ’80s power trio Agent Orange. Those two words, which make up the nickname of the deadly defoliant that made its hellish reputation during the Vietnam War, elicit visions of death and government corruption — otherwise known as punk lyrics. But despite its…
Some bands hit the decade mark and put on a show, go on tour, release a 7-inch — normal stuff like that. For the 10th anniversary of Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys, bandleader Scott Hobart built a museum. At the Pistol Social Club in the West Bottoms on December 1, Hobart’s “Retrospective” museum displayed posters, fliers, costumes, slides and…
It’s the season for giving, and we’ll be the first to say it. Those bell ringers need to step up their game. The kind folks at Waxploitation Records sure are, with Causes 1, a charity album with proceeds going toward providing relief in Darfur. The collection of exclusive tracks is available on iTunes until February and features indie favorites such…
Battlestar Galactica: Razor (Universal) The Best of Crank Yankers (Paramount) Bob Hope: MGM Movie Legends Collection (MGM) Erik the Viking: The Director’s Cut (MGM) Exiled (Magnolia) The Flash Gordon Collection (Passport) Tyler Perry’s House of Payne: Volume One (Lionsgate) Ingmar Bergman: Four Masterworks (Criterion) Lady Chatterley (Kino) Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — The Fourth Year (Universal) The Nanny…
Another Night Before Christmas This home-invasion Christmas story posits a dude who claims to be Santa and is caught in the home of a skeptical, sensible woman. You can bet that, by the 90-minute mark, she will have learned the true reason for the season. This year’s American Heartland holiday show, a world premiere, comes somewhat pedigreed, with book and…
Looking West This exhibition could have been an eloquent disquisition on the uneven American cultural fascination with “the West” — its history and politics, ideas of American expansionism, racism, colonialism and American Indian rights. Instead, work in the exhibition seems to have been chosen simply because it in some way visually refers to cowboys, Indians and some western landscapes. Precious…
Art is confusing. Artists are inscrutable and weird, and their works are probably somebody else’s business. Does this sound like anyone you know? Does it sound like you? If so, let the Slideshow Series at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (4420 Warwick) be the equivalent of a Dave Ramsey financial seminar for the bankruptcy of your artistic knowledge. Talented…
Wednesday, December 5, UPDATE: WE HAVE A FLIPPIN’ WINNER!!!! The contest below is over. Congratulations to Matt. He was the first with the correct answer, which was Madonna and the Beastie Boys. I’ve got a pair of tickets for the VHS or Beta show this Thursday Friday night at the Record Bar. The first person to email me at jason.harper@pitch.com…
By JUSTIN KENDALL Sunday morning, The Kansas City Star offered up this headline: “Sprint Center is hopping, even with no team.” No shit, the Sprint Center is busy, with the exhuming of Sir Elton, Van Halen with Diamond Dave, and Garth. But Star reporter DeAnn Smith’s article left questions unanswered, especially how AEG plans to match its Garth-a-thon next…
By ERIC BARTON The Power & Light District’s public-relations types know how to get press coverage. Instead of revealing the entertainment district’s new tenants all at once, they’ve let announcements trickle out. It keeps the district in the news and makes sure that even Chipotle gets some ink. So today’s press release about four new tenants was nothing new, especially…
By CRYSTAL K. WIEBE Some folks want the world to witness Kansas City’s downtown revitalization. For the past four and a half years, John Altman and Aimee Larrabee have been recording the evolution for a documentary with the sappy title Mending the Heart of an American City. The filmmakers have some serious industry connections, including the fact that Altman’s cousin…
Pitch calendar editor Crystal K. Wiebe spent Saturday and Sunday night at the Record Bar. Here’s her report. The coolest things I saw at the Record Bar last weekend. By C.K.W. 1. The Back to the Future car parked outside on Saturday. A surefire sign that the Electric Six show would be a hella fun geek convention. 2. The climax…
Working with Miles Bonny and the mighty Innate Sounds crew, of which they’re a part, Kansas City hip-hop group Deep Thinkers has made its new one, Reprogram, available for free to anyone with the means to download it. Get hit: Deep Thinkers – Reprogram – whole album download Innate on MySpace: Myspace.com/innatesounds Categories: Music Tags: Deep Thinkers, it’s free, Reprogram
Does anyone listen to the Wednesday Midday Medley on KKFI? It airs from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., hosted by jock Mark Manning, who just sent around a list of his top 80 albums of the year, from which he’ll be selecting jams over the next month. I think Manning has good taste in music, but it seems like every…
