In an exchange with a reporter from American Atheist magazine in 1987, former President George H.W. Bush said, “I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”Not to dump on Bush, but his comments illustrate some surprisingly widespread misconceptions about people who happen not to be gifted…
Beasts and birds adorn the walls of the Bourgeois Pig (6 East Ninth Street in Lawrence) with Bird + Watchers, an installation of new art by printmakers Patrick Giroux and Rachel James. Relief prints lend an ancient feel to imagery that’s decidedly contemporary — the red-and-green headless torso of “Birds on Tree Figure” or the wormy-mouthed cyclops of “Overindulgence.” Winged…
New York’s Metropolitan Opera stages Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel at noon today. As part of the Metropolitan Opera: Live in High Definition Series, co-sponsored by the under-construction Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and the Lyric Opera, the performance will be simulcast at participating blockbuster-clogged multiplexes — including the Cinemark 20 (5500 Antioch in Merriam, 913-789-7555), the Cinemark…
Let’s face it: The holiday season is shit for live music. Local bands go into hibernation, leaving our darling music scene at the mercy of the dreaded Trans-Siberian-Steamroller plague. One of the few good things about Christmas (besides Christmas) is the homecoming of KC expatriates such as Derren Raser, who took his acoustic guitar and unshakable croon to the…
Usually, the traditional rules for anniversary gift-giving seem very limiting, if not completely boring. (Seriously, the sixth anniversary is “iron and sugar.” Is there a cake mix for that?) But Club Sparks (1436 Kansas Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas) is celebrating its first anniversary, and owner Sam Sparks will be perfectly happy if guests give him paper. Tonight, women who…
The song playing on DJ Mike DiLeo’s MySpace page is called “Bring Enough to Spill Some,” which is a pretty sexy philosophy, especially when the “some” in the equation is sparkly and served in a fluted glass. Tonight and every Friday and Saturday night, house DJs DiLeo, Mark Styles and Jesse Wallace share the turntables at Vinino (1320 Grand), a…
When sports get boring, the bored do eggnog bong rips. That’s why the University of Kansas men’s basketball squad’s early season slate of cupcake opponents — such as tonight’s 7 p.m. matchup with the Yale Bulldogs — necessitates the invention of a drinking game. One eggnog bong rip when Sherron Collins drives the lane, two when Brandon Rush swishes a…
For a dude whose name is synonymous with Hawaiian shirts and parrot hats, Jimmy Buffett has enjoyed a longer hot streak than a volcano. In 2001, he was kicked out of a Miami Heat game for cursing in the presence of children. The episode came five years after Buffett penned the song “Jamaica Mistaica” — dedicated to the Jamaican police…
From the dawn of humankind, the potent aesthetics of the natural world have served as catalysts for inspired appreciation. This affection comes as varied and complex as nature itself. Some people don magical rings and summon Gaia’s champion, Captain Planet, to fight crime; others strip naked and bay at the moon like wolves. Such is the power of nature.Today, let…
The duo called Tactic had a pretty amazing 2007. Its remixes were featured on the Mad Decent record label, and the two DJs collaborated with local musical phenomena such as the Ssion and Nomathmatics, thrilled club kids all over the country on tour, and saw their mixtapes downloaded thousands of times. To celebrate this New Year’s Eve, Tactic’s Brent Lippincott…
New Year’s Eve inspires not just weirdly soppy Scottish laments about old forgotten acquaintances but also a lot of turgid writing. Un-fun English essayist and fancy lad Charles Lamb once wrote, “No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity…
Like Godzilla leaving green footprints, high-profile eco-journalist Simran Sethi has taken over the college town of Lawrence. Since moving to the trendy prairie hamlet from New York City, Sethi has spotlighted her favorite local businesses on Oprah and the Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet. As an environmental correspondent for NBC News, she talked to Al Gore…
Kansas City rappers Tech N9ne and Mac Lethal walk into a talent agent’s office/downtown coffee and wine bar. The agent asks them what their act is. Nearly two hours’ worth of talk follows: about burgers, booze, drugs, sex, strippers, Indian food, Alaska, drugs, sex, Florida, being broke, amateur porn, life on the road, sleeping preferences (neither like to cuddle), big-ass…
Many St. Louis musicians hightail it out of the city as soon as they can, in hopes that the sunnier pastures of Los Angeles or the chillier climes of Chicago will be more welcoming. But except for a short stint in New Orleans, Son Volt founder Jay Farrar has lived in south St. Louis for the past 15 years. And…
Something about the local economy allows musicians to keep cutting albums. Is it the mobility of the middle class? The increased spending power of the young? We’re not sure how, exactly, in this age of digital dissemination, but Kansas City and Lawrence generated some real hot shit this year, most of it released DIY on a 99-cent-burrito budget with no…
Many a savvy actor has built a lasting career on a bedrock of ancillary work without a hint of look-at-me grandstanding. That’s particularly true for women, whom casting directors might otherwise cross off their lists at the first sign of a crow’s-foot. The best supporting actors have said there’s little that’s more satisfying than working in concert with a strong…
The first thing you notice when you walk onto the set is the number of extras (300) in late-1920s period costume. The second thing you notice is how completely quiet the place is. No production assistants madly rushing about. No ringing bells. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear they weren’t shooting a big Hollywood movie here. And yet, they…
Absolutely, unequivocally, this has been the Year of Judd Apatow: He got Knocked Up to the tune of $150 million; the super-OK Superbad, which Apatow produced, grossed another $120 million; and he’s walking hard to the 2007 finish line as writer and producer of a faux-biopic about a pennies-on-the-dollar Johnny Cash named Dewey Cox. Over the next two years, Apatow…
It’s that time of year again. Our six critics don’t often agree, but we’ve combined their top-10 lists (allowing for ties) to pretend that they do! So without further ado, the 10 (or 15) best movies of the year, kind of: 1. There Will Be Blood 2. I’m Not There 3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 4. Killer…
An acquaintance who fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq says he has no use for documentaries about President George W. Bush’s bungling of the war on terror. He has not and will not see a single one of the movies made about the tragic consequences of the administration’s rush to drop bombs over Baghdad. He has no use for…
Novelist William Gibson once said, “You don’t meet the book when you meet the writer.” His adage applies only rarely to actors, though. Robert De Niro trained hard and put on weight to play Jake LaMotta, but there was never any mistaking the sighs and hand-wringings and tongue clicks for anyone’s but De Niro’s. Meryl Streep plays bossy editors and…
Living in Austin, Texas, hasn’t prevented Laura Scarborough from becoming a primary composer for the Kansas City “performance fusion” ensemble Quixotic. Utilizing the magic of online file sharing, Scarborough — a singer for the Austin band Lila’s Medicine — adds vocals and keyboard textures to Quixotic’s tribal scores. Tonight, Scarborough will perform twice: first as a backing musician for a…
A couple of years ago, Paul Malinowski (ex-bassist for Shiner) and Sam Hoskins (ex-drummer for Elevator Division) spent a weekend in Champaign, Illinois, tracking three songs at Matt Talbot’s Great Western Record Recordings. Upon returning to Kansas, the two put their project on hold while they developed their own Black Page studio — until a recent invitation to open for…
Oklahoma bluesman Watermelon Slim could easily have gotten away with nicknaming himself Mush Mouth Slim if he’d wanted to. But before you dismiss as mere shtick Slim’s 10-gallon-hatted, cotton-mouthed persona and checkered, stranger-than-fiction past, understand that he and his band play some of the most searing blues on the planet. Blues in the 21st century just isn’t supposed to sound…
