Most local sports fans treat University of Missouri-Kansas City basketball as a distant but friendly relative. They think kind thoughts about the team and wish it well but don’t spend much time in the stands. Unlike other local colleges, UMKC inspires neither love nor hatred, just box scores inside the fold within The Kansas City Star. New coach Matt Brown hopes to change local…
Last year, some members of KC’s Jewish community were scandalized when The Pitch dared hint of the boozing, flirting and general enjoyment that attendees have at the annual Bagel Bash. December 24 is the perfect time for young Jewish people (and anyone else who’s down to party) to reunite with old friends and dance the night away. But even though…
Get ready for the Annual Merriam Festival of Lights Christmas Lighting Contest. Register now with prizes awarded to the winners in each ward. For Merriam residents and businesses only. Dec. 15-30, 2007 Tags: 687, Night & Day
The trees still sag, their branches caked with ice, but it’s long enough since the recent ice storm that the roads of Kansas City, Kansas, are mostly navigable. I park outside a stately, olive-colored Victorian house on a narrow street in the Prescott neighborhood, not far from downtown. Behind it, the overcast sky glows orange from reflected city lights. In…
Last week, Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser was offering up some lame excuse about his wife, Gloria Squitiro, adding an E to the word ma’am so that it sounded like “mammy.” We say, embrace your obvious prejudice, Mr. and Mrs. Funk. Also available as an apron. Everybody seems up in arms that Kansas City, Missouri, School District Superintendent Anthony Amato…
Forget boy bands and Barry Manilow. Christmas music may be the ultimate guilty pleasure. It’s inherently corny, unrepentantly joyful and the tiniest bit reverent — all qualities largely reviled by rock purists. And though you would be forgiven for never wanting to hear “Jingle Bells” again, Christmas songs have proven a versatile format for artists in almost every genre as…
The trees are trimmed, the cash registers are ringing and rosy-cheeked people are counting their blessings as they head into a new year — or so the commercials suggest. For some, though, holiday cheer may be in short supply. The Department of Burnt Ends has compiled this list of those who suffered a year of betrayal and disappointment. Consider…
Jacob and Josh Gately saw the storm brewing from the top of Mount of the Holy Cross. The brothers from Lee’s Summit had just reached the 14,005-foot peak in the Colorado Rockies, known for the iconic snow-filled cross scratched on its northeastern face. It was Saturday, October 13, and light snow began to fall. The thin Colorado air had…
It’s gothic. Mondays, 9 p.m., 2005 Tags: Night & Day
Gary Cox teaches students everything from the cha-cha to the merengue in this group class for all levels. Classes from 7:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Dance afterwards from 8:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. Fridays, 7:30 p.m., 2005 Tags: Gary Cox, Night & Day
Drinking holes can’t legally host gambling events, so poker lovers came up with a clever solution: Poker Pub. The national card-playing operation can be found nightly in area bars. Tonight, it’s at the Pool Room (925 Iowa in Lawrence) at 7 and 10 p.m. No need to come loaded with cash — it’s free for anyone 21 or older….
Olathe, Kansas – Friday after Thanksgiving through New Years – Giant greeting cards and lights decorate an entire neighborhood. More than 200 homes participate. Located north of 151st Street and West of Ridgeview. (Ridgeview and Frontier) Directions: From 1-35 Take 1-35 South to Olathe Take the 151st St. Exit (Exit 215) · You will go down the exit ramp and…
Even if you overdrew your bank account on a Christmas iPhone for your significant other, you can still afford to go out tonight. Head to the Replay Lounge (946 Massachusetts in Lawrence, 785-749-7676), where PBRs and rock and roll always come cheap. A mere $2 gets you in the door for Dead Girls Ruin Everything, the ’90s-style power-poppin’ Lawrence trio…
Salsa dancing looks like a great deal of fun, but for those without knowledge of the basics, it may seem intimidating. If you have ever considered learning, America’s Pub (510 Westport) offers hope for beginners and benefits for women. Ladies’ Night Salsa Dancing begins at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. Women get in free before 10 p.m., and the lessons start…
There you are, wrapping up a long day of shopping in Wyandotte County. Your feet hurt, your arms are laden with oversized bags, and you’re wondering exactly where you parked the car in the never-ending lot. Then, suddenly, you’re overcome with the urge to enjoy a Pabst Blue Ribbon while basking in the dulcet tones of Bad Company. Luckily,…
Tuesday from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. $20/per person. Dec. 6-Jan. 31, 6:30-8:30 p.m., 2007 Tags: Night & Day
For the past 20 years, Brazilian interdisciplinary artist Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez has been living an alternative version of the immigrant’s American dream.Her 1988 U.S. entrée came in the form of a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Kansas, where she studied performance art, photography and dance. And though students of more cosmopolitan art schools might snicker at the notion, Ramos-Velasquez asserts…
This morning, Sandra Betts is going around and taking things off people’s porches. She’s after kibble, kennels, blankets and anything else that might make winter a little less cold and hungry for needy Kansas City pets. Betts owns the downtown sitting and walking service Citydog. But today, she’s working on behalf of Spay and Neuter Kansas City, an organization that…
Once (Fox) Easily the year’s most perfect pop album — damned good movie too, the finest “musical” of the past 20 years. The disc’s making-of refers to it as a “modern musical,” but Once is as old-fashioned as it gets: Guy (Glen Hansard) meets Girl (Markéta Irglová), they fall in love, but never consummate their relationship — and instead record…
When Darkuary’s doldrums sap the life out of otherwise lively bodies, a good ska show can be just what the doctor ordered. The Incredible Heat Machine is one such catalyst, igniting dance parties in its hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, and firing up skads of roller-derby girls at the local rink. The sextet features two female singers — neither of whom…
Bill Bishop still recalls the first time he felt “More Than a Feeling” under the influence of potent party favors. “Never before then or since then … has anything ever compared,” says the frontman of 4th Stage, a Kansas City Boston tribute band. Nearly three decades later, Bishop is still singing the praises of “the most magnificent records ever recorded.”…
In Bacon Shoe’s ideal world, unicorns would cum gravy and prostitutes would lick it up. Moreover, this Kansas City freak-hop group would have its own label, an Adult Swim cartoon, a lifetime supply of pig meat and a signature line of depilatory ointment. Instead, the Shoe gets to foot its own bill, releasing a CD-and-DVD package that cost the group’s…
You gotta hand it to anybody — especially a white teenager from Lawrence — who has the nerve to even try to channel Stevie Wonder. But because he sounds so earnest, it’s hard to tell whether it’s nerve that gives pianist and singer-songwriter (and actor) Dylan Paul the ability to frame his obvious Stevie influence in slick, glossy R&B….
One of my shortest restaurant jobs was at a Mexican joint back in the 1970s. I was fired after working there barely a week. Not for the usual reasons (bad attitude, skipping out on side work) but for something much more dramatic: I was having a fling with one of the other servers and decided to end the so-called…
