Archives: January 2008

Help a Bluesman Out

Politically minded Kansas City blues singer Danny Cox and his family have lost their home in a fire, reports W-DAFT. Last time we checked in with Cox was to review his 2006 EP Troost Avenue Blues. Here’s a cut from that record. Maybe it would cheer Danny up a little to know people are listening to his music in his…

Chicken Soup for Tripp

By C.J. JANOVY Here’s some New Year’s reading for anyone who really cares about Kansas City: Please Underestimate Me — The Blood, Guts, and Soul of Richard G. Tripp. Probably best-known to churchgoers and synagogue attendees who’ve heard his story and KFKF 94.1 FM listeners who’ve donated to radio-thons in support of his efforts, Tripp is a formerly homeless cab…

Inside the Funk Administration

  By ERIC BARTON File this one in the too-much-information category. The Christmas letter from Mark Funkhouser and wife Gloria Squitiro included a long diatribe about a non-work-related exam the KC mayor underwent this year. We could go on about the in-depth details, but read it for yourself by clicking on the images below. Categories: News, Politics

Kickin’ It With TeenPitch!

By CHRIS PACKHAM It’s Not a Baby Bump! Amber Hathaway, age 15 New Year’s Day is the time of year when you take a good hard look in the mirror, and think about the past year and say to yourself, “Amber. You are a fat cow.” I swear to God, if I get any fatter, people are going to start…

The Last Year-In-Review List

This is the last year-in-review type thing this blog is running. And it’s a good one. Thanks to all who submitted, and best of luck in 2008. Over to you, Tec. Tiny Tim (aka Tec)’s Highly Biased* List of 10 Most Favorite and Least Favorite Local Music Related Stuff of 2007 Best Song That Has Never Been (and Almost Assuredly…

You Should Know Holland Buffalo

From a recent press release: “This is a note to let you know that Feedle (from the UK, Sheffield ) and The Harvey Girls (from the US, Portland, OR ) have been collaborating on songs for about a year and a half and have released them under the name holland buffalo. The self-released album can be bought at Amie St….

YJ’s On the Food Network

By JASON HARPER Popular Crossroads eatery YJ’s Snack Bar is going to be featured on national television. A two-man camera crew from the Food Network (neither of whom was bottle-blondie Guy Fieri) filmed the YJ’s lunch rush and interviewed customers Thursday at lunchtime for an upcoming episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives . Actually, to say that they interviewed customers…

Driving On Alcohol

By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI By now, all two-day New Year’s Eve hangovers are over. But now that the ball has dropped on 2008, everyone in Missouri will be driving with a little bit of alcohol — in their gas tanks. Ethanol is being hyped as the golden solution to America’s gasoline addiction. The corn-based fuel burns cleaner than gasoline and supports…

Elder Insights and Sounds

For many, a grandmother is a loving symbol of hugs, cookies and seasonally appropriate cards with $5 bills in them. It’s really no wonder why these women foster more love and respect than any elected official. Reflect on memories of matriarchs tonight at the world premiere of the theatrical production Stories My Grandmother Told Me at the American Heartland Theatre…

New Tenant

In Lawrence, Richard’s Music used to occupy a little nook just off Massachusetts, between Seventh and Eighth streets and right in front of a parking lot. After the unfortunate demise of the Olive Art Gallery, Lynn Piller, the owner of Richard’s Music, moved the store to the vacated locale. And Lynn’s wife, Sally, decided to open up a new art…

Beautiful Mess

Given the rush of 21st-century life, it’s easy to feel like your world is veering out of control. But before you make some unrealistic plan to restore order to your personal chaos, see Tomoko Takahashi: Pile Up, the new exhibit at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (4420 Warwick). It might change your perspective on the meaning of clutter and,…

Lucky 7

The red-brick building at Seventh and Ann streets in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, started out in 1906 as a Scottish Rite Temple. When it reopens to the public this evening as the 7th Street Casino, gamblers might feel like they’re returning to the roaring ’20s. In 1996, the Wyandotte Nation purchased the historic structure and took 10 years and $20…

Blowing Reeds

He may be 65 years old, but no one is going to pull a fast one on L.J. Atkinson. The vice president of the Harmonica Club of Greater Kansas City isn’t fooled by the popular image of campfire cowboys strumming lonely chords on guitars. “They were actually playing harmonicas,” Atkinson says. “The guitar couldn’t survive the bouncing around in a…

Homeless Ensemble Theatre

In an old Crossroads garage, the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre has staged top-notch shows for a couple of years now. But here’s what getting out there and doing the hard work of revitalizing actually gets you: the MET is just one production away from artistic homelessness. It seems that art-district landlords can do much better leasing to non-nonprofits.Sad as it is…

Pretty Ladies

  Find out who’s sleeping with whom and who’s mad about it when The L Word, Showtime’s sexy lesbian soap opera, resumes tonight. Don’t fret if your only friend with cable is out of town. Kansas City’s Human Rights Campaign is bringing the season premiere to the big screen — the Screenland Granada at 1015 Minnesota in Kansas City, Kansas,…

Tom Wilson

Comedy performance by Tom Wilson of Back to the Future, who — if you haven’t seen him do stand-up — is hilarious. Thu., Jan. 10; Fri., Jan. 11; Sat., Jan. 12; Sun., Jan. 13, 2008 Tags: Night & Day, Tom Wilson

Birds & Blossoms

  Birds & Blossoms: Spring Conservatory Exhibit January 6-March 4, 2007 Open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Find the uncommon cure for the cold with a visit to Powell Gardens’ conservatory this winter. The glass-topped conservatory will be filled with the brilliant colors of cool-season favorites, including vibrant ranunculus, quaint pocketbook plants, colorful cineraria and cyclamen. Special weekend activities…

Country Tough

When the DeWayn Brothers started venturing north of Emporia to Lawrence and Kansas City a couple of years back, the quintet sounded like a pretty good emulator of the insurgent country sound popularized in this (red)neck of the woods by Split Lip Rayfield. Fast-forward three albums and hundreds of shows (253 in 2006 alone), and the DeWayns are in a…

Towering Talent

Carlos Alberto Ibay is a bona fide prodigy. He can sing like an opera star in seven languages, and he provides his own piano accompaniment. Now 27, Ibay has been hitting the ivories since he was 2, and his ability to channel the classical giants has taken him around the world. And there’s one more thing: Ibay is blind. He…

Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week:

Billy Jack (Image) The Heartbreak Kid (Universal) Indie Sex: A Revealing Look at Sex in Cinema (IFC) Jimmy and Judy (Anchor Bay) Living & Dying (HBO) Resident Evil: Extinction (Sony) Seaquest DSV: Season Two (Universal) September Dawn (Sony) Shoot ‘Em Up (New Line) Solstice (Weinstein) The Tudors: The Complete First Season (Showtime) Weird Science: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2…

Keep Dreaming

  The inevitable challenge faced by Wii developers is this: Can you create a game so spectacularly awesome as to prompt a gamer to even consider ejecting Super Mario Galaxy from his console? The gravy train is over; good luck looking consumers in the eye while offering them another lame collection of ugly-but-wagglerific mini-games. Mario queered your hustle: Now we…

Black Russian

Eastern Promises (Universal) David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen are becoming a Bizarro World Hitchcock/Cary Grant combo, and the world is a better (and bloodier) place for it. Chucklehead critics too smitten by Cronenberg’s “messages” dismissed this film — a vicious and brilliant exploration of the Russian mob in London — for being a genre exercise. Mortensen is at his ice-cold…

Ford Free Fridays

  The museum offers extended hours; made possible by the Ford Motor Company Fund. Fridays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., 2005 Tags: Ford Motor Company, Night & Day

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure 3D

  Sea Monsters uses stunning 3D computer-generated animation to weave together a series of paleontological digs from around the globe in a compelling story about scientists working as detectives to answer questions about this ancient and mysterious ocean world. Follow a curious and adventurous dolichorhynchops – familiarly known as a ‘Dolly’ – as she travels through the most dangerous oceans…