Artist Nancy Hwang’s projects involve actual relationships between her and the people who encounter her work. Example: Interested in the connections between customers and personal service employees such as masseuses and manicurists, Hwang has gone into parks and given free massages, manicures and pedicures to explore the relationships that developed. Another project involved opening an ice-cream parlor on the…
Latino group exhibition, entitled “Pagina Segunda.” Jan. 4-Feb. 29, 2008 Tags: 128, Night & Day
Thanks to the state of Missouri’s gambling laws, no money changes hands during Bingo Night at Sharp’s 63rd Street Grill in Brookside (128 West 63rd Street). Instead, the bar’s bingofest — held on the first Saturday of the month — usually revolves around a theme and offers fun, quirky prizes.Tonight’s bingo session promises to be especially entertaining: The theme is…
Between Into the Wild and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Hollywood has pretty much tapped out the rite-of-passage story. Luckily for us, Kansas City photographer Erin Pycior found inspiration for her post-grad sojourn from Oregon to Alaska in more time-tested sources: Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums and Homer’s Ulysses. “I was looking for some sort of perspective,”…
The time has come, as it does every year, for the groundhog of lore to emerge from its winterlong subterranean slumber and face its shadow. Today, learn all about the furry arbiter of seasons at the Groundhog Has Its Day walk at the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center (4750 Troost).Teachers from the center will lead activities designed to stimulate…
Find out the difference between a bump and a grind at tonight’s Burlesque and the Art of the Tease class at City in Motion School of Dance (3925 Main). The $9 Communiversity course covers the basics of burlesque, including costuming, music, props and simple movement and choreography. “It’s a performance-oriented class rather than a typical dance class,” says instructor Annie…
The Lost Film Fest delivers the unexpected in more than one way — the film lineup changes throughout the nationwide tour, tweaked and altered from venue to venue to suit the evening and the mood of self-styled VJ Scott Beibin. He manages the screenings at each stop using a laptop playlist. The films are generally anti-establishment and decidedly anti-corporate,…
Bust out your leg warmers and crimp your hair, girls. New Crossroads rock club Crosstown Station (1522 McGee, 816-471-1522) is celebrating ’80s for the Ladies every Wednesday, starting tonight at 7. Admission is free for women and $5 for men, and drinks for women are half-price. Pre-grunge attire is encouraged, and so is dancing to retro hits such as…
Despite being denied basic freedoms back home, 367,000 black men fought for freedom in Europe during World War I. To gain a better perspective on the lives and deaths of those soldiers, kick off Black History Month today with a stop at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s African-American History and Culture House (5245 Rockhill Road). They Came to Fight: African-Americans…
The Slap and Tickle (504 East 18th Street, 816-716-5940) takes its name from a cockney slang expression for foreplay, so it’s fitting that the gallery currently contains a risqué exhibit behind its bright-red doors. Erotica, which opens tonight at 6, features burlesque performances from St. Louis’ Sturdy Gurlesque, who works fire-breathing and other flame-play into her routines, and Kansas City’s…
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s Sugar, which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival (and was inexplicably shut out at the closing-night awards ceremony), gets as much right about baseball as any movie I’ve ever seen. It gets the hum of the electric lights in the ozone-heavy summer air and the satisfying smack of…
“Off to Hawaii” by Tavo Carbone Ever since the makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band started snapping up otherwise useful musicians, finding a dependable backing band has become a real chore. That’s why Brooklynite Tavo Carbone saw fit to assemble multiple bands from a rotating cast of 20 people — 17 of whom joined him onstage for his recent…
Picking up what the Dismemberment Plan and the Unicorns put down, Columbia vs. Challenger strikes a happy medium between off-the-wall lyrics and serious pop-rock chops. The Lincoln, Nebraska, trio’s self-released debut, Haywire, imagines if-I-were-God scenarios such as turning the Dallas Cowboys into unbeatable robots and shopping with turtleneck-clad dinosaurs at Wal-Mart. Despite the umpteen giggles, the music never flinches from…
“We’re really raping the whole Disney songbook more than idolizing it,” says bassist Johnny Hamil. Reprising a series of shows from four or five years ago, Hamil, along with four other local jazz experimenters — Brad Cox on piano, Christine Brebes on violin, and saxophonists Pat Conway and Mark Southerland — are doing to the classic Disney songs what those…
“Tear Me Up” by Cordelia Comedian Bruce Bruce said Popeyes chicken and biscuits were so good, you’d want to slap your mama. Hailing from exotic Blue Springs, Cordelia brings a catchy, multilayered sound that blends analog instruments and electric beats and samples into a tasty gravy that might have you turning to your mom and being, like, Wap! The…
“Plaster Casts of Everything” by Liars Dabbling in punk, noise, ambience, dance music and indie rock, Liars has covered a lot of territory in seven short years. The group’s 2001 debut, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, crystallized the decade’s early dance-punk resurgence. But Liars’ next foray couldn’t have been more unexpected. The…
The new recycling center at 63rd Street and the Paseo lasted only 47 days. With virtually no notice, the center abruptly closed on January 13. For more than six years, midtown residents had hauled their empty bottles, cans and paper goods to a fenced-in area near 48th Street and Forest Avenue. But in November, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, which…
“Opus 4” by James Christos Underground purists may write off Kansas City’s James Christos as having a mainstream sound. Indeed, Christos’ brand of epic hip-hop and guerrilla-style industry insurgency should make the nice-guy indie rappers a bit uncomfortable. His latest, The Coup: A 21 Day Revolution Within, pairs his seething, calculated flow with his self-produced style of high-octane, aneurism-inducing beats…
“Silver Ring” by the Gaslights The Gaslights certainly live the country-song life, weathering vehicle breakdowns, van break-ins, emergency surgeries and lineup instability. But judging from the fiery material on 16 Addresses, the band’s three remaining original members would rather brandish broken-off bottles than cry in their beers. Abigail Henderson, whose voice pairs rich twang with husky volume, snarls the phrase…
Feature: “The Cheapskate Edition,” January 17 The Art of Cheap Thank you for including an article on my friend Larry Roth in your Cheapskate Edition, and for Justin Kendall’s understanding that this is more than just frugal gamesmanship. People really depend on the savings that coupons and promotions can add to their shopping. Neither Mr. Roth nor any reasonable customer…
I work at a newspaper, so I’m supposed to take a hard line about open records and open meetings. But I’m pretty casual when it comes to job searches in the public sector. Hiring and firing don’t seem like activities that improve with maximum openness. I wince at stories about school superintendent candidates being interviewed in auditoriums while district…
Dear Readers: There’s been mucho feedback from ustedes regarding recent questions about archetypical Mexican dogs and the propensity of wabs to DUI. Let’s empezar with the doggies. Dear Mexican: You’re right about Chihuahuas. Crazy, tough dogs. I’m a dog rescuer (geocities.com/st-roch), and we once found a Chihuahua in a box by the side of the road with his right rear…
I guess there can never be too many steakhouses in Kansas City, which has always been known for its beef. In a week or so, the newest Ted’s Montana Grill will open at the corner of 14th Street and Walnut in the Power & Light District. The Atlanta-based chain already runs three other Ted’s Montana Grills in the metro: one…
Persepolis is a small landmark in feature animation. Not because of technical innovation — though it moves fluidly enough, and its drawings have a handcrafted charm forgotten in the era of the cross-promoted-to-saturation CGI juggernauts — but because it translates a sensitive, introspective, true-to-life, “adult” comic story into moving pictures. Whereas Robert Crumb was represented on the big screen only…
