Like most things these days, executions ain’t what they used to be. No longer are the condemned paraded to their gibbets with drums and cheers. No longer, in the moments before the hangman pulls the lever or the ax man strikes, do the damned plead ignorance or spit defiance or sob-story the mob to tears, as did priest and…
Feature: “Your Tax DollarsNot at Work,” January 3 Street Education Carolyn Szczepanski’s story on the Citadel Plaza project was great in-depth journalism — something one would have thought would have been in The Kansas City Star by now. I’ve wondered for several years what the holdup was on the Citadel development. This project is really frustrating for Research Hospital, which…
Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest (Fox) As someone with no use for Seth MacFarlane’s potty-mouthed Simpsons rip, I’ll admit to choking out a few giggles during his Star Wars send-up — though, truth be told, it’s slightly less daring than Spaceballs and, sure, Porn Wars. Stunningly faithful to the 30-year-old franchise, MacFarlane’s homage gets in a few good lines…
Unreal Tournament III is ideal for overcaffeinated teenage boys with PlayStation 3s, broadband internet connections, extensive online friend lists, hours and hours of time to blow, and — just for good measure — a deep appreciation of the steroid-addled dystopian sci-fi aesthetic. You know, the one where men are 450 pounds of muscle and wear armor that vaguely resembles…
Alex Haley’s Queen (Warner Bros.) Amazing Planet Earth (Questar) The Attic (Allumination) Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (Warner Bros.) Breaker Morant (Image) Extras: The Complete Series (HBO) Dora the Explorer: Undercover Dora (Paramount) DragonLance: Dragons of the Autumn Twilight (Paramount) Good Luck Chuck (Lionsgate) In the Heat of the Night: 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (United Artists) Johnny Suede (Anchor Bay)…
Adults only on the rink. Thursdays, 9 p.m.-midnight; Sundays, 8:30-11:30 p.m., 2006 Tags: Night & Day
After scoring a top ten hit with “One Toke Over the Line,” California duo Brewer & Shipley moved to rural Missouri. Perhaps it was the complete failure on the part of the mainstream to grasp the subversive nature of the famous song that prompted a move from sunny California to the not-so-sunny (certainly not today) Midwest. Hell, if I wrote…
By C.J. JANOVY More evidence that the chipper airheads in the Star’s FYI department don’t read their own paper, or perhaps any newspaper: Monica Watrous’ column today expressing surprise that there’s a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City (admitting that she didn’t even know what the Fed was). But a quick database search indicates that the phrase…
%{}% By CHRIS PACKHAM • Dems have picked Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to give the traditional “Nuh-uh” response to the President’s State of the Union address. • Police responded to a report of a suspicious package last night in Swope Park. Then, the police evacuated the police station at Hickman Mills and Longview after calling themselves, reporting a suspicious package…
By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI This past summer, Jarmila Gajdosova brought her powerful game and badass attitude to the Kansas City Explorers, one of 11 teams in the World Team Tennis association. She kept the crowds at Barney Allis Plaza on the edge of their seats and, after muscling her way to the second-best winning percentage of any broad in the WTT,…
%{}% By CHRIS PACKHAM • Good news for fans of shitty customer service: New Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is planning to cut thousands of jobs in a reported effort to impress the company’s shareholders. This is the MBA equivalent of beating up the biggest guy you can find on your first day in the slammer so that everyone knows not…
By JUSTIN KENDALL This week’s cover story, “Blood for Blow,” triggered an online backlash — the kind of response we’ve never seen on a feature story. Many readers wondered why The Pitch reported the story of the drug-trafficking murders of Anthony Rios and Olivia Raya. Many commenters called the story’s ending “harsh” and said that it lacked compassion. Still, a…
By NADIA PFLAUM Forget banning smoking in bars and clubs. Let’s ban trick-ass bitches. Trick-ass bitches, as rappers might call them, were the reason that there was a fight Sunday night at Hip Hop and Hot Wings, a weekly gathering of DJs, rappers and scenesters that had been filling a little bar called the Peanut to capacity at 9th…
By ERIC BARTON If you love Stretch, the sculptor and owner of Grinders restaurant, you’ll dig this video of him from last night’s episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. If him saying things like his place is “Stretchified” and “I’m a very big man” annoy you, then you might not want to watch what follows. Categories: News
By PETER RUGG Two Toronto-based documentary filmmakers who just visited Kansas City had a simple offer: In exchange for a place to crash, they offered up their services. Among the things mentioned in their craigslist ad: • Make coffee • Practice for a first date • Data entry • Come up with marketing campaigns • Edit your writing • Work…
The headline of AP article that ran in the Sunday edition of the Star declares “Legislature to see proposal to condemn gangsta rap” Here’s how it begins: The Legislature could make an unusual statement about popular culture this year and criticize gangsta rap for profanity-laced language and what critics consider messages that demean women and promote violence. Rep. Peggy Mast,…
By DAVID MARTIN Hillary Clinton’s local supporters might want to consult a spell book. Over the weekend, her presidential campaign opened an office in a building that Alvin Brooks used in his unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Kansas City. The brick building is located on the corner of 75th and Holmes. It’s owned by futon importer and developer Nicholas…
By ANDY VIHSTADT Separated at Birth Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan premiered the first material from their Gutter Twins project on MySpace last week. The duo, dubbed as the “Satanic Everly Brothers,” will be releasing Saturnalia on Sub Pop on March 4. Get on their space to stream a couple of tracks, including “Idle Hands,” which Dulli says, “fuses Middle…
By NADIA PFLAUM Last week, a guy allegedly drove his car through Wichita City Hall. He wasn’t pleased during his first court appearance. Categories: News
By CHRIS PACKHAM HEARTWARMING This week, C.J. Janovy checked in with author and formerly homeless cab driver Richard G. Tripp, who’s published Please Underestimate Me — The Blood, Guts, and Soul Of Richard G Tripp. CREEPY Why do serial killers and child molesters like cosplay so much? Justin Kendall doesn’t really explore that issue too deeply, because thinking about it…
By CHRIS PACKHAM FRIDAY Happy hour at La Bodega (703 Southwest Boulevard) features 50 percent off tapas, sangria, wines by the glass, well drinks, draft beer and domestic bottles. But the best part is that happy hour starts at 2 p.m., which is three or four hours earlier than most bars in Kansas City kick off their nights. It’s…
By SCOTT WILSON Shawn! Edwards! Now that every newspaper, magazine and blog (including, of course, The Pitch) has run its annual roundup of solemn proclamations on the state of cinema and browbeating best-movies lists, settle back and read eFilmCritic’s Criticwatch 2007. The quasi-watchdog report walks the movie reviewers’ hall of shame, stopping to offer portraits of last year’s greasiest…
Someone told us that this week’s issue of The Pitch is the Paul Malinowski Love Issue. That’s why there’s cocaine and blood on the cover. Not really. But the two biggest music articles this week mention or directly talk about Paul: the feature on Ghosty, and the Buckle Bunny music column on Paul’s new band, Big Sky Blue Earth*….
By JASON HARPER Check out this lede from the Austin paper: Downtown Kansas City, Mo., was desolate at night back in 2003, when Wayne Cauthen became city manager. “Even the rats and the roaches went to sleep,” said Alvin Brooks, a former Kansas City council member. Ah, starting over. Also, it appears that McDonald’s is going to start…
