The Star Meets Olan Mills, Part Four
Who’s that with the Star’s Hearne Christopher? Must be one of his four sources. Categories: News
Archives: February 2008
Obama’s Mama
By NADIA PFLAUM Obama, in Kansas City after his visit to El Dorado At a rally last week for Sen. Barack Obama in El Dorado, Kansas, a surprising number of people came out to see their Kansas son’s homecoming. A prairie blizzard wasn’t enough to deter the snow-caked folks who waited for an hour outside the Butler County Community…
Drinking, Dancing and Flogging Molly
By CRYSTAL K. WIEBE After a solid-drunk weekend, I wasn’t looking to party down again on Monday night. But it’s hard to turn down a shot of Jameson when a member of Flogging Molly is offering. What else would you do with an Irish punk band besides drink? On the night before Flogging Molly’s sold-out show at the Beaumont…
Daily Briefs: Ethics Exam, Free Stuff From the Government, and Edwin Hall: A Balanced View
By CHRIS PACKHAM • “I waited in gleeful anticipation as I watched the Missouri Ethics Commission’s sausage-sized fingers go up under the sheet. Trust me, it wasn’t too hard to tell when the commission hit its mark as it was the exact same moment that I saw Funk’s eyes bulge out of his head. Sadly for me, my sadistic…
The Star Meets Olan Mills, Part Three
Few know that the Star’s Aaron Barnhart enjoys both reviewing television and lifting copious amounts of weights. Categories: News Tags: Aaron Barnhart, Kansas City Star, steroids
No One Loves You
Every year, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (4525 Oak, 816-751-1278) opens its doors for Love in Art, a romantic dinner and lovey-dovey art tour. It’s great for happy couples. But what about pissy singles? They’re the ones who are more likely to frequent art museums, bawling their mascara-ravaged eyes out behind black veils as they ponder van Gogh’s sad-bastard brush…
Nightmare Valentine
The spring semester of a senior year at the University of Kansas usually means floating — savoring your enhanced tolerance for alcohol and hoping your advisers are right when they tell you that your future is laid out before you like some great golden belt just awaiting your notches. Senior Adam Burnett is having none of that. The ambitious playwright…
Snatch Soliloquies
When playwright Eve Ensler first staged The Vagina Monologues in 1996, the controversial show was billed as a celebration of women’s bodies. But by 1998, it was being used to draw attention to sexual abuse and violence against women and girls around the globe. That same year, V-Day was born. V-Day isn’t just a day to reflect on the fact…
Pubes of Enchantment
Here’s a tip for all the gents out there this Valentine’s Day: If your lady’s curtains no longer match her drapes — as it were — but have instead been pruned into the shape of a heart or a bow and dyed a color that does not occur in nature, do not laugh.Stylist Annie Prenni, who works at Pure Salon…
Pancake Dash
Your plan today is simple: Eat 13 plates of pancakes in 15 hours. Here’s why: There are 13 IHOP locations between Lawrence and Grandview, and all of them are giving away a free short stack of pancakes from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. today. Therefore, you have an average of 69 minutes to eat three free flapjacks at one…
Murder Case Is Killed Again
Last Thursday, a press release from the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department announced that the termination of former police officer Danny Holmes would be upheld. As this story relates, Holmes was fired in August 2006 for botching the investigation into the slaying of Guy Coombs, a 25-year-old Cerner businessman who ended up dead near 37th Street and Broadway after…
Dance of the Past
History and dance blend with banjos, spirituals and African drums in a locally produced performance that portrays the experience of people seeking freedom from the fetters of slavery.”It is a historical piece, but there is kind of a twist ending to project it to today,” says Jeremiah Enna, executive producer of Underground. The show takes the stage at 8 p.m….
Native Jazz Son
Kansas City jazz guitarist Norman Brown is s-m-o-o-t-h, but not in a Kenny G way. Brown’s fluid guitar playing — which blends rhythmic complexity with vivid articulation — recalls the work of his idols, Wes Montgomery and George Benson. Collaborations with Brian McKnight, Peabo Bryson and Boyz II Men planted his foot in the soul-jazz camp and introduced him to…
ROOTS, POWER, PRIDE
Roots, power, pride: They’re the kind of words that get tossed around a lot during Black History Month. Pat Alexander has used them to name an exhibit he curated, featuring work by eight local African-American artists. Roots, Power and Pride includes jazz portraits, wooden masks, photography, oil painting, acrylics and more. “I think that all of these pieces fall…
Primary Humors
Presidential primary season is a time for voters to seriously consider which candidate is most fit to lead — that is, if they can keep a straight face long enough to mark a ballot.Laugh at the political landscape tonight during the Comedy Central Live Indecision 2008 Tour’s stop at the University of Kansas’ Lied Center (1600 Stewart Drive in Lawrence).The…
Babes Galore
Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston’s Nine is familiar yet strange, a kinda, sorta hit musical based loosely on Fellini’s 8 1/2. The first scene opens on a marbled spa someplace in Italy. Women from across the continent assemble, excited and bubbling over in English, Italian, French and German. They clamor about one subject: the great film director Guido Contini….
Support the Storm
Women have the inalienable right to do whatever men do, although sometimes you have to wonder whether women should want to do everything men do. Take, for example, football, the sport that noted athlete George F. Will said combines the two worst things in American society: violence and committee meetings. Women have made strides in many areas of society, including…
Unhinged Jaws
Many people think snakes are creepy, but statistically, the fear of public speaking is a more widespread phobia — that’s irrefutable mathematical evidence that giving a speech is way more scary than Snakes Alive, a cool educational program for kids at the Ernie Miller Nature Center (909 North Kansas Highway 7 in Olathe, 913-764-7759). At 2 p.m., kids can meet…
Underground Railroad
Who knew that Wyandotte County was once a beacon of freedom from human bondage? The tiny town of Quindaro, founded in 1856 and since absorbed into Kansas City, Kansas, was a rare midcentury utopian vision. Here, American Indians and white Abolitionists worked together to help runaway slaves cross the swirling eddies of the Missouri River and escape subjugation. Now the…
The Idiot Son: A Board Game
The son of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has made up his own board game called “Don’t Drop the Soap.” Which is funny because it’s about prison rape! John Sebelius created the game as an art-school project and now is selling it online for $34.99. The game puts players in a prison where they have to avoid becoming somebody’s bitch in…
Strike!
Allison Gerding, a junior at the University of Central Missouri, is bowling and talking about her schoolwork. “Anybody who majors in anything but elementary education is dumb,” she tells the other women in Lane 2. “All we do is draw pictures and finger-paint.” It’s a Tuesday afternoon, the second day of the spring semester. The 10-lane bowling alley sits at…
1/2 Price Menu at the Wine Bar
Take advantage of half-price menu items Wednesday through Saturday afternoons. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 3-6 p.m., 2007 Tags: 2817, Night & Day
Extreme Screen: Ride Around the World
Imax film about the life and history of cowboys, from Spain to Morocco to the United States. On the Regnier Extreme Screen. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m., 12:30, 3 & 5:30 p.m.; Sundays, 12:30, 3 & 5:30 p.m., 2007 Tags: Europe, IMAX Corporation, Morocco, Night & Day, Spain
Happy Hour at Milano
Various drink specials and $3 appetizers. Mondays-Saturdays, 2007 Tags: 2817, Night & Day
Find The Pitch
