%{}% By CHRIS PACKHAM • Hillary Clinton, after hammering Barack Obama for supposed “plagiarism,” ended last night’s debate with the line “You know, the hits I’ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country.” Which, if you’re a fan of phrases borrowed from other peoples’ speeches, you’re…
You haven’t been reading The Pitch if you don’t know about the Ssion or Murderbot. Murderbot, aka a young DJ named Chris, recently relocated to Chicago and founded Sleazetone Records, on which he has released the latest Ssion single on CD and vinyl. However, Chris is having trouble getting the release out on the DJ-friendly digitial distro site Beatport. Below…
%{}% By CHRIS PACKHAM • The Pitch sister paper The Village Voice has an exposé about fake pretend reality television that will chill you to the bone. Specifically, the bone that enjoys watching the American Iron Chef. I know, I know, reality is a construct and reality TV is an even more constructed construct, and we all know it. But…
By NADIA PFLAUM A dozen people showed up at the gravesite of 15-year-old Charles T. Simpson recently to mark the third anniversary of his slaying. Simpson’s mother, Pamela, handed out Dixie cups containing citronella tea light candles. The family, joined by former Mayor Pro-Tem Alvin Brooks, formed a shivering half-circle around the boy’s headstone in the Forest Hill Calvary…
By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI Move over Obama Girl, this Kansas City baby has a crush on the smooth-talking senator, too. James Pfeiffer, an architect with the local firm BNIM, is the proud father of an Obama-loving toddler. Whenever Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama hits the airwaves, Pfeiffer says, his 16-month-old daughter lights up. “She runs to the TV and starts making…
New York photographer Stephen Shore’s early years sound like an ambitious art student’s to-do list: Discover life’s passion by first grade … check. Sell three works to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art by age 14 … OK. Meet Andy Warhol and photograph the Factory scene before I’m old enough to vote … yep. Get solo MoMA show by the…
Don’t count us out yet. The fashion world might not revolve around Kansas City, but local designers, stylists, models and musicians are proving that this cowtown isn’t so 10-years-ago anymore. Hosted by Creative Talent Agency, the Rock N’ Fashion Show at Crosstown Station (1522 McGee, 816-471-1522) mashes up fashion and music in a runway show of special collections from…
“You can never be lonely when you have nuts around,” Elizabeth Tashjian, the “Nut Lady,” told Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. But Tashjian’s fleeting celebrity as the nutty maven of late-night TV yielded only a glimpse of her life’s passion, which concluded with her death at age 94. By then, she was the embattled owner of the Nut Museum…
If you’ve ever resented the invisible line that separates viewers from the rarefied art at most galleries and museums, head over to the Kansas City Art Institute’s H&R Block Artspace (16 East 43rd Street), where works by more than 160 local artists makes up Flatfile, an interactive show that lets you put your paws all over the art. Flatfile is…
Black people aren’t funny — that’s the message the American Film Institute sent in 2000 with its “100 Laughs” list, which included only three movies with African-American leads. “Blazing Saddles made the cut, but it’s a Mel Brooks film,” critic Shawn Edwards says. “Then there’s one Eddie Murphy movie (Beverly Hills Cop) and one Richard Pryor movie (Silver Streak), both…
It’s not easy to hold the dual titles of comic’s comic and crowd favorite simultaneously. But funnyman Brian Regan had the DIY chutzpah to do things his own clean-yet-cutting way for two decades, scoring spots on Carson, Letterman and Conan, selling more than 100,000 copies of his Brian Regan Live CD and cultivating a rabid following along the way….
It is hard to find an activity less healthy than sitting on a bar stool, drinking heavily in a smoke-filled environment. Today, the Ninth-Annual Miller Lite Barstool Open allows participants to exercise while they chug. The activity is a sport requiring the bare minimum in physical exertion: miniature golf. Stagger through a 27-hole tournament that begins at 10 a.m. and…
At some point, most of us consider buying that proverbial doggie in the window. Conscientious types realize that there are plenty of adoptable animals out there, and pets are a lot of responsibility. The responsibility factor increases a bazillionfold when it comes to exotic birds. Such exotic birds as macaws and Quaker parrots don’t necessarily make good pets. People…
Typically, raffle tickets cost a buck or two and come in the form of little stubs. Tonight at the Brick (1727 McGee, 816-421-1634), a necklace is a raffle ticket, and it costs a kiss. As folks stream through the door for a night of drag, dramatic readings, puppetry and music, they can kiss a photo of the local performance…
For the 80th consecutive year, Hollywood’s best and brightest assemble tonight for a chance to palm a small naked man named Oscar. To watch who wins, climb upstairs to Louise’s Downtown (1009 Massachusetts in Lawrence) for the Third-Annual Scene Stealers Oscar Party.Before the big event, partiers can predict Oscar winners through an online ballot. Then they’ll head to Louise’s to…
If you’re getting bored with your enforced sedentary lifestyle this winter, the Kansas City Whitewater Club can help prep you for rugged outdoor adventures in the spring — such as maneuvering your kayak through the white-water torrent of the Colorado River. Plus, the club holds its training simulations in a swimming pool — just like the astronauts! Specifically, the club…
Tonight’s Bourbon Street Runway Fashion Show at William Jewell College brings area designers and members of Jewell’s Black Student Association together for a Hurricane Katrina benefit with a carnivale theme. Organizer Bethany Brown, president of the Black Student Association at Jewell, says, “We’re trying to raise awareness of ongoing relief efforts. It took longer than three years to build New…
Unlike the Jonas Brothers — the Disneyfied boy band headlining tonight at the Sprint Center — opening act Rooney actually has some cool cred. Like, did you know that singer Robert Schwartzman, who writes all of the band’s songs, is the brother of it-boy Jason Schwartzman? Robert was also buddy-buddy with Johnny Ramone, which is how his melodic pop band…
Heartsaver AED: You will learn techniques to save adult, infant and child victims of cardiac or respiratory arrest. This course teaches one-person cardiopulmonary resuscitation, rescue breathing and the Heimlich maneuver. You will also receive valuable tips on the prevention of cardiovascular disease that can lead to heart attack or stroke. Classes are limited to 12 students. Pre-registration is required….
National Book Award Finalist, author of The Zero. Helzberg Auditorium, Kansas City Public Library, 14 W. 10th St., Kansas City, Mo. Wed., Feb. 27, 7 p.m., 2008 Tags: kansas city public library, National Book Awards, Night & Day
In honor of sweeps month, the Department of Burnt Ends looked into a frightening phenomenon. Cue the scary music and the ominous-sounding voice-over: Why did our local newscasts run the same investigative stories during a two-week period? In a story you’ll only see here, we go undercover with our own sting operation. First, some background. During the week of January…
It’s a horrible time to run for the Kansas City, Missouri, School Board. Yet on a windy January evening, the Durwin Rice Gallery — a two-room storefront near 55th Street and Troost — is packed with people mingling casually, sipping red wine and snacking on cheese cubes under the striking collages hanging on the walls. They’re here to support…
To say that the Unicorn Theatre’s new Jerome stage is intimate is not just a polite way of calling it small. This years-in-the-making expansion of the venerable Unicorn is compact but not crowded, not so much tight as it is fitted: It’s small in that perfect way, like your favorite pants from high school. Here, an actress’s whisper carries…
The pleasures of Be Kind Rewind do not extend far beyond the promise of its premise: Jack Black, magnetized and manic (yawn), erases every single videotape in the rental store where he hangs out and has to reshoot the movies with pal Mos Def. Theirs becomes a ramshackle filmography of redos made for pennies on the multimillions: Ghostbusters, 2001:…
