On any given Sunday afternoon, when your buddy says she’s going for a “beer run,” she probably means swinging down to the corner store for a six-pack. Not today. Just after dawn, scores of runners will gather near Boulevard Brewing Company and start a 44-mile relay to Free State Brewery in Lawrence. Since 1995, the popular Brew to Brew…
According to the premise of R.W. Klamm’s new play, bumblebees defy science with their ability to fly. Bob, the protagonist of Fly Like a Bumblebee, is kinda like that. He’s blind, but you’d hardly know it. He writes radio skits and does magic tricks. The inspirational comedy is mostly autobiographical — Klamm grew up nearly blind in Kansas City, Kansas,…
If cinema is society’s most unforgiving mirror, then the Imaging Blackness exhibition can tell the civil rights story as vividly as any textbook. The traveling exhibition of film posters chronicles Hollywood’s depictions of the African-American experience, from D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation to Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. (For some inexplicable reason, Keenen Ivory Wayans’ White Chicks didn’t make…
The Screenland’s Coen brothers retrospective starts with the filmmakers’ lean, mean 1984 noir. The murders aren’t crimes of passion, the adultery throws off no sparks, and the dramatis personae remains the least sympathetic in the Coen oeuvre — and those are the movie’s good points. Friday, April 4, through Sunday, April 6, at the Screenland (1656 Washington, 816-421-9700). April…
Max von Sydow plays a hypnotist and magician with revenge on his mind in Ingmar Bergman’s 1958 spooky, symbol-heavy contemplation of death, mysticism and performance. The movie, which still divides Bergman fans and remains unavailable on DVD in the United States, screens as part of the Tivoli’s Janus Film Series. Tuesday, April 8, at 7 p.m. at Tivoli Cinemas…
Ang Lee’s closely observed comedy of manners kicks off the KC Library’s “Culture Clashes” film series. The 1992 movie follows an elderly tai chi master (the title refers to one of that discipline’s tenets) from Beijing to the United States as he moves in with his modern-minded son and daughter-in-law. Monday, April 7, at 6:30 p.m. in the Kansas City,…
The young cat is blowing his tenor horn, barking out the low notes, then rising and twisting the fleshy machinery of his palate to squeal the climactic, mile-above-the-staff altissimo notes. The drummer keeps time at a rapid clip, tapping the cymbals, not breaking a sweat. The man on bass is cool, too. His hands lope along with the changes, sliding…
Classic musical comedy. March 20-April 13, 2008 Tags: 158, Night & Day
Puppet and marionette exhibit. Aug. 7-July 31, 2007 Tags: Night & Day
Lidia’s market inspired brunch a trip to the bountiful anitipasti buffet featuring Italian meats, cheeses and salads from Kansas City’s farmer’s market. Select a hot entree from Lidia’s most popular lunch entrees, then enjoy the dessert buffet with all of the house-made desserts. $19.50 per person. Saturdays, Sundays, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 2007 Tags: Kansas City, Night & Day
Wonderscope art program for kids — dress for artsy mess. Tuesdays, 10 a.m.-noon, 2007 Tags: 2526, Night & Day
Fundraising event, with live and silent auction of masks by local artists. Sat., April 5, 2008 Tags: 1624, Night & Day
John Raux’s photography and writing from his 2,600 mile walk on the Pacific Crest Trail. Food and Drink will be provided. Paintings displayed in a related exhibition at Beige, 1907 Main. April 4-May 2, 2008 Tags: John Raux, Night & Day, Pacific Crest Trail
Like any good business, Temptations, the “gentlemen’s club” on Grand downtown, wants to capitalize on all that money being spent on tickets to concerts at the Sprint Center and on booze at Kansas City Live! No doubt, some of that dough could be converted into dollar bills. So Temptations recently proposed a little expansion. As an incentive to get the…
After his recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Canadian folk legend Leonard Cohen announced his first tour dates in 15 years. Despite early rumors, nothing has been scheduled for this side of the border, so the Walkmen decided to take matters into their own hands. No stranger to covers (the band’s last LP was a song-for-song…
Click here to download the mix “Surgical Strike” by FSTZ. Describing dubstep might get you into trouble. As musical pundits try their best to coin phrases to explain the dub and the step, many lump dubstep in the category of “slowed-down UK garage.” That may work for now, but as this new form of electronic music takes a bigger,…
With PB&J conducting, the Bistro at Union Station is on the right track. T he other day, I was trying to count up the number of times ill-fated vows have been taken with the restaurant formerly known as the Union Café. When the newly restored Union Station opened in 1999, the one-time ticket counter in the center of the…
On a cold Saturday evening in late February, a line snakes out of the Gem Theater and onto 18th Street. People wait in anxious knots. The rumor, passed from way up front: There’s no room left. Volunteers dash in and out of the packed theater, bringing word of open seats to the crew at the doors; they squeeze in…
The longest-running rivalry in modern metal pits Mushroomhead against Slipknot, a conflict that continues its inexorable march toward some sort of Wrestlemania resolution. The feud started back in 1999, when Mushroomhead accused Slipknot of stealing its creepy-mask shtick, and it’s only become more heated in recent years. Mushroomhead ridiculed its nemesis during a Halloween 2006 performance, then posted a parody…
“Joey! Fucked! Up!” It’s too bad the guys in Anthrax can’t say that with good humor, the way they used to when they would ask crowds to yell it back at them as part of their good-time rap spoof, “I’m the Man.” Though it may seem unfortunate that one of thrash metal’s premier vocalists has been fired from Anthrax twice…
“Graffiti Girl” by Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands, from Snake in the Radio (Bloodshot Records): In an early incarnation of Screaming Trees, Mark Pickerel sang and Mark Lanegan played the drums. The Marks traded places before the Trees released their first record, but Pickerel never abandoned his frontman ambitions. After drumming for everyone from Nirvana to Neko Case, Pickerel…
“Invasion” by Eisley, from Combinations (Reprise/WEA): Eisley’s background — buncha young, innocent-looking sibling popsters from small-town America — recalls the Osmonds or Hanson, but the group’s enchanting music screams (OK, purrs) Sixpence None the Richer crossed with Coldplay. Romantic, dramatic and sometimes bittersweet, the Texas quintet manages to spin fantastical, Narnia-inspired yarns without coming off mawkish. It’s hard not…
“A Voice As Old As Fire” by State Bird, from Mostly Ghostly (The Record Machine): Despite some recent play in the mainstream press (Spin named it “Band of the Day” a few weeks back), don’t expect to see any State Bird songs on upcoming versions of Guitar Hero. For one thing, it would cost a small fortune to purchase all…
As a kid, I spent countless hours thumbing through a dog-eared copy of The Guinness Book of World Records, determined to find just the right stupid human trick to vault me into freak-show history. Turns out I didn’t need to waste all those years stretching my neck with metal rings; I could have just popped in The Legend of Zelda…
