Lawrence’s Sunset Drive-In closed more than 25 years ago. A Sonic Drive-In and a radio station now occupy its former space. But for almost as long as the Sunset has been closed, Lawrence Parks and Recreation has filled the outdoor film void with a summer movie series. For the past two summers, Parks and Rec has teamed up with Downtown…
“Faux textile” mixed media and works on paper, displayed inside the Wonder Fair Art Gallery. June 28-July 24, 2008 Tags: 636, Night & Day
The BMW Ultimate Drive supporting Susan G. Komen for the Cure will once again cross the country to raise funds and awareness of the Komen for the Cure promise to end breast cancer forever. The Ultimate Drive will stop at more than 210 BMW Centers nationwide with the goal of donating an additional $1 million to the cause. The BMW…
When George Harrison died in 2001, he left behind a legacy of music and spirituality that inspired people around the world — not bad for the former Beatle known as “the quiet one.” Celebrate Harrison’s life in music tonight at Heart and Soul: A Benefit Concert for the George Garden at Harper’s (1601 East 18th Street).Local musicians Victor Kerr, the…
At this particular moment, no one is more on top of the stand-up game than Chris Rock. Some jokesters rake more in, sell out bigger venues, write more cutting-edge material or accumulate MySpace friends at a faster rate. But at the highest intersection of critical acclaim and mainstream recognition, Rock stands alone. His hard-hitting commentaries on race and sociopolitical injustices…
If a picture is worth a thousand words and films are projected at around 24 frames per second, then streaming video is worth at least 24 thousand words a second. Combine art pieces and video in one exhibit, and it’s a recipe for discourse. Check out visual art that inspires discussion today at the 20/21 Gallery “Conversation Wall” in the…
For When Did You Know?, a documentary in which local gays and lesbians recollect discovering their attraction to the not-opposite sex, Lisa Marie Evans had several sources from which to draw inspiration and material: Robert Trachtenberg’s 2005 anecdote collection, When I Knew, and the Cinemax documentary of the same name; radio footage on the topic culled from KKFI 90.1’s “The…
On this date in 1776, the powdered-wig-wearing Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, and our new country immediately launched all of its Patriot missiles and blew up King George III’s Panzer divisions. Therefore, in true apple-pie-spangled style, we mark the founding of our nation via explosions in the sky — preferably synchronized to the stirring, amplified strains of…
The Slap-n-Tickle Gallery (504 East 18th Street, 816-716-5940) got off to a rough start last summer when its co-founder Mott-ly died shortly before the gallery opened. And things have gotten worse: The gallery faces eviction if it doesn’t come up with $1,000 in past-due utility bills. The solution is an art auction to raise money. If the Slap-n-Tickle’s previous exhibits…
This Independence Day, many of the galleries that would otherwise hold art openings are closed in honor of our nation’s most famous act of individuality. They’ll open their doors next Friday instead. Meanwhile, in celebration of said individuality, at least two venues are featuring shows by artists whose work would never have made it back when this country was founded.Tonight…
Saved by the Bell permanently altered the Saturday morning landscape in 1989, replacing animated slapstick with sitcom pratfalls and cartoon-induced chuckles with a canned laugh track. Surreal Saturdays, a weekly viewing party at the Kansas City Public Library, flashes back to an earlier era, when kids celebrated the week’s only no-school, no-church morning by reveling in the adventures of superheroes…
Jazz in the heart of Manhattan? Of course. That’s like asking if there are bagels in Brooklyn or penthouses on Park Avenue. But what about jazz in the heart of Manhattan, Kansas? Thanks to the Little Apple Jazz Festival, an event that’s been sponsored by the K-State Union Program Council for the past eight years, sizzling cymbals, bounding bass lines…
When local race organizer Lou Joline took over the popular Northland Delight bike tour this year, he said to himself, “Enough of this pussyfooting around. We need to tell people like it is.” So, after a decade of cyclists gutting it out over hilly terrain in the sweltering July heat, the ride has been appropriately renamed the Northland Nightmare. For…
Catch a load of prison mug shots at the Kansas City Public Library’s Central Branch (14 West 10th Street, 816-701-3400). Developed by the National Archives, the exhibit Mugged! A Rogue’s Gallery of Leavenworth Penitentiary Mug Shots features turn-of-the-century images depicting criminals of all castes and skill levels. Kenneth M. LaMaster, who worked as a corrections officer and is now a…
Poetry has always been the lyrical companion to prose’s staid, straightforward style, the former pitching and rolling on staccato waves while the latter plows steadfastly ahead into uncharted text. That poetry is imbued with musical elements seems too obvious to mention — until you pair the two and see just how clear the connection is. Experience the relationship between music…
What is it with hippie girls and hula hoops? Ali Mangan, a self-described “hoop mama,” is somehow not offended by that question. “Many people will say that the String Cheese Incident started the hooping movement,” she explains, referencing the jam band. “They used to throw big hula hoops out into the crowd, just chuck ’em at people. From there, it…
The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis as a dead man, was writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s breakthrough, but its follow-up, Unbreakable, starring Willis as the walking dead reborn as a superhero, is the filmmaker’s masterpiece. It remains the most quietly influential of all recent superhero movies, the unacknowledged template for directors looking to make the indestructible vulnerable, the enormously heroic smaller…
The Red Balloon was the art-house E.T. of 1956. Flight of the Red Balloon is something far more baffling — a literal-minded movie with an amiably free-floating metaphor. Chinese grandmaster Hou Hsiao-hsien, who screened The Red Balloon only after he was commissioned to remake it by the Musée d’Orsay, has said the film shows the “cruel realities” of childhood. His…
“It’s Not Safe (Everything’s Going To Be Alright)” by Lori Chaffer, from 1Beginning (Hey Ruth Music): On June 1, after giving a sermon about the Old Testament character Bathsheba, Jacob’s Well pastor Deth Im turned the mic over to a tall, brown-haired woman. Lori Chaffer was supposed to offer her reflections on Bathsheba through music. As it turned out, the…
“Mistakes of the Century” by Waiting for Signal, from The Catastrophe EP (self-released): With fewer than a dozen shows to its name, Kansas City’s Waiting for Signal is still a new commodity on the local scene. But the group’s debut, The Catastrophe EP, has some attention-getting moments that prove these four fellows are hardly fresh-faced when it comes to adrenalized…
“Okay” by Kaiser Cartel, from March Forth (Bluhammock Music): With its satin-smooth vocals, likable melodies and momentary smatterings of cataclysmic bliss, it’s amazing Kaiser Cartel hasn’t been heard on a Grey’s Anatomy episode. Much like Mates of State in style and history, real-life couple Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel are the yin and yang of this notable New York duo,…
When the Westport Meltdown first invaded midtown, in 2003, it was a three-club crawl, each venue stocked with profanely aggressive nu-metal bands. The 2008 installation takes place exclusively at the Beaumont Club (on two stages) and showcases mostly radio-ready hard stuff. Canvas, the only group on this bill that predates the inaugural Meltdown, has survived incarnations as a rap-rock act…
Mashup maestro Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, is hopping on the bandwagon and letting fans set the price for his latest LP, Feed the Animals. The Pittsburg DJ’s fourth album blends everything from Hot Chip to Ice Cube into one seamless mix. Download it at the Illegal Art Records site, but expect a slight, one-question guilt trip if you decide…
The words “user-generated content” usually mean you’re about to encounter one of two things: an irritating Super Bowl commercial made by 16-year-olds, or another dramatic chipmunk. Still, people love this stuff. So it’s no surprise that video-game developers are catering to the YouTube generation with “Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy” — a phenomenal little shooter title that allows you to…
