Archives: September 2008

News

The Download

Andy Vihstadt,

While Stars awaits the results of this year’s Polaris Music Prize, the Montreal pop quintet is hitting the road to promote its next release. Unlike the group’s nominated LP, In Our Bedroom After the War, you won’t find the Sad Robots EP at your local record store. The limited-edition physical copies can be purchased only online or at the merch…

Movies

The Women

ELLA TAYLOR,

Trailing negative buzz and a revolving door of A-list talent since its inception in 1994, Diane English’s pudding-soft remake of George Cukor’s wicked 1939 satire of Manhattan socialites isn’t so much incompetent as it is hopelessly tame and muddled. The Women has all the visual glamour of a suburban rummage sale. It doesn’t help that an annoyingly girlish Meg Ryan…
Movies

Burn After Reading

J. Hoberman,

Masters of the carefully crafted cheap shot, Joel and Ethan Coen have built a career on flippancy. Given their refusal to take anything seriously — least of all the enthusiasm of their fans — the brothers surely got a chuckle from an upcoming academic tome, The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers, which includes such ruminations as “Once again, Kierkegaard’s distinction…

Music

Fly By Night KKFI’s DJ Kool Wayne keeps it real the world over

Crystal K. Wiebe,

It’s nearly midnight on a recent Thursday. Having already been to a rock show, I’m now drinking Red Bull in the Westport building that houses KKFI 90.1. DJ “Kool Wayne” Dowdy lounges across from me, sleepy-eyed and grinning. In a few minutes, he’ll take over the small broadcast studio to bump lots of underground beats from here and down south…

A&E

Stage Capsules

Alan Scherstuhl,

The Homecoming Even in a week clogged with premieres from the biggest theaters in town, Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre’s production of Harold Pinter’s prickly 1964 drama seems likely to be a don’t-miss event. Though it bounces from location to location, the company gets better and more ambitious each season. In The Homecoming, Pinter crafts bracing drama from the strained family ties…

A&E

Art Capsules

Dana Self,

Siah Armajani: Dialogue With Democracy One of this nation’s most important public-art figures, Siah Armajani was born in Iran in 1939 but is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. In commissioned work all over the country, he typically suggests the ideals of a society that encourage open dialogue among its citizenry. His sculptures emerge from a love for the language of…

News

You Say Tomato is ripe for changes

Charles Ferruzza,

There’s a bushel full of changes taking place at You Say Tomato, the popular coffee shop, bruncheonette and neighborhood hangout at 2801 Holmes. One of the three founding partners, Michael Pouncil, is moving to Portland, Oregon, though he’s apparently keeping an interest in the two-year-old restaurant. “We’re going to miss the hell out of him,” says Mark Wingard, who started…
Food & Drink, Restaurant Reviews

North, out south, is excellent even when the server’s all mixed up

Charles Ferruzza,

Some restaurant meals barely register in my memory banks. But I’ll never forget my meals at North, the “cool, hip and casual” trattoria — according to the description in the corporate press kit from Arizona-based Fox Restaurant Concepts — for reasons that are at once wonderful, annoying and unintentionally hilarious. Let’s start with the location: North is south. The stylish…
A&E

Jonathan Bridges knows that in ceramics, clay isn’t enough anymore

Dana Self,

Kansas City artist Jonathan Bridges expands the vocabulary of clay in the same way that fiber artists expand the vocabulary of fiber — by co-opting material that exists outside the medium’s traditional boundaries. He understands that contemporary ceramics must embrace past and present as well as materials that seemingly have nothing to do with clay, such as plastics, the rubbery…
A&E, Stage

The Unicorn’s Rising Water ends up sinking

Alan Scherstuhl,

Last Friday, at the Kansas City premiere of John Biguenet’s two-character Hurricane Katrina drama Rising Water, I not only learned that New Orleanians are decent folks with gallows humor. I also learned that they’re so chill, they’ll watch their homes flood up around them with less alarm than most people feel about a spider in the bathroom. Hell, my cats…
News

Trail Nuts

Carolyn Szczepanski,

Yellow “Race Event” signs pockmark the ground at Wyandotte County Lake Park, a 1,500-acre expanse just a few minutes from The Legends megamall. The parking lot steadily fills with men and women pulling on mud-caked shoes. Dusk casts lazy shadows on the lake as runners fill out forms and pin numbers to their athletic shorts. At the edge of the crowd,…
News

It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere

David Martin,

In July, WDAF Fox 4 aired a report about the new smoking ban in Kansas City, Missouri. Reporter Dave Dunn and a photographer went to various bars and restaurants to get reaction to the month-old ordinance. The stops included a visit to J.J.’s Restaurant near the Plaza. The photographer’s camera lingered for a moment on the restaurant’s sunbathed bar. There…

News

With Gustavo Arellano’s new book arriving stores on Mexican Independence Day, here’s a history lesson

Gustavo Arellano,

From the OC to KC Dear Readers: The Mexican’s new book, Orange County: A Personal History, is in your local bookstore on September 16 — by pure coincidence, Mexican Independence Day! In honor of the day and to shamelessly promote my muy caliente libro (which deals with America’s Gomorrah, the reconquista and John Wayne), I’m answering historical questions this week….

Letters From the Week of September 11

Letters, August 28 “Life” vs. Life On your August 28 Letters page, Cecilia Albers whines about your paper’s use of the term anti-choice. I find it adequately descriptive and totally appropriate. She pleads for using the label pro-life. When the Supremes (the old farts on the bench, not the Motown singers) rendered Roe v. Wade, the public debate was framed…
News

Phill Kline Attempts to Reassure DA’s staff

Justin Kendall,

By Justin Kendall Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline sent an e-mail to his employees this morning explaining that he’s trying to arrange meetings with Steve Howe and Rick Guinn — candidates running for the office. The Pitch obtained a copy of the e-mail, which follows. I know that this period of time can be unsettling for many of you….

Music

Ice Cube in Kansas City: VIDEO

Jason Harper,

Ice Cube – “Straight Outta Compton/Gangsta Gangsta” With WC and DJ Crazy Toones at Harrah’s VooDoo Lounge, 9/9/08 Read our review. Categories: Music Tags: Ice Cube