The filmmakers, artists and self-described hooligans whose work comprises the multimedia, film and animation road-show Cartune Xpress roll into the Wonder Fair Art Gallery (803 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 406-360-5875) tonight for a 70-minute celluloid-and-performance tour-de-force. The show includes a performance piece called “Realer,” in which the duo Hooliganship provides the soundtrack and dances in front of a projected 3-D film depicting,…
Feeling guilty about all the nonrenewable resources you blow through to power your house and car? Learn to build and install environmentally and fiscally friendly energy sources during Energy Alternatives, a class offered by Johnson County Community College. Starting tonight, the hands-on course meets for the next 15 Mondays at 7 p.m. at Centennial Elementary School (2145 Louisiana, Lawrence). Registration…
This talk by professor William Tsutsui of the University of Kansas spotlights Asian games, sports and puzzles either not known or commonly misunderstood in the West. For instance: Unlike Uno and Yahtzee, it is not actually necessary to shout out “Mahjong!” in order to win a game of Mahjong. Weird, right? If you enjoy games and Asian cultures, this talk…
This appealing, very casual Italian restaurant is owned by Subarna Bhattachan and Alejandro Lule – proprietors of Lawrence’s popular La Parilla and Zen Zero dining spots – and Mexican-born chef Armando Paniagua. Meals begin with a plate of soft foccacia and a tiny dish of olives, green beans and chopped carrots marinated in a fragrant blend of olive oil, anise…
When the Ringling Brothers circus collided with the Barnum & Bailey circus, the result was three spectacular rings of spectacle, plus clowns. Juggling clowns, clowns in cars, sad clowns what have you. But: There are also elephants and a heightened degree of colorful theatricality, thanks to the last couple of decades of Cirque du Soleil’s influence on Big Circus. They…
: Mixed media by Rockwell and photography by Woude and Kennedy at the grand opening of Photo Studio B and the B Gallery (2016 Main, 816-994-8995) from 5 to 10 p.m. Fri., Sept. 5, 5-10 p.m., 2008 Tags: 185, Night & Day
: See the work of local, national and international printmakers at the grand opening of Inkubator Press, Kansas City’s first community fine-art print studio, at Cocoon Gallery (115 West Eighth Street, 816-421-2292). Tour the facility and hear the artists speak between 6 and 9 p.m. Fri., Sept. 5, 6-9 p.m., 2008 Tags: Kansas City, Night & Day
Boy, Kansas City sure is faaaaat. Unless, of course, KC is skinny. Because according to the past few years of Men’s Fitness health studies, both seem true. Our city’s composite waistline has fluctuated as wildly as Eddie Murphy in a fat suit. The simple solution — a pedometer — is being handed out for free today at 10 a.m. at…
Kansas autumns: cool breezes, auburn leaves and the annual migration of 25,000 Neanderthals — er, college students — into Lawrence proper. This spawns a spike in hazings, keggers and roofied cocktails. But the migration also includes some of the artists that sculpt Lawrence into a cultural Eden of the plains. Support the scene by strolling in the sixth Red Balloon…
“The Nigga You Love To Hate,” by Ice Cube, from AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (Priority Records): O’Shea Jackson, known to most as Ice Cube, helped introduce gangsta to the popular consciousness, first with N.W.A., then solo with his posse Da Lench Mob and finally with a star turn in Boyz n the Hood. In the late ’90s, Cube put the game…
“Only As The Day Is Long,” by Sera Cahoone, from Only As The Day Is Long (Sub Pop Records): It took awhile for folk songstress and ex-Band of Horses drummer Sera Cahoone to put down the sticks and put herself front and center. Once she did, it didn’t take long for her home of Seattle — and the rest of…
“Here Comes My Ship,” by Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, from Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby (Stiff Records): Categories: Music Tags: Amy Rigby, Jonathan Richman, show preview, Will Ferrell, Wreckless Eric
There’s no longevity award in metal, but Motorhead doesn’t need one. Warts and all, the London-born trio has been cranking out blistering speed-metal (heavy on the speed … and the metal) since 1975, longer than many of its fans have been alive. Over the course of approximately 357 albums, including the brand-new Motorizer (Steamhammer), Lemmy and pals — ex-King Diamond…
By most appearances, Sarah Buxton is living the dream she set out to fulfill when she graduated from Lawrence High School and moved to Nashville. A decade later, the raspy-voiced singer has co-written a top-five hit (Keith Urban’s “Stupid Boy”), backed up Dierks Bentley on The Today Show and performed at more county fairs than you can shake a chicken…
While some musicians go for a more entrepreneurial approach, Blitzen Trapper is happy to ditch its DIY ways and sign on the dotted line. The Portland, Oregon, outfit has built a healthy following with a relentless tour schedule and a few self-released albums, including last year’s critically hailed Wild Mountain Nation. The next collection of psychedelic folk-rock songs will be…
Bill Sundahl isn’t quite sure where he was or what he was doing in that one moment this past May when he decided to revive his Crossroads Music Festival for a fourth run. “I was probably fucking drunk,” says the man most locals know as Roach. Somebody go and tip Sundahl’s bartender, because CMF4 is gonna be cool. Going down…
“Night of the Hunter,” by Tussle, from Cream Cuts (Smalltown Supersound): Tussle’s willingness to break rules isn’t the only thing that makes it a bona fide San Francisco band. Although the quartet’s music could be lumped into the post-techno category, the group’s members have become susceptible to Frisco’s lingering psychedelic vibe. After musing about the ways the “colors and layers”…
“Text Message,” by D-Locc da Chop, from King Me (Van Brunt Entertainment): The core acts from local R&B and rap label and promotions company Van Brunt Entertainment — Cash Image, D-Locc da Chop and D-Locc’s little brother, Slopp da Gambla — grew up around Van Brunt Boulevard and 20th Street on Kansas City’s east side. They take turns pushing one…
A friend of mine, married to a well-known local restaurateur, called me a couple of weeks ago to share some restaurant gossip. Two friends of hers, wealthy and connected, had been “kicked out” of Bluestem (900 Westport Road) one night by the owner, Colby Garrelts. This couple, it seems, had sat at the bar and ordered an appetizer and a…
Chef Michael Smith’s namesake restaurant has been open well over a year now, but it has taken me this long to write about it. Can’t say why, exactly. I had a nice lunch there last winter and loved the rabbit gnocchi and the vastly improved interior décor in the former Zin dining room. Smith had wisely hired designer Eric Negrete…
Times are tough all over. Today, several families are visiting the office of Catholic Charities at 333 East Poplar in Olathe, just across the street from Mill Creek Park, a few blocks from the Johnson County Courthouse. Inside the one-story, peach-colored building, parents are picking through bags of donated groceries in the food pantry and poking through cubbies full of…
Two weeks ago, while driving, a sharp fact jabbed me through the soft drone of NPR. The story concerned a John McCain campaign memo that was leaked to the press — something about Barack Obama’s likelihood of enjoying a serious post-convention bounce, the kind of “leak” one assumes comes from a campaign trying to manage public expectation. The memo’s author?…
Power companies earn their bad reputations. A front company for Sunflower Electric Power ran newspaper ads implying that people who opposed their coal-plant expansion were friends of terrorists and dictators. In Cass County, Aquila built a gas-fired plant without the proper permits, leading a judge to rule that the $140 million plant must be torn down. (Missouri legislators later intervened…
A Contented Illegal Dear Mexican: I’m an illegal alien. Got here on a tourist visa and stayed for a job. My gabacho employer knows about it and doesn’t give a crap. I don’t apologize about it — ever since I can remember, the U.S.A. has meddled around other countries’ business like it owns the world. That, at least in my mind,…
