Since the end of the cold war, the Western hemisphere has lied awake late at night worrying about nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, and generally losing a lot of sleep. Doctors recommend a combination therapy of Ambien and obstinately pretending everything is okay, but that treatment plan runs up against the wall of not actually doing anything…
When the improbably named critic Punch Shaw of the Fort Worth Telegram wrote, “(Cowboy Bill Martin) is apt to remind you of Gary Busey with an edge,” which Gary Busey was he thinking of? Was he comparing Cowboy Bill to a lovable, edgeless puppy named Gary Busey? Or was he talking about batshit insane, terrifying Gary Busey, the product of…
One of the best-loved pastry shops in town also serves a Swiss-style lunch (about $11) Tuesday through Saturday. It includes one of four entrees (two are always quiche), a salad, beverage and a maddeningly decadent pastry from the dessert tray, which a server dramatically presents at the end of the meal. For special occasions, there’s no better lunch spot, even…
Jerry Seinfeld has had many notable moments as a pitchman. In 1993, he appeared as his sitcom alter ego on The Today Show wearing the puffy shirt designed by Kramer’s low-talking girlfriend. From 1998 through 2004, the real Seinfeld partnered with Superman in a series of American Express TV and Web ads. Last year, he shilled during the second-season premiere…
It took Hollywood stop-motion animators and puppet makers over 10 years to meticulously shoot Kung Fu Panda frame-by-frame, using techniques originally developed for television’s beloved Christian animated series, Davey and Goliath. And just like Davey and Goliath, Kung Fu Panda comes with an important message — a message about ass-kicking. Po the Panda, voiced by Hollywood favorite Dom DeLuise, has…
If actual haunted houses exist, they have to be a lot of work for the ghosts to operate, because lord knows it takes an army of decorators, technicians, actors, makeup artists and sundry other spooky laborers to pull off the excellent simulated haunted houses in Kansas City’s glorious West Bottoms Haunted House District. Anyway, it’s fall, it’s almost Halloween, and…
Whether you’re a bionic Olympiad with adductor magnus and semitendinosus muscles like coiled bands of titanium or a Rascal-bound Modern Maturity aficionado, today’s 4-mile and 1-mile fun run/fun walk routes through Swope Park and the Kansas City Zoological Park offer terrain for everyone. The zoo invites you to participate in this year’s charity perambulation to benefit the endangered frogs of…
Oh, good, the June Waldo Crawldo pub crawl has a sister event in September, the Falldo Waldo Crawldo, a night of wandering amongst the pubs of Kansas City’s beloved Waldo neighborhood, home of the Waldo Muskrats — GO MUSKRATS! Up to ten locations from last year’s event, tickets are $10 at the door, and $5 in advance from any of…
Since its renovation in 1999, Union Station has had a hard time establishing itself as a culinary destination. But things improved for the cafe in the center of the Grand Hall when local restaurateurs Paul Khoury and Bill Crooks of PB&J Restaurants Inc. took over that space in early 2008. They’ve given the space a menu that captures the fresh…
Most of the legendary comic-book characters at this weekend’s MO-KAN Comics Conspiracy convention at BTC Convention Hall (1775 Universal Avenue, 816-924-1566 ) have achieved their status through long decades of standing up for truth, justice and the defeat of whatever particular villains are assigned to them. Then there’s Groo, that gourd-nosed, noodle-legged, slow-of-mind barbarian sword master created by Mad magazine…
University of Kansas football faced the season’s first ranked opponent last week, playing the University of South Florida. Today, the Jayhawks resume their regular diet of cupcake and cream-puff opponents outside the Big 12 Conference. This week’s victim for the Jayhawks: the Sam Houston State University Bearkats. That isn’t a typo, that’s seriously how it’s spelled. If the Bearkats somehow…
The Sprint Center (1407 Grand, 816-283-7300) has hosted ice events before. But tonight for the first time, the skaters will wear shoulder pads and not sequins. The L.A. Kings and the St. Louis Blues play an exhibition hockey game at 7:05 p.m. in preparation for the National Hockey League season. Kansas City was promised an NHL or NBA team back…
The Janus Film Series returns to Tivoli Cinemas this month, with a roster of eight artful films presented in new 35mm prints and including the work of Milos Forman, Akira Kurosawa and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Tonight, see Roberto Rossellini’s 1952 film The Flowers of St. Francis, a pastoral in nine parts that draws from a collection of biographical vignettes. Written…
The last thing Damon Patterson would do is urge folks to drink up. But if they did, it might help solidify the location of Open Stage Tuesdays, the weekly, all-ages variety show he organizes through Chameleon Arts and Youth Development. Now held at Club Rain (8015 Troost) from 8 p.m. to midnight, the event has bounced around a bit. Patterson…
When you were 7 and you wanted to be an astronaut who wore a cowboy hat and carried a revolver and had X-ray vision, you kind of knew it wouldn’t happen. But you probably didn’t know that someday, you’d be happy just to sleep in one day a week. Curdled ambition and shrinking scale lie at the heart of 49…
(4109 Pennsylvania, 816-753-3434). From 3 to 6 p.m., drink $2.50 Corona bottles, $4 bombs, $2 domestic bottles and well drinks, $3 house wines and $4 martinis. Enjoy the patio before it gets butt-ass cold outside. Mondays-Fridays, 3-6 p.m., 2008 Tags: Corona (New York), Night & Day, Pennsylvania
(4057 Pennsylvania, 816-960-0866). Raise your glass to the founder of Westport in this namesake bar. Sit on the patio and imagine the dusty wagons rolling through. From 3 to 6 p.m., well drinks and handcrafted ales are a dollar off. Stick around past 5 p.m. for $6 martinis. Mondays-Fridays, 3-6 p.m., 2008 Tags: Night & Day, Pennsylvania, westport
(4124 Pennsylvania, 816-531-7878). Specials include $2 draws, $2 off wine by the glass and martinis, and discounts on select appetizers from 4 to 6 p.m. Feel free to check out the back deck, too — there are no bartenders out there, but drinkers are welcome to bring their glasses out. Mondays-Fridays, 4-6 p.m., 2008 Tags: Night & Day, Pennsylvania
(4130 Pennsylvania, 816-753-8424). From 3 to 6 p.m., reduced-price appetizers are served with $2.75 drafts, $4 cocktails, $5 selected martinis and wine that’s $2 off. Mondays-Fridays, 3-6 p.m., 2008 Tags: Night & Day, Pennsylvania
(316 Westport Road, 816-753-0932). From 7 to 8 p.m., Bud and Bud Light draws cost $1. From 8 to 9 p.m., domestic bottles are $2, and from 9 to 10 p.m., well drinks are $2. Stick around for jukebox roulette — first person to guess the song of the night from a series of posted clues and play it on…
(435 Westport Road, 816-389-4180). Try a $6 flatbread along with $4 glasses of house wines and cosmos, $2 well drinks and $2 drafts between 3 and 6 p.m. Thu., Sept. 18, 3-6 p.m., 2008 Tags: Night & Day
Music has certainly seen its share of odd-couple collaborators, from David Bowie and Bing Crosby to Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue. Few pairings have felt so strangely natural, however, or been quite so successful, as that of Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and bluegrass icon Alison Krauss. Having met while performing together at a Leadbelly tribute concert in 2004, the…
It’s either a testament to the spirit of the festival-goers or the ignorance of the festival organizers that many of the best performances at the annual Walnut Valley Festival are taking place inside the campgrounds. That’s where the infamous Stage Five and the up-and-coming Stage Seven play host to fringe-favorite pickers such as Split Lip Rayfield, Truckstop Honeymoon, the Wilders,…
With each passing year, Jenny Lewis looks and sounds more like the icons she idolizes: Dusty Springfield, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, to name just a few. Whereas her band, Rilo Kiley, took a turn toward slick and cocky soul jams on its misunderstood 2007 release, Under the Blacklight, Lewis’ solo forays allow her to explore a muse that harks…
