Landscape painter Anne Garney and stained-glass artist Kathy Barnard show their work at the Locust Street Gallery (1605 Locust, 816-472-4977), 6 to 9 p.m. Fri., Nov. 7, 6-9 p.m., 2008 Tags: Anne Garney, Kathy Barnard, Night & Day
More than 40 works by former Kansas City Art Institute instructor and nationally renowned artist Robert Stackhouse are on view at the Belger Arts Center (2100 Walnut, 816-474-3250), 6 to 9 p.m. Fri., Nov. 7, 6-9 p.m., 2008 Tags: Belger Arts Center, Kansas City Art Institute, Night & Day, Robert Stackhouse
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In Soul Men, actor-comedian Bernie Mac, who passed away in August, plays Floyd Henderson, a present-day car-wash mogul who, back in the 1970s, was an R&B backup singer alongside a fellow named Louis Hinds (Samuel L. Jackson). One day, their frontman, Marcus Hooks (John Legend), took off on his own, becoming a funk-soul god and leaving Floyd and Louis to…
One way or another, the Sound of Urchin will possess your heart. It might be with Tomato, the singing drummer whose neck veins bulge so violently that his head appears to be constantly on the verge of exploding. Or maybe the duel axes of B-ILL and Seahag will win you over with Thin Lizzy lust. Either way, the band’s indefatigable…
Between his unsympathetic family and his demeaning doughnut-shop job, the likable but luckless Ian (Josh Zuckerman) is a prototypical teen-movie protagonist with a prototypical teen-movie conflict: He’s still a virgin. Naturally, a prototypical solution must follow. With his two best friends (played by Amanda Crew and Clark Duke), Ian steals his brother’s 1969 Pontiac GTO and embarks on a road…
In every way, this is just a formulaic romp about two selfish slackers getting their priorities rearranged by a couple of kids. Instead of breaking new ground, it polishes it with sandpaper. As reps for an energy-drink company, Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott are going nowhere — except to the schools where they pitch their product’s buzz as an…
In the candy-coated world of pop-punk, the rules are simple: brain-blendering hooks and well-coiffed hair can be the difference between playing the no-name stage at Warped Tour and a top spot on TRL. That’s why it’s nice to see All Time Low not pull any punches with the name of its latest road trip: the “Compromising of Integrity, Morality and…
Those who believe that Jonathan Demme went all soft with Philadelphia and never recovered may not be reassured by his latest movie, an ensemble tale of family pathology gussied up with handheld vérité camerawork, world music and improvising actors. You can find the worst and the best of Demme in this fond farewell to Robert Altman; yet it’s still a…
Break out the muskets and call Paul Revere: The Britpunks are invading the Greater Kansas City metro. Well, neither the Seattle/Los Angeles-native Army Navy nor Pittsburgh’s the Takeover UK actually hail from the United Kingdom, but that doesn’t mean both bands haven’t perfectly reproduced some of England’s greatest exported musical styles. Although decidedly indie, the more Smiths-influenced Army Navy has…
On the heels of snorefest reunion tours from the Police and the Pixies, Americans finally can get excited about a reunion they actually care about: New Kids on the Block. Because what the world needs now is more super-absorbent diaper pop watered down with pitch correction and Ne-Yo guest appearances. It’s enough to make a grown man puke – and…
Lately, it seems that Keith Murray has become more homage payer than headliner, bringing to the microphone a thoughtful lyricism absent from the work of much of hip-hop’s contemporary practitioners. Thankfully for lovers of hip-hop and anyone interested in what the genre sounded like at its artistic zenith, Murray has stubbornly refused to fade away. The nasal-voiced Long Island native…
“(Baby) It’s You,” by the Boys, from Titan: It’s All Pop! (Numero Group): If there is a god of Midwestern power pop, then the little, bug-eyed deity, with its crown of tumbling curls, its nicotine-yellowed fingers and Jeff Lynne shades, has spent most of the past 20 years in Kansas City. Specifically in P.O. Box 5443. Around 1981, appeals to…
I don’t think it’s fair to blame the Power & Light District every time another restaurant closes. I mean, it’s not my favorite destination for local dining, so surely it’s not luring every possible patron away from the vast pool of restaurants in the city. If it is, it shouldn’t be. But Stephanie Shirazi, co-owner of the intimate, cosmopolitan Shiraz…
If someone told me that they went to the circus and saw an elephant in a tuxedo dancing like Fred Astaire, then I would want to see a freakin’ dancing elephant in a tux if I went to the circus. No substitutions allowed. And if someone — make that several people — blathered on about the “fabulous duck pâté with…
Pasadena, California, photographer Anthony Lepore intends to connect people, animals and things in mutual acts of restoration. But overcrowded and under-edited don’t make for a restorative experience. In Anthony Lepore: Restoration, at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, there are images of people and animals, images of people in nature, and images of nature itself. And then there are what…
From the title, you might guess that the men of the three one-act plays comprising Ron Simonian’s Liquid Morality find right and wrong negotiable. That’s not quite it. Instead, for Simonian’s talkative hit men, strip-club proprietors and incarcerated johns, there’s a moral code that works out a little like the class-baiting of McCain’s Joe the Plumber bullshit. Here, honest workingmen…
Abigail Henderson feels best when she’s onstage. The drummer pounds away behind her, the bass player rides the roots and the fifths in a country-rock lope. Her man stands stage-right, tall and blue-eyed, twisting licks on his guitar like he’s squeezing limes over a drink. The tuning pedal and the set list are at her feet. The guitar neck is…
The Kansas City, Missouri, School District faces a lot of challenges. Some seem insurmountable. Educating the child of an uninvolved or indifferent parent is like trying to start a fire with a glass of water. At the same time, no task seems too small for the district to screw up. I recently asked the district for its ACT scores. The…
Editor’s note: Town Without Pity offers a view of the bitter farces and unexpected triumphs first reported on the blogs of Pitch.com. Optimism, common sense and simple human decency notwithstanding, no one could say at press time whether Americans would awake November 5 to Sarah Palin’s lipstick on their collars and a terminal John McCain hangover or be able to…
Dear Readers: So your presidential candidate lost. (Congratulations, McBama! Our condolences, O’Cain. Damn early deadlines.) And now you can’t bear the thought of living under his reign for the next cuatro years. Fear not: The other side of America’s bullshit sandwich will save you! The Mexican hereby turns this column over to his Canadian fans — but first, a comment…
Burnt Ends: “Mentors In Failure,” October 16 Bad Business Tips I was very excited to read the Burnt Ends item about seminars at Metro North Mall, “Get Motivated! Bad Business Seminars.” Might I suggest one additional speaker, however: former Liberty Public School Superintendent Scott Taveau. Not only did Taveau and his cronies allegedly swindle and financially ruin one of the…
Crosby and Nash
