Archives: November 2008

The Download: New Fireman (Paul McCartney & Youth Collaboration) MP3

By ANDY VIHSTADT     At first listen, you’d never guess that Paul McCartney is the gritty blues voice behind “Nothing Too Much Just out of Sight.” The track opens up the third LP from the former Beatle in his project with producer and Killing Joke bassist, Youth. The Fireman’s Electric Arguments comes out tomorrow and is the duo’s first…

Stealing Time: Chiefs Monday morning meltdown

By JUSTIN KENDALL The Chiefs got rolled to the tune of 54 points at Arrowhead yesterday. I should reiterate. At Arrowhead. Let’s all join the Monday morning meltdown. Shane points out that Herm Edwards’ Chiefs have won once in their last 20 games. “What kind of league has the NFL become where not a single person is held responsible for…

Daily Briefs: Repent, scientists

%{}% By CHRIS PACKHAM Gotta keep the devil way down in the hole: If you’re like me, you spend a lot of time sitting in your darkened kitchen drinking Taster’s Choice and listening to the police scanner, and you smell so strongly of Aqua Velva that you can see wavy blue-colored odor-lines wafting from your torso. And, thanks to the…

Breakfast Buffet: Monday, 11/24

%{}% By OWEN MORRIS An interesting Kansas City bar crawl round-up that goes from an old saloon to a strip-mall place and even Grandview. The best business hotels in the world. These might as well be imaginary, because if a place does not contain the word “motel” and a number, I probably can’t afford to sleep there. In Colorado, 40,000…

Last weekend’s protest: “End the Fed!” Rally

By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI In these days of bankruptcy, foreclosure and general economic calamity, plenty of citizens are pissed off at how the government has handled their hard-earned dollars. Dozens of liberty-loving metro residents crowded a corner near Penn Valley Park on Saturday to express their disdain for our paper-based monetary system. Members of the local chapter of the Liberty Restoration…

The Roxy

Baloney Ponyz

Google breathes Life into old KC

By JUSTIN KENDALL Our blog brother in Dallas, Unfair Park, points out that Life magazine’s photo archives are now a Google search away. This includes a couple hundred beautiful black-and-white (and some color) shots of a bygone KC, during floods, construction, elections and crime. Here’s the time machine link to old Kansas City. You can buy framed versions of the…

Daily Briefs: Post-nuclear winter of the soul

%{}% By CHRIS PACKHAM Cold-front whatever: It’s colder than a bucket of penguin shit, you guys. I spent the morning printing out random pages on the office laser jet and shoving printer-warm sheets of copy under my shirt. That’s how we roll during the econocalypse, y’all, insulating ourselves with piping-hot 20 lb. 8 1/2″ x 11″ ultra-bright paper like white-collar…

Downtown eyesores inch closer to demolition

By DAVID MARTIN Wrecking balls beckon two of downtown Kansas City, Missouri’s most hideous buildings. Last month, the city council approved $150,000 to help pay for the cost of demolishing the Shoppers Parkade at 11th and Grand. A former parking garage with bail bonds offices on the ground floor, the dreary building attracts a rough element. At an Economic Development…

Wanted: Non-Thanksgiving food ideas

By OWEN MORRIS Right now I’m writing the Pitch Forks newsletter for next week and I realize that there are absolutely no events going on that are not Thanksgiving related. I even had trouble finding enough Thanksgiving-free links for breakfast buffet this morning. I like Thanksgiving. I really do. It’s a good holiday but come on — it seems as…

Caption Contest: Mayor Funkhouser and Wife-Being in Wall Street Journal

By JASON HARPER It’s finally happened. Politicians have run into trouble when their marital indiscretions came to light. But in this city of 450,000, the question is different: Does the mayor love his wife too much? This is the question posited on Wall-Street Journal’s Web site, in an article dramatically headlined Kansas City Gives Mayor’s Helpmate the Heave-Ho From City…

Jefferson Cup Invitational happening under your nose

By OWEN MORRIS I stopped by the Jefferson Cup Invitational yesterday. It’s one of the premier wine judging competitions in the country, and it just happens to take place right here in Kansas City (at Starlight Theater this year). As luck would have it, I arrived just as the event’s volunteers had finished serving judges and were now serving themselves….

The Download Extra: Cover Me (New Of Montreal, My Brightest Diamond and Takki Takki Cover Songs)

By ANDY VIHSTADT Guilt By Association 2 (out now on Engine Room Records) MP3: My Brightest Diamond, “Tainted Love (Soft Cell cover),” Guilt By Association 2 (Engine Room) thanks to My Old Kentucky Blog MP3: Takka Takka, “In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins cover),” Guilt By Association 2 (Engine Room) thanks to Stereogum Of Montreal Live on KUT 90.5 Radio…

News on the Accurso’s move

By CHARLES FERRUZZA Die-hard fans of Joe Accurso’s cozy Italian joint at 50th and Main keep asking me about the place. They know it’s moving, but the idea sends some of them into a panic. John in Prairie Village writes: “Is it still open? When is it moving to the new location?” Don’t worry, John. Accurso’s is still open. It…

Sarsaparilla, birch beer and ginger ale oh my! Part I

%{}% By OWEN MORRIS Don’t ask why I started thinking about old-timey sodas, OK? I just did. For some reason, I started wondering about the difference between ginger beer and ginger ale, between sarsaparilla and root beer, between birch beer and root beer, between sarsaparilla and birch beer… It’s my job, after all, so a taste test was in order….