Archives: December 2008

News

Wayward teachers, EMTs and Peruvians brighten the day

David Martin,

The U.S. Attorney’s office in western Missouri issues press releases describing recent indictments and sentencings. Yesterday, for instance, came word that a 22-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, man had been charged with carjacking. Occasionally, the press office takes the time to describe the accused by their profession (or their crime, if successfully prosecuted). So instead of simply saying that a Lee’s…
Music

Concert Review: Attack On Uranus at the Record Bar

Crystal K. Wiebe,

Wednesday, December 3Better than: Watching a movie about punk rock. Photo: Mike Alexander I always figured local punks Attack on Uranus for some crazy mofos. Now I know it’s true. I caught the band for the first time last night at Record Bar. Apparently, it was bass player Jared Lee’s last gig. Hence, the noose that had been strung from…
Dining, Food & Drink

Where the heck we headed in 2009?

Owen Morris,

It’s December and so it’s begun. Epicurious just published its list naming the top 10 food trends of 2009 and The New York Times thoroughly debunked the list as backwards and being so-2008 before adding some of its own trends. (Albeit NYT’s were jokey trends.) Neither Peruvian food nor Portland, Maine, as the next big things struck me as something…
News

Stealing Time: Jack Cashill waiting for apology from the Star

Justin Kendall,

Conspiracy theorist Author Jack Cashill is demanding a public apology from The Kansas City Star’s Derek Donovan, who called Cashill a liar. I have my own demand, Jack. Apologize to Barack Obama and William Ayers for your crackpot Ayers-wrote-Obama’s-book yarn. While you’re apologizing, throw in one for the Crap Archivist for writing 2006: The Chautauqua Rising. Categories: News Tags: Bottom…

Dining, Food & Drink

Where are all the acorns?

Owen Morris,

%{}% The title of this post is basically the question brought up this past Sunday in the Washington Post. The article notes the lack of acorns up and down the east coast and that poor little squirrels are having a tough time coping. As I was reading the article I realized that hey, I haven’t seen any acorns this winter…
Dining, Food & Drink

Now Open: Zest

Owen Morris,

It’s been three years since Joe DiGiovanni sold Joe D’s Wine bar and Cafe and left the restaurant biz. But DiGiovanni is back, baby! “You could take my old place and fit it all in the kitchen and still have 200 feet left over,” DiGiovanni said as he showed me around his new spacious restaurant. He still seemed amazed at…
News

Daily Briefs: Kiss my shuttlecock!

Chris Packham,

%{}% In a Kansas City Star editorial yesterday, Yael T. Abouhalkah posited the existence of a “good” Mayor Mark Funkhouser and a “bad” Mayor Mark Funkhouser: “The good Funkhouser is the one Kansas Citians thought they were electing in 2007, the one who was going to attack the city’s financial ills,” writes Abouhalkah. He never explicitly defines the “bad” Funkhouser,…

Dining, Food & Drink

Breakfast Buffet: Thursday, 12/04

Owen Morris,

%{}% Pop quiz. Ten items like cucumber, corn, snow peas. Your job is to guess which are fruit and which are vegetables. Hopefully this idea will never catch on at The Pitch: It’s taking a random, unidentifiable food and taste-testing it. This week’s mystery food is green and kind of slimy. Looking for a recession-proof business to sink your money…
Music

The Download-New Twilight Sad MP3s

Andy Vihstadt,

Kudos to the Twilight Sad for recreating one of my favorite album covers. The Scots’ upcoming realease, entitled The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents and Hit the Road, will be issued next week on limited-edition CD and downloadable formats. Here’s what the band had to say via MySpace: “The Twilight Sad will be selling copies of their new limited edition…
News

Studies in Crap Presents “Science for Christian Schools: Grade 6”

Alan Scherstuhl,

Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from area basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. He does this for one reason: Knowledge is power. Science for Christian Schools: Grade 6 Author: Joseph Henson, Georgre Mulfinger, Jr., and Emmett Williams Publisher: Bob Jones University Press Date: 1977 Discovered at: Goodwill, Grandview…

Magic Tree House: The Musical

Based on Mary Pope Osborne’s beloved children series, Magic Tree House the musical transports one of Jack and Annie’s Merlin Missions onto the stage restoring the joy and magic of King Arthur’s kingdom. For ages 5-9. Fri., Dec. 5, 7 p.m., 2008 Tags: Mary Pope Osborne, Night & Day

Party Like an Art Student

Andrew Miller,

Located across the street from the Kansas City Art Institute, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (4420 Warwick, 816-753-5784) attracts a constant stream of college-age aesthetes. Tonight’s Late Night University event, from 9 p.m. to midnight, rewards these regular visitors for their patronage. Jametatone (gallery-circuit fixture J. Ashley Miller, inhabiting his latest persona) provides the entertainment, and the venue supplies…

Kevin Sink Photography Gallery

Penny LaRocque,

The grand opening and book-launch party at Kevin Sink Photography (1817 Grand, 913-384-6307) features urban and natural images from around the world from noon to 8 p.m. Kevin Sink Photography Dec. 4-6, 12-8 p.m.; Dec. 11-13, 12-8 p.m., 2008 Tags: Night & Day

Actually Original

Crystal K. Wiebe,

Crossroads art shows are great. But one of the best things about First Fridays is in the West Bottoms — Good JuJu (1412 West 12th Street). The curiosity shop is packed with one-of-a-kind home décor items, such as magnets made out of old maps, and handmade local jewelry and art. Once there was a creepy diorama that we swear included…

Stephanie Shelton Romines

Penny LaRocque,

Oil, acrylic and mixed-media paintings are on view at Orange Fly Design on the second floor at Arts Incubator (115 West 18th Street, 816-838-2457), from 6 to 9 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5, 6-9 p.m., 2008 Tags: 180, Night & Day

Naturally Beautiful: Locally Grown

Penny LaRocque,

Self-taught metalsmith Robyn Nichols’ 27th-anniversary exhibition at the Pearl (1818 McGee, 816-474-1731) features sterling silver and gold jewelry and tableware, all available for sale, from 12 to 4 p.m. Robyn Nichols Thu., Dec. 4, 6-9 p.m.; Fri., Dec. 5, 6-9 p.m.; Sat., Dec. 6, 12-4 p.m.; Sat., Dec. 20, 12-4 p.m., 2008 Tags: Night & Day, Robyn Nichols

Dramatic Stir-Fry

Alan Scherstuhl,

Few theaters in the metro are as unpredictable as the Barn Players in Mission. One week there’s an ambitious obscurity such as Nine, and the next there’s a surefire pop-goth hit like Jekyll & Hyde. The spontaneity continues at 7:30 p.m. with 6 X 10, a play festival of six 10-minute plays. “The festival was created to give local playwrights…

KCAI end-of-semester exhibition and sale

Penny LaRocque,

Ceramics, digital filmmaking, fiber, paintings, photographs, prints and sculpture are on display and available for purchase at the Kansas City Art Institute (4415 Warwick, 816-802-3423), from 5 to 8 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5, 5-8 p.m.; Sat., Dec. 6, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun., Dec. 7, 12-5 p.m., 2008 Tags: Kansas City Art Institute, Night & Day, Warwick

The Future is Here and There

Caleb Goellner,

Tomorrow is today. Information is instant, entertainment comes packaged on demand, and humans live in outer space. Of course, even in the face of progress, humankind retains its less-than-noble barbarism. Exploring this dichotomy, the Lawrence Corporation for the Advancement of the Visual Arts presents Signs of the New Apocalypse or Glimmers of a DIY Utopia? at the Percolator in downtown…

Scriptless

Kyle Koch,

If Mary Zimmerman’s lectures are anything like her play rehearsals, she may be winging it when she speaks at 6 tonight at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (4525 Oak, 816-751-1278) as part of the Mary Atkins Lecture Series. Zimmerman, a theatrical auteur best known for her Broadway adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, often begins her play rehearsals without a script. This…

Scoring the struggle

McKay Stangler,

Gloria Naylor’s novel The Women of Brewster Place uses setting — a housing development — to help examine racial discord and the struggle for equality. Tim Acito’s musical adaptation of the book uses, well, songs. The story follows 10 African-American women who rely on one another for support in matters practical and emotional. See the show tonight at 7:30 at…

Impressionism updated

Jordan Edwards,

In an age when many young artists look to the future, it’s refreshing to meet one with an approach grounded in the past. William Jewell art student Lydia Crigger, whose senior exhibition opens this afternoon, isn’t shy about her love of impressionism. “When I saw a Seurat in Chicago at the Art Institute, I sat down and cried in front…

Tuna Time

Crystal K. Wiebe,

A Tuna Christmas does not concern a fishy holiday dinner. The comedy, now playing at the American Heartland Theatre (2450 Grand, 816-842-9999), is actually about Christmastime in a Texas town called Tuna. Actors Jim J. Bullock and John-Michael Zuerlein portray every eccentric character in the suffocatingly small municipality, including the little old ladies. So don’t miss this show if you…