In the third season of the Script-in-Hand series of stage performances, the Kansas City Public Library and Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre present Law & Literature, a collection of the most memorable legal dramas ever written. Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart is the second play in the series. Sun., Feb. 1, 2 p.m., 2009 Tags: Beth Henley, kansas city public library,…
Phenomemon derives from the Greek term phainomenon, meaning “to appear.” Irv Da Phenom, a singer from Kansas City, hopes that people will start to notice his musical output. Born Mitchell Irving Jr., the Wyandotte County native still has plenty of time to establish himself. He began his performing career while roaming the halls of Wyandotte High School with a musical…
Click here to save this cat! Click here for more Studies in Crap. Click here to write a letter to the editor. Categories: News Tags: Columns
Until a couple of years ago, the phrase Tapes ‘n Tapes was more likely to evoke your uncle’s awesome 8-track collection than an indie-rock band from Minneapolis. But the group’s debut LP, The Loon, went viral like LOLcats with its infectious cocktail of Modest Mouse guitar skronk and lilting ballads of tossed-off charm reminiscent of the Walkmen. Whereas The Loon…
Taken is one dumped-in-January film that’s better than it needs to be but still isn’t good enough. Retired from his job as an ass-kicking American operative to be closer to his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), Bryan (Liam Neeson) can only listen in horror when she calls from Paris while human traffickers abduct her. Directed by Pierre Morel, Taken tells a…
When music bloggers started fawning over Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin in 2005, the first suitable reaction was who? The second was why? While it was exciting to see a band from Springfield, Missouri, cause a stir, the group’s debut LP, Broom, overall lacked the consistency of tasty bites like its single “Oregon Girl.” That all changed on SSLYBY’s…
Though they each have solo careers, these two KC rappers make sense as a team, both in terms of their big vision and their musical chemistry. The contrast between Skiem’s raspy-edged rhyme style and Twan’s full-throated punch makes relatively simple arrangements such as “Tycoonin” compelling (not that stuttering percussion, delicate piano and backing vocals are really all that simple). But this disc…
Samothrace’s debut disc contains four slow-moving songs that average 12 minutes in length, which might make it sound like a difficult trudge. But for listeners who can appreciate an epic journey — including several seismic transitions from crystalline melody to high-volume sludge — Life’s Trade could be a riveting time bender. Bryan L. Spinks’ sporadic vocals aren’t decipherable, but the…
The ethereal sounds of Musée Mécanique are reminiscent of a rainy evening in the band’s home city of Portland, Oregon — lonely and slightly gloomy but full of hope for a brighter morning. Loaded with glockenspiels, lap steel, melodicas and bowed saw, the folky electronic quintet’s 2008 debut release, Hold This Ghost, was mixed by Tucker Martine, who has produced…
On Combichrist’s fourth and latest album, Today We Are All Demons, mastermind Andy LaPlegua effectively ups the ante on the tried-and-true answering-machine intro. It begins with a message from an unfortunate soul on his way to jail on a concealed-weapons charge. “Call my mom or somethin’,” says the caller. While this bit could easily have veered into shock territory, the…
Patrick Stickles and his four New Jersey bandmates are 10 minutes into their tour, driving south on the Garden State Parkway. The members of Titus Andronicus just cranked “Young Turks” by Rod Stewart and are digging into a pizza from their favorite hometown pizzeria in suburban Glen Rock. “We are probably the number one state in the union that takes…
Your old virginity is like one of our French withered pears,” wrote William Shakespeare in All’s Well That Ends Well. “It looks ill, it eats dryly.” A new virgin, it would seem, is always a much fresher metaphor for talking about food. And since there’s a new one in town, we might as well let the metaphors go wild at…
She’s too thin. She’s a bobblehead. Her forehead doesn’t move. Where has that Jerry Maguire girl gone, the one we once knew and loved? Did the Oscar from Cold Mountain ruin her forever? Or is Kenny Chesney to blame? It’s not easy being America’s sweetheart, or Lucy Hill (Renée Zellweger) — unmarried, pushing 40, trainer-toned, living in a fabulous ocean-view…
The murder makes it better. For the first 15 minutes or so, Murder by the Book, an Anglophiliac mystery-comedy that’s better with corpses than it is with laughs, seems like it might be the victim that deserves a Clue-style inquest: Are the culprits the director, Paul Hough, and the miscast actors? Or authors Duncan Greenwood and Robert King, whose literary,…
It’s December 2005. Adam Fichman, a junior at Illinois Wesleyan University, where he’s a business major, is home visiting his family. He’s hanging out with two buddies, Austin and Zach Hurst, twins who are freshmen at the University of Kansas, and his girlfriend, Emma Bland. For Christmas, Bland has received a first-generation video iPod. It can play videos, but only…
Barack Obama aspires to lay a new foundation for growth. Kansas City, Missouri, wants to spend $10 million building a road to a golf club. At Categories: News Tags: Columns, Kansas City, Russ Johnson, Ted Ehney, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Where do you go when you have lied to Congress and mocked your professional oath but would still like to collect a recession-proof salary? Wichita, Kansas. Former U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman misled Congress when he played down the roles of ideology and political hackery in his hiring decisions, according to a recent Justice Department report. Did his testimony amount to…
Dear Mexican: I am a naturalized (legal) hispano in the United States, and I just realized what the “illegal” craze is about. What immigrant-bashing citizens are trying to protect are people like … me. Consider what this concerned woman said to John McCain during a public meeting in New Hampshire last year: “I just think it’s not fair to all…
There’s the Rub What people who matter do with The Pitch: They wipe their asses with it. And no, that is not a metaphor. I mean, literally. I mean, I know more people who wipe their asses with The Pitch than are actual readers. I understand it’s funny. I understand it’s sad. It’s also true. I haven’t found anything truly…
Chiefs Hall of Famer, former Iowa Hawkeye broadcaster and boobie inspector Ed Podolak announced today that he’s seeking “professional treatment.” Podolak made the announcement in a statement released through the University of Iowa. “After considerable deliberation with my family and close friends, I’ve decided to seek professional treatment,” Podolak said in the statement. “Over the last few months the people…
We love a good horror movie, and the best, most affecting, are often the low-budget ones that come out of nowhere. See the production histories of Night of the Living Dead, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween for further reference on that. This is why we’re pulling for Lawrence-based SenoReality Pictures, who’ve got a movie called Nailbiter that they plan to finish…
If ever a show name perfectly matched a musician, it’s the Paid Dues Festival and Tech N9NE. The San Bernardino, Calif., hip hop concert just announced KC’s most well-known rapper as a headliner. The festival, which starts in March 2009, has been described as a Warped Tour for underground Hip Hop. Previous festivals and tours have featured artists like Kool Keith…
By KYLE KOCH John Westbrook Jr., a rapper from Topeka popularly known as Stik Figa, might be hanging up the mic. According to an entry on his Myspace blog, Westbrook’s headed to college. “i’m takin my black ass back to school come fall, can’t believe i wasted so much time with this rap shit,” he writes under the title “It’s…
Awesome find by Crime Scene KC on UMKC’s police blotter. 5:29 p.m. Property Damage – A hole the size of a human head was reported in an Oak Street Residence Hall stairwell wall. Categories: News Tags: police blotter, umkc
