Click on the photo of Rappin’ Twan for a slide-show supplement to this week’s feature on Troost Avenue’s young champions of new media. Categories: News Tags: 7th Heaven, hip-hop, Lifted Logic, rap, slide shows, Troost
This man’s face is familiar to hundreds of Kansas Citians. He’s a cab driver who used to be homeless, but now runs an organization called Care of Poor People. A couple of times a year, around Thanksgiving and Easter, Richard G. Tripp organizes a huge potluck and clothing giveaway. Radio stations help out, as do churches and other random folks…
I am not what you would call a waifish person. I’ve got some fat that I’ve long-given up on losing and come to accept as a job hazard of writing about food. But I’m also not what the National Institute of Health would call obese. Instead, I am normal if a little pleasantly plump. As a normal-sized person, I feel…
You want the good news or the bad news first? Good news is that yesterday’s Bring Trader Joe’s to KC post helped push membership in the group to a couple hundred people above 3,000. Not only does that mean that Kansas City has bettered Nashville’s petition numbers (suck it Nashville!) but, according to my unscientific calculations, Kansas City has passed…
A smallish crowd showed up for Pierre Laszlo’s speech last night at the Central Library, which is a shame because Laszlo is clearly passionate about citrus fruit, especially orange juice. Speaking with an accent that sounded part French and part Roberto Benigni, Laszlo was in clear professor form delivering facts with PowerPoint slides to back him up. While Laszlo’s book…
Danial Rinehart’s daughters — the ones he didn’t impregnate — told their story in this morning’s Kansas City Star. It’s a sad, sick story of moving from town to town to keep their father’s dirty secret — police accuse Danial Rinehart of knocking up one of his daughters four times. Only one of the children — a 3-year-old boy who…
Barf Blog has a post about an elderly Georgian dog (Ozzie) being one of the salmonella outbreak’s casualties. While the owner believes the bacteria was passed from peanut butter crackers meant for humans, plenty of doggie treats use peanut butter as an ingredient. The FDA says throw this dog food away. “Product recalls now include some pet food products that…
Recruiterlcious writes a love letter to super-sized Mayor Mark Funkhouser. She wants Gloria’s man and recalls feeling a “spark” when drunkenly flirting with Funk at Harry’s. The best part: Gloria death glaring at the inebriated blogger as she fawned over her gigantic squeeze. A 3.0 average will get you on one of the Olathe School District’s three honor rolls. Three…
It’s been nearly four years since Doves’ last album, Some Cities, and, hell, nearly seven since the band’s sophomore release, The Last Broadcast, which broke the UK trio’s pounding Britpop anthems to the States, back when Travis and Coldplay were getting big. And now Astralwerks has just announced that the fourth Doves album, Kingdom of Rust, is flying to the…
%{}% From the New York Times slideshow. Left to right: Aaron Chronister and Jason Day. Shortly before Christmas, two Kansas Citians put a barbecue recipe on their BBQ Addicts blog, which was receiving about about as much traffic as you’d expect for a local barbecue blog. Today, Jason Day and Aaron Chronister are on the front page of The New…
Lenka, an Australian-born singer whose songs have appeared on Grey’s Anatomy and the new 90210 series, dropped a sugar bomb on the Record Bar last night. “Sugar bomb” is actually a lyric in her boppy song “Skipalong,” as well as an apt description of her supersweet pop music. It’s not at all “Dangerous and Sweet” — another song title. Nope,…
%{}% The ubiquity of a burrito platter is both a comfort and a scary proposition. Of all the frauds and ills in our society, sweet potato fries rank near the top. Thankfully, I’m not the only one to notice. The Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism picks his five favorite cookbooks. If you like your cookbooks with a heavy…
Always wondered how Johnny Marr achieved that head-spinning tremolo on the Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now?” Wonder no longer, friends (and imitators). Marr explains it all and includes a photo of the ’63 Epiphone Casino that he used on the song at his Web site’s fabulously rich Guitarchestra gallery. Also cool: His workhorse ’83 Rickenbacker 330 and the ’63 Jaguar…
It’s been a few years since Metric hit us with “Monster Hospital,” but the band promises a new LP in the near future. Emily Haines and guitarist James Shaw (who both moonlight as members of Broken Social Scene), have been previewing the new material acoustically this past year, including a performance on IFC Canada’s The Rawside Of… documentary series. Watch…
I don’t want to sound jaded on java, bu am I the only one who rolls his eyes at the latest “news” on the health benefits of coffee? My mother — who was a big coffee drinker — would have been interested in reading the story in yesterday’s New York Times about the newest research on coffee: that a team…
%{}% Marcella Rivera claims that she watched her husband, William Rivera, get married on Fox 4 last Valentine’s Day. So she turned William Rivera in to the Independence Police, Fox 4 reports. Categories: News Tags: Bigamy, Danielle Rivera, fox 4, Independence, Marcella Rivera, William Rivera
In an effort to blunt Republican objections to the federal stimulus bill, President Obama has asked Democrats to pull the provision that would help provide contraceptives to poor women. The decision may impact Kansas more than most places. Historically, the Sunflower State ranks near the bottom in public funding for contraceptive services. According to a 2005 analysis by the Guttmacher…
Friend of the Plog and reality TV magnet Jen Chen e-mailed me this video link to last night’s awesomely creepy episode of The Bachelor. And it was creepy thanks to the stalker-ish antics of Shannon, a dental hygienist from Overland Park. Shannon overzealously volunteered to kiss the show’s main prize, Jason Mesnick, on the set of General Hospital. Categories: News…
After putting out an album, touring endlessly and winning multiple Pitch Music Awards, local emo-punk-metal act Flee the Seen has announced its breakup, with a final show scheduled for April 3 at the Uptown. From the group’s MySpace blog: “After 6 years of being a family, making music, being lucky enough to share it, travel, and make new friends… we…
Options for Tuesday nights are few. Once February rolls in though, there will be little room for excuses as to why you still haven’t seen one of the hardest working acts in K.C. The brother-brother-sister trio of Nick, Kris and Danielle, otherwise known as Trampled Under Foot, is bringing the blues to B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ (1205 East 85th Street, 816-822-7427)…
If you have a Facebook account, I demand this instant that you log in and join the group “Bring Trader Joe’s to Kansas City, Missouri!” The only requirement for joining: You must be in the Kansas City, Missouri, network. Currently the group sits just shy of 3,000 members. That’s an important number. It proved to be how many signatures Nashville’s…
After three years of promoting the music of Black Clover artists such as Mac Lethal and (before he withdrew from rapping altogether) Joe Good alongside signature suds from the Flying Monkey brewery in Olathe, the two businesses are parting ways – or, at least, scaling things down. Black Clover President, CEO and GM Jeremy Willis told me today via e-mail…
She runs a meth lab in Merriam. That’s what the police man said. Categories: News Tags: Merriam, meth labs
When I was looking at the postcard of downtown Kansas City in 1951 for this week’s “Where is it?” I remembered a conversation I once had with jazz singer Queen Bey. The conversation seems especially significant after last week’s inauguration. Queen and I had eaten dinner downtown one night and passed by the corner of 12th and Main, where the big…
