The New York Times’ declaration that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is President Barack Obama’s choice for secretary of health and human services might have been premature. CBS News quoted a White House source who called the Times article “overstated” but said Sebelius was still “one of the top choices.” So Kansas Republicans can stop celebrating about … now. Hat tip…
When I was a kid, my mother — one of the world’s biggest snobs — wouldn’t dream of buying a product that wasn’t a name brand. If it wasn’t advertised on television or on the pages of one of her glossy magazines, the product (laundry soap, snack cakes, pickles, even paper towels) was suspect, not to be trusted. That snobbery…
For some reason, two teens in Sedalia, Missouri, are getting national press for hijacking a Taco Bell frequency and saying inappropriate things to customers in the waiting line. If these teens were the MacGyvers of drive-through technology, I could understand the press. But drive-through hijacking has been an art now for years. Back in my high school days, you really…
Chinese Artist Ju Duoqi has made a career out of using beans, rice, potatoes, yams and other traditional Chinese peasant foods to create masterpieces. Or, rather, masterpieces of other masterpieces. The above rendition of Van Gogh’s self portrait is made of leeks and potatoes. Duoqi is in her mid-30s and only became a full-time artist three years ago. Prior to…
Fat City blogger Owen Morris posted a story this morning about the difficulty in finding a free cup of coffee that was really, you know, free. One place where I can always count on a free cup of java — it’s not always good, but it is free — is at one of those oil change operations, like Jiffy Lube,…
Another local blogger called it quits today. Farewell May’s Machete. I’ll especially miss her posts on exploring her sexual identity. Last week, State of the Line announced they are calling it quits. They promised this week would be their last, but I noticed the guys haven’t posted anything since this epic post. What else is there to say? Good luck,…
The rumors when I was in school were pretty vicious. I remember hearing that our school bus driver was cheating on her husband and using our bus as her personal love den. Gross. But I never remember her taking us on a beer run. A friend told KCTV-5 that the driver was just trying to save herself a trip, picking…
We haven’t heard any news from Vedera — whoa, remember them? — in a while, but apparently, the Epic-signed Kansas City band is doing just fine. In fact, it/they just opened a couple of shows for preppy popster Jason Mraz. And at one of the shows, Vedera frontwoman Kristen May joined Mraz on stage for a singation of his latest…
At the same time as New York is trying to pass a soft drink tax, ABC News is doing an expose on Mountain Dew Mouth and doctors are urging all Americans to cut down on soda, Coca-Cola is debuting a new soda fountain that can hold more than 100 sodas. That’s ten times more than current soda fountains. Currently, fountains…
By RICHARD GINTOWT Fans of Split Lip Rayfield and other boogan bluegrass shredders will want to skedaddle on over to Riot Room tonight (Thursday) to catch Deadman Flats. The four-piece string band has become a big draw in Lawrence with its Roger-Miller-gone-wrong songs about PBR, zombies and dudes who hit on Wal-Mart greeters. The group is currently working on a…
When I was in Whole Foods two days ago picking up a King Cake, I ran into a cooking classmate of mine who is a chef at the grocery store. I asked what was going on with the Whole Foods-Wild Oats-FTC thing. Sadly, my classmate wasn’t sure of anything (or if he was, wouldn’t divulge) but said he heard something…
Anyone here know a girl named Amber Papini? Apparently, she used to live here, and her band, called Hospitality, has just hit the radar via Stereogum. Along with two free Hospitality MP3s, the “Band to Watch” author provides this helpful, identifying description. Hospitality are a minimalist Brooklyn indie-pop trio fronted by Kansas City expatriate Amber Papini, who also handles guitar…
KMBC Channel 9’s Jim Flink was looking for love online. He had to settle for a scoop. Flink discovered the dating profile of Shon Pernice, whose wife, Renee Pernice, disappeared in January and is thought to be dead. Flink found Pernice’s dating profile on Plenty of Fish. Hey, it’s been almost two months. Surprisingly, Shon listed himself as divorced. I…
But two giant companies can. Both McDonald’s and Starbucks are running promotions for free coffee but there’s a catch to both. McDonald’s has a stealth deal called Freebruary (free-brew-airy?), in which it’s giving away small cups of coffee from 6 to 9 a.m. until the end of the month. The catch: the deal is only available at a limited number…
%{}% A local girl needs help getting her beagle dog to shut the hell up and stop barking. Any suggestions for her on how to accomplish the task? A midtown Valentine’s dinner story that begins well and ends well. Federal appeals court yesterday put another nail in the coffin of the restaurant association’s fight to remove calorie information from New…
Don’t show Keith Olbermann this video from KY3’s political blog. Olbermann’s head might explode if he hears Missouri U.S. Sen. Kit Bond spouting the myth of the train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Uh, Kit. There’s no such provision in the economic stimulus bill. There’s money for high-speed rail, but no specific project. Last night, Olbermann hammered Bond on…
Johnson Barnes, aka Blu, has earned his chops over the past couple of years with his 2007 solo effort, Below the Heavens, as well as his collaboration with producer Mainframe on Johnson & Jonson’s self-titled debut. The Los Angeles rapper graced fans with a free mixtape over the weekend. Download it below via zShare. ZIP: Blu, Her Favorite Colo(u)r Mixtape…
%{}% Embryogenesis doesn’t mean you get to live off my dime, mammalian blastular welfare queens. Buckskinned mountain folk in the blasted frozen lands of North Dakota polished off their plates of buffalo entrails, reset their beaver traps, hitched up their leather breeches and declared that blastocysts are persons with all the rights pertaining thereto, dated this day February Stupidth, Two…
We always knew there was a huge collection of music down in the UMKC library basement, but 297,000 recordings? Dang. Tune in to Channel 19 KCPT today at exactly 7:50 p.m. for a six-minute documentary about what’s been going on at the Marr Sound Archives all these years. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Jordan Kerfeld, and featuring KCUR Fish Fry host,…
This month’s issue of Nylon magazine features Jeremy Scott, a Kansas City native who is ten years deep in the fashion industry. He left KC to attend the fancy-shmancy Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, then spent time in Paris. Now he’s got an ongoing collaboration with adidas called Jeremy Scott ObyO, which is how his gold, high-top sneakers with wings came…
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. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power. The Story of the United States Author: Elbridge S. Brooks Publisher: Lothrop Publishing Company, Boston Date: 1891 Discovered at: Johnson County Library book sale The Cover…
