Even in a recession, $5 isn’t much. Lay down your Lincoln tonight to help support the Lawrence Arts Center. The songwriter showcase features Stranger Tractor, Sue Malloy, Joe Comparato, Deborah Pine, Janette Michels, Clark Jamison, Sommer Brecheisen, Daniel Qin Shay, Steve Howard and others. Sat., April 11, 7 p.m., 2009 Tags: Clark Jamison, Daniel Qin Shay, Deborah Pine, Janette Michels,…
The era of segregation gave Troost Avenue its unfortunate reputation as Kansas City’s racial dividing line, neatly separating the black and white communities. Segregation affected other ethnic groups in the metro, too. From 1910 to 1921, for example, Mexican immigrants found new homes in the Argentine, Rosedale, Armourdale and West Bottoms neighborhoods. “It was a very different time in Mexico,…
KCAI faculty member Miguel Rivera will talk about his experiences as a printmaker during a 7 p.m. lecture. His speech is part of the Current Perspectives lecture series. Rivera’s work has been shown in the United States, Mexico and Japan. Thu., April 9, 7 p.m., 2009 Tags: Miguel Rivera, Night & Day
Leave it to an Englishman to make ocean voyages to Tahiti and Tierra del Fuego all about scholarship rather than sunshine. Charles Darwin went pretty much everywhere except the United States (despite his fascination with American politics and people), advancing his theory of evolution without doing much for his pallor. (Leave it to an American — a Kansan or two,…
Local improv comedy troupe Full Frontal Comedy presents an evening of laughs. The show is called My Brain Hurts V. Tickets are $10, with 10 percent of proceeds benefitting Patriot Guard Riders, the motorcycle club that blocks protesters at funerals. Fri., April 10, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 11, 8 p.m.; Fri., April 17, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 18, 8 p.m.,…
If the name Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs looks strangely familiar, it’s probably because you recognize within it the name of famous war historian Stephen Ambrose, author of best-sellers such as The Wild Blue and Band of Brothers. He apparently passed a love of history on to his daughter. Like her father, Tubbs has long been fascinated by Lewis and Clark. In…
More than 25 artists who live at the Hobbs Building in the West Bottoms will open their studios to the public. Fri., April 10, 6-10 p.m.; Sat., April 11, 6-10 p.m., 2009 Tags: Night & Day
In his tell-all autobiography, My Life, Burt Reynolds writes of Bill McKinney, one of the Deliverance hillbillies: “He always played sickos, but he played them well. With my dark sense of humor, I was kind of amused by him. But as we got closer to the rape scene, I caught him staring at Ned Beatty in an odd, unnerving way….
Wake up extra early today and fork over some dollars for a good cause in exchange for a little breakfast. From 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. the Hyatt Regency Crown Center hosts the 9th Annual Light of Hope Fundraiser Presented by Jackson County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). CASA’s mission is to be a child’s voice in court. The group recruita,…
The Easter Bunny is great, but the real highlight of this holiday is brunch. Grand Street Café (4740 Grand) is featuring an appropriately grand Easter buffet with a seafood bar, an omelet bar and vanilla-rum-butter pancakes for $22.95, or $9.95 for children 10 and under. Call 816-561-8000 for seating times. Also skirting the Plaza and serving Easter brunch from 10…
Gather up the kids and take them to Hyde Park this Easter Sunday for the annual Easter Frolic put on by the Pilgrim Center. The event features a giant Easter bunny, a hunt for plastic eggs, live music, pony rides and more. Everything is free. Sun., April 12, 12-2 p.m., 2009 Tags: Easter, Hyde Park, Night & Day, Pilgrim Center
Though his film career spanned three decades, the Danish-German expatriate Douglas Sirk is best-known for a handful of three-hanky literary adaptations he directed for Universal between 1954 and 1959. Dismissed in their time as “women’s pictures,” Sirk’s lushly photographed Technicolor melodramas were layered with subtext and irony, elevating soap-opera conventions to their cinematic apotheosis and influencing later filmmakers as diverse…
Knowing the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” doesn’t make one a patriot. A better litmus test: commitment to understanding and protecting the Bill of Rights. The road to nationalism begins tonight in the River Market when ACLU2 (a committee of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri) and the LGBT Task Force hook up for ACLU2sdays at…
Pool (or “pocket billiards,” as the scientists call it) blends geometry, physics and sometimes booze into something magical. The folks from The Music Man’s River City recognized this; the young Tom Cruise in The Color of Money recognized this. Now metro women do, too, thanks to the Women’s 8-Ball Tournament tonight at the Hawg Wild Bar and Grill (6505 Nieman…
According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, tonight’s full moon has an official name: the Full Pink Moon. The name refers to the appearance of wild pink phlox, but the late psychic David Schneider called this April full moon “the night that even straight men act a little gay.” If, under the influence of the Pink Moon, you feel the need…
In its latest exhibition, the YWCA swings from the political to the personal. Kathy Colon made her mark on the local art scene in 1999, on the sidewalk, with a 10-foot chalk portrait of herself and her twin sister at La Strada del Arte Festival. A decade later, Colon has had her work writ large in towering paintings at the…
On this date in 1973, the Kansas City Royals christened a new ballpark with a 12-1 beatdown of the Texas Rangers. Today’s home opener, against the New York Yankees, will take place in a stadium that has undergone a $250 million refurbishment. The new Kauffman Stadium (Interstate 70 and the Blue Ridge Cutoff) features seats amid the fountains and plenty…
This Easter Sunday at Pilgrim Chapel, KC blues icon Danny Cox will be a featured performer in a mini-musical, entitled Easter and the One Hundred Dollar Bill Story, accompanied by popular local musicians, Joe Miquelon and Bob Walkenhorst, who will provide vocals and music. The entire one-hour worship service, including the mini-musical, will focus on the Easter theme of redemption…
Celebrate another year of the DotDotDot Artspace. The Anniversary Show features an exhibition by the Fresh Produce Art Collective. Sat., April 11, 4-9 p.m., 2009 Tags: Night & Day
The Golden Ox is a go-to place to fill up on Easter Sunday. The all-you-can-eat buffet features chef carved country ham and prime rib, chicken, hot vegetables, an assortment of salads, plus favorite desserts and beverage service. Call 816-842-2866 for reservations. Sun., April 12, 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m., 2009 Tags: Easter, Night & Day
Observe and Report writer-director Jody Hill makes mean-spirited tragedies that studios market as inane comedies because otherwise no one would pay a cent to see them. That’s more or less what happened to Hill’s The Foot Fist Way — it’s more unclear than ever whether Danny McBride’s tae kwon do instructor is intended as punch line or punching bag. That…
Famed banjo player Béla Fleck travels across Africa, trading licks with peers with their thumb pianos and akontings. Fleck believes these instruments are the banjo’s ancestors, and his musical guests — who include such greats as Uganda’s Haruna Walusimbi and Mali’s Oumou Sangare — are quite willing to play with him as an equal. The performances are great, but as…
Scarcely less astonishing than Richard Nixon’s election 40 years ago was what occurred a few weeks later in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when Harvard’s undefeated football team met undefeated Yale and, trailing by 16 points with 42 seconds left in the game, scored twice to confound its archrival with a tie. Filmmaker Kevin Rafferty, then a Harvard undergrad, was an eyewitness, and…
Czech director Jan Hrebejk’s trying foray into soapy realism has at its center the kind of provincial hard-luck lass who shows boob at a funeral and sweetens sauvignon blanc with a dousing of soda pop. Marcela (Ana Geislerová) has crazy sex — and that’s about it — with her mechanic husband; mired in a circumstantial shitstorm, they struggle to repair…
