Pierced Arrows is a phoenix of a band. Fred and Toody Cole’s new band, born of the ashes of the long-lasting underground phenom Dead Moon, proves that they haven’t quit on each other or on their own primitive brand of rock and roll. Enlisting Kelly Haliburton on drums, the husband-wife duo continues its tradition of straight-up punk infused with the…
There’s a giant FOR SALE banner hanging on the front of Black Lodge Recording Studio in Eudora, Kansas. If anyone steps up, one of our music scene’s defining institutions could begin anew. Otherwise, it’ll most likely disappear. The area’s pre-eminent music studio has been on the market for six months. With no takers as yet, $300,000 gets you the studio…
Last week, I watched a bulldozer smooth over the surface of the northwest corner of 51st Street and Main. A red-brick building that had stood there was obliterated after supposedly surviving a century on that very spot — the place at 5044 Main where, for 23 years, jovial Joe Accurso had operated his namesake Italian restaurant. Over the years, Walt…
Both warnings and advertisements, the Terminator films are technophobic teases, selling tickets by promising the decade’s model of killing machine: the classic V8 1984 Schwarzenegger; the bullet-streamlined, liquid-metal ’91 Robert Patrick of T2: Judgment Day; Kristanna Loken’s 2003 T-X (with burgundy pleather upholstery). A departure in many ways, Terminator Salvation is the first Terminator with no upgrade. The hardware is…
Janet Simpson, director of the Kansas City Artists Coalition, has been supporting Kansas City artists for 20 years with humility and diligence, often far from the public’s gaze. Her mission is to get the artists’ works shown, not to draw attention to herself. The two artists now exhibiting at the coalition attest to Simpson’s honed and democratic programming. Miguel Rivera,…
Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre’s courageous production of Terrence McNally’s Kiss of the Spider Woman (music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebbs) isn’t quite what I would call a work in progress. That would imply that some full triumph were imminent — or even possible. Instead, I fear that this attempt to stage a serious, gorgeous and lavish Broadway musical…
A caution light bounces in the wind as Terry Reed sits in the driver’s seat of a black Chevy Trailblazer. He’s parked on the shoulder of East Langsford Road, one of the entrances to Lake Lotawana, a small community in southeastern Jackson County. The back of his SUV holds campaign signs for an election that’s 10 days away. Reed hopes…
By now, every child in kindergarten knows that coal-fired power plants spew destructive carbon dioxide into the air. Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson is way older than a kindergartner, but is he smarter than one? When Parkinson capitulated to Sunflower Electric Power Corporation and approved construction of a coal-fired power plant in western Kansas, he sucker-punched his predecessor, Kathleen Sebelius, who…
Dear Mexican: My wife and I have an argument going on about pirates. And because you are the source for all things Mexican, I’d thought I’d ask: While I know there were Spanish and Portuguese pirates back in the early 1600s and 1700s, were there ever any Mexican pirates? Not pirates from Spain who pirated in Mexico, but real HONEST…
Title: E-mail From God for Teens Author: Claire and Curt Cloninger Publisher: RiverOak Publishing Date: 1999 Discovered at: Goodwill, Olathe The cover promises: Can God craft a spam filter so powerful, even He can’t get through it? Representative quote (from an e-mail titled “I’m Fun”): “If you spend time with Me, you’ll find out that what you really want is…
Feature: “Dead Man,” May 14 ‘Til Death Do They Part Overall, Nadia Pflaum’s piece on Dennis Skillicorn was a good presentation of his case and pending execution. Pflaum kept me reading; she can drive a narrative. But a lot of her writing was about what was evident, on the surface — all those death-penalty legalities and attorney maneuverings. There was…
Kansas City police found a man shot in the head on the sidewalk near 10105 Freemont Tuesday night. The man died today. Kansas City police identified the man as 19-year-old Domineak L. Bynum of Kansas City, Missouri. An officer patrolling the area of 99th and Blue Ridge heard several gunshots. Police received several calls of shots being fired in the…
A month ago, Jamaal V. Dixon allegedly shot and killed Rashad J. Taylor and wounded Taylor’s brother in the parking lot of the Express Mart at 7007 Longview Road. Dixon, 19, now faces charges of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action. On Tuesday, there was another shooting at the Express Mart. View Larger Map This…
If you only enjoy the safe confines of conscious rap — the kind that helps sell cologne and booze — then you’re missing out on some quality head-bobbing, cognac-sipping experiences. Of course, that brand of too-real rap scares the crap out of my nancy ass.Venturing out to the West Bottoms to see dudes rapping about getting head is too hood…
THE FURIOUS BROS!!! Not really. The winner is actually …. Categories: Music Tags: Caesura, cautious optimism, Furious Bros, Warped Tour
A 10-year-old girl claims that another student raped her in a classroom Monday at George Washington Carver Elementary School (4600 Elmwood Ave.). View Larger Map An incident report taken by the Kansas City Police Department gives these details: The alleged rape happened after a teacher left the students alone in his classroom. The male student allegedly locked the classroom door,…
%{}% If you’re looking for some fun tonight, you’re in luck. The wine gods have produced two events. Soho 119 in Leawood hosts a dinner focused on Asian wine. The five-course menu features items you might not expect to be paired with wine — pho noodles, sushi roll of unagi, pad thai — from relatively ordinary grapes like pinot grigio…
Independence just got a new athletic complex last year. So, of course, somebody had to go and break shit. Fox 4 has a bunch of photos of broken-down street lights at a ballpark on Salisbury Road and reports that the vandal or vandals struck sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning. You keep this up, and we’re going to take…
Since I’ve been a little kid I’ve heard it preached as gospel that coffee is bad for you — or at least doesn’t help you in any way other than making you jittery. After his heart attack, my great-grandfather seemed more upset that the doctors told him no more coffee than he’d been about the heart attack itself. But I…
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon never called Dennis Skillicorn’s lawyer at the Public Interest Litigation Clinic to say that he’d denied Skillicorn’s petition for clemency. Scott Holste, the governor’s press secretary, wrote up a press release that was sent to media outlets shortly after 5 p.m. yesterday, but nobody notified Jennifer Merrigan, Skillicorn’s lawyer. As a result, Skillicorn himself didn’t find…
To supplement this week’s Wayward Son and Pitch cover — which was masterfully designed by art director Zachary Trover using the Cowtown Ballroom logo (which originally came from The Westport Trucker) — about the release of Cowtown Ballroom…Sweet Jesus!, here are some shots from the all-too-brief reunion party this past Friday, May 15. Click on the photo below for a…
The New York Times has an article today about sriracha, that red sauce with a green cap and an Asian logo that began showing up everywhere a few years ago. Turns out sriracha — or rooster sauce or chili sauce or one of the numerous other names it’s known by — is not foreign but 100 percent American made. It…
%{}% Dogfighting impresario Michael Vick has finally left the federal penitentiary Fort Leavenworth. For real this time. ESPN says the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback left at around 5 a.m. with not so much as a goodbye, sneaking out a side door undetected by a pack of eagle-eyed reporters. Damn, Vick must still have those shifty moves. Next up, home confinement…
