(504 East 18th Street, 816-716-5940) opens an exhibit of mysterious photographic erotica by Keren Moscovitch, an adjunct professor at New York’s School of Visual Arts. “I did a residency there three years ago,” says Slap-n-Tickle owner Apryl McAnerney. “We kept in contact over the years, and Keren’s recent body of work is this explosion of this amazing erotica. They’re very…
The zombie trend was a durable cultural fixture during the dread and paranoia of the Bush administration. Can it survive the optimism and hope of the Obama years? Maybe we’ll know by 2017. Tonight Jamie King, Kansas City’s zombie queen, is organizing another zombie walk through the Crossroads Art District to benefit the Bishop Sullivan Center. Participation requires your preferred…
Anita Robinson is an indie guitar goddess who tastefully cranks blistering leads from a double-necked Danelectro. Her husband, Kevin, pulverizes his drum set, trades singing duties, and grabs an acoustic guitar once in a while. With their band, Viva Voce (say Vee-vah Voh-chay), they write delicious pop songs stuffed with pretty hooks and weird twists and turns. After touring last…
Director James Toback’s documentary about former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson isn’t a traditional nonfiction portrait as much as a feature-length interview, in which the retired boxer is front and center for virtually the entire running time. The only talking head is his own, albeit one that speaks in multiple, sometimes self-contradictory voices. The movie covers a lot of ground:…
If you thought the Flaming Lips were the only ones drinking from tainted Oklahoma water, you probably haven’t heard Starlight Mints. The whimsical pop band from Norman is capable of making the Lips look like ordinary dudes with their puppets, Rorschach-like projections, and surrealistic wordplay (Put jelly on my toes so the mice don’t bite/Floating down this river in a…
Energetic fun, Rudo y Cursi is a multiple-brother act: It’s written and directed by Carlos Cuarón and produced by elder sibling Alfonso, director of Y Tu Mamá También, and it reunites Mamá’s co-stars Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, playing half-brothers to boffo effect. Nearly as popular on its home territory as the first Cuarón hit, Rudo y Cursi is…
Remember when, in the magical ’70s, television programming for children was dotted with animated vignettes of psuedo-psychedelic scenes set to whimsical singer-songwriter pieces tailored to suit? Some of them were reminiscent of the Beatles, some a Carole King ditty. Taking us back to that era is Patrick Bukaty, a former Kansas City mod rocker and frontman for the Go Generation,…
Substitute “career” for “life” in the title of this stillborn travelogue comedy, and you’ll have a succinct verdict on My Big Fat Greek Wedding writer/star Nia Vardalos, whose efforts to prove herself more than a one-megahit wonder have been greeted by audiences with apathy. Here, in the opening salvo of her double-barreled 2009 comeback bid — the Vardalos-scripted and -directed…
Back in October, Lawrence native Lisa Donnelly was the opening act, in her hometown, for Locksley as part of MTV’s “Choose or Lose” tour. This time it’s more personal — and more of a homecoming — as the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter returns as a headliner for her debut CD-release party. That CD, We Had a Thing, is an amalgam of…
It’s hard to think of a compelling reason to remake the popular 1970s sci-fi show for the big screen. Brad Silberling’s amiable update has Will Ferrell as an insecure, has-been paleontologist who finds himself lost in time and space with the usual sidekicks — Anna Friel as his fearless assistant, a funny Danny McBride as a trailer-trash survivalist, and Jorma…
Old School fans, remove your earmuffs: This messy, raunchy farce about three groomsmen (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis) on a lost-weekend bender in Sin City is uneven but funny, continuing director Todd Phillips’ fascination with the alpha male’s default setting — childhood reversion. To put it another way: This is a movie about three yutzes who wake up facedown…
Some two-dozen metal bands will create a glorious aural sludge during the American Waste festival at the Beaumont Club. A sure highlight will be Saturday’s performance by one of the best heavy acts to ever rise from the Lawrence-Kansas City scene. Until recently, the band has been as good as dead. The Esoteric went on hiatus since shortly after its…
Betse Ellis, the fiddle player for high-energy KC hillbilly quartet the Wilders, summons that outfit’s Ozarks-tradition sound on her first solo album. She explores some other styles, too. Don’t You Want to Go? begins with a couple of traditionals: “White River,” a bowed-and-plucked, fiddle-only tune, followed by her vocal arrangement of “John Henry.” Then she rosins up the bow for…
Summertime has more to offer than a predictable spike in the city’s murder rate. This weekend, for instance, locals can take refuge at two events that showcase the city’s growing affinity for all things hip-hop. Starting at 6 p.m. Friday, local man-about-town, artist, DJ and clothing-designer Sike Style hosts a Recession-Proof Summer Release Block Party and Trunk Show outside of…
Even though Anvil, a four-piece speed-metal circus that never amounted to anything more than “the demigods of Canadian metal,” guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner decided early on that their objective was “to rock forever” and at all costs. Director Sacha Gervasi, a British screenwriter (The Terminal) who had been a roadie for Anvil as a teenager, reunites…
It’s hard not to greet the news of a new Nina Persson release with hopes that it’ll sound exactly like the classic Cardigans album First Band on the Moon. Persson’s campy Swedish band took a turn for the morose with the release of 1998’s Gran Turismo, and subsequent efforts have been solid but nowhere near as fun as the early…
Bigfoot death metal. As Troglodyte, a four-man band from Independence, Missouri, calls it: “neandercore.” Or music as primitive as a caveman ripping ass — artfully. “It’s its own brand,” says Ben Von Schiefelbusch, Troglodyte’s bassist. “We don’t write songs. There’s no preconstruction or preconceived ideas. They just happen.” Or do they? Among Troglodyte’s bigger hits is a tune titled “Skunk…
I ate lunch at the new Mainstreet Theatre with “Miss Cinerama.” Trust me, it wasn’t planned. For a meal at the sleek Marquee Bar & Grill in AMC’s new downtown movie palace, I invited my longtime friend Carol Jean, who apparently owns more crowns than Queen Elizabeth II. The year after Carol Jean was voted Miss Prairie Village of 1956,…
Less than five minutes into All Sinatra, Quality Hill Playhouse’s rousing but overstuffed cabaret tribute to the greatest pop singer of the 20th century, Jon Daugharthy set my nerves at ease. “We’re not here to imitate,” the singer said. “Nobody could.” Tasteful reverence is a Quality Hill hallmark, so I probably shouldn’t have worried, but not every director understands Sinatra’s…
The signs help. On the western edge of Warrensburg, Missouri, past Sunset Hill Cemetery and south of West North Street, new-looking markers point out the easy turns that lead to the Howard School. Spotting the weather-beaten landmark isn’t hard once you’re on West Culton Street. Perched atop a slim tract of patchy grass that slopes into a wide gravel lot,…
OK, everyone. If you’re reading this, you’re a newspaper reader. If you’re a newspaper reader, you know that the industry is in crisis. That daily newspapers, like General Motors, are endangered not just by a brutal economy but also by decades of top-level greed, hubris and bad management. That the decline of newspapers threatens democracy itself. Though you can’t yet…
This week’s issue includes a handy pullout guide to summer fun. Miles Davis, in response to the white-breadness of that three-letter catchall, reportedly once asked, “What the fuck is fun, anyway?” The man had a point. But what other word so succinctly describes how your brain perceives the hot, summery chemical buzz that comes from learning (or leaving learning behind…
Dear Mexican: I am a Chicano in Connecticut. I moved from Arizona to the East Coast for my dream job. I have to admit that I’m still homesick. Connecticut is a completely different world. To sum it up in one phrase, vale madre. It took awhile for me to find a Mexican restaurant close to me. It’s very comparable to…
Title: Coronet magazine Date: September 1947 Discovered at: North Kansas City estate sale The cover promises: “The tragic failure of America’s women: a shocking indictment by a noted woman physician” Fact: Ain’t nothing wrong with America’s boys. Representative quotes: “There is one type of woman rarely seen in a psychiatrist’s office. That is the woman who is glad she is…
