Director Kirby Dick doesn’t actually stick his camera under any Capitol Hill bathroom stalls in this new documentary, but his goal is more or less the same: to catch closeted gay politicians with their pants down. Call it yellow (or is that pink?) journalism, if you must; as Outrage persuasively argues, it comes not to invade its subjects’ personal lives…
Eleven-year-old Anna Fitzgerald’s parents didn’t just plan for her — they customized her in utero, with the specific end of providing spare parts and infusions for her leukemia-sick older sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva). When Kate experiences renal failure, Anna (Abigail Breslin) defies her birthright duty to play donor and cough up a kidney. She contracts TV-spot lawyer Campbell Alexander (Alec…
Midway through A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, author Dave Eggers makes the following observation about his generation of self-obsessed, media-savvy technobrats: “These are people for whom the idea of anonymity is existentially irrational, indefensible,” Eggers writes. “And thus, there is a lot of talking about it all — surely the cultural output of this time will reflect that —…
Dear Mexican: You once asked why Mexican bands don’t hit it big in the good old U.S. of A. I think the simple answer is that there are no Mexican Mouseketeers. You don’t get to be Justin Timberlake by picking a guitarrón. Slater from Saved by the Bell doesn’t count. The real question is why Disney, a company that started…
In 2006, Jay-Z signed Nasir Jones to Def Jam Records after the two New York rappers had been embroiled in an epic public battle that many thought Jones — or, rather, Nas — had won. That strange twist perhaps says as much about Jay-Z’s marketing acumen as it does Nas’ continued viability. Finding a rap artist who has remained relevant…
The 18th and Vine District may have the museums and the historical notoriety, but the northeast area of Kansas City, Kansas, proves its own mettle every year by hosting the Kansas City, Kansas, Street Blues Festival. The free outdoor festival has paid tribute to scads of indigenous Kansas City blues masters during its nine-year run, reacquainting audiences with such performers…
Stevie Wonder’s visionary 1970s albums Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life not only shaped his career but also fired up R&B and pop with funk and social consciousness. His song “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” became a crooner’s dream and a soundtrack for elevators, while the Red Hot Chili Peppers amped…
Back in the early days of Late Night With Conan O’Brien, it wasn’t uncommon to see the wide-eyed visage of Jonathan Richman as the pompadoured host’s musical guest. Now that CoCo’s the starting pitcher for the talk-show big leagues, will he put the hugely influential Richman in the spotlight again? At age 58, the former Modern Lovers frontman has used…
Saddle Creek rocker Conor Oberst has evolved through a number of incarnations in the last decade, ranging from emo poster boy (Bright Eyes) to sociopolitical punk rocker (Desaparecidos), most recently receiving acclaim in the indie-folk world as one of the sharpest lyricists around. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, his latest get-up, expands in the bluegrassy, folk-rock direction that…
The compass is true for this Kansas City-area band’s third album, with its melding of roots rock, Americana and country. It’s all tied together with unapologetic lyrics by Gary McKnight. Right out of the chute, “Youth Gets Wasted on the Young” has arena-country appeal. This band could hold its own with any act coming to the Sprint Center nowadays. The…
At the Record Bar, Making Movies frontman Enrique Javier Chi shares a complaint with the audience. “My waitress last night was totally racist — ‘Are you black or Spanish?’ ” he says, aping her. Chi’s olive skin, lush lips and just-past-shoulder-length dreadlocks might be perplexing to folks who like everyone to fit into easily identifiable categories. The same could be…
Last December, Vincent Galicia lost almost everything. Equipment worth $10,000 that he had nickel-and-dimed for a decade as a bricklayer — gone. The 27-year-old and a few friends had devoted four months to building a studio in a commercial district on North 18th Street Expressway. It was to be a sunshiny space in earshot of foot traffic but, more important,…
I don’t know if there’s any connection between Ophelia’s, the attractive, upscale restaurant across from the historic Independence courthouse, and the more famous Ophelia who was driven mad in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But I do know this: In 2000, I was driven mad one night by the glaring incompetence of the Independence Ophelia’s staff and manager, and I walked out vowing…
Walking through Dan Christensen’s Forty Years of Painting exhibition at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, you note certain things. The painter’s “Lisa’s Red,” from 1971, stacks up as one of his finest works and shows the museum’s eye for quality. And though Christensen, who died in 2007, can be said to have followed the crowd when it came to…
Whether I enjoy the shows, I still find myself bemused at each summer’s Heart of America Shakespeare Festival — at the way the finest of poetry is, at times, reduced to a minor seasonal pleasure. Picnickers take in a lofty speech, then watch the sunset streak the clouds, relish a breeze and maybe whisper to a confused kid that “cuckold”…
Josh Freese is one of the best and busiest session drummers in the music industry. Today, however, he is standing motionless, a pair of shearing scissors in one hand and a plastic comb in the other, poised over the head of one of his fans. An overturned cardboard box serves as a provisional barber’s chair. Freese looks uncertainly around the…
There’s much to admire about John Danforth, the former U.S. senator from Missouri. A scion of wealth, he pursued degrees in law and divinity. As a senator, he delivered communion to shut-ins. He confronted hunger in Cambodia and civil war in Sudan. In 2005, he criticized the Republican Party for caring more about gay marriage than the deficit. Now, though,…
Trying to predict what’s going to happen with the elusive — or perhaps illusory — Citadel Plaza shopping center is a little like trying to nail down the plastic bags that swirl around the still-empty lot at 63rd Street and Prospect. Pitch staff writer Carolyn Szczepanski first reported on the long-delayed, $90 million, asbestos-poisoned plot of land in a January…
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Wayward hip-hoppers James Christos, PL and Jamel Rockwell hit the road last week for a DIY-style tour. Point your browser to the Anarchy Tour Diary to keep up with the anarchal madness. The latest installment, sent in earlier today is short but crucial and comes from PL. PL: Well, we’ve been in the Bay (San Jose mostly) for a couple…
Kansas City police have made an arrest in connection with Sunday’s homicide at 35th and Agnes. Jackson County prosecutors charged Dshawn L. Marchbanks with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon Wednesday. Police found 26-year-old Eric Taylor shot in the driver’s seat of a red 1993 Ford Thunderbird Sunday. Taylor was pronounced dead at a local…
96.5 The Buzz presents the return of their Summer Beachball show. For a few years there, it was your way to see a lot of bands for cheap. Well, they didn’t have one last summer, but now it’s back on September 4—which makes it more of an end-of-summer ball than anything else. The Blink-182 / Weezer pairing at CapFed Sandstone…
Hey, breaking up is never easy. Unless your girlfriend stabs you in the face while you were sleepwalking. Even if you peed in the closet — even if you peed in her grandmother’s ashes — she doesn’t have the right to stab you. Thank her for the ride to hospital, and then run for the ER. Just run. And don’t…
Ever wonder what it would be like if Lowe’s put on a carnival? Hey Johnny, you know what’s more fun than riding the tilt-a-whirl? Building the tilt-a-whirl with your own Craftsman hammer! Lumber’s this way. … That’s what visiting the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference was like today (and will be like through Friday). According to the SkillsUSA Web…
