For those of you who don’t know we have a tennis team — and we’re betting that’s quite a few — well, we do. They’re the Explorers, and they kick ass. It’s possible that some of you might’ve been more interested if the players wore fishnets and tight spandex and had tattoos. In a way, we don’t blame you. But…
Jack Ozegovic owns a car, but he’s none too happy about it. The 77-year-old Lawrence artist grew up in a General Motors town in Michigan, where he formed his conception of what he calls the “great god automobile.” Ozegovic says, “I began to look at it as something that is worshipped. Its ownership decides the status of its owner. You’re…
The Writers Place is pleased to be showing Greg Crawford: Stacks, a mixed media exhibit based on the artist’s ice-like blocks constructed from recycled personal material, condensed into stacks, and covered with paraffin. The exhibition features nearly a dozen untitled photographs and a wall installation. The photographs offer a reinterpretation of Crawford’s sculptures. July 10-Sept. 12, 2009 Tags: Greg Crawford,…
A competition juried by Anthony Huberman, chief curator at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, opens tonight at the Kansas City Artists Coalition (201 Wyandotte) from 5 to 8 p.m. “The majority I selected ended up being paintings and photographs, which I did not feel indicated a particular shyness about multimedia or new presentations,” Huberman says. “These artists take…
This weekend marks the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of Kansas City’s West Bottoms Art Show, a group exhibit with works by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered artists. “Bring your checkbooks,” advises Sean Nickell, LGCCKC membership chairman. “You may well find a piece or two you simply must have, darling.” Offerings include photography, paintings and sculpture, including work by JaCory…
Ever wonder just how the heck artists do what they do? And is it really that difficult? Maybe not. Hence, the name of an event happening today at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (4525 Oak, 816-751-1278) — “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary.” In the Ford Learning Center from 1 to 4 p.m., sculptor Will Valk will demonstrate casting techniques used by…
(1924 Main, 816-472-1924). The new happy hour served at the restaurant’s bar is from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Signature cocktails such as the Ginger Rickey (Hendrick’s gin, ginger syrup, fresh lime and club soda) are $5, as are selected wines; cheese is cheap, too. Mondays-Fridays, 4-7 p.m., 2009 Tags: Ginger Rickey, Hendrick’s Gin, Night & Day
The entrance to Manifesto is at the alley door of the building that was until recently the restaurant 1924 Main. Ring the buzzer to get in. Cocktails cost $11, but you’re paying for the enormous benefit of dependable darkness. For reservations, text the speakeasy your name and the number of people in your party. Mondays-Saturdays, 5 p.m.-1:30 a.m., 2009 Tags:…
One way to cool down on a hot July night is to quench one’s thirst in a really big way: by sampling, in one evening, a large number of wines and beers produced in Kansas and Missouri. That’s the concept behind the American Royal’s second-annual Wine & Brew Ha-Ha, held from 5 to 9 p.m. at Hale Arena (1701 American…
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Let’s get to the disclaiming: Four-decades-old prog-rock behemoth Yes will not be blessed with lead vocalist Jon Anderson’s Olympian pipes on this tour. Due to a debilitating respiratory condition that flat-tired the group’s 40th-anniversary shows last summer, Anderson is out, and the band is soldiering on with sonic doppelgänger Benoît David, whom the group saw on a YouTube video absolutely…
As his name suggests, T-Model Ford hails from another era. The 80-something blues guitarist blends primal, rhythmic Mississippi hill-country throb with raw Delta boogie by way of Chicago. The result roars and rumbles like a train’s steel wheels running over a mile-long fretboard, odd squalls of distortion mixing with unrestrained percussive crush. The beat moves with the inevitability of Michael…
Director Olivier Assayas goes to the heart of a bourgeois French family. Summer Hours opens with a gaggle of first cousins romping around the grounds of a rustic estate, north of Paris, where their parents grew up. The occasion is a 75th-birthday celebration for their grandmother, Hélène (Edith Scob). Assayas, who has always excelled at choreographing a fête, uses the…
Nuthatch-47’s debut album, Respectable Sins, is as sinfully tempting as Scotch on the rocks on a hot afternoon — sans the hangover. A cocktail of rock, blues and Russian ska, Respectable Sins opens with a kicking ditty called “Backgammon,” which is about beating the malaise of living with mom via a roll of the dice. Here, Russian-born frontman Max Kunakhovich’s…
Moon is a modest science-fiction film with major aspirations. The tale of a lonely spaceman might have made an excellent Twilight Zone episode, but Moon’s premise is even more suggestive of a song by director Duncan Jones’ father, David Bowie, whose 1969 hit “Space Oddity” took a depressed astronaut as its protagonist. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is introduced running laps…
Minneapolis songwriter Mark Mallman has tackled themes ranging from prostitution to alcoholism during the course of his decade-long journey, and his upcoming LP, Invincible Criminal, applies the same grandiose treatment to Father Time. Mallman sings about 100-year-olds waking up with double-whiskey and Cokes, dreaming about “White Leather Days.” If Mallman ever reaches that age, he’ll have no regrets. He has…
DJing can be a lot like dating: Fully booked weekends are pretty good measurements of success. Based on that metric, Joc Max, known to friends and family as Thomas McIntosh, is at the top of his record-spinning game. This weekend, Joc Max will keep Kansas City crowds rocking with hip-hop beats on both Friday and Saturday nights. Joc Max takes…
Did director Chris Columbus fall behind on his payments on a subprime mortgage? Even if so, I’m not sure it excuses this joyless, offensively stupid end-of-high-school farce, set in motion when nerdy valedictorian Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) uses his commencement address to profess his unrequited love for the titular cheerleading goddess (Hayden Panettiere). Complications ensue as Ms. Cooper pays a…
The Calamity Cubes can be counted among the host of Lawrence bands that play bluegrass instruments but wouldn’t be caught dead playing the main stage of the Walnut Valley Festival. The Cubes’ gruff sensibilities are more in line with bands like Lucero or Drive-By Truckers, minus the drummer and electric guitars. Singer Brook Blanche sings in a husky voice backed…
Perched on one of the tall chairs on the patio of Pachamama’s in downtown Lawrence, wiry Zach Hangauer seems unassuming in his T-shirt and pinstriped pants. But, as befits someone bubbling over with creativity, aesthetic matters occupy the mind of this owner of Range Life Records. In fact, his affinity for certain images bearing a faded-color quality, and capturing someone…
From the first disco salvo heralding Sacha Baron Cohen as Brüno’s subject, resplendent in hot canary lederhosen, to his final triumph before a rabble of wrestling fans bellowing “straight pride,” Brüno is vulgar vaudeville of the highest order. With the straight world as his straight man, Brüno’s irrepressible outré sexuality is only the most provocative aspect of his mad exhibitionism….
If Lester Bangs went on an excellent adventure and landed plop in the middle of a Kansas City warehouse party circa 2009, he might mistake it for Detroit or Seattle in the early ’70s. With Bleachbloodz and associated acts such as the Rich Boys, Wrong Crowd, Black Tarantulas and Thee Fleshapoids doing their best impressions of the Stooges and the…
Murphy’s Law works something like this: On the hottest day of the year, the air conditioning will break. This was proved true on a recent Saturday in St. Louis, when the A/C conked out at the So Many Dynamos’ CD-release show — on a day that hit 98 degrees before factoring in the heat index. Saunalike atmosphere be damned, the…
Paradise has a new name — in Leawood, anyway. A few months ago, husband-and-wife restaurateurs Nathan and Mendy Tannahill took over the venue abandoned by Cheeseburger in Paradise, the Jimmy Buffet-inspired restaurant chain, and moved — lock, stock and upholstered booths — their “Asian fusion” restaurant, Tannahs, from its original location in Olathe. The Leawood spot is much bigger and…
