This summer more than ever, families could use a break from economic woes. So wouldn’t it be great if the phrase “free family fun” meant exactly that? Enter the Pilgrim Chapel Summer Concert Series, which teams up with the Hyde Park Children’s Film Festival to offer families a ton of entertainment in exchange for absolutely nothing. Every Friday through July…
Prolific Kansas City artist and designer Erick Warner teams up with Travis McElhany for TAG, an exhibit of collaborative and solo paintings at the Third Eye gallery space at 2024 Main. McElhany’s paintings combine simplicity of design with an open, gestural approach. Warner, whose professional background is in advertising, has experimented over the years with a variety of styles, from…
At the Great Mall of the Great Plains (20700 West 151st Street, 913-829-6277) are Perfume Palace of Kansas, Scrappers Paradise, Lids for Less — and a huge fireworks show at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot. (If it rains, come back at 9:30 p.m. July 5.) Sat., July 4, 7 p.m., 2009 Tags: Night & Day
As dizzying selections of beer go, Flying Saucer Draught Emporium has the market cornered in the Power & Light District. The restaurant’s beer list stretches for miles and includes unusual imports from Europe alongside American standards. St. Louis’ Schlafly Beer — on tap all over Kansas City — is not among the Saucer’s most surprising offerings. But tonight, there’s a…
Former Review magazine editor Marcus Cain, a painter and the winner of the 2006 Pitch Best of Kansas City award for Best Solo Show, opens Soft Bones, an exhibit of new paintings at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art (2004 Baltimore, 816-221-2626). The show’s title refers to the seeming malleability of Cain’s subjects, evoked from a process of successive layers of paint…
Despite the recession, the Late Show Gallery (1600 Cherry, 816-474-1300) continues to mount exciting and dynamic monthly exhibitions in Kansas City. The current show opened quietly last week, but gallery owner Tom Deatherage hosts an opening reception tonight from 6 to 10 p.m. “David Gant has a great show,” Deatherage says. “It’s called American Family — oil studies of family…
In cooperation with National World War I Museum Vice President of Museum Programs and cinema expert Eli Paul, the Kansas City Public Library screens a film series dedicated to The War to End All Wars. Every installment is the screen adaptation of a literary work. War Reels takes place on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. throughout July 2009 in the Stanley…
Booms & Blooms Festival: The country sky over Powell Gardens (1609 Northwest U.S. Highway 50, Kingsville, 816-697-2600) will light up when the privately funded 915-acre tract of land hosts an open-to-the-public event with the New Red Onion Jazz Babies (4:30 p.m.) and the Lee’s Summit Symphony (7:30 p.m.). Fireworks go off at dark. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for…
KC RiverFest: Berkley Riverfront Park (the green space between the Paseo and Heart of America bridges) is the spot for this fifth-annual two-day festival that features two stages, food vendors, a rock-climbing wall and the expected pyrotechnic displays. Organized by Friends of the River, KC RiverFest charges $6 for all entrants over the age of 5 and $10 for each…
For the past 17 years, the city of Overland Park and its Rotary Club have presented this huge fireworks display at the Corporate Woods Office Park (9401 Indian Creek Parkway in Overland Park). This year’s celebration includes performances by the 35th Infantry Division Band of the Kansas Army National Guard, the 11-member R&B cover band Atlantic Express and the country…
The Cedar Fair Entertainment Company invites you to “celebrate America” every Friday and Saturday night in July with discounted tickets, live bands, beer specials, and fireworks starting at 10 p.m. at Worlds of Fun (4545 Worlds of Fun Avenue, 816-454-4545). See worldsoffun.com for more details. Fridays, Saturdays. Starts: July 3. Continues through July 25, 2009 Tags: Cedar Fair LP, Night…
Sponsored by the City of Independence, the Mormon Visitors Center and the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, this free traditional gathering includes patriotic music by the Spirit of Independence Concert Band (8:30 p.m.) and a fireworks display that begins at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Gates at the Mormon Visitors Center (937 West Walnut in Independence) open at 8 p.m. Parking…
An event called Flex seems to signal a gathering of people who like to flex their muscles. Upstairs tonight at Crosstown Station (1522 McGee, 816-471-1522), you probably won’t find any sporty women in leotards and sweatbands or muscle-bound men in tiny shorts admiring their (and one another’s) bodies in front of a mirror. Then again, maybe you will — this…
Didn’t you know? Your office’s IT guy knows Ophelia’s monologues from Hamlet by heart. That cute girl in your yoga class twirls tassels from a pair of pasties like it ain’t no thing. And your neighbor can twist her body into human origami while suspended from a swath of fabric tied to the ceiling. At the Fringe Fest, you’re bound…
The 1960s, like the current decade, was an era of upheaval, some of it violent, some of it countercultural. Back then, photographer Lisa Law found herself in the right places at the right times. An artist and activist whose work hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Law is considered an important chronicler of a pivotal era. The…
Some of us were born in a small town (though, with any luck, we won’t die in one). You know, where everyone knows everyone, including those crazy kids Jack and Diane. Harrisonville, Missouri — population: less than 10,000 — is just about 30 miles south of Kansas City on U.S. Highway 71 and could easily be the setting for a…
The various available forms of social media are enough to prove the differences between how others perceive us and how we imagine ourselves to be. That late-night post that seemed particularly introspective and profound at 4 a.m.? ‘Fraid not. The Kansas City Jewish Museum takes that theme a little deeper with Dream Bodies: Transformative Figures, a seven-artist group exhibition (including…
Summertime in Lawrence is laid-back and mellow with one notable exception: kickball. Now in its seventh season, the Kaw Valley Kickball League has blossomed into a 28-team mongrel with multiple battles every Sunday evening. The league has yet to implement a mandatory steroids-testing program, but its competitors are more likely to abuse beer anyway. As the league sweeps up every…
Are you a geocacher who wants to win a brand-new GPS? Then get out the GPS device you have now and cash in on Merriam tourism. Or make that “Cache in on Merriam Tourism,” a summertime geocaching contest sponsored by the Merriam Visitors Bureau. The contest encourages high-tech, outdoor adventures by challenging residents and tourists to geocache their way through…
(4110 Pennsylvania, 816-753-4455): Do your best to feel feminine while drinking 75-cent draws and $2 wells until midnight in Westport. Then go home — Buzzard Beach really isn’t the place for a lady at 3 a.m. Thursdays, 2009 Tags: Night & Day, westport
(20 East Fifth Street, 816-471-7427): Down in the River Market from 6 to 10 p.m., wells are $2.50, and domestic draws are $3.50 for women. Karaoke goes from 6 to 10 p.m. Bring a girly hanky to wipe excess barbecue sauce or beer dribble from your chin. Thu., July 2, 6-10 p.m., 2009 Tags: Night & Day
In the ’90s, Robin Pearce was one of Kansas City’s bright young stars: She acted, performed stand-up comedy, did a little modeling, bartended and promoted theatrical events. These days, the former Miss Pearce is now Robin Abrahams, a research associate at Harvard Business School and the weekly “Miss Conduct” columnist for The Boston Globe Magazine, for which she answers important…
Singles expert Don Davidson leads this seminar. Call 913-469-2323 for registration and location details. Wed., July 8, 7-9 p.m., 2009 Tags: Don Davidson, Night & Day
Whatever Works is Woody Allen’s first New York movie after five years abroad. It’s his first in even longer to center on the Woody Allen character — an urban neurotic, here named Boris Yellnikoff and brashly played by Larry David. Toughened and (relatively) rejuvenated by David’s aggressive performance, the Allen surrogate is introduced treating his friends to a lecture on…
