“I’m not at liberty to discuss the film’s final budget,” writes first-time screenwriter and director Scott Kessler of his locally produced debut feature, Deep River, “but I will say it cost more than El Mariachi but less than Clerks.” Judging from the stills posted on the film’s Web site, one might surmise that much of Kessler’s shoestring budget went toward…
Culture in Kansas City, Kansas, tends to flourish at the street level, where community-minded artists bring their truth and beauty to the concrete. At Shakespeare in the Parking Lot III, these creative types will storm what’s otherwise the deadest of urban spaces: the parking lot. The lot in question belongs to the Alcott Arts Center (180 South 18th Street, 913-233-2787),…
Twelve years after William S. Burroughs’ death, Lawrence remains as fascinated with its adopted Beat Generation son as when he was firing shotguns in his east Lawrence backyard. Many of those blasts were directed at his paintings, at least one of which will be on display at retrospective exhibitions this month. Tonight from 6 to 9 is “Naked Leftovers: Burroughs’…
Admit it: You think fat kids are hilarious and farts are airborne hilarity, especially when they’re pointed at Jessica Simpson and there’s collateral damage. Anything for the laugh. Bring that fart-sniffing, fat-kid-ridiculing funny bone to Stanford and Sons Comedy Club at the Legends (1867 Village West Parkway in Kansas City, Kansas) for giggle time with Josh Sneed. The comic is…
No, the former home of Harry S. Truman (219 North Delaware in Independence, 816-254-9929) doesn’t have the historic glamour of Washington’s Mount Vernon or Jefferson’s Monticello. The 19th-century Queen Anne Victorian, built by Bess Truman’s grandfather, is a modestly decorated home with unassuming furnishings and Harry’s 1972 Chrysler still sitting in the garage. But Truman’s legacy has made it an…
OK, tacking palooza onto the end of a word has been a tired tactic for years. But what the World Adult Kickball Association — the organizers of Mammopalooza — lack in originality, they make up for in heart. Proceeds from today’s 7 p.m. concert at Crossroads KC at Grinders (417 East 18th Street) go to charity. The lucky organization here…
Museums may seem like loners, but the institutions get by with a little help from their friends. For a July exhibition, curators at the University of Kansas’ Spencer Museum of Art teamed up with members of the community to choose themes and collection objects. Today is the final day to view the intimate Friends & Neighbors at the Spencer (1301…
On the first Monday of every month, the Lawrence music collective known as Chomp Womp throws a little party for itself at the Eighth Street Taproom (801 New Hampshire, 785-841-6918). “We take over the space and fill it with balloons and cakes,” says Chomp Womper Drew Gibson. On Chomp Womp Family Night, the Taproom also gets filled with the sounds…
When the social scene in Kansas City starts feeling a little small, there’s a quick fix for finding new faces: hotel bars. Sixty minutes with a mysterious stranger who’s lonely and starved for attention? That is a happy hour. • Chaz Lounge at the Raphael (325 Ward Parkway, 816-756-3800). After-work specials in the newly renovated boutique hotel run from 4…
Emily Silverman truly believed that everyone could dance. The young woman from Kansas City dreamed of opening a studio that welcomed people as graceful as herself, as well as the clumsy and the physically impaired. “Even if someone in a wheelchair could only move one finger, she said she’d create a dance for that one finger because it’s self-expression,” says…
The Muses, a husband and wife duo from Colorado, will perform their own brand of Celtic music. Tanya Brody and Matthew Gurnsey play a plethora of exotic instruments ranging from bohdran to concertina, harp to hammered dulcimer, psaltery and pennywhistles, and they sing. Wed., Aug. 5, 7 p.m., 2009 Tags: colorado, Matthew Gurnsey, Night & Day, Tanya Brody
Martin Provost’s lyrical but bracing portrait of the early-20th-century French painter Séraphine Louis begins and ends with a quietly ecstatic shot of the artist nestling up to the rustling leaves of a majestic tree. In Provost’s vision, the dirt-poor country housekeeper’s elemental flower paintings, derided by her bourgeois neighbors, are powered by her love of nature and the direct line…
Jennifer Aniston doesn’t have to stretch a muscle as Sue, a traveling corporate-art salesperson staying in an Arizona motel, where she’s courted late at night by the owners’ man-child son, Mike (Steve Zahn). Awkwardly bringing champagne and complimenting her ass, he nearly blows a fuse when she actually allows him to cop a feel. The next morning, she inexplicably bangs…
Seemingly similar to most factory-made romantic comedies, the first feature by former music-video director Marc Webb is actually far less interested in the will they or won’t they and more concerned with the why can’t they. Its lovers — Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) — are perfect for each other, yet are perhaps still not meant to be….
After devoting his first two films (as director), The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, to getting laid and having kids, respectively, Judd Apatow brings the circle of life to a close with Funny People, which stars Adam Sandler as George Simmons, a popular, Sandler-esque movie star diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal form of leukemia. When actors and directors…
Before you roll on out to Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone for the Vans Warped Tour on Tuesday, Architects frontman Brandon Phillips has some advice: “Don’t wear fucking flip-flops anywhere near the pit.” It’s Thursday, July 23, and Phillips is wandering Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Charlotte, North Carolina. His band is more than halfway through its grueling, 47-date Warped run,…
Often lost in the bling and machismo of rap music is the fact that it’s a competitive sport. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in the art of battle rapping. During battles, MCs take the field against one another, armed only with wit, rhyming ability and off-the-cuff insults that would make Andrew Dice Clay envious. Weight problems, bad clothing,…
Kansas City’s the Record Machine is releasing 10 albums in 2009, and the label will showcase three of its recent signings when Perhapsy (Nashville, Tennessee), Capybara (KC), and Sam Billen (Topeka) share the stage Wednesday. Perhapsy’s new self-titled album is an adventure in dense and winding instrumental music from guitarist Derek Barber, formerly of the Winston Jazz Routine. Evoking acts…
Friends, patriots, country fans, lend him your ears. Here comes the big dog. The bar lover. The collector of Taliban scalps. The man who put the TK in that Dixie Chick’s FUTK T-shirt. And the only Nashville hit maker who’s honest enough to dare to piss people off in his singles. And what a hit maker: 18 number ones, 35…
For whatever reason, Magnolia Electric Co. has decided to grace the Kansas City area with its second show in as many months. The big difference this time is that you’ll probably know all the words by heart from the group’s latest release, Josephine. Beginning under the alias Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric was established in 2003 and named for the last…
Even though Down draws its personnel from Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, Eyehategod and Superjoint Ritual, the Louisiana-based quintet sidesteps the usual supergroup trappings. For starters, Down’s origins trace back to the childhood friendships of four of its five members, who (along with original bassist Todd Strange) all grew up in New Orleans. Down’s intentions may have appeared casual at…
If “drone show” conjures up images of Star Wars, you probably want to avoid the Riot Room Thursday night. The evening’s showcase features three local acts: Expo ’70, Plante and Sounding the Deep. And it offers an experience that’s entirely different from anything George Lucas would ever put his name on. (Unless, that is, Lucas is planning to release a…
No, no, the new Caliente Grille on 39th Street has no connection to the short-lived Cuban restaurant, Caliente, which came and went so quickly at Wyandotte County’s Legends complex that I never got a chance to eat there. According to friends of mine who did dine there, I didn’t miss much. Caliente, it wasn’t. In Spanish, caliente means hot or…
It was an early spring evening when agents came to Bill Laursen’s front door. His daughter had lived with him for about one year, and the two had just returned from Brookside to their home north of the river. A jazz pianist who most recently had been playing with the Scamps, Laursen taught music part time at his daughter’s school,…
