Future robots don’t have to be evil — some of them might help us have a world with more soda choices at our finger tips. Coca-Cola is currently test-marketing the Freestyle — a soda dispenser with more than 100 choices inside a single machine — in southern California. The first machines are in Jack-In-the-Box, where food science is likely a…
BY ROBERT FOLSOM I’m a girl watcher, I’m a girl watcher/Here comes one now. Or five. And they weren’t girls. They were Dave Alvin’s Guilty Women taking the stage to the tune of the O’Kaysions’ “Girl Watcher” Friday night at the Folly Theater, just ahead of their bandleader. Alvin formed his all-female backing band in 2008 after the death of…
There were several really excellent guesses for last week’s “Where Is It?” photo — but no one answered correctly: it’s the front window of the Los Compos Mexican Restaurant at 5 East Kansas Street in Liberty, Missouri. There’s a second Los Compas location too: at 18011 East 24 Highway in Independence. Categories: Dining, Food & Drink Tags: Liberty, Los…
Because YouTube failed to let me upload the fantastically awesome video I had of strong woman Mama Lou ripping a phone book in half, you’ll have to settle for this only slightly less awesome video of comedy cowboy T. Texas Terry doing some trick pistol twirling, complete with John Wayne impersonation at the Lawrence Busker Fest on Friday night. I…
If there were any doubt as to the power of rock ‘n’ roll, it was erased on Friday night. The Jackpot played host to those pirates of the Salton Sea, Throw Rag. From the moment Sean Doe and company hopped on stage, launching into “Swingset Superman,” the audience went crazy. Now, Throw Rag has a tinge of country to them,…
No, I’m not drinking java this morning as I temporarily fill in for new Dad Jonathan Bender: I’m sipping California-based Republic of Tea’s answer to coffee — or any morning beverage loaded with caffeine — the herbal tea is called Get Charged, a proprietary blend of organic rooibos, hibiscus, gotu kola, stevia and ginseng — and other herbs. The bright…
As the national healthcare-reform “debate” drags on, giving new meaning to the words “August recess,” here’s another installment in our effort to figure out exactly what percentage of their souls Kansas and Missouri politicians have sold to the medical industry. This time, we take a look at Rep. Dennis Moore, one of the card-carrying “Blue Dog Democrats” who’ve supposedly been…
Friday, August 21, at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Mo: Alvin and his chastened dames were brought courtesy of Bill Shapiro of KCUR’s Cyprus Avenue.
We already told you about Rockhurst grad student Skyler Meyers attempt to raise $9,800 for Kansas City Missouri’s School District to buy new books by biking to the Continental Divide. Well, Meyers returned from 800 miles of pedaling last Friday with $2,200 in donations. The cash might be short of the goal for now, but the Children’s Plus Web site…
A man was found shot to death Sunday afternoon at 3021 N.E. 37th Street. View Larger Map Kansas City police arrived around 12:15 p.m. and found the white man in his 20s suffering from a gunshot wound inside an apartment. Police say there was a disturbance prior to the shooting. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. If you…
Kansas City, Kansas, police found two men shot inside a vehicle in the 2000 block of South 47th Terrace Sunday morning around 3 a.m. View Larger Map One of the shooting victims, a white male, was dead at the scene. His name hasn’t been released, yet. The second victim was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. KCK police…
So glad the air show is over. Can’t stand the planes blasting over downtown (especially my apartment). Even heard them booming while watching the really damn good Inglourious Basterds at the Crossroads Screenland (the recliners make everything amazing). But I’m grumpy and not just because of noisy fighter planes. Today is an end, of sorts. Rhiannon Ally is leaving KCTV…
The big news in Fat City this past week was that our talented blogger, author, comedian, and adventurous eater Jonathan Bender and his wife became the parents of a very beautiful baby girl. The birth of bambina Bender was the inspiration for this week’s Top Ten list: The Top Ten places to take kids to dinner. In case we left your…
1. Flavored cigs are going bye-bye. 2. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver held a civil town hall meeting. 3. Former Missouri Gov. Warren E. Hearnes died. 4. David Cross is going to get fucked up in KC in September. 5. Kit Bond: Joke thief. 6. The most important video of our time — of an alien peeking through a window — was…
At first glance, Midwestern Kansas City may not resonate as an international melting pot of cultures, but for the last 30 years, this city’s Parks and Recreation Department has celebrated the diversity of KC’s population with an Ethnic Enrichment Festival. The festival — much like KC’s ethnic community — has grown over the decades, and this year’s event at Swope…
This week made me want to reach for the jar of crazy lady pills, mostly due to the hyperbolic rhetoric of the drug-’em-don’t-kill-’em protesters at the Johnson County parks board meeting this week (Carolyn Szczepanski’s “Last night’s protest: Deer defenders at JoCo parks meeting”). Take this comment from “warwak.” Look what corpse-munchers do to loving cows, chickens, pigs, and other…
Zombies. They’re everywhere. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies reimagines Jane Austen’s classic with Darcy fighting off the undead. World War Z is optioned for a movie, possibly starring Brad Pitt. Lloyd Kaufman makes Poultrygeist, a musical about zombie chickens from a restaurant built on a Native American burial ground. Now we have Zombaritaville, a blog dedicated to “zombie-themed song lyric…
Remember all those band publicity photos I desperately and weakly attempted to get rid of by threatening to post one a day (then week … then month) until someone came and got them all? Well, I still have them. All eight boxes, thousands of photos — yours for feckin’ free. I left off my alphabetical attempt at the letter D,…
Bartenders used to make everything from scratch — at one time absolutely nothing came from a mix. But that was before drink menus were as long as wine lists and bartenders turned into novelty inventors. Old-timers, go ahead and shake your head here and repeat the following: We drank our whiskey without ice, and we liked it. But there are…
This past winter, Mike Dunn of 77 Jefferson and Patrick Brown (aka DJ Jabberock) had an idea to do an all Kansas City reggae festival, since there has been a recent upswing in KC musicians playing reggae music. At the same time, Brown bought a few Sony HD cameras and decided to put his journalism degree to work, and shoot…
Scott Hattrup, a Johnson County attorney and unsuccessful Republican candidate for the Kansas statehouse and for Johnson County District Attorney, is in the Johnson County jail on civil contempt charges for failing to comply with a divorce decree from April 2008. Hattrup was ordered on July 29 “to enter into and execute a contract to list for a sale” a…
