Archives: September 2009
Smoking bans: Not responsible for everything
Bar owners blame the smoking bans enacted in Kansas City, Missouri, and its suburbs for ruining their business and for starting World War I. (Gavrilo Princip saw a future where Serbian-Americans couldn’t light up in midtown bars, so he shot the archduke of Austria.) But a study of communities in Minnesota finds that removing the ashtrays has a negligible effect…
Outgoing Nelson-Atkins Director Marc Wilson talks shit on Independence
Marc Wilson, director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, will retire next year, joining fellow museum heads around the country in a mini exodus. Tyler Green, whose Modern Art Notes blog is essential reading for anyone who cares about, uh, modern art, checked in with Wilson during a recent KC visit. In Green’s interview, published on MAN last week in…
The stunning blank verse of the UMKC police blotter
Dickinson, Bukowski, Eliot — they were charlatans. If you want starkness and open space in your poetry, there’s a never-ending supply a click away. You just have to imagine where the line breaks would be. Kneel before the new idol. Information — Victims were sent packages from a student that made them feel uncomfortable. Disturbance — Neighbors complained of a…
Goodbye, Dalton/Bodie/Johnny
Rest easy, Mr. Swayze. As one of my friends put it, “Why couldn’t it have been Keanu?” Categories: Music Tags: dead celebrities, Dirty Dancing, Patrick Swayze, Point Break, Road House, video
Killa City: Deron L. Williams accused of killing Anthony Barnett
Anthony Barnett was found dead in Kensington Street with his pants’ pockets turned inside out on June 29. Cell phone records and DNA from inside Barnett’s pockets led police to suspect 24-year-old Deron L. Williams of killing Barnett, court records say. View Larger Map Jackson County prosecutors charged Williams Monday with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in Barnett’s death….
We Have a New Winner
New winner? Or is this a new loser in the “worst music video ever made” contest? I’m not sure how to qualify this video, but it certainly qualifies as one of the worst things I’ve ever heard or seen. It’s called “Slut!” by J Bigga and N!tro and consists of a series of cliches that make me violently ill, all…
Tonight: Tie One On Tour at Davey’s
The Ramblers Club is the spot for underground hip-hop tonight as Seattle crews the Let Go and Rudy & the Rhetoric bring their Tie One On Tour to Kansas City. Comprising producer Andrew “Rudy” Willingham and rapper Jon “Rhetoric” Everist, R&R weaves dark lyrical prognostications over deep, glitchy beats in a way that El-P fans might dig. Said the Seattle…
Whitlock extensively misquoted by alma mater’s newspaper
Poor Jason Whitlock. The Kansas City Star and Fox Sports columnist can’t even get quoted correctly in his alma mater’s newspaper. Last week, the Ball State Daily News reported Whitlock had claimed he wasn’t getting paid shit but was a patriot for not living large while serving his country by writing his sports columns and challenging authority. Here’s how Whitlock’s…
Incoming: Captured! By Robots at the Brick, October 10
On October 10, your favorite enslaved human, JBOT, returns to town with GTRBOT666, DRMBOT 0110, The Ape Which Hath No Name, Son Of Ape Which Hath No Name, AUTOMATOM, and the Headless Hornsmen. Yep — Captured! By Robots is back on tour! In years past, there have been shows devoted to The Ten Commandments, wedding songs, the Bush administration, getting…
Kansas Citians come out in droves to party with the Tour of Missouri
At the Capitol in Jefferson City, the Tour of Missouri bicycle race has become a political football, a passive-aggressive battle between Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder (a Tour booster) and Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon (who threatened to pull the state’s funding for the event this year). In Kansas City on Sunday, the Tour was more like a massive tailgating bash,…
Beer prices and a ballclubs’ records
Beer tastes better when the home team is winning. It’s colder and the Beer Man is always around when you want him. The steps don’t seem as steep and hot dogs go down like shrimp cocktail. But when the Royals are losing, the beer can be as stale as a bar floor the next morning. There may be one saving…
Meatovations: The next steps in cheeseburgers
Every so often in our history, hamburgers take a great leap forward. Burgers got upgraded when cheese was introduced into the equation; blue cheese and Kobe Beef seemingly changed everything again in the ’80s and ’90s. Now cheese and another idea from Japan are spearheading the latest innovations The Chicago Tribune reviews two newly opened joints near Chicago that are…
President talks health care to Congress — Rightbloggers make it all about a guy named Joe
%{}% Roy Edroso’s Rightbloggers: Exploring the right Wing Blogosphere appears courtesy of our sister paper in New York City, Village Voice. Last week the President delivered a health-care speech to a joint session of Congress. The most newsworthy part of the event, from the rightblogger perspective, was Rep. Joe Wilson’s cry of “You lie” during a section having to do…
Hunx & His Punx to Release Gay Singles
Hunx & His Punx are set to release a collection of all their out-of-print singles…which would be all their singles. Now, rather than paying exceptional amounts for “Hey Rocky,” “Cruising,” “You Don’t Like Rock ‘n’ Roll,” and the like, you can get them all on one handy-dandy LP. Granted, it’s $18 for a brand-new LP, but it beats the hell…
Bringing fresh produce to food banks
It’s not always simple to give food to food banks. Exhibit A: The uproar over the deer population in Shawnee Mission Park this summer and concerns over a plan to donate deer meat to local food pantries. Regulations are designed to ensure that the food is safe to consume and has been properly handled. To be accepted by Harvesters, game…
Deutsche Telekom buying Sprint Nextel?
Deutsche Telekom, owner of T-Mobile, is talking to its bank about bidding on Sprint Nextel, The London Daily Telegraph is reporting. An offer could coming in the next few weeks, the newspaper reports, and the combination of the third and fourth largest telecommunications company would rival AT&T’s subscriber base. Nobody’s talking about a potential deal on either side of the…
Review: CMF5, Side B
This is the second part of a two-part review of the fifth annual Crossroads Music Festival. Click here for the first. The Doo-Dads. 4 p.m. at Crosstown Station. I arrived at Crosstown Station in the middle of the Doo-Dads song, “Dinosaur Party.” There were about ten kids jumping up and down, bouncing red balls and running back and forth on…
Review: CMF5, Side A
I had a lot of fun this weekend because of Bill Sundahl. The tireless force behind Spice of Life Productions held his fifth annual Crossroads Music Fest this past Saturday, with pre-parties the night before, and it was a gas. Not just any gas, though. A noble gas. Like xenon. On Saturday, more than two dozen local acts performed at…
What’s in season: Peppers
Vegetables can be a matter of perspective. On the original Iron Chef, not the Alton-Brown-narrated Iron Chef America, fish heads received the biggest accolades from the Japanese judges when it was revealed that they were a secret ingredient. The ingredient they were least excited about? Bell peppers. The lesson here is that you better learn like to peppers because you…
Man will shout at Mo. Lt. Gov. Kinder until he professes love for Obama
Fox 4’s Lori Patterson tried to interview “Very Important Person” (and Missouri Lt. Gov.) Peter Kinder live about the Tour of Missouri, but the guy in red started yelling “Tell ’em we love Obama” and flapping his arms. Here’s the blow-by-blow. Uht-oh. This isn’t going to end well. “Tell ’em we love Obama!” Kinder doesn’t look like he loves Obama….
Find The Pitch
