John Heidenry was a child in his native St. Louis when the events in his latest book, the quick-moving true-crime story Zero at the Bone (St. Martin’s Press, 230 pages, $25.99), unfolded. The kidnapping and murder of 6-year-old Kansas City boy Bobby Greenlease terrified parents here and across the state for years afterward, but in Heidenry’s hometown, the September 1953…
We love music here at Wayward Blog (duh). We also love fliers, especially the eye-popping, visually intriguing ones that we feature as part of “flier of the week.” Now, it’s come to our attention that 1819 Central Gallery is going to do a show entitled “Mid America Manifesto,” a poster artists’ exhibit of work from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and…
Got a yen to do the danse macabre tonight? Head down to Crossroads KC at Grinders tonight for an electro-dance cruise ship of awesomeness helmed by Austin synth-vocals duo Ghostland Observatory and openers the Glitch Mob, a scruffy, knob-twisting dance quartet from Cali. Get like PBS and watch these docu-videos about both acts. The first is a quaint little Central-Texas-made…
In an effort to continue our bacchanalian decline into Halloween, Fat City will be bringing you a candy battle each week until that Saturday. Today it’s a Halloween animal-inspired battle — Chocolate Mousse Marshmallow Cats versus Bat Dots (Blood Orange Flavor). Marshmallow Cats (from Just Born — the makers of Peeps) The marshmallow cats share the same fused body structure…
The uproar over Kansas state Rep. Bill Otto’s “RedNeck Rap” escalated yesterday when Kansas Senate Democratic leader Anthony Hensley called out Otto for the YouTube video’s racial undertones. In a statement, Hensley recalled that Otto once made a comment to an African-American staff member about shooting an African-American member of the governor’s cabinet. Hensley was referring to Patrick Woods, a…
It’s a weighty task, encapsulating an entire city’s food culture inside of one cookbook. But Chef John Besh has grown into the role of the latest celebrity chef to speak for New Orleans, embracing the cultural heritage of the city where he owns and operates six restaurants. And in between the 200 recipes, Besh weaves stories from his own culinary…
Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm covered Thursday night’s Heat-Hornets game at the Sprint Center. Here’s his dispatch. The NBA in Kansas City. Man, that’s weird. It’s like barbecue in St. Louis. It’s just absurd. And coming into Thursday night’s game between the Heat and the Hornets, I expected the city of KC to mostly respond in kind. Sure, there would…
INTERVIEW BY DANNY R. PHILLIPS St. Joseph, Missouri has never been considered a musical hotbed, and the odds are stacked against it becoming the next Seattle, Omaha or Athens. However, the birthplace of jazz great Coleman Hawkins and the Pony Express has been getting some press of late thanks to a one-guy-two-girls rock band named Alice. For the better part…
This week’s Martin column notes the similarities in the arguments for a new convention hotel and past discussions that led to unprofitable investments in Bartle Hall and other tourism bubbles. One of the sites that’s being contemplated for a new hotel sits west of Bartle Hall and south of 12th Street. The property is not much to look at —…
The Mixx opened last Friday in the Power & Light District at 1347 Main, a sister restaurant to the popular Plaza eatery that lets customers mix their own salads and sandwiches. “My goal was to create an interesting and contemporary space for casual dining,” says owner Jo Marie Scaglia, who is busy shuttling back and forth between her two locations…
%{}% When your co-worker has a cup of coffee that smells like maple syrup, there is only one solution — eat pancakes. This is the time when there are more pears and apples than you know what to do with. Here’s an idea — make pear butter. Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer’s new nonfiction book Eating Animals considers whether to be…
A curious flier recently made its way to the office of The Pitch. “Say Yes To Peace,” it proclaims. “Pull Up Your Pants.” The man behind the flier is Ozell Lincoln, a 42-year-old computer programmer who was inspired to take action against violence in the urban core after a friend was killed in 2002. He’s working on getting 501(c)(3) status…
Halloween is my favorite time of year. I spend ages obsessing over costumes, Halloween Spirit makes its appearance, and I get to hit up every store in town for spooky Halloween decorations (or, as we refer to them in our household, “decorations”). The best part of this holiday for me, however, is the music. I have scads of music that…
1. See live (un-live?) zombies attack! Maul of the Dead opens at the Coterie Theatre tonight. 2. Experience an outdoor concert for one of the last times this season. Ghostland Observatory plays the Crossroads KC at Grinders tonight. 3. Support local artists. Kansas City Artists Coalition is holding open studios this Saturday and Sunday (and next weekend). 4. Experience the…
An announced crowd of 17,116 jammed into the Sprint Center Thursday night to see two of the NBA’s biggest stars — Dwayne Wade and Chris Paul — duel on the hardwood. D-Wade’s Heat won a sloppy game, 97-81 over the Hornets.
Fitness facilities aren’t known for their art work. Generally speaking, gyms aren’t prized for their architectural aesthetic, either. But the Southeast Community Center, perched above 63rd Street at the edge of Swope Park, inspires residents to sweat in style. The $10.5-million work-out and meeting space opened less than a year ago and it’s still one of the city’s greenest public…
%{}% %{}%A preliminary hearing for the three men accused of killing Keighley Ann Alyea has been scheduled for January 19, 2010. Johnson County prosecutors charged Dustin Hilt, Gerald Calbeck and Joseph Mattox with first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery in Alyea’s death. %{}%Alyea, an 18-year-old Overland Park woman, disappeared in the early hours of September 30. Six days later,…
It’s been about a year since Lawrence singer-songwriter Suzannah Johannes wooed us with her debut EP on Range Life Records. Thanks to sublime droplets of folk ambrosia such as the NPR pick “Horserider’s Smile,” that was one of our favorite records from ’08. There was a tour, a Daytrotter session and then…silence. Where, oh, where, did our Suzannah go? Well,…
Kansas state Rep. Bill Otto may have left us speechless with his “Redneck Rap,” but not Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley. In a statement released today, Hensley called the rap video on YouTube “disturbing.” Hensley makes note of the ending of the video in which Otto points to his handmade trucker cap that reads, “Opossum, the other dark meat.” Otto…
