Critics have plenty of labels for Wolfgang Laib: shaman, ascetic, mystic. He would be the Jedi master of modern minimalist sculpture, if the Germans went in for glibness. Let’s just call him a very patient man, one with a singular vision. How patient? His new installation at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Without Place—Without Time—Without Body, consists of hundreds of…
Mae Jemison didn’t need the inspiration of Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura to shatter the illusion that only white men belong in space. Growing up in 1960s Chicago, Jemison gravitated to science at a young age and knew that she was destined for the stars. Entering Stanford University when she was just 16, she was often the only black woman in…
Perhaps more than any other art form, live theater relies on an audience’s immersion, attention and collective experience. One Time Productions is totally aware of this, so it chooses venues to reflect theatrical content. Example: a Sam Shepard play performed in an Airstream trailer. That’s super-duper cool, but we’re curious to see how One Time fulfills its mission with its…
Historically, U.S. government forces have made it embarrassingly easy for citizens to remain ignorant of American Indian culture. The extreme poverty and violence that tend to be associated with Indian reservations emphasize the lingering cultural divide. But events such as this weekend’s Kansas City Indian Art Market and Cultural Festival are reminders of progress. For four years running, the Kansas…
“What is a bunghole?” Find out the answer to that and other filthy questions tonight at Missie B’s (805 West 39th Street, 816-561-0625). At 10 p.m., the city’s most famous drag bar hosts the Dirty Game Show. The host (wearing heels and a wig) will pick rowdy contestants from the crowd. They will then compete to answer dirty questions for…
Lester Goldman’s presence at the Kansas City Art Institute was nearly constant for 40 years — he taught painting from 1966 until his death in 2005. Less constant was the form that his own style took; he expertly navigated and melded various media, including figurative portraiture, abstract painting, sculpture and performance. In conjunction with Flights of Fancy Fulfilled, a show…
Thomas Larson, author of The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative, discusses the rise in popularity of the modern memoir and offers tips on how aspiring writers can find a niche in the challenging genre. Wed., Oct. 7, 6:30 p.m., 2009 Tags: Night & Day, Thomas Larson
Author Robert Hicks visits the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City, Missouri, Public Library to read from and discuss his historical novel, A Separate Country. Tue., Oct. 6, 6:30 p.m., 2009 Tags: Kansas City, missouri, Night & Day, Robert Hicks
The Pearl Gallery is KU’s newest student gallery, located in the Crossroads district of downtown Kansas City. The work in this exhibition will showcase work by graduate students currently studying at the University of Kansas in the Department of Visual Arts. The work in this exhibition encompasses a broad range of today’s contemporary art scene, including painting, drawing, printmaking, video,…
Hot on the heels of text. (or in the vacancy of), at the Greenlease Gallery, come two more shows in the same copy-based vein: WORD and Light Text, running concurrently at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. In the first, Kansas City-based artists Archie Scott Gobber, Christopher Leitch and Jim Sajovic use their words to investigate the power and politics…
• Travis Pratt has been exhibiting at the Late Show Gallery (1600 Cherry, 816-474-1300) for years now, specializing in paintings of surrealist architecture. His rectilinear planes and surfaces, rendered in a cool palette, simultaneously haunt and distance while interrogating the viewer’s notions of dwelling and geographic place. Of the 6 p.m. opening, simply titled At the Late Show, gallery owner…
Every few months or so, some study comes along to inform everyone that reading is dead, that no one has ever made it all the way through Great Expectations, and that society is doomed to have illiterate children who will sigh in exhaustion after skimming Wikipedia articles. And, sure, maybe there’s cause for concern. But events such as the MCC-Longview…
We all want to be remembered in some way. Mother Teresa had the poor. Jane Goodall had chimps. Zippy the Clown had brightly colored balls. It takes a lot of commitment to go the route of Jane Goodall or Mother Teresa, so we recommend the balls. Luckily, you can make your mark this weekend at the Kansas City Juggling Festival,…
ABC once discovered a bright young comedic talent and, as was the wont of single-minded programming executives during the ’90s, set out to make her a sitcom star. In the process, the network nearly destroyed her, but just as the telekinetic Jean Grey was resurrected as the badass Phoenix, the funny woman rose from the ashes as something more formidable…
Remember when Bill Murray’s face looked less like a catcher’s mitt, when Sigourney Weaver was incredibly hot and when Rick Moranis still had an acting career? Most freshmen at the University of Kansas don’t — nor do they know the significance of the phrase “Don’t cross the streams!” — which is why it’s important for those ’90s babies to report…
Tickets for today’s Price Chopper 400 at the Kansas Speedway run $213 to $318. Though that price includes tickets for Saturday’s race and the IndyCar Series and NASCAR truck races the first weekend of May 2010, it doesn’t leave you much to drink on. That makes these deals at the Legends all the more appealing.•Cheeseburger in Paradise (1705 Village West…
If the men of Wilco aren’t enjoying much FM airplay these days, then all they need to do is wait a few decades for their fans to hit retirement age. If the Earth is still populated circa 2039, Wilco will rule golden-era-of-indie-rock playlists all over the world. At least, that’s how it’s looking 15 years and seven proper albums into…
The zombie movie — that evergreen vessel for all manner of social and political allegory — gets stripped down to its “Holy shit! Zombies! Run!” chassis in this fitfully amusing romp directed with little ambition and even less distinction by first-timer Ruben Fleischer. Set in a not-too-distant future where most of humankind has gone flesh-eating crazy from a Mad Cow-style…
Drew Barrymore, making her directorial debut, is blunt about her inspirations for this tale of an anguished debutante-turned-roller grrrl. The only thing that keeps Barrymore’s effort from playing like an American Movie Classics rerun is the soundtrack, an alterna-rock all-skate to which Juno’s Ellen Page goes ’round and ’round an Austin, Texas, roller-derby rink during her rather sudden rise from…
Coming from a small town where a Saturday night music marquee often means three hours of Rockin’ Dave singing the hits on his acoustic guitar, I tend to avoid singer-songwriter nights the way I avoid nightmare-inducing horror films: out of a blend of fear and habit. But that’s changing. Right now, Kansas City has a wealth of talented solo music…
One of the best aspects of Danny Rowland and Jen Weidl’s synth-pop is that it isn’t trying to be adorable. Sure, the songs are sugary-sweet and laced with extraordinarily catchy melodies, but there is absolutely no pretension getting in the way. Transmittens is nothing more than two people in a bedroom recording little pop songs for the fun of it….
If semitrailers got down ‘n dirty like motor oil in a dank club beneath the highway, Revolting Cocks would be the house band. Spiritual kin of Thrill Kill Kult, this Al Jourgensen (of Ministry) side project does a grindhouse, brass-pole version of industrial dance, fueled by all the seething lust and narcissism that inhabit the darkest corner of the American…
The lush musical textures of Portland, Oregon-based Portugal the Man are deeply informed by psychedelic and progressive rock, with lead and harmony vocals that take a cue from Motown. John Gourley’s mannered tenor gives shimmy to full-bodied arrangements that shake loose a flowery swell. Lately, the group has become more streamlined, toning down the experimentation in favor of tighter, song-based…
It’s the group’s second free show in the area in four months, so you really don’t have a reason not to see Passion Pit. The giddy electro-pop trio from Boston tore up a performance at the University of Kansas in June, setting all the college kiddos’ hearts aflutter with songs that recall, all at once, Pet Shop Boys, Daft Punk…
