While I’ve been selling my clothes to Arizona Trading Company (and thinking about selling plasma, too) in exchange for cash to buy presents for friends and family, Kansas-City-born designer Jeremy Scott has teamed up with Swarovski to create this unaffordable and unnecessary incarnation of his Jeremy Scott x adidas J-Wings. (And I love unnecessary things. Hello, Santa! Mazel tov, Hanukkah…
Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power. How to Improve Your Personality, Plus the Formula for Being an Interesting Conversationalist Author: George W. Crane, PhD, MD Date: Not given, but its a-bomb fear and…
Sometimes the best new stuff for gift giving is actually old stuff. Kim Dye, editor-in-chief of Vintage Market magazine, knows this, which is why she set up the Vintage Market Holiday Boutiques at Zona Rosa (Interstate 29 and Barry Road) to run through January 2, with marathon shopping hours from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The market offers vintage and…
The Kansas City Ballet isn’t making a big deal out of it, but one of the stars of the ballet company’s 37th annual production of The Nutcracker is 13-year-old Brittany LaPointe, granddaughter of millionaire arts patron Julia Irene Kauffman. LaPointe dances the pivotal role of Clara on alternate performances with Elena Loyacono-Bustos. But LaPointe wasn’t simply handed the role: The…
The ladies of the Burlesque Downtown Underground have a present for you. Sure, they’re offering glimpses of their fishnetted thighs, waxed bodies, stiletto-heeled feet and tattooed figures, but they want you to spend your tip money on yourself. Though tickets for tonight’s 8 p.m. performance of A Black Tie Cabaret With a Splash of Holiday! at City Stage Theater at…
Warm your spirit with uplifting sounds this evening at 7:30 when the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center (3700 Blue Parkway) becomes the stage for JERIC Productions’ Noel: A Soulful Celebration. Musicians Mike Andrews, Arrika Brazil, Stephen Brown and others provide a potpourri of the season’s sounds — ranging from gospel to jazz to traditional. The price of a ticket…
The organization Imago Dei is on a mission to unite community, Christianity and the arts. The nonprofit’s fall exhibition, No Hope No Faith, takes its title from the Bible verse Ephesians 2:12, which says those who have no faith are separate from Christ and “without hope.” The exhibit features calligraphy and woodcuts by David Johnson, a former art professor at…
The songs may be old favorites, but the production premiering at the Lyric Theatre (1029 Central) this weekend has never been seen before. Local wit Ry Kincaid penned the all-new script for How the Symphony Saved Christmas, a playful tale about a family in desperate need of Christmas spirit. “Jingle Bells,” “Sleigh Ride” and other can’t-get-’em-out-of-your-head Christmas classics help the…
For some people, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without A Christmas Carol. The Kansas City Repertory Theatre decided to give Scrooge a rest this year, but the Hemingway Gallery is watching out for fans of Dickens. The version of A Christmas Carol happening at 103 West 19th Street is more of a dramatic reading than a full-scale performance, and it…
The VALA Gallery is full of nude women. Some 50 depictions of the adult female form, by almost as many artists, decorate the walls of the cooperative gallery in Overland Park for an exhibition called The First Noel. If the curves all look similar, there’s a reason: The model for every image in The First Noel is the same woman:…
Mr. T would call it “absoludicrous.” Local video alchemist Pat Vamos has mixed together 70 minutes of found-footage glory to pimp his new Magical for the Ugly DVD. You can catch the high-caliber VHS weirdness at 8 tonight at Tivoli Cinemas in Westport (4050 Pennsylvania, 816-561-5222). Highlights include some of the hilarious, disorienting marvels that Vamos created for the Upright…
In the world of toy collecting, few subgroups are as selective as the designer crowd. For these fans, toy creators are artists, and a toy’s form is just a virtue of its function — being rad. Expand your toy horizons tonight at Poptopia (4126 Pennsylvania) when the store holds its trading party. The event gives collectors a chance to network…
After months on the festival circuit, director Joe Winston’s documentary What’s the Matter With Kansas — companion to the Thomas Frank book of the same name — comes to Lawrence for its local debut. Kicking off its weeklong run at Liberty Hall (644 Massachusetts, 785-749-1972) is tonight’s 7 p.m. premiere, attended by Donn Teske, president of the Kansas Farmers Union…
In her career, Kansas City native Carol Duboc has worked with the likes of George Duke, Patti LaBelle, Joe Sample, Stephanie Mills and others in the Los Angeles music scene. She’s well-respected as a talented songwriter and arranger in smooth-jazz and R&B circles. And she delivers her own enchanting sounds — Duboc’s warm, congenial voice recalls the singing of June…
Rico’s Hooligan Christmas Party started out as a modest little house party for the closest friends of the DJ, promoter and local clothing-line maestro. Fifteen years later, it’s Westport’s biggest formal bash, with guests flying in from both coasts and all the way from Europe to clink glasses with Rico and hundreds of his best-dressed mates. Get to the Beaumont…
For some folks, just one Christmas show isn’t enough. Local actor, singer and lovable lug James Wright, one of the stars of this year’s Spectacular Christmas at Musical Theater Heritage, bursts with so much of the holiday spirit that even on this Monday night — when shows are dark, and actors can start their drinking early — he’s singing in…
Just a block and half north of the Power & Light District is an altogether different nightlife experience. Specializing in grown-up and sexy delights, Qudos Cigar and Cognac Bar (1116 Grand, 816-474-2270) is owned and operated by KC natives David Lux and Windell Fields Jr., who say their establishment is an example of the “new millennium of cigar bars.” Open…
Hand Print Press has been teaching dozens of printmaking techniques in the studios of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for 15 years. Traditional etching, lithography, woodcut and photo etching are distinct art forms. By producing multiples of the same work, the various forms of printmaking democratized visual art and made the acquisition…
Author Patrick Dobson will give a presentation and sign copies of his book Seldom Seen: A Journey Into the Great Plains. Wed., Dec. 16, 7 p.m., 2009 Tags: Night & Day, Patrick Dobson
Kendra Marable’s mixed media addresses the history of objects. In her artist’s statement, she explains: “All objects have a history. At one point there was an owner, an occasion, a meaning. They were someone’s. But then, a treasured birthstone necklace from a favorite uncle ends up at the bottom of a dusty box in the back of a barn. Two…
Ibsen Ballet Theatre Youth Company will perform the holiday classic The Nutcracker to benefit The Northland Christmas Store. Completely volunteer and not-for-profit, this full-length ballet is beautifully performed, with professional costuming, scenery and choreography. The Northland Christmas Store, which provides food, presents, and other resources to families in need will be the recipient of all proceeds raised. Sat., Dec. 12,…
Deep inside Kansas City’s biggest parks, there’s still the whisper of traffic or the buzz of a motorboat hanging in the air. Remote trails are refuges for runners and cyclists grunting and grinding out their urban frustrations. Powell Gardens is the opposite. This expanse inspires strolling, not sweating. The loudest intrusion is the clomping of a toddler chasing a butterfly….
The Babylonian god Marduk traveled by death chariot, pulled by four horses with poison in their mouths. After seeing the band Marduk, spectators shouldn’t be surprised if they step outside and see acid-snorting steers hitched to the tour bus. Guitarist Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson set out to create “the most blasphemous band in the world,” a goal significantly aided by the…
