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…
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:…
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…
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…
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…
Darla Jaye doesn’t remember hanging up on my dad. But she doesn’t doubt that she did. The spitfire host of KMBZ radio’s 980 Live … with Darla Jaye is sitting with me at a Panera Bread in south Johnson County just before Thanksgiving. Here’s how my father tells the story: During last year’s presidential campaign, Jaye was talking on-air about…
I ventured out in last night’s snowy, icy weather to attend a friend’s 50th birthday party in a remote, industrial section of this great metropolis. The festivities were held in a building owned by developer Adam Jones — where I was surprised to find the mostly intact interior of one of this town’s most legendary urban saloons: The Ship. If…
What is dorky yet engaging? If you guessed trivia night, you’re probably a regular. Those seeking competition or validation of their pop culture knowledge over a few beers have a number of options in town. Kansas City’s well-established trivia circuit keeps bars hopping on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The set-up is typically the same. A team — usually those sitting…
The Jackson County Medical Examiner revealed its autopsy findings yesterday regarding the October 26 death of Leonard Sullivan. The ruling: acute amphetamine and heroin intoxication. Bruce Springsteen fans the world over no doubt heard of Sullivan’s death. In addition to being the Boss’ cousin, Sullivan was a tour manager for his band. His untimely passing just hours before Bruce Springsteen…
We made it. We beat back the hysteria, the shortages, the late deliveries and the we’re-all-gonna-die paranoia. Congratulations. Tomorrow, December 10, and Saturday, the Health Department will lift priority group restrictions and offer H1N1 “swine flu” vaccinations to anyone who wants one. There are two chances to get this done: Thursday, December 10 from 2 to 6 p.m. at St….
Larger Than Life In 3D sounds like one of those movies that they make for IMAX, or one of the innumerable Disney concert films that seem to fill their coffers. Granted, I’m just pissed they never do this with any bands I want to see. Although, despite the inclusion of Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper and Gogol Bordello are both…
Former Lawrencian Freedy Johnston makes his annual return to town at the Bottleneck on December 26. Johnston scored a hit in the ’90s with his song “Bad Reputation,” from his 1994 Elektra album This Perfect World. In honor of that show, which is sure to be well-attended (seriously — it’s fifteen bucks, a Saturday night, and you’ll be dying to…
Backfire BBQ debuted at the Legends on Monday night with a grand opening party featuring Paul Teutel Sr. of Orange County Choppers and the film crew for his family’s reality series — American Chopper. Berry Anderson was there to capture the neon, the barbecue pit and the custom-built motorcycles that adorn the restaurant like art pieces. Click here or on…
Every year ’round this time, amateur weather watchers tee-off against their local meteorologists, weather girls and professional Doppler junkies. They criticize everything from the blase “There could be some snow in the metro” to the alarmist, a-snowflake-is-a-blizzard school of thought. Weather broadcasters are allowed to be wrong — a lot. (If an MLB umpire had the same accuracy rate, he’d…
Shellshag are this weird amalgamation of the Pixies and every other band that’s ever played the Replay. Sort of indie, but heavy, and I’m pretty sure they smoke a lot of pot. I like this track way better than anything else I’ve heard from them in the past. Their last album, Destroy Me, I’m Yours, never really grabbed me. I…
Cubicles are like airplanes. You can never avoid smelling the lunch of your neighbor, and you just pray that your seat doesn’t have a funk when you get there in the morning. So, my heart went out to Faith over at Frighteningly Uncommon Sense when she recently wrote the following: It smells like a ham sandwich at my desk today….
If you’ve ever sat down to play a video game for a few minutes and end up staying for a few hours, you’re not necessarily wasting your life (your parents might disagree); you might actually be experiencing a state of mental optimization known as flow. Clive Fullagar, a professor in Kansas State University’s psychology department, and Associate Professor Patrick Knight…
Drive-thru regret is a unique brand of shame. It occurs after I’ve entered the drive-thru and am sitting in line long enough to have either one — or both — of two thoughts: I am not going to feel good after I eat this or I wish I’d simply parked and gone inside to order at the counter. Being in…
An article posted on MSN’s Money page today lists seven companies that financial writer Michael Brush predicts will bite the big one before the year 2020. Number seven: The Kansas City Star’s parent company, McClatchy. The media company can’t catch a break, PR-wise. Brush’s doomsday prediction comes on the heels of an announcement by McClatchy Chief Executive Gary Pruitt that…
As the couch cushions groan with the growing audience for cooking shows, celebrity chefs are beginning to acknowledge that they might need to look at their own weight and what they’re telling others to eat. It is as the Food Network’s Alton Brown explained to Time magazine: Celebrity chefs are the high priests of the food craze that is partly…
%{}% Here’s something to brighten the mornings of those who had to commute to downtown today. The Mixx (1347 Main) offers free lunch delivery for today only. If you’re in the downtown loop near the Mixx — Truman Road to Ninth Street and between Grand Boulevard and Baltimore Avenue — there’s no minimum required. Those outside that delivery zone downtown…
What’s going on in Wyandotte County and KCK? A judge threw out a grand jury petition yesterday filed by agitator T.J. Reardon, citing signatures that were forged. Reardon has long alleged that there’s corruption and misuse of public funds by the Unified Government and the Board of Public Utilities, and in October, he filed a petition to seat a grand…
