If I didn’t know the awful truth, I’d swear Andre D. Jones was sleeping. But I know the truth. Jones’ rest is eternal. He looks peaceful lying in his casket, sharply dressed in an argyle sweater and button-down shirt, his newsboy hat snug on his head. But his tranquil look belies the truth. Jones, 33, was the victim of one…
Jackson County Prosecutor Jim Kanatzar held a press conference today to protest the potential parole of Saeed Aquil. On New Year’s Eve in 1994, Kansas City Police Department officers Patrick Brown and Larry Schoen spotted 25-year-old Aquil and 13-year-old Jason Rushing near 37th and Prospect and pulled over to conduct a pedestrian check. “We just wanted to ask some questions,”…
It has been a great year at Fat City and I’m glad to have been at the helm since July. Since taking over for Owen “Steel Gullet” Morris — I sampled more than a dozen tacos in the quest to put together our first Top 10 list — only weeks after more spoonfuls of baked beans than I thought possible….
This huge media whore in Kansas just announced the protest of Lady Gaga’s sold out Jan. 7 show in St. Louis. Wow. What a shock. News like this presents a problem. On the one hand, He Who Shall Not Be Named doesn’t deserve the attention he so obviously craves by making grand and vicious proclamations about any flavor of…
Police have identified Dwight Gibson, 37, as the man who was shot to death in last night’s incident on the 5900 block of Cypress Place. Another man believed to be involved in the shooting was treated for a gunshot wound. His identity has not been released. No suspects have been charged in connection with the crime. Police are asking anyone…
Start 2010 with a bowl of steaming tripe! It’s not particularly known as a hangover cure, but someone, somewhere is going to wake up on New Year’s Day with his or her skull just pounding — and craving a pig foot and a bottle of beer. You know what I mean? Some people eat before they fall asleep from a night of…
In the early morning hours on Sept. 30, 2009, SWAT teams readied themselves to kick in the front doors of some of the city’s worst drug houses.On their heels were a cadre of detectives from the Kansas City Police Department and lawmen from six federal agencies. At the SWAT team’s all-clear, they were prepared to storm in and serve the…
Diana Monarrez is a hostess with the mostest If you’ve worked in the restaurant industry for any length of time, you’ve probably done a stint as a host or hostess in a dining room, a job distinctly more difficult than it may appear. My friend Lorraine calls the job “working the book,” since juggling the requirements and demands of the…
For those of you unfamiliar with the Reverend Dwight Frizzell, he’s the front man for long-running world-beat crazies Black Crack Revue. Prior to BCR’s formation in the early ’80s, he recorded the album Beyond the Black Crack, which is crazy rare and obscure. It’s regarded as “a pre-cursor to the mayhem of the Sun City Girls and Nurse With Wound,”…
The top 25 Billboard hits of 2009, mashed, cut, and otherwise messed the hell up in just under five minutes. Nice job there, DJ Earworm. The list of all the songs is after the jump, but you can always try and guess. Although, really — I only knew about half. Why? Because I write about music on the Internet, and…
So it’s a time of reflection. Local and national media outlets are thick with year-in-review — and, this time, decade-in-review — lists. Mostly, such look-backs provoke a sense of “oh, yeah, that happened” before the feeling quickly passes. A much greater emotional and intellectual challenge — an opportunity for hardcore reflection on the past 60 years — awaits those who…
I don’t know what abominable snowmen drink, but in my heart it’s Yeti Imperial Stout from Denver’s Great Divide Brewing Company. The label says it is “untamed” and “imposing,” and the nose delivers a wild punch to the senses. Malted hops come out right away as well as roasted coffee. Curiously, I even got slight whiffs of what smelled like…
So, local hip hoppers — you say you’ve tried all the avenues available to you to get your music out there? Perhaps not. It seems that DJ G Train’s offered you one more way to get your tracks heard: podcasts. G Train sent out the following invitation to all local emcees, DJs, and such: I’ve been trying to dedicate some…
They say the eyes of the dead are fixed in a thousand-yard stare — an unblinking, unremitting gaze into the abyss instead of their own futures. Captured in life, these faces tell small secrets about their owners. Some were fierce and defiant, burning with anger, flashing gold teeth and neck tattoos. Others wear resignation, their foreheads creased in sorrow or…
The world is about to discover what a lot of people in Kansas City probably already know: There are some fantastic fried chicken restaurants in the state of Kansas. The Morning Sun reports that the Travel Channel is coming to southeastern Kansas in mid-January to film at Chicken Annie’s and Chicken Mary’s in Crawford County. While the exact subject matter…
Remember when the holiday routine included picking up videos at Blockbuster? There seemed to be one everywhere, open until midnight every day (including holidays). But the explosion of sell-through-priced media and the rise of Netflix (among other factors, including a string of nutty business decisions at Blockbuster HQ in Dallas) have helped move the retailer’s stock to the edge of…
It may be too late. The panjandrums preparing the U.S. bid to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 may have cut Kansas City from the list of possible sites for soccer’s premier event. But if they haven’t, an online petition is letting fans of the sport and the city make a push for Arrowhead Stadium. Kansas City is…
Christmas is barely in the books and we haven’t even it made it to 2010, but stores are ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Sprinkles and heart ice cube trays were among the impulse items on display at Target yesterday. Seasonal food items are seemingly moving up the retail calendar faster and faster. Cadbury Eggs are on the shelves at Walmart….
This week’s cover story was wrong as soon as it went to press. Justin Kendall writes in “The Year in Killa City”: As this issue of The Pitch goes to press, only 48 hours remain in 2009. If no one is murdered by the time this issue hits the streets, 2009 will close with 109 homicides in Kansas City, Missouri….
