On its latest EP, Lawrence trio American Low Life lurches between hooky pop-punk sweetness and guttural hardcore growling and back again, like a Warped Tour Jekyll and Hyde. But far from struggling with an identity crisis, American Low Life seems perfectly content in its reluctance to settle into one genre. The individual tracks on In Vino Veritas run the stylebook…
Kemet Coleman, known in local hip-hop circles as thePhantom*, doubles as an urban studies student at UMKC. So it makes sense that Coleman gets academic on his newest album, Destroy & Rebuild. If he aspires to even higher learning, a doctorate in philosophy might suit Coleman’s sensbilities. The rapping college student is unrelentingly intellectual on each of the album’s 18…
In Relax, an exhibit at the Dolphin gallery in the West Bottoms, globe-hopping, doo-ragged David Ford grapples with consumerism, power, religion and pretty rainbows. Nearly one year into the presidency of Barack Obama, who took as his twin campaign themes an inevitability (“change”) and a scarce commodity (“hope”), Ford appraises the altered American landscape and finds a hot mess of…
Dear Mexican: Can you recommend a solid, accessible history of California and Arizona so I can learn what really happened when the United States gobbled Aztlán? La Chica Confundida Dear Wabette: The holistic classic in this genre is Rodolfo Acuña’s Occupied America: a History of Chicanos, but it’s a bit pricey, a problem that the legendary profe has told the…
Wind swirls around him, inflates his black robes and blows loose trash above his ankles. The Rev. David Altschul pauses this morning and considers the debris outside Reconciliation Services, the nonprofit he runs at the corner of 31st Street and Troost. Over the years, the organization has provided counseling; referrals and advocacy for uninsured, underinsured and low-income people; a food…
All of us want to wish all of you happy holidays. You probably won’t be seeing much of us here in Fat City the next few days, but come Monday we’ll be back, fueled by candy canes and Christmas cocoa. To get you through our time apart, though, here’s one last bit of breaking news and the chance to put…
Wyandotte County prosecutors charged Deborah Meeks Wednesday with first-degree murder in the death of Wesley U. Smith. Smith, 53, died Monday of a gunshot wound to the chest. His body was found in a home in the 2900 block of Hutchings Street. Meeks, 47, is being held in the Wyandotte County jail on $100,000 bond. Categories: News Tags: Deborah Meeks,…
Charges aren’t expected to be filed against the man who shot and killed 31-year-old Reginald Waxter Jr. near 35th and Euclid Tuesday night. Police are calling Waxter a “robbery suspect” and saying Waxter was killed in self defense. The alleged victim was shot in the leg an dis in fair condition at a local hospital. Categories: News Tags: homicide, Kansas…
If you need to escape the family or just want to take everyone out for a drink, you have a fair number of options on Christmas night. The restaurant in O’Dowd’s Little Dublin Irish Pub at Zona Rosa opens at 6 p.m., offering $3.50 pints of Boulevard Wheat. If you want the feel of an Irish pub in Shawnee, Waxy…
North Kansas City man John Dixon failed at leading the charge against gay penguin indoctrination in our public schools Monday night. In a 3-2 decision, the North Kansas City school board denied Dixon’s request that the story And Tango Makes Three be removed from circulation at all North Kansas City schools. The book is based on the true story of…
If you weren’t fortunate enough to have the money to attend the Motion City Soundtrack shows in Chicago this past weekend, you unfortunately missed three nights of the band playing their albums in their entirety. You also missed three nights of Ultimate Fakebook, as Justin Pierre and the band hand-picked UFB as their openers (opening for UFB was MCS’ first-ever…
David T. Witt, 48, was arrested on Monday for allegedly using a chef’s knife to stick-up a grocery store clerk and making off with over $100, a half-gallon of milk and a couple packages of bacon. The clerk, who was uninjured, called the police and gave them a description and police were able to locate a man matching that description…
If life is a series of happy accidents, then Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale is the unofficial beer of life. The latest Smokestack Series from Boulevard Brewery is named after the “persnickety fermenter” known as Tank 7, which ultimately gave Boulevard this farmhouse ale. Tank 7 is the replacement for the Saison in the Smokestack Series lineup and has been on…
There are certain truths about barbecue that we hold to be self-evident and local comedian Cerome Russell breaks down the rules of smoked meats as seen through the eyes of an Atlanta transplant. His set is from a recent show at the Westport Coffee House (the material and language is best appreciated through headphones or at home). He gets nearly…
Every year, Sound Opinions has Andy Cirzan on the show to play a whole slew of amazingly obscure Christmas music. The guy’s to Christmas music as the Numero Group is to soul records. This year’s mix is now available at the Sound Opinions website. As Cirzan’s been doing this for 20+ years, he’s started going back an redoing some of…
As we reported yesterday, thePhantom had his Destroy & Rebuild CD-release party last night at the Scion Lab. From the pictures Sike Style was kind enough to share with us today, looks like it pretty much destroyed. View all the pics here. For our purposes, we asked a friend who was there what she thought of the backing band, Mouth….
%{}% Scenario: Kansas Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins asks for a yellow piece of fruit. The grocer gives her a lemon. She throws it against a wall. Jenkins pulled a similar stunt on Monday, when she released a statement praising Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback for opposing the health-care legislation creeping through the Senate. Jenkins’ statement hit the Republican talking points (increase…
Soda is probably not the first beverage of choice around Christmas time, but that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck if you want a yuletide-inspired pop. And this battle of the dishes not only involves two sodas you’ve likely never tried, they’re both probably a lot older than you: Julmust versus Frostie Cherry Limeade Soda. Julmust is a malt-flavored beverage…
Clothes Whores: Enthusiastically examining Kansas City’s sartorial shenanigansFirst thing’s first: Elisha Stetson is a boy. I expected a girl to answer the door at Stetson’s midtown apartment-slash-studio, which turns out to be a common mistake. I’d seen the Kansas City Art Institute grad’s business card advertising made-to-order lycra bodysuits, and jumped to the conclusion based on the spelling of his…
Most of us can remember helping out our parents in the kitchen as children, but we weren’t working the sautee line at 11 years old. Chef Kelli Daniels, at only 30 years old, could be one of the most experienced chefs in the city, thanks to her father Lewis Daniels. “My dad was the first black chef to run Caesar’s…
%{}% Adrian Burks, the man charged with a quadruple homicide in KCK, could be put to death if found guilty. Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman is reportedly pursing the death penalty in Burks’ case. Burks is charged with killing 21-year-old Amanda J. Remmers, 66-year-old James A. Warren, 41-year-old Peggy Castleberry and 3-year-old Juanita D. Castleberry-Bess. All were shot multiple times….
%{}% A blogger enjoys an entire day eating and drinking his way through Westport. A review of Life and Limb — a limited-release collaboration from Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head. Kansas City apparently got only two kegs. The Heineken Christmas tree in Shanghai, China — a beer tree — sounds much better than a live tree. Check out the $25,000…
