As the flyers flutter into our mailboxes, it’s looking like June is going to be awesome for Kansas City’s concert schedule. First, Mumford and Sons are hitting up the Record Bar; now jangle-pop band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes are coming through the Beaumont on June 16. The free-spirited collective meshes hippie light-heartedness with stomping beats into joyous, foot-tapping folk-rock that…
Law enforcement takes some forms of fraud very seriously. Writers of bad checks, for instance, can expect to practice their cursive in jail. But when a car dealer sells a rebuilt wreck and conceals the damage, authorities tend to want to pretend that no laws were broken. This week’s Martin column describes a recent civil trial that ended with a…
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. 16 Magazine Date: May 1968 The Cover Promises: That “Davy” is name enough for any reasonable person to understand that you mean Davy Jones Representative Quotes:…
Letia Turner admitted to police that she and her twin sister planned to rob a woman. Tip: Don’t go flaunting your thousand dollar tax return. A Wendy’s employee found out the hard way when two of her fellow employees, twin sisters, allegedly plotted to rob her and staged a carjacking at a gas station at 3027 Van Brunt. Here’s the…
In 1940, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences inaugurated the Best Original Screenplay category, its members had no idea that they were creating it for Charlie Kaufman. Love him or hate him, one cannot deny that Kaufman — from Being John Malkovich to Synecdoche, New York — operates on a plane that he alone occupies. One will…
Two exhibits at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art (2004 Baltimore, 816-221-2626) explore the intersections of mass culture, style and image with different approaches. Photographer Judy Miller, inspired by a visit to the venerable waxhaus Madame Tussauds, assembles Imaginary Dioramas, placing waxwork celebrity figures such as Lucille Ball and Woody Allen into troubling or incongruous backdrops. The pieces are digital composites assembled…
Feeling restless? Gypsy Emporium caters to those who value changes of scenery. The monthly art show, a new venue for emerging artists, switches locations for each event. What remains the same: a chance to see experimental and underexposed creative types and craftspersons who might not be seen in traditional galleries. Organized by local artisan Therese Livella, the second Gypsy Emporium…
Trailing perhaps only Jay-Z and Beyoncé in popularity, the talented, good-looking singers Chris Brown and Rihanna were once hip-hop royalty. Then a picture of a badly bruised Rihanna surfaced on the Internet in February 2009, and a public-relations firestorm ensued. Rihanna made her way to Oprah; Brown undertook the mountainous climb to rehabilitate his image. According to Hillary Potter, associate…
Based on the 1996 independent film, the musical adaptation of “The Spitfire Grill” was an off-Broadway hit when it opened in September of 2001 at New York’s Playwrights Horizons. The musical depicts the journey of a young woman just released from prison who decides to start her life anew in a rural Wisconsin town. Her presence precipitates a journey within…
For the next four days, expect the sound of hair dryers to emanate from the backstage area of the Independence Events Center (19100 East Valley View Parkway, 816-795-7577) as handlers prepare more than a thousand models for a big strut. The “models” are dogs, among the best in the nation (in terms of breed standards sanctioned by the American Kennel…
Quiet tales are all well and good, but sometimes the art of oral storytelling requires a little rowdiness. Come on and feel the noise during Sonic Stories Music Into Art II at the Spencer Museum of Art (1301 Mississippi, on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence). Billed as an “art-tour performance,” Sonic Stories features just under an hour of original percussive music set…
Lemonade, crunchy ice! Beat ’em once, beat ’em twice! The Urban Culture Project points its big foam No. 1 finger with You’re Such a Good Sport, a group exhibition project engaged with competition, regional identification, and the correspondences between art and sports. Of which there are many: Both fields involve spectators as active participants and both showcase human achievement. Also,…
Life is a garden, and sometimes it needs a little tending. Park University’s student actors explore that metaphor onstage with Enchanted April, now in production at Jenkin and Barbara David Theater Alumni Hall on the university campus (8700 Northwest River Park Drive in Parkville). Adapted from Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel of the same name, the play concerns British housewives who…
Next month, thousands will descend upon Theis Park for AIDS Walk Kansas City to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS as well as funds for local victims of the disease. Signing up some sponsors and slipping into walking shoes on April 24 isn’t the only way to support the cause, though. Various parties lead up to the big day, including tonight’s 20…
Given ample time and enough tequila, a person could lick a tunnel all the way to New Mexico from Hutchinson, Kansas. That’s how far the salt veins are said to extend from the 650-foot-deep Kansas Underground Salt Museum (3504 East Avenue G in Hutchinson, 620-662-1425), one of the bizarre destinations spotlighted as part of this Saturday’s International Obscura Day. Founded…
Saunders Street Records, a homegrown indie record label, means to “empower the music community by providing useful and relevant products and services,” according to its Web site. Support that goal this afternoon at Songwriter Sundays at Café Cedar (2 East Second Street, Parkville, 816-505-2233), held the third Sunday of the month. Scheduled performers include Rick Lally, an Olathe singer-songwriter who…
Love, longing and … Internet porn? It’s clear from the very start that the brazen Avenue Q is miles away from any musical Cole Porter or Jim Henson might have dreamed up. Humans and puppets share the stage in a postmodern production that pokes fun at musical standards, sardonically twisting them toward Crank Yankers territory. Set in a gritty New…
Bitch all you want, Kansas City, about our lack of an IKEA or that we don’t have a Trader Joe’s where you can score two-buck chuck. But please take some pride in the finer things that we do enjoy in surprising bulk. Right now, for example, in dueling cabaret shows, you can pick up a whole case of Cole Porter….
A quick glance across an empty bar is enough to tell Hermon Mehari and Les Izmore apart. Mehari, a senior at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is a budding jazz musician. His four-member band, Diverse, just released its first album, a collection of artful jazz tunes, on Origin Records. The group’s mission, Mehari says, is to broaden the demographic behind…
Dear Mexican: By now, I’m sure you’re aware of all the hate crimes against Hispanics in the last few years. By now, I’m sure you’re thinking that this is ¡Ask a Mexican!, not ¡Ask a Hispanic! But let me tell you that all the hate-crimes against Hispanics have been because they’ve been thought to be Mexican and at least half…
Ten years ago, Angie Yarber bought a used car from a Ford dealer. She paid $8,000 for a dark-green Probe and felt confident that she had made a sensible purchase. “I thought, OK, good car,” she says. A few months later, the car showed signs of engine trouble. When a friend who was a mechanic popped the hood, he could…
