Feature: “KC Crime = Terrorism,” March 4 Pain and Suffering I am very glad to see Nelson Hopkins speaking out against violence. I am very sorry that he lost his son. I had a 15-year-old daughter, named Tawnya Knight, who was raped and murdered in Spring Hill, Kansas, back in December 1996. Until this day, no arrest has been made….
Another wholesale dystopian future, just like the last one. Jude Law and Forest Whitaker are two repo men punching their timecards for The Union Inc. Their job is to hunt down those recipients of synthetic organ transplants who’ve fallen behind on payments, then retrieve company property at the point of a scalpel. (The movie shares this premise with 2008’s Repo!:…
With stick figures and crisply funny journal entries, Jeff Kinney’s cartoon series breathed fresh life into preteen lit’s most exhausted trope: the twisted tribal etiquette of middle school. Screenwriters Jackie and Jeff Filgo’s respect for Kinney’s sharply observant dialogue is the chief virtue of this fairly capable screen version. But the transition to live action is, stylistically, a trip to…
The fearsome north face of the Eiger mountain became the object of National Socialist obsession during the 1930s. An Olympic gold medal was promised to its first summit party — preferably of good Aryan stock — and the Nazi press glorified those alpinists who tried. Though, as a newspaper editor says in this dramatization of an epic, real-life attempt, “Those…
For better or worse, there isn’t a human experience that French director André Téchiné can resist lathering into a tone poem. Tackling a 2004 incident whose sociopolitical ramifications can hardly be ignored — a young Gentile woman set off a media storm by falsely claiming to be the victim of an anti-Semitic attack — Téchiné has his work cut out…
Simon Joyner makes music that musicians dig. He’s been embraced by Beck, who famously listed a tape of Joyner’s tunes in a Rolling Stone top-10 list, and the BBC’s legendary John Peel played Joyner’s The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll start to finish (an honor Peel had previously bestowed only on Bob Dylan’s Desire). The folk singer’s deadpan delivery eerily…
It’s not surprising that Seattle quartet Past Lives — which consists entirely of former members of the Blood Brothers — sounds like a radical departure from the latter group’s relentless helicopter-crash crunch. But Past Lives’ first full-length, Tapestry of Webs, paints a picture of a restless band eager to distance itself from its own existing body of work. On Tapestry,…
It’s rare to discover a group of musicians with alter egos disparate enough that they can open for themselves. (Spinal Tap’s the Folksmen are a memorable example.) Such is the case with California hardcore band the Bronx and its horn-laden counterpart, Mariachi el Bronx. Though the project emerged as an alternative to acoustic re-imaginings, Mariachi el Bronx’s first recorded tune…
Brooklyn’s These Are Powers douses its vertigo-inducing rock with a crashing acid wave of punk. Singer Anna Barie’s dissonant yowls hover over bone-shaking bass, buzzing distortion and clangs that would sound at home in an abandoned warehouse. Calling upon fellow artists (including Ssion’s Cody Critcheloe) to visually interpret the title of its third album, All Aboard Future, the band made…
Title: Untitled correspondence of local union bigwig Date: Early to mid-1970s Discovered: at Overland Park estate sale Representative quote: “Since you were the one who sponsored me when I became a member of 124, I felt I should write you and beg your forgiveness for not remaining a member.” A couple of weeks ago, while picking through an estate sale,…
Frida Kahlo is the most famous female artist of the 20th century — that’s according to Ivan Marquez, speaking not as an art critic but as co-owner and manager of the two-month-old Frida’s Contemporary Mexican Cuisine in south Overland Park. I’m not an art historian, either, but this much I do know: The iconic painter Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y…
Various Blonde’s Phantom Pain EP is a 25-minute exercise in trying one’s patience. The instrumental work — by former members of Pixel Panda and Black Presidents — sets up a swirling cascade of post-hardcore guitar, bass and drums. But singer Josh Allen sounds like he’s standing five feet back from a megaphone and shouting into it. With its piercing vocals,…
Vi Tran is a theater kid, but his emerging folk-pop career isn’t an act. After moving to Kansas City five years ago, Tran immersed himself in acting — he’s performed at the Coterie and the Unicorn — but songwriting never strayed far from his mind. Late February found Tran making the leap from full-fledged member of the local theater circle…
A group of neighbors met Paul Bolder at his door as he was coming home from church on Sunday, January 25, 2009. They handed Bolder a Truman Medical Center wristband printed with the name of a recently discharged patient: Christopher Scott. The 51-year-old man had been found that morning, frozen to death, on the front lawn of a house near…
Alex Chilton, singer for the Box Tops and Big Star, record producer, and all-around amazing musician, died in New Orleans today. From “The Letter” to “September Gurls” to his guitar work the Memphis rockabilly group Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, I’ve loved everything the man’s ever done. He was so influential, the Replacements wrote a song about him. There are so…
Kansas City police say 35-year-old Gurpreet Singh was the victim of a morning homicide at the 7-Eleven at 8105 East Bannister Road around 1:06 a.m. View Larger Map Before Singh died, he told police that a suspect entered the store and demanded money. Once he gave the robbery suspect the money, he was shot with a small handgun. Detectives are…
%{}% Update: Christopher L. Boozer and his 2-year-old daughter, Camille A. Boozer, were located today in the Kansas City area around 11:30 a.m. Blue Springs police say they are in good health and were not in any danger. ***Blue Springs police are looking for Christopher L. Boozer and his 2-year-old daughter, Camille A. Boozer. They were last seen March 12…
Antonio Foreman, 25, was the victim of the homicide in the 5700 block of Highland around 12:42 a.m. Foreman was taken to a local hospital where he died several hours later. If you have a tip about Foreman’s death, call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. Categories: News Tags: Antonio Foreman, homicide, Killa City
Boss Tom’s Golden Bock is bottled and will start appearing on shelves between now and the end of March. The latest beer from the Boulevard Brewing Company replaces the seasonal Maibock introduced in 2008 and will be available in bottles and on tap through May. “This isn’t an extreme change , we just tweaked it a bit,” says brewer Matt…
Melody A. Breckenridge is an admitted criminal mastermind. Breckenridge, 50, has confessed to stealing merchandise worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Target where she worked (8509 State Line Road). How did Breckenridge get that much stuff out of the store without anyone noticing? In plain sight. The heists started with salvage items and moved to newer stock. It…
Once a week, Wayward Blog brings to you sounds of the area’s musical past. When the Touchdowns’ “Drunk and Loaded” was the Throwback MP3 at the end of September, I said that I’d met the Touchdowns after the Klammies in 1999. I also happened to offhandedly mention that I’d met them at Lushbox’s house. What I failed to mention was…
It only looks like lasagna It took me awhile to make my way over to the three-month-old location of the Texas-based Cheddar’s Casual Cafe in Overland Park, but I had certainly heard plenty about the restaurant concept from friends who had eaten there in other cities. The Cheddar’s chain (which currently has only one other Kansas location, in Wichita, as well as restaurants…
