Archives: March 2010

Adult Swim Block Party at the Phoggy Dog, April 19

Once again, Adult Swim is bringing a carnival of entertainment to the area. Last year, it was Robot Chicken On Wheels, this year it’s a block party. The Adult Swim Block Party brings games and prizes, free t-shirts, and the promise of “possible clown.” That last bit is actually a bit of a turn-off, but it’s more than mitigated by…

Lee’s Summit police investigating ‘suspicious death’

Lee’s Summit police are reportedly investigating a “suspicious” death after a 43-year-old woman was found dead in the 3900 block of Southwest Ensign Drive Monday morning. View Larger Map KSHB Channel 41 reports that police are turning to the Jackson County Medical Examiner to determine the woman’s cause of death. The woman’s body was found in a subdivision known as…

Incoming: INC USA Tour

​The West Bottoms’ Foundation boasts a musical power hour of Kansas City noise on Sunday night. Organized by a guy who goes by Rat Bastard (whose group bears the equally awesome name the Laundry Room Squelchers), INC stands for International Noise Conference, and it happens annually in Miami. But the conference goes on tour each year, and it’s stopping in Kansas City…

CD Review: Clay Hughes’ Burn

Clay Hughes’ Burn could be a radio juggernaut, if in the hands of the right people. Mixing the laid-back surfer folk of Jack Johnson with the psychedelic soul of Gnarls Barkley, Hughes has all the earmarks of a potential hit-maker. Granted, the album isn’t 100% perfect. The recording quality suffers at times, with the horns on “Passing Thoughts” and Jabee’s…

Claire McCaskill takes a victory lap on ‘The Colbert Report’

%{}% Fake blowhard Stephen Colbert and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill joked about John “Armageddon” Boehner’s tan on The Colbert Report last night (see the video after the jump). Calling McCaskill “one of the Democrats destroying America,” Colbert asked Missouri’s junior senator if she had come to gloat over the fact that Congress had finally passed health-care legislation. The senator said…

Now Hiring: Painters and cleaners

The folks at Modern Colors were a little sheepish about their home-made help-wanted sign in the window at 3269 Roanoke Road, but they shouldn’t be — it got our attention. The building’s on an industrial stretch of Roanoke down the hill to the west of the park. The folks inside say it’s the busy season so they’ll be hiring a…

Where am I eating?

Who serves this colorful salad? ​This dish is served at a new restaurant that’s really an old restaurant. The menu describes the dish as “mixed greens topped with pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, bacon bits, red onions, red peppers, spiced pecans, avocados and tortilla straws with a choice of either fried or seasoned grilled chicken.” Where am I eating? Categories: Dining,…

Where We Pee: The Eighth St. Taproom

“Where We Pee” is a weekly excursion into a local music venue’s excretory facilities, with a premium on the witticisms scrawled onto the walls. The bathroom upstairs at the Eighth Street Taproom in Lawrence is notable for two things. First, it’s coed, meaning you really need to make sure you don’t pee all over the seat. Secondly, and most importantly,…

Taste of Russia isn’t so Russian

​The cuisine of the former Soviet Union hasn’t had much luck in Kansas City. The last Russian restaurant in town was a little dining room and dance club in a Prairie Village shopping strip called Moscow Nights. That place came and went about a decade ago, though it had a hot minute of popularity. It was owned by a man…

ESPN: Cole Aldrich entering NBA Draft

Say goodbye to Cole Aldrich, Jayhawk fans. ESPN reports that Kansas’ junior center is expected to announce that he will enter the NBA Draft at a 3:30 p.m. press conference. This isn’t a surprise. Aldrich was expected to go pro after his junior season. Aldrich and guard Sherron Collins made a pact to return to KU this season, which ended…

Chefs just want to have fun

Marshall Roth and Renee Kelly You might think the last thing that any local chef would want to do on his or her day off would be to stand around in a kitchen and cook, but yesterday a group of high-profile culinary stars — including the American Restaurant’s Debbie Gold; Alex Pope from the R Bar; Jason Wiggins, the new…

The Unknown Souldier debuts his first mixtape

Literally — a mixtape, as in it’s on magnetically charged plastic. I am going to have to eat my words and go buy one of these. The Unknown Souldier, also known as Cyrus Dayani, knows his soul and funk like no other DJ in the area, so you should head on down to Love Garden and pick one up. They’re…

Incoming: Little Dragon and VV Brown

A change of venue: Little Dragon and VV Brown, originally scheduled for Crosstown Station, are going to be playing at the Record Bar on April 4.  Culling comparisons to the sparse electro instrumentation of Bjork, Fever Ray and and Royskopp, the Swedish electro group Little Dragon pairs frosty minimalism with atmospheric textures and throbbing grooves. Tagging along is British “It Girl” VV…

KCTV 5 advertising fewer weathergasms, dumbed-down forecasts

If you watched any NCAA tournament games over the weekend (or any morning newscasts) on KCTV 5, then you probably saw this commercial. It looks like a mash-up of several other recent KCTV commercials I’ve seen. The theme of the commercials is the same: KCTV won’t be going overboard with its weather coverage but instead will dumb down the weather…

Burnt Finger BBQ smokes out the competition

Kansas City teams showed why it’s called the Kansas City Barbecue Society with strong showings at the Smoke on the Water USA Barbecue Championship in North Little Rock, Arkansas, earlier this month. The contest has the largest purse in the country, with $100,000 in prize money awarded to the competing teams. This year, Kansas City’s Pellet Envy — the 2009…

Planet Comicon 2010 slideshow

Last weekend was the annual Planet Comicon comic book convention in Overland Park. The original Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferringo, signed autographs and posed for pictures (shh! don’t tell anyone that I photosniped him) and lots and lots of people dressed up as their favorite characters, from The Comedian to Cobra Commander to Emperor Palpatine. Here’s some of the most colorful…

Video: Kevin Smith at the Midland

Hey, cell phone videos of Kevin Smith’s performance at the Midland! Both of these are from the first half hour of the show. The first is Smith explaining ATM as an acronym for something other than automated teller machine. After the jump, you can listen to Smith mock Malcolm Ingram. Categories: Music Tags: kevin smith, video