Archives: April 2010

Rob Dalzell now working in California

Rob Dalzell is now in Catalina: the island, not the dressing ​Restaurateur Rob Dalzell, the celebrity chef-owner of the now-closed downtown Kansas City restaurants 1924 Main and Souperman (his Chefburger and Pizza Bella concepts are now being operated by other owners) has been hired as the executive chef for the new Avalon Grill restaurant on Catalina Island in California; the new…

Glenn Miller, U.S. Senate candidate, puts racist ads on KMBZ 980’s airwaves (updated)

Update: White supremacist, anti-Semite and all around racist prick Glenn Miller has been putting nasty ads promoting his U.S. Senate campaign on KMBZ 980 and WDAF-FM. Federal law forces the stations to air the ads (although the Missouri Broadcasters Association is asking Attorney General Chris Koster to determine whether Miller is a “legally qualified” Senate candidate to see if they…

Battle of the dishes: chocolate Easter bunnies

The chocolate bunny debate used to be simple at Easter time. I either bought the large molded chocolate bunny or the small, marshmallow-filled variety. It was either cheap-o chocolate or richer, individually crafted bunnies wrapped in cellophane. Those were the basic options. Today, the chocolate bunny aisle has exploded (along with egg and chick options). Each year, there are more…

Alex and Michelle Caton dead in apparent murder-suicide

 Alex C. Caton is believed to have killed his 21-year-old wife, Michelle Caton, and then himself in an apparent murder-suicide in the 500 block of Country Drive in Lawson, Missouri, Wednesday night. View Larger Map Caton, 23, also is believed to have shot and wounded his father-in-law, Dale Banning. An 18-month-old child was left unharmed. Lawson Chief of Police Brian…

Poll: Will Folger’s decision change your coffee drinking?

Recently, the J.M. Smucker Co. announced plans to shutter its downtown Folgers plant in 2012. This made us wonder whether Kansas City coffee drinkers might begin filling their cups with another brand. In St. Louis, when Anheuser-Busch was sold to InBev, Schlafly beer enjoyed a bump in sales because it was suddenly made by the hometown brewery. So while the…

Who’s the money behind the Kansas City School Board candidates?

Running for a volunteer position on the Kansas City, Missouri, School Board doesn’t take big bucks. Still, some familiar names have written impressive checks to back their favored candidates in the April 6 election. Robert Peterson is the clear winner of the individual money race thus far, bringing in more than $11,000 for his at-large campaign. Not surprising: His yard…

Breakfast Buffet: Thursday, April 1

%{}% A new mural goes up on the side of the Roasterie’s plant. Based on what’s currently on the shelves, is Red X in Riverside unintentionally aging beer? Here’s a rundown of the food at Universal Studios’ Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, scheduled to open in June. Butterbeer tastes like shortbread cookies and butterscotch but is sadly nonalcoholic….

Drag the River at the Record Bar, May 16

As Drag the River’s frontman Jon Snodgrass put it in the e-mail he sent to Wayward Blog, “It’s been way too long.” Indeed. I can’t remember the last time the Colorado-based country-punk act hit our area, which means it’s certainly time to get drunk and rowdy while you sing along to the group’s tunes. Drag the River’s Kansas City appearance…

Prospero’s Books launches record-breaking poetry reading

The owners of Prospero’s Books, Will Leathem and Tom Wayne, kicked off a literary firestorm in 2007 when they held a book-burning outside their store at 1800 West 39th Street to draw attention to the country’s lagging respect for the written word. Their newest stunt starts tomorrow at 10 a.m., when more than 200 poets will convene to break the…

Google changes name to Topeka for April Fool’s Day

If you went to Google this morning, you may have missed this.The name change came just after 1 a.m. I’m guessing this means the people at Google Topeka were impressed with city officials changing the city’s name to Google (here’s the proclamation). It was all about becoming a test site for Google’s, er, Topeka’s faster Internet connections. Or not. Categories:…

Scary Manilow of the Spook Lights

Scary Manilow of the Spook Lights is one of the area’s most entertaining frontmen. The garage-rockabilly four-piece releases their debut 7″ for “Teenage Maniac” tonight at a Replay Lounge show with openers the Mouth Breathers. Thus, we felt it worthwhile to ask Mr. Manilow to explain the legths to which he goes in order to live a life as a…

Studies in Crap: The ‘Ravenous Chinese Amazons’ of Watergate Mastermind E. Howard Hunt’s ’60s Spy Novels

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. ​One of Our Agents is Missing & The Mongol Mask Author: David St. John, aka E. Howard Hunt Date: 1967 & 1968 Publisher: Dell The Cover Promises:…

How ‘Treme’ can get it right

Editor’s Note: Treme writer/producer David Mills died of a brain aneurysm Tuesday in New Orleans. He’d written extensively about the Treme process and his burgeoning love for New Orleans music on his blog,undercoverblackman.blogspot.com. His Times-Picayune obit is here. “Price was 12, bruh.” “Them Twelve Hundred Was for Eight Pieces.” A deal’s going down, yeah. But not the sort we’re used…

Jet-Set Video Future

The animation and design studio MK12 is the focus of today’s Current Perspectives lecture series at the Kansas City Art Institute. The collective, which was founded in 2000 by KCAI graduates, has produced work over the past decade that bridges the avant-garde (see History of America, its Sundance-selected short film about a war between cowboys and astronauts) to the mainstream…

First-Friday Hit List

• Across the river at the Northland campus of the Kansas City Art Institute (1801 Northwest Platte Road, Riverside, 800-522-5224) Michael Schonhoff, assistant curator of the H&R Block Artspace, judges the campus’ first Alumni Exhibition. Continuing- and community-education students exhibit works that they’ve created over the past semester; their pieces stay up through May 15. The opening reception starts at…

Kansas City Society of Burlesque

With a different line up each night, Kansas City Society Of Burlesque members Lucky DeLuxe, Kitty Von Minx, Veronica Voodoo, Annie Cherry, and Honey Valentine are to be featured, as well as an assortment of special guest performers. Thu., April 1, 10 p.m.; Fri., April 2, 10 p.m.; Sat., April 3, 10 p.m., 2010 Tags: Annie Cherry, Honey Valentine, Kitty…

She Paints, She Draws

The lives of working women are pretty well documented in books such as Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. Now the Women’s Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City has organized an event series called Her Art — Kansas City Women in the Arts, with a focus on art by women, whose artistic pursuits are often encumbered by careers, children and…

TURN ON YOUR HEARTLIGHT

Some of our finest filmmakers — Howard Hawks, Don Siegel, Robert Wise, John Carpenter, Ridley Scott — have regarded the question of whether other life exists beyond our galaxy, and the general consensus seems to be this: If it’s out there, it’s coming to kick our asses. Amid this pessimism and paranoia, only Steven Spielberg has dared to imagine alien…

Brick and Mortar

Printmaker Matt Kuhlman presents an exhibit at Plenum. The artist was born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. After traveling around studying the surroundings and living in various parts of the country he has again settled in Lawrence. Matt received his B.F.A. in Printmaking from the University of Kansas in 2008. He is currently enrolled in the School of Journalism at…

Kings

Kings, the latest art exhibit on display at Writers Place is a portable collection of principal figures, by Kansas City artist, Lori Raye Erickson. April 3-June 27, 2010 Tags: Kansas City, Lori Raye Erickson, Night & Day

Solo Exhibitions by Linnea Spransy and Amy Myers

Linnea Spransy, who received her M.F.A. from Yale University in 2001, explores limits and boundaries through her paintings and mixed media works. Amy Myers’ infinite work evolves without planning and utilizes scientific means of physics, geometry and mathematics to create imagery. Thursdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: April 2. Continues through May 28, 2010 Tags: Amy Myers, Linnea Spransy, Night &…

Paintings by Tyson Schroeder

Painter Tyson Schroeder’s exhibit Bastard Image will open with a reception at Moxie Gallery and a performance by Amy Farrand. From the artist’s statement: “I have long held the belief that there are no new, true frontiers in visual art. Much like music the basics have all been discovered, and now all we are left with are the bastard children…