Archives: April 2010

Letters from the week of April 29

Feature: “Down on the Farm,” April 15 It’s What’s for Dinner As an artist newly ensconced in Kansas City, after being born and bred in the New York City metropolitan area, and having last lived in Miami, Florida, I have only recently learned about agriculture’s business practices. The Pitch’s April 8 cover story detailed the “shadow jury” and high-priced lawyering…
Movies

The Square

Melissa Anderson,

The Down Under noir and feature-helming debut of stuntman Nash Edgerton, co-written by brother Joel, confuses incoherent body pileups with “twists.” Cheating construction-site manager Ray (David Roberts) and beautician Carla (Claire van der Boom) want to ditch their Sydney spouses and start anew, with the help of a duffel bag full of cash stashed in the attic by Carla’s mulleted…
Movies

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

Nick Pinkerton,

Daniel Ellsberg was an ex-Marine, trusted analyst, and Cold Warrior under Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. He converted to an anti-war dove “from the entrails of a bureaucratic war machine,” per a latter-day peacenik cohort. Leaking 7,000 photocopied pages of a Pentagon study to newspapers, Ellsberg gave the world an alternate history of five administrations’ policies in Southeast Asia,…
Movies

Furry Vengeance

Robert Wilonsky,

The simple thesis of Furry Vengeance is very much made for the 6 to, oh, let’s say 6½-year-old set. People do bad things to the planet, like build sprawling housing developments where they shouldn’t, in this case an unspoiled forest populated by pissed-off woodland creatures who’ve wrought generations’ worth of hilarious pain upon would-be settlers. Furry Vengeance isn’t really a…
Music

Stardeath and White Dwarfs

Aaron Ladage,

Charlie Sheen’s career notwithstanding, nepotism isn’t always a bad thing. An example: Oklahoma’s Stardeath and White Dwarfs. The band’s groovy, experimental sound conjures memories of the Flaming Lips’ best moments. This isn’t surprising, given that singer Dennis Coyne is Lips frontman Wayne Coyne’s nephew. In fact, if you’ve seen or heard the Flaming Lips in the past few years, there’s…
Music

Fucked Up

Chris Parker,

Lead singer Pink Eyes’ feral growl may land him in the hardcore camp, but that genre’s limits are far too narrow for Fucked Up. The band started out with hard-charging sociopolitical anthems in the early 2000s, but the Toronto sextet has embraced a confounding array of influences and has recorded, among other things, 18-minute post-rock epics, throttling electronica and distortion-drenched…
Music

A Weather

Chris Parker,

The muted melodies of Portland, Oregon, quintet A Weather drift with stately grace, waltzing to keyboard-driven lines that underscore boy-and-girl vocals. As co-vocalists, guitarist Aaron Gerber and drummer Sarah Winchester create sound pirouettes over hushed arrangements that unfold with the deliberate elegance of a budding rose. There’s a baroque lilt to the duo’s songs on the 2008 debut Cove, but…

In 1936, the Orpheum catered to black ties headed for mothballs

Alan Scherstuhl,

Title: Orpheum Theatre program Publisher: Lothrop Publishing Company, Boston Date: December 1936 Discovered: at Waldo Antiques By 1936, the Orpheum Theatre, on the northwest corner of Ninth Street and May, had taken to calling itself “Home of the Legitimate Theatre in Kansas City” on the front page of its programs. Something had gone wrong. The Gayety had closed a year…
Food & Drink, Restaurant Reviews

At the Webster House, Chef Charles d’Ablaing has created a civil society

Charles Ferruzza,

In 2002, when philanthropist Shirley Bush Helzberg opened an antique shop, carriage-trade accessories store, restaurant and special-event space in a 125-year-old brick school building in the Crossroads, the second-floor restaurant was called Webster’s. Most afternoons, it served luncheon to well-coifed women who could do a bit of antiquing before or after their meals. The dining room was so ladylike, in…
Music

Approach

Kyle Koch,

Murphy’s Law of hip-hop: Every album provokes an associative reaction in the listener. Some albums are made for riding out. Some albums are made for ass shaking. Some are simply made for a living room, a few friends and a slow-burning communal joint. An album such as Aloe Park? The latest from Kansas City native Approach is made for a…
News

Steffon Rainey accused of breaking teen’s jaw during Plaza chaos

Justin Kendall,

Steffon Rainey and Rashid Thompson admitted to police that they assaulted a 16-year-old boy in the face in Winstead’s parking lot on April 10. Jackson County prosecutors charged Rainey, 19, and Thompson, 17, each with first-degree assault Wednesday. Police highlighted the incident as one of the lowlights of the havoc on the Plaza that Saturday night (which included a girl…
Dining, Food & Drink

Mother’s Day: Where to take mom (fancy edition)

Charles Ferruzza,

Mommy drinks beer, little Charlie looks constipated Mother’s Day is one of the busiest in the restaurant business, right up there with Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve. The nice thing about working on Mother’s Day is that restaurant customers are usually on their best behavior (unlike New Year’s Eve), they don’t stay out late (ditto) and because the holiday…
News

Gerlarmo ‘Jerry’ Cammisano pleads guity to running illegal gambling operation

Justin Kendall,

Gerlarmo “Jerry” Cammisano admitted in federal court today that he was the leader of an illegal gambling operation. Cammisano, 56, pleaded guilty to charges in a March 2010 indictment, which also accused James J. Moretina, Michael J. Lombardo and James L. Dicapo and a couple of out-of-state businesses of running a $3.5 million illegal sports betting operation. In March, the…
Music

Download Fol Chen’s In Ruins remix EP

Nick Spacek,

California dance-funk act Fol Chen will release Part II: The New December on Asthmatic Kitty this July. In advance of the release, the band’s made available a remix EP featuring the album’s “In Ruins.” The In Ruins remix EP contains “remixes and alternate versions by drum-n-tape newcomer Baths, the woozy chant-funk of Keepaway, the ghostwhisperings of Kárin Tatoyan and the…
Dining, Food & Drink

New pizza, coffee and burger options

Jonathan Bender,

Hey, Fat City friends — here’s a full plate of news from around the metro’s restaurant scene. Opening in May: The second Dunkin Donuts franchise in Overland Park is moving closer to completion. Verona Key LLC, the developer of the restaurant at 7446 Metcalf (the corner of 75th and Metcalf),  is targeting a late May opening. This location will have…
News, Politics

K-State grad student campaigns against texting while driving

Justin Kendall,

%{}% Anti-texting-while-driving lawmakers have a new ally: Kansas State University grad student Brian Bookwalter. Bookwalter created the artwork on the right as part of his graduate thesis project. He’s clearly no fan of texting while driving, although he cops to doing it himself in this video. Kansas Transportation Secretary Deb Miller discovered Bookwalter’s posters on display at the William T….
Music

Sex Offenders present the titular track to their eponymous album

Nick Spacek,

It looks like it’s Sex Offenders week here at Wayward Blog. We talked drinks with drummer Brit Schitt yesterday, and we’re presenting you with this track from the band’s debut (and only) full-length today. After a slew of independently released singles in the mid-’90s, the band released a full-length on Recess Records in 1998. The band broke up not too…
News

Are you hot or am I just in Johnson Hall?

Justin Kendall,

If the fire alarm is ringing in Johnson Hall, someone probably just washed her hair. The University of Missouri-Kansas City police blotter has a couple of examples of just how sensitive the fire alarms are in dorms. April 19, 5:06 p.m. Fire Alarm — A student blow drying her hair in Johnson Hall set off the fire alarm. April 21,…