Dear Readers: All together, now: ¡A LA CHINGADA WITH ARIZONA’S SB1070! For those of ustedes too occupied with the your Drinko por Cinco hangover, the initiative signed a couple of weeks ago into law by Arizona’s governor gives immigration enforcement powers to the state’s police officers and sheriff’s deputies and allows them to stop and question anyone they think looks…
The phrase “backroom deal” suggests sleaze and corruption. But sometimes bad things happen in plain sight. Officials in Kansas City, Missouri, want to build a 1,000-room hotel near Bartle Hall. They have been told that the city needs a supersized hotel if it wants to compete with Denver and Indianapolis for convention business. The hotel will come at a steep…
Plog: “Mean Melin fails to qualify for U.S. Air Guitar Championships, finishes 2nd twice,” April 21 Air String Samurai I have been following Justin Kendall’s blog entries on air guitar championships because, frankly, anytime I see Mean Melin in a story, I click on it. Mean Melin’s skills and energy in the world of air guitar are exemplary and inspiring….
Director Yony Leyser’s rough but admiring documentary concentrates on Burroughs as cultural artifact — punk icon, namer of bands (Steely Dan), 1970s Bowery Yoda — more than on Burroughs as artist. It’s long on talking heads for whom the writer’s power to shock remains a touchstone (Patti Smith, members of Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop), but it’s frustratingly short on literary…
The Eclipse is a curious Irish ghost story that fiddles with the recipe just enough to produce interesting results. Working for a literary festival in his hometown of picturesque Cobh, middle-aged widower Michael Farr (Ciarán Hinds) begins a shy flirtation with a visiting author, Lena (Iben Hjejle), and winds up competing for her affections with bestseller brat Nicholas Holden (Aidan…
Did I say, “Awww” at Babies? I did. Did I giggle at the adorable things babies do in Babies? Oh, my, yes. Did I ovulate, like, a dozen times during Babies? You better believe it. Is Babies a good movie? Of course not. But that’s missing the point, like asking if a porn video is a good movie. Babies gets…
Matisse called the Barnes Foundation “the only sane place to see art in America.” But the clamor over moving one of the world’s foremost collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and modern art from its small, intimate home in the suburb of Merion, Pennsylvania, to center-city Philadelphia (4.6 miles away) has been anything but reasonable. Unapologetically on the side of those who…
As Iron Man 2 begins, Tony Stark — mechanical genius, Forbes 400 perennial, the pop-star CEO of Stark Industries — has dropped any pretense of a secret identity. Stark is garishly “out” as Iron Man, performing a one-man air show before touching down to host his Stark Expo, which transforms the World’s Fairground at Flushing Meadows Park into Atlantic City,…
Unlike most ’80s-kitsch groups, Gil Mantera’s Party Dream doesn’t stay stuck behind its synthesizer. Trampolines, costume changes and public hair set aflame are all part of this Ohio trio’s repertoire. Fusing Vocoder-laden hooks and vocals that sound like Will Ferrell pretending to sing, Gil Mantera’s Party Dream slathers on the irony in its vintage-inspired tunes. The band’s hardcore spirit and…
What happens when you let workaholics out of straitjackets? They go wild. That’s the plan for feted underground rapper Murs, who is promising 10 different 10-track albums in 2010, to be collected in an end-of-the-year boxed set. Recently freed from his contract with Warner Bros., for which he released the critically lauded Murs for President in 2008, Murs has a…
Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou is one of only a few axmen whose sound is worthy of comparison with Slayer’s Kerry King. Vocalist Jacob Bannon’s growl combines with the low-end instrumentation of bassist Nate Newtown and drummer Ben Koller, resulting in a band so viciously pummeling that it’s best to experience them from a separate room. Touring in support of last…
Rodrigo y Gabriela’s guitar grooves aren’t searing just because the Mexican duo is impassioned. Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero are also metal freaks. The musicians collided in Mexico City’s thrash metal scene, but now they rely on acoustic guitars to create their blend of metal and flamenco-inspired jazz. With no rhythm section and very few electronic effects, they weave their…
Sharon Kwon, who now manages Korean Restaurant Sobahn for her parents, used to be an opera singer. No one in this family had any restaurant experience prior to opening Sobahn nine months ago. Sharon’s mother, Suzanna Kwon, worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 19 years before following her dream to open her own restaurant; she’s also the head chef….
A clean record is hard to find in the sea of lo-fi fuzz that clogs the blogosphere. But from the haze put out by Omaha band It’s True come glimmers of the Temper Trap and Brian Eno-era Coldplay. Frontman Adam Hawkins’ smooth falsetto can raise hairs — in a good way. The melodic, doo-wop-tinged refrains of tracks such as “Take…
On the homespun debut of local folk-rock band O Giant Man, the soft songs conjure the comfort of your favorite faded sneakers. Everybody Knows I’m Just an Animal draws from the same well of poetic kitsch as Fleet Foxes and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, overlaying crisp, bouncing melodies with singer Christopher Robbins’ plaintive croon. The album begins with…
Smuggs is not the most skilled rapper in Kansas City, but he may be the funniest. On “Who’s Next,” one of the 21 tracks on the new King of Kansas, Smuggs tosses up disses like chalk from LeBron James’ pregame ritual. Lots of folks get covered in the dust. If dis tracks are an art, then “Who’s Next” almost makes the…
Someday your iPod will break, your tires will go bald, and your neighborhood will deteriorate into the fictitious Hamsterdam narcotics trade zone from HBO’s The Wire. Not because you did anything bad but because physics dictates that everything orderly will eventually fall apart and decay until the heat death of the universe. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is a complete…
When John Covington took the job as superintendent of the Kansas City, Missouri, School District in the spring of 2009, he famously said he had “no time for foolishness,” promising to push through bold changes necessary to save a school system that many believed was irreparable. Since then, he has kept his word when it comes to making painful choices….
The phrase the bad seed has gotten plenty of play in our pop culture (a 1956 cult film, a Metallica song), but young, married organic farmers Brooke Salvaggio and Daniel Heryer created their organic farm and market, BadSeed (1909 McGee, 816-472-0027), as a venue offering fair-trade and whole-food products. Their Friday night farmer’s market is typically swamped on First Fridays…
We may no longer have to see this sketch anymore. Kansas City police say a “person of interest” is in custody in the Waldo rapist investigation. The man was taken into custody in the 3200 block of Thompson around 4 p.m. today. Detectives are questioning the man. Kansas City police have been investigating several rapes in the Waldo area….
Range Life Records put up this 1,000,000 Light Years remix of the White Flight track, “Panther.” It’s part of the journey to the inevitable release of White Ark from the Justin Roelofs project later this year. Categories: Music Tags: 1000000 LIght Years, range life records, remix, video, white flight
Lawmakers in the Missouri House are awfully concerned with the fragile psyches — and wallets — of pharmacists. So much so that on Tuesday, they voted 109-42 to pass an amendment that would allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control. State Rep. Ed Emery (Republican from Lamar) sponsored the amendment that would allow pharmacists to not stock emergency contraception…
Now that Overland Park’s Piccadilly Cafeteria is closed, what local restaurant still offers glistening, jiggling cubes of gelatin dessert as a light, refreshing way to end a heavy meal? Well, the Calypso Buffet at the Isle of Capri Casino keeps the tradition going, thank goodness. Other than the occasional buffet restaurant, however, it’s nearly impossible to find Jell-O on a…
