%{}% A Jackson County jury convicted Deonta R. Taylor of two counts of first-degree murder for killing Drell D. Fisher and Reginald L. Barnes outside of Independence Avenue strip club Gerry’s Silver Slipper, according to The Kansas City Star. Police found the bodies of Fisher and Barnes, both 33 and from KCK, shot to death in the parking lot outside…
On his way to his tour stop in Kansas City at the Midland on Thursday night, ubiquitous rapper 50 Cent called The Pitch to discuss his upcoming movie, his literary taste, his politics, and why the rapper turned mogul still considers himself a work in progress. The Pitch: So, the Internet is on fire with news about your weight loss…
Update (12:45 p.m. June 9): The man killed in yesterday’s building collapse at 32nd and Forest has been identified as 69-year-old William McNealy of Kansas City, Missouri. Original story (11 a.m. June 9): Stopped by the collapsed building at 32nd and Forest this morning and snapped a few photos of the building before it’s bulldozed. Bumped into a guy who…
Tickets for the Friday, September 17, Pixies show at the Uptown go on sale next Monday, June 14, at 10 a.m. Get on it. In related news, Eric Wareheim, of the ridiculously funny Adult Swim TV show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, posted a link on his Twitter account yesterday to an outtake featuring Pixies frontman Frank Black. Black plays…
As a candidate, Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser ran against the generous distribution of incentives developers received from City Hall. Today he asked for an audit of an agency that makes the magic happen. Funkhouser asked for time at Wednesday’s meeting of the Tax-Increment Financing Commission. In calling for the audit, the mayor brought to mind a singer performing his…
Marcel Nelson, 26, was the victim of Monday’s homicide at Linwood and 71 Highway. Officers at Central Patrol heard heavy gunfire near Linwood and 71 Highway around 8:50 p.m. At the scene, they witnessed a bullet-riddled vehicle traveling at 5 miles per hour on the north sidewalk at Linwood and Michigan. Inside the vehicle were two men suffering from life-threatening…
The Burger Stand is coming to Massachusetts Avenue in Lawrence. The Burger Stand at Dempsey’s (623 Vermont in Lawrence) is gearing up for an end-of-the-month move a few blocks down the road to the Casbah space at 803 Massachusetts. The new location will open on July 1 with a full bar and a new name: The Burger Stand at the…
RAIN is “a multimedia, multidimensional experience…fusing historical footage, memorable television commercials, 1960s highlights, and live camera close-up zooms,” according to the Starlight website. Essentially, it sounds like the most professional Beatles cover band in the world, with Mad Men-level attention to detail. RAIN has an 11-week run at the Neil Simon Theater on Broadway in New York lined up, from…
Twelve days ago, the Pakistan-born Tufial brothers, Abdul and Kashif, hadn’t set an official opening date for their east-of-Brookside shop, Chai Shai, which will be a combination retail store and cafe. They’ve now posted a sign in the window of the storefront at 59th and Holmes: the grand opening will be June 26. Abdul Tufial is a little concerned about…
There’s a burger billboard on I-35 just south of downtown. It’s photographed beautifully, with crisp lettuce and a juicy hamburger patty pouring out from a bun. I want to take my two hands off the wheel and grab that burger. The billboard knows this. Its tag line admonishes me and other drivers: “Keep your eyes on the road.” But I…
State and local officials in Missouri continue to argue about the legitimacy of red-light cameras. State Sen. Jim Lembke, a St. Louis-area Republican, thinks the cameras represent an affront to liberty. Tonight in St. Louis he will debate Antonio French, a city alderman who believes in cameras’ crime-fighting properties. Lembke enters the discussion with the wind at his back. An…
%{}% Camping foods have come a long way from putting a can of beans in the fire. Get ready to meet your first friendly Saboteur. Odell Brewmaster Doug Odell will be at the Overland Park Barley’s and The Flying Saucer today and tomorrow offering tastings of the new brown ale. At least somebody is profiting off hipsters: the Pabst Brewing…
Herbie Husker could be joining Herky the Hawk in the Big Ten. The Omaha World-Herald reports that one Big 12 exec expects Nebraska’s defection to the Big Ten to come as early as Friday. That’s when Nebraska’s regents are expected to meet. Nebraska A.D. Tom Osborne expects the expansion talk to be put to bed soon. “There’s a lot of…
Speak clearly, please Kansas City’s oldest and most iconic burger joint, Winstead’s, has been serving breakfast for years. Not as long as its signature steakburgers and shakes, of course. The flagship Winstead’s location on the Country Club Plaza opened in 1940 as a traditional drive-in, with carhops. Now customers eat inside — it’s actually a quiet and relaxing dining spot…
If Land of Plenty finds its way into the right hands, it is not hard to imagine it blowing up on the internet. It’s got just enough hazy reverb for the tastemaking blogs, but with strong melodies backing it up. Style and substance. It calls to mind the best Deerhunter songs, or maybe a shoegaze Kinks. You should just go download it…
Westport got shoot-y last night. A security officer opened fire on a vehicle he claims tried to run him over, according to reports (KCTV 5 and KMBC Channel 9). The security officer claims he approached a car parked in a lot between Pennsylvania and Mill around 2:44 a.m., but the driver freaked out and tried to speed off but was…
Rum Runners is a drinking establishment in Farmington, Missouri, and judging from its MySpace page, the patrons there love motorcycles, boating, and pants that let their ass cracks “breathe.” The bar’s owner, Matt Grisham, is in trouble for more serious harm than the sin committed against my eyes — Missouri’s Attorney General Chris Koster is suing him for allegedly violating…
%{}% Peculiar Jesse didn’t have much to say (again) this week. Last week, Peculiar Jesse went on a one-on-one Las Vegas fantasy date with Ali. So this week, our man from Cass County didn’t get much face time on The Bachelorette. Peculiar Jesse was invited on this week’s group date, which involved a video shoot with the Barenaked Ladies for…
The Temper Trap, the Australian four-piece that Pitch writer Chris Parker described as suggesting “the offspring of U2 and Journey, with a sweeping, theatrical sound” in this week’s print edition, are at the Crossroads at Grinders. But you will want to get there early for openers Warpaint, a buzzy girl-group from L.A. who play hazy, hypnotic, acoustic tunes that sound like the…
Forren’s is gone, but the postcard is worth two bucks My friend Linda, knowing how much I love vintage postcards with scenes from restaurants, gave me this card — I’m thinking it’s from the early 1960s — from Forren’s Restaurant in Emporia, Kansas. The former Forren’s Restaurant, I should say, because its location at 706 Commercial Street is now occupied…
