Rewarding the perseverance of filmmakers whose work is often overlooked by mainstream festivals, the Kansas City Urban Film Festival returns to the Screenland Crossroads (1656 Washington, 816-421-9700). Live entertainment complements free screenings of the suspense short Barren (6 p.m.) and the documentary Just Like You: Cancer, as Told by Three Children (7 p.m.), leading up to the 8 p.m. showcase…
Bike 4 the Brain is a community-wide bike ride/run/walk to raise awareness about mental illness that affects the brain causing emotional, behavioral, and cognitive symptoms. Funds raised from B4B will help support local not-for-profit organizations that help people affected by mental illness. Mon., Sept. 6, 7 a.m., 2010 Tags: 2882, Night & Day
Artist Hung Liu, who will be visiting from San Francisco, is set to unveil a new series created from the aftermath of the Sichuan Earthquake of 2008. Additionally, new work from her Za Zhong, or Bastard Painting, series will also be on display. Fri., Sept. 3, 7-9 p.m., 2010 Tags: Night & Day, san francisco, Za Zhong
As the immigration debate rages on, now seems an ideal time to gain some perspective about and empathy for our amigos y vecinos to the south. One place to locate our common humanity is the XIX Latin American Cinema Festival of Kansas City, presented by Sociedad Hidalgo at the Rio Theatre (7204 West 80th Street, Overland Park). Continuing each Saturday…
Tiffany Sappenfield is a prolific self-taught painter who is inspired by the Pop Art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. “Adult cartoons” resonate with her as a woman trapped in an “adult purgatory,” feeling much more youthful than she is. Like her Pop Art predecessors, Tiffany finds beauty in the detritus of everyday life and records this through photography, surveillance…
In celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Kansas City Art Institute, Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art is pleased to present Lay of the Land featuring three exciting new bodies of work by the current ceramics faculty – George Timock, Cary Esser and Paul Donnelly. Th Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: Sept. 3. Continues through Oct. 30, 2010 Tags: Cary Esser,…
Kansas City’s Urban Culture Project experiments with artistic cross-pollination in Things to Be Next To, a collaboration between local artists and creators from the far-off, exotic land of Chicago. The nonprofit Threewalls is a Windy City cognate of the Urban Culture Project, cultivating local talent and collaborating with other arts organizations nationally for exhibits just like this one, which teams…
Whoop Dee Doo, a non-profit community arts project and faux public access television show for kids and adults, holds a screening of their first show during the First Friday Crossroads art walk. Saturday Whoop Dee Doo opens to the public with a second Free Live Show. Guests include the Marching Pythons, the Kansas City Boys & Girls Choir, the Wild…
Not to get all bigheaded about it, but a lot of cities around the country aren’t as pretty as Kansas City. Thanks to the Kansas City Art Institute, the town is more or less crawling with art-school grads, which goes a long way toward explaining why KC is so aesthetically pleasing. Kansas City’s sizable artistic brain trust also provides a…
Take heed, KC fashionistas. The vintage-minded, design-obsessed Amy Barickman is in town (she spoke at the Plaza Library at 6:30 p.m. Thursday), and she has brought her crafty ideas with her. The founder of Indygo Junction (a company dedicated to the promotion, publishing and marketing of contemporary home crafts, sewing and pattern designs) also has written her own throwback-inspired book…
In Ireland, autumn is a good time for craic. The term basically means “cracking a joke” and represents the celebratory entertainment and conversation that typically follow a successful harvest season. Kansas City has been craic-ing since 5 p.m. Friday, when the eighth annual Kansas City Irish Festival kicked off at Crown Center (2450 Grand). The third-largest festival of its type…
The Kansas City Symphony pulls out all the stops — as it has every Labor Day weekend for 28 years running — for its annual free holiday concert at Shawnee Mission Park (7710 Renner Road, Shawnee). Associate conductor Steven Jarvi waves his baton at 7 p.m., leading the orchestra in pop selections, including tunes from The Sound of Music and…
If you’re lucky, you aren’t at work on this first Monday in September. If you’re even luckier, you’re getting paid anyway. Three cheers for Labor Day. More cheers for the wholesome good times that take place every year at this time in Independence. The Ferris wheel started turning at 6 p.m. Thursday, when the carnival part of Santa Cali-Gon Days…
Some people hunt bears or go deep-sea fishing, both of which involve expensive equipment, potentially dangerous circumstances, and uncomfortable ethical questions about wildlife sustainability. Lucky for Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson, their prey of choice will never go extinct. They are typo hunters, armed with wit and Sharpies. The founding members of the Typo Eradication Advancement League stalk restaurants…
• Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School is a more awesome, much cheaper version of the life-drawing classes taught at, say, a junior college. The models are burlesque performers, and sessions are accompanied by music and booze. Artists bring their gear to render the women; others can drink and enjoy the party. Dr. Sketchy’s Kansas City franchise operates out of the Loft…
Since September 2009, Yeah Buddy, Brent Tactic’s monthly residency at Czar Bar (1531 Grand, 816-221-2244), has gradually gained steam among First Friday crowds as the go-to late-night dance party. DJ Sku, Tactic’s original collaborator on the decks, moved on in December, but rather than lose momentum, Yeah Buddy’s mishmash sets of rap, funk, house and classics have continued to be…
At any other time of the year, even police dogs would get bounced from a public pool. Keepers of health codes frown upon pooches and people paddling around together in chlorinated water, no matter what you say about your dog’s mouth being cleaner than a toddler’s uncontrollable pee-pee. Alas, summer is almost over, meaning that municipalities must drain their swimming…
Faithfully adapted from the Chekhov novella by Mary Bing and crisply paced by Israeli director Dover Koshashvili, Anton Chekhov’s The Duel comes about as close to soap-opera passion as the virtuoso of wistful lethargy is likely to get. Perhaps “comic opera” is the operative term: Adultery, betrayal, blackmail, drunken antics, and all manner of peculiar impulse behavior enliven the summery…
There are several facts you should know about breakout Brooklyn band Suckers. First, its swooning, lackadaisical songs are equal parts magnum-opus ambition and pub-shanty sing-alongs. Second, a National Geographic-ready baboon face looks out at you from the cover of this year’s sprawling Wild Smile (produced by Yeasayer’s Anand Wilder). Third, frontman Quinn Walker sings with the ragged rigor of Wolf…
Known for its psychedelic electronic beats and rowdy live shows, Sound Tribe Sector 9 (known to fans as STS9) purveys genre-spanning electro-funk jams. The group’s latest album, Ad Explorata, is based on mysterious voices that band members overheard on a shortwave radio and traced to Big Sur, where they found a metal box full of black-ops military paraphernalia from the Cold War….
Slash can’t sing for shit, but at least he knows it. For his 2010 self-titled debut album, the legendary ex-Guns N’ Roses guitarist simply leafed through his rock-star Rolodex and called Ozzy, Iggy, Ian Astbury, Kid Rock — along with Fergie and that guy from Maroon 5 — to collaborate on his songs and provide vocals. But gathering all those…
Created by Robert Rodriguez for Danny Trejo, Machete is a leather-faced, ex-Federale turned down-and-dirty hit man turned violent crusader on behalf of his fellow illegal immigrants — a would-be superhero envisioned as a “Mexican Jean-Claude Van Damme or Charles Bronson,” who first appeared in Grindhouse’s trailer for a Machete film that didn’t yet exist. In the trailer, Machete is hired…
What the hell are “bohemian seductive grooves”? (Moreover, what are “grooves for the gay soul”?) Such are the postmillennial questions that Andre 3000 and Saul Williams might share over a thick joint and a couple of Heinekens. They’re also the questions that local artist thePhantom* proposes in his latest release, Bohemian Seductive Grooves for the Gay Soul. These five lusty,…
There’s no shortage of fine acts playing the eighth annual Irish Fest, but one of the most intriguing is the Guggenheim Grotto. Wistful regret and longing fuel the Irish folk-pop duo’s tender, dreamy music. Kevin May and Mick Lynch’s supple harmonies linger over ringing guitars and keyboards. Grotto’s albums come with plenty of mandolin, glockenspiel, ukulele, cello, bass and drums,…
