“What really matters is what you like, not what you are like,” John Cusack says in High Fidelity, a very good romantic comedy about a 30-something man who can’t maintain a relationship, partially because he’s holding on to stale record-nerd dreams. Going the Distance is a not-very-good romantic comedy about the same kind of guy — Garrett (Justin Long), a…
Sometimes you feel bad for movie marketers, tasked with connecting any given film to as large an audience as possible. Take, for example, The American. Judging by the film’s trailers and advertisements, it’s a fast-paced Euro-stylish thriller starring George Clooney as a dashing, conflicted hero. Yet it quickly becomes apparent, once the actual movie starts, that The American is more…
David Gaumé has some advice for aspiring bands: “Step 1 — Don’t break up.” Band longevity is about as inspiring as the U.S. divorce rate. But Gaumé and his bandmates — singer and guitarist Andrew Ashby, drummer Jake Cardwell and keyboardist Elizabeth “Bo” Bohannon — practice what the band’s founder (and bassist) preaches. The Caves have been kicking around Kansas…
What do you mean you’ve never heard of a BaRestaurant? Kind of catchy, isn’t it? In the heyday of the nightclub called the Drum Room (this would have been in the 1940s and ’50s), that’s how the owners of the hotel described the swanky space, which had a drum-shaped bar up near the street-level entrance. The real action in the…
Identical cousins, sexual encounters with aliens, long-lost international-man-of- mystery fathers — these are the fabulous plotlines of the latest production of the Kansas City Actors Theatre. Well, OK, they don’t drive the play but rather the daytime TV programs that one of the play’s characters watches devotedly. Daniel MacIvor’s drama, Marion Bridge, concerns itself with three estranged sisters convening at…
New York editor Juliette (Patricia Clarkson) travels alone to Cairo to meet her husband, who works for the United Nations in Gaza. When hubby gets stuck across the border, Tareq (Alexander Siddig), his former bodyguard, steps in as Juliette’s chaperone. Fluent in English and supposedly highly literate, Tareq actually says things like, “They say once you have drunk the water…
Charles Romano plays an acoustic guitar on the sidewalks of the Country Club Plaza. At almost 50, he remembers a time when the district featured dime stores and a bowling alley. Romano grew up on McGee Street. As a kid, he wandered among the hippies who met at Volker Park (now Theis Park), just east of the Plaza, to listen…
The grainy footage shows two snarling pit bulls in a dimly lit barn, staring each other down through a haze of cigarette smoke. Walled in by a makeshift ring of 3-foot-high plywood planks, the collarless dogs twitch and wag their tails, expending nervous energy like prizefighters shadowboxing in the ring in the moments before the opening bell. Both dogs are…
In its January 26 issue of this year, Paste Magazine posed an interesting question: is indie dead? We’re sad to report that the magazine couldn’t stick around to find out. Paste has died. It’s a sad day for music journalism fans. The Americana-oriented indie music magazine based out of Decatur, Georgia — whose tagline was “Signs of Life in Music, Film and…
Then this other girl, Hannah, who is still a Justin Bieber fan, saw it and got on YouTube and made a video of her own, in which she threatens to smash Sydney’s face with a wine bottle. It’s fucking crazy. Categories: Music Tags: justin bieber
Claire McCaskill has been touted for her openness and frequent use of Twitter, and now she’s earning notice for keeping the micro-blogosphere somewhat balanced politically. U.S. News & World Report writes that McCaskill is the only Democrat among the five most-followed politicians and the top five most frequent politician posters. Still, even the most accomplished Twitter artist makes mistakes. We…
Holy hell, what is in the water at Wizards HQ? They’re making more news this week than they probably have in the last year combined. And while most of the news has been positive — signing their first home grown player, for instance — things took a ugly turn when it was revealed that coach Peter Vermes was arrested on…
The secret? The potatoes are fried in bacon grease To whet your appetite for The Pitch’s annual Best of Kansas City issue, we’re counting down our favorite Top 50 dishes each weekday until October 7. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And, yes, a bowl of oatmeal or cream of wheat is probably a…
It turns out that not all frozen yogurt shops are created equal. Despite similar modern decors and methods of distribution (Take cup. Fill with yogurt. Smother in toppings. Pay by weight), there are enough differences to make some more worth the weight than others. Since 2010 will be remembered as the summer of the frozen yogurt shop, Fat City decided…
Have you ever wanted to smell like the Sex Pistols? Well, now you can. The legendary punk band has released a unisex scent with Paris perfume company Etat Libre d’Orange, who have licensed the group’s name via their promoter Live Nation Merchandise. (We’re guessing that sweat, piss and blood are not ingredients, by the way.) The perfume launched in France in…
Shauna Renno’s daughter 14-month-old daughter died in late December of 2006, and a few days later she and the girl’s father were in Independence, trying to bury their daughter. But according to a lawsuit filed by Renno, and unearthed by the Star’s Tony Rizzo, two Kansas City police officers barreled into the funeral, shoved the baby’s father into a mound…
Free State ain’t a place like Maine or Virgina. Free State is across the county line. Bottles from the Lawrence brewery are starting to show up on the Kansas side. The KC Beer Blog found some first at Tipsy’s in Mission. Rimann Liquors in Prairie Village has Ad Astra Ale, Copperhead Pale Ale, Oatmeal Stout and Wheat State Golden. If…
He went to the club to burn some calories and learn self-defense. He left with a lacerated pancreas. Lone Jack resident Joshua Boswell recently filed a lawsuit against Title Boxing Club, which offers boxing and kickboxing workouts. Boswell says he was inadequately trained before he began a mixed martial arts sparring session, which resulted in organ damage. Boswell says a…
It looks like it might be so. According to Vibe magazine, Tech N9ne said that he was surprised when Lil Wayne dropped his name on a list of possible collaborators — including Andre 3000 — in his recent on-air interview from prison with a New York radio station. Now, Tech’s saying that Lil Wayne might be getting ready to send…
I was out to lunch, and I asked if my friend would like to try some of my salad. Before the question was finished, his fork slid across the table and speared a healthy pile of field greens. There was bacon involved, so his enthusiasm was understandable. Still, I was a bit skeeved out by his fork entering my plate’s…
It wasn’t that long ago the Kansas City Wizards beat Manchester United here on good, rich American soil. Surely, across the pond they have good things to say about us. Right? Ha. No. The only thing they can say about our hometown footballers is that when we choke, the choking it is epic. Hence UK publication Sport putting a Wizards…
