Four days before Christmas last year, Deborah Meeks shot her boyfriend, Wesley U. Smith, in the chest, killing him. Last week, just five days before her 48th birthday, a jury convicted Meeks of second-degree murder. Categories: News Tags: Deborah Meeks, homicide, Wesley U. Smith
Johnson County Community College’s Performing Arts Series is really firing on all cylinders for its 2010-11 season. First, they fly Michael Bolton into town to absolutely torch the joint. Now comes word my boy Vince Gill is playing Yardley Hall this spring. Both men are ’80s/’90s radio giants whose catalogs are crying out for critical reevaluations. Do not even act like…
Investigators traced a computer hacking scheme to two University of Central Missouri students and raided the dorm room where the plot was hatched only to find a Post-It note stuck to a lone computer monitor that read “too late!” with a smiley face on it.” Poking the feds probably wasn’t the smartest move by Joseph A. Camp and Daniel J….
If the Get Up Kids releasing a new album (There Are Rules, due out January 25) and touring weren’t enough goodness to make you happy — and you weren’t lucky enough to have frontman Matt Pryor play in your living room — perhaps the following bit of news will satiate your desire for all things GUK. Categories: Music Tags: Chris…
Most of us missed out on the chance to take cover under a segregated, wooden desk on the orders of a math teacher who lost a leg in Okinawa. But with the bicentennial of the New Madrid earthquakes approaching, the days of duck-and-cover can be recaptured! In five months and four days, Missourians will have a chance to participate in…
I heard today from a friend whose cousin, a funny, bright man with four daughters, went missing last week. Fortunately, the police found him before he could commit the suicide he was contemplating. Despite two jobs, he had sunk deep into debt, a fact he had hidden even from his wife. He was on my mind as I thought about…
Most Tuesday nights after band practice, the ACBs score a late dinner at the Popeyes at 63rd Street and Troost. “They’ve got a deal on Tuesdays where you get a two-piece chicken, a biscuit, a side and a drink for $2.99,” bassist Bryan McGuire says. “No, the drink’s not included,” frontman Konnor Ervin counters. “Oh, right — you have to…
Dear Mexican: I am a mutt. My father’s father was an illegal immigrant from Mexico. My mother’s father was an illegal immigrant from Ireland. My surname is Mexican and is usually mispronounced by gabachos and pendejos alike. I look more Irish than Mexican. And because my father never spoke Spanish at home, the only Spanish I know is from three…
Martin: “What’s That Smell?” November 18 Quit Being Boring, David Martin! This article lacked the snide comments typical of a Pitch article. Overall, it was incredibly boring. Maybe if the people being investigated were Republicans, then we would get to read a juicy story, complete with direct insults and insinuations that the people were complete douche bags. Joshua Lawson, Peculiar…
The fifth collaboration of director Margarethe von Trotta and actress Barbara Sukowa, Vision continues the proto-feminist canonization of Blessed Hildegard von Bingen (Sukowa), the 12th-century Benedictine magistra, scientist, visionary composer, and literal receptor of visions. Cloistered at age 8, Hildegard grows into hardball politicking in the Holy Roman Empire as a celebrity seer, handling Frederick I and the Bishop of…
From a jaunty Spin Doctors–scored opening to a teary, Regina Spektor–cued finale, Love & Other Drugs switches to any style, station or frequency to keep you entertained. Or at least not bored. (Maybe awake?) The most egregious pander party of the year, Edward Zwick’s latest middlebrow atrocity has been so carefully market-tested that it needn’t even be seen — just…
Programmatic by design, Burlesque flattens singer Christina Aguilera’s inherent thorny appeal — the persona that’s at once obnoxiously provocative and sympathetic — by laughably casting her as the 21st-century, torch-singing equivalent of Ruby Keeler in a hodgepodge of Busby Berkeley plots, with none of the Depression-era style or social critique. Aguilera’s innocent Ali is a small-town orphan who Greyhounds it…
Other people besides James Franco appear in 127 Hours, but because they’re unimportant, they won’t be mentioned in this review. Danny Boyle’s film — based on the story of Aron Ralston, who in 2003 cut off his arm after being stuck for five days under a rock in a Utah canyon — is a one-man show. Watch what Franco —…
There’s a Mexican revolution taking place in Kansas City. It’s not a violent revolution but a culinary war, where Tex-Mex — masquerading as Mexican cuisine for decades — is finally giving way to the more authentically prepared south-of-the-border dishes. The revolution recruited a new foot soldier when 24-year-old Joel Palacios came to Kansas City from Omaha, Nebraska, where his parents…
Alternative music lovers know the timeline by heart. Before Nirvana, there was a smaller band called the Pixies. And before the Pixies, there was an even smaller band called Hüsker Dü. They could exist without each other, but where’s the fun in that? (Fun facts: Kurt Cobain once cited the Pixies as one of his greatest influences; back in the…
Few hip-hop artists have the audacity to name a tour “Keep It Irish.” (Even fewer rappers would name a series of albums Love Potion.) In a genre where middle fingers are as common as handshakes, Kansas City rhymesayer Mac Lethal seems to have elevated his single digit above the rest. Tics and all, Mac rhymes with guerrilla disregard for standard…
Last time Tame Impala hit Kansas City, it was part of a misadventure known thereafter as “that MGMT concert last summer.” This time around, the Australian quartet won’t have to contend with the unsavory crowd elements of a sold-out venue. (Here’s looking at you, Blue Valley West.) Tame Impala can bathe in the spotlight all by itself at the Jackpot…
In “Birth of a Lie,” Kristie Stremel describes a haunted woman’s open wound as where the good stuff should go. She repeats the phrase, hanging onto go as if it might bring the good stuff back. She throws a final blow with a wordless cry of frustration, and that’s when five drumbeats make way for fiery guitar grounded by massive…
The heady atmosphere that Blackbird Revue seeks to conjure on The Whaler & Other Stories is clear: weary seafaring lore and churning storm clouds swept by the currents of time. It’s a goal worthy of the Decemberists, and the Blackbird Revue comes close. But not that close. The problem is best illustrated on “The Lion’s Mane,” a haunting track that…
For the shoppers among us, Black Friday is the annual opportunity to wrestle fellow bloodthirsty consumers to the department-store floor in return for a bounty of discounted holiday swag. Some local musicians, however, hope to make this year’s Black Friday a different type of celebration. A cadre of inspired players join mics, horns and genres to honor hip-hop and jazz…
One of the things Connie Stiles would remember about the day her son died was how routine it was. Treadmill. Starbucks. Late for work. Run home. Let the dog out. McDonald’s. Game time. It was Thursday, October 28, the last day of the Spring Hill High School football season. Stiles’ son, Nathan, played running back and linebacker for the Broncos,…
Worthless dick bag Lucas A. Bates was so drunk on March 14, 2009, that he would have blown twice the legal limit … but he was too busy causing carnage on the roadway. Bates’ blood-alcohol content was 0.174 when he sped down a two-lane highway in rural Clay County on his way to causing two head-on collisions, killing 60-year-old retired…
