Archives: December 2010
Vietnamese restaurant serves up a previously undiscovered species
Don’t make a racially insensitive joke. The headline is true: Acting on a tip from a fellow scientist, KU grad student Jesse Grismer found a new species of animal through a dish served at a Vietnamese restaurant. The animal is a lizard — Leolepis ngovantrii, served fried, with a side of lettuce and tomato — and the restaurant is in…
End-of-year Top Ten lists: why we need ’em
You listened to us sound off – okay, fine, rant — about why end-of-year lists are a scourge to the Internet on Friday afternoon. Now, it’s time to play devil’s advocate, sans liquor bottle. Here are three arguments about why lists are necessary to the survival of music criticism. Categories: Music Tags: end-of-year national Top Ten Albums lists, rants
City Slickers comes to life in Kansas City as titans of industry go cowboy
The sport of steer cutting has been invaded by white-collar executives looking for the kind of thrill that doesn’t come from riding a golf cart, according to the Wall Street Journal. WSJ reporter Kevin Helliker recently visited Kansas City to watch rich businessmen on horseback competing with gritty cowboys to match their skills in “cutting,” separating a single steer from…
Rightbloggers on DADT: A slow march toward tolerance, with side trips to insanity
%{}% This weekend the Senate repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell — the 17-year-old policy that allowed gays to serve in the U.S. military only if they could conceal their sexual orientation. The bill awaits Obama’s signature. You might expect rightbloggers to be angry about it, and some of them are — hilariously so. But homophobia isn’t what it used to…
Is Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue the secret to Thomas Jones’ success?
Thomas Jones is all that and a side of baked beans. The veteran running back for the Chiefs, who had 62 rushing yards and a touchdown in yesterday’s win over the St. Louis Rams, is powered by the sweet power of molasses and slowly cooked beans. Jones was interviewed by The New York Times and explained that one of the…
Obama loves Jon Bon Jovi — enough to appoint him head of a community council
In case you were wondering, this is real life. Jon Bon Jovi is being appointed to the White House Council on Community Solutions. Apparently, the council will provide advice to the President on the best ways to “mobilize citizens, nonprofits, businesses and government to work more effectively together to solve specific community needs.” (As of now, Bon Jovi has commented…
R.I.P., Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet, died Friday. According to Entertainment Weekly, the avant-garde rock legend — see Trout Mask Replica — and visual artist passed away at a California hospital due to complications from multiple sclerosis. He was 69. Categories: Music Tags: Captain Beefheart
Comment of the Day: Dead president weighs in on man’s beard in meerkat heist
This has been another heavy week in Kansas City, so let’s leave on a lighter note (an not one to skeeve out Thomas Jones). This week’s craziest story put an end to the mystery of the missing meerkat. This one line from the story says it all: “Santhuff admitted he’d jumped into the exhibit, stole the meerkat and stuck it…
Snag a Warped holiday package — but take care, too
You already know that Vans Warped Tour is coming back to Sandstone next year. (At this year’s show, a man died from the intense heat at the rock festival.) Warped Tour is coming back nevertheless, though — hopefully with more precautions this time. If you’re willing to risk the boiling tempatures this coming summer, Warped Tour is offering a holiday…
Gas stations can make great little restaurants
There was a time in America when there was either a drugstore or a gas station (a full-service one!) on almost every street corner. That’s ancient history now, but there are still a lot of re-purposed gas stations located in urban neighborhoods. Restaurateur Todd Schulte just opened his Genessee Royale Bistro in a long-defunct service station in the West Bottoms;…
Mark Cuban has a plan to fix college football … but the BCS isn’t interested
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has an idea for a football playoff championship. But the BCS’ big boss man, Kansas City’s Bill Hancock is quickly pooh-poohing the idea. Cuban told reporters Wednesday that he’s “actively interested but in the exploratory stage” of bankrolling a 12- or 16-team playoff to replace the BCS — and he’s throwing around a $500 million…
Pearl Jam is curating a mystery festival “in the middle of the country”
According to an interview aired on Sirius XM Radio, Pearl Jam is curating a festival next year, but it’s not in the band’s hometown, Seattle. Instead, the band’s manager said that it will happen “somewhere in the middle of the U.S.” You know what’s in the middle of the U.S., guys? We are! Categories: Music Tags: maybe!, Pearl Jam
Coal plant approved in Kansas; environmentalists say that’s dumb
The employees at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment should be patting themselves on the back. After pulling all-nighters and working weekends through the holiday season, they managed to finish reviewing Sunflower Electric Energy Corp.’s application for an air-quality permit needed to build a coal-fired plant in Holcomb yesterday. If they didn’t approve the plant by January 2, it…
Ladysmith Black Mombazo — you know, from ‘Graceland’ — is coming to Kansas
Did you see Mean Girls? Of course you did — your favorite actress, Lindsay Lohan, is in it, silly! Weird fact: Ladysmith Black Mombazo is La-Lo’s favorite band, until she is sucked into the dark underworld of high school politics (spoiler alert). In case you aren’t well-versed in teen dramas from the early aughts, you might have heard of the…
The Genessee Royale Bistro is open — and ready to make your Saturday breakfast
Homemade soups are also important at the new Genessee Royale The Genessee Royale Bistro has been open just shy of a week in the West Bottoms. Young restaurateur Todd Schulte, proprietor of Happy Gillis Cafe & Hangout, in Columbus Park, has put his new concept in a former service station and towing yard at 1531 Genessee Street. Schulte’s wife, designer…
Claire McCaskill spits nails at hypocritical Republicans
U.S. Sen. Claire “Bear” McCaskill wasn’t about to let the hypocrisy of Republican lawmakers who voted for a moratorium on earmarks then get the earmarks they requested in the 2010 omnibus bill without calling B.S. She took to the floor and unleashed hell upon ’em for trying to take credit for killing the bill for “wasteful government spending.” See McCaskill…
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