If the feel-good sounds of Rebelution are any indication, life in Santa Barbara, California, must be just peachy. I can see it now: waves lapping the beach, palm trees swaying in the ocean breeze. Some dude wearing neon everything, rollerblading while riffing on an electric guitar. Everything you need now has been right in front of your eyes, sings Eric…
Believe it or not, there’s Chiefs news that doesn’t involve asses head-butting each other in traffic and screwfests in Lot G at Arrowhead. This news is rather good. The scribes at the Professional Football Writers Association were quite impressed with Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli’s work this season, and honored him as the NFL Executive of the Year for the…
Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power. The Living Animals of the World: A Popular Natural History Magazine Date: 1901 Publisher: Dodd, Mead & Co. Discovered at: Brass Armadillo Antique Mall, Grain Valley, MO…
Jill Lepore is a Harvard historian who gets out of the library. In researching her latest book, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History, she spent time in bars and at vigils, interviewing regular people who are fed up with the federal government. Lepore treats her subjects with respect while cautioning that…
From the artist’s statement: I don’t know how other artists do it, but I only have a very vague idea of how a piece will look when I start out. As in a dream, a few details are in focus and everything else is fog-shrouded. So, I could see Madame George playing dominos in drag, but not actually visualize the…
In the Victorian age, it was commonly known that women suffered from a mysterious nervous malady that doctors called “hysteria.” No connection was made, however, between said hysteria and the lack of sexual fulfillment in many marriages. In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play), Sarah Ruhl’s Tony-nominated play takes place in upstate New York in the 1880s, where the…
As Criswell explains in Plan 9 From Outer Space, “We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.” And Jacque Fresco has been thinking about the future longer and more intensely than the rest of us. The 94-year-old futurist, architect and “social engineer” appears, at first…
Stage adaptation of prize-winning novel. For its Preteen Series, the Coterie presents a stage adaptation of the prize-winning novel, Bridge to Terabithia. Tickets available by phone or online. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: Jan. 18. Continues through Feb. 27, 2011 Tags: Bridge to Terabithia, Night & Day
Since ancient protohumans touched a big black monolith with their filthy cave hands, human evolution over millions of years has been driven by the compilation and discharge of to-do lists. From “fashion tools, kill mastadon” to “pick up dry cleaning, drive Mom to Target,” the casting of our intentions into bullet-pointed executables has slowly changed us from mud-dwelling eaters of…
Fans of the 1996 Adam Sandler flick Happy Gilmore can tell you that his flame-tempered wannabe hockey player (who becomes a golf pro) was booted off the ice for trying to stab someone with the blade of his skate. For many in the metro, the athletic rivalry between the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri inspires a similar…
With this season’s episodes of Hannah Montana marking the end of the successful Disney series — and with Miley Cyrus’ salvia bong rip heard round the world — tweens now turn to Miranda Cosgrove for salvation. As the 17-year-old pop singer and star of Nickelodeon’s iCarly continues to ride the success of last year’s 26-minute, eight-track release, Sparks Fly, she…
Sure, the economy sucks, but chances are, you can still flush the toilet whenever you want. Not so for the students of Escuela Xecotoj (say-co-tah) in the Guatemalan highlands. For the 90 kids between preschool and sixth grade and their five teachers, flushing is an option only during the one hour a day when running water reaches the toilets. “Shitty,”…
At press time, 20 local chefs and culinary students had signed on to swing chain saws at the eighth annual ice-carving contest of the Greater Kansas City Chefs Association and the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association. The Restaurant Association’s Brina Bruno predicts breathtaking results from the competition. “I think it inspires some of our carving contestants that there is no…
Sick of waiting so long for the bus? Before casting a vote in this spring’s primary, figure out which mayoral candidate agrees that better mass transit is a priority for KCMO. The candidates air their views about public transportation during a three-hour question-and-answer session at H&R Block City Stage Theater inside Union Station (30 West Pershing Road). The public is…
Meet author Philip Stephens, who talks about and reads from his novel, Miss Me When I’m Gone, concerning a folk singer in the American Midwest. Unlike most events at Reading Reptile, this one is geared toward adults. So, expect adult refreshments. Tue., Jan. 25, 7 p.m., 2011 Tags: Midwestern States, Night & Day, Phil Stephens
Meet the artists and enjoy refreshments during the Third Friday Art openings. Participating artists include: Norma Herring, Christi Roberts Bony, Jamie Lavin, Erin Lavin, Chris Willey, Erlene Flowers, Sandra Teichmann-Hillescheim, Michelle Wade, and Karen Dreyer. Fri., Jan. 21, 5:30-9 p.m.; Fri., Feb. 18, 5:30-9 p.m., 2011 Tags: Chris Willey, Erin Lavin, Erlene Flowers, Jamie Lavin, Night & Day
Various artists are featured in the Dolphin’s latest exhibit, What’s Up. Tuesdays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturdays, 12-5 p.m. Starts: Jan. 21. Continues through Feb. 12, 2011 Tags: Night & Day
Roger Coleman is chaplain of Pilgrim Chapel, a public chapel in Kansas City, Missouri. A community activist since 1970, Coleman’s One Hand Free is a retrospect based on his experiences over the past 40 years. These experiences, relayed through themes such as “On Regrets,” “On War” and “On Love,” follow his involvement with several Kansas City organizations including Westport Cooperative…
Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire features new work by Aaron Storck and Lee Piechocki. Its opening coincides with Dual Singularity, works by by Brandon Barr and Justin Rulo-Sabe. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 12-5 p.m.; Thursdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Starts: Jan. 21. Continues through March 5, 2011 Tags: Aaron Storck, Brandon Barr, Justin Rulo-Sabe, Lee Piechocki, Night &…
There’s a scene in Help! in which the Beatles walk up to their adjacent brownstones, bid each other goodnight and step through their respective doors, cutting to an interior shot revealing that all four entrances lead into the same large, awesome apartment. (How strange that most serious Beatles biographies omit the band’s unconventional living arrangement.) Similarly, the Paragraph Gallery, at…
You know that restaurant you keep meaning to try? Well, this is the week to do it. The second annual Kansas City Restaurant Week starts today and runs through January 30. Close to 100 restaurants are offering prix fixe menus for lunch ($15) and dinner ($30), with 10 percent of the cost of each meal going to Harvesters. Don’t miss…
You can’t turn back the clock to December 31, but perhaps you can pledge to lose weight after seeing fit bodies perform a traditional Chinese dance. Or maybe it would just make you hungry for sweet-and-sour pork. Either way, according to the Chinese calendar, we are entering the Year of the Rabbit. Resolve to attend one or more of the…
Put on your bike helmet and brace yourself in a sturdy doorway. We’re ’bout to ride out the first SNOWPOCALYPSE of 2011! KCTV5 Meteorologist Gary Amble has four to nine inches. Gary Lezak at NBC Action News says six to 10 inches and is blogging about heavy bands. Fox 4’s Karli Ritter has a “decent six” inches. Brian Busby just…
