This Ivan Reitman film is narrow in focus: about two people in lust struggling to put away their respective baggage in order to have a real relationship. Adam (Ashton Kutcher) drunkenly texts every girl in his phone and wakes up the next morning at the apartment of medical resident Emma (Natalie Portman). The pair rendezvous during her off hours. The…
This road-trip romance with sci-fi circumstance imagines a bizarro world in which a NASA probe has crashed, leaving part of Mexico “infected” with hostile, rapidly breeding alien life. The monsters — something like massive octopi with translucent bellies that glow in the dark — have been quarantined from the United States by a massive border fence. American newspapers will pay…
Transparent in its ambition to capture The Way We Live Now, The Company Men tracks the parallel trajectories of three employees laid off from cushy corporate jobs at the same Boston-based manufacturing conglomerate. Bobby (Ben Affleck) is the cocky young hotshot forced to trade in his Porsche and his pride. Bobby’s two former colleagues, both in pre-retirement limbo, are large-living…
Blues and gospel — two of America’s most beloved art forms — are continually reinvigorated, thanks to fresh takes by innovative musical minds. The latest update arrives courtesy of Robert Randolph, who picks up where Stevie Ray Vaughan left off. Randolph’s riffs aren’t as incendiary as Vaughan’s, but his fluid playing and his smooth, burnished baritone are built for radio….
Sharp rhymes, biting insults and cutting punch lines — for fans in need of a furious lyrical showdown, this year’s Versus Battle at RecordBar won’t disappoint. It’s the fourth incarnation of the local hip-hop and beat battle in which MCs are pitted against one another. At stake: a $600 prize. (DJs have their own sideshow, blowing out sound systems and…
Sick of It All was the first act that I ever saw do “the Braveheart.” (I was at the Bottleneck, and I was 19.) For those unfamiliar with the term, the Braveheart splits the audience into two halves, leaving a large gap in between. Each side must then attempt to wrestle through the opposing group, like an especially aggressive game…
Describing her Chicago roots to the BBC, Melissa Young — better known as Kid Sister — said, “There’s a culture down there that’s very unique. It’s sort of ‘hood, but it’s sort of wholesome.” The conflation of ‘hood and wholesome is a fair description of Kid Sister’s music, which melds electronic hip-hop and Chicago house music. The Kanye West protégée…
Decades of touring, suitcases full of blow, and Axl Rose’s L.A.-sized ego would have killed off the rock in most mortals long ago. But when metal courses through one’s veins, these things are mere tribulations. So it is for Ozzy Osbourne, who brings his Ozzy Scream Tour 2011 to the Sprint Center with Slash (longtime buddy, fellow hardcore survivor and…
Not too many chefs in Kansas City can say they’ve cooked in two restaurants that used to be gas stations. But one of them is Todd Schulte, who in 2008 turned a soup-delivery business into the popular Columbus Park lunch joint the Happy Gillis Café & Hangout. One of Schulte’s first professional cooking jobs was in the kitchen of the…
With a playlist as rich as a block of Stilton, Robert Moore’s Sonic Spectrum broadcast sets the standard for free-form radio in this city every Saturday night. The first installation of his newest project, the Sonic Spectrum Tribute Series, features the work of David Bowie covered by such scene kings as Steve Tulipana, Brodie Rush and Cody Wyoming. We asked…
Excelsior Springs police released video of a crash caught on camera by a red-light traffic camera at U.S. Highway 69 and McCleary Road last Friday. It’s definitely a holy-shit wreck, one that fortunately didn’t end with anyone getting seriously hurt. Not sure exactly what the red-light runner was thinking since three lanes of traffic clearly stopped. Categories: News Tags: red-light…
AWOL Whiteman airman Kerby Barbe allegedly told his girlfriend that he’d critically injured a fellow airman and left him in Knob Noster State Park, which isn’t far from Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force Base. And that’s exactly where authorities found the body of Airman 1st Class Luis Vazquez on Friday. He’d been missing for five days, and authorities are now investigating…
UPDATE, January 17, 3:57PM: We love it when you read our blogs, but we really love it more when you leave comments. Last week, I talked to Winston Apple, organizer with Workfare Incorporated about his fundraising efforts and commenter Tonybasso23 presented us with some tough questions: how many jobs have been created? how many people have been put to work?…
Megan Mantia The Ssion The Leedy Voulkos Art Center’s lofts, down in the heart of the Crossroads District, were set aflame with neon and glitter this weekend. Back in town from New York with freshly dyed red hair and his signature makeup, Cody Critcheloe, lead singer of the glam-pop-rock band the Ssion (pronounced “shun”), treated Kansas City’s artsy scenesters to…
Apparently harshing Johnson County’s fake marijuana buzz wasn’t enough for law enforcement in the Golden Ghetto. Word comes from KCTV5 that authorities have snuffed out an alleged grow house operation at a home on West 71st Terrace in Prairie Village (and the story is full of the usual bits about P.V. not being a “typical neighborhood” for grow operations). If…
Most restaurants have kids’ menus. But will we start seeing menus for kids-to-be? The Guardian writes about a new fad at restaurants — pregnancy menus designed specifically for the dietary needs of the pregnant set. Think sushi-less placards at Japanese restaurants and dishes scrubbed of unpasteurized cheese. Because restaurants have finally figured out that you don’t stop going out until…
Every February, The Pitch’s Sex Issue explores how Kansas City, you know, does it. In past years, this meant stories about the sex being had (or not had) by certain locals. This year, we’re looking at you. Take our first-ever sex survey and look for our Sex Issue on February 10 to see how your sex life — or lack…
No neighborhood in Kansas City can resist the burger craze, so it’s no surprise that the avalanche of grilled patties has finally reached 39th Street. And KC Smoke Burgers (1610 West 39th Street), in the former Jerusalem Cafe location, hasn’t just dipped a toe into the waters. With half-pound burgers and branding that begins with an actual brand seared into…
Kansas City police continue to round up suspects in the killing of Nigerian-born Oladimeji Oladipo. Oladipo’s body was discovered in a vehicle in the McDonald’s parking lot at 6406 Troost on July 13. The University of Missouri-Kansas City student had been shot to death. Last month, Jackson County prosecutors charged Markus Whitelaw, also known as “Twin,” with second-degree murder after…
My colleague and I, The Pitch’s lovely calendar editor, Crystal Wiebe, judged yesterday’s showdown at HRC’s Battle of the Bands at Crosstown Station. There were two battles on two stages: The upstairs, in Press Lounge, held the day’s acoustic acts, and downstairs, the electric bands rocked out on Crosstown’s larger stage. Dumptruck Butterlips took the honors in the electric category,…
We may have a tempestuous relationship with the Beaumont’s sound. (I swear, the venue’s ceiling is home to a black hole that sucks the acoustics out of every band’s sound into the great unknown.) But we can’t argue with these two shows that are coming to the venue in April. First, Foals will hit up the Beaumont on Friday, April…
