The former Independence pastor accused of killing a parishioner pleaded not guilty Monday to first-degree murder charges, according to multiple reports. Supposed man-of-God David Love is accused of killing Randy Stone, who was a member of New Hope Baptist Church, where Love preached. Love reportedly gave the eulogy at Stone’s funeral. If that wasn’t enough, Stone’s family accuses Love of…
The gory undead have long been muses for the heroes of punk rock. What better way to inspire local rockers than by donning some fake blood and sinking your teeth into each other a night of zombie-themed romance? On Saturday night, the Brick is hosting a party that’s bound to be everything your senior prom wasn’t. (Thank goodness, right?) Expect…
Paris Brothers Inc. is hoping you’ll follow the smell of roasting coffee straight to Union Station. As reported in The Kansas City Star, Parisi Artisan Coffee is opening its first retail location in the city at the downtown train station (30 West Pershing Road). A late spring opening for the coffee store, which will serve food and drinks, is planned….
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self is reinstating Mario Little — just in time for the Big 12 Conference slate of games. Self announced Monday night that Little had received a diversion agreement on two misdemeanor battery charges, which stemmed from an incident with his girlfriend last month. Categories: News Tags: Bill Self, Kansas Jayhawks, Mario Little, university of kansas
Jack in the Box took a step closer to opening a location in Blue Springs when the city’s planning commission approved the site plan and design yesterday for a location at the intersection of Missouri 7 and Mock Avenue. The Examiner writes that, pending approval by the City Council next Tuesday, Jack in the Box would start construction this spring….
Musician Kemet Coleman (who also goes by ThePhantom*) has dipped his big toe into the political pool and found it to his liking. Now he invites you to hippity-hop on the Sly James train for mayor. His ringing endorsement comes via rap, and while we’ve always been eager to hear a new jam from Coleman, this one starts out a little lukewarm….
A 4-month-old baby boy lost seven fingers after being attacked by his family’s pet ferret. It’s an unnerving story, and as Grain Valley Police Chief Aaron Ambrose told the Star: “This is awful — a very, very unfortunate incident.” I’ll resist the urge to rail against the parents because we still don’t know exactly how the ferret got so close…
favorite campaign-ad family borrower, Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Insincerity City), has won over another fanbase, and at least this one admits that superficiality is its chief concern. Gawker.com has compiled its Official Congressional Freshmen Hot List, and Yoder made the cut in all his breathalyzer-refusing and pretend-tea-partying splendor. Categories: News, Politics Tags: Freshman Hot List, Gawker, kevin yoder
The Chiefs’ first foray into the NFL playoffs since 2006 didn’t go exactly as they had hoped. And with the 30-7 embarrassment comes a blitz of depressing postmortems about what went wrong, grumbling about why the offense took the day off and babbling about what next season will bring. But when you’re done reading all that crap and need a…
The late George Hickenlooper’s Casino Jack is an improbably blithe cautionary tale, recounting the rise and fall of Washington, D.C., superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. “You’re either a big-leaguer or you’re a slave clawing your way onto the C train,” the avid antihero (Kevin Spacey) tells his mirrored reflection in the pre-credit sequence; most everything that follows in this flat, obvious movie…
On July 16, 2009, when a Wyoming Highway Patrol car pulled up to a maroon 1996 Ford Explorer left empty on the side of Interstate 25, nothing seemed amiss. A patrolman left a sticker on the window of what appeared to be just another breakdown, warning that the Ford would be towed if the owner didn’t move it. The patrolman…
By now, it’s a known fact: Tech N9ne rules Kansas City. So when the master gathers a legion of local talent to back him onstage, Kansas City should take heed. Tech opens the arms of his Strange Music family to accept several new talents into the fold: local metal gods Hammerlord, lauded hip-hop duo CES Cru, DJ FSTZ, and MC…
Ruthie Foster’s talent is no longer a whispered secret. The singer-songwriter is busting out of obscurity with 2009’s Grammy-nominated The Truth According to Ruthie Foster. A soulful singer and guitarist, she grew up in a family of church gospel performers; it’s no wonder that her music draws frequent comparisons with Aretha Franklin. Foster has played music her whole life —…
Laura Lloyd and Jasmine White-Gluz’s band takes its name from a piece of military aviation jargon, meaning “I have been unsuccessful” or “I have no information.” It also suggests an aggressively minimalist life. No Joy’s debut, Ghost Blonde, exists in a world of stark negation and antipathy. Yet, in true shoegazer fashion, the band piles on layers of contradictions. At…
Karma Vision used to be the spastic side project of Mammoth Life co-vocalist Bobby Sauder, allowing him to sing his own songs instead of adhering to Mammoth Life’s “spaghetti Western on acid” aesthetic. Now that Mammoth Life has pared down its sound and its membership, Karma Vision is free to pound the pavement full time with touring, recording and exploring…
There are several reasons not to like a place called My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. Before I set foot inside the place, I tried to ignore my preconceptions, but they kept popping up, like the three furies of Greek mythology. Olathe! Chain restaurant! Nia Vardalos movie! Getting there takes a midtowner about as long as actually traveling to Greece —…
In his landmark The Western Canon, literary professor Harold Bloom posits a simple criterion for evaluating great literature: strangeness. There’s something of Bloom’s principle at work in Anomanebula, the most recent release from Lawrence hip-hop group the Blos. If Star Trek had a rap soundtrack, it might sound like this. Overrun with heavy guitar riffs and a grab bag of…
Rather than raising dough through pinup calendars, fantasy-date auctions and bikini carwashes, our local chapter of the Human Rights Campaign raises dollars for women in the most rockin’ way possible: by putting babes behind guitars. This is the second year that event chairwoman Christene Main has organized the battle of the bands for Her HRC Kansas City. We asked Main…
Based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire, John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole plops us down in the lives of Becca (Nicole Kidman, who also produced) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart), a fortyish married couple rattling around an East Coast dream house. In the film’s first scenes, the couple acts out a domestic “normal” that’s so obviously in quotes, we…
Dear Mexican: I’m hoping you can help me: I think I have a Mexican problem. In short, I have a home in sunny California on a property with an abundance of agave cactus and century plants growing along the street. Every year for the past 20 years, five to 10 cactus leaves (3 to 4 feet in length) are cut…
The Americana Music Academy is in a charming Victorian-style house on Massachusetts Street in Lawrence. It’s one of the many beautiful old homes lining the scenic road, and it’s remarkable for its bright-blue-and-pink façade. Inside, though, it’s clear that the house is more distinctive than the idiosyncratic paint job would suggest. Amid equipment, instruments and practice rooms, the academy is…
In the celebrated cheese department of the Dean & Deluca on lower Broadway in New York City’s SoHo — alongside marshmallow puffs of chevre and oozing triple crèmes — is a block of matter so sharp-cornered and clean-edged, so solid and nonporous, that it resembles mineral more than anything edible. The object is the shape and size of a 400-troy-ounce…
Kansas City’s mayoral race is turning into an episode of America’s Got Talent. While Henry Klein is reimagining It’s a Wonderful Life, Sly James is getting rhymes courtesy of Kemet “The Phantom” Coleman. The song description reads: “I’ve supported Sly James’ mayoral campaign since day one. Beyond his superior qualifications, he exudes the type of leadership that is a dire…
Has anyone else been wondering about the old Matsu Japanese Restaurant space in Westport? The windows have been papered over for several months, and Joyce Smith reported in a November 22 Kansas City Star column that the restaurant was “closed for remodeling” and would “reopen in a couple of weeks as East.” That venue, she wrote, was to have “sushi,…
