Archives: February 2011

The Zeus, You Say

In this economy, it’s important to maximize your entertainment dollar, as well as make good use of limited free time. Screenland Crown Center (2450 Grand, 816-545-8034) gives you a multitasking two-for-one with its popular Screenland Slams series. On the first weekend of every month, watch a camp classic while three of Kansas City’s freshest comics improvise a live riff track,…

Lick It

According to World Bank data, girls and women ages 15-44 are more at risk for rape and domestic violence than for cancer or car accidents, and the cost of intimate-partner violence in the United States exceeds $5.8 billion a year in direct medical and health-care services and productivity losses. Locally, the UMKC Women’s Center offers support services, referrals and advocacy….

Dick, Darkly

Long dismissed as a genre writer, Philip K. Dick didn’t live to see the devoted geeks who carried his banner into the popular culture of the last 20 years. One such disciple is indie filmmaker Richard Linklater, whose trippy, rotoscope-animated adaptation of A Scanner Darkly screens at 6:30 p.m. at the Kansas City Central Library (14 West 10th Street, 816-701-3400)….

These Stars Don’t Rock

Don’t wander into Gottlieb Planetarium at Union Station (30 West Pershing Road) expecting a retro-tastic rendition of Dark Side of the Moon set to a laser light show. Rather than classic rock with cheesy special effects, the interdisciplinary science and arts team Dark Matter provides audiences with an educational experience that merges the analytical with the creative, through the efforts…

Tequila Sophisticate

As though the art, music, food and dancing in the streets weren’t reasons enough to hit the streets of downtown Kansas City on First Fridays, here’s another one: tequila. Many of us north of the border have probably spent at least one ill-advised evening pounding shots at the bar and then indulging in a fistfight, unfettered sobbing or public nudity…

Deborah Schwartzkopf Solo Exhibition

Red Star Studios presents a solo exhibition of Deborah Schwartzkopf’s ceramics inspired by color and forms found in natural and human made environments. Wednesdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturdays, 12-4 p.m. Starts: Feb. 4. Continues through Feb. 26, 2011 Tags: Deborah Schwartzkopf, Night & Day

Bombs Away

The Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre consistently brings challenging and thoughtful dramatic works to Kansas City, and with its popular Script-in-Hand Series in partnership with the Kansas City Public Library, it does so for free. The program presents Michael Frayn’s acclaimed play Copenhagen, an intense examination of the relationship between the theoretical physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, teacher and protégé, respectively,…

Chinese New Year Celebration

The Confucius Institute of the University of Kansas teams up with the Edgar Snow Memorial Fund and the Kansas City Chinese American Association for a 7 p.m. gala on February 5 at Johnson County Community College’s Yardley Hall (12345 College Boulevard in Overland Park). See kcca-ks.org. — Crystal K. Wiebe Sat., Feb. 5, 7-9 p.m., 2011 Tags: Confucius Institute of…

C&W: Drawings by Nora Othic

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…

Daniel Love, TomTGradeczek, America’s Greatest Figure Artists, Tribal Art

Four art showings are currently featured at Gallery 325: 1) Fine Art Photographer Daniel Love is the Featured Artist for February and March 2011, showing a wide variety of black and white silver photo prints, and a wide variety of duotone or monochrome photo prints, all in praise of the female form. 2) Resident Artist Tom T Gradeczek’s most recent…

Like They Do On the Discovery Channel

Feeling sexually inhibited in spite of the fact that this is the Hallmark-declared romance season? Perhaps a little reminder that nooky is a totally natural and necessary element of life for us primates — and everyone else in the animal kingdom — is in order. Before you go Googling “doggy style,” head to the Kansas City Zoo (6800 Zoo Drive,…

Erotic Art Show

Slap-N-Tickle owner Apryl McAnerney or the other 20 local artists and performers contributing to the venue’s Fourth Annual Erotic Art Show. The February tradition means live burlesque, rock and roll, and nude bodies rendered in various visual-art mediums. The fun starts at 8 p.m. A $5 donation is requested for the performers. Fri., Feb. 4, 2011 Tags: Apryl McAnerney, Night…

Hidden Interlopers

Treading the fine line between science and magic, Anna Zimmerman explores the components of habitats. She is inspired by geographical history, topography, and nature. She is intrigued by the contrast between sterile, safe environments and the natural world. Hidden battles between animals and humans, within cultural institutions, go on all the time, unbeknownst to the average visitor. Museums must go…

Abstract Paintings by Barbara Grad

The exhibition Video Villa: New Paintings by Barbara Grad features more than a dozen abstract paintings by Boston-based painter Barbara Grad.The exhibition’s paintings, some joining together two canvases, were created between 2008 and 2010 and take inspiration from the dynamic intersection of worlds seemingly at odds; maps (found in a cache stored by her son) offer secret entry into gaming…

Standing North

Don Kottman’s paintings are on display — and viewable from the street — in BNIM’s storefront windows. From the artist’s statement: I build color painted spaces, flat paintings that struggle toward and contest their very existence in search of the paintings’ rhythm, necessity and reality. The principle energies I employ are: the color of color, eye travel, the ways of…

Jabba the Hutt is much better than a snowman (pictures)

Yes, that’s Jabba the Hutt, the ruthless gangster who put a bounty on Han Solo’s head in the Star Wars series. This snow Jabba is the creation of friend of The Pitch Lacey Storer and her boyfriend, Brad Farris. They made him this morning while trying to dig out. More photos after the jump. Categories: News Tags: Jabba the Hutt,…

Kansas Jayhawks Puppet Pals will either blow your mind or annoy you to death

The Harry Potter Puppet Pals video was bound to attract copy cats — including one straight out of Lawrence, Kansas. Women’s golf and volleyball players put together one featuring Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball players. If you weren’t one of the 96 million people who’d watched the Potter Puppet Pals (sadly, like me), then you probably had no idea what the…

Starker’s John McClure won’t eat canned water chestnuts, can’t resist cinnamon rolls and might just open a taqueria

The first night that executive chef John McClure worked the kitchen at Starker’s Restaurant, the dining room had eight covers. A little over a month later, he was busting out 700 plates of food for 146 tables on Valentine’s Day. “If you’re not going fast, the one-man line will eat you up,” McClure says. But the former Navy cook and…

Rondell Ross indicted for ‘parental kidnapping’ in the abduction of 18-month-old girl

Rondell Ross was accused in December of attacking his ex-girlfriend and abducting his 18-month-old daughter. Ross later surrendered to Alvin Brooks and the AdHoc Group Against Crime and returned the girl. Last week, a Jackson County grand jury indicted Ross for kidnapping, second-degree domestic assault, parental kidnapping and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. Categories: News Tags: kidnappings, missing…