Noted ornithologist and author John C. Robinson is coming to Kansas City to share his birding expertise and encourage broader participation by people of all ethnic backgrounds in nature activities such as bird watching. Robinson will discuss his latest book, Birding for Everyone, Encouraging People of Color to Become Birdwatchers. Tue., March 1, 7-8:30 p.m., 2011 Tags: John Robinson, Kansas…
The year 1933 was a great one for America. It’s considered the point when the country began to recover from the Great Depression and, not coincidentally, it’s the year Franklin Delano Roosevelt repealed Prohibition. He was a true man of the people. In many ways, we’re still rebuilding from that national nightmare. Ernest and Julio Gallo started their wine empire…
Typography nerds, this Flickr photo set of Sanborn-Perris Map Company fire insurance maps, 1890-1910, is pretty sweet (huge hat tip to Kansas city blogger favorite The816 via Sean Berger’s Twitter). Can’t really argue with The816’s assessment: “Today this cover would be a stock shot of The Scout with a Copperplate headline.” They really are beautiful, though. If you’ve got time…
There’s a blogger in Buffalo, New York, with some gigantic, swingin’ balls. Balls big enough to call up Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and pretend to be billionaire oil baron David Koch of Wichita’s Koch Industries. Walker is currently battling his state’s Democrats and labor unions over his bill that would kill the collective-bargaining rights of workers in the public sector….
It’s been four months since Lee Mecker, the new owner of BuddiesKC, took over the freestanding spot at 3715 Main. He’s been working at the gay bar off and on for the past 15 years. Upon his coronation as King of the Bar, he decided that the joint needed a face-lift. “I took out all that corrugated tin. Every gay…
Royals fans, Joakim Soria has a favor to ask you: Stop calling him “The Mexicutioner.” The 26-year-old closer (and native of Mexico) asked his Twitter followers to come up with a new nickname. “How about if we change my nickname to something positive?” he asked. “In support to Mexico to stop all the violence!!!” Soria is clearly referring to the…
Let the countdown to The Drunken Fish (14 E. 14th St.) opening commence. The sushi spot, the fourth for the St. Louis-based restaurant group, opens its doors tonight at 5 p.m. tomorrow at 11 a.m. tonight at 6 p.m. in the Power & Light District. Drunken Fish is in the former space of Bice Bistro, which closed last March. The…
Former Royal Zack Greinke offered a glimpse of his annoying and endearing self during a 40-minute chat with baseball writers on Monday. Alternately prickly and adorable, Greinke admitted that his effort fell off last year as the Royals slumped to yet another bad finish. Greinke doesn’t speak in clichés, which makes him fascinating to sports writers who have heard them…
Surely, you’ve already heard the new Radiohead album The King of Limbs (and you think either it’s an utter disappointment or maybe it’s a brilliant entry into their varied catalog.) One thing’s for sure: The black-and-white video for “Lotus Flower,” featuring head ‘Head Thom Yorke herking and jerking as only the spindly singer can, is perversely awesome. If you’ve ever…
Jason Kendall is a bit of a grumpy Gus. Yesterday, 610 Sports’ Nick Wright angered Kendall (no relation) while trying to interview Kansas City Royals prospect Mike Moustakas. Kendall angrily interjected himself into the conversation with a line that my dad always says: “Are you shitting me?” Not exactly sure what Kendall thought he heard, but he wasn’t happy. Deadspin…
University of Kansas donors David and Suzanne Booth bought Dr. James Naismith’s 13 rules of basketball for $4.3 million in December. Finally, those rules will be displayed in Kansas City at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art during March Madness. Best of all, you can see the exhibit for free (although no one’s going to be mad at you if you…
A friend of mine called yesterday, practically elated with the news he had seen on Facebook: “It’s official,” he yelled into the receiver, “Hamburger Mary’s doesn’t have to move!” That’s right, for a coterie of zealous Hamburger Mary’s lovers, yesterday’s local elections, the unrest in the Middle East, the earthquake in New Zealand were all trumped by the rumors that…
The next month will be chock-full of cordial lawyer-on-lawyer action, if you believe this morning’s predictions about the upcoming campaign to become Kansas City’s next mayor. Mike Burke, development lawyer, and Sly James, personal-injury attorney, are apparently friends and are basically vowing to keep the rhetoric rational between now and March 22. “You’re going to see an unprecedented dialogue,” political…
The Canadian synth-pop duo Parallels is kind of on fire right now. This past winter, the duo sold out shows in San Francisco, Moscow, Miami and its hometown of Toronto. Cameron Findlay (touring drummer with electronic band Crystal Castles) and Holly Dodson (of her vocals, critics actually draw parallels with Madonna during her True Blue era) have been nominated for…
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As the Phill Kline ethics saga continues, Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC talk show will broadcast live from Free State Brewery in Lawrence tonight. The Lawrence Journal-World reported that the show will be following up on the assassination of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, which Maddow has done an excellent job of covering (see the documentary, “The Assassination of Dr. Tiller”). The…
