Hey, fast-living libertines! Do you enjoy Missouri’s cheap-ass smokes and lax open-container laws? Then this blog is for you. John Britton is the namesake of John Britton & Associates and has been a force in Jefferson City since his lobbying days began more than 50 years ago. He’s also quite the character, as a recent Time article on Missouri’s notoriously…
This special exhibition draws on the extensive collections of the Museum, including the recent Hauber donation of machine guns and related material. The exhibition will be told from the perspective of the German soldier and his leaders, featuring the machines of war and the men who used them. Most of the objects and documents will be on exhibit for the…
Author Gregory Wolk, the president of Missouri’s Civil War Heritage Foundation, Inc. discusses his new book, A Tour Guide to Missouri’s Civil War, the first comprehensive sesquicentennial driver’s guide to Civil War battlefield sites in Missouri. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, Wolk’s book highlights more than 230 sites and scores of little-known historical…
The Republic of Congo in sub-Saharan Africa is hardly paradise, despite mineral resources worth trillions of dollars. Sexual violence, a byproduct of the continued Hutu-Tutsi civil war that has been going on for years, ravages the country. Playwright Lynn Nottage uses this strife as the basis of her work Ruined, a gripping work that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for…
Gilda’s Club likes to bring big-name comedians to town for the annual Giggle with Gilda fundraiser. This year, the laugh man is Jason Sudeikis, a former Kansas City boy who has starred on Saturday Night Live and in the recent movie Hall Pass. Sat., April 16, 8 p.m., 2011 Tags: Gilda’s Club Worldwide, jason sudeikis, Kansas City, Night & Day,…
Eat your heart out, Betty Crocker. Kansas City ’s mad cake scientist, Mike Elder, is hosting Icing on the Cake, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sheraton Overland Park Hotel (6100 College Boulevard, in Overland Park). It’s a benefit for Newhouse, which offers shelter and services to victims of domestic violence. Beginning at 10 a.m., the cake- and…
The longest of Charlie Chaplin’s numerous romantic entanglements (before he settled down with Oona O’Neill) was his decade-long tryst with actress Paulette Goddard, who enjoyed a prolific film career, including an Oscar nomination for 1943’s So Proudly We Hail! Before parting with Chaplin, she brought heart and fire to the role of Hannah, the beautiful ghetto denizen enamored of a…
When the Adult Swim Carnival came to town last year, folks could participate in ringtoss, get a Mooninite koozie, or spin the Metalocalypse-themed wheel of fortune and win a Squidbillies trucker cap emblazoned with “Breathe If You’re Horny.” In 2011, the carnival — renamed “The Ragbag of Jollification” — promises such exciting diversions as Convict Escape, Flunko and Balloonicorn Blowout….
Imagine the grandest rummage sale of all, devoid of any used computers, mattresses, plumbing fixtures or building supplies but fully stocked with designer clothing, furniture, art, service pieces, pots and pans, books and jewelry — used and new. Surely, a vision of the Pembroke Hill clothesline sale (5121 State Line) has crossed your bargain-bin-centered brain. A 59-year tradition, this communitywide…
Calling all tree-huggers, carrot-juiceheads and weekend composters: The Prairie Village Earth Fair is a place to learn about the latest in energy-conservation technology, sustainability and locally produced food. Expect 50 eco-friendly vendors and local businesses. “We want people to be able to take away things they can do in their own homes and lives to reduce their ecological footprint. That…
Cheerleading has come a long way since the days of sis-boom-bah, matching hair ribbons and vinyl pompoms. Modern-day stunting is complex and high-risk. Remember Southern Illinois University cheerleader Kristi Yamaoka? She suffered a fractured vertebra after hitting her head when she fell from a human pyramid. Carried out on a stretcher, she kept performing her routine. Yeah, she had spirit….
Ladies, do you know your powers? When was the last time you celebrated your beauty and magic? Could you use a little inspiration or a spiritual tuneup to release your inner goddess? Experience your gifts from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Aquarius Books (3936 Broadway, 816-931-6303) when “zentherapist,” yoga instructor, tarot reader and childbirth educator Kaya Hewitt hosts her…
A bunch of investment bankers robbed the Treasury, foreclosed on your home, burned up everybody’s money and went strutting up Main Street in their silken finery. Nobody had jobs or health insurance, and families nibbled on tree bark for sustenance. As a result, completely awesome artistic ventures, such as the 940 Dance Company, are withering for lack of financial support….
Every year, the Lawrence Public Library does its take on the Read Across America challenge. The library’s website describes the Lawrence version — Read Across Lawrence — as “a community-wide reading initiative that gets everyone on the same page by reading the same book at the same time.” This year, readers are tackling Harper Lee’s thought-provoking study of racial inequality,…
In this era of D-list-fame whores, who calculatingly leak sex tapes to TMZ, it’s refreshing to return to a simpler time, when video production was rooted in the unbounded enthusiasm and oblivious sincerity of its practitioners (who were often clueless about how funny/pathetic/creepy/goofy they were). Curator-hosts Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett govern their Found Footage Festival by two rules: (1)…
Stand-up comedy is a rough business that entails lengthy tours connecting obscure towns, seedy exit-ramp motels, and gigs at strip-mall venues with names like the Laff Factory Outlet and T.J. McYuckYucks. There are a number of paths to the top, including (1) Ed Hardy T-shirts and a watered-down Louis C.K. impression (see: Dane Cook), (2) shouting stolen Bill Cosby jokes…
