By now, almost everybody has seen the video of Osama bin Laden sitting around his compound wrapped up like a homeless man watching himself on television. In the video, bin Laden channel surfs for a while before settling on a C-SPAN-looking network showing coverage of the U.S. Senate. Apparently presiding over the chamber that day was a blond senator, but…
We budget pinchers here at Wayward love free shows. But it’s even more exciting when some of the area’s best musicians offer up the rare treat to see them play for free, and that’s just what the Caves will be doing this Thursday at the Union in Westport. The Caves will be joined by Mat Shoare of Everyday/Everynight, who will…
Robert Ebert is an American institution. He has brought film criticism into the mainstream, he has won a Pulitzer and, in the words of Forbes magazine, he is perhaps the most important film pundit in the country. So how did the venerable wordsmith express his reaction to the Star downsizing its longtime film critic using only 140 characters or less?…
The acting, music, direction and special effects of movies have long been critiqued and rated. But incredibly, considering how obsessed Hollywood has become with telling the story of chefs, the food stars of movies have avoided the judgment table. Handsome Donkey has sought to rectify this with a YouTube tribute to the “greatest movie sandwiches.” The video falls short in…
Last year marked the first annual KC Uncovered, in which five different local bands covered five other local bands’ tunes. (You can read our music feature about it here.) Now, the event is back for its second incarnation on Friday, May 27, at Press Bar at Crosstown Station. The participating bands are Cherokee Rock Rifle, the Rumblejetts, Roman Numerals, Dollar…
Huzzah to Lawrence, Kansas’, Hospital Ships (and Lawrence in general): NPR recently featured the Lawrence band and said, “It’s the ability to meld optimism and despair that makes Hospital Ships so winning.” The news website gave high praise to the Lawrence music scene, too. Here are some other music-related items: Categories: Music Tags: Everyday/Everynight, hospital ships, the Gaslight
If peanut butter and jelly stand for what is good in mixing flavors, there is an anti-PB&J out there. That one singular flavor combination that, whether created by accident or intentionally, is mouth-puckeringly bad. It’s Fish-Chocolate or Sausage-Flan if a new campaign for dishwashing liquid, Ayudin, is to be believed . And while I have no doubt that the guys…
Whenever anyone I know mentions fear over the crime rate in this town, there’s a common thread. They aren’t ever worried about personal safety because of the criminals’ willingness to be violent, and talk of how race and class factor into the equation is almost never included. No, most of my friends allow themselves to get worried because Kansas City’s…
Cookies aren’t complicated. The same principle has always determined whether you’re making a great cookie: Is the batter worthy of licking the bowl? As the supermarket becomes some version of an extreme cookie showdown — Nabisco is apparently test-marketing a Triple Double Oreo with three cookie wafers and two fillings — it’s time to get back to the classics. And…
You heard correctly. Tune-Yards didn’t make the Jackpot show Friday evening. Merrill Garbus canceled because of a family emergency (at least that’s what I think one of Here We Go Magic’s band members said). The show was still just as quirky without Garbus’ crazy tuneage, though. The first set was experimental and jammy. Really jammy. Two young men (I’m assuming…
Kansas lawmakers made the Sunflower State a national laughingstock yet again in March when legislators balked at repealing the sodomy statute. Even though the law is unconstitutional and a petty, mean-spirited slap in the face to every homosexual Kansan paying state taxes, lawmakers refuse to take it off the books, saying it’s not actually being enforced. True, the cops might…
Kansas City champion air guitarist Eric “Mean” Melin organized an air-guitar flash mob to break out in the street outside the America: Now and Here exhibit during First Friday. See the video above. Also, check out this week’s Pitch to read all about the air-guitar army that Melin has built for May 19’s U.S. Air Guitar Kansas City Regional showdown…
America’s unsettled psyche, post-9/11, inspired New York City painter and sculptor Eric Fischl to begin his largest collaborative project to date: America: Now and Here. “Anxiety was pervasive and toxic. We quit believing in ourselves,” he says. Tonight marks the official opening of the multimillion-dollar, multidisciplinary, community-and-family-friendly show, which brings together poets, musicians, visual artists, playwrights and composers from across…
As if you needed another reason to call a cab when you’re wasted, the Olathe Police Department has spiced up the boring old DUI checkpoint. Drunken Kansans trying to drive home no longer must merely have to keep sharp eyes out for checkpoint signs and officers wielding breathalyzers. That’s far too easy. Last night, the tricky Olate PD set up…
Reservations are still available for Mother’s Day brunch on Sunday at the five-day-old 119th Street Diner in Olathe. Fat City first reported on this venue in March, when Scott Buescher, vice president of development at Price Brothers real estate, told us that the short-lived Domo Japanese restaurant and grill was out and that executive chef and co-owner Pat Legler and…
The countdown to Judgment Day is on (as I showed you via this billboard). Wha? You don’t believe the seal saying “the Bible guarantees it”? Then maybe you’ll believe Family Church president Harold Camping. He’s the guy behind the billboards, and former Pitch writer and current SF Weekly managing editor Alan Scherstuhl interviewed him. Camping says God has provided proof…
Saturday is one of the finest days of the year: Free Comic Book Day. From the looks of it, there are a lot of cool comics being given away this year (check out a preview here). As for where to get ’em, six local shops are participating in this year’s Free Comic Book Day. Clint’s Comics (3941 Main, KCMO) Brute…
%{}% Kansas Jayhawk fans would probably like to forget the 2009 feud/fight between the university’s football and basketball players. But first, Guy Lipscomb has to finish his anger-management classes. The 21-year-old, who wasn’t a KU student, has until May 17 to finish the classes as part of a diversion agreement that he reached after threatening to shoot two women, the…
When the McGriddle arrived in 2003, I said nothing. What’s the harm in a pancake sandwich? But that one sweet-savory meat pile opened the floodgates to sandwiches composed of breakfast items. And nearly a decade later, we’re facing the waffle-ing. Now, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t taken a waffle and made a makeshift sandwich out of eggs…
Under a cheeky stage moniker, popularly rendered as tUnE-yArDs, Merrill Garbus practices the art of obtaining the most sound possible through the least amount of hardware. In 2009, Garbus self-released her debut album, Bird-Brains — or BiRd-BrAiNs — on recycled cassettes before she was picked up by 4AD (the National, Iron and Wine). The album, which was recorded solely on…
Few things are more beautiful than the aching croon of pedal steel. In fact, John McKenna and Sara Swenson are so bewitched by the sound, they’ve curated an entire show devoted to the instrument. The first annual Steel Show at the Brick includes cameos from Darryl Logue (of Rex Hobart and the Honky Tonk Standards), Mike Stover (of Dead Voices)…
How many political punks does it take to change a light bulb? None: Political punks will never change anything. So goes the joke, right? The members of Kansas City’s Bent Left traffic in politically charged pop-punk with songs like “Application for Federal Assistance,” but they’re trying to prove that punks can change things with Recycled Rockstar’s Spring Invitational. Half of…
