Culminating Cinco de Cabot, a week-long fundraiser for the Cabot Westside Health Center, The Roasterie is hosting a Food Truck Fiesta in their back lot. Sample some KC gourmet street food from Good You, 3 Girls Cupcakes and Port Fonda, and wash it down with drinks from The Roasterie and Boulevard. A $5 donation gets you through the door, unlimited…
Here we have all the ingredients for a winter of discontent: physical deformity, jealousy, sibling rivalry, relentless ambition, determination, treachery, Machiavellian gamesmanship, an unexpectedly suave way with the ladies, and a kill-’em-all-and-let-God-sort-it-out mentality that rank Shakespeare’s Richard III among the most diabolical yet undeniably compelling villains. (He’s like Ernst Blofeld with a royal bloodline and no high-tech gadgetry.) Johnson County…
There is a photo floating around of MerleJam organizer Merle Zuel several weeks after his heart transplant. In the poignant image, he sits in a chair, wearing a mask and vinyl gloves, holding his old heart. In the years following his 2007 procedure, the Knuckleheads doorman has demonstrated his gratitude in a very visible and tangible way with the MerleJam…
The area surrounding the old St. Joseph- St. Benedict Catholic Church at Eighth and Vermont in Kansas City, Kansas, used to be known as “Polish Hill” because most of the neighborhood was settled by Polish immigrants. Today, the church is called All Saints Parish and is mostly Hispanic, but everyone gets in the Eastern European spirit when Polski Day festivities…
A collaboration of composers, performers and scientists, Dark Matter is an interactive visual and aural journey through the cosmos. Its latest, completely original production, Orbit, seeks to address the parallels between science and the arts and the effects of technology on society. The 60-foot-tall dome of Union Station’s Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium (30 West Pershing Road, 816-460-2020) is the stage for…
The process of trial and error can be a drag. Over the last few months, the top-notch bar staff and captivating drag performers of Missie B’s (805 West 39th Street, 816-561-0625) have presented various shows on Monday nights (think Grab Bag Cabaret from a few months ago and the Girlie Show that now happens early on Friday evenings), but none…
It’s been about 80 years since big bands became popular. Made up of 10 to 25 musicians, big bands were diverse in sound and style, depending on the leader — from Count Basie’s swing to Duke Ellington’s “American music.” Of course, Kansas City is rife with jazz and big-band sounds. The Abel Ramirez Big Band, one of the largest in…
In 1994, when Bob Marley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jann Wenner, publisher and co-founder of Rolling Stone, called the Rastafarian the “Third World’s first pop superstar.” He left behind a legacy unequaled by any reggae musician: Album of the Century (Exodus, Bob Marley and the Wailers) by Time magazine, Song of the Millennium…
Even for those of us born well after the 1950s, the simple joys of Elvis’ coolness and Marilyn’s hot bod are hard to resist. Find out if you’re a square or a hip cat at the Spirit of Mission Days, a four-day celebration of the 60th anniversary of Mission, Kansas. The festivities kick off on Friday, May 8, with a…
Chef Carl Thorne-Thomsen has long, slender fingers — the kind of fingers not meant to be cramped and bent over a keyboard, hunting and pecking for letters, when they’re capable of wielding a chef’s knife with blinding speed. But he didn’t know that when he was enrolled at Wichita State University, studying to get his MFA in creative writing. He…
Itching to get your hands on some new vinyl? Head out to Waldo on Sunday, May 15, to thumb through albums and singles at the Pop-Up Record Store (2011, at 432 East 73rd Terrace) from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. (or whenever everything sells). Categories: Music Tags: Pop-Up Record Store, vinyl
A crowd of Kansas City Royals nearly reached home plate before Alex Gordon did last night. He was the winning run — brought home on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Francoeur — in a contest with the Baltimore Orioles that once again was decided in the bottom of the ninth. The mob briefly engulfed him before swarming around Francoeur, who…
I’ve never corrected someone at my table for their demeanor toward a server, although I have apologized for the conduct of my table. So the idea of correcting a diner at another table is slightly mortifying to me. But the other night, while watching a woman blame her server for failing to remove cheese from a dish — despite her…
Social Distortion The Beaumont May 3, 2011 I’d like to say Social Distortion hasn’t lost a step — like being the operative word. While the punk institution’s rock and roll is still powerful, and Mike Ness can still hit the notes, all the hits (“Mommy’s Little Monster,” most notably) seemed slowed down a step or two. Even “Sick Boy,” a…
In indie’s electronic landscape, Joe Pug is a man of tradition. His foray into music began not on a laptop but on a simple acoustic guitar. (After all, laptops are fragile and don’t fare well in the boxcars and pickup beds that Pug sounds like he travels in.) Categories: Music Tags: Joe Pug, strand of oaks
It was only a matter of time before Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps would issue a video saying Osama bin Laden is in hell. Yesterday, he cut this video saying as much, saying “the same God who kills the soldiers of doomed America and drops them into hell killed Osama bin Laden and dropped him into hell.” Phelps goes…
For some, spring is essentially bookended by St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo. If you’re looking for cheap drinks, great eats or a bit of actual culture, there’s plenty of options on Thursday, May 5, and this coming weekend. Over on our sister blog, Wayward, Abbie Stutzer put together a round-up of performances, parties and drink specials. Manny’s (207…
A history of the Liberty Memorial Association says the organization “raised” $102 million for the restoration and expansion of the monument that recognizes the sacrifices of World War I veterans. But given the level of public support, “received” might be a more appropriate verb. Researching this week’s feature story, I identified more than $87 million in funding from the city,…
You might not be sold on the idea that competitive eating is a sport, but what if I told you that you could make $218,500? That’s the amount of money that Joey Chestnut — the improbably named eating champion — reportedly earned in 2010. ESPN has compiled a list of the top paid athletes in 30 “sports,” including competitive eating,…
It’s been over a month since Kansas City’s the Architects set out on tour with Jersey’s rock darlings My Chemical Romance. So far, they’ve gone from coast to coast, and crossed international borders, leaving a trail of cigarette ash and whiskey film behind them. We caught up with guitarist Keenan Nichols for some quick updates about life on the road, sold-out…
Local rapper Les Izmore launched his solo project, Beardcrazy, at the Brick this weekend, and he’s still grooving around town with Hearts of Darkness. Now, he has teamed up with producer extraordinaire D/Will and trumpeter Hermon Mehari (who’s hosting a Miles Davis tribute later this month that I, for one, am pretty damn excited about) for this installation of What…
Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, appearing on the ESPN football show Audibles, identified Scott Pioli as the big winner of the NFL draft. Young compared the Chiefs’ first-round pick with a player who has caught 153 touchdowns in his career. “Jonathan Baldwin is the next Terrell Owens,” Young said. “They got Ricky Stanzi in the fifth ; he’s the…
