Todd Roeth In April, we highlighted Joe Pug’s Daytrotter session, and mentioned how the singer-songwriter broke into the music scene by giving away his tunes to people at his shows. We recently spoke to Pug and asked him about that free music model, how he approaches songwriting, and what inspired him to write the content on his new album, the…
One of Kansas’ own is trying his hand at the rock musical genre and making a rather bloody splash. The project: Femme Assassin Guy. The story is about a musical sensation who uploads perfect-pitch murders to YouTube. We recently e-mailed with Jonah Qwerty, the maliciously delicious character known as Femme Assassin Guy, to find out about the show, and Qwerty’s…
Kansas City’s first vegetarian restaurant, the Unity Inn, started in an old house at 913 Tracy. Last week, Fat City’s Jonathan Bender reported on the opening of Cafe Gratitude in the Crossroads: the vegan restaurant at 333 Southwest Boulevard, a licensed satellite operation of the California restaurants of the same name. The local owners, Natalie and Mike George, have gotten…
A la fellow comedian Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari – the hilarious guy in Parks and Recreation, Scrubs, Human Giant, Funny People and a bunch of other things – is selling his most recent stand-up special, Dangerously Delicious, straight to fans online for $5. He has already moved on to new material, though, which he performs tonight as part of his…
Facebook: Orange Box Orange Box has been open for a month. As chef and caterer Scott Welsch explained yesterday, he’s hoping to be an oasis in the food deserts around the city. Today, the owner of Orange Box (2700 Jarboe) talks about why he won’t eat freshwater fish and what has him trying to sneak into the kitchen at Pho…
Teens who want to tan may not be smiling much longer. Prepare for some pasty kids at junior prom, Missouri. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Political Fix writes that legislation which would require parental consent for anyone 17 years old or younger to get into a tanning bed is headed to the floor of the Missouri Senate. Categories: News Tags: gary…
Call Me Pretty How many other cities have a Dead Texan? We will make them fat and flat and smothered in onions. We’ll give you a triple stack, hash browns, and grilled cheeses for buns. Kansas City isn’t messing around when it comes to burgers. So it’s a little disappointing that the grill jockeys of this city were only deemed…
So you’re the Kansas Department of Revenue and you’ve got to upgrade the system at the Department of Motor Vehicles. That means you have to shut down your website and physical offices for a week as part of a two-phase $40 million plan that will have you repeating these steps this fall. You’re installing new software and hardware to take…
Chef Ray “Pete” Peterman hopes to have his new midtown restaurant, Peanches, open by early June. The first thing restaurateur Ray “Pete” Peterman told me after signing the lease on the former Amor Picante space at 900 West 39th Street was that the canary-yellow interior of the dining room had to go. Nearly two months later, the yellow is gone….
Tennis got into music making like any other indie duo – the musicians caught the bug after a yearlong sailing trip. Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley’s Atlantic voyage inspired them to get all melodic, and upon returning home, the married couple started writing sea-sparked pop songs. The result? Tennis’ debut album, Cape Dory. Tennis’ latest album, Young & Old, includes…
You can grab a stack of naan at this new bakery and restaurant or just sit down and eat a sandwich. The tandoor – traditionally a clay oven used for roasting meats and baking breads – is part of the culinary culture of India (where it’s also known as a bhatti), but also a component of Arabic, Persian, Turkish and…
Venus, the sister planet to Earth, has slowed down. Each night until June 5, you can see her at sunset in the western skies. In the sign of Gemini for the next 2.5 months, we are all under an integrated Humpty Dumpty effect. (Resist any and all temptations to take something or someone apart that you cannot put back together,…
Haus opens Friday in Martini Corner. Chris Seferyn believes that you really need only three things to succeed in the restaurant business: sausages, beer and fries. That’s the premise behind Haus (3044 Gillham Road), the restaurateur’s newest gastropub and biergarten set to open in Martini Corner on Friday. “We’re going to do three things really well. Wurst. Bier. Fritten. This…
It’s a great time to be a good eater in Kansas City. Eat your way through the dishes of more than 20 restaurants at The Pitch’s Taste of Kansas City. The eating and drinking extravaganza is Sunday, May 20, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the KC Live! Block of the Power & Light District. Sample fare from new restaurants like…
John J. Lyman’s house had a secret. Lyman was the Kansas City Chiefs’ photographer for 25 years, and after he died in 2005, at age 90, his two-story Coleman Highlands home overlooking the city fell into disrepair. The basement was full of his old junk: cameras, vinyl records, shelves with liquor bottles from the 1960s. It also had a massive,…
Long-running KC rockabilly road warriors the Rumblejetts have seen their share of lineup changes since they formed in 1997. Drummer Jud Kite has been behind the kit for nine years now. In addition to pounding the skins, he does the majority of the artwork for the band. It’s his work you see adorning the cover to the Rumblejetts’ latest album,…
Brooke Vandever Chef Scott Welsch takes a rare moment to sit in front of his restaurant, Orange Box. Scott Welsch excuses himself and runs outside to make sure the tires of an 18-wheeler don’t crush the newly laid brick walk outside his month-old restaurant, Orange Box. The chef watches the driver carefully execute the turn. His bricks are safe for…
In the cold rain outside the River Roll Skate Center, they talk about Thomas Lyons. “Expresso is why I skate,” James Surrette says, referring to Lyons by his roller-derby name. “He gave me a set of pads and told me to try it out,” adds Rachel Jones, who this season joined the Kansas City Roller Warriors. “I was just a…
Name: Frank Lloyd Roberts (Leonardo DiCaprio impersonator) Occupation: Control-center operator, Clay County Detention Center Hometown: Polo, Missouri Current neighborhood: Lathrop, Missouri Who gave you your big Leonardo DiCaprio break? Mary Kellogg at the Titanic Museum in Branson. That was my first gig. I worked at the museum for one month in July 2009 as Jack Dawson. Then she flew me…
After the personality-free (but huge-grossing) debacle that was Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton’s film adaptation of Dark Shadows — the 1966-71 vampire-driven daytime soap — at least shows signs of the more idiosyncratic and confounding director. The nasty slashes of black humor in Sweeney Todd and the dark orphan wailing in many of Burton’s superior earlier films weave in and…
