Archives: August 2012
Kansas City Hacker Homes is couchsurfing for Google Fiberheads
BrianThacker.tv The next business incubator could be on your pull-out couch. That guy who has been living on your couch rent-free these past several months? You might want to start asking him for some stock options. Ars Technica has the story of Kansas City Hacker Homes — a project launched yesterday by local Web developer Ben Barreth to hook up…
KCPD holding ‘Tweet Along’ with East Patrol Division tonight
Concerned citizens and amateur sleuths used to listen to the police band for news of what was happening on a busy Friday night. These days, you can just fire up your Twitter feed. The Kansas City Police Department is holding its third Tweet-along — a virtual ride-along with the East Patrol Division tonight. Members of the department’s media unit will…
Bobcat Goldthwait on Juggalos, the Olympics, and God Bless America
For someone who started out as That Dude with the Crazy Voice, Bobcat Goldthwait has had a long, successful career. He did stand-up in the early ’80s, appeared in character on Letterman and in ’80s classics like Scrooged and three of the Police Academy movies. As he grew out of his character, he turned to a mellower variety of stand-up,…
Season creep means it’s already fall inside your fridge
Flickr: Kuljuls Just get a spoon and have at it. It used to be a big deal in my house when Cadbury creme eggs started showing up in stores. We watched for the first egg — eaten in the parking lot like an urchin in Oliver — and celebrated its arrival as the true coming of spring. Excitement was a…
Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith on jamming with legends and the unknown art of songwriting
Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith formed Dawes in 2009. The band’s Los Angeles ties typically elicit comparisons to other California rock bands, such as the Eagles and Buffalo Springfield. Well, yeah. Dawes draws inspiration from the roots-rock bands of yesteryear. But it doesn’t mimic those classic California sounds. The foursome takes the “rock-and-roll-with-it, man” vibe, and build on it — writing…
Paris of the Plains and other weekend possibilities
Martini Corner Bartenders Brawl is back. Kansas City is reclaiming its nickname of “Paris of the Plains.” The five-year-old Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition has grown into the Paris of the Plains Cocktail Festival, a weeklong celebration of the revitalized cocktail culture in Kansas City. Don’t miss the opening of the Kill Devil Club in the Power & Light District…
Chelsea Wolfe on songwriting, her country-tinged childhood and learning to perform overseas
Chelsea Wolfe benefited from living in a music-filled home. Wolfe garnered musical inspiration from jamming out to R&B music and Fleetwood Mac. She also tinkered around in her father’s at-home music studio. She wrote songs, learned how to use her voice, and played pop covers on a Casio keyboard. Wolfe now creates skeletal songs that are sparse and soulful on…
Some thoughts on Phish and last night’s show at Starlight
Sometime in eighth grade, I bought Rift through one of those buy-twelve-CDs-for-the-price-of-one mail-order clubs, probably Columbia House. This would have been 1995 or 1996. I selected it primarily because I had seen it in an older cousin’s CD collection and — I am trying to be honest here — I was intrigued by the way the band spelled its name:…
Kansas City Command ceases operations
The Command is no more. In February, The Pitch’s Jonathan Bender chronicled the waning professional hopes of Samie Parker as he tried to jump-start his career with the Arena Football League’s Kansas City Command. As is common with minor league teams, the Command itself was sputtering as much as its players. The Business Journal reports now that the Command is…
Boulevard to open Dry Goods Store on the Plaza for the holiday season
Boulevard Boulevard is taking its merch on the road. The Plaza is getting a new tenant for the holidays. The Boulevard Brewing Co. will be opening up a Dry Goods Store at 4703 Broadway in mid-September, selling clothing and barware through January . Highwoods Properties approached the brewery about building an expanded gift-shop concept in the empty retail space on…
Streetcar district taxes to be decided by mail ballot
More mail ballots will decide the streetcar’s fate. Downtown residents will make another major decision about the streetcar taxing district by mail. Earlier this month, downtown voters approved the creation of the transportation development district. Of 6,000 eligible voters, only 474 mailed in ballots, which had to be notarized. The vote was 381 for and 141 against. This week, Mayor…
Sleigh Bells, AraabMuzik, Beats Antique, George Lopez, and other incoming artists
Sleigh Bells This week’s incoming themes: live-ish dance music, eclectic grooves, comedians. Sleigh Bells is stopping in Lawrence this time around. The electro-pop duo will rattle the Granada on Tuesday, October 23. Support from AraabMuzik. Door time for the all-ages show is 7 p.m. Advance tickets are $20. Beats Antique will bring its electro-acoustic, experimental dance (etc., etc.) music to…
House of Worship Protection Act challenged by federal lawsuit
Digital Journal Church and State are once again in court. Church, meet State. A law prohibiting the disruption of worship services in Missouri is set to go into effect next Tuesday. But first it must face a court challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Political Fix reports that the ACLU branch covering eastern Missouri filed…
Johnny Iuzzini hit up the Riot Room, Julian last night
Iuzzini coasted into KC last night. Most of us leave our jobs, pack a set of clothes onto the back of a shiny Ducati, and then set out across the country eating and drinking our way through each city’s finest for Food + Wine magazine. No, that wasn’t how it went when you had that conversation with HR? Last night,…
Is there a vegetarian equivalent to the ground-beef hard-shell taco?
Have you seen this taco at your kitchen table before? Sometimes a meat eater needs to give into his baser instincts and hoover ground-beef hard-shell tacos out of a Styrofoam container on the passenger seat. Driving through the West Bottoms several days ago, I first noticed the sign for Joe’s Deli (1701 W. Ninth St.). Then, I saw its lunch…
Bacon-Fest will let you find your inner pig
Flickr: Ste-Fou That looks like the right ratio of bacon to everything else. Smell that? That’s bacon, and it’s coming to your town. Bacon-Fest, the annual fundraiser for the Rehabilitation Institute of Kansas City, is set for Saturday, August 25. Head to the facility’s parking lot (3010 Main) from 2 to 5 p.m. to munch on bacon dishes from a…
Dee Wallace on healing, horror and Rob Zombie’s new movie
Kansas City’s Dee Wallace creates screen mayhem in Rob Zombie’s Lords of Salem this fall. Actress Dee Wallace — a native of Kansas City, Kansas — gets back to her hometown a couple of times a year, usually quietly for family visits (her younger brother and stepfather still live here) or to teach an acting class or to host a…
Do you judge a restaurant by your fellow diners?
Almost Veggie Houston Do your dining-room companions affect your appetite? Dining out with friends in Kansas City can be a delicate balancing act as one needs to accommodate for picky eaters, dietary restrictions and commuter fatigue (attempting to get folks downtown from Shawnee and vice versa). But a friend the other night gave me her only real rule governing dining…
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