Archives: September 2012
Jennifer Helber opens Grain to Glass in the River Market
It’s beer central at Grain to Glass. Chef Boyardee mini ravioli, soy milk, Cascade hops: Market 3 (114 West Third Street) has everything a bachelor, a downtown lunch-break shopper — or a homebrewer — could want. Tucked in a back corner of the River Market grocery is Grain to Glass, Jennifer Helber’s month-old supply shop for home beer makers. “I’m…
Listen before the show: Swans (show tonight at Beaumont Club with Xiu Xiu)
So, you like bands that blow out speakers and, perhaps, a few eardrums during a set? Well, then, you’ll love Swans’ show at the Beaumont tonight (Wednesday). Doubt my analysis? Heed our music editor’s thoughts, or download Swans’ “The Apostate.” Need more? Watch the band perform “No Words/No Thoughts” live, below: Categories: Music Tags: Swans, Xiu Xiu
Who Killed Joe Loehr? Searching for answers in a homeless camp homicide
Joe Loehr’ last hours were spent at this camp. Joe Loehr was killed somewhere out here. His killer has no name yet, and the scene of the crime has no address. Beyond East Front Street where it crosses North Kansas Avenue, and across a levee that runs along the Missouri River, four deer bound through a clearing between two thickets….
The Pitch’s Questionnaire with Liberty Restoration Project executive director Megan Westenhaver
Photo by Sabrina Staires Name: Megan Westenhaver Occupation: Liberty Restoration Project executive director, preschool teacher Hometown: Kearney, Missouri Current neighborhood: Edwardsville, Kansas Who or what is your sidekick? I am absolutely never without a pad of paper and a pen. I take notes on practically everything because I am constantly learning new things from new people. What was the last…
The Master
God drew a TKO against capitalism in There Will Be Blood, whose Daniel Plainview then clubbed religion to death for good measure. So much for the Old Testament, Paul Thomas Anderson-style. Writer-director Anderson’s The Master returns to the desert to unearth the New Testament. In an echo of Blood’s silver-mine prologue, two men carry shovels through a canyon to the…
Streetside: Suiting up for an evening at Garment House, a new private club
So there is a new private club downtown, at the corner of 10th Street and Broadway, in the basement below the event space Club 1000. It’s called Garment House and it’s open only 10 hours a week: from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Membership is free, but the cover every night is $40 ($35 for women). Once…
The Happier at Home author, Gretchen Rubin, talks domestic security
Gretchen Rubin found her happiness in New York City. But the Kansas City native returns Thursday to dish on what it takes to be happier anywhere, particularly in your nest. Happier at Home, Rubin’s best-selling new memoir, follows up her 2009 hit, The Happiness Project. Rubin, who as a biographer has examined the lives of famous political figures, trains her…
Searching for Sugar Man subject Rodriguez has found a late spotlight
Like a lot of young singer-songwriters in the early 1970s, Detroit’s Sixto Diaz Rodriguez had reason to think he would make it big. He recorded two albums (billed simply as Rodriguez), singing his vivid, clever lyrics in a gentle, distinctive voice. The songs were good, but success didn’t arrive. Despite the enthusiasm of his producers and his label, neither 1970’s…
Music Forecast September 20-26
Midwestern Audio CD-Release Party Midwest Music Foundation, the local-music-scene-supporting nonprofit, has recently put together Midwestern Audio Volume 1, a double-CD compilation that includes songs from more than 40 local acts. This show celebrates the release with sets from five of the bands featured on it. The lineup is nice and diverse: ambient emo from Everyday/Everynight, cheeky indie-pop from Antennas Up,…
Hammerspace is the maker movement’s local HQ
Jordie Smith’s wings aren’t working. He crosses his arms, lets a short pop of breath leak from his lips. The four thin, black carbon rods that he has attached to a headless mannequin, via an elaborate thorax of gears and pulleys, are supposed to spin in figure eights. They make up the centerpiece of a woman-sized-wasp Halloween costume that Smith…
Marv’s Original Delicatessen reaches for authenticity in Leawood
Kansas City needs a great deli. There hasn’t been a real deli in the city since Jim Holzmark closed the venerable New York Bakery & Delicatessen on Troost three years ago. (I’m snobby enough not to count the Texas-based Jason’s Deli chain, which has a couple of local outposts, as a legitimate delicatessen; it’s an upscale sandwich shop that serves…
Blowfly is at RecordBar tonight!
From the you-may-not-be-aware file: R&B raunch legend Clarence Reid, aka Blowfly, is at Recordbar. Tonight. Tuesday. That is all. Categories: Music
The Empty Spaces offer kisses for a quarter in their new video
holidaysareniceandwarm from Micki Hadley on Vimeo. We reviewed the new Empty Spaces EP, Party Line, in last week’s issue. Here we have a video for the EP’s catchiest track, “Holidays Are Nice and Warm.” Directed by Micki Hadley, it’s the story of three young men’s quest to sell kisses for $0.25 around Westport. I think. Either way, it’s a fun…
The Tambourine Club, ‘Summertime’ (video)
The Tambourine Club – Summertime from Danny Joe Gibson – Artist on Vimeo. Today we bring you a new video that visual artist Danny Gibson has made for “Summertime,” a breezy new folk-psych jam from local bedroom-pop guy Brian Lammano, aka The Tambourine Club. The video is weird in a Flaming Lips type of way — shaky and shot from…
Kansas and Missouri obesity rates projected to double by 2030
Flickr: colros Rascals do get great gas mileage. Missourians and Kansans might want to invest in some awls. A report released today by Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation forecasts that both Kansas and Missouri will rank in the top 10 of obese adults by 2030. The findings in F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens…
What’s the best bun for burgers?
Don’t you dare say sesame seed bun. The nice thing about burgers getting the upscale treatment is that we’ve started to put the same level of thought into the bun as the burger that resides within. Bon Appetit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport got Twitters’ buttons aflutter Sunday night when he suggested that the brioche bun for burgers was one of the…
Obama will be on the ballot in Kansas
Flickr:joebeone President Obama’s name will be on ballots in Kansas this year. You have to wonder if Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer woke up Saturday, fired up their Twitter and RSS feeds and then decided to hit the snooze button. Schmidt and Colyer (two of the three members of the State Objections Board) weren’t in…
ZZ Top, Gwar, Dethklok, Hammerween, and other incoming shows
Gwar For those who want to celebrate Halloween early: The pre-Hammerween show will take place at the Replay on Friday, October 5. Hammerlord will play the 21-and-older show. Show time is 10 p.m., and cover is $3. The Beaumont will host the main event on Saturday, October 20. On this year’s bill: Hammerlord, with Troglodyte, At the Left Hand of…
Dairy Queen at 85th and Wornall has closed
Flickr: meddygarnet Pour a little cookie dough out on the ground. There are fewer blizzards in the world today. The Dairy Queen at 434 West 85th Street, in the fish-scented shadow of Long John Silver’s, has closed. To the young woman behind the counter who once told me not to order that hot dog, I tip my novelty sundae baseball…
Scenes from the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival, this past weekend in Winfield, KS (Photos)
Zach Bauman This year’s Winfield bluegrass festival was as dirty, boozy and joyful as ever. Over 10,000 attendees show up every year to partake in the competitions, camping, festival food-ing and pervasive sense of musical community. Happy to have gone, but my liver might need the year to recuperate. Click through for some photos by Zach Bauman. Categories: Music Tags:…
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