If you prefer your musical satire driven by an anti-hero, then you know “The Ballad of Mack the Knife.” The song opens German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill’s most durable collaboration, The Threepenny Opera, the still-vital 1928 work now onstage at the Lawrence Arts Center in a well-executed, enjoyable production. Brecht and Weill took as their template an…
Henrik Ibsen had a thing for trapped women, and in 19th-century Norway, the limits of social station left many women feeling trapped. Ibsen’s access to the female psyche still feels insightful today. His 1889 play, The Lady From the Sea, remains a layered, absorbing work about relationships and yearning, one that zeroes in on an entirely different sort of woman’s…
Think politics are lie-filled, money-driven and negative now? Go back a couple of centuries and 38 presidents and ask Andrew Jackson — or, anyway, the rock-star version of Old Hickory portrayed in the Unicorn Theatre’s Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Those wealthy New England Congress fucks would rather tax us and play polo all day than defend the frontier, this Jackson…
Luka Magnotta is a small-time porn actor who is being held on charges that he killed and dismembered Lin Jun, his lover, then mailed Jun’s body parts to government offices and elementary schools in Canada. He was captured in Berlin after an international manhunt. Magnotta has also been accused of torturing and killing kittens, then posting video evidence online. Pussy…
Sonic Spectrum Tribute to the Ramones Pretty much everybody who plays guitar can play Ramones songs, so in terms of skill level, there’s not a tremendous barrier to performing for a Ramones tribute. It’s more about energy and attitude — isn’t that what they always say about punk music? — and the locals whom organizer Robert Moore has assembled to…
The powder-blue bus, its red octagon stop sign altered to read SHOP, towers above a handful of table displays. In this restaurant lot, artists sell their creations: quirky jewelry, retro clothing, apple pie (the fruit picked from a local tree, the dessert from a family recipe, of course), jars of old-school collectibles such as red-plastic cowboys and Indians. It is,…
The story of the Woodswether Café should be as simple as a plate of eggs and bacon. But a restaurant is always more complicated than that. Woodswether started life in the 1990s as a modest West Bottoms diner, popular with truck drivers and blue-collar workers. Because it was stationed on curvy, hard-to-find Woodswether Road, it was painted with an outrageous…
At first look, you might think that Katherine Perryman picks her materials based not on what they look like but what they do — or what she suspects they might do. Playfulness and unpredictability form the basis of her methods. She’s confident enough to allow her materials to take over by choosing forms that highlight the ways those materials behave…
Flickr: chase.reeves It wasn’t just one ring to rule them all. It was an onion ring — a fact the Hobbits were soon to discover on their way through the ramparts of Kansas City. “What about breakfast?” whines Pippin, his foot drumming a beat against the back of the driver’s seat. “You’ve already had it,” Aragorn replies, gripping the steering…
Singer Claudio Sanchez has some health issues with his throat and has canceled a bunch of dates. The band was playing as part of 96.5 the Buzz’s Halloweenie Roast, which has been rescheduled for Thursday, November 29, also at the Midland. That show will still include Coheed and Cambria, the Dear Hunter, and Three. If you bought Halloweenie Roast tickets,…
If Rube Goldberg were interested in campaign finance reform, he might have built the Amend-O-Matic. In an effort to call attention to corporate political influence derived from campaign contributions, the Move to Amend Coalition, with support from Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen, is touring the country in a truck nicknamed the “stamp mobile.” The Amend-O-Matic will be in front…
He won’t be taking you out to mini golf or for a big bowl of ice cream, but Frank White is finally ready to talk about the divorce. The Royals’ great will sit down for a conversation with Bill Althaus of the Independence Examiner, his co-author of a new book, One Man’s Dream: My Town, My Team, My Time, at…
The next generation of backyard-barbecue enthusiasts won’t be debating pellets or wood chunks; they’ll be arguing over Android or iPhone. Silicon Prairie News writes about Tappecue, a new app in development (and on Kickstarter), that monitors the temperature of what you’re smoking with a series of probes. Those probes then send signals to your smartphone/tablet with updates on time and…
We wrote a bit about AraabMuzik in print this week. Have a listen to one of his tracks, “Runaway Bass.” And, if you’re interested, you can download Araabmuzik’s remix of tourmate Sleigh Bells’ “Never Say Die.” See AraabMuzik open for Sleigh Bells tonight, October 23, at the Granada. The all-ages show is $20 in advance. Door time is 7 p.m….
The surveillence videos from the Hereford House comprise key evidence in the trial of Rod Anderson, Vincent Pisciotta and Mark Sorrentino. Rod Anderson For more than two decades, tall and jovial Rod Anderson was the very public face — in print ads, on the radio, on TV — of the iconic Hereford House restaurants. And for years, most diners assumed…
Was it a gaffe or a lame joke? Does it really matter? It’s the campaign that keeps getting stranger. Rep. Todd Akin attracted more controversy and ire this weekend by comparing Sen. Claire McCaskill with a dog who goes to Washington to fetch regulations and higher taxes. That could have simply been a questionable choice of an analogy and a…
The three terminals at KCI could be off the runway. The three-terminal system at Kansas City International Airport has come with trade-offs, and now it may be due for a trade-in. The Kansas City Aviation Department is looking into replacing the three terminals with a $1.2 billion multistory single terminal, which could potentially open in 2016. The overhaul is based…
Angela C. Bond Esquina is getting a new look, menu and owner. Something new is once again coming to the corner at 801 Massachusetts. Esquina, the Spanish-influenced restaurant from Robert and Molly Krause and Simon and Cody Bates, has been sold. The two-year-old Lawrence restaurant, which began with a nuevo Latino concept — killer tacos sold at a counter —…
Scofflaws can find redemption this week. The Kansas City Public Library’s Food for Fines program — in which each canned good you bring to a library branch earns you $1 off your overdue fines — starts today and runs through Sunday, October 28. The program is a partnership with Harvesters: The Community Food Network. All Kansas City library branches will…
U.S. Chess Trust Rex Sinquefield is making moves in statewide races. To Missourians, St. Louis-based political donor and activist Rex Sinquefield is ubiquitous for fueling campaigns and political pet projects with buckets of his own cash. He was the guy trying to outlaw Kansas City’s and St. Louis’ earnings taxes in 2010. Perhaps it was only a matter of time…
