Flickr: daniel.richardson0685 Google Maps can’t tell you everything. It’s one thing to know your way home. It’s another to know whether that’s the right route in a storm. The Missouri Department of Transportation has an interactive map with updated conditions and can send you text alerts about road closures or incidents impacting your drive. The Kansas Department of Transportation offers…
Sabrina Staires Bobby Baker has left the lounge. On the night of his retirement party, at the bar he’d named after himself, 66-year-old Bobby Baker was busing tables. It wasn’t heavy work yet – the room hadn’t quite filled up. At the bar, people were watching Baylor’s football team pull out a surprise win over Kansas State. In the back…
Yes The Midland announced two shows YESterday (get it?). Yes will perform at the venue on March 18, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 21, at 10 a.m. And Diana Krall will perform at the Midland on May 1, at 8 p.m. Tickets also go on sale this Friday. A few other shows that were recently…
Forester Michael Last month, Arthur Jack Seume, the newborn son of local singer-songwriter David Seume and his wife, Kelly, died. Recently, David Seume wrote about the heartbreaking tragedy, and about making sense of the senseless through art, on his blog, which you can read here. He has also recorded a new song, “All I Have to Give,” which you can…
Clark’s will be serving lunch in January…we hope. Last August, Fat City reported that the Clark family – Dr. Granville Clark and his sons, Robert and Joseph – were very close to opening a new restaurant, Clark’s American Caribbean Restaurant, in the spot vacated by Royal Kabob King and New Tandoor Cafe at 3623 Broadway. It’s still not open. “We’ve…
Name: Anita Cordell Occupation: Real-estate agent, actress Hometown: Leavenworth, Kansas Current neighborhood: Shawnee Who or what is your sidekick? My husband. He has been a fan of mine since before we even dated and has been a supporter, as best he can, in my endeavors. Although he is unable to attend most events or sets, he is there in spirit…
Like Hope Springs earlier this year, The Guilt Trip sets out to explore an estranged familial relationship without sensationalizing it. That’s a promising idea, and the strained ties that bind Barbra Streisand’s overprotective mother to Seth Rogen’s petulant inventor are interesting enough to sustain a movie. Sadly, The Guilt Trip is not that movie. Rogen’s Andrew Brewster is all that…
Jack Reacher opens with a horrific scene of carnage, as a sniper takes out a number of random civilians in downtown Pittsburgh. It’s a moment that many will find even more troubling in the wake of the recent Newtown shootings. But give Christopher McQuarrie’s film some credit: The scene is portrayed with an appropriate sense of its own monstrosity. The…
“You’ve made me Garfunkel!” Pete yells. “I don’t even know what that means!” Debbie answers. He means she’s the smart one, the songwriter, the Paul Simon — the one who can do without a partner, an Art Garfunkel, when the harmony sours. That’s the point Paul Rudd’s character tries to make to his onscreen wife, played by Leslie Mann, as…
The last time Kool Keith performed in Kansas City, at Czar in April 2011, the Bronx rapper did not bring along a DJ. The music tracks backing his rhymes reportedly came from a guy pushing the tiny circular buttons on a Sony Discman that was hooked up to an amplifier. That struck me as pretty hilarious when I heard it…
Lester Dupree is out to save your soul — and make a mean living doing it. In his new play, Ron Simonian plays the pastor in a portrayal that mimics televangelists and their money-raking techniques. Yet The Soul Collector, at the Unicorn Theatre, falls short of satire or parody. Despite multiple targets — an invasive religious right, a combative and…
The Independence City Council potentially derailed a plan to operate a new animal shelter in the city. On Monday, December 17, it voted 6–1 to delay making a decision on an agreement to pay Jackson County to subcontract with Great Plains SPCA to operate a new $5.3 million shelter. Council members and residents raised concerns about several parts of the…
They call Portland Soccer City, but I don’t agree with that. I think Kansas City is Soccer City.” The man speaking is Brian Budzinski, owner of the Missouri Comets, the indoor soccer team that plays at the Independence Events Center. And he has a new reason to believe that he’s right. Budzinski and his business partners, in an ownership group…
Feeling burned out on a 2011 tour with his iconic emo group, the Get Up Kids, Matt Pryor did the natural thing: He started another group. Along with keyboardist Dustin Kinsey, who currently plays in Pryor’s other other band, the New Amsterdams, Pryor set out to piece together an ensemble with little resemblance to the bands and releases of which…
The Hips Replay Records just put out a split 7-inch with a song apiece from Lawrence acts Hospital Ships and the Hips. It is fucking excellent, and you should totally pick it up. If I’m not mistaken, it’s also the first official-ish thing the Hips have released, even though they’ve been playing together around Lawrence for almost two years. The…
When Parkville restaurateur Kevin Heaton — probably best known for his Stone Canyon Pizza, on the riverfront hamlet’s main drag — took over the vacated Agave Mexican Grill & Cantina last spring, he turned the mediocre Parkville Commons venue into a cozy saloon serving craft beer and burgers. Beer and burgers are what most local taverns — or saloons or…
To ceramic artist Linda Lighton, lots of things in this man-made world — emphasis on man — look like penises. Guns and bullets, for sure, but also gas-pump handles, lipstick and even shampoo bottles. There’s nothing especially shocking about this, given that she’s hardly the lone observer of this phenomenon and given that she has been at it for a…
Jaimie Warren The old R Bar is becoming the new Voltaire. Six months ago, Fat City reported that Wes Gartner and Jill Myers, the owners of 11-year-old Moxie Catering, had leased the R Bar location, at 1617 Genessee in the West Bottoms, from the building’s owner (and former R Bar operator) Joy Jacobs and planned to move the catering business…
The Rusty Horse Tavern is restaurateur Kevin Heaton’s latest concept, and this time he’s focused on craft burgers and beer in Parkville. Photos by Angela C. Bond.
Sporting Kansas City announced today that it had signed Ecuadorian and Argentinian striker Claudio Bieler, who just wrapped up the season as the second highest goal scorer in Ecuador’s top league. The 28-year-old is leaving the club LDU Quito, where he owns the team record for career goals with 71 in 155 games. This is good news even for the…
It’s coming! It’s really coming! The Merriam City Council gave its unanimous approval Monday to the planned Ikea at the Johnson Drive exit off Interstate 35. Today the Swedish furniture manufacturer released a statement saying that construction will begin next summer, and the store will start selling brightly colored home furnishings and meatballs in the fall of 2014. Stubby golf…
