Barry Anderson is known for his bright, colorful video works: bars and diagonals and bubbles, light-rich abstractions that act as moving collages. His art features regularly in group exhibitions around the country and is in a number of museum and private collections, and recently he has collaborated with bands such as the U.K.’s Written in Waters, making abstract videos for…
There was a time, and it was not that long ago, when the promise of a free meal was enough to persuade people to accompany me to just about any event, no matter how stupid. But lately, everybody seems to have a little more money and a lot less time. My offers are now regularly declined. Nobody wants to hang…
The Living Room’s electric revival of Hurlyburly caps a spring theater season that has hummed with masculine energy. Director Bryan Moses’ production exposes a male angst so manic and so thick that you picture the stage crew hosing testosterone off the walls after every performance. David Rabe’s unwieldy endurance test of a play follows four 1980s film-industry professionals and the…
The hard-driving, in-your-face, contemporary jazz of the Jazz Disciples (Gerald Dunn on sax, Everett Freeman on piano, Bill McKemy on bass and Michael Warren on drums) anchors a couple of the Blue Room’s most popular monthly shows. This Saturday night, the Jazz Disciples are joined by Book of Gaia, a sharp ensemble featuring three of Kansas City’s finest jazz singers:…
Those tuned in to the local club scene in the 1990s will remember Ray Velasquez. In addition to hosting Nocturnal Transmissions, a Saturday-night, electronic-music program on the much-loved Lawrence station KLZR (the Lazer) 105.9, Velasquez was a pioneering DJ at venues in KC and Lawrence from 1983 until 1999, when he moved to New York City. There, he has kept…
Cheap Trick The power-pop pride of Rockford, Illinois, is still touring 40 years into its career. Cheap Trick knows no other way — or, at least, its members have no other marketable skills. It ain’t the same as it once was. Singer Robin Zander appeared on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno a few weeks ago, puttering around the microphone…
November 12, 1972, marked the middle of a terrifying 32-hour jet hijacking, one of the more remarkable such air-industry ordeals in U.S. history. A trio of hijackers, one of them a prison escapee, commandeered a Southern Airways DC-9 leaving Alabama with 27 passengers and four crew members. At one point, they threatened to crash the plane into a nuclear-weapons plant…
Burt Bacharach turned 85 this month but did almost nothing to lighten his still hectic schedule. When The Pitch contacted the producer-composer-pianist by phone, he was about to leave a New York hotel to catch a flight, on to the next event. It has been this way for him since the late 1950s, when the Kansas City native launched a…
If the entirety of the nitro-burning delirium that is Fast & Furious 6 were just Gina Carano fighting Michelle Rodriguez, it would be the best movie of the year — a new-millennium Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, something nobody’s been able to deliver since Russ Meyer died. Regrettably, though, Furious 6 comes loaded with a bunch of other intrigue — something…
“There are not four Korean restaurants in Kansas City,” said a friend of mine who is something of an expert in the cuisine of the Korean peninsula. “There are seven.” My mind scanned the places I knew: Choga Korean Restaurant, Chung’s Rainbow Restaurant, Chosun Korean BBQ, Sobahn. Where were the others? How had I missed them? My friend explained that…
The former bandstand at the R Bar in the West Bottoms is now a quiet gathering space. It’s been a long time – decades, maybe – since you gathered up your favorite vinyl records and hauled them anywhere (except a secondhand store in order to get rid of them). Now there’s a venue in Kansas City where you can eat,…
The Antichrist Superstar returns. Alice Cooper was a sort of shock-rock pioneer in the 1970s. Marilyn Manson took up the mantle in the 1990s. Today, neither performer seems very scary, but they both still have plenty of devotees. They’re linking up this summer for the Masters of Madness Tour, which hits Cricket Wireless Amphitheater in about a month, on Thursday,…
Bishop Robert Finn faces two new civil lawsuits. Just one week after the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph settled a $600,000 civil lawsuit with a family swept up in the diocese’s child-pornography scandal, it faces two new suits. A lawyer representing two Missouri girls filed civil suits Tuesday against the diocese, Bishop Robert Finn (who already pleaded guilty to…
Monday Night Raw may have just been in Kansas City, but the WWE’s biggest weekly television show is returning to the Sprint Center on October 14 for another live go-round on the USA Network. Tickets went on sale for the return date as Monday’s show played out. (After the jump, find out how to buy them.) Categories: News Tags: CM…
Big Rip Brewing Co. Collins (left) and Feldt are the duo behind KC’s newest brewery. Josh Collins flips open the lid of a white 5-gallon bucket to reveal the lustrous red juice inside. “This is what we got from 60 pounds of organic raspberries and three hours with a juicer,” he says. “Our first juicer broke, so we just fired…
Me gusta Yo La Tengo. Big surprise: Fade, the latest Yo La Tengo record, its 13th, is another gorgeous batch of gently fuzzy, melodic pop songs. (The moment when the strings come in on the chorus of “Is That Enough” is among the most pleasurable things I’ve heard on an album so far this year.) Missteps are rare for the…
Photo by Sabrina Staires Name: Courtney Cole Occupation: Executive director, Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus Hometown: Excelsior Springs Current neighborhood: Elms Boulevard in Excelsior Springs Who or what is your sidekick? My 5-year-old daughter, Mackenzie What career would you choose in an alternate reality? I would be a professional political activist … oh, wait, that’s what I am. What…
Could a big box store like Walmart save Citadel Plaza? In the retail industry, there’s an old adage that “retail follows rooftops.” Which means: Retail stores such as Walmart and Target open in places where people already live, and where they expect those with good earning prospects to move in the future. But a consultant hired by Kansas City, Missouri,…
After more than three years serving fried chicken, neck bones and sweet-potato pie, the DelHi Buffet has closed. Fast Pitch reader Chris Whitmore arrived at the DelHi Southern Cuisine Buffet, the family-owned soul-food restaurant at 8055 State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, a little too late. It was closed – for good. “The website and Facebook page are still up,”…
File A fired employee goes back to work at Wolf Creek There’s more bad news this week surrounding the closest nuclear reactor to Kansas City after regulators determined that a contractor for the Wolf Creek Generating Station was fired in retaliation for calling out unsafe practices there. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on May 15 published an order to…
The suspicious package caused Union Station to be evacuated. Police have cleared the scene at Union Station, where a suspicious package was discovered earlier today. The Star reports that the package was found at 7:30 this morning. The police blocked off all traffic from Pershing Road, which runs directly in front of Union Station, between Main Street and Kessler Road,…
Flickr: Kennymatic Pink boxes are only 10 hours away. Let’s call this one the Powerball question. Should you luck into a pot of money and be able to convince a given restaurant to franchise or simply relocate, what eatery (be it chain or single shop) are you bringing in from out-of-town? This week, Charles Ferruzza looked at the best local…
