Chicken biryani, spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and ginger, has been added to the Basha menu. Although their Overland Park restaurant, The Basha Mediterranean Cuisine at 7016 West 105th Street, is only six months old, restaurateurs Mohammed Mosley and Nader Shehata are starting to make a few changes. But getting a liquor license is not one of them. Customers have asked…
If you’re still reeling from last night’s Breaking Bad finale (like I am), here’s a little fix to get you by in this post-blue-meth world: a mock Twinkies comic-book ad featuring meth-making kings Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Artist Brendan Tobin created the ad as a take off the old Hostess ads that featured superheroes eating tasty snack cakes. It’s…
The Buzz Beach Ball on Friday drew an incredibly large crowd – a bit too large, really, if we’re being honest, given the hourlong traffic negotiation to get from downtown to Berkley Riverfront Park (normally just a seven-minute commute) and the horrifyingly congested parking situation. Still, there is hardly a more picturesque location for a music festival, and the lineup…
Angela C. Bond One of the last great independently owned restaurants on the Plaza, Starker’s, has closed. A restaurant fixture on the Country Club Plaza for over 40 years, Starker’s Restaurant (201 West 47th Street), has closed. The venue has had many ups and downs since 1972, some of them literal: In the early 1980s, a renovation turned founding owner…
Some day not long ago – we’re not sure when – an unidentified young man and his nameless father took a stroll through the Overland Park Arboretum, taking in the bucolic setting on display in one of the Kansas City area’s few natural treasures. The scene seemed like a peaceful one, with only crickets and a gentle breeze breaking the…
Kansas City’s local music scene is far from static, but it’s always encouraging to catch new local acts with the potential to make some sound waves. At RecordBar Friday night, opening art-pop group Field Day Dreams put in a wild-card bid for the crowd’s attentions, even if a couple of the musicians seemed better known for slinging hamburgers than blending…
This is Marina Shifrin. She quit her job at Next Media Animation, the Taiwanese animator that makes those crazy, funny (and oftentimes disturbing) videos, with a video of her own. The video has gone viral because who doesn’t love watching someone quit a job while dancing to Kanye West’s “Gone.” (Watch her impressive dancing after the jump.) Shifrin, a University of Missouri-Columbia grad,…
It’s cake without the candles. I have dipped my finger in a can of frosting. And now I know what it is like to have that frosting blended up for me and poured into a glass. Shatto’s Birthday Cake milk, the sixth release this year marking the dairy’s 10th anniversary, tastes like a drinkable cupcake or the ice-cream soup left…
Richard Buckner is one of those underappreciated artists who makes categorization difficult for music journalists. In the span of his 20-plus-year career, Buckner has managed to release nearly a dozen full-length albums that slither between acoustic alt-country and folk electronica. Buckner’s new album Surrounded is no exception, with expansive, contemplative songs that blossom like sad, doomed flowers along the side…
Shots fired at 18th and Highland. Rough week over at the 18th and Vine District: First, the Ninth Inning Sports Bar closed, after only a year and a half in business. Then, around 4 a.m. Saturday, four people were shot after a fight broke out outside late-night jazz spot the Mutual Musicians Foundation, KCTV 5 reported. Two of the victims…
The New York Giants are 0-3 heading into Sunday’s game with the undefeated (wow, that sounds good) Kansas City Chiefs. But Sunday, admitted Giant fan Carl of Aqua Teen Hunger Force isn’t picking KC. He’s calling for a Giants victory in his “Stone Cold Lock of the Century of the Week.” After the jump, watch as Carl weeps and reveals…
Hodgson is first to throw her hat in the ring for Davis’ seat. Given that their governor is slashing education budgets to unconstitutionally low levels, Kansans could probably use some elected officials who value the educational system. Enter Abbie Hodgson, a 31-year-old currently finishing her doctorate in political communication at the University of Kansas, and the first to announce her…
Emerging from a fabulous cloud of glitter, feather boas, and lip-synced Katy Perry songs, Miss Gay Kansas City 2014 will be crowned this weekend. The winner will take the reins from 2013 champ Christa Collins (Christopher Barksdale-Burns), a two-decade veteran of the Kansas City Ballet. Christa nabbed the title on the strength of a modern dance performance and went on…
Shemekia Copeland has a voice that can blast through brick walls. The two-time Grammy nominee is a well-known force of nature in the blues world, channeling the indomitable energies of blues legends like Etta James and B.B. King. If you like vocalists who can rip your heart out in a single note change, Copeland is the woman for you. This…
This patio will be much drunker this weekend. Grunauer, the Austrian-German restaurant in the Freight House District (101 West 22nd Street), opened in May 2010 and has held an Oktoberfest party in the autumn every year since. Are we going to quibble and note that this year’s Oktoberfest takes place, once again, in the month of September? No. Such trivialities…
Trevor Powers – better known by his stage name Youth Lagoon – is a fresh 23 years old, and he’s making music for other 23-year-olds who are into experimental computer music and weird, noisy synth-pop. His sophomore album, Wondrous Bughouse, is a densely layered mess of electronic carnival sounds. Powers’ music would sound entirely appropriate blasting from camouflaged speakers in…
Before Coldplay, there was Travis. And they were better. The Scottish foursome has been around for nearly 25 years, and their sound has only improved with age. The band’s seventh album, their recently released Where You Stand, is a smooth, mature collection of songs that prove Britpop lives on in a new incarnation. If nothing else, you should go for…
OK, so by “important,” we really meant… anyone and everyone. You’re totally invited. So is your mom. Your mom would love Mark Lowrey. I mean, just look at that kid. Tonight at the Green Lady Lounge, Mark Lowrey kicks off a series celebrating local talent. For one night per month for the next three months, The Pitch will be partnering with Captain…
