Click here for this month’s First Friday gallery openings and events.
The night almost never happened earlier this summer when Samantha Fish jammed with blues pioneer Buddy Guy. Fish and her band had hauled ass from a gig in Canada to make it to their sold-out show with Guy and Jonny Lang at VooDoo Lounge in Harrah’s Casino. “We’d befriended Buddy’s son, Greg, when we were in Chicago playing at his…
Watching Shay Estes sing fado, no one would guess that the Kansas City jazz singer was introduced to the 200-year-old style of Portuguese urban folk music only a year ago. Estes doesn’t speak much of the language, either, but as she sings, her hands flow with the Portuguese vowels, shaping the story she’s telling. She understands fado. “On an emotional…
Michael Bublé It’s not entirely clear to me how Michael Bublé became a global superstar instead of, say, a guy working the wedding-reception circuit in Vancouver. Which is not to say I’m not a fan; I am. Surely we can all agree that his bouncy, piano-based megahit “Haven’t Met You Yet” is satisfying on all possible levels? (I also enjoy…
Adore, according to the movie’s press materials, is “an unpredictable tale of misguided love and a heartfelt celebration of the enduring nature of female friendship,” but you know it as the one where Naomi Watts and Robin Wright play bikini moms who fuck each other’s shirtless sons. Called Two Mothers when it started making this year’s festival rounds, it’s based…
I believe that by the end of the year, we will only have 100 drive-ins left,” says Tamara Maichel of Osawatomie, Kansas. Maichel would know. She’s leading an effort to save Miami County’s Midway Drive-in, which could close if the theater doesn’t raise $100,000 to upgrade its projector. About 400 drive-ins are still in operation, but only 32 have converted…
Jim Hinson has faced plenty of audiences since July 1, his first day on the job as the Shawnee Mission School District’s superintendent. Many days, his meetings have looked like this one, an August 28 gathering of about 30 local elected officials and bureaucrats at the school district’s administrative headquarters in Merriam. At one point, he poses a question to…
“Should we just get into it?” chef Aaron Confessori asks, moments after slipping on a blue apron. Confessori, the owner of the Westport Café and Bar, dips his hands into the aluminum tray, where a dozen Peanut wings are snuggled together. A day earlier, Peanut owner Aaron Whiteside delivered to my house a Styrofoam cooler packed with two vacuum-sealed bags…
At H&R Block Artspace, Performance Now enlivens the gallery with a visual carnival of pop music, parachutes, IKEA furniture and claymation gore. And that’s just the first floor. Your first visit to Performance Now can feel a little like window-shopping, as you peer into each of curator RoseLee Goldberg’s carefully chosen curiosity boxes. There’s more here than the sort of…
Pedaljets. By now you’re probably aware that the great KC 80s underground rock act Pedaljets released What’s In Between, its first album of new material in twenty years, earlier this summer. This week, the group debuted its first new music video in twenty-three years. It’s for the track “Riverview,” and it’s “directed by former Kansas Citian Jeff Richardson, who directed…
In last week’s issue, we reported on the Chicago reissue label Numero Group putting out a double LP of tracks from Forte, a KC soul label from the 60s and 70s. As of yesterday, the album is available at record stores all over town. And this Saturday afternoon, one of those record stores, Zebedees RPM, is throwing a party to…
You voted for your favorites in the 2013 Best of Kansas City awards, and we’ve narrowed them down to the top three in each category (unless there were ties). Now it’s up to you to vote again for your favorite people as well as the best places to eat, drink, shop and play. Click here to cast your vote. Voting runs…
Coty Beasley is confident CandyCam’s SkyHook platform will take off. Miles of cable cover CandyCam’s headquarters on the fifth floor of the Think Big Partners building at 18th Street and Baltimore. A swamp of parts, tools and prototypes spills out of the work spaces. Chief design officer Coty Beasley’s desk is a mess of scattered parts and a busted-open radio…
Facebook: Todd Johns Plowboys is open for business. First you win the Royal. Then you open your restaurant. Back in 2009, The Pitch told you that “if you’re looking for the future of barbecue, you might just head out to Blue Springs. The future arrived Tuesday as Todd Johns, the Grand Champion at the 2009 American Royal Invitational, opened his…
Name: Stacey Million Occupation: Group sales manager, Starlight Theatre Hometown: Birthplace of Designing Women, Poplar Bluff, Missouri Current neighborhood: the Crossroads What I do (in 140 characters): I bring corporate and family groups to Broadway performances at Starlight Theatre, KC’s iconic and beautiful outdoor event venue. I also get to work with some amazing young professionals through Starlight’s new Center…
Welcome to the team… Wait, who is this? It’s a bittersweet day for Sporting Kansas City fans. The club announced Sunday afternoon that it has transferred fan favorite and inventor of the “heart-shaped hands” goal celebration to Middlesbrough FC of the British second division. Kamara is in his fifth season with Kansas City. During his eight years with MLS clubs,…
Koster took a dim view of the Second Amendment Preservation Act. As Missouri lawmakers try to mount a veto override of a questionable gun rights bill, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster submitted on Tuesday an analysis of some of the more problematic elements of the so-called Second Amendment Preservation Act. Jay Nixon vetoed House Bill 436 (along with many others)…
Ex-Chiefs defensive lineman among many former players settling with the NFL News broke late last week before the Labor Day weekend that the National Football League settled myriad lawsuits brought by about 4,500 former players who have been suing the league for years for concussion-related claims. The $765 million will compensate former players and set aside a portion of the…
Facebook: 64 Tavern & Grille 64 Tavern & Grille is now open. The bar and grill are meant to take center stage at 64 Tavern & Grille, the new watering hole that recently opened at 6312 N. Chatham Ave. in the former Paddy O’Quigley’s space. The menu ranges from rib-eye to street tacos with three flavors of wings (buffalo, BBQ…
Facebook: Paradise Locker Meats This is paradise for carnivores. It’s a good time to be a meat lover. Paradise Locker Meats (which The Pitch featured in a cover story this March) is celebrating its 10th anniversary at 405 W. Birch in Trimble, Missouri, on Saturday, September 7. “I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen,” Paradise owner Mario Fantasma says….
