I’d never seen How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, though the get-rich-quick title is a familiar cultural concept, and one of its songs, “The Brotherhood of Man,” is familiar to anyone who has watched the Tony Awards or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade telecast in recent times. Based on a satirical 1952 book of the same name, How…
It would be tough to name a jazz pianist still performing who has recorded with more jazz greats than Kenny Barron has. You hear his talent in the lyrical elegance of his duets with Stan Getz, his trading phrases with Dizzy Gillespie or James Moody, his rollicking bop with Roy Haynes and Charlie Haden, or the base he lays for…
Long before Miley Cyrus caused millions of innocent Americans to develop eye twitches with her ludicrous MTV performance, Freddie Ross was twerking his way into the hearts of dance enthusiasts across the country. Ross, better known by his stage name, Big Freedia (say FREED-uh), has led sweaty masses to euphoric highs since he started performing in his native New Orleans…
Wade Kelly is going through an existential crisis. He admits this nonchalantly, between long sips from a pint of Guinness at the Eighth Street Taproom, in Lawrence. The bartender spins vinyl, and a haunting Bessie Smith record oozes out of the speakers, filling up the mostly empty room and clashing with the sounds of the lone guy working out his…
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band Reverend Peyton is not your average cleric. Well, technically, Peyton isn’t ordained, but everyone knows him as “the Reverend” or simply “Rev,” and his music is his gospel. Peyton rotates among a variety of guitars while his wife, Breezy, plays a washboard, and Aaron Persinger pounds away on a drum kit that includes an…
Past the doorway to Finn Bullers’ Prairie Village home are framed photos from his wedding day in 1994. There’s Bullers, wearing his suit, standing upright and proud, smiling with a head full of strawberry-blond hair. On this late-October day, Bullers is in his kitchen. The 49-year-old man’s smile remains, but almost everything else has changed since he said, “I do.”…
How much of identity is based on memory? And how much do our memories rely on depictions of the events that form our personal narratives? There is an eerie universality to old family photographs — a collective recall that printmaker Heinrich Toh uses to his advantage in his exhibition Momentary Longing. One viewer, Toh said, had a hard time convincing…
UPDATE: It’s not breaking news that a Papa John’s Pizza, an outpost of the Kentucky-based pizza chain, is opening a spot in the East Crossroads next month. The location, at 1911 McGee, will be primarily for takeout pizza and delivery (there will not be an eat-in dining component), but the addition of a national fast-food chain to the arts district…
Kansas City, Missouri, police have identified Kyle Louis Decuer as the victim of Tuesday morning’s homicide. The body of the 22-year-old man was discovered in an alley between Topping and Lawndale around 9 a.m. Tuesday. Police say they’re seeking information that may help them solve this crime. If you have a tip, call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. Kansas City, Missouri’s…
The history of Kansas City restaurants contains many great stories, but one of the best is about Ralph Gaines. The charismatic restaurateur started several iconic eateries in his lifetime (1918-79), including the Colony Steakhouse, which he opened while working as the well-paid manager of a competing steakhouse. When his boss found out, he was fired. The resulting personnel change would…
Few things suck more than being the lone sober person at the bar. No matter your reason for abstaining (pregnancy, Weight Watchers, raging alcoholism), it’s impossible not to feel left out when everyone else is sipping cocktails with names like Elbow’s Sexual Chocolate or Zombie Apocalypse, and you’re drinking unsweetened iced tea garnished with an anemic lemon wedge. Fortunately, many…
Writer Charles Plymell may not be as well-known as his former San Franciso roommates Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady, but the 78-year-old poet and author’s influence is astonishing. In 1968, his printing press was responsible for the first run of R. Crumb’s iconic Zap Comix. He has performed and toured extensively with Minuteman co-founder Mike Watt. The list goes on….
Name: Jessica Best Occupation: Community director for Emfluence Hometown: Independence, Missouri Current neighborhood: The Crossroads District What I do (in 140 characters): I help fellow marketers – from clients to conferences – do smarter e-mail and social-media marketing. In < 140. What's your addiction? Dining out. And chocolate. OK, and Pinterest. What's your game? Merriam-Webster's "Test Your Vocabulary" quiz (a...
Don’t let the name fool you: Those Darlins are about as sweet as Sour Patch Kids. Four years ago, the Nashville quartet released a self-titled debut of mostly raunchy punk-country jams with more attitude than ambition. There’s plenty of punch on the band’s latest offering, Blur the Line, but there’s also a sly undertone of aggression that blooms with sizzling…
%{}% Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd brought misdemeanor assault charges against 17-year-old Kansas City football player Colin Byrd for removing an opposing football player’s helmet and striking him with it during an October football game. The formal charges were brought little more than a month after Byrd, playing football for Platte County R-III High School, was tossed out of a…
The Pitch received a press release yesterday from the Chicago-based Sanderson & Associates with an announcement: Erbert and Gerbert’s, a Wisconsin-based sandwich chain, “is expanding to Kansas City and is planning to open seven locations within the next 3 years.” Any new restaurant chain moving into the Kansas City market is news, but according to Sanderson & Associates account executive Erin…
cinematreasures.org Critically acclaimed directors, tonight at the Glenwood. Filmmaker, the quarterly magazine for cinema geeks, announced its “25 New Faces of Independent Film” earlier this year. The mag has been doing the list for the last 16 years, and now it’s also bringing the concept on the road in the form of the “25 New Faces” tour. Tonight, at the…
Stacy Smith, better known as Reach, is by far one of the most prolific artists in the city. The dude is always up to something, and it seems that there is no end to his creative output. (One of his songs with Reggie B, “Wrong Girl,” was selected for Marco Polo’s PA2: The Director’s Cut.) Tomorrow night at RecordBar, Reach…
Singer-songwriter Nora Jane Struthers makes sweet, apple-pie Americana for the ages. Her easygoing songs carry elements of comfortable bluegrass and old-timey nostalgia, with plenty of room for Struthers’ warm vocals to nestle in. On her recent Carnival, Struthers proves that even though she may not have the brassy charm of Dolly Parton or the Grammys of Alison Krauss, she does…
Kansas City’s Farm to Market Bread Co. will begin shipping loaves of its popular holiday breads – German stollen and Italian panettone – on Friday. The limited-edition breads will be available at most local stores that carry Farm to Market breads, but only through December 31. The Milanese-style panettone, a traditional holiday yeast bread in Italy, is most frequently baked…
A governor’s clemency is one of the final reprieves from the gallows for the condemned man, a request rarely granted. Joseph Paul Franklin won’t find refuge from Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who on Monday denied the racist serial killer’s plea for a way out of his forthcoming execution. Franklin received the death penalty in Missouri following his 1997 conviction of…
