This morning, I woke up, thinking today would just be another ho-hum Friday. But no: Beyonce, Queen of All Things Good and Musical, had other plans for humankind on this day, December 13, 2013. In case you haven’t already heard, Mrs. Carter dropped her fifth full-length studio album in the wee hours of the morning. Everyone is freaking out because…
Kraus’ Facebook page. Kraus’ new bill could use a little refining. A few weeks ago, Will Kraus, a Missouri state senator representing parts of Lee’s Summit and Raytown, pre-filed an ethics bill for the upcoming 2014 session in the Missouri Legislature. Check it out; there’s actually some great stuff in it: “Legislators shall not lobby until 2 years after leaving…
Hooray! When we first heard that Tivoli Cinemas needed to raise $130,000 to switch over to digital projection, we were a little nervous about the art-house theater being able to drum up that kind of money. But apparently the Tivoli has some fans with deep pockets, because yesterday it reached its goal, with an extra $6,000 to spare. If you’re…
The Oakland Raiders have shown some glimpses of hope this season, but those glimpses have not been able to be sustained into something more. The Raiders have lost five of their last six games, including a 37-27 loss last week to the New York Jets. Raiders fans have always been passionate, but the price to be passionate at Oakland home…
Cheryl Womack has lived in Mission Hills since 1987, so she has been rich for a while. In April 2002, she became especially rich when she sold her company, National Association of Independent Truckers (which offered liability insurance to truck drivers), for $35 million. That wealth let her do lots of things most people can’t, like buy up $1.5 million…
The sounds of Kansas City’s Tim Ellis, aka Outsides, may surprise you. The young pop-rock singer-songwriter/producer has released a scarce two tracks, but they certainly make an impression. “Seesaw” debuted in May, and it carries all the punch of a modern indie power-pop song: heavy, booming synths that sound like they could lead into a Passion Pit track, plus head-in-the-clouds…
From the Terry Bruce Facebook page. Wild Turkey, indeed. What would you do if you lived in Hutchinson, Kansas, and were married to one of the guys in that photo up there? If it were me, I would probably drink every day starting around lunchtime. I would probably also take drugs! Sarah Bruce is married to the guy at the…
Leave it to Frank Hicks, owner of the venerable and beloved Kansas City venue Knuckleheads, to throw himself the kind of birthday party he’s always wanted. This Friday, Hicks celebrates his 66th birthday with an all-star folk and Americana lineup. Oklahoma native, Grammy nominee and one of Hicks’ favorite musicians, John Fullbright, leads the bill. Jason Eady and Courtney Patton,…
Honey Pot Performance, an all-female creative collective from Chicago, is in town this weekend for a few select performances at Paragraph Gallery and an interactive workshop at the Gem Theater, courtesy of the Charlotte Street Foundation. The cast features four African-American women and collaborating artists: Felicia Holman, Aisha Jean-Baptiste, Abra Johnson and Meida McNeal. Together, these women will perform “Price Point,”…
If the proliferation of shiny plastic Christmas specials leaves you feeling more bah humbug than ho ho ho, you’re not alone. And you might run into your fellow dyspeptic at the Copaken Stage, where the Kansas City Repertory Theatre is pouring a spiked-eggnog antidote to commercial cheer with its production of The Santaland Diaries. The source material, David Sedaris’ 1992…
The rise and fall of the world’s greatest cyclist, and the massive doping scandal that took him down would make for a compelling Shakespearean drama just about any way you play it, but documentarian Alex Gibney has a slightly different, more personal agenda in The Armstrong Lie. The prolific Gibney, director of hard-hitting exposés like Taxi to the Dark Side…
The less said about last year’s be-careful-what-you-wish-for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the better. To note that the first of the three serialized installments lacked Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth magic would be akin to observing that Gollum is somewhat preoccupied. Thankfully, the second part of Jackson’s newer J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy — titled The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, much to…
We know that guy, the guy in the living-room chair, spooning ice cream straight from the container. Of course, we’re well-acquainted with the actor in the chair, the deft David Fritts, but we know that guy — the guy sitting in a house in Chicago, in Clybourne Park. This is Russ, and it doesn’t take long to understand what’s put…
On October 25 of this year, a man named Del Kimball was served papers at his home in Mission Hills. The following day, Kimball’s business partner, Sam Furseth, was also served in Mission Hills. Kimball and Furseth head up a variety of online payday-lending operations, many of which are based in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, at 908 Baltimore. True to…
Logan Richardson knows this city’s jazz heritage. He was born and raised here and attended Paseo Academy. When still a teen, he was a featured soloist in a Kansas City Symphony concert. His rich alto-sax tone winds through a post-bop sensibility, recognizing what jazz was while simultaneously reaching for what’s next. A dozen years ago, he moved to New York,…
“Weird as fuck.” That’s how Isaiah Radke, the 18-year-old bassist of St. Joseph punk-rock band Radkey, cheerfully describes his band of brothers. And it’s easy to see where he’s coming from. Along with his brothers Dee, the band’s 20-year-old lead singer and guitarist, and Solomon, the 16-year-old drummer, Radkey has achieved quite a bit of success in a short amount…
“Esther, why don’t you let our new guest have the big-girl chair?” Katie West says to her youngest daughter, a 4-year-old, blond-haired gumdrop. Esther bashfully slides out of her place and climbs into a plastic, child-sized seat. She slices bite-sized pieces of a miniature pie on the farmhouse-style dining table in the three-story Lawrence home she shares with her husband,…
For proponents of the Jackson County half-cent sales-tax increase that would have funded medical research, everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. Boosters of the measure lost by a staggering margin — 84 percent of voters said no. And the steepest rebuke of a significant local election in memory was even more remarkable because the proposal had been…
Cowboy Indian Bear This past spring, Lawrence music champions Cowboy Indian Bear released Live Old, Die Young, a heartbreaking and beautiful album. The 13 tracks unfurl with a sort of luxurious agony, shedding one orchestral layer after another. On Thursday, Cowboy Indian Bear plays its last show of the year. And the band has a few treats in mind for…
Garry Noland strikes you as a man with a positive outlook. His personality is unaffected, his wit rustic and colorful. What comes across when he speaks about his art is a straightforward “I made this” aesthetic. Speaking to a small audience the Saturday after the November opening of Test Patterns and Floor Samples, his latest Studios Inc. exhibition, Noland said…
