Big Rip Brewing Co. founders Josh Collins and Kipp Feldt love horror movies. You can tell as soon as you step into their taproom, at 216 East Ninth Avenue, in North Kansas City. Posters from Friday the 13th, Evil Dead and Aliens hang on a wall, along with an “I want to believe” UFO poster that should look familiar to…
Name: Lacy Voight Occupation: Program director for the HALO Foundation Hometown: Jefferson City, Missouri Current neighborhood: Downtown What I do (in 140 characters): I oversee 11 international homes and two domestic learning centers for orphaned, homeless and at-risk youth in six countries through local nonprofit the HALO Foundation. What’s your addiction? Travel. As soon as I get home from one…
Big and burly, in presence and sound, saxophonist Rob Scheps visits Kansas City a couple of times a year. On each trip, he brings a New York musician whom Kansas Citians have little chance otherwise to enjoy. Joining Scheps this time: Eliot Zigmund, who, for more than 50 years, has drummed with such jazz stars as Bill Evans, Stan Getz…
Center of the City Middle of the Map takes over Westport this weekend, but you can escape the fray for a different kind of madness at Center of the City. Thirty-five KC punk and hardcore bands spend three nights battering two stages at Vandals – the remodeled indoor stage at the Black & Gold Tavern and an outdoor courtyard. The…
Former Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway said in February, when announcing that she would run for governor, that she would “build the largest and best grassroots campaign in Missouri history.” Such a meat-and-potatoes fundraising effort, she implied, would be necessary to outflank the well-heeled Democrat Chris Koster, who raised more than $1 million last year for his gubernatorial bid. For Hanaway’s part,…
Exorbitant interest rates are purrfectly legal under current Missouri laws. We talked a little while back about the fake payday-loan reform currently creeping through the Missouri Senate. The very fact that lobbyists for the payday-loan industry (a vile bunch) support this legislation should tell you all you need to know, but the highlight (lowlight) of SB 694 is that it…
Birbigs. Few performers out there right now seem to be enjoying as artistically rewarding careers as comedian/actor/writer/director Mike Birbiglia. He’s a regular contributor to This American Life, he writes books, and his one-man shows (Sleepwalk With Me, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend) have been converted into films. We loathe him for his success. JK! He’s great. On Wednesday, May 14, Birbiglia is…
Annie Clark – the artist better known as St. Vincent – just makes it all look so easy. She can sing ethereally or intensely, depending on the moment. She can shriek, wail and groan. She can shred on guitar. She can flail, fall, smile, pose, tell stories. She did it all last night at Liberty Hall, and except for maybe…
Local rapper Gee Watts has an acute sense of the depths of Kansas City’s broken neighborhoods and the possibilities for lives born within the turmoil. His first official album 199x (Nineteen Ninety Never), filled with literate observations and prescient ruminations about life on KC’s streets, drops this week and follows closely in the wake of his 11 unofficial mixtapes. If…
