Name: Helen Stringer Occupation: Executive director of Kansas City Oasis Hometown: Excelsior Springs Current neighborhood: North Hampton, Kansas City, Missouri What I do (in 140 characters): For means, I run a professional organizing business, Organized by Helen, but for meaning, I’m the executive director of Kansas City Oasis, a nonprofit. My undergraduate degree was in pastoral studies, but I never…
There is no way to put this nicely: Anyone who pours hot coffee over a glass of ice should be smacked upside the head with a big bag of beans. The resulting beverage is bitter and watery. Adding milk just makes it worse. But lately, it has been too damn hot to order scalding liquid in a mug, so we…
Michael Keck died at the age of 25 last year, of what doctors believe was a heart condition. Keck was a star football player at Harrisonville High School. He red-shirted one season for the University of Missouri and then transferred to Missouri State University, where he played for two seasons. He eventually quit the sport after the several concussions he…
When Matt Otto plays sax, I first notice the tone — a complete sound, rich and full, that only the best saxophonists match. Next, I’m grabbed by the intricacies of his compositions, layers that build an image or a story. Then Otto solos with a springboard of free-spirited imagination. When Otto moved to Kansas City from the West Coast a…
When Aubrey Plaza can’t wield her preternaturally chilly detachment in a way that makes her undead character believable, we may, at long last, be done with zombies. When John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon play Plaza’s parents as unfunny hysterics, surely that’s it, right? If only writer-director Jeff Baena had known before making Life After Beth, his first feature. His…
In someone’s theory, there’s a broad hunger in the world for Pierce Brosnan’s version of James Bond, a hunger that might be fed by casting the Irish actor as Peter Devereaux, hero of some 1980s spy novels by the late American writer Bill Granger. It’s everyone’s fact, however, that The November Man is a tuxedo stain left by a bad…
Like the perfectly cooked hard-boiled egg, the precise definition of pornography and the evergreen appeal of “Weird Al” Yankovic, male friendship is one of those things that’s easy to understand but impossible to explain. Its rough territorial borders are professional jealousy, sexual envy, pecuniary scorekeeping and compulsive mockery. That makes it an awkward place to dwell but an amusing place…
The summer of Kelsey Grammer now gives way to the autumn of Reese Witherspoon. Remember her? You’re about to have three chances to rediscover America’s Onetime Sweetheart: The Good Lie, Wild and Inherent Vice. That ought to just about make us all forget about her drunken run-in with the law two Aprils ago. Release dates — you know the drill…
Saturday, September 13 End of the World Pub Crawl | 2:30-6:30 p.m. Martini Corner (31st St. between Oak and Gillham), endoftheworldpubcrawl.com Thursday, September 25 The Beast and Edge of Hell haunted houses open for the season | Through November 2, fullmoonprod.com Saturday, September 27 The Pumpkin Smash for DeLaSalle Education Center | 5:30-10 p.m. Brookside Park (57th St. and Brookside…
Friday, September 5 Picnique Belgique homebrew-competition awards dinner, with guest speakers Stan Heironymus, author, and Florian Kuplent, Urban Chestnut founder/head brewer | 6-9 p.m. Grain to Glass (1611 Swift, NKC) Stone “Kitchen Sink” Ruination firkin with 15 hops | Bier Station (120 E. Gregory Blvd.), bierstation.com Saturday, September 6 Bridger’s Day of Sours, with rare tappings, tasting tables and a…
Friday, August 29 Santa-Cali-Gon Days | Independence Square, Independence, through September 1, santacaligon.com Monday, September 1 Kansas City Renaissance Festival | 10 a.m.- 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, plus Columbus Day (633 N. 130th Street, Bonner Springs), through October 13, kcrenfest.com Thursday, September 4 Johnson County Old Settlers | Downtown Olathe (Park and Cherry), through September 6, johnsoncountyoldsettlers.com Friday, September…
Monday, September 1 Royals vs. Rangers | 7:10 p.m. Kauffman Stadium, through September 3 Saturday, September 6 Invicta FC 8, Michelle Waterson vs. Yasuko Tamada | 7 p.m. Municipal Auditorium (301 W. 13th St.) Kansas Jayhawks vs. Southeast Missouri | 6 p.m. Memorial Stadium (1017 W. 11th St., Lawrence) Sunday, September 7 Broadway Bridge Run Half Marathon, 5k and 10k…
Performance days and showtimes vary. Call or see theater websites for more information. Ghost-Writer | Spinning Tree Theatre, at Quality Hill Playhouse (303 W. 10th St.), through September 7, spinningtreetheatre.com Murder Among Friends | New Theatre Restaurant (9229 Foster, Overland Park), through November 2, newtheatre.com Wednesday, September 3 Hands on a Hardbody | Unicorn Theatre (3828 Main), through September 28,…
Friday, September 5 Buzz Beach Ball, with Arctic Monkeys, Weezer, the 1975, J.Roddy Walston & the Business, the Mowgli’s, Broods, Meg Myers, Ume | 3:30 p.m. Sporting Park (1 Sporting Way, KCK) Cake | 8:30 p.m. Crossroads KC at Grinders (417 E. 18th St.) Saturday, September 6 Crossroads Music Fest | 6 p.m., various Crossroads locations, cmfkc.com Water Is Food,…
Kawehi In March, Hawaiian-born artist Kawehi uploaded a pretty stellar cover of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” to YouTube. In the video, she’s seated in her Lawrence home, in front of her synth pad, keyboard and looping tools with headphones on and a glass of red wine at the ready. It was supposed to be just a “practice run,” she said, mistakes…
Josephine Wiggs, bassist for the Breeders — famous for its seminal 1993 album, Last Splash, and the hit “Cannonball” — speaks with the perfectly clipped English accent you’d expect to hear on audiobook versions of Jane Austen novels. When I call her to discuss her band’s new tour, a short September run planned from Ohio to Los Angeles (culminating with…
The pair at the center of Ghost-Writer — a novelist and his typist — step well beyond the clichéd coupling of a man and his secretary. Correctly hyphenated in this particular context, playwright Michael Hollinger’s fictional take on the relationship between Henry James and Theodora Bosanquet is a captivating and beautifully written tale of two souls, whose minds first meld…
It’s possibly the worst month in the history of the state to proclaim this, but I love Missouri. In particular, I love the middle part of Missouri during the summer. I love the old towns — river towns the most — with their Civil War plaques and deserted downtown squares and highway signposts boasting of homegrown painters and politicians. I…
The Grisly Hand’s debut full-length, Country Singles, was one of the best local releases of 2013, with singer Lauren Krum’s soaring, prairie-rich twang recalling a young Iris DeMent. Krum’s voice is a little sweeter, perhaps, than DeMent’s, a little less rustic — and when she’s harmonizing with guitarist Jimmy Fitzner, and Mike Stover’s aching slide guitar curls around the edges…
Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich’s probe of the Grandview School District wasn’t as bad as his findings earlier this year of neighboring Hickman Mills School District, but a report out Tuesday raises concerns about Grandview’s financial management. Schweich’s office released its audit of the Grandview School District, which found that administrators misspent bond proceeds and had money missing from its financial…
The glass door to Social, the urban gay bar at 1118 McGee, was locked 30 minutes ago. It might open again tonight — then again, it might be closed for an extended period of time. Possibly, forever. There’s a problem — a matter of back rent owed by the club’s owner, Mike Flinn, to the building’s owners. Rumors flew over…
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision opened the floodgates for orgiastic amounts of corporate money to flow into American politics. Nobody has taken more advantage of that decision than the Kochtopus — the network of conservative money controlled by Wichita natives Charles and David Koch. A recent documentary, Citizen Koch, explores the power that this money can wield….
