Archives: December 2014

‘Legitimate rape’ lives on in Missouri: Rep. Rick Brattin wants proof before a rape victim can get an abortion

Two years after Todd Akin sunk his candidacy for the U.S. Senate with his infamous “legitimate rape” utterance, the term still isn’t off-limits in Missouri, at least as far as one lawmaker in the Show-Me State is concerned. Rep. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, wants to make sure a woman gets permission from her father in order to proceed with…

Third Thursday brings Rad Tidings to the Nelson tonight

Last month’s Third Thursday party at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art — the series’ debut, pictured above — drew hundreds of people to the Bloch Building for coffee, beer, music, crafts and a gallery talk. Tough act to follow, we thought. Now comes Rad Tidings, from 6 to 9 tonight, and it sounds at least as cool: Katy Guillen &…

Grunge punks Bummer talk signing with High Dive and their upcoming EP

Kansas City’s Bummer puts out an insane amount of volume for being just three dudes. The grunge punk trio has become known for short sets which pack hooks and volume in equal measure. It’s that mix which makes their sludgy rock appealing to more than just guys who smoke dope and listen to Kyuss, and a likely factor in their…

Boulevard releases 2015 calendar with lots of new brews

Boulevard released its 2015 lineup on social media today, and there are several new beers on the slate. Brewmaster Steven Pauwels had already told us to expect of series of imperial stouts throughout the year, and now they’re on the calendar (a coffee, a rum and two TBDs). We’d also heard rumors of a pumpkin beer and Funky Pumpkin is…

75th Street Brewery releases XXX-Mas Spiced Belgian Dubbel, Happy Gillis hosts a River North beer dinner, and more beer events

Thursday, 
December 18Boulevard Smokestack Series celebration, featuring Imperial Stout, Collaboration No. 4, Harvest Dance and Silver Anniversary Ale, at Local Tap (7300 West 119th Street, Overland Park), 6:30 p.m. Cinder Block ugly sweater party (110 East 18th Avenue, North Kansas City), 5 p.m. North Kansas City Beverage Co. happy hour, at Side Pockets (600 Northwest Englewood Road), 4–7 p.m. Odell…

TV on the Radio is at the Midland in March

Last week, indie-rock heavyweights TV on the Radio announced a string of tour dates next spring in support of the band’s excellent recent full-length, Seeds. It’s a pretty short U.S. run, so Kansas Citians can feel lucky about getting a piece of the action. You can catch the band at the Midland on Saturday, March 21.  Details here.  Categories: News…

Michael Brooks announces resignation of his Kansas City Council seat (updated, with documents)

The tumultuous political career of Kansas City’s 5th District councilman is coming to an end. Michael Brooks informed the City Council and Mayor Sly James that he will resign his seat, effective January 2. Brooks sent the notice on Wednesday, one day after Kansas City’s legal department sent the council a memo outlining the procedures for disciplining and/or removing a…

McCoy’s releases Ursa Major Russian imperial stout with a party Tuesday, December 23

Boxes of empty bottles sit outside the glassed-off brewhouse of McCoy’s Public House. Soon, those bottles will be filled with Ursa Major, the brewpub’s Russian Imperial Stout, named for the constellation and made to mark the winter solstice. This year’s Ursa Major is astronomically on-target, arriving at 4 p.m. Tuesday, December 23, at McCoy’s (4057 Pennsylvania) and at the neighboring…

Hannibal Buress’ moment is about more than just the Cosby thing

Fifteen minutes on the phone with Hannibal Buress feels like catching up with your most ridiculous college friend. The 31-year-old comic and co-star of Comedy Central’s Broad City doesn’t deliver zingers or punch lines — he’s just an unusually amusing conversationalist. And lately, he has been in the middle of a significant cultural conversation. It was partly Buress’ onstage labeling…

Prospect Avenue evolves into a dining destination

It’s easy to find lots of good things to eat on Prospect Avenue. Last week’s Pitch cover story, “Comeback Street,” detailed the restaurant resurgence going on along the historic East Side thoroughfare, which was the racial dividing line in Kansas City for decades, until the late 1960s. A new generation of restaurateurs has taken over — even on the most…

Luke Wade, co-founder of SocialHeart, talks problem solving, the Truce Tournament and more in The Pitch‘s questionnaire

Name: Luke Wade Hometown: Cape Girardeau, Missouri Current neighborhood: Coleman Highlands Occupation: Creator and operator of KC Crew; co-founder of SocialHeart; owner of Liquid Knowledge Consulting and Tasteful Touch What I do (in 140 characters): I like to say I solve problems through multiple ventures, but I also create fun through recreational leagues, pub crawls, happy hours, charity events and…

Chris Rock knows best in Top Five

%{}% %{}% Top Five is Chris Rock’s Woody Allen movie. Its romantic tensions evoke those of Annie Hall, and its disgust with celebrity culture, with fame, recalls Stardust Memories. (Rock plays Andre Allen, recovering user, recovering comic and soon-to-be-recovering badly reviewed serious actor.) Top Five is also writer-director-star Rock’s Richard Linklater movie — the Linklater of Before Sunrise and its…

Wild: a song of herself rising to a spiritual hymn

%{}% %{}% There’s the suffering you choose, and there’s the suffering that chooses you. Walking the sometimes desolate, sometimes beautiful border between the two is Wild, Cheryl Strayed’s essential 2012 memoir and, now, this haunting film version of it, starring Reese Witherspoon. Strayed’s book is as interior as its setting is exterior. It recounts her 1995 hike from the Mojave…

The Unicorn deftly summons Sue Mengers’ funny, gossipy spirit

%{}% %{}% Sue Mengers wasn’t larger than life, but the Hollywood superagent lived large. A major player in the industry from the 1960s to the ’80s, she suited herself for a man’s game, one in which the rules of the time didn’t include female competitors. In the Unicorn Theatre’s one-woman show I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers,…

DJ Ray Velasquez has big plans for Kansas City

%{}% %{}% In the 1990s, Ray Velasquez was the DJ you wanted in your venue, at your party, running your show. From 1993 to 2003, he was the voice behind popular radio show Nocturnal Transmissions, on what was then the Lazer (KLZR 105.9). Before that, KC’s house-music authority had been on KKFI 90.1 and KJHK 90.7. And after, Velasquez moved…

Miry Wild forges its own path

%{}% %{}% Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was perhaps English literature’s first feminist, an independent woman guided by heart and instinct rather than by society’s expectations. The four young women in Miry Wild have taken their band’s name from a phrase in Brontë’s 1847 landmark — a reference I keep in mind when I drop in on their weekly practice at…