Archives: January 2015
Throwback Thursday: Tech N9ne rapping on the Venice Beach boardwalk
You should be friends with Sean Hunt — also known as Approach, one of the area’s finest MCs — on Facebook. In addition to getting all the necessary information about his upcoming projects, the man is a never-ending stream of fantastic hip-hop-related links. He’s like a way more laid-back World Star Hip Hop. So it’s thanks to Mr. Hunt that…
Comedian John Mulaney is coming to the Midland this spring
If you’re looking to kill an hour with some stand-up comedy on Netflix, may we recommend John Mulaney’s 2012 special New In Town? Mulaney is a co-creator of Bill Hader’s terrifyingly decadent Stefon character on Saturday Night Live, but Mulaney’s stand-up is more quotidian and observational, like a modern, Midwestern version of Jerry Seinfeld. We haven’t yet seen Mulaney, his new TV…
Tallgrass beer dinners (and new brews), Big Rip releases Franklin Road Imperial Coffee Porter, Evil Twin beer school and more
Thursday, January 22To Øl Nordic By Nature tapping, at Flying Saucer (101 East 13th Street), 7 p.m. Tallgrass five-course beer dinner, featuring brewery owner Jeff Gill, KC Ale Trail author Pete Dulin and food by Josh Eans, at Happy Gillis (549 Gillis), tickets at 816-471-3663 or the café, 6:30 p.m. KC Bier Co. beer and food pairing event, featuring brewery…
Fally Afani gives us a year in the life of a Lawrence music fan, one second at a time
If you are out and about in Lawrence, there’s no doubt you recognize Fally Afani: tall, stylish and with a camera permanently in hand, Afani is the force behind Lawrence’s I Heart Local Music – one of the most dedicated music blogs in the community. Her YouTube channel features hundreds of videos of local bands performing at the Replay Lounge,…
The Pitch‘s Sugar Rush returns January 29
Unless you live close to Parkville, you may not have heard about Parkville Coffee. That’s why Tyler McCall, who roasts single-origin beans for his café, is coming to Sugar Rush. The Pitch’s fourth annual sweets-centric event happens at 6 p.m. Thursday, January 29, at the Promise Wedding & Event Space (1814 Oak). “We’re a lot more than a Parkville coffeehouse,”…
Layne Whitehouse, Cupid’s Undie Run race director, talks about cats, running in skivvies and more in this week’s Pitch questionnaire
Name: Layne Whitehouse Occupation: Personal trainer and photographer Hometown: Kansas City, Kansas Current neighborhood: Turtle Hill, the cute neighbor of Strawberry Hill What I do: Currently my focus is on Cupid’s Undie Run, as I am the race director. My job is to get people to run around in their undies and raise money. What’s your addiction? Food and cats….
David Wayne Reed gives his characters and his audience a hand in Help Yourself
Do you like your story? Do you want to change the narrative of your life? These are a couple of questions directed at the audience early in Help Yourself, David Wayne Reed’s original 90-minute one-act, now being staged at Paragraph Gallery. Wait … gallery? It may seem an unusual venue for a play, but it’s an intimate and fitting spot…
Rounding up KCMO’s City Council candidates as the 26th-floor shuffle begins
With Kansas City, Missouri, now four years divorced from an era of high-profile dysfunction at City Hall, the appeal of running for public office here seems to have increased. Thirty-nine people have declared their candidacies for City Council seats, all 12 of which come up for public vote in the April 7 primary. With six current City Council members headed…
Jazz Beat: Shay Estes and Mark Lowrey at the American Restaurant
A year ago this month, the American Restaurant began hosting a regular jazz series in its lounge called “Jazz at the American.” It wasn’t really official until November, when the series expanded to Tuesday through Saturday. Singer Shay Estes books the groups, with an emphasis on contemporary arrangements and original compositions. Wednesday, Estes herself takes the mic with her longtime…
Music Forecast 1.22–1.28: Kawehi, Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys, Railroad Earth, and more
Kawehi The Hawaiian-born, Lawrence-residing artist Kawehi first flew onto our radar last March, when she quietly put a cover of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” on YouTube. The pint-sized songstress went viral with that song, thanks largely to her inventive approach. Kawehi is back in town from a North American tour, and she plays a rare headlining show Friday at the Bottleneck….
John Doe is still subversive after all these years
John Doe has lived a full life. The 60-year-old singer for influential Los Angeles punk band X — which he co-founded in 1980 — is still active in the group, and he has been pushing a successful solo career for 25 years. Last May, Doe released a compilation album celebrating his solo work, The Best of John Doe: This Far….
The tide finally turns for Info Gates
Justin Gillespie, the 34-year-old producer and rapper who goes by Info Gates, stands in front of a microphone inside one of the booths at 64111 Clinic, the West Side recording studio. He clutches a spiral notebook in his right hand and presses a headphone cup into an ear with his left. It’s the final hour of his second day of…
Char Bar Smoked Meats & Amusements is killing it in Westport
%{}% Westport’s two-month-old Char Bar is such a good idea that you wonder why no one thought of it before James Westphal and Mark Kelpe — creators of McCoy’s, Beer Kitchen and the Foundry — got there. The restaurant’s allure goes beyond a fine array of smoked meats (though that appeal is serious — it has been some time since…
Ibis Bakery owner says he’s not taking over Fervere
Chris Matsch, who owns and operates Lenexa-based Ibis Bakery with his wife, Kate, says there is no truth to the latest rumor circulating in Kansas City’s culinary community: that he is either taking over operations or merging his business with bread baker Fred Spompinato’s 15-year-old Fervere bakery at 1702 Summit. “Fervere is, basically, going through a change,” Chris Matsch says. “Fred…
The H Bar at Halls is tasteful and aroma-free
You can probably count the number of restaurants inside department stores on one hand. Maybe two fingers. There’s Cafe Nordstrom, in the Oak Park Mall Nordstrom; and the four-month-old H Bar, in the newly renovated Halls department store in Crown Center. On my first visit to the very glossy, very bright new Halls store, I overheard an employee refer to…
Some local updates regarding tiny houses
The shrinking of the middle class, increasing concerns about our collective carbon footprint, enthusiasm for minimalist design, a desire for a simpler life, an innate human affinity for “tiny, cute” things: There are many reasons that the tiny-house movement is growing in America. A popular blog, a documentary on Netflix, and now a TV show are raising public awareness about the…
Cafe Sebastienne manager Keith Goldman moving to American Restaurant
Keith Goldman, who has been the general manager of Cafe Sebastienne — the restaurant inside the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, at 4420 Warwick Boulevard — will be joining the staff of the American Restaurant, he says, in mid-February. The American Restaurant’s executive chef, Michael Corvino, will continue to wear two hats at the 40-year-old American Restaurant. He has also…
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic is at the Midland in June
No one is safe from persistent parodist ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic. On his latest album, Mandatory Fun, the comedian-singer repurposes songs from Pharrell, Lorde, Robin Thicke and Iggy Azalea. But Yankovic’s approach has always skewed more wacky than mean. While the more mean-spirited types among us scoff at that approach, Yankovic has managed to build a dedicated legion of fans in his…
U.S. Supreme Court finds that Missouri death row inmate Mark Christeson’s appeals were handled poorly, wants his case re-opened
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that attorneys for condemned Missouri prisoner Mark Christeson mishandled his appeals so badly that no execution can take place until lower courts re-examine his case. Christeson was headed at one point for an October 29, 2014, appointment with Missouri’s executioner (a date that was set by the Missouri Supreme Court, even though he…
Find The Pitch
