“It’s hard to make a magazine visual and alive,” Barbara Kopple says. But if anyone could have made arresting cinema from the story of a 150-year-old newsstand provocateur, it was the director who won Oscars for her documentaries Harlan County USA (1976) and American Dream (1992). Founded by Republican abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has published some of the most-discussed…
It was a neighborhood gathering of sorts, though the neighborhood was long gone. Some of the reunited had come to greet photographer Matt Rahner. The rest were on the walls of the Central Library’s Genevieve Guldner Gallery, captured in Rahner’s images. Stirred by a Pitch cover story (“Blight Flight,” by Matt Pearce, August 16, 2012), Rahner set out to document…
Up Down, the bar and arcade concept created by a trio of young entrepreneurs from Des Moines — Josh Ivey, Sam Summers and Rafe Mateer — will open to the public on Friday, April 17, at 5:30 p.m. at 101 Southwest Boulevard. Ivey and his business partners leased the former Hamburger Mary’s location last fall and have taken months to…
We’re getting pretty thirsty thinking about the upcoming Bacon & Bourbon night on Thursday, April 16, at the Guild. This year’s event features a new perk: the Cocktail Corner, where six local bartenders will be featuring an original bourbon-themed cocktail. We’re previewing all the drinks ahead of time because we just can’t help ourselves. First up: Blvd Tavern’s Tommy Palmer. …
It’s a little-celebrated fact that Kevin Bacon’s excellent country band, the Bacon Brothers – a duo with his brother, Michael Bacon – exists. Same goes for Academy Award-winning actor Billy Bob Thornton’s country three-piece, the Boxmasters. In fact, if these actors wanted, they could quit their day jobs: The Bacon Brothers’ last album, 2014’s 36¢, was a delightful return to…
Until recently, the lawyers, police officers, courthouse employees, library workers and other assorted business types of downtown Kansas City, Kansas, lacked a proper place to grab their morning (or post-lunch) cup of coffee. As of March 20, though, A Cup on the Hill (730 Minnesota) is offering an alternative to gas-station drip and burnt office coffee for neighborhood caffeine seekers. The…
There’s a new Indian restaurant at 7301 West 91st Street, replacing the venue first known, in 2008, as Masalas Authentic Indian Diner. In 2013, under different ownership, it became Masalas Indian Bistro. Now it’s a completely different restaurant (with the same interior decor) called Paradise Biryani Pointe. You may have already eaten at a restaurant by that name if you’ve…
If you made it to the Royals game last night at Kauffman Stadium, perhaps you enjoyed on of the many 360 Vodka cocktails available. This year, the local distillery is offering a Royals-branded version of its best-selling product. You can expect to see a lot more of the official Royals vodka around at games this season. We chatted with the…
Kansas lawmakers continued to whittle away on Tuesday at options for women in the state who are seeking abortions. Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law the Kansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act into law in a private ceremony in Topeka. The bill outlaws, except in cases of medical need for a mother, a common second-trimester method for aborting…
Matt Pryor doesn’t often play out these days, so when he does, we get extra excited. On Saturday, April 11, at Danny’s Bar and Grill in Lenexa, the Get Up Kids co-founder will be performing an intimate, acoustic set, along with Josh Berwanger and a stripped down version of Kangaroo Knife Fight. DBG isn’t exactly in Midtown or on Mass…
Big Rip Brewing Co. is preparing for anniversary party No. 2, and the North Kansas City brewery put tickets on sale for Get Ripped Brew Fest (June 6 from 1 to 5 p.m.) and parking-lot party. Big Rip has once again loaded this year’s lineup with locals. Set to pour are: * 23rd Street Brewery * 75th Street Brewery * Amigoni Winery…
It hasn’t even been open a week, but the sleekly designed IHOP restaurant at 3928 Rainbow in Kansas City, Kansas, tucked into the new 39 Rainbow complex across from the KU Medical Center, bears no resemblance to any other restaurant of the same name in the metro. And that’s a good thing. This new venue has big dramatic drum lighting,…
The nominees for this year’s “Best New Chef: Midwest,” sponsored by Food & Wine magazine, are particularly impressive: 10 bright young Midwestern chefs from six cities seeking honors (Story restaurant’s Carl Thorne-Thomsen was the winner-take-all “Best Chef” in last year’s competition) decided not by a panel of judges but by online voters. Once again, Patrick Ryan, the larger-than-life chef-owner of…
During last week’s State of the City address, Kansas City Mayor Sly James extolled the virtues of the under-construction downtown streetcar line, saying $1 billion worth of new investments were occurring within blocks of the streetcar since 2012. He went on: “45 projects have begun construction since August of 2013, of which 23 will not receive incentives.” James made a…
“Wine and baseball” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as “beer and baseball,” but a California company — Wine by Design — hopes to change that. Earlier this month, it started stocking a California blend, called simply Kansas City Royals Proprietary Red, in local liquor stores. Tom Dickson, a representative with Missouri distributor Classique Wines, dropped a bottle…
In addition to a forthcoming graphic-novel sequel to Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk is soon to release a new story collection called Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread. To promote the two projects, Palahniuk is embarking on a short book tour, and Kansas City is one of eight cities where he’ll be stopping. The event, hosted by Rainy Day Books,…
Sky Smeed CD Release Show with Truckstop Honeymoon and Beans on Toast Knuckleheads Saloon Saturday, April 4 Sky Smeed is a welcoming man. Almost every minute he’s on stage, he’s like the neighbor waving from across the way, hollering “Hey, I gotta you show you my new sofa!” or “Check out the new picture I finally got hung up!” or…
Hey, uh, John Hancock: Might be time to sit out a few plays? The Missouri GOP chairman has been in the news a lot lately, most notably after reports surfaced that he had mounted an anti-Semitic whisper campaign that led to the suicide of Missouri Auditor (and gubernatorial candidate) Tom Schweich. Despite calls for his resignation within his own party, Hancock…
Did Louie Wright file to run for Kansas City, Missouri, City Council despite owing back taxes? That’s the claim sent out on Thursday by Citizens For Responsible Government, a political action committee that is publicly represented by Dan Coffey. In an email to local media, CFRG reported having found a property tax statement from Jackson County that says Wright owes…
Sad news out of Mission today where one of that suburb’s institutions, Mission Bowl, sustained damage from a two-alarm fire. Emily Randel, public information officer for Mission, says there were no injuries from the late morning fire. Consolidate Fire District No. 2 is asking people to avoid the area while its crews and assistance from the Overland Park Fire Department…
