Chris Gough’s Metro Pro Wrestling celebrates its fifth anniversary Saturday night at the Turner Rec Center. It’ll be five years of body slams, bloody brawls and busted Rob Schamberger paintings since debuting June 5, 2010, at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. Gough admits he didn’t know what he was getting into back in 2010. He’d previously worked as a…
It’s a bittersweet moment for those who have enjoyed attending – and those who have benefited from – the dinners held by microfunding arts organization Bread KC. Following Saturday’s event at the Drugstore, Bread KC – which was started by local artists Sean Starowitz and Andy Erdrich in 2010 – will go on an indefinite hiatus. For those unfamiliar, Bread…
Local lovers of food-truck cuisine will have the opportunity to taste the signature dishes of four Kansas City food trucks on Friday, June 5, and vote on their favorite vendor from the participating vehicles when the Mid-Continent Public Library and the Ennovation Center of Independence present a Food Truck Face-Off in the parking lot of the Roasterie at 1204 West 27th…
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts announced today that radio personality Ira Glass — creator and host of This American Life, adviser to Serial — will bring his show, Reinventing Radio: An Evening with Ira Glass, to the venue on Saturday, October 24. According to a release, in Reinventing Radio, Glass “talks about and how it’s put together: what makes…
A decade after the old Mission Center Mall was demolished, the most action that takes place at the Kansas City metro’s most lucrative dirt pile occurs in the courts. Slaggie Architects on May 27 filed a lawsuit in Johnson County District Court against a subsidiary of New York developer the Cameron Group, which owns the old mall site where Shawnee Mission…
Thursday, June 4Jolly Pumpkin La Roja du Kriek and Rozjilla tappings, at the Belfry (1532 Grand). Hermitage Blonde tapping, at Flying Saucer (101 E. 13th St.), 7 p.m. Goose Island takeover, with Sofie, IPA, Summer Ale, and Ogden Belgian Style Tripel, at Waldo Pizza (7433 Broadway). Friday, June 5 Flying Saucer’s 20th anniversary party, at Flying Saucer (101 E. 13th…
As The Pitch first reported in April, Mark James, the embattled chancellor of Metropolitan Community College, was one of the finalists in Park University’s search for a new president. Two weeks ago, according to multiple sources, James indicated to the MCC board of directors that he had been offered the job. The official announcement was to be made the last week of…
Jon Umsted’s sales pitch is irresistible: “Want to try a whole-grain cookie that actually tastes good?” Stopping in my tracks, all but dropping a greenhouse-grown tomato, I accepted a sample of a white-chocolate macadamia-nut cookie. The wholesome treat came straight from the kitchen at Yummylicious Cookie Co., the baking company that Umsted started with his wife, Amber, in 2008. Instead…
Hometown Baysinger: Lawrence Henrich: Overland Park Thompson: Louisburg, Kansas Current neighborhood Baysinger: Barker neighborhood in Lawrence Henrich: Robandee South (I live on 40 acres just east of the Grandview triangle.) Thompson: Lawrence What I do Baysinger: I’m a catalyst. I love to take 10-year plans and turn them into 10-month plans. Henrich: I’m an ideas man who seeks to make…
April 7, the Mission Hills City Council race drew more than 50 percent of the registered voters in that tiny community to the polls. By contrast, only about 10 percent of registered voters showed up to Kansas City, Missouri, polls for the most recent council primary. That’s a shameful electoral failure, especially because the stakes in local government have rarely…
Whether you love Andrew Lloyd Webber or think he’s a Svengali songster controlling minds with earworm hooks, Musical Theater Heritage’s Jesus Christ Superstar stands ready to bolster your belief. The musical has never looked better than it does here, in the hands of director Sarah Crawford, embracing efficiency as an 11th commandment. There’s no dead space between tunes, no frills…
Lily Tomlin’s voice is unmistakable, even over the phone. When I called the comedy legend at her California home, she answered in the slightly nasal voice that made Ernestine, her telephone-operator character from the late-1960s TV series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, so delightfully obnoxious. But the 75-year-old actress is anything but obnoxious in real life. She is frank, good-humored and…
The richest candy in Kansas City isn’t really candy. “It’s really more of a dessert,” Marco Rabello tells me when I ask him about the Brazilian brigadeiro. “It’s almost too rich to be a candy.” Rabello is a reliable source when it comes to describing these sweet, decadent spheres — he’s a São Paolo native, after all. And he’s an…
D’Angelo Oh, how we have longed for D’Angelo to return to our ready arms. Now, the R&B singer-songwriter is back with Black Messiah, 14 years after the release of the iconic Voodoo. For a moment, let’s put aside the negativity attached to D’Angelo’s name in that decade-plus — struggles with alcohol and drugs, stints in rehab, arrests — and just…
The focus of the annual West 18th Street Fashion Show is, as always, the designs spotlighted on the runway. But a dramatic soundtrack elevates those designs. This year, the musicians in the backdrop are fully prepared for the frills and the drama that come with high fashion. New Orleans-based cellist and improviser Helen Gillet returns to the show for the…
It’s not every day that the bass is the standout instrument in a group. But then again, it’s not every day that the bass player is Bill McKemy. The man, who is education director of the American Jazz Museum by day, is as much composer as he is bassist. His compositions and playing are always engaging, smartly riding the edge…
Julian Harper seems a little reserved when we meet for drinks on a weeknight at Harry’s Bar and Tables in Westport, but there’s a good reason. He’s late, and he’s late because he first went to the wrong Harry’s, the one in the City Market. If one can sidle sheepishly, that’s how he approaches the bar to order a Hendrick’s…
Saturday, the Blue Room lineup is bent heavily toward progressive, young groups — a far cry from the normal fare found at the usually staid venue. Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle is well-known to Kansas City jazz fans for original compositions marked by intelligence and wit. The Phantastics — helmed by singer Leigh Gibbs and rapper Kemet Coleman, who…
Last year around this time, Taryn Miller — the Lawrence singer-songwriter who performs as Your Friend — was riding high. She had been signed to the respected New York record label Domino, was earning attention from her rereleased EP Jekyll/Hyde, and had booked a slew of national tour dates that included a run with buzz-heavy Australian artist Courtney Barnett. The…
