%{}% In 2002, Vanessa Carlton released her debut full-length, Be Not Nobody. Unless you were indisposed for all of that year, you’ll recall the album’s leading single, “A Thousand Miles.” Carlton was a ripe 20 years old when that record was certified platinum, and she was nominated for several Grammy Awards. More than a decade later, none of Carlton’s subsequent…
%{}% More workers in the United States are expected to receive payroll cards than actual paper paychecks in 2015, according to the National Consumer Law Center. Payroll cards work basically like a debit card. You can use them anywhere credit cards are accepted, or withdraw cash with them from an ATM. They’re also the preferred payroll instrument for workers who make…
%{}% When Jo Marie Scaglia — proprietor of the metro’s three Mixx restaurants — opened her most recent operation, earlier this year, in Hawthorne Plaza (at 11942 Roe in Overland Park), she installed a bakery kitchen in a corner of the new facility. “And then I realized that I was going to need to hire a full-time baker,” Scaglia says….
%{}% It was a sad day in September when the Local Pig’s Westport restaurant closed, but bartender Erik Mariscal had been absent from the venue for a few months before then. After a brief stint at the Jacobson, Mariscal has found a new nest: the Homesteader Cafe, at 100 East Seventh Street, which opened in September — at the height…
%{}% As this week’s issue goes to press, following the Royals’ exhilarating postseason and era-defining World Series win, all capped by Tuesday’s downtown parade and Union Station rally, it’s hard to imagine coming down from this metrowide surge of Kansas City spirit. Certainly not before this weekend’s First Friday, when favorable weather and a bountiful slate of exhibitions — photography…
%{}% For 18 months after the restaurant space at 1513 Grand changed hands, work went on, but the new place kept not opening. Se Asian Bistro it was meant to be called, something different at the address that was for three decades home to Willy Cafe, one of the first restaurants in the metro to serve both Chinese and Thai…
%{}% You may be aware that the University of Missouri-Kansas City intends to build a new arts campus in the Crossroads district, which will be the home of the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. In 2013, the college received a $20 million challenge gift from the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation, and in 2014 anonymous individuals donated downtown real estate to…
%{}% Snow & Co. celebrates four years of business today, and the company has decided to offer a few specials to mark the occasion. Now through Sunday, November 15, you can stop into both the Crossroads and the Gladstone locations for a $2.99 Boulevard pint — current taps include the season Snow & Tell, Boulevard Wheat, KC Pils and Single…
%{}% Get a good base; you’re going to need it Saturday. The fifth annual Strong Ale Beer Festival takes place from 1 to 5 p.m. in the streets of Westport (outside McCoy’s Public House at 4057 Pennsylvania), and you won’t find a beer among the more than 70 offerings here with an ABV lower than 8 percent. Tickets cost $40…
%{}% Chef and restaurateur Shanita McAfee has never buckled under a challenge. Three years ago, when McAfee — a former professional financial adviser — opened her first restaurant, Magnolia’s Catering & Cafe, in a cramped building at 2932 Cherry, there were naysayers who didn’t believe that contemporary and innovative adaptations of classic Southern American cuisine would fly in such an offbeat…
%{}% If you’ve scoured the Internet at 3 a.m. looking for a last-minute Halloween costume or a clever Royals T-shirt, you’re aware that shopping while drinking can lead to some interesting impulse buys. Saturday, get offline, grab a beer and join us for a shopping spree during the third annual Crafts & Drafts festival. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.,…
%{}% Tuesday’s World Series celebration parade for the Kansas City Royals was a stunning affair. Observers from near and far marveled at the turnout. There were some obstacles, mostly logistical ones for people getting into town for the spectacle. Various reports suggest barely any incidents of crime or wrongdoing. It was all quite impressive for a gathering of anywhere between…
%{}% Chef Josh Eans is some kind of hero to those of us who love sodium. The co-owner of the Columbus Park Ramen Shop knows just the beer to pair with his salty, spicy noodles: a salty and tart gose. That’s the latest collaboration between Eans and 4 Hands Brewing Co.: the recently released Preserved Lemon Gose. “It’s a really…
%{}% %{}% Admit it: When the Houston Astros held a four-run lead over the Kansas City Royals in Game 4 of the ALDS, you thought it was over. Everybody thought it was over. It was the eighth inning, after all, and the Royals had — according to a widely circulated FanGraphs analysis — a 1.6 percent chance of winning. Kendrys…
%{}% %{}% Here’s a preview of a busy offseason for the Royals’ front office, fresh off a World Series championship. Johnny Cueto Kansas City gave up quite a bit to land Cueto at the trade deadline. After toiling earlier in the season for the last-place Cincinnati Reds, Cueto proved to be erratic and inconsistent for a starting pitcher of his…
%{}% %{}% Let it be noted in the history books that during the break before the top of the ninth inning in Game 5 of the 2015 World Series — in the friendly confines of the Hi Dive Lounge, when the New York Mets were up 2-0 on the Kansas City Royals, and there was so little hope or momentum…
%{}% %{}% When Casino Royale revived the James Bond series, in 2006, with Daniel Craig as the sixth big-screen incarnation of the superspy, the change in tone was so significant, and so exciting, that it briefly seemed 007 would never be the same again. Every fight would be more brutal, every conflict more urgent, every romance more involved. Since then,…
%{}% When Megan Birdsall sings, you never know who might show up. Even as she prepares to release a new album from her Americana ensemble, MBird, her roots in jazz remain deep. Her exquisite, personal vision of the American songbook and her jazz-infused takes on contemporary pop make her a standout talent. Whether bounding with delight through “This Can’t Be…
%{}% %{}% Vanessa Carlton In 2002, Vanessa Carlton released her debut full-length, Be Not Nobody. Unless you were indisposed for all of that year, you’ll recall the album’s leading single, “A Thousand Miles.” Carlton was a ripe 20 years old when that record was certified platinum, and she was nominated for several Grammy Awards. More than a decade later, none…
%{}% %{}% Up to this point, JoJo’s musical career has read like a cautionary tale. In 2004, at 13 years old, she became the youngest solo recording artist in the country to have a No. 1 single, with the R&B hit “Leave (Get Out).” She followed up a strong debut album with The High Road in 2006, and then —…
%{}% %{}% When Dwight Frizzell released Beyond the Black Crack, in 1976, very few people heard it. Only 200 copies were pressed, all of them made for people who had ordered ahead of time. Fewer still understood it. The 50-minute work is a hyperextended flexing of avant-garde muscle: free jazz, improvisational sound, noise collage. Listening to the tracks now —…
%{}% %{}% For the past three years, Kian Byrne has been living what many musicians might call the dream. As drummer, bassist and mandolinist for long-running Irish folk band the Elders, he tours the United States and Europe, playing well-paying gigs that ensure his living as an artist. It’s a career that, these days, is hard to come by, and…
