%{}% Occupation: Engagement and financial resource development program manager, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia Current neighborhood: Westport What I do: I’m a professional connector working to build a vibrant Jewish Kansas City and engage the next generation of leaders and philanthropists. One of the perks of my job is getting to plan the biggest holiday bash…
%{}% Some of the most popular shows in the Jammin’ at the Gem series are those of smooth jazz. Last year, Najee sold every seat. This year’s series opens with jazz that’s as smooth as it gets, headlined by the 6-foot-7-inch bass-guitar-playing son and grandson of Kansas City preachers. Julian Vaughn has been compared with jazz bassist (and former NBA…
%{}% %{}% Tech N9ne The day after Thanksgiving, Tech N9ne released Strangeulation Vol. II. It’s the rap mogul’s 16th studio album, and it features guest spots from several of Tech’s Strange Music signees, including Krizz Kaliko, Ces Cru, Murs and Mayday. In its first week, Strangeulation Vol. II moved more than 24,000 units — not bad for the king of…
%{}% %{}% Parts of Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way sound as though My Oh My could have played Woodstock. There’s the Joe Cocker-inspired opener, “Marianne,” and the acoustic “That’s All Right,” which could have been written by Levon Helm. There’s even a hint of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road-era Elton John in the opening piano chords for “Thief.” Frontman A.M….
%{}% %{}% Shooting music videos is meticulous work, not without some drudgery. I see the exasperation on Josh Berwanger’s face before he starts another take inside the Lawrence Arts Center. The shot calls for him to float on a hoverboard down a dark industrial hallway. Director Jordan Marable is yet not satisfied. He needs more smoke. “Natalie,” he calls to…
%{}% %{}% Do you take ramen seriously enough? I’m not sure that I do, but new circumstances seem ready to reshape my opinion of the kinky wheat-flour noodles that have always reminded me of a bad perm. In U.S. cities bigger than this one, diners no longer think of ramen as a cheap, prepackaged foodstuff, and other parts of the…
%{}% %{}% As a lover of The Simpsons in its heyday, I had high hopes for Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play. But as I left the theater, I couldn’t help recalling something the artist Ed Ruscha once said: Good art should make you say, “Huh? Wow!” — not the reverse. The Unicorn’s dizzyingly creative production, co-produced with UMKC…
%{}% %{}% The Kansas City Ballet’s spectacular reboot of The Nutcracker is incontrovertible proof that anything is possible with passion, dedication and a $2 million budget. The company’s artistic director, Devon Carney, has made the holiday classic a snow-dipped, candied Christmas dream, with an all-new staging that restores much of Tchaikovsky’s score and a production design that’s heavy on Victorian…
%{}% %{}% To watch someone sleep is to balance between adoration and obsession — the same narrow yet peaceful perch where Melanie Johnson has painted “So That the Universe Comes Out Even.” In the canvases that make up her oil diptych — part of her Kiosk Gallery exhibition, titled Sleep — dream logic overtakes perspective, distorting the depth of field…
%{}% %{}% Bluestem bar manager Andrew Olsen stocks some 250 different spirits. They crowd the shelf above the bar: some familiar faces, quite a few that are perhaps not as well-known. Olsen has memorized them all. For some — his favorites — he has a story to tell. Ask him about the first time that he met James Russell, the…
They’ve come this far, so why stop now? The Kansas City Chiefs have erased all leftover signs of a poor first half of the season and continued their win tally this past Sunday, winning their sixth straight game against the Oakland Raiders at O.co Coliseum. The Chiefs were down seven points at halftime but outscored the Raiders 27-6 in the…
%{}% Bittersweet but not surprising — such was last week’s announcement that EBT Restaurant, a south Kansas City fixture for 36 years, would close following New Year’s Eve. With scarce exception, fine dining — starched linens, starchier service — is a dinosaur in this market. The customers who avidly supported EBT in its heyday have, for the most part, passed…
%{}% If you’re a fan of The Voice, you likely remember Melanie Martinez from the show’s third season. If you’re too good for that show, there’s still a good chance you were introduced to Martinez with her debut full-length, Cry Baby, released in August. If you like your synth pop with a side of sad, delivered by breathy vocals, Martinez’s particular…
%{}% Tax-increment financing has been at the forefront of local news for the first time since former Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser successfully made it a campaign issue in the 2007 election. Funkhouser, as Kansas City’s auditor, had issued blistering reports prior to his short political career about how TIF money wasn’t being properly tracked and how the development tool…
%{}% This year, KKFI 90.1 is changing its annual holiday auction: Rather than online, the auction will be live this year — and it will take place at Ollie’s Local on Saturday, December 12. “I don’t feel like it fulfills our mission to put people in front of their computers more, rather than putting them in front of music and…
%{}% Big news for fans of Kansas City’s already impressive classical-music scene. Yesterday, when the nominees for the 58th annual Grammy Awards were announced, both the Kansas City Symphony and the Kansas City Chorale grabbed spots. The Symphony, conducted by Michael Stern, was nominated for Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3, ‘Organ’ in the Best Engineered Album, Classical, category. For the Kansas City Symphony…
%{}% Duran Duran, English rock legends of the ’80s, brought the classic lineup — Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor — back to life in 2001. In September, the band released its third album of the new millennium, Paper Gods, which featured a slew of guest appearances, including one from our own Janelle Monáe. In support of Paper…
%{}% Cinder Block Brewery is going aluminum. The North Kansas City brewery is now selling four-packs of 16-ounce cans ($8.99) of the core beer lineup. Available now and exclusively at the brewery (110 East 18th Avenue, NKC) — and in limited supplies because, as owner Bryce Schaffter reminds us, “We’re not Budweiser” — are Paver’s Porter, Northtown Native, Rivet Rye, Block…
%{}% Last week, Kansas City Mayor Sly James reached out to Kansas City Public Schools interim superintendent Al Tunis. Both men want to figure out a better way to handle tax-increment financing issues. That conversation has occurred under the backdrop of a weeks-long debate over philanthropist Shirley Helzberg’s request for $5 million worth of TIF to defray the costs of…
