Archives: December 2015

Alyssa K. Dinberg, with the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, talks Bagel Bash and more in The Pitch‘s Questionnaire

%{}% 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…

Jazz Beat: Julian Vaughn, at the Gem Theater

%{}% 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…

Music Forecast 12.10-12.16: Crystal Gayle, Tech N9ne, Claire & the Classical Revolution, and Tab Benoit

%{}% %{}% 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…

My Oh My’s A.M. Merker finds comfort in growing older

%{}% %{}% 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….

Josh Berwanger battles demons on his latest EP

%{}% %{}% 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…

Things that make you go d’oh: the Unicorn’s Mr. Burns

%{}% %{}% 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 new Nutcracker is happily maximal

%{}% %{}% 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…

Melanie Johnson shakes you awake at Kiosk

%{}% %{}% 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…

Kansas City returns to its craft-distilling roots

%{}% %{}% 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…

Chiefs Get-in Price $10 On Secondary Market For One Of NFL’s Hottest Teams

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…

EBT Restaurant prepares to blow out the last flambé fires

%{}% 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…

Melanie Martinez is at the Midland in March

%{}% 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…

Overland Park crafts a reasonable TIF policy

%{}% 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…

Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Chorale will go to the Grammys in February

%{}% 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 is at Starlight in July

%{}% 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’s beer is now available in 16-ounce cans

%{}% 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…

Lee’s Summit has its TIF issues, too

%{}% 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…