Archives: January 2016
Ron White has two shows at the Midland in July
Ol’ “Tater Salad” himself returns to the Midland in July with two shows. You’ll recall Ron White from his run in the early aughts with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour (which also featured Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy) as the cigar-smoking, squinty-eyed Texan. White has two shows at the Midland on Friday, July 8 — one at 6:30…
Ryan Bingham revitalized the crowd at a sold-out Madrid Theatre last night
Ryan Bingham with Bird Dog Madrid Theatre Sunday, January 24 Deep in his heart of hearts, in spite of his black cowboy hat and “born in ‘em” boots, Ryan Bingham is a rocker. His music has plenty of country edges (and so do his fans), and his voice still carries 14 pounds of New Mexico grit in every syllable. That…
Brian Wilson celebrates Pet Sounds anniversary with world tour, stops at the Kauffman Center in July
The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds turns 50 this year, and to celebrate, the legendary Brian Wilson will be reuniting with former bandmates Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin for a world tour with over 70 dates. The Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary World Tour will be the final time Wilson performs the iconic album, according to a press release. Wilson stops at…
Stan Lee is coming to Planet Comicon
The mind behind the Marvel Universe is coming to Planet Comicon. Stan Lee is slated to be at the three-day convention, held May 20-22, at Bartle Hall. Lee headlines a lineup of special guests that includes Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica), Jason Mewes (almost every Kevin Smith movie ever made), Jerry “The King” Lawler (wrestling legend), Jason Aaron (Star Wars writer)…
Is the Walmart at Mission Gateway a pizza or a plate of flounder for Mission residents?
For Mission resident Andy Sandler, getting a Walmart at Mission Gateway is like sending a friend out to fetch a pizza and having that friend come back with a flounder to feed the party. “It’s a rotting fish,” Sandler said of the Mission Gateway plan before the Mission City Council on Wednesday. “It stinks.” Sandler pointed out what many already…
Kurt Vile is at the Granada in April
Rockstar/modern poet Kurt Vile has just expanded his North American tour in support of his latest album, the September-released b’lieve i’m going down. Vile stops at the Granada in Lawrence on Friday, April 8 (and, if you feel like trekking to Columbia, he’ll be at the Blue Note on Monday, April 11). Tickets are on sale now. Details here. Categories:…
Missouri House gives early approval to voter ID legislation, shoots down Brandon Ellington’s amendment to include ‘voter suppression’ in its title
Missouri House Republicans, by and large, think there’s a problem with people illegally voting in elections. And they’re not totally wrong. Among them walks a lawmaker, Kansas City Rep. John Rizzo, who won a 2010 election by a single vote. A couple relatives of his cast votes in that election, even though they didn’t live in the district. Voter fraud…
KC Bier Co. Doppel Alt release parties, Crane Brewing launch events and more craft-beer events
Thursday, January 21 Second Shift tap takeover, at Bier Station (120 E. Gregory Blvd.), 5 p.m. Crane Brewing tap takeover, at Rock & Run & Brewery (110 E. Kansas St., Liberty), 7 p.m. Summit tasting, at Hy-Vee (301 N.E. Rice Rd., Lee’s Summit), 4-7 p.m. Free beer with a new or gently used board game or book donation, at Double…
Gillian Helm, Literacy Kansas City executive director, talks books, Royals, investing in education and more in The Pitch Questionnaire
Twitter handle: @gshelm Hometown: Lincoln, Nebraska Current neighborhood: West Plaza What I do: Lead Literacy KC, a growing nonprofit with a crucial mission. Snuggle baby, Case, play ball with toddler, Griffin, high-five my brilliant hubs, run, read and eat good food. What’s your addiction? Stove-popped popcorn in olive oil. Peanut butter. Smelling my babies’ skin. Biting my fingernails. DIY and…
Cask him anything: República’s Scott Tipton talks fortified wine
Scott Tipton warns me, as he pulls down a trio of dainty, patterned Nick and Nora glasses from the high shelves behind República’s bar, that he is no expert on sherry. I think maybe he’s getting there, though. He’ll tell you offhandedly that he’s been known to take down a bottle of Fino with a friend or two in a…
Magnolia’s reconstructs itself — and regional cuisine — out south
Shanita McAfee-Bryant bristles when fans of her first restaurant — which outgrew its space in a rapidly gentrifying urban neighborhood before she could find new quarters — ask her: “Why here?” She did indeed choose an unexpected zip code for Magnolia’s Contemporary Southern Cuisine, which reopened a couple of months ago in the relative exile of 99th Street and Holmes…
Your week in film, TV and beyond. This week: The X-Files
Wednesday 1.20 Season two of the post-WWII spy series Marvel’s Agent Carter premiered on ABC last night. Didn’t DVR it? Find it on demand today. Unlike its dreary network-TV counterpart, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Carter isn’t burdened with setting up the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which leaves Hayley Atwell to battle atomic-age threats and sexism in breezy fashion. Thursday…
Music Forecast: City and Colour, Yes You Are, Half Moon Run, Whitey Morgan
City and Colour Dallas Green begins his latest album, October’s If I Should Go Before You, with an epic nine-minute jam called “Woman.” It’s a slow-burning ode to his lady, and he delivers the grandiose professions of love — Woman, my love is neverending, like a sea without a shore — amid sizzling guitar lines, creating a post-apocalyptic soundscape that…
Milkdrop opens up about his faith and his latest release
It took John-Alan Suter five years to arrive at his latest album, Poet at Heart, which was released in the waning days of 2015. That half-decade, he is quick to say, shouldn’t give his work extra weight. Poet at Heart is not his magnum opus; he regards it more as a debut. Suter, who performs as Milkdrop, has had plenty…
Jazz Beat: Brett Jackson Quartet, at Green Lady Lounge
Brett Jackson’s quartet has played occasional gigs at the Green Lady Lounge. But starting this month, it takes over the late show there each Thursday. Jackson preforms both tenor and the far less commonly heard baritone sax (occasionally flute, too), and his rich tone flows through solos that are alternately dynamic deliciously sinuous. He’s one of the stars of the…
Anomalisa is Charlie Kaufman’s loneliest (and smallest) movie yet
Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa doesn’t have the sprawling scope of his last feature, 2008’s Synecdoche, New York. It doesn’t have the same faint glint of hopeful sentimentality as 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which Kaufman wrote but did not direct. Anomalisa is something altogether more microcosmic, more self-contained and more lonesome — more of those Kaufman hallmarks than anything…
Nerds of Nostalgia takes its podcast out of the basement and into Tapcade
The nerds are out of the basement. Over the past year, Greg Dedrick and Jenius McGee have taken their Nerds of Nostalgia podcast above ground and in front of audiences. That’s not a worn-out trope: Nerds of Nostalgia (along with horror-focused spin-off, Nightmare Junkhead) is recorded in the basement of Dedrick’s Pendleton Heights home. On the podcast, Dedrick and McGee…
At the Living Room, an effective Pontypool dials up the blood
If you’re looking for Broadway belting or Shakespearean saber-rattling, you can take your pick from a handful of local theaters. But if you want to watch someone bite into a battery and projectile vomit blood, you go to the Living Room. The theater is enjoying a banner season of high-grade camp. In October, the gory Chainsaw: The Musical painted the…
Actor and director Mark Robbins finds beauty and connection in his work
Mark Robbins is one of those actors who lends marquee appeal to local shows. Even if he may not think so. “I have no indication that I have an actual following,” Robbins told The Kansas City Star in 2012. “I don’t even see any quantifiable reason for people to be more inclined to come see a show because I’m in…
Gov. Sam Brownback says privatized Medicaid is working in Kansas, but some patients and hospitals don’t see it
Finn Bullers spent his 52nd birthday and this past Christmas in the intensive-care unit at Shawnee Mission Medical Center. He wasn’t sick — not beyond the daily ailments that accompany the Prairie Village man’s muscular dystrophy and diabetes, anyway. But he had nowhere else to go. Bullers can’t survive on his own. He relies on a ventilator to breathe and…
Find The Pitch
