Thursday 7.21Work shmerk. Stay home and get pumped for tomorrow’s big release of Star Trek Beyond by streaming all six of the original Enterprise crew’s Star Trek movies (1979-91) for free on Amazon Prime. Yeesh. On second thought, stick to the acknowledged best of the bunch: the 1982 thriller, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. For pure Hollywood fun…
Twitter handle: @ejpkcHometown: Miami Beach, FloridaCurrent neighborhood: Lee’s SummitWhat I do: I build relationships and connect people to the resources they need to be successful.What’s your addiction? Coca–ColaWhat’s your game? Monopoly. I always win.What’s your drink? Vodka press/white RussianWhere’s dinner? Pierpont’sWhat’s on your KC postcard? The view of downtown when headed south on 169 before crossing the Broadway Bridge.Finish these…
Pat Sandman sits at the bar at Calibration Brewery (119 Armour Road, North Kansas City). His rubber boots and scruffy beard give him away, although today he’s not wearing his usual Royals hat. He’s bellied up, finishing a late-afternoon lunch, less than a week after Calibration’s mid-June opening.Calibration owner Glen Stinson hired Sandman away from 75th Street Brewery earlier this…
The 2016 KC Fringe Festival could be an exercise in distraction or frustration, with its smorgasbord of 108 or more acts spread over eight (alphabetical) categories: cabaret, comedy, dance, film, music, spoken word, theater (with the largest number of offerings) and variety. How to choose? As Fringe executive producer Cheryl Kimmi commiseratively said at one of the recent previews, you…
The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department has announced that Capt. Robert Melton was shot and killed in the line of duty Tuesday afternoon. He was 46.The KCKPD says Melton responded to an armed disturbance at Second Street and Edgerton Drive around 1:33 p.m., after a caller said he was being shot at by several people in a vehicle. Melton and…
The sad new just keeps streaming out of Kansas.Last week, I reported in this space that the state had lost its eligibility to receive funding and programs for the arts from Mid-America Arts Alliance. Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget provides only the bare minimum to keep the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission in existence, with less than $200,000 for the year…
Drake and FutureDrake might be the world’s most sensitive, self-conscious rapper. He’s probably the only person who could take albums filled with lyrics so fixated on his own shortcomings and doubts (see: Views) and turn them into global hits. Why do we listen to this guy, anyway? Maybe it’s his gleaming smile, letting us know that he’s all right, even…
On July 26, 2015, Kevin Williams preached his last sermon as the senior pastor at Tri-City Baptist Church in Independence.Williams, who was leaving for a similar position at a church in Edmonton, Alberta, acknowledged Tri-City’s delicate financial position in his parting message. He told the worshipers he was was excited to watch the flock “as you look to the Lord…
Even against the yardstick of his own scary achievements, Kris Kobach is having quite a month.He just finished stamping his hate-filled brand of conservatism onto the national Republican Party Platform. The fantasy of a wall along the Mexican border, an ongoing resistance to same-sex marriage, the insistence on unrestrained access to assault weapons — these Kobachian hallmarks are on their…
Bread & Butter Concepts has dropped its plan to open G. Berto Cucina in the Westwood Development at 47th Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard. The restaurant company, which is completing the buildout of its upcoming Stock Hill Steakhouse on the Plaza as well as developing the Cherry Hill events center in the Crossroads and a new BRGR Kitchen and Bar in…
Mills Record Co. feels like a Westport institution, even though the shop first opened next to Dave’s Stagecoach in May 2013. Less than a year and a half later, the shop expanded into a former vape store next door, doubling its size. Now, a couple of months after its third anniversary, Mills has moved into a much bigger space, around…
By Ron KnoxOn a recent Friday in the Crossroads, Mikey Wheeler executed his usual high-wire act. Performing with his band, Coward, he switched between two not particularly similar instruments, drums and guitar. In close-knit DIY music scenes, it’s not uncommon to see one musician switch instruments between sets — playing bass in one band and drums in another, for example….
There’s something aggressively good for you about Enjoy Pure Food + Drink, the new health-conscious café in Leawood’s Mission Farms (10573 Mission Road). The name alone is more directive than proper noun: You will sit down, you will eat this baby kale drizzled with house-made balsamic vinaigrette and you will damn well like it.Vibrant and well-lighted, the cozy space feels…
The Texas Tenor follows a jazz tradition of a rich, full-bodied tenor saxophone voice embraced by musicians from the Lone Star state. Recall Arnette Cobb, David “Fathead” Newman, and the Count Basie Orchestra’s Buddy Tate. Add to this list Houston native Kyle Turner, who may not be a household name, even in jazz circles, but whose blues-inspired, smooth sound floats…
Jensen Walcott and Jake Reed, the Bonner Springs high school students who became heroes for equal pay after being fired from a pizza shop for discussing their wages, will speak at the Democratic National Convention on the same night as Hillary Clinton.Clinton’s campaign released a list of “everyday Americans” who will take the stage at the convention in Philadelphia next…
The Invasion — Central Standard Theatre’s annual international festival — is starting to wind down, with Fringe Festival about to open. But there are some winning shows among these collaborations from England, Northern Ireland, Canada, France and the United States. Three of the six are reprises, so audiences have a second chance to see performances that can be inventive, smart,…
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is a “blight on true democracy,” according to a New York Times editorial published Monday. Titled “Kansas Zealot Helps Shape the G.O.P.’s Right-Wing Platform,” the unsparing editorial notes Kobach’s efforts to write “extremist positions” on immigration, guns and same-sex marriage into the Republican party platform. The Times also criticizes Kobach for recent actions that may…
The police tape was removed, and traffic moved freely along the street where Gavin Eugene Long, the 29-year-old ex-Marine identified as the man who killed three police officers and wounded three others in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, lived in Kansas City, Missouri.Investigators say Long, who was killed by police, was targeting police officers when he opened fire near a shopping center…
In a recent Wall Street Journal piece titled “Public Radio’s Existential Crisis,” journalist Ellen Gamerman discussed the aging of public radio’s listener base, as well as its most popular show hosts. Carl Kasell stopped being the announcer on Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! in 2014, Garrison Keillor recently retired as host of the long-running A Prairie Home Companion, Diane Rehm…
The Kansas City Star this week rejected online advertising from a group that works to protect abortion providers from harassment and violence.The Feminist Majority Foundation has launched a campaign in response to anti-abortion activism that will take place in Wichita in the coming days. Operation Save America, a Texas-based Christian fundamentalist group, has planned a week of activities to mark…
Tanisha Davis, her face mostly hidden under a red baseball cap, grips a brush and strokes the coat of a Siberian husky named Smokey. White fur glides to the floor. Littermate Homie waits his turn in a crate in the next room. Across the room, Danielle Simpson works on another dog. The two women would like to open their own…
Admit it: You don’t always like everything about KC. But you still know what you love about our landlocked metro, and this is the time of year when we at The Pitch ask you to help your fellow citizens remember those things. It’s time to vote. You know who makes the best pizza, who cuts your hair perfectly, which local…
This morning, the White House announced that it has invited the World Series champions Royals to visit with President Obama and the White House staff on Thursday, July 21. The White House issued the announcement via social media this morning, in a video starring Kansas City native and White House press secretary Josh Earnest. It’s kind of everything.%{}% Categories: News…
In a state where the governor has no qualms about cutting Medicaid — an action that “saves” the budget $57.4 million but leads to losing $72 million in federal funding — it’s no surprise to hear that art is getting shortchanged. By a lot.That doesn’t mean screwing lids onto paint tubes for a while. It actually affects people.Last fiscal year,…
