UPDATE: This is a bummer. We’re hearing word that tonight’s show has been canceled. Mac Sabbath is the world’s only clown-fronted, fast-food themed, Black Sabbath act. There are costumes, a light show and songs, which don’t so much glorify fast food as warn of its dangers. It’s a strange cross between “Weird Al” Yankovic and Michael Pollan, but it works….
Thursday 9.15Director Ron Howard turns his documentary lens on the Beatles, recalling the peak of their 1964-66 fame with the new Eight Days a Week, which opens today at the Tivoli and is available to stream on Hulu starting Saturday. Mostly a chronicling of the band’s touring history, the film features some unseen footage, familiar archival clips and new interviews…
Occupation: Middle school teacher, mom, wife, cross-country coach Twitter handle: @readingvanHometown: Moore, Oklahoma Current neighborhood: North of the river What I do: I try to teach my children (my own three and the other 130 in my classes) to be compassionate, considerate, open-minded and self-sufficient, while I try to stay healthy.What’s your addiction? Coffee, running/walking, Oklahoma Sooners football, Burt’s Bees chapstick What’s your game?…
I’ve always had a soft spot for Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Steve Martin’s eccentric script about the meeting of minds at a 1904 Paris bar. Despite its loose-meat dramatic structure — characters don’t have arcs so much as they exhibit symptoms; waiting-room banter takes the place of urgent communiques — the play is a tirelessly charming mosaic of chance…
In the beginning, there was a nubby purple puppet. Goony-eyed, spiky-haired, with an Elmo-style lemon-wedge smile. His name was Tyrone, and we saw that He was Good. Until, that is, he opened his mouth to praise the virtues of “extracurricular fucking.” So begins Robert Askins’ Hand to God, a gleefully irreverent comedy set in Cypress, Texas, and now playing at…
Yoonmi Nam’s work may be about transience — the fleeting and the impermanent — but she’s enjoying a solid moment in Kansas City right now.Her mokuhanga prints and lithographs of delicate botanical specimens, potted precariously in take-out food containers — a paper coffee cup, a popcorn carton, a styro clamshell — have flown off the walls of Haw Contemporary (1600…
Kansas City’s heavy-metal scene can seem sort of quiet.Unlike punk and hip-hop, two vibrant and growing parts of the city’s musical landscape, metal shows here tend to showcase touring acts, backed by one of a scant few local bands — Troglodyte, EALO, Marasmus, Damned by the Pope, Moire. There’s a (sort of awful) Facebook group dedicated to this topic: Kansas…
Plaza diners, mark your calendars: Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, the Zagat-acclaimed high-end-seafood chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is set to open late next month at 700 West 47th Street, in the space formerly occupied by Ruth’s Chris Steak House. Construction fencing was removed late last week to reveal some of the work that has been done at the site, which…
Josh Berwanger is hanging out in my living room, drinking an iced coffee, expressing admiration for three of the four cats roaming the house. Ostensibly, we’re discussing the reunion of his former band the Anniversary, for which he plays guitar and sings. But we keep getting sidetracked talking about horror movies. “I just found out we’re playing after Gwar at…
Kansas conservatives insist they won’t rest until murderers Jonathan and Reginald Carr are dead and gone. But how will they live without them?The Carr brothers, who without doubt committed the most depraved of crimes, have been an invaluable campaigning weapon in Kansas for years. Now they’re being wielded against four Kansas Supreme Court justices whom conservatives have deemed too liberal.The…
Cinnamon Schultz is no stranger to area stages, and she’s been memorable onscreen, too. (Recall her supporting appearance in the 2010 film Winter’s Bone.) But she redefines herself in a remarkable performance as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, now at Kansas City Actors Theatre. She’s a capital-L Leading Lady, a luminary.“Beauty of the mind, richness of the spirit,…
One last time, let’s clear up a misconception about Michael Crane. The namesake of Crane Brewing Co. doesn’t dislike beer. It’s that he’s admittedly a bit of a lightweight.“I’ve never been a big beer drinker,” Crane tells me one afternoon in the Raytown brewery’s makeshift taproom. “It’s not because I don’t like it. It’s because, even as big as I…
Chance the RapperEverything Chance the Rapper touches seems to turn to gold, and his latest release, Coloring Book, is no exception. A hopeful hip-hop album with complex biblical themes, gospel overtures and a healthy amount of cursing, it establishes Chance — born Chancelor Bennett in Chicago 23 years ago — as one of rap’s most authoritative and promising new voices….
When Congress approved the Interstate Highway Act, in 1956, Kansas City was ready. Five years earlier, the city had developed a plan for a freeway system. “A properly located, well-designed expressway reflects the public spirit, is a source of local pride and provides an inspiration for greater municipal achievement,” the plan stated.Today, it’s easy to wish there had been a…
Bourbon Barrel Quad is in liquor stores now. Go forth and get a four pack of what is now a year-round beer. I had an early sampling at Boulevard’s beer hall, and it’s big and boozy and so good. Border Brewing announces first bottled beerBorder Brewing Co. releases its first bottled beer, Firepit Porter, on Wednesday, September 21. Look for…
I spend a lot of my time indoors. From the always-too-early hour I emerge from my bedroom, looking like one of those “hungover owl” memes, to the moment I return at night, I dash from one air-conditioned box to the next, hardly pausing to notice whether the day is sunny or cloudy, windy or still. But as a lifelong Midwesterner,…
Saxophonist Matt Otto was raised in Los Angeles and spent time in Japan and New York before his wife took a job in Kansas City. He’d never been here before. “I didn’t think there would be a strong cultural element,” he says, “but I was wrong. When I got to Kansas City, I was amazed by the level of musicianship.”…
Kansas City Mayor Sly James and other local officials are urging Missouri lawmakers to reconsider a sweeping bill that eliminates the need to obtain a permit in order to carry a concealed firearm.Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Sharp and others joined James at a news conference at the Rose Brooks Center on Tuesday. At the…
Earlier this summer, The Pitch noted several road-trip worthy music festivals. This past weekend’s Loufest in St. Louis’ Forest Park was at the top of the list for its potential – and ultimately Loufest exceeded even our loftiest expectations. The festival’s headlining acts, which included LCD Soundsystem, Ms. Lauryn Hill and Chris Stapleton, reflected the quality and diversity of the…
A Kansas City, Missouri, police officer who was fired for not calling an ambulance after a pregnant woman complained of pain and bleeding now works for the Independence Police Department.In 2006, Kevin Schnell and his partner stopped a woman named Sofia Salva, on suspicion that her car had a fake temporary license. During the 14-minute stop, Salva said she was…
Jessica Runions, a 21-year-old woman who lives Raymore, has been missing since meeting friends on Thursday night. Early Saturday, police found her SUV, unoccupied and burned, off a road that runs through the Blue River greenway.It has been reported that Runions left the gathering on Thursday with Kylr Yust, the ex-boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky, who vanished in 2007. Kopetsky, then…
John Moreland with Anthony da CostaSunday, September 11, 2016RecordBar John Moreland’s voice is the one you’d want to wake you up to in a time of crisis. He’d shake you gently, with quiet, polite words, utter something like, “Buddy, I’m afraid you’re going to have to get out of this truck. It’s on fire.” It would keep you calm. That’s…
Thousands of vinyl records and CDs, along with vintage and modern audio equipment, await music lovers at Audio-Reader’s annual sale, For Your Ears Only, on Friday and Saturday in Lawrence. Now in its 14th year, the sale benefits the reading and information service for those who cannot read the printed word.The Audio-Reader Network is a public service of the University…
The InterContinental Hotel wants to use state power to hide a price increase.That’s one way to think about the $190-a-night hotel’s desire to establish a community improvement district. Creatures of state law, community improvement districts asses special taxes that property owners within the district can use to repair buildings, plant trees or buy advertising. Shopping centers are heavy CID users.The…
