Devoting more than a sentence or two to complaining about our wheezy daily paper’s ugly addiction to slack-jawed homepage clickbait would defeat the purpose. The point of such a gripe, after all, is to remind the layoff bunker over on Grand that the list of important stories available to report on locally, or tear off the national wire for much-needed…
In one of the more unexpected concert announcements lately, Lionel Richie plans a Sprint Center stop on April 16 — with special guest Mariah Carey, who hasn’t toured the United States since 2010 and historically hasn’t paid many visits to KC.The tour is named “All the Hits” (there are a lot of them), and tickets go on sale at 10…
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were slated to play Kansas City in June 2014, but canceled that date to pick up a slot at the legendary Red Rocks venue in Colorado. It was disappointing (but understandable; one cannot compete with that venue) — yet we will not have to wait much longer for a local date. The iconic band has…
Although it is set among a group of working-class friends and family in a small Massachusetts fishing town, the third movie from writer-director Kenneth Lonergan in 17 years is an epic. It’s not monumental in the traditional way — with sweeping landscape shots or complicated set pieces featuring scores of costumed extras — but rather in its wide scope of…
To those feeling crusty about PC culture, fear not: The Music Hall has an antidote. For the next four days, the Broadway tour of The Book of Mormon is here to evangelize to Kansas City audiences. And If you’re not easily offended, you’ll have a pretty great time.The Tony Award-winning musical puts the outrageous parody and irreverent gags of South…
Maxwell and Mary J. BligeMaxwell and Mary J. Blige are calling their co-headlining run the “King and Queen of Hearts Tour,” and that name seems apt. Of course, Maxwell and Blige rule hearts in different ways. The former is a neo-soul singer with a voice that is all silk and warm honey; his fans melt at the sound. The latter…
Occupation: KCTV Channel 5 senior executive producer of news and investigations Twitter handle: @amandapalumboHometown: Grand Prairie, TexasCurrent neighborhood: Overland Park.What I do (in fewer than 140 characters): I manage content, producers, reporters and our investigative team. Forty percent of it’s telling Brad Stephens, “No. You can’t do that.”What’s your addiction? Sour Patch Kids. They burn the taste buds off your…
Twenty-six-year old Cécile McLorin Salvant started singing jazz less than a decade ago. She learned piano while growing up in Miami, then moved to France to study law and voice. Her original emphasis in the latter was classical and baroque, but a teacher introduced her to jazz. Now, she sings with a hint of Sarah Vaughan but delights in a…
Thursday, December 8Writer-director George Miller has wanted to release a black-and-white Mad Max movie ever since The Road Warrior debuted, in 1981. Following the enormous critical and box-office success of last year’s visceral Mad Max Fury Road, he finally gets his wish. The Screenland Armour is showing the director’s preferred cut, Mad Max Fury Road: Black and Chrome Edition, tonight…
Those curious about An Octoroon, the Unicorn Theatre’s latest production, need only consult the theater’s breezy tagline: “Slave auctions! Exploding steamboats! Racial politics?”Including that punctuation. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ marriage of 19th-century melodrama and modern metatheatrics premiered in 2014 to untempered critical acclaim. But the Unicorn’s lively production — helmed by director Damron Russel Armstrong — earns accolades all its own. The play…
Defiance Brewing Co.’s Awesomeness Batch Number 3 should hit shelves this week. The double IPA, sold in four-packs of 16-ounce cans, marks the third anniversary for the Hays, Kansas, brewery.Torn Label Brewing Company (1708 Campbell) has created Old Believer, a Russian imperial stout that tops 11 percent ABV. It’s available on draft and in 22-ounce bottles. But your big-beer experience…
Amazon calls its warehouses “fulfillment centers,” a circumlocution that captures the rush many shoppers get when they use the service to make a purchase.For Amazon customers who live in Missouri, the thrill of scoring deals with a click or a swipe comes with a bonus: no sales taxes collected at checkout. Amazon is building new fulfillment centers at a rapid…
One of Missouri’s most powerful elected officials announced December 1 that the mistreatment of dozens of Missouri Department of Corrections employees — reported in a recent story in The Pitch — will be investigated.“The problems uncovered within many of the state’s correctional facilities are extremely concerning and merit a thorough investigation of the department’s practices,” Rep. Todd Richardson, speaker of…
Jennifer Mays has acted and sung alongside nationally known talents. She has appeared on stages around town — the New Theatre, Kansas City Actors Theatre, the Coterie, the Rep — and outside KC. And she has danced on sheep poop (about which, more in a moment). This month, though, she goes it alone in the one-person Application Pending at the…
Summit Grill has significantly expanded its footprint in the Waldo area, having now officially moved into the former 75th Street Brewery space (520 West 75th Street). A new ramen restaurant — Boru Ramen, also owned by Summit restaurateurs Andy Lock and Domhnall Molloy — will open in the former Summit Space (500 West 75th Street) in January.Summit’s new, 340-seat location…
On Tuesday, November 29, about 500 people stood at midfield under the lights at Bishop Ward High School’s football stadium. There was no game scheduled. The gathering was to mourn the death of Louis Scherzer, who had been gunned down two days prior outside Chicago’s Bar, at Sixth Street and Central in Kansas City, Kansas.Scherzer, a 2005 Ward graduate, worked…
In close-up — and in extreme slow motion — a handful of obese, nude women stare directly into your eyes. They blow kisses and pucker their gaudy red lips over Max Richter’s neoclassical music. One of them clutches an American flag. Another waves sparklers. They wear marching-band hats and boots, but the focus is clearly on the slow-motion ripples and…
This summer, a lawyer for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services responded to a genealogy group’s request for birth and death records. The lawyer said fulfilling the Sunshine Law request would require 35,604 hours of staff time and cost $1.49 million.A few days later, another lawyer at the department sent Reclaim the Records, the nonprofit genealogy group, a revised…
Earlier this year, a federal grand jury indicted Paul Danny Gosserand on charges of conspiracy cocaine distribution. Gosserand pleaded guilty in August. Today, he was sentenced, according to the Star.The charges stem from a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation conducted in 2011, not long after Gosserand moved Danny’s Big Easy, his restaurant and blues venue, to the 18th and Vine District….
The punks have been busy as hell lately. We’ve got three punk-rock videos this month from Lawrence’s Stiff Middle Fingers, Springfield’s Out of Step, and Kansas City’s American Dischord. For those who like their music a little less confrontational, we also have the first official video from Emmaline Twist, as well as last week’s Neil Young tribute at Knuckleheads, in…
Keith Carnes, who was convicted in 2003 of murder, should receive a new trial because the prosecution’s two star witnesses have recanted their testimony, according to a motion recently filed in Jackson County Circuit Court by Carnes’ attorney, Kent E. Gipson.New evidence of police and prosecutorial misconduct, and new witnesses who say Carnes was not the killer, would result in…
Boulevard has given us a shot of hope (or at least a good balm) for the rapidly dawning Trump 2017 — its release schedule for the next 12 months was announced today, and there is much to like. Most notably, in addition to its existing stable, the brewery is planning to launch 13 new beers. Yes, that’s a lot of…
Wynton MarsalisWynton Marsalis is a giant: Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, nine-time Grammy Award–winning trumpeter, sought-after jazz expert. There’s probably no more-qualified human to be the artistic director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra — and so Marsalis is that, too. It’s this ensemble, a force of 15 top-notch players, which Marsalis leads here Thursday night, along with celebrated jazz singer…
On Wednesday, The Kansas City Star published an “As I See It” by Jeremy Cady, the Missouri director of Americans for Prosperity. Cady used the opportunity to encourage U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt to repeal Obamacare, rein in spending and stop enriching “special interests.”The endblurb to Cady’s column describes Americans for Prosperity as a “right-leaning grassroots organization.” In fact, Americans for…
