Archives: February 2017

Jazz Beat: Robert Glasper at the Folly

Larry Kopitnik,

Robert Glasper is part of the new century’s jazz vanguard: He has performed with bassist Christian McBride and trumpeters Terence Blanchard and Roy Hargrove, and among his own albums, 2012’s Black Radio won a Grammy. That award was for Best R&B Album, and indeed the keyboardist and composer weds jazz with R&B, neo-soul and hip-hop. In 2015, he released a…
Movies

Toni Erdmann’s mix of corporate farce and family drama adds up to high art

In Toni Erdmann, the German-Austrian movie nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, a desperate and lonely father tries to jolt his careerist daughter out of what he sees as her soul-destroying complacency. Sounds heavy, right?It is — but mostly it isn’t.Writer-director Maren Ade’s film is a tragi-comedy, yes. It’s also beautiful and unique — art of a high…

Sting, Hippo Campus and P.O.S. lead a bouncy concert week

Natalie Gallagher,

STINGThe new 57th & 9th marks a welcome return to form for Sting, sufferer of such recent misfortunes as a Broadway flop and an unrequited lute fetish. But the album — named for the New York cross streets where the studio at which it was recorded is located — isn’t a nostalgic indulgence. It’s a brisk, 37-minute collection of snarling…

HBO tells you Big Little Lies, Brazil is truer than ever, The Detour gets back on the road, and Toni Erdmann ist sehr gut

Thursday, February 16He wrote two starkly honest memoirs that received heaps of critical praise and became chummy with Bono and Courtney Love. He was a 16-year-old androgynous HIV-positive male prostitute. Except he wasn’t. He didn’t exist.%{}%The 2016 documentary Author: The JT Leroy Story, directed by Jeff Feuerzeig (The Devil and Daniel Johnston), is available to stream today for Amazon Prime…
Questionnaire

Adam Gnade, fiction writer, only drinks when the work is over — and tells The Pitch Questionnaire that the work is ‘rarely over’

David Martin,

Instagram handle: @adamgnade. I don’t post often but I try to kick ass and take names when I do.Hometown: San Diego, California, though I’m a long time gone.Current neighborhood: The towns I live nearest are Lansing and Leavenworth, but I’m not within the limits of either. I live out in the country, on a farm. Unincorporated land.What I do (in…
Art

State of the World, at H&R Block Artspace, raises a hopeful flag

Annie Raab,

Yara Said, a Syrian artist, can be counted among the world’s 65 million refugees. She found asylum in Amsterdam, and was approached to design a flag for the 2016 summer Olympics. The first team of refugee athletes had come to compete in the Rio Games with no flag to march behind and no national anthem to play. Said took inspiration…
Food & Drink

Lidia Bastianich details her early life as a refugee and immigrant

April Fleming,

There is the familiar story of Italian-food empress Lidia Bastianich, who established her namesake Kansas City outpost nearly 20 years ago, in 1998. Her television shows and cookbooks are ubiquitous, her six restaurants successful, and her three Eataly retail locations — operated in partnership with her son, Joe Bastianich, and fellow celebrity chef Mario Batali — draw pilgrims from all…

The effort to exonerate Lamonte McIntyre raises questions about whether the KCK police department tolerated a detective’s sexual misconduct

David Martin,

Roger Golubski, a former homicide detective in Kansas City, Kansas, had a reputation for cultivating informants. The department’s current chief, Terry Zeigler, was Golubski’s partner for a time. Zeigler says it was not uncommon for Golubski to call in the middle of the night to discuss a new lead he had developed.“Roger was very well known in the community,” Zeigler…

Chance, Future and Migos are coming to KC

David Hudnall,

Chance the Rapper had a big night on Sunday, taking home Grammys for Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Album. The 23-year-old Chicago emcee also gave a gospel-infused performance:%{}%It increasingly looks as though this is the year Chance reaches top-tier hip-hop stardom, and today he announced an arena tour in line with those ambitions. He’ll be at…
News

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens likes to sweat in front of cameras

David Martin,

Politicians of all stripes like to be seen with first responders and military personnel. Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens takes these photo opportunities to next level, however.On a day when The Kansas City Star’s editorial board stated “Greitens needs to get out of campaign mode,” the governor, a former Navy SEAL, worked out with men and women who serve in the…
News

Missouri state rep shares article calling Abraham Lincoln a ‘tyrant’

David Martin,

A Republican in the Missouri House of Representatives celebrated Abraham Lincoln’s birthday by sharing a blog post that calls the 16th president the “greatest tyrant and despot in American history.”Warren Love, an Osceola Republican, shared the post, which concludes with a lament that “John Wilkes Booth did not act four years earlier,” on his Facebook account. Stephen Webber, the chair…
News

Rockfest is moving to Kansas

David Hudnall,

The Kansas-Missouri border war seems to once again be escalating. Yesterday came news that Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback sees in Kansas City, Missouri’s stalled plans to revamp KCI an opportunity to build a competitive airport in Johnson County. And now this: Rockfest, held at KCMO’s Liberty Memorial for the better part of the last quarter-century, will be staged at the Kansas…
Music

Angelica Garcia brings her strong Medicine to the Bottleneck tonight

Nick Spacek,

Angelica Garcia’s debut album, Medicine for Birds, is the sort of record you find yourself steadily cranking up with each new song. Opener “Little Bird” slowly stomps to life, but by the time you’ve reached the swaggering rocker “Orange Flowers,” halfway through, you’ve already pushed the volume up to 11. You can file Medicine under country as easily as you…
News, Politics

Planned Parenthood supporters outnumbered an anti-choice surge today

Barbara Shelly,

Unlike the impromptu rally that materialized at Kansas City International Airport a couple of weeks ago, in response to President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-refugee edicts, today’s protest at the Overland Park Planned Parenthood clinic had a business-as-usual flavor.About 35 anti-abortion demonstrators, gruesome-looking signs in hand, show up routinely on Saturdays to exhort patients not to enter the clinic. But…
Movies

John Wick: Chapter Two brilliantly one-ups the original

Eric Melin,

The modestly budgeted 2014 action flick John Wick is a lesson in single-minded myth-making. It starts out simply enough: A badass New York hitman (Keanu Reeves) goes to great lengths to avenge the murder of his puppy and get his stolen ’69 Mustang back from Russian gangsters. The momentum of his warpath sets off a chain reaction of thrilling escapist…

Run the Jewels, Lydia Loveless, Gaelynn Lea lead your concert week

Natalie Gallagher,

Run the JewelsHip-hop is young enough that plenty of the genre’s godfathers are still kicking. Some are even still creating — quite a feat, considering how hip-hop has evolved since the 1970s. Take, for example, El-P and Killer Mike, two rappers who saw a fair share of success during hip-hop’s late-’90s golden age. Today, these two over-40 MCs make up…

Jazz Beat: Pieces of a Dream

Larry Kopitnik,

Renowned for swing, 18th and Vine still welcomes the occasional influx of mellowness: super-soulful adult contemporary, easy R&B, smooth jazz by any other name. Pieces of a Dream, mentored in Philadelphia by saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. — he produced its first three albums — has defined a style of music you sometimes just want to soak up late at night….
Movies

Oscar fix: How to see damn near everything before the Academy Awards

For a lot of us, the announcement of the Academy Award nominations each January triggers much frenzied catching up. Even hardcore moviegoers are liable to have missed a few nod-earning films, and the window for checking them off the list closes faster than you can say The Hurt Locker.No, there’s not a whole lot of time between now and Sunday,…
News

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens blows smoke with tough talk on tax credits

David Martin,

When Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens criticizes the state’s tax-credit programs, he sounds like a guy who doesn’t understand how they work.In a recent video message about the state’s budget, Greitens complains about the influence of lobbyists and special interests in Jefferson City. “As a result of partisan politics and shady, inside deals, special interests in Missouri get more than $500…
News, Politics

Why is this man in a chimpanzee mask hanging around outside the Plaza Hallmark store?

David Hudnall,

A little after noon today, two men in work boots and Carhartts and the same construction-outfit logo stamped on the left breast of their hoodies slowed down outside the Hallmark store on the Country Club Plaza. They took in the puzzling scene: a man in an old-timey, black-and-white-striped prison jumpsuit, crouched on the sidewalk behind a cardboard cutout of jail…