Archives: July 2017

Heidi Van and Shea Ketchum — a Fringe veteran and a first-timer at the 13th annual fest — share a common goal: make winning theater

Talk to any Fringe Festival fan and you’re likely to hear a casino metaphor before long. Kansas City’s annual 11-day festival of theater, dance, film and visual art requires a gambler’s spirit. Audience members bet blind on brand-new works. They roll the dice every time they buy a ticket for one of hundreds of festival performances. But the people with…

Stock Hill, Affäre and Torn Label are among the big names beating the heat: your food and drink events for July 17-23

Monday, July 17Santa Fe Brewing Company comes to Blvd Tavern (320 Southwest Boulevard) tonight at 7 for a beer dinner. The five-course meal begins with house-made chili dogs served with the Freestyle Pilsner, followed by seared diver scallops with bacon and pea shoots in a carrot beurre blanc, paired with the Single Barrel Sour. The third course features a pan-roasted…

Ryan Wilks pushes sex out of the shadows in his challenging, memorable Queerotica, on view Saturday for one night only

After his arresting examination of how others identify sexually, Gender Treason, Ryan Wilks shifts the focus of his paintings to his own life with a series titled Queerotica. Appropriately for an exhibition that includes anonymous figures joined in threesomes and orgies, indulging acrobatic positions and suggestive poses, it’s a one-night stand. See the watercolors downtown Saturday night; details on the event,…

As Down Under, so Up Top: Summertime play and mortal thoughts at Rosedale Park

By most measurements, Rosedale Park is one of the happiest places in the city. On weekends and summer evenings, families gather at its picnic shelter for barbecues and birthday parties. Children climb on the jungle gym, teenagers skateboard, and couples play tennis. Neighbors walk their dogs behind the softball field, where adult teams send the ball high into the floodlights…

Corvino Supper Club and Tasting Room shows brilliance across an array of price points

I know: You’re tired of hearing about the Corvino Supper Club and Tasting Room. Since the restaurant’s May opening, foodies and industry insiders have waxed rhapsodic, Yelpers have yelped, and publications (including this one) have genuflected before this latest downtown admixture of fussed-over food and sexy décor.It’s enough to make a critic suspicious. It’s enough, in fact, to almost disappoint…

Iron Maiden doubled the heat at the Sprint Center last night

Touring in support of its 2015 album, The Book of Souls, Iron Maiden took the stage in a sweltering Sprint Center last night. It was absurdly hot and humid on the streets of downtown Kansas City, and inside, the air conditioning could do only so much. By the time UFO’s “Doctor Doctor” came over the PA, the audience was a…

Gee Watts prepares two new releases

Gee Watts picks me up in his silver sedan, but the vehicle carrying us is the talkative, articulate rapper’s swift train of thought. We get on Interstate 35 heading north, and Watts warms up with several topics he finds important in life. He’s tilted back in his seat, steering mainly with his knees, chain-smoking a pack of Camel Crushes. Authenticity,…

Ring in Bastille Day with French-inspired celebrations at Le Fou Frog, Westport Café & Bar and Ça Va, and more: your food and drink events for July 10-16

Thursday, July 13Michael and Nancy Smith are celebrating 10 years in business at Michael Smith (1900 Main) in the Crossroads with a dinner that pulls out all the stops: caviar, king crab, quail, foie gras and beef (and more), plus wine pairings with a 2007 vintage. Read about the meal and other changes coming to the restaurant in this here….

Regina Spektor is coming to the Uptown in October

This October, Regina Spektor is returning to KC for her first appearance here in five years. She’ll be at the Uptown for a solo show on Sunday, October 29. This is also how she performed back in 2012, and her extraordinary vocal talents and quirks are best seen this way. Tickets are available in a fan-club presale starting tomorrow morning…

Danny Rotert, senior strategic consultant at Burns & McDonnell, tells The Pitch Questionnaire what he learned from Bill Clinton and Emanuel Cleaver

Twitter handle: @rabbitsandgoats Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri. I went to Raytown High School.Current neighborhood: Columbus ParkWhat I do (in 140 characters or less): I try to help governments better listen to the people they serve, improve their processes, innovate where they can and tell their story.What’s your addiction? Buying midcentury furniture and lighting fixtures that I think are supercool but…

July’s First Friday: bodies in sickness, bodies of work, bodies without clothing, bodies in protest

The way in which Congress has been hammering and sawing away at health care — how it’s managed and provided in this country — has heightened our collective awareness that most of us have some kind of pre-existing condition. Enter the ambitious and wide-ranging exhibition that Risa Puleo — inaugural curator-in-residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha,…

Michael Smith Restaurant marks 10th anniversary with two nights of decadent wine dinners, ahead of transition to an Italian menu this fall

In the decade since chef Michael Smith opened his namesake restaurant, the surrounding Crossroads has changed dramatically. The Sprint Center and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts were built, luxury towers began to climb the skyline, and the streetcar arrived. In terms of dining, the American restaurant closed, the Hereford House burned, and Novel and the Rieger opened. It’s…

O’Dowd’s Little Dublin is closing (not forever)

Last week came news that Mike’s Tavern has closed and will reopen in August as an upscale Irish restaurant called Brady’s Public House.Fresh on the heels of that, the proprietors of O’Dowd’s Little Dublin announced yesterday that their 20-year-old Irish joint on the Country Club Plaza will close this Sunday. They’ll spend the next two months remodeling the place and…

You will have to pay for parking in the River Market soon

There are drawbacks to success. It’s like the Royals: When they’re bad, tickets are cheap. It’s nice! But watching nine innings of ground-outs against the Indians isn’t many people’s idea of a fun night out. When the Royals are good, tickets are expensive. But you got LoCain and Salvy out there doin’ their thing. Most people prefer the latter. So…

At Kiosk, Cristina Muñiz’s My Hand / Mi Mano shows a rising painter on a roll

The first time I met Cristina Muñiz, she was gallery-sitting at la Esquina, and her own art was nowhere in sight. A requirement for Charlotte Street Foundation studio residents is to spend time staffing the organization’s gallery shows, and that’s what she was doing that day. But our conversation eventually landed on her practice, which falls into the category of…