Two and a half years have passed since Kansas City, Kansas, rapper Aaron Alexander released Radiant Child, a mixtape full of bright and colorful hip-hop that sampled jazz and R&B records and heavily referenced neo-expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Two and a half years is an eternity in Alexander’s trade, and though he hasn’t been idle — he has worked steadily…
A horde of racist ghouls are seeing their fringe beliefs elevated to national policy under the Trump presidency. Jeff Sessions has used his short time as attorney general to double down on the failed War on Drugs, roll back progress made to fight the United States’ shameful mass-incarceration problem, and attack sanctuary cities. “Chief strategist” Steve Bannon’s primary qualification for…
Confession: I don’t have a lot of patience for the inviolate reverence that regional authenticity is supposed to be afforded in the culinary world. I like sugar in my tomato sauce and pepper jack on my cheesesteaks. I’ve been known to eat hot dogs with — sorry — ketchup. And I don’t believe that New York City’s water contains magic…
Great theater often challenges, provokes, disturbs. It creeps into our comfortable lives and knocks the shit off our metaphorical nightstands, forcing us to reconsider why we’d gathered all those things in the first place.But sometimes, we grow tired of all that mental rearranging and just want an escape. Sometimes, the leader of the free world decides to treat nuclear war…
British singer Izzy Bizu’s rise to prominence has been rather amazing. In the past five years, she’s gone from the standard pop sounds of SoundGirl to the soulful tunes of her solo debut, A Moment of Madness, a danceable set built for fans of Amy Winehouse. Last year, her cover of Edith Piaf’s “La Foule” was the theme for the BBC’s…
Monday, August 14The long-awaited second location of the exceedingly busy Q39 opens today at 11 a.m. at 11051 Antioch, in Overland Park. The menu is the same, but the new room feels far more open and spacious, at 7,000-plus square feet (and seating for 200). There’s a large, concrete-topped bar and an expansive patio. The new location resembles the original…
The New Pornographers Liberty Hall, Lawrence Saturday, August 12 The ticket buyers baffled and/or confused by the absence of both Neko Case and Dan Bejar probably ended their nights a different kind of surprised. First, there’s the fact that the New Pornographers are just as able to entertain without those two pillars. This is a thing because, though it’s not…
Green Day The Sprint CenterFriday, August 11 Crowd participation was the theme of last night’s Green Day show at the Sprint Center. The arena was packed with singing fans. Before the show kicked off, there was a venue-wide sing-along to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” including the guitar solo. Frontman Billy Joe Armstrong acknowledged this pretty early on, saying, “This is beautiful, because…
Bar K founders Dave Hensley and Leib Dodell set out to create a better dog park. They’re a few months from realizing their vision, but I say mission accomplished. The work-in-progress version of the business is already vastly superior to any dog park I’d visited before dropping by last month.Bar K Lab (515 Liberty Street) is the temporary home of…
It’s the kind of homegrown coincidence familiar to Kansas Citians who spend time away from here. Months ago, in preparation for a trip to Romania, I bought a guidebook online. Long after I’d returned, I got an email from Amazon telling me I might also like Cyrus Console’s Romanian Notebook, published in March of this year. With the country still…
In these boom times of downtown Kansas City — streetcars clanging, cranes in the sky — it is a particular pleasure to hear frontier tales about the gnarly old days when artists were unwittingly laying the groundwork for all the breweries, banks and questionably profitable tech companies that now occupy the Crossroads Arts District. “Eighty percent of the buildings were vacant,”…
Creeping DeathWith Dream Probe, Mentira and Contrast7 p.m. Thursday, August 10, at Holy Cow Market & Music, 3109 Gillham Road ($8)Death metal from Denton, Texas? Oh, yes. Creeping Death blasted out a demo in 2015, followed by last year’s Sacrament of Death EP, a one-two punch proving this group of down-south dudes has the goods.Perhaps even more enticing may be…
Well, it’s already August, so the time is right for sunlit, hazy videos for late-summer viewing. And this month’s songs turn out to be just about perfect for these bright days of windows-down driving, backyard barbecues and riding out the last month of the season. True Newman, “I’ll Be Gone” July 11 True Newman covers “I’ll Be Gone” — originally…
Zara Bever, pregnant with her second child, wanted to avoid another cesarean section like the one she’d had at a Northland hospital when her first child was born. She had been confined to a bed then, prohibited from walking around. What should have been a time of elation had left her second-guessing her doctor.“If I had let my body labor,…
Twitter handle: @TadCarpenterInstagram handle: @CarpenterCollectiveHometown: Kansas CityCurrent neighborhood: West PlazaWhat I do (in 140 characters or less): I co-run Carpenter Collective, a design and branding studio in Kansas City, with my partner and wife, Jessica Carpenter.What’s your addiction? Take 5 candy bars. I mean, guys, they have pretzels, caramel, peanuts, peanut butter and chocolate.What’s your game? As a kid I…
Fights to increase the minimum wage have been waged across the country the past few years. But in few places has the struggle been as bitter, or as confusing, as what has unfolded in Missouri.In late June, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens — the ’80s-teen-comedy-bully version of Donald Trump — allowed a bill to pass, without his signature, capping city minimum wages.On…
Sixteen months after debuting in the West Plaza, Journeyman Café has closed. The neighborhood dining and coffee spot will reopen in September, though, with a new concept. Owner Kit Boje explains in a Facebook post: “I have decided to partner with some investors who are in the business and have been very successful. We are going to go with primarily their…
Tuesday, August 8Few do it better than the chefs at Bluestem (900 Westport Road), and it feels a bit like gilding the lily to add some of Boulevard Brewing Company’s best limited release beers to the mix, but that’s what tonight’s specialty dinner is all about. Chef Andrew Longres and his team are preparing five courses with Boulevard’s seasonals in…
Photos by Chase CastorIt was Thursday afternoon, and Kenny Yarnevich was running late for his shift at the St. John’s Catholic Club. The place was empty, though, save for the old man sitting at the bar, who looked as though he’d been clipped out of a 1938 issue of Life magazine. Everybody calls the man Jake, but his name is…
Dear Dan: My wife has been seriously ill for three years, and I have been her sole caregiver. The doctors here weren’t getting the job done, so we made the difficult decision for her to move 2,000 miles away to start over and be near her family. Our sex life has been nonexistent since she became ill. She offered me a…
Well, this is a bummer: The Pitch’s Steer & Beer event, scheduled for tomorrow, is off. Weather forecasters are throwing around words like possible and flooding along with their call for rain in the afternoon. So we’ve decided to keep the meat and the suds on ice until further notice. We’re sorry, but of course we’d be sorrier if everybody spent…
With assists from unseasonably comfortable weather and an exceptional lighting setup, Alt-J delivered a crowd-pleasing run of its three albums at Starlight last night. Each member was surrounded by 10-foot-tall LED light bars, which shimmered and flashed with patterns and drizzling beams of light, matching a series of broad LED panels behind the band. The moody effect was an ideal…
If you’re heading out tonight for First Friday, you can take your pick of crowds to: the Livestock Exchange Building (1600 Genessee, in the West Bottoms) is hosting open studios from 4:30 to 9 p.m., with at least 20 artists — plus a few folks who have massage-therapy businesses — opening their doors to show off their practices, their products and…
The red hashtag #NOPUS signs came down quickly after the City Council’s June 15 vote. In something close to unison, members of the Help Save Old Westport group rose and filed out of the council chambers. Fourth District-at-large Councilwoman Katheryn Shields stood by the railing separating the public seating from the council members. “I’m sorry,” she said as the group…
