I live near three entertainment districts in Kansas City, Missouri. I have no shortage of options for nearby neighborly cheer. Finding a Cheers, though — an establishment where at least a couple of people know my name and are always glad I came — that’s tough. Yet, hokey as it might sound, I keep looking for such a spot, a…
They’re trying to revive the Obamacare repeal in the Senate again, this time with a bill known as Graham-Cassidy. All Republicans need is one more vote to get it passed. The bill is a disaster, and here is a good explanation why. No more Medicaid expansion, no more preexisting coverage, lifetime caps, and they’re trying to ram it through without…
Monday, September 18Krokstrom Klubb & Market (3601 Broadway) is welcoming chefs Kenzo and Michael Yoon from Bun Bros KC for a pop-up from 5 to 10 p.m. Among the evening’s options: koji-marinated fried chicken thighs, silver-dollar okonomiyaki, vegetable tempura, grilled cuttlefish, braised daikon with miso hollandaise, blistered shishito peppers and specialty cocktails. Prices range from $5 to $12 per dish.Celebrating…
The state of Missouri has no system in place to track how tens of millions of dollars are spent from its legal expense fund to pay for settlements and judgments in lawsuits filed against state agencies, a review by Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway has found.Galloway’s audit, released today, analyzes total expenditures from the legal expense fund, by all state departments, during…
Stiff Little Fingerswith Death By Unga BungaThe Granada, LawrenceSunday, September 17 Tags: Death By Unga Bunga, Music, Stiff Little Fingers
Dear Dan: My teenage daughter just came out to us as gay. We told her we love her and support her. As a heterosexual, cisgender mother, how do I make sure she gets good advice about sex? I don’t want her learning from other kids or porn. Do you know of any good, sex-positive advice books for lesbian teens?My Inspiring Daughter…
On a table in my office is my new hedge trimmer. It’s a safety-orange Black & Decker, lightweight and well-reviewed. The box is already in a recycling bin, and I’m charging the battery right now, as though I mean to attack my front yard’s lone bush at a dead run straight from my car in the day’s waning light. Today…
There’s a reason that 100 percent of the marketing campaign for Darren Aronofsky’s new film — Mother! (starring Jennifer Lawrence in the title role, with the studio preferring that everybody lowercase the M and at all times use that exclamation mark) — centers on revealing 0 percent of the plot. All involved are pushing mightily to make us imagine that we’re…
In 2016, longtime Kansas City Star columnist Jeneé Osterheldt departed the paper to accept a yearlong Nieman Foundation for Journalism fellowship at Harvard. Last month, she returned to the daily. She shouldn’t have.I’ve been critical of Osterheldt in the past, sometimes even juvenile about my dislike of her writing, which has always struck me as sentimental and trite and which…
Adventurers, that special class of individuals who long for change and push their personal limits, who bristle at the same old same old. Who also possess, by necessity, that little bit of crazy, disavowing caution and admitting risk.Such were the characters comprising John Wesley Powell’s 1869 geographic expedition — at the outset, 10 men in four boats — down the…
Going to a Chiefs game is one of the most intense things you can experience in Kansas City. In 2014, Arrowhead Stadium earned the world record for the loudest sporting event, when the crowd roar reached 142.2 decibels during a 41-14 stomping of the New England Patriots. Meaning it’s slightly quieter to position yourself 100 feet behind a jet engine….
Some good news for your week: You still have a few days to catch Spinning Tree Theatre’s production of Finian’s Rainbow, a charm-soaked, colored-pencil sketch of rainbows, leprechauns, starry-eyed lovers and aggrieved sharecroppers rising up to eat the rich. Finian’s is something of a musical misfit. Its characters are cozy fable archetypes, neatly sorted into black-hat money-grubbers and white-hat ingenues….
U2, with BeckTuesday, September 12Arrowhead StadiumThough the band’s history goes back further, U2 has spent the past 30 years all but defining arena and stadium rock — a period that commenced upon the tour supporting 1987’s The Joshua Tree. That album catapulted the band to superstardom, became one of the decade’s essential albums and has remained central to the U2…
It calls to you: the discount rack at the cheap clothing chain. You heard that siren’s cry in April, and you bought a few cheap tops at a big-box store. Now they’re unraveling in the dryer and you’re binge-browsing closeouts all over again in September, knowing you’re doomed to keep repeating the cycle.Sarah Hicks wants to free you from that…
The Lodge of Overland Park is a run-of-the-mill suburban apartment complex that sits just north of Interstate 435, between that highway’s Metcalf and Antioch exits. Despite its proximity to heavy traffic, the place feels isolated, tucked away down a winding road and bounded on its western and northern edges by Indian Creek. The property is vast — more than 30…
Single MothersWith Bummer and the Runaway Sons8 p.m. Tuesday, September 12, at RecordBar, 1520 Grand ($12)Single Mothers has shuffled through more than a dozen members since its 2008 inception. All the while, singer Drew Thomson has been pushing forward and crafting some of the most cathartic post-hardcore Canada has ever exported. The band’s sophomore LP, Our Pleasure, was released in…
Seu Jorge Liberty Hall, Lawrence Monday, September 11 In the nearly 13 years since Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou was released, its Seu Jorge songs have taken on a life of their own. Jorge’s David Bowie covers in that film stood out then — not least because they were in Portuguese — but have only gained haunting…
In June, I talked to two producers as they placed their bets — their theater productions — at Kansas City’s 13th annual Fringe Festival. Heidi Van, a veteran Fringer and director of the Fishtank Theatre, was taking an informed risk. Shea Ketchum, a first-time producer, hoped that her work would do well enough to raise money for area animal shelters.The…
Beer festivals are hardly rare anymore, but a few events still stand out for the most dedicated local drinkers. A good example: this weekend’s Festival of the Lost Township, put on by Crane Brewing Company. Kicking off at noon Saturday, the invitational is requiring at least one brewer from each represented company to be present at the festival. Bring on…
Through September 17Finian’s RainbowSpinning Tree Theatre, Just Off Broadway Theatre, 3051 Penn Valley Drive, 816-235-6222, spinningtreetheatre.comThrough October 1Men on BoatsUnicorn Theatre, 3828 Main, 816-531-7529, unicorntheatre.orgThrough September 14GreaseStarlight Theatre, 4600 Starlight Road, 816-363-7827, kcstarlight.comThrough October 1Between the LinesKansas City Repertory Theatre, 4949 Cherry, 816-235-2700, kcrep.orgSeptember 13-October 1A Lie of the MindKansas City Actors Theatre, City Stage at Union Station, 30 West…
Tuesday, September 12:Visit Boru Ramen (500 West 75th Street) today between 3 p.m. and midnight and your drink orders will benefit victims of hurricane Harvey in Texas. Half of all drink proceeds tonight go to the J.J. Watt Foundation, and Boru and Summit Grill owners Andy Lock and Domhnall Molloy will match all funds raised. The benefit was organized by…
The governor of Missouri is a man named Eric Greitens who likes to hold large guns and wear cross-training gear and practice carrying a man on his shoulder inside a gymnasium. Gov. Greitens also believes a minimum wage of $10 is too high. Another thing about Eric Greitens is that he thinks he is going to be the president of…
