March arrives at last this Friday, and with it comes a gust of First Fridays openings. Below, a guide to some shows you might want to hit, both this weekend and deeper into the month. FIRST FRIDAYLeedy-Voulkos Art Center MaterialistPaintings and drawings in this group show — featuring work by Melanie Johnson, Kathy Liao, Christopher Lowrance, Michael McCaffrey, and Scott Seebart —…
Kurt Vile has stopped in Lawrence a couple of times over the past 10 years, but last night’s appearance at the Truman was somehow the songwriter’s first appearance in Kansas City. Vile appeared with his full band, the Violators, for a fun, 90-minute crammed full of guitar solos and Vile’s trademarks “yip”s.The setlist pulled from his most recent release, Bottle…
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been speaking with Kansas City mayoral candidates about how they’d use the office to approach the biggest challenges facing Kansas City. Pick up our March issue, out next week, for a preview of the race.Back in December, the City Council approved a proposal, sponsored by Councilman Quinton Lucas, directing the city manager to identify…
It’s hard to carve out room for dessert in a wellness culture that’s latched onto sugar as its current Big Bad. It’s harder, still, when many restaurants treat dessert as an afterthought. Pastry chefs have increasingly vanished from restaurant payrolls, and they’ve taken my appetite with them. What’s the point of another flourless chocolate torte or grainy sorbet churned out…
I wasn’t around KC during the Mayor Mark Funkhouser years, but I occasionally leaf through old Pitch issues and think about how much fun it would have been to cover a mayor whose wife was literally banned from City Hall. That woman, Gloria Squitiro, has written a new book, May Cause Drowsiness and Blurred Vision: The Side Effects of Bravery, which arrived…
The day after a mid-January snowstorm rocks Kansas City, knocking out power for thousands of residents, I shovel the white stuff off my car and drive to meet up with the members of Inner Altar (who also rock and are also liable to knock out your power). Inside bassist Stephen Snow’s apartment, which sits two floors above Garozzo’s, in Columbus Park,…
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been speaking with Kansas City mayoral candidates about how they’d use the office to approach the biggest challenges facing Kansas City. (Pick up our March issue, out next week, for a preview of the race.) The mayoral primary is April 2, and the top two who emerge from that will square off in a…
Monday, February 25Opt for a Tequila Ocho dinner at Waldo Thai (8431 Wornall). Chefs Pam Liberda and Kevin Foster, and mixologist Darrell Loo, will be creating a four-course meal with drink pairings (the third course being a family-style meal with multiple options). On the menu: roasted lemongrass and coriander chicken with spicy jaew sauce, sliced scallop with lime and Thai…
Based on his work at Howard’s Cafe in the Crossroads, we were already very much aware of chef Craig Howard’s talents; his burger, served with house-made American cheese, is one of the city’s best. But Howard’s recent work as executive chef and partner at the new West Bottoms spot The Campground is really demonstrating just how deep those talents run.For…
Two weeks ago, a longtime reader challenged me to create a new sexual neologism. (Quickly for the pedants: You’re right! It is redundant to describe a neologism as “new,” since neologisms are by definition new: “ne·ol·o·gism noun a newly coined word or expression.” You got me!)“Neo-Neologisms, Please!” was too polite to point it out, but my two most famous and widely used neologisms…
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Due to the site’s high traffic numbers, Wikipedia is a powerful outlet for documenting careers of artists. But several surveys over the years have revealed that 90 percent of Wikipedia’s editors are male, which can lead to a bias in the content itself and the lens through which it’s investigated. To combat this, groups across the country are increasingly holding…
Prolific songwriter and storyteller Kurt Vile is a dang machine, having released eight albums since 2008, including recent efforts Lotta Sea Lice (with stylistic friend-in-arms Courtney Barnett) and 2018’s Bottle it In, on which he’s currently touring with his band, the Violators. The Pitch recently caught up with the friendly, funny musician by phone to talk books, performing live, going to outer…
In October, up on the 26th floor of City Hall, McClain Bryant Macklin was meeting with Keslie Spottsville, a member of the Black Archives Board and an advocate for development in the 18th and Vine Jazz District. As new development marches eastward from the Crossroads, the historic district — a civic cash-guzzler, dogged for decades by mismanagement — looks more…
With cultural movements like #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo, and streaming services making it so very easy for filmgoers to stay home for first-run entertainment, the cultural landscape of the movie industry has seen a major shift over the last half-decade. A cynical person might say that the 91st Academy Awards — broadcast live worldwide this Sunday, February 24 — don’t really…
Thursday, February 21For better or worse, Guy Fieri’s Dive & Taco Joint (1333 Walnut Street) opens today at 6 p.m. in the Power & Light District. Prepare thineself for over-the-top everything and lots (!!!!) of exclamation points. In Waldo, Boru Ramen (500 West 75th Street) is turning two. The restaurant is celebrating with an all-day happy hour ($3 draft beer, $5 wines,…
You can count on one hand the number of American musicians whose careers have advanced as quickly as Travis Scott’s has in the last two years. In 2018, the 26-year-old Houston rapper appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, had his first child with reality star girlfriend Kylie Jenner, and released what became his first number one song — “Sicko Mode”…
Dear Dan: I am a 56-year-old heterosexual man, and I have lived with ALS for the past six years. I am either in a wheelchair or in a hospital bed, and I have very little motor ability in my limbs. Like most or all male ALS patients, I still have full sensory ability, including a fully functioning penis. Are there…
Hey, fellas. Colton, great to see you again. Brayden — I dig your new haircut. Nice weather we’re having. Gentlemen, I’m sure you’re well aware at this point that we — straight, cis, white males in America, and more specifically Kansas City — are the most oppressed group of people in the history of this once-great nation. After building America from the ground…
When Johnson County Community College was about to close its track program, President Joe Sopcich was adamant about keeping the school affordable for single moms and needy students. When the trustees voted to raise tuition by $1 next fall, he said it would save those same students from a punishingly higher increase later if there’s a recession. But all that…
