Night & Day Events

Thursday, March 10
In the 1940s, movie theaters attracted patrons by handing out free dishware at the end of a feature — moviegoers who came every night would end up with a complete set. Beginning March 10, Pryde’s Old Westport helps Screenland Theater revive this tradition by giving collectible plates to the first 35 people who attend the movie house’s four Dish Night events. Doors open at 6, and patrons get an hour to sling back a few drinks from the theater’s full bar. The show begins in style at 7 with a cartoon and a movie serial before the feature, which tonight is Sleepless in Seattle. Call 816-421-2900 for more information.

Friday, March 11

We will always remember the first night of 2002’s notorious ice storm as The Night the Lights Went Out at Mike’s. Dim lamps flickered a few times before all went dark in the Troost bar, and in the 20 minutes it took for bartenders to kick out patrons, all horny hell broke loose. The blackness gave license to the randy arousal brought on by too many Miller Lights — and ensured that nobody could tell who was making out with whom. We couldn’t even flick a cigarette without ash landing on some lusty couple groping and grinding on free wall space. It was completely and utterly fantastic. We hope that happens again tonight at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (4420 Warwick) when the lights go out for video artists Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler’s Editing the Dark, which has its opening reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sure, their creepy, Hitchcocky film loops provide some illumination, but find a dark corner and you’re in business. Call 816-753-5784 or see www.kemperart.org for more information.

Saturday, March 12

We’re always happy to support KC’s “Young Friends of … ” cultural organizations wherever they’re partying, but we’re excited that they’ve begun to choose more, let’s say, interesting venues. Before tonight’s opening performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s A Masked Ball (Un Ballo in Maschera), the Lyric Opera’s Bohemians are having dinner and drinks at the Urban Culture Project’s Paragraph Gallery (23 East 12th Street). The beer and wine flow at 5, followed by a dinner catered by Cupini’s. (We. Love. Cupini’s.) Cost is $25 for everything, but if you can’t give up your entire Saturday night, skip the opera and fork over $15 for the first half. Reservations should be made by 5 p.m. today; call 816-471-7344.

Sunday, March 13

Somewhere in the seemingly bourgeois recesses of Shawnee, a young woman — let’s call her Mick — is trapped in a dream-extinguishing life. Instead of making the world her oyster, Mick is forced to work at Walgreens to support a terminally ill mother and a chronically worthless father. The only boy she ever kissed left her for college, and her only friend is a deaf guy who disappears from time to time without notice. Mick wants out. Her only chance is the Annual Great Duck Race. Were Mick to purchase a $5 ticket to this rubber-duckie regatta, which begins today at 4:30 p.m. (following the Irish-American Club’s St. Patrick’s Day parade), and were her duck to win the grand prize, she could escape the suffocating clutches of her life by winning airfare to one of Shawnee’s sister cities: Listowel, Ireland; Pittem, Belgium; or Erfurt, Germany. Or she could choose the $1,500 in cash and blow out of town on a Greyhound for a new life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Erfurt of America. Hope springs eternal today on the Rio Shawnee, from 61st Street and Nieman Road to the post office. Call 913-962-2195 for details.

Monday, March 14

Filmmaker Ben Meade received ample attention for his 2004 film Bazaar Bizarre, which adapted the chilling story of KC serial killer Bob Berdella into a musical. But his locally shot Das Bus stirred the pot a full year earlier (see Casey Logan’s “Bus, Tragic Bus,” May 29, 2003). The semidocumentary examines the legends and lore of urban mass transit while gently — and not so gently — poking fun at Kansas Citians’ seemingly absurd fear of public transportation. Check out Das Bus at 8 tonight on cable’s Sundance Channel.

Tuesday, March 15

Parents who guilt-trip their debt-ridden adult offspring for not becoming doctors often say they only want what’s best for their kids. It’s obvious, however, that they really just want good health care for themselves — not to mention an end to financial bailouts. Though there is no effective cure for this situation, we can at least make a gesture toward fulfilling our family’s dreams for us by attending the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine’s Mini Medical School program, a six-week seminar that gives unskilled laypersons “an inside look at today’s medicine” — for $50. From 6:30 to 8:30 tonight and continuing every Tuesday through April 19 at the med school campus (2411 Holmes), physician faculty members give overviews of hot medical topics using the Milton Bradley board game Operation and a beer bong made to look like an IV. OK, not really — but we do wonder what the docs have planned for the session in which they discuss hallucinations. They’ll also provide lessons on first aid, caring for the elderly and heart disease. Call 816-235-5281 to register.

Wednesday, March 16

Hollywood isn’t exactly famous for its thought-provoking films, but that’s never stopped liberal-arts teachers from centering a few lessons on a VCR and a rented video. After all, what philosophy student would rather learn about epistemology by reading Descartes’ Meditations instead of watching The Matrix? The English professors at Rockhurst University have selected a few thinking-person flicks and are screening them, alongside lectures, as part of Reel Philosophy, a three-week series that is open to the public. Tonight at 7, $3 gets us into Sedgwick Hall (1100 Rockhurst Road) for a discussion and showing of The Emperor’s Club, in which Kevin Kline is faced with an ethical problem involving young boys. Next week, we’ll see Gattaca, and the week after that, Deliverance. Call 816-501-4895 for information.