This Weeks Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, July 24, 2003,
If art imitates life, then a movie called Imitation of Life is an imitation of imitations of life. That’s whack. The 1959 movie is set on Coney Island, where a white actress befriends and then hires a black woman named Annie. Everything is great until Annie’s daughter starts pretending she’s white. This constitutes a slight problem for Annie, who isn’t cool with her daughter being a phony. Her daughter, however, sees it as a way to get past racist rules and regulations. And she’s been learning from an actress just how to pull it all off. This is high drama, folks, but worth seeing for the late-’50s take on progressive politics. The movie begins at the Spencer Museum (1301 Mississippi in Lawrence) at 7 p.m. For information, call 785-864-4710.
Friday, July 25, 2003,
Revolution is so messy. All the blood to clean up, the palaces to rebuild, the former revolutionaries to fight off once they become too big for their culottes. That’s why we think that talking about revolution is good and well, but when it comes to actually following through, metaphorical cultural revolutions turn out to be much more common. Tonight at Benders (1118 McGee), a band called Sunday Afternoon Revolution entertains the rebellious. Add two more hardcore-sounding bands — Wasted Stacy (think of it as a Parlay-Buddy Lush Phenomenon hybrid) and Sex Offenders — and it’s time to go nuts. For information, call 816-221-7722.
saturday, July 26, 2003,
Car washes and burger joints are underappreciated in these snooty times. The Rah-Booty Cheerleaders show their love for both, holding a benefit car wash at Joe’s Burger Joint (41st and Main) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For $5, visitors can get a basic wash. For $7, they can get a booty wash (involving terry-cloth hot pants). Ten dollars will get you a booty wash AND a Polaroid. And lemonade.
Karaoke is for everyone. Nothing else so festively unites Gwyneth Paltrow wanna-bes, mulleted dudes in tank tops and skinny kids with hairstyles modeled after the Strokes. With time, karaoke grows more popular and the song offerings expand, tailored to an increasing number of specific tastes. The karaoke trend reaches its tentacles back in time, across geographical lines and through the most impenetrable social divides. And to think you laughed it off as a stupid party trick. You ignorant slut! Tonight at 7, the Black Coffee Club Bookstore presents Take Me Back, a gospel music and poetry night offering readings by Kansas and Missouri poets, a live performance by the band Soul Serenade and — this is the best part — Old School Gospel Karaoke. If this is hard for you to envision, head to the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center (Blue Parkway and Cleaver II Boulevard) at 7 p.m. — you’ll understand it by and by. And when stopping to get something to drink, do not say to the beverage vendor, “Fill my cup!” Only you will know you’re making a gospel reference intended to be funny. To others, you’ll look like a jackass. A rude jackass. For information, call 816-333-2633.
Sunday, July 27, 2003,
Like all Disneyfied fairy tales, Pinocchio is horribly deceptive. Cinderella‘s big lie is that princes mistakenly make advances toward women with gargantuan feet. (In real life, the prince would have taken one look and withheld his slipper, because princes are superficial jerks.) Snow White‘s big lie is that if you’re nice and also happen to be the fairest of them all, the animals of the forest will approach you and be your friends. (In real life, squirrels run away from saddened goddesses just the same as they run away from you.) But Pinocchio is the worst. Contained within Pinocchio are so many falsehoods we can’t even list them all. We’ll start with the notion that workaholics who withdraw from human friendship will be repaid one day when the inanimate things they work on come to life. And then there’s this nose business. We think it’s bad to teach children that unambiguous facial distortions will make it obvious when people are lying to them. To count lies nonetheless, attend the StoneLion Puppet Theater’s production today at 1 p.m. Or forget everything we just told you and have a good time. He is the most famous puppet ever, you know. The show takes place at the Glenwood Arts Theater, 9575 Metcalf in Overland Park. For tickets, call 816-235-6222.
Monday, July 28, 2003,
Christmas freaks just got their tinsel fix at the Johnson County Museum of History’s Christmas in July program, which ended yesterday. For others, there’s just July in July, a more intuitive holiday. To celebrate season-appropriate fun, we think you should go swimming. Try Watkins Mill in Lawson, Missouri, where all kinds of other season-appropriate activities (picnics, riding bikes and sweating) can be enjoyed as well. For details, check our online Summer Guide at www.pitch.com. Yes, it’s still there.
Tuesday, July 29, 2003,
The Olive is a new art gallery and art-supply store rolled into one, located next door to Henry’s (11 East 8th Street) in Lawrence. We recommend visiting both places. Venture into the Olive to see work by Kendra Herring (she makes fun, kitschy assemblages and mixed-media stuff), then get a cup of coffee and see work by painter, illustrator and sticker maker Molly Murphy at Henry’s.
Wednesday, July 30, 2003,
When things get a wee bit complicated midweek, it’s easiest sometimes just to stare at the sky like some kind of hippie.
There’s the throw-a-blanket-down-in-a-park-in-the-middle-of-the-day approach; for that, there’s Loose Park (bordered north and south by 51st and 55th streets, Wornall Road and Summit on the east and west). The rose garden’s over here, and the pond for feeding ducks is over there. Simple and whimsical, right? But everyone knows that, come the end of July, the park, the sun, heavy blankets, all that business — those things are better in theory than in reality, which might result in heatstroke. So, for the escapist of the computer age, how about a chat-room meeting of the Kansas City, Missouri, chapter of the Mars Society. It’s the online get-together for people who want to be in outer space but don’t want to leave their living rooms. The group meets at 7 p.m. To find out more about the society, see http://hometown.aol.com/deltavnet/myhomepage/business.html. Or, you know, just sit on the porch and look up. Sometimes you can see Mars real quick before running inside to the air conditioning. It’s pretty close to Earth right now. The perfect compromise.
