This Weeks Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Today is the last chance to see Ikuru, a 1952 film about a dying city-government bureaucrat reflecting on his life’s work. The black-and-white drama from Akira Kurosawa shows the director’s mushiness-free use of multiple narrative techniques and reveals the humanist in a filmmaker known for action epics. The show starts at 2 p.m. at Tivoli Cinemas (4050 Pennsylvania, 816-561-5222); tickets cost $6. For another side of Japanese filmmaking, one that is animated but no less heavy, try Metropolis, a 2001 anime feat that is sort of based on Fritz Lang’s classic 1926 science-fiction film. The morality tale is set in a future technology-driven society, where a Tower of Babel-like skyscraper prompts social unrest. (The soundtrack might be the most unlikely place you’ll ever come across Dixieland jazz.) The show starts at 7 p.m. at the Spencer Museum of Art, 1301 Mississippi Street in Lawrence. Admission is free. For information, call 785-864-4710.
Friday, June 20, 2003
Chris Hudson from Lodi — a relatively new-on-the-scene band that plays enjoyably mellow compositions with xylophones at places like the Cup and Saucer and Y.J.’s — performs classical guitar music tonight from 6 to 8 at Unity Temple on the Plaza (707 West 47th Street). We hope to see more of him. We also hope you arrive early so you can explore the bookstore in the basement of the church. There, you’ll find everything from books on the spiritual meaning of The Simpsons to gratifyingly immature umbrellas shaped like frogs and ladybugs. For information, call 816-561-5415.
Saturday, June 21, 2003
The über-zen, dreadlocks-wearing wonder known as Amanda the Firedancer must be aware that fire dancing sounds much more impressive than fire twirling, hence her decision to be called a fire dancer. At last Summer’s first-ever 39th Street Art Walk, she wowed and also frightened even the most cynical of observers with her speed, agility and superhuman ability not to fear flaming objects. And then, of course, came the drunk guy trying to imitate her. Silly drunk guy. We can’t wait to see more fire dancing when today’s 39th Street Mojo events draw to a close at 39th and Bell around 8:50 p.m. For information, call 816-694-6656.
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Visiting an art gallery located inside a person’s home is a special voyeuristic treat. Today, we’d like to take you on a swift-footed odyssey to Gallery G (4414 Francis in Kansas City, Kansas), a gallery operated by a man named Gerald Kawa, known to a select few as “the Gekawa” (pronounced gee-cow-uh). In a show mysteriously titled Triskadecaphrenia — the meaning of which we cannot decode for you because, um, we actually kind of failed ancient Greek — the Gekawa sells his art at a substantially reduced rate, calling the whole shebang a starving artist’s sale. For information or to schedule a viewing appointment, call 913-362-6809.
Monday, June 23, 2003
So, a Democratic candidate for 2004 is expecting a large turnout for a Kansas City appearance. No, that’s not the first line of a bad joke. It’s a factual statement. Once scheduled to take place at a downtown bar, the local party for the official announcement of Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s candidacy has moved to the Kansas City Royals’ Stadium Club (park in Kauffman Stadium’s lot J and look for the blue awning across the way) because the expected turnout was more than 100 people. That’s cool. Don’t let The Daily Show‘s loopy Steven Cobert scare you into believing that the numbers have already been crunched and the winner of the 2004 presidential election is George Walker Bush. That’s hogwash, however well-funded. From 6 to 9, tonight’s free Declaration Celebration includes drawings for door prizes, a presidential trivia contest and a broadcast of Dean’s speech. For information, call 816-842-3636.
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
This may be a coincidence, or it may be a sordid, socialist conspiracy, but tonight the Kansas City Public Library shows a recent restoration of the 1926 silent film Metropolis. (See Thursday for evidence of said conspiracy.) This influential epic reveals a city that, 23 years from now, is divided between the workers who must live in a dark underground and the privileged class who have a spectacularly oblivious time up above. The show, which concludes the library’s series “Silents in the Library: The German Expressionist Cinema 1919-26,” starts at 7 p.m. at the Westport branch (118 Westport Road). For more information, call 816-701-3400.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Night & Day faithfuls and Pridefest attendees know that Kansas City just received a visit from Theron Denson, who calls himself the black Neil Diamond. Now, readers should brace for an encounter with the black, gay, male Danielle Steele. Apparently, a hot market now exists for homosexual African-Americans pilfering the cheesiest gimmicks of white culture. Best-selling novelist E. Lynn Harris discusses his new novel, A Love of My Own, and his new memoir, What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, at 7 p.m. at Unity Temple (707 West 47th Street). A Love of My Own details the heartaches and yearnings of a beautiful New York editor; Harris’ memoir tells of growing up black, gay and poor in Arkansas in the 1960s. For information, call Rainy Day Books at 913-384-3126.
