This Weeks Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, February 19, 2004
A kid’s allowance can teach fiscal responsibility and the importance of saving, or it can be turned into an impressive cache of comic books. Either way, once the kid goes off on his own, wise parents usually kill the cash flow. Right Bed, Wrong Husband tells the story of a young bachelor who cons his uncle out of some jack with the old “Hey, I’m getting married” trick. When the uncle drops in out of the blue to meet the lucky young lady, comedy ensues. Gregory Boyle directs a cast of seven at the Blue Springs City Theatre. The play opens at 7:30 p.m. in the Blue Springs Civic Center, 2000 N.W. Ashton. Tickets cost $7 for adults and $6 for seniors. For details, call 816-228-0137.
Friday, February 20, 2004
If classical music is like a fine wine, does that mean punk rock is like a 40-ounce? Like the charcoal-filtered Olde English, punk is nasty, it goes down fast, it fucks you up, and you can still feel it the next day. Both punk rockers and 40-ouncers are misunderstood by the public at large, with 40s being outlawed in Kansas City liquor stores. Maybe all the young punks can get a taste for something a little more top-shelf at Union Station’s Classics Uncorked, an evening of fine wine and classical music by the Kansas City Symphony. Tonight is the first in a three-part series that combines wine tasting and a chamber-orchestra repertoire. Joe DiGiovanni, owner of Joe D’s, has chosen three wines to complement the evening’s performance of selections by Mozart, Wagner and Hayden. The party starts at 6 p.m. at Union Station (30 West Pershing) and costs $20 for the complete evening or $10 for the concert alone. The hosts ask for a “smart casual” dress code, so the punk rockers may want to sub out the leather for something a little more New Wave. For details, call 816-471-1400.
Saturday, February 21, 2004
Mardi Gras is perhaps the greatest party on Earth, but not everyone can just go out and get hammered. The folks who run the Academie Lafayette charter school understand this, and they’re doing the best they can to compensate. Their parade kicks off at 3:30 p.m. in the rear parking lot of the Baptist-Lutheran Medical Center (6601 Rockhill Road) and heads over to the French-immersion school’s new location at 6903 Oak. Once there, partygoers will feast on jambalaya and vegetarian rice and beans while listening to the New Red Onion Jazz Babies and bidding on items in the silent auction. There will also be children’s activities and something called “the Lemon Dance Competition.” Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for kids ages 5 to 12. For details, call 816-304-7928.
Sunday, February 22, 2004
In the ’60s, the Temptations put out hits such as “The Way You Do the Thing You Do” and “My Girl.” In the decades since, nearly twenty different singers have taken turns performing the band’s silky harmonies. So as long as there are five dudes up there in matching suits, who cares which ones are coming to the Johnson County Community College’s Yardley Hall (12345 College Boulevard in Overland Park) tonight? We don’t have an opinion about whether it’s the Temptations or the Temptations Review (it will be the latter, featuring semi-original member Dennis Edwards) as long as we hear “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me).” Also on the bill for the Beth Shalom benefit concert is the 5th Dimension, which supplied us with “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.” The groovy music starts at 7:30 p.m., and tickets cost $40. For tickets, call 913-469-4445.
Monday, February 23, 2004
It was a bummer when Mayor Kay Barnes issued her shrill war cry against downtown skateboarding nearly a year and a half ago. The way we see it, those skateboarders were ahead of the curve by frequenting the ghost town while everybody else was heading home to the suburbs. Now that downtown is coming back to life, maybe she can explain what the hell she was thinking when she and City Manager Wayne Cauthen present a talk called “The New American City: The Revitalization of Kansas City” at the Central Exchange, 1020 Central. The luncheon starts at 11:45 a.m.; tickets cost $20. To register, call 816-471-7560.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Oprah has her book club. The local comic-book artists at Swillhound Studios have one, too, but unless Toni Morrison starts illustrating her work, the Swillhound inkers won’t be getting anywhere near Oprah’s reading list. Why would they when they can discuss works like Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, the subject of this month’s Graphic Novel Club. Comic lovers get together and discuss the story and the art of Persepolis at the 7 p.m. meeting at Swillhound Studios, 206 East 16th Street. For details, call 913-406-6116.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
When filmmaker Spike Lee spoke at UMKC two weeks ago, he said he had a problem with the movie Cold Mountain. Lee said the film, which revolves around a love story set during the Civil War, glossed over the issue of slavery during that time, even though the main character was a Confederate soldier. Lee could not understand how a filmmaker could make a movie about that important period of American history and leave black characters in the background. Quintard Taylor Jr. brings those characters to the foreground tonight in his lecture “The Black West Starts Here: Kansas and African American Frontiers. “ Taylor, a professor of American history at the University of Washington, explores the experiences of black Kansans during the Civil War, Reconstruction and the decades that followed. The lecture starts at 7 p.m. at the Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College (12345 College Boulevard in Overland Park). For more information, call 913-469-8500, ext. 3673.
