The Pitch: April 11, 2013

A P R I L 1 1–1 7, 2 0 1 3 | F R E E | V O L . 3 2 N O . 4 1 | P I T C H . C O M

• KATHY NELSON and the KC Sports Commission are having another big week. | By Ben Palosaari • Raytown superintendent ALLAN MARKLEY taxes TIF backers. | By Steve Vockrodt • BILL MAHER baits trolls in Topeka. | By David Hudnall

KC FRIENDS OF ALVIN AILEY'S JUANITA CARTER LEADS OUR NIGHT OF DANCE , FASHION, ART AND MUSIC .

BY NANCY HULL RIGDON

A P R I L 11–1 7, 2 0 1 3 | V O L . 3 2 N O . 4 1 GLAM SLAM

E D I T O R I A L

Editor Scott Wilson Managing Editor Justin Kendall Music Editor David Hudnall Staff Writers Charles Ferruzza, Ben Palosaari, Steve Vockrodt Editorial Operations Manager Deborah Hirsch Events Editor Berry Anderson Food Blogger, Web Editor Jonathan Bender Proofreader Brent Shepherd Contributing Writers Tracy Abeln, Theresa Bembnister, April Fleming, Nancy Hull Rigdon, Leslie Kinsman, Chris Milbourn, Dan Savage, Lucas Wetzel Editorial Intern Katie Miller

Artopia dresses you for spring and summons Katherine Dunham.

BY N A N C Y H U L L R I G D O N

5

A R T

Art Director Ashford Stamper Contributing Photographers Angela C. Bond, Barrett Emke, Chris Mullins, Lauren Phillips, Sabrina Staires, Brooke Vandever Intern Lynn Collins

P R O D U C T I O N

Production Manager Christina Riddle Multimedia Designer Vu Radley

A D V E R T I S I N G

Sales Manager Erin Carey Senior Classified Multimedia Specialist Steven Suarez Multimedia Specialists Michelle Acevedo, Collin Click, Page Olson Director of Marketing & Operations Jason Dockery Digital Marketing Manager Keli Sweetland

C I R C U L A T I O N

Circulation Director Mike Ryan

B U S I N E S S

Accounts Receivable Jodi Waldsmith Publisher Joel Hornbostel

S O U T H C O M M

Chief Executive Officer Chris Ferrell Chief Financial Officer Patrick Min Chief Marketing Officer Susan Torregrossa Chief Technology Officer Matt Locke Business Manager Eric Norwood Director of Digital Sales & Marketing David Walker Controller Todd Patton Creative Director Heather Pierce Director of Content/Online Development Patrick Rains

N A T I O N A L

SPORTING KANSAS CITY Kathy Nelson and the Sports Commission keep KC’s sports calendar full.

BY B E N PA L O S A A R I

9

BEYOND THE RUINS

A D V E R T I S I N G

VMG Advertising 888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com Senior Vice President of Sales Susan Belair Senior Vice President of Sales Operations Joe Larkin

Shopping for food — good food —

D I S T R I B U T I O N

The Pitch distributes 45,000 copies a week and is available free throughout Greater Kansas City, limited to one copy per reader.

Additional copies may be purchased for $5 each, payable at The Pitch’s office in advance. The Pitch may be distributed only by The Pitch’s authorized independent contractors or authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of The Pitch, take more than one copy of each week’s issue. Mail subscriptions: $22.50 for six months or $45 per year, payable in advance. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Kansas City, MO 64108.

C O P Y R I G H T

The contents of The Pitch are Copyright 2013 by KC Communications, LLC. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written permission of the publisher.

The Pitch address: 1701 Main, Kansas City, MO 64108 For information or to leave a story tip, call: 816-561-6061 Editorial fax: 816-756-0502 For classifieds, call: 816-218-6759 For retail advertising, call: 816-218-6702

ON T HE COVE R

along the Quindaro.

BY C H A R L E S F E R R U Z Z A

23 3 5 7 9 13 17 19 21 23 24 26 28 32 34

QUESTIONNAIRE PLOG NEWS FEATURE F I LT E R STAGE ART FILM CAFÉ FAT CITY STREETSIDE MUSIC NIGHTLIFE SAVAGE LOVE

MEANWHI LE AT PI TC H. C O M PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MULLINS INSPIRED BY PICASSO’S “GIRL BEFORE A MIRROR”

2

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

pitch.com

DEBBIE GOLD is leaving the American’s kitchen.

The Kansas Legislature clears the way for BOOZE AT THE STATEHOUSE. The AMERICAN HEARTLAND THEATRE closes in August.

M O N T H X X–X X , 2 0 0 X

THE PITCH

2

QUESTIONNAIRE

KELLY CONKRIGHT & KAYCE MCCARE CLOUD ing” part of “Boutiquing and Drinking.” Most moms will agree this makes sense.

What’s your hometown?

Conkright: Lenexa Cloud: Lenexa

What subscription do you value most?

Conkright: WWD and Elle Decor Cloud: Travel + Leisure and People

What’s your current neighborhood?

Conkright: Brookside Cloud: Lenexa … that’s not a typo.

home without them.

What career would you choose in an alternate reality?

Conkright: I would travel the world making

coffee-table books about unique spaces and places.

Cloud: I would like to be Anthony Bourdain … to just eat and sip my way around the world!

And apparently he gets paid? I would have done it for free. He is a much better negotiator, I guess.

What was the last local restaurant you patronized?

Conkright: Westside Local, right before we

went to see Hair at Kauffman and witness a naked cast.

Cloud: Affäre in the Crossroads

Where do you drink?

Conkright: Wine on Blue Grotto’s patio Cloud: My patio — best service and selection

What was the last book you read?

Conkright: Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and

coastal and European friends as the Paris of the Plains, I am not qualified to answer this question.

Cloud: Wheat. We have a lot of it, and from my research, it just makes me larger.

Where do you like to take out-of-town guests?

Conkright: Oklahoma Joe’s and the Lake of

the Ozarks Cloud: The Plaza. If I can get them here for the Art Fair, even better.

will know it’s true. Nothing makes me happier than a great meal.)

What local phenomenon do you think is overrated?

Conkright: Considering I promote KC to my

What TV show do you make sure you watch?

Conkright: I mainly watch movies and CNN. Cloud: Top Chef, Downton Abbey, The Chew, Modern Family, Dancing With the Stars … I watch a lot of TV.

Cloud: Nothing! I have small pieces of every

Seville, Spain — still so charming.

“Kansas City needs …”

Conkright: More good shopping, more bike

say in New York!

be in. I am a huge believer in people following their passions.

Cloud: Wait … I’m NOT in charge? My husband will be delighted to hear this.

Cloud: It redid downtown and the Crossroads.

What’s your favorite charity?

Conkright: Women for Women International Cloud: Women for Women International or,

Cloud: Restaurants. (If you see my closet, you

Sisters Conkright (left) and Cloud

take up a lot of space in my iTunes.

Conkright: ’70s rock like the Band, CCR, Grate-

in town

Where’s your favorite place to spend your paycheck?

Conkright: Clothes. I am closet-rich, as they

What’s your favorite day trip?

Conkright: Lawrence Cloud: Taking the train from Union Station

Finish this sentence: “Other than the Kauffman Center, Kansas City got it right when …”

Conkright: They modeled the Plaza after

“Kansas City screwed up when it …”

Conkright: Put the airport so far away.

Cloud: Stopped being good at football. Tailgat-

on a local level, the Ronald McDonald House charity

Sheryl WuDunn Cloud: Alice, I Have Been (by Melanie Benjamin) and Half the Sky.

S A B R I N A S TA I R E S

sister

Cloud: My husband, son or sister — I rarely leave

and Drinking

Cloud: I can’t believe that we still care about Lindsay Lohan. I wish my apps would stop telling me about some trial she’s in. And, more importantly, every health magazine keeps telling me that I shouldn’t have dairy. Do they know that cheese is dairy? What are we, as a people, supposed to do without cheese?

What’s your occupation?

Conkright: Shopper strategist Cloud: Stay-at-home mom … and the “drink-

Who or what is your sidekick?

Conkright: My best friend, Rachel, and my

Boutiquing

ing at Arrowhead is important.

lanes … and preferably a beach!

Cloud: An ocean

“People might be surprised to know that I …”

Conkright: Managed to play a lot of pingpong in all of the places I lived — even found a place in Paris!

Cloud: Taught English in Prague for two years … and lived in Jamaica for a hot minute. Literally. It was hot.

“If I were in charge …”

Conkright: I would find a way to make it easier

for everyone to be in the job they are meant to

ful Dead, etc.

type of music. I prefer people to make me mixes. So … feel free to send me a mix.

What movie do you watch at least once a year?

Conkright: Love Actually at Christmastime Cloud: Love Actually What local tradition do you take part in every year?

Conkright: Thanksgiving Plaza lighting Cloud: Lenexa Barbeque Battle!

What is your favorite person or thing to follow on Twitter?

Conkright: Racked New York/Los Angeles Cloud: Food & Wine magazine and Ellen De-

Generes … Classic Joke Tuesday is a real treat.

What person or thing do you find really irritating at this moment?

Conkright: I am irritated I can’t be at a pool right now!

to Hermann, Missouri. Is it the best wine in the world? Nope. But there are some beautiful views, and the wine does get better as the day goes on.

What was your most embarrassing dating moment?

Conkright: I dated an English guy, and his

mom is Lady Clark (royalty), so while staying at their country estate by Stonehenge, I called her a nickname (Marge), and he said no one had EVER done that to her. Ever! The Brits are so formal!

Cloud: “So, it’s been really nice meeting you and hearing you talk about your family for the past hour … and a half … but I’m going to go now.” — Random guy who bought me a drink at Kona

Interesting brush with the law?

Conkright: I was put in jail one time in L.A. for

peeing in public! I was walking home from a bar and went up a hill, behind a bush, with a friend also blocking me, but some cops pulled over, and I wound up in jail.

Cloud: Last time I was in Napa with my three best friends, we hired a limo driver because we are responsible, upstanding citizens. But then our driver got pulled over for speeding, and it turns out he was from some European country and was not actually allowed to be working here. Whoops.

Describe a recent triumph.

Conkright: My sister and I launching our site: boutiquinganddrinking.com.

Cloud: I have showered and gotten out of my

“yoga pants” every day this week! OK, that’s a lie. But several days this week.

pitch.com M O NATPHR IXLX–X , 220001X3 pitch.com 1 1 -X 1 7,

Tt H h Ee Pp Ii Tt Cc Hh

13

THIS SATURDAY!

live art inside

Kent Davis, Vince Latona, Scott Allen, Dan Shanks, Chris Sembower, Eeks, Ryan Drake, & just added Becky Buznedo!

Henna art from Jessica Bloom Body Art all night!

live art outside

Eduardo Bernal, Baker Medlock, Tallgrass Artist James Taylor & Sterling Witt, Deuce Sharbonda & Hue.

fashion show at 9:15 pm Little Shell Designs, WM Couture & Emma Lammers live performances in the theater

Burlesque Downtown Underground (8pm), Kacico Dance (8:30pm) & KCFAA dance artist Juanita Carter will perform Dunham Lives, choreography

by Tyrone Aiken

live music

Opening set by Vi Tran (7pm on the outdoor stage), John Velghe & The Prodigal Sons (2 sets! 7:30 & 8:30 on the outdoor stage), DJ Brad Ireland (7-11pm inside) & Joc Max (9:30pm on the outdoor stage.) *times & performances subject to change

local films

GET $25 TICKETS!

THROUGH APRIL 12, GA $25, VIP $35

T IC K ET S

AVAILABLE NOW

at secure.pitch.com $25G A $35 V I P

from 9:05pm-10:45pm

Sponsored by:

Food & Drinks from:

LAST WEEK TO

Ticket prices at door: $30/$40VIP ONLY 100 VIP Tickets available, VIP gets in a half an hour early and receives a goodie bag from sponsors.

Call 816.561.6061 for info

Purchase a Passport to all Pitch events in 2013 for only $45.

4

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

PLOG

GLAM SLAM

Artopia dresses you for spring and

BY

summons Katherine Dunham’s dancing spirit.

N A NC Y HULL RIGDON

C

Today’s Kansas City people and architecture also feed her signature structured, European minimalist look.

The University of Missouri textile and apparel grad keeps her designs sharp by working at Kaplan Fabrics and Tomboy Designs, and she has been creating commissioned pieces for three years.

Beyond this weekend, Lammers (like her Artopia peers) remains one to watch. She got the nod for June’s West 18th Street Fashion Show, and the fashion community is already anticipating her next line.

K

CHRIS MULLINS

all it a throwback.

In the beginning, Artopia’s fashion show gave designers all the love. The past few years, it showcased boutiques. Saturday, though, Kansas City designers reclaim the runway — a resurgence that intensifies the local spotlight.

“For me, this year it’s about making sure the local designers are supported again,” says Courtney Perry, who’s directing Artopia’s fashion show for the second year. “After all, Artopia is all about focusing on supporting the artist.”

Perry has been an Artopia staple since its inception and is no stranger to embracing the individuals fueling the city’s creative scene.

She’s the jewelry and accessory designer behind House of Cochon, and she directs other shows, including Fashion on the Fringe. With her husband, Alex Perry, she turned an abandoned church into the Arts Asylum, a visualand performing-arts center.

For this show, she has sought variety from several strong designers. The resulting lineup: Wendy McMillian of WM Couture, a veteran designer known for her fun party dresses; Michelle Kleineweber of Little Shell Designs, who transforms sheer fabrics into youthful, feminine looks; and Emma Lammers, a student making a name for herself with her Londoncirca-1960 flair.

“There’s this cool mix of emerging and established designers,” Perry says. “They certainly don’t keep with the same design aesthetic, yet they’re cohesive at the same time.”

Together, the three are set to make a seasonal punch. “There’s definitely going to be this springy, girly flair to it all,” Perry says.

Let’s take a closer look at the designers.

• “I always remember watching old movies growing up that featured Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn and Doris Day and falling in love with fashion,” McMillian says. Those icons inspired her to sew and design at an early age. As an Iowa State University student, she landed a dream internship, at Tomasina Bridal on the East Coast.

Ten years ago, she wound up in Kansas City. First, she dabbled in custom lingerie, but she soon returned to her passion for specialoccasion dresses.

She takes couture design elements — think hand-draping and high-end materials — and pushes out pieces that are elegant yet suited for everyday wear.

“Each woman is special, and I want her to feel that way when she wears one of my designs,” she says. “I want my customer to feel beautiful and confident knowing the fit and craftsmanship is flawless.”

For Artopia, she’s pulling two formal gowns and one party dress from her collection.

After this weekend, McMillian advances to the next milestone. She splashes into West Coast fashion in the fall with a much celebrated accomplishment: presenting at San Diego Fashion Week.

• You know those fairies frolicking at the Renaissance Festival? Kleineweber plays one of them. She also sews costumes for the event’s many nymphs. So it’s no wonder that she has a collection titled Enchanted.

The Metropolitan Community College–

Juanita Carter leads Artopia’s awakening.

Penn Valley apparel and textiles student made a grand entrance last year, when her collection won best in show at Penn Valley’s 2012 Panache Fashion Show. She again turned heads at the Kansas City Fashion Week spring 2013 show.

On the heels of that whimsical collection, featuring polka dots and chiffon, she’s bringing her playful pieces to Artopia.

• Don’t let Emma Lammers’ age fool you.

Yes, she’s in her early 20s, but she looks to midcentury modern design for inspiration.

atherine Dunham convinced East St. Louis, Illinois, gang members in the late 1960s to trade violence for drumming and dancing — a move that landed her in jail, much to the cops’ subsequent shame. Her work triumphs again on the Artopia stage, with a performance titled “Katherine Dunham Lives.”

Tyrone Aiken, the dance’s choreographer, has long admired and studied the late Dunham. With Midwest roots, Dunham blossomed into an international, 20th-century sensation once called “the matriarch and queen mother of black dance.”

Aiken is passionate about preserving the rhythmic, drum- and culture-driven Dunham Technique, as it’s called. So when Artopia came calling, he knew what to showcase for Kansas City’s up-and-coming artists.

“It’s important to pass on knowledge so that the younger folks can have an experience beyond just contemporary dance,” says Aiken, who works as executive director of local dance supporter Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey.

Of course, a show succeeds only if dance and performer mesh. Aiken made that match by enlisting Juanita Carter. The 19-yearold professional dancer and University of Missouri–Kansas City dance student is ready to shine in the solo.

Carter grabbed Aiken’s attention when she attended an Alvin Ailey camp as a middleschooler, and he has since watched her grow into a gifted performer. Aiken says she has a deep appreciation for the history of performing arts, coupled with a desire to merge the past and the present.

Outside of performance, Dunham was an anthropologist, one who weaved spiritual elements into her dance technique. Expect to see Carter honor this with all-white dress and fluid, otherworldly motion.

“The intention is to evoke the feeling of a spiritual awakening,” Aiken says.

E-mail feedback@pitch.com

pitch.com M O NATPHR IXLX–X , 220001X3 pitch.com 1 1 -X1 7,

Tt Hh Ee PpIi TtCcHh

15

Want to be part of the

IN CROWD? Sign up for

PROMOTIONAL NEWSLETTER

A

5 2 – 1 1 P R IL

N O I T C U A BAND ry

niversa n h A t 25

Tunea-ikne a Bid d M nt a Ban Re

f 0 of t he 0 1 r e v O

ine st lo

a e v a H ty!

Par

ds & s c al b an

olo ac t s

Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country, Americana...and more!

Full Schedule at w w w.KKFI.org 6

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

.com

FEATURED DEALS

TWO MOVIES UNLIMITED RETRO

ARCADE PLAY

FOR ONLY $12

Valid at Screenland Crossroads 1656 Washington St. Kansas City, MO 64108 816.421.9700

HALF OFF

DOOR PRICE

GA:$20•VIP:$25 Valid at Taste KC • May 19th at KC Live! Block 816.561.6061

NEXT DEAL? Get the Insider’s scoop

SIGN UP NOW!

NEWS

U N -TIF’ D

Be Raytown’s school superintendent earns a rare victory against TIF.

BY

Inspired!

S T E V E V O CKRO D T

Volunteer!

A

Join us at the KC Area Track and Field Meet on April 20th!

his issues and objected,” says Spencer Thomson, a Thomson Walker lawyer representing the developer. “His issues are clearly a fundamental difference with TIF … and he wanted to make an issue of our project.”

“Absolutely,” Markley says. “The fundamental part of it is, how can one entity of elected officials determine what to do with another body of elected officials’ money?”

Because state law enables the practice.

For example, six of Kansas City’s 11 TIF Commission members are appointed by the mayor — a fact that gives the city an automatic majority over the five who represent schools, libraries and counties.

But that built-in advantage didn’t stop a Markley-led push to thwart one of Kansas City’s more questionable recent TIF gambits.

Last year, Kansas City decided it wanted to build several new top-notch soccer fields in Swope Park, where a few average fields already exist. (The plan was also supposed to include an expansion there of Sporting Kansas City’s practice facility.) But officials — including Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Circo, who pushed hard for the plan — knew that the city didn’t have the money within easy reach. So they sought to expand the already existing Winchester TIF district, which was drawn in 1991 to build an office park (and later included KMBC Channel 9’s headquarters).

Winchester looked enticing to Kansas City because $11 million in untapped TIF revenues were left over in a special account.

TIF revenues go into what’s called a special allocation fund as the taxes are collected; developers make requests to draw money from

that account to reimburse certain project expenses. When TIF plans are done, that money is supposed to be redistributed among the city, the county, the schools and so on.

Markley opposed the Winchester plan because $4 million of that $11 million should have gone back to his school district. Kansas City’s plan to expand the Winchester border to cover the Swope Park soccer complex would also have meant that Raytown’s $4 million of school money would have gone instead to improvements made within the Kansas City, Missouri, School District’s boundaries.

The Winchester conversation devolved into tense TIF Commission meetings and a volley of letters between Markley and Kansas City Mayor Sly James. Few local officials have been willing to argue publicly with James, who is still riding a wave of support after succeeding the deeply unpopular Mark Funkhouser.

Markley threatened to sue. “As I’m sure you can understand, the district’s taxpayers and patrons are extremely concerned about the fundamental unfairness, the potential precedent and the significant adverse financial impact that the proposed [soccer plan] imposes on the district,” he wrote in a December 29 letter to James.

James’ response sounded exasperated: “Your letter at least appears to set forth demands, ultimatums and threats, which, if representative of your final position, make it difficult, at best, to advocate for a reasonable settlement,” James wrote.

But Markley got more than a reasonable settlement. He got his $4 million, and the TIF plan was killed.

E-mail steve.vockrodt@pitch.com

sas c an ycl ity K rc es er o t

ice

Markley takes one of two.

m o

For more info. please email hansen@somo.org

v

llan Markley is the latest to throw sand in the gears that power local tax-increment financing. And the Raytown Quality Schools superintendent says he has good reason to do it.

TIF, that often-used instrument, is meant to spur development in blighted places that wouldn’t otherwise attract it. The principle is simple: Local governments redirect new property and economic-activity taxes within an approved G O L P E R MO INE AT development project back to the developer to offset ONL M / P L O G some costs. Its applicaP IT C H .C O tion, however, has mutated, and TIF funding has come to fund projects in such tony locales as the Country Club Plaza and the coveted Interstate 435 corridor.

The practice has a way of limiting budgets for counties, school districts and libraries, some of which are objecting more loudly.

And Markley, who leads a school district of 9,000 students — 64 percent of whom live at the poverty level — is already out of patience.

A steady decline of assessed property values and state funding since 2009 have already conspired to cut about $7 million a year from the Raytown school district’s budget — about 10 percent of the district’s budget, or the equivalent of 45 teachers, Markley says.

Markley says TIF redirects about another $1.7 million a year from his district to development projects. Kansas City and Independence get the final say on how big chunks of that taxing-jurisdiction money get spent, often limiting the control that school leaders have over their funding.

“I’ve watched them over the years,” Markley says of the various TIF plans within his district. “They become more apparent when we see those revenue streams go from a river to a trickle. Whenever you see more revenues disappear, it ramps up the importance of taking a hard look.”

As a member of Independence’s TIF commission, Markley took a hard look at a proposed Burlington Coat Factory–anchored shopping district across the street from Blue Ridge Crossing Mall. He talked the commission into recommending against the project in a 5–4 vote in March.

But on April 1, the Independence City Council overrode the commission’s recommendation and approved public assistance for the project. The Burlington Coat Factory could open in October.

“You want to see the tire tracks on me?”

Markley said afterward.

“Dr. Allan Markley showed up and raised

Cafe Racer

Exceptional Motorcycle & Scooter Service 1305 Union Ave. KCMO | 816-221-0711

We

KC

BUY LOCAL

pitch.com MON , 220001 X pitch.com A TP H R IXL X–X 1 1 - 1X7, 3

Th HE t e P p Ii T tC cH h

17

Presents s

‘

MAY 19

2013 Witness 6 of KC’s most talented chefs as they battle for the Gold Fork along with samplings from 15+ restaurants. Early bird tickets available! 21+ event.

LIVE! BLOCK POWER & LIGHT DISTRICT 5pm VIP • 5:30pm GA

$30 TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE

$35 Tickets: 4/6-5/18 $40 Tickets at the door

Each week, Pitch Street Team cruises around to the hottest clubs, bars and concerts.

You name it, we will be there.

While we are out, we hand out tons of cool stuff. So look for the Street Team... We will be looking for you!

* VIP includes early admittance & a goodie bag from sponsors valued over $60

Samplings from over 15 local restaurants including:

tion Tattoo Conven @ Uptown

Sponsored by:

Tattoo Convention @ Uptown

HomeGuard Festival

Upcoming Events

OL ATHE

Yes @ The Midland

4.11/12 - KC Film Fest @ Alamo Drafthouse 4.12 - Open Studios @ Hobbs Building 4.13 - The Pitch’s Artopia @ Screenland Crossroads

See more on the “promotions” link at p 8

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

T

he Negro Leag ues Baseball Museum is packed with members of the Kansas City press, local politicians and business leaders, who mix among life-size statues of such Negro League greats as Pop Lloyd and Leon Day on March 20. The lights flick off. Two large TVs show the trailer for 42, the new Jackie Robinson biopic.

Harrison Ford, playing Branch Rickey, signs Robinson (the handsome Chadwick Boseman) to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, making him the first African-American player in Major League Baseball. It feels like an injection of goose bumps.

As Jay-Z’s “Brooklyn (Go Hard)” bumps, outraged white people tell Robinson he doesn’t belong, the color-barrier-breaking infielder slugs a home run, and spectators at last cheer him. The audience applauds as the screens dissolve into an image of Boseman, as Robinson, sliding in the dirt under the slogan, “Before he was a legend, he was a Monarch,” a nod to Robinson’s stint with the Negro Leagues’ Kansas City team.

BY BEN PALOSAARI

Kathy Nelson and the Kansas City Sports Commission

“They’re the reason people keep coming back.”

keep the metro’s athletic calendar full.

The 2010 Kansas City Marathon takes over Grand. An average of 10,000 runners participate each year.

Then comes the big reveal: The 70-year-old Ford is scheduled to introduce special screenings of 42 at the AMC Barrywoods in Kansas City April 11. The showings are the only ones outside Los Angeles before the fi lm’s April 12 nationwide release. Also in attendance: Boseman; Major League Baseball players; and sportswriter Joe Posnanski, who conducts a Q&A with Bob Kendrick, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president.

Tickets to the special screenings, ranging from $42 to $1,000, have sold out. The money benefits the Negro Leagues Museum and the Kansas City Sports Commission.

“It’s the job of the Kansas City Sports Commission to interweave athletics with the life of our city and bring athletics to the fore,” says Tom Butch, chairman of the Sports Commission’s executive committee. “And this certainly fulfills that organizational directive.”

The Sports Commission was founded in 1966, aided by Ewing Kauffman, with an early directive to sell Chiefs season tickets and lobby Major League Baseball for a team. The nonprofit relies on private funding, corporate sponsorships, membership dues and entry fees to its 25 annual events, such as numerous 5k runs, the Waddell & Reed Kansas City Marathon, and the WIN for KC Triathlon. The commission is also charged with bringing marquee sporting events to the metro.

Those duties fall on commission president Kathy Nelson, who, with her 10 employees, put in long hours for March Madness. They helped the city host continued on page 10

pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

9

HIGH QUALITY SCREEN PRINTED

T-SHIRTS

YOUR LOGO HERE

24

PRINTED T-SHIRTS

START@

$120

unionpress 1219 Union West Bottoms 816.842.5683

www.unionscreenprinting.net

Are you

S A B R I N A S TA I R E S

INFORMED? Sign up for

EDITORIAL NEWSLETTER

10

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

Sporting Kansas City continued from page 9 basketball tournaments between March 4 and 24 for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the Big 12, as well as the NCAA men’s basketball tournament’s KC regional. As those games played out in the Sprint Center and Municipal Auditorium, Nelson and the commission’s staff were busy planning the next event.

The commission’s work isn’t always glamorous; the volunteers and interns do grunt work, shuttling sports-media members among the Sprint Center, Municipal Auditorium and hotels; posting game scores from around the nation in hotel lobbies; giving directions; and serving as bouncers during VIP parties for sponsors and city officials at the Power & Light District’s Shark Bar. During the KC regional, a photo of Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson drinking in the party district went viral after the Rebels beat the Wisconsin Badgers. (Nelson says Henderson wasn’t at a commission party.)

“You never know if you might be working with a 6-year-old, teaching them volleyball and basketball, or you might be bouncing at one of the VIP parties,” Nelson says. “Or you could easily be driving the KU men’s basketball coach from his hotel to Sprint Center.”

The city’s power brokers acknowledge that the commission’s work is essential to keeping the city’s sports calendar full.

“They’re the reason people keep coming back,” Mayor Sly James says. “Not to mention that the city is kick-ass.”

pitch.com

T

he Kansas City Southern Railroad building maintains its old-fashioned sensibilities, with a door attendant and a first-floor modelrailroad window display. The Kansas City Sports Commission occupies the fourth floor of the brick building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On a late-March Thursday, much of the commission’s headquarters are dark, many of the staffers working outside the office or taking a day off after the busy basketball season. Nelson isn’t. Her office shows the war trophies of a career in sports. There’s a wedding gift from broadcaster Frank Boal, a customized Louisville Slugger autographed by former Chiefs defensive end Neil Smith, who famously celebrated sacking quarterbacks by pantomiming a bat swing. Two regional Emmys for producing Chiefs games sit on another shelf.

Nelson hesitates when asked the year that she won her fi rst Emmy. “You’d think I would know the year, right?” she says, before reading the inscriptions: 2004 and 2005. She previously worked in TV production for more than two decades, holding various positions at WDAF Channel 4 when it was an NBC affiliate. “Fox didn’t even exist,” she says.

At Channel 4, she spent weekends freelancing in broadcast trucks at football games and various college games throughout the area.

“It was even prior to the ESPN era, when sports was fun on TV,” Nelson says. “But no one had caught on to the hot commodity that it is now.”

In the late 1990s, colleagues from her

Nelson keeps Kansas City in the game. freelance production gigs started work on Metro Sports, the local all-sports cable channel. They wanted her to work with them on building a 24-hour sports station. Nelson wasn’t sold.

“I’m like, ‘Cable is never going to make it,’ ” she says. Metro Sports’ early success changed her mind. In 2000, she was hired to expand the all-sports station’s programming from six hours a day to 24.

While working for Metro Sports, Nelson was also volunteering at Sports Commission events. She also served on the advisory board for the commission’s WIN for KC. The commission’s then president, Kevin Gray, tried to hire her away from Metro Sports to run the Women’s Intersport Network for Kansas City (WIN for KC).

“I had known Kevin for at least 10 years,” Nelson says. “Our daughters played basketball together. I’d see him on the weekends all the time.”

Gray had been with the nonprofit for 21 years. By August 2010, he had persuaded Nelson to join the commission, which was headquartered in a four-story, red-brick house at 1308 Pennsylvania. Their professional collaboration would be brief.

While watching a Big 12 men’s basketball game at Sprint Center in spring 2011, Gray experienced hip pain. On June 15 — 10 weeks later — he died of cancer.

“Losing a family member is what it was,” Nelson says. “You know, you have your daytime spouse. Kevin was one of our daytime kind of spouses.”

12

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

WEEK OF APRIL 11–17 | BY BERRY ANDERSON

17

PAG E

Fashion by House of Cochon

STAGE Bill Maher: behind enemy lines.

21

PAG E

DAY SATUR

4 .1 3 ird at Get we ia.

Artop

42 revives Jackie Robinson’s legend.

23 PAG E

CAFÉ Quindaro: good food among the ruins.

ANN K BROWN

FILM

CREATIVE BLISS The Pitch presents Artopia — the annual explosion of local art, music, fashion, dance, film, burlesque and, of course, naked painted women — at the Screenland Crossroads (1656 Washington, 816-287-0114).

This year’s slate of artists (on indoor and outdoor easels) includes Red Bull painter

Becky Buznedo, West Bottoms Art Society’s Ryan Drake, and action illustrator Chris Sembower. Enjoy a can of Tallgrass Brewing’s Halcyon Wheat while watching a fashion show (with dresses by Little Shell Designs and WM Couture) or listening to DJ sets from Joc Max and Brad Ireland.

T H U R S D AY | 4 . 11 |

F R I D AY | 4 . 1 2 |

ABSINTHE AND POPCORN

GET LOST IN THE ARTS

This weekend, the Royal Academy of Arts in London closes the first retrospective of French artist Edouard Manet. If you haven’t yet seen the paintings in person, you probably won’t.

Instead, experience them at one of three area theaters when Fathom Events begins its Exhibition: Great Art on Screen series with Manet: Portraying Life. See more than 50 works collected from Europe, Asia and the United States, along with behind-the-scenes moments from the Royal Academy show. Adult tickets cost $12.50 for the one-night-only screening at 7:30.

For the list of theaters, see fathomevents.com.

Whatever you do, get there early — the event starts at 7 p.m. for VIPs and 7:30 for everyone else. If it gets too crowded, meet us for the official after-party at Aura (3832 Main), where you might run into an inebriated Pitch staffer. Good times! Buy tickets ($25, or $30 day of event) at secure.pitch.com.

Hang out from 6 to 9 p.m. For more information, see kemperart.org.

It’s rough out there for college kids: accumulating debt; increasing competition in the job market; Four Loko without caffeine, guarana and taurine. No wonder they need to recharge their mental batteries. We recommend College Night at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (4420 Warwick, 816-753-5784) and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (4525 Oak, 816-751-1278). The free event features tours with local hip artists; a cash bar; the S’mores Cart; hands-on art projects; and a performance by KC’s new jazz ensemble, the Hot Club of Kansas City.

THE NEO-NERD HERD

Instead of a gathering of dorks, Super Nerd Night is a monthly respite for everyone 18 and older — whether a nerd or not — with drawing; Magic: the Gathering; old-school video gaming; music from Wichita’s Japanese Game Show and Lawrence’s Something and the Whatevers; tabletop games; and Geekaraoke, which features randomly chosen theme songs and geek anthems. The Big Bang Theory’s theme song, perhaps? Spring into awesome from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Bottleneck (737 New continued on page 14

pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

13

FRIDAY

4 .1 2

r shirt se you Don’t lo sh. ton Ba at Ben

continued from page 13 Hampshire, Lawrence, 785-841-5483). Cover is $3 if you’re older than 21, or $5 for those 18–20. Search “Super Nerd Night” on Facebook for more info.

with one free drink, cake and a few of Benton’s Roanoke-neighborhood folks, from 5 to 7 p.m.

HBD, ENEMY OF MODERNISM

HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER

We’re not sure if Thomas Hart Benton ever stepped into the Wrestler’s Inn (the postProhibition joint on the corner of Westport Road and Pennsylvania) in the late 1930s for a beer or three after a long day of teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute. We bet that if he were still alive, he’d stop at Kelly’s Westport Inn (500 Westport Road, 816-561-5800) for his 124th birthday party. The annual Benton Bash leads up to next year’s 125th birthday bash, says organizer Bob Maines.

“Then, we’re hoping to have an original piece of his on hand to view,” Maines says.

Toast the famous American painter and front-runner of the Regionalist movement,

S AT U R D AY | 4 . 1 3 |

ADULT SONGS

F

ew topics are off-limits for comedian Stephen Lynch’s songs.

However, his double album Lion, released last November, shies away from such subjects as trannies, butts and putting things in said butts. This time around, he’s going for that rich Americana sound so popular these days. “Astute listeners will detect a slight shift of direction, comedywise,” he writes on his website. “Musically, it’s the best work I’ve ever done.” Experience a matured Lynch at VooDoo Lounge at Harrah’s Casino (1 Riverboat Drive). Tickets run $25–$50; buy them at voodookc.com.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

14

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

S AT U R D AY | 4 . 13 | After squelching rumors of a performance at Coachella 2013, Daft Punk has left many EDM fans wondering whether the duo will even tour for its late-May release, Random Access Memories. Bullshit, right? Bring your hard feelings to the dance floor of the Granada (1020 Massachusetts, 785-842-1390) for One More Time, a Daft Punk tribute act from Phoenix. Last month, the DJ-and-producer team told Vegas Seven that it had never seen Daft Punk live. Eh, we’ll take it anyway. Look for the signature helmets, pyramid stage and original remixes beginning at 8 p.m. The all-ages show costs $12 at the door or $10 in advance. See thegranada.com.

quarterly. “We are both passionate about locally grown food, sustainability and ecofriendly living,” Marler says. “There are such amazing things happening in Kansas City right now with regard to the local-food revolution, and we felt that the community was ready for an Edible magazine of our own.” Look for profiles on Local Pig and Powell Gardens in the debut issue, which can be found at grocery stores, restaurants, and such homegrown locations as Amigoni Urban Winery (1505 Genessee) and Little Freshie (811 West 17th Street), as well as at ediblekansascity.com.

What’s this “certain rules apply” crap about?

S U N D AY | 4 . 1 4 | PET FANCY

Earlier this month, New Hampshire Public Radio reported that the number of guinea pigs imported for human consumption is going up in the United States. Don’t mention that at this weekend’s Great KC Pet Expo. Instead, marvel at the “Muttallica Dog and Pony Show,” a rescue-animal entertainment showcase; watch the “Leave It” contest; and line up for vendors selling items ranging from dog dresses to cat trees.

One pet per owner is allowed to attend with a consent form (certain rules apply, including no puppies). Admission costs $8 for adults and $4 for kids 6 to 12 years old (free for those 5 and younger). The expo is open today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Overland Park International Trade Center (6800 West 115th Street). See greatkcpetexpo.com for more information.

WHEREFORE ART THOU, KC?

Before the actors of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival begin performing in As You Like It in Southmoreland Park June 18, seven of them star in a special, abbreviated version of Romeo and Juliet for Shakespeare to Go at Powell Gardens (1609 Northwest U.S. Highway 50, Kingsville, 816-697-2600). So bring lawn chairs, a picnic and money for a cash bar, and get settled in around 4:30 p.m. for the 50-minute show at 5. Tickets are included in the price of admission: $10 for adults and $4 for kids 5 to 12 years old. (Members of Powell Gardens attend free.) For more information, see powellgardens.org.

M O N D AY | 4 . 15 | FOOD FOR LIFE

Edible Communities Publications — the award-winning group of magazines celebrating local food in more than 70 cities nationwide — today drops a local version, Edible Kansas City. Tracey Russell and Tamara Marler are co-publishers of the

T U E S D AY | 4 . 16 | HUSTLE AND FLOW

The American Jazz Museum’s latest exhibit, Beyond Words: A Fusion of Poetry, Visual Art and Jazz (closing April 26), was inspired by the work of L.A. visual poet and performer Douglas Kearney. “I was interested in having Kearney perform at Jazz Poetry Jams because I read his book, The Black Automaton,” museum poetin-residence Glenn North says of the monthly MORE spoken-word night at the Blue Room AT (1616 East 18th Street, INE ONL .COM 816-474-8463). Likened PITCH to the synthesizing of hip-hop production styles (YouTube “Big Thicket Pastoral”), Kearney’s internationally recognized work will be chopped, layered and backed by the Blue Room’s house band beginning at 7 p.m.

Admission costs $5 per person. For more information, see americanjazzmuseum.org.

Over 3000 white gold diamond engagement rings to pick from. Surely we can find a ring at Joslins and often at 1/2 the cost.

9529 Antioch * Overland Park, KS 913. 341.2021 * joslinsjewelry.com

EVENTS

W E D N E S D AY | 4 . 17 | FAMILY-STYLE COOKING

Chef Curtis Stone has done Today, The Martha Stewart Show and The Nate Berkus Show. He has cooked for Oprah and Conan O’Brien. But, really, he’s just a down-toearth Hollywood dad, inspired by the birth of his son. He even dedicated his fifth cookbook, What’s for Dinner?: Delicious Recipes for a Busy Life, to the joys of easy-to-make meals meant to be enjoyed with family. Stop

by Unity Temple on the Plaza (707 West 47th Street) at 7 p.m. to hear Stone talk about what to eat each day of the week, from “Motivating Mondays” through “Family Supper Sundays.” Admission costs $35 and includes a hardcover copy of the cookbook, a guest ticket and a stamped autographing admission ticket (to get that book signed).

Buy your package at rainydaybooks.com or call 913-384-3126.

E-mail submissions two weeks in advance to calendar@pitch.com. Search our complete listings guide online at pitch.com.

pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

15

Creative Proofer 2:

AS Proofer 2:

And there’s still no cure.

Help us fight AIDS here in Kansas City!

Create a fundraising page

www.firstgiving.com/aidswalkkc/aidswalk2013

Invite people to donate.

Join us on April 27th.

TROLLEYRUN.ORG

INFORMATION ON AIDS WALK ROUTE 2013

The course for the event will begin in Theis Park at 10:00AM on Saturday, April 27, 2013.

Walkers will head west on Cleaver II, through Main Street, where they will enter Mill Creek Park. Cleaver II will be closed for about 15 minutes from Rockhill Road to JC Nichols Parkway as well as Oak Street from Volker Boulevard to Cleaver II. From Mill Creek Park, the route continues east on 43rd Street to Oak Street, which veers slightly to the right and becomes Rockhill Road, and on to 45th Street.

Participants will go west on 45th to Oak Street.

At Oak, the route heads south and enters the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Sculpture Park. They will follow the brick path on the west side of the South Lawn and travel back to Cleaver II. Walkers will proceed east on Cleaver, back to Rockhill Road, and follow Rockhill south to Volker Boulevard. *NOTE: Walkers not able to use stairs on the Nelson’s South Lawn to Volker will continue south on Oak to Cleaver II. Route monitors will assist persons on which path they should take.

At Volker, walkers will be immediately directed down to the Brush Creek walkway on the south bank of the creek where they will cross Oak Street and continue on to Brookside Avenue.

The route turns north on Brookside, across the bridge, where walkers will be directed back down to the Brush Creek walkway on the north side of the bank and travel back to Theis where the course ends.

Based upon the judgment, and with the assistance, of the Kansas City Police Department, any intersection or portion of street along the route could be subject to intermittent traffic control if it is deemed advantageous for the safe conduct of either foot or vehicular traffic.

AIDS Service Foundation of Greater Kansas City, and the many recipients of the donations it collects during this event, thank everyone very much for all the cooperation they have given over the years. Please come out and walk with us!

theis park in Kansas City on Saturday, April 27, 2013 Learn more at

AIDSWalkKansasCity.org underwriting SponSorS

16

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

Steve Metzler Brian Williams

Register to Run. Win your Ride.

Choose a GMC Terrain or a Buick Encore! Courtesy of the Buick and GMC Dealers of Greater Kansas City

032-1130-TP-TrolleyRunAd-5x5.indd 1

4/3/13 5:27 PM

S TA G E

GOD COMPLEX

Talking Westboro with Bill Maher in advance of his

BY

stand-up show at the Topeka Performing Arts Center.

D AV ID HUDN A L L

T

he last time Bill Maher was in this part of the Midwest, the cretins at the Westboro Baptist Church drove down to Springfield to protest his stand-up show. Saturday, Maher is making it even easier on those trolls: He’s performing in their hometown, at the Topeka Performing Arts Center. The Pitch chatted with the liberal comedian and host of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher.

The Pitch: I was thinking that maybe I could read you some of the charges the Westboro folks leveled at you in their press release before your stand-up show in Springfield in 2011. Then you could respond to each one individually.

Maher: Sure. Actually, today, the Catholic League put out a really long letter about all the horrible things I’ve said about the Catholics over the years. I got so many e-mails from friends who loved it that I wish I’d done it myself before.

This Catholic League guy basically went to the trouble of putting out a compendium of some of my best jokes. But, sure, go ahead.

“Half-Jew” “Catholic” True. My mother was from a Jewish backWell, I certainly have the history. I paid my ground, although I never saw her go to temple. I dues. Nobody is gonna take that away from me. was raised Catholic. But, yes, half of my family I don’t think I realized that Westboro was is from Jewish stock. Although it’s annoying when people say, “Well if your mother was anti-Catholic …

Oh, yeah. That’s very traditional Southern Jewish, then you’re Jewish.” So I have no say bigotry, to not just be racist but also anti-Jew in that, because it’s a law the Romans had 1,000 years ago? That’s something we all follow? and anti-Catholic. “Papists,” they used to call them — “that whore in They also did virgin sacrifice.

Rome,” they’d call the Pope.

What does everybody think Bill Maher I mean, they gotta make sure about that?

Saturday, April 13, at the there’s enough hate to go “Half-pedophile” Topeka Performing Arts around, you understand.

[Laughs.] OK, now I’m Center, 214 Southeast Eighth Last time you came to remembering this. Is this Avenue, Topeka, tpactix.org Springfield, and now you’re the one where they Photocoming to Topeka, rather shopped a picture of me Sunday in the Park than more progressive cities where I’m praying to a devil With George in the region like Lawrence or Obama with horns coming Through April 14 at Musical Kansas City. How come? out of his head?

Theater Heritage, Off Center I want to bring the good Yes. Theatre (Crown Center), news everywhere! [Laughs.]

Right. No, I was never in2450 Grand, 816-842-9999, mthkc.com I’m trying to be an evangeterested in pedophilia. I’ve list for my brand of comedy always said I could be a good and for progressive thinking. pope because I have a proven And what I’ve found in doing this all these record of having no interest in children. years is, there’s literally no place in America “Christ-hating” that doesn’t have a healthy proportion of proNot at all! To a philosopher, it’s a beautiful gressive-thinking people. All they need is a philosophy. I mean, I’m not convinced there reason to come out of the woodwork. And so I was ever a historical figure named Jesus Christ. try to provide that reason.

But there’s certainly a lot to be said for what he I saw today that Donald Trump might be preached. The idea that a common man has dropping his lawsuit against you? as much dignity as a powerful man is a truly Trump “sues” me in the same way that his revolutionary philosophy that I admire. “investigators” went to Hawaii to find Obama’s “Rape-Enabler” birth certificate. Do you remember this? He What does that mean? I drove the getaway car while somebody else raped? I don’t even sent these guys to Hawaii and kept telling the media they found “amazing things.” Yeah, know what that means, but I deny it.

What can the crowd expect at this show in Topeka?

Just doing what I do, telling jokes. I think people who watch Real Time will be familiar with the areas I’m interested in. I’ve never been a comedian who was interested in trivial stuff, not that I’m putting that down. Some comedians, like Jerry Seinfeld, do it brilliantly.

He can do five minutes on toothpaste, and it’s meaningful and hilarious. I’ve never been that guy. I’ve always been into politics, national events, religion — sex, drugs, and rock and roll, too, but I like stuff that has some intellectual nutrition to it. But, you know, I’m a stand-up comedian. I’m not a humorist or lecturer. You gotta keep ’em laughing.

NOW PLAYING Sunday in the Park With George

A

Does God hate Maher? what they found is that this moron sent them on a vacation. If he ever sent them at all. It’s ridiculous. The guy is a clown, and the fact that the media pays any attention to him says more about the media than him at this point.

I’m tired of having a feud with Donald Trump.

He’s not even a person — he’s a pop-culture reference from the ’80s. It’s like having a feud with J.R. Ewing.

Jay Mohr is also talking shit.

What?

He tweeted, “If you had real balls @billmaher, you’d lay off the Catholics for one show and go after the Muslims and Jews. Oh, that’s right you’d get fired.” On Easter.

What a dick. First of all, obviously, he doesn’t watch the show much. I’ve gone after the Muslims plenty. I go after whoever deserves to be gone after that week. It just happens that the Catholics have been in the news lately. I’ve never been shy about Muslims or Jews — go rent Religulous, Jay. I always kinda thought Jay Mohr was a hack.

Yeah, what’s he been doing the last 10 years?

I don’t know.

Tweeting, I guess.

You’re executive producing this new Vice show on HBO, which airs after Real Time now.

Yeah, we’re really excited for it. They’re doing what I’d guess you’d call a hip 60 Minutes, a 60 Minutes for a new generation. But really, it’s so many generations beyond where 60 Minutes left off. These guys are super-brave, and they’re going to places in the world I don’t see anybody else in news going.

n artist begins with nothing more than an idea or a vision, then creates “order, design, tension, balance, harmony.” And should that artist experiment with a new form, the public — and the critics — may not get the point or appreciate its difficult fulfillment.

Such is the canvas of Sunday in the Park With George, Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prizewinning musical (book by James Lapine) about an artist’s solitary focus and an audience’s reaction to his work. Here, the artist is PostImpressionist pointillist Georges Seurat, whose effort and artwork, misunderstood during his short life, we see through his and others’ eyes.

Musical Theater Heritage’s production, directed by Sarah Crawford, incorporates a large cast (17 members) and live music (a 10-piece orchestra) to achieve the company’s characteristic expanded reading. In Act 1’s 1884, Tim Scott channels an emotionally removed Georges; in a more intimate Act 2, he’s 1980s artist George, a fictional Seurat descendant who connects the dots between his heritage and his artistic struggles. As Dot, Seurat’s Act 1 mistress and painting subject, and as Marie, George’s grandmother, in Act 2, Katie Karel is the yin to the two artists’ yang. (Co-stars and musicians also stand out.)

“Composition, balance, light” — Seurat transforms an ordinary day in a park into “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” A vision’s just a vision if it’s only in your head, George sings. If no one gets to see it, it’s as good as dead, Marie adds. We experience both Sondheim’s and Seurat’s in the much alive Sunday in the Park.

— DEBORAH HIRSCH

pitch.com

E-mail feedback@pitch.com A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

17

AIDS KC Artists Against

pr oudly pr es en t

a benefit for

E, n of AUNTIE MAM ! ng A brilliant recreatio di en -b gender crashing, slashing & | Unicorn Theatre May 9 through May 26

22

6-235-62 Central Ticket Office 81 ainstAIDS.com

or www.KCArtistsAg

18

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

ART

UNPLUGGED

1051 MERRIAM LANE, KCKS • WWW.BOULEVARDDRIVEIN.COM

Electromediascope’s latest series — The End — is its last.

Our 64th Year!

BY

THER E S A B EMBNI S T E R

THE WORLD’S GREATEST DRIVE IN 4k Digital Projection & dts DIGITAL SOUND

NOW SHOWING!!! FRIDAY AND SATURDAY ONLY! 8:20PM: The Croods PG 10:00PM: Oz Great & Powerful 1051 MERRIAM LANE, KCKS WWW.BOULEVARDDRIVEIN.COM

Gates open at 7PM!

MOVIE TIMES @

I

in the same way they looked at painting and n Sheepwoman, artists Laetitia Sonami and Sue-C make a movie in real time, using mo- sculpture: as visual art.

“There was still that modernist idea that tors and computers and projections and such you define content in terms of the media itself,” unexpected objects as cans of compressed Clancy says. Even film and video, he adds, air. If that sounds like something you’d see seemed opposed to each other at the time. at Electromediascope — the Nelson-Atkins Deborah Emont Scott, then curator of Museum of Art’s seasonal program of experimodern and contemporary art at the Nelson, mental film, video, sound, performance and tapped Clancy, who taught across the street new-media art — well, you’re right. at the Kansas City Art Institute, to program And if you like Electromediascope, you’ll a series that would bring new film and video want to see Sheepwoman, the first of April’s works to the museum’s audiences. Philanthrothree Electromediascope events, Friday pist Rheta A. Sosland established a fund in the night. Because this month’s 20th-anniversary series is titled The End for a reason: Gwen late 1990s to support the program.

In the early days, gaining access to such Widmer and Patrick Clancy, who have curated the series since its 1993 inception, are retiring, works, which often had just one or two prints in circulation, was a challenge. “If someone and so is Electromediascope.

“We wanted to have performance, we else already had that date, you couldn’t have it,” Widmer recalls. “Putting the program towanted to have a feature-length film, and gether was really kind of a crossword puzzle of we wanted to have a bunch of shorts because fitting content with running that’s emblematic of what time — because we could we did,” Widmer tells The Electromediascope only have about 90 minutes Pitch. Following Sonami April 12, 19 and 26 in an evening — and availand Sue-C, then, is a kind of 7 p.m., Atkins Auditorium, ability. Now, with video and greatest-hits package. Before Nelson-Atkins Museum of DVDs, availability is not so Tomorrow, a feature-length Art, 4525 Oak, 816-751-1278, much an issue.” movie about 19th-century nelson-atkins.org Other aspects of putting Inuit, returns to the Nelson on Electro, however, have April 19. Twelve shorts, segrown more complicated. The Internet has lected from the sources most often tapped by Widmer and Clancy over the years (including made it easier to program film and video series with a global reach. Widmer says there’s also Video Data Bank in Chicago, and Marian Goodmore paperwork to fill out, more permissions man Gallery and Electronic Arts Intermix in to seek.

New York), close things out April 26.

Another challenge was keeping up with Over its 20-year run, Electro (as Widmer and new media’s technical demands. It wasn’t Clancy call their project) has examined — and until during the construction of the Bloch arguably contributed to — changing attitudes Building, when Electromediascope went to in new media, even as an expanding number of Tivoli Cinemas (for the fall 2004 and winter evolving technologies altered what constitutes and spring 2005 series), that Widmer and “new media.” In the early 1990s, museums, the Clancy had the opportunity to select Matthew press and the public didn’t view film and video

COURTESY OF SHEEPWOMAN

BARRETT EMKE

p LEGENDS 1867 VILLAGE WEST NEXT TO DAVE & BUSTERS

APRIL MACIE

APRIL 10 - APRIL 14

Widmer and Clancy sign off after The End, which starts with Sheepwoman (above).

Barney’s Cremaster Cycle and Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls, works with technical specifications too complex for the museum to handle.

The Tivoli was able to reproduce the latter as the artist intended: projected simultaneously by two machines.

Today, the Bloch Building allows for the display of video work in the galleries, something the Nelson couldn’t accommodate when Scott recruited Clancy. The contemporary-art curators working there now — Jan Schall and Leesa Fanning — have organized Bloch presentations of new-media projects, including such well-received works as Bill Viola’s The Raft and the American debut of Chinese artist Cao Fei’s RMB City Opera. But that capacity also may signal a diminished audience for what has become an old-school new-media experience.

“We’ve incorporated it into our regular exhibition offerings, enabling new-media art to be experienced over extended periods of time rather than in a singular evening program,” Schall says of how new-media art is being presented at such places as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum — and the Nelson itself. “Our Project Space has become our venue of choice for new-media programming.”

Clancy, whose own film and video work focused on gallery installation as early as the mid-1960s, recognizes that, despite changing modes of display, there’s still something special about experiencing artwork in a theatrical setting. “I still really enjoy being in a large space with a high-resolution image and surround sound and other people — their presence in the space,” he says. “I really think that’s amazing.”

For at least another three Fridays, it still is.

• HOWARD STERN DUBBED “BEST LOOKING FEMALE COMIC OF OUR TIME” • THE RED HEAD WITH BLUE EYES ...

• SHOWTIMES BAD GIRLS WITH SNOOP • LAST COMIC STANDING FINALS • HOST OF ADULT VIDEO AWARDS THIS SEASON

COLLIN KANE APRIL 17 - APRIL 20

• SOLD OUT MADISON SQUARE GARDENS • HOTTEST NEW COMEDY STAR • HEADLINED AVN IN VEGAS THIS SUMMER • ON FIRE ... DON’T MISS HIM, YOU’LL BE TALKING ABOUT HIS SHOW LONG AFTER.

SPONSORED BY HOLLYWOOD CASINO FALL COMEDY SERIES TUE-SUN 7:45PM & 9:45PM

913.400.7500

WWW.STANFORDSCOMEDYCLUB.COM

E-mail feedback@pitch.com pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

19

There’s a NEW game in town!

KC’S ONLY FM SPORTS STATION! SPORTS RADIO 102.5 THE FAN LINEUP:

5AM-8AM: Tiki Barber, Brandon & Dana 8AM-11AM: John Feinstein 11AM-2PM: Jim Rome 2PM-5PM: Doug Gottlieb 5PM-9PM: Chris Moore & Brian Jones 9PM-1AM: Scott Ferrall 1AM-5AM: D.A. - Damon Amendolara 20

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

FILM

ACCENTUATE THE NEGATIVE

Think Argo told a ripping true-life

BY

political yarn? The word is No.

M I CH A E L S I CI NS KI

C

an media change the world? From the radical montage films of post-revolutionary Soviet Russia through Italian neorealism and the Popular Front and the youthful street grammar of 1960s new-wave cinemas in France and Brazil and Czechoslovakia, up to today’s guerrilla-video movement in China, there has been no shortage of effort. Results are harder to prove, but the true events dramatized in the brilliant new Chilean film No offer an unmistakable example of creative individuals altering a nation’s destiny.

The people in question weren’t artists in the conventional sense. They were advertising agents, called upon to sell happiness and democracy the way one would market a deodorant — a tough task in 1980s Chile, under Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.

Pinochet and his right-wing cronies seized power in a U.S.-backed 1973 coup that overthrew democratically elected Socialist President Salvador Allende. The new regime suspended, banned or criminalized political parties; dissenters were arrested, tortured and beaten in the streets or they simply “disappeared.” In 1988, the government announced a plebiscite, calling on voters to legitimize

Pinochet’s rule. As part of the imposed process, each side was allotted 15 minutes of nightly TV time for a month leading up to the vote. The left assumed that this yes-or-no referendum would be rigged. Consensus formed that because “No” was a clear loser, someone might as well use that airtime (in the middle of the night) to expose Pinochet’s crimes.

Enter hotshot ad exec René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal). After seeing the dour stats-and-brutality infomercial that the “No” campaigners have worked up, he lets them have it. “This won’t sell,” he says. “It’s too negative.” So with the help of an activist film-

Boseman looks the part.

and a half, and he hasn’t seemed involved in a role since he was The Fugitive, back in 1993. But here he gives his best performance since at least that movie, and maybe since his mannered-tothe-snout turn in 1986’s The Mosquito Coast.

At 70, padded out and bow-tied and in the care of a not especially talented milliner, Ford seems to have wandered in from a road production of Inherit the Wind. His Rickey is grampsy and crinkly, with double-wide eyebrows glued on and a cigar always at the jab (a variation on the actor’s usual don’t-make-me-keep-pointing-at-you brand of spleen). But once you get past waiting for him to hold up a bag of Pepperidge Farm Nantuckets or offer directions to Grover’s Corners, he wears the role fine and does what’s expected of him: Anchor Helgeland’s movie with likably gruff paternalism.

Bernal knows “no.”

maker (Néstor Cantillana) and a sympathetic Democratic Socialist leader (Luis Gnecco), René refashions “No” into a message: a logo (with a rainbow, signifying the various parties), a jingle (“Chile, happiness is coming!”) and a set of sturdy talking points.

Director Pablo Larraín shot his film on Umatic, a defunct video format used in late-1980s TV broadcasting, which allows the archival material (the “No” ads, which are both hilarious and poignant) to blend seamlessly with his original footage — everything is equally blurry and distant-seeming. U-matic’s tendency to produce flares and hot spots puts prismatic rainbows into otherwise average shots, covertly emphasizing the “No” logo’s message.

Larraín also made Tony Manero, the jetblack satire about a pro-Pinochet fascist (Alfredo Castro, also in No) obsessed with impersonating John Travolta’s Saturday Night Fever protagonist. That 2008 film is a challenging, idiosyncratic allegory, but No is in a different league, partly because it more closely reflects the ways in which Chile’s recent history is not some isolated event.

Could this happen again, or are we living in times more defi ned by sí?

■

OUT THIS WEEK 42

C

omplaining about a movie’s score is like carping about how a game is refereed. Neither music nor officiating ends up mattering all that much if the talent is working. But: A solemn orchestral motif to heroize the occasion of Jackie Robinson showering for the first time alongside his teammates is a blown call.

You can picture 42 writer-director Brian Helgeland in the editing bay, dialing composer Mark Isham on his iPhone and yelling, “Have you watched the shower scene? I need brass!”

And we haven’t yet come to the movie-capping slow-motion homer, tracked to a cue as loud and boorish in its Americana striving as Randy Newman bludgeoning Aaron Copland with Wonderboy.

Roy Hobbs’ trusty bat is among the few baseball clichés absent from 42, a rigorously competent, “based on real events” version of Robinson’s story that’s very much in line with Barry Levinson’s serious, burnished — and hollow — The Natural. It’s lovely picture making (thanks to Don Burgess’ camerawork and some impressive CGI), assembled with journeyman skill and acted without undue flourish. You get your flannel uniforms and vintage rides, you get your baseball ownership as shadowy starchamber villainy and fizzy pep talks, and you get your precision-timed triumphal wallops.

But even though we’re watching two key years in the barrier-breaking life and career of Robinson (Chadwick Boseman, charismatic and capable but not entrusted with much), a lot of the victory on display belongs to white people — mainly Branch Rickey, baseball’s most titanic pragmatist (and the man who stole Robinson from the Kansas City Monarchs).

That means Harrison Ford, who plays Rickey, is onscreen a lot. The man has been cashing checks without ID for maybe a decade

— SCOTT WILSON

TRANCE

B

y the time director Danny Boyle sends Rosario Dawson off-camera to shave her hoohah, the only suspense left in his Mad magazine version of Inception is whether he’ll show the results. (He does. And the fact that Boyle and Dawson are reportedly a couple is a Hitchcock joke that’s more amusing than anything in this movie.) Trance starts as a buzzing heist procedural (with James McAvoy addressing

the camera to outline the plan, a typically coy but effective trick that Boyle abandons with typically frustrating coyness), shifts into a mind game involving hypnosis and power, then becomes a bizarre love triangle pitting Dawson and McAvoy against Vincent Cassel (brawn and ooze). It’s a long, ludicrous way to go for a climax that even Brian De Palma would say is a bit much.

— S.W.

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

D

irector Derek Cianfrance, working from a script co-written with Ben Coccio and Darius Marder, recasts his Blue Valentine star Ryan Gosling (still waiting for one great part) in a daddy-issues version of Crash. The torsion here involves the fated working class, the morally compromised privileged, various legacies of failure and violence … and some exceptionally odd voice coaching. Cianfrance again has auteurism to burn (his name alone is like something from a Cahiers du Cinéma word jumble), and so burn it he does — on ooh-ahh tracking shots, on conspicuous improvisation, on portent. But not on narrative that escapes thematic boilerplate. Oh, the humanity. Oh, the ungodly coincidence. Oh, the Bradley Cooper.

pitch.com

— S.W.

E-mail feedback@pitch.com A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

21

couscous•tagines•kabobs

NEW SUMMER MENU!

MON-SAT 11AM -11PM | SUN 3-9PM

4116 Broadway Street, KCMO 816.753.7520 marrakechcafekc.net

GROUP OFF! NO MINIMUM PER PERSON NO LIMIT PER VISIT NO PREPAY

1ST THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH

FRENCH-FUSION BISTRO & NIGHTCLUB 7300 W.119TH ST . OVERLAND PARK KS 913.451.0555 | ONEBLOCKSOUTHKC.COM

22

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

CAFÉ food — along the Quindaro.

BY

CHARLES FERRUZZA

ANGELA C. BOND

BEYOND THE RUINS

Stopping for food — good

I

n the summer of 1857, J.V. Fitch, proud resident of Quindaro, sold ice-cream sodas in his shop, one of many new businesses in the fast-growing hamlet on the banks of the Missouri River. Ground had broken on the freshly platted community only six months earlier, but

by August, Quindaro’s population was more than 600, primarily runaway slaves and free blacks, members of the Wyandot Indian tribe, and free-state white settlers. There were soon 100 buildings, including a large hotel.

Thank goodness for Fitch’s ice-cream sodas — by the following year, Quindaro had outlawed liquor. But it was something else that turned a fast-booming river city into a ghost town. “The Civil War really gave Quindaro its knockout blow,” one of the last residents wrote in a letter. “All the young men left to join the Union Army.”

War emptied Quindaro, but Ricardo Khan, a visiting professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City who mounted an original play, Quindaro, in 2008, says yet another factor brought the community to a halt. “It was bypassed by the railroad, which built tracks closer to Leavenworth,” he says.

Today, Quindaro’s ruins remain on the banks of the river, on the northeast side of Kansas City, Kansas. “There’s little left to evoke the dramatic events that took place there in the days of slavery,” Khan says. Quindaro was a pivotal stop on the Underground Railroad.

“The town was created in a wooded, hilly setting that was ideal for the runaway slaves that came there to be free after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act.” That 1850 law mandated that runaway slaves be returned to their owners, no matter where they were captured.

By the 1900s, two areas in KCK were known as Quindaro: the crumbling ruins of Fitch’s 19th-century town and a middle-class neighborhood beyond the bluffs. The latter’s more

prosperous stretch, bordered by Quindaro Boulevard, included stores, movie theaters, restaurants and churches. “It was an AfricanAmerican community from about Seventh Street to 18th Street,” says Richard Mabion, longtime historian and booster of the Quindaro neighborhood.

It’s still primarily an African-American community, but the modern Quindaro has had much more drama than the old one did, including crime, abandoned homes and businesses, and a serious economic downturn.

The movie theaters along Quindaro Boulevard were either razed or turned into churches years ago, as have the supermarkets (one of which is now a rental hall called the Nefertiti Ballroom).

A decade ago, Mabion took me to a new restaurant in the heart of Quindaro, Food for Life Supreme Diner, a primarily vegetarian restaurant (give or take organic salmon and white fish) operated by members of the United Nation of Islam. The restaurant was an attempt to breathe new life into the community. Today the building is occupied by the Gotti Boyz Motorcycle Club.

“Restaurants come and go in the Quindaro,” Mabion says. “It’s hard to keep a business going when most of your clientele comes from the neighborhood — and it’s not a wealthy neighborhood.”

It’s hard, yes, but Ruth Scover has run her tiny soul-food restaurant, Ms. R’s Café (720 Quindaro Boulevard, KCK, 913-371-7611), for 28 years. “It used to be the R &R Café,” she says, “but I got divorced.” Other things have changed, too, but she has kept going. “I used to stay open late and got a lot of business when the clubs in the area closed,” she says. “But there aren’t as many clubs as there used to be, so I close early now.”

There are only a couple of tables inside the café, which is dominated by two counter areas.

Most of Scover’s business is carryout. She sells a lot of burgers and chicken wings and does a good business offering full dinners, a revolving list of daily specials, including smothered chicken, neck bones and pig ears on Mondays and fried chicken or liver and gravy on Fridays.

Patrons order from a window that has a framed “Serenity Prayer” hanging above it. Pictures of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X hang on the walls.

I’ve eaten the best Salisbury steak of my life at Ms. R’s. Hers comes smothered in gravy, with greens and macaroni and cheese. Great cornbread, too.

Another veteran of Quindaro’s restaurant scene is Wilson’s Pizza & Grill (1801 Quindaro Boulevard, KCK, 913-621-4066), which has been in the neighborhood for two decades and in its current location, a former drugstore, since 1998. Owner Gary Wilson says he sells just as many burgers and fried-chicken and shrimp baskets as he does pizza, but his thick-crust pies are excellent. Wilson is generous with his toppings — the 18th Street Special, thick with pepperoni, sausage and ground beef, is the best-seller. And his prices are very modest.

“Most of my clientele comes from the Quindaro neighborhood,” Wilson says, “but business has been good.”

Veteran barbecue restaurateur Ricky Smith, who runs Ricky’s Pit Bar-B-Que (3800 Leavenworth Road, KCK, 913-371-8088), has operated a couple of locations in Wyandotte County over the years and served some celebrities along the way (including President Bill Clinton). He took over a former ice-cream parlor on Leavenworth Road (Quindaro Boulevard flows into this street) four years ago, and it’s the smallest space he has run: five tables and a counter. He no longer serves smoked catfish (“It got to be too expensive,” he says), which was one of his signature dishes in better times. But his

The Quindaro crawl brisket sandwich is still a winner — thick and tender and dripping with a sharp, cayennespiced sauce. And the burnt-ends platter, at less than $10, is one of the best barbecue deals in the metro. (The peach cobbler here, when it’s available, is fantastic.)

Not too far from Ricky’s is the newest snack shack in the community, J’s Chicken and Fish Market (3012 North 27th Street, KCK, 913-233-0203), in a former Church’s Chicken building. You can buy fried chicken (with a light, peppery crust) or fried shrimp, catfish, perch and tilapia — or you can buy raw chicken, shrimp and fish from a refrigerated case and have the kitchen crew fry it for you for a buck. (“They do that so customers can pay with food stamps,” Mabion says. “You can’t use them for prepared foods, but if you buy it raw and have them fry it, it’s legal.”)

Mabion says he expects more restaurants — and more residents — to move into Quindaro.

(Next to join is likely to be Louisiana Smoke Bar-B-Que, which has been closed for renovation. “We’ll be open again in about a month,” the owner tells me.) He points out that home construction along Quindaro Boulevard is up these days. “Maybe the people who buy these houses will demand a new supermarket in the neighborhood and other new businesses,” he says.

The Quindaro of 2013 doesn’t need a railroad to keep it alive, but a good 19th-century-style ice-cream soda might help. So would an influx of customers from the other side of the river for Wilson’s Pizza and Ms. R’s Café and Ricky’s and whatever worthy places next join them.

Have a suggestion for a restaurant The Pitch should review?

E-mail charles.ferruzza@pitch.com

pitch.com 1 pitch.comM OANPTRHI LX X–X 1 1 - 1X7,, 2200103X tThHeE pPiItTcChH 23

FAT C I T Y

TAPPING SOCCER FANS

BY

JON AT H A N BENDER

Futbol comes to OP, Artopia feeds you and Twin Peaks boots up.

10540 South Ridgeview Rd. Olathe, KS 66061 • 913.897.1188 ENJOY A GOURMET BURGER & A LOCAL BEER ON WESTPORT’S NEWEST PATIO

A 4010 Pennsylvania (816) 216-7982 GreenRoomKC.com

3611 Broadway • KCMO 4 - 1:30 Mon-Sat

a community bar celebrating the performing arts

ollow us on acebook A weekend of live music!

MORE THAN 50 ar ts events ever y month!

Mikal Shapiro - Friday @ 8pm Willis White - Saturday @ 7pm Quirk & Ruckus - Saturday @ 10:30pm

Check our website for details and other upcoming events

www.uptownartsbar.com

MON: Industry Night 20% off everything 3-CL TUES: Neighborhood Night w/ Live Jazz

by Tim Whitmer 5-9 1/2 off Wine by the glass & Martinis 3 to close WED: Half Price Bottle Night!

THURS: Acoustic Classic Rock Night w/ Matt McCann 6-10 1/2 off Wine by the glass & Martinis FRI: Jazz Guitar with Joe Lisinicchia 6-10 Happy Hour 3-7 SAT: Live Flamenco/Jazz guitar w/ Jarrod Stephenson

• 4890 Main St. KCMO • 816-753-0810

Or book online at: accursos.com Accurso’s Caters! find us !

24

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

new Overland Park sports bar is shooting to attract soccer fans. The Futbol Club Eatery & Tap — a grill and pub dedicated to showcasing local and global soccer — is set to open the third week of April at 12030 Blue Valley Parkway. It’s managed by Leap Hospitality and Pat Phelan, owners and operators of the Jacobson.

“There are a loyal group of people watching soccer on their computers at 7:30 a.m. or making a bar change a TV from SportsCenter to Fox Sports to watch a match,” says Michael Kricsfeld, Futbol’s marketing manager. “Now they’ll have a place to go.”

Futbol is already the official bar of FC Kansas City, the new professional women’s soccer club that debuts this spring, and it’s providing concessions for the team’s games at the Shawnee Mission North District Stadium.

“The soccer atmosphere of Kansas City has grown exponentially in the past few years, to the point where it can sustain a soccer-only sports bar,” Kricsfeld says.

Expect all 16 of the bar’s TVs to be tuned to soccer, including the 12-foot-by-16-foot projection screen in the lounge area called the Pitch.

That space (available for private parties) is set up like a beer hall, with long communal tables.

The staff has been in training the past week, and Kricsfeld expects the tap lineup and menu to be finalized in the coming days.

He describes the food as “casual American with a lot of English influence”: pizzas, burgers, pot roast, pasta dishes and sandwiches.

Twenty beers will be on tap, along with a full liquor selection. Kricsfeld says Futbol Club plans to stock imports from Australia (not Foster’s) and Venezuela. “We’re trying to be global,” he says. “We want to have a representation of soccer countries in the games and the beer.”

“Gooooooooooal!”

Futbol’s hours are 11 a.m.–midnight Tuesday and 11 a.m.–2 a.m. the rest of the week; on Saturdays and Sundays, when English Premier League games are broadcast live, doors open at 7:30 a.m. In order to encourage future athletes, Futbol Club plans to donate 1 percent of its loyalty-program proceeds to the diner’s choice of local youth-soccer programs.

Arts & Eats

Discover the art of eating and catching a bartender’s eye at The Pitch’s Artopia on Saturday, at the Screenland Crossroads (1656 Washington). The arts celebration runs 7:30– 11 p.m. and features food from Accurso’s, Blue Bird, Grace’s Best Cookies and the Melting Pot. Wash down that food with Tallgrass beer and Smirnoff vodka. General-admission tickets cost $20; for another $10, get VIP access with early admission (7 p.m.) and a goodie bag. Buy ’em at secure.pitch.com.

Eyes Up Here, Jack

Finally, there’s a place where underdressed lumberjacks can congregate. Twin Peaks opened last week in the former My Big Fat Greek Restaurant space, at 14805 West 119th Street, in Olathe. The mountain-lodgethemed sports bar dresses its servers in revealing plaid tops and high-cut khaki shorts.

It claims to offer the metro’s coldest draft beer (29 degrees Fahrenheit), and it certainly is second to none in mounted-moose-head count. The restaurant is open 11 a.m.–11 p.m.

Sunday, 11 a.m.–midnight Monday–Thursday, and 11 a.m.–2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

E-mail jonathan.bender@pitch.com

LOCALLY GROWN, DELICIOUSLY PREPARED!

INVITES YOU AND A GUEST TO A SPECIAL ADVANCE SCREENING!

gluten-free, vegetarian, and dairy-free options Specialty Baked Goods

WWW.FIGTREECAFELS.COM

VOTED BEST DESSERTS 817 NE Rice Road, Lee Summit | 816.347.0442

BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER & FULL BAR

39th St. & SW Trafficway Kansas City, MO 816-531-SOSA (7672) /Sosas39thStreetDiner

PIZZA. IT’S WHAT’S

FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED FOR 80 YEARS

FOR DINNER.

1209 W. 47th Street Kansas City, MO 64112 816.401.4483 facebook.com/JohnnyJosPizza

UNIVERSAL PICTURES PRESENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH RELATIVITY MEDIA A CHERNIMUSICN ENTERTAICOSTUME NMENT/MONOLITH PICTURES/RADICAL STUDIOS PRODUCTION A JOSEPH KOSINSKI FILM TOM CRUISDIRECTOR E “OBLIOFVION” OLGA KURYLENKO ANDREA RISEBOROUGH NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU AND MELISSA LEOPRODUCEDBY M83 DESIGNER MARLENE STEWART EDITOR RICHARD FRANCIS-BRUCE ACE PRODUCTION DESIGNER DARREN GILFORD PHOTOGRAPHY CLAUDIO MIRANDA ASC EXECUTIVE BASED ON THE GRAPHIC NOVEL PRODUCERS DAVE MORRISON JESSE BERGER JUSTIN SPRINGER ORIGINAL STORY BY JOSEPH KOSINSKI

BY JOSEPH KOSINSKI PETER CHERNIN DYLAN CLARK BARRY LEVINE DUNCAN HENDERSON SCREENPLAY DIRECTED A UNIVERSAL PICTURE

BY KARL GAJDUSEK AND MICHAEL DEBRUYN

BY JOSEPH KOSINSKI

SERVING BREAKFAST & LUNCH: 7 DAYS A WEEK

SOUNDTRACK ON BACK LOT MUSIC

© 2012 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

IMAX® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF IMAX CORPORATION

AN ORIGINAL SERIES. MONDAYS 9/8C. PREMIERES APRIL 15 ON

TUESDAY, APRIL 16 – 7:30 PM4F Log on to WWW.PITCH.COM beginning Thursday, April 11 for your chance to win a complimentary pass for two.

PROMO AD 4C 6.437” X 9.625”

SPECIALIZING IN

NOW OPEN FOR DINNER until 9pm Tues-Sat Special! 2 dinners for $10.99 Includes choice of meats, beans & rice

DINNER ONLY:

5PM-9:30PM MON-SAT •CLOSED SUN

1667 SUMMIT KCMO

Springtime is in Full Bloom

816-471-0450

Pork Tender Sandwiches, Burgers, House Cut Fries EAT ON THE CHEAP AT THE BEST

GREASY SPOON ON THE BOULEVARD.

816-842-6601 OPEN MON-SAT•11AM - 6PM 900 SOUTHWEST BLVD KCMO

More

Catering

OBLIVION has been PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, brief strong language, and some sensuality/nudity.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. 50 passes will be distributed via a random drawing on Monday, April 15. All entries must be received by midnight on Sunday, April 14. Please arrive early! Theater is overbooked to ensure a full house. Seats are not guaranteed, are limited to theater capacity and are first-come, first-served. Everyone entering the theater must have a pass.

IN THEATERS AND IMAX® APRIL 19 WWW.OBLIVIONMOVIE.COM

THE PITCH THURS: 4/10/13 4COLOR 2.305” x 4.822” HR ALL.OBL-P.0410.PITCH

Coffee

THAN JUST

Breakfast

03/15/13

DELICIOUS

BREAKFAST & LUNCH

SANDWICHES & Lunch

Gift Baskets

Breakfast: Mon-Sat 7-12pm, Sat 7-12pm, Sun 8-1:30pm Lunch: Mon-Sat 11-3pm, Sun 11-1:30pm

409 W. Gregory, KCMO (816) 444-1933 • www.theclassiccookie.com

SOUPS & SALADS 1821 WYANDOTTE (CROSSROADS)

920 MAIN

(DOWNTOWN)

1713 VILLAGE W. PARKWAY KANSAS CITY, KANSAS 913.299.8787 chiusanospizza.com

Classically Local...

Ingredient Driven Menu Supporting Local Farmers Award Winning Wine List Intimate and Comfortable

201 West 47th Street Kansas City, MO 64112 (816) 753-3565 • www.starkersrestaurant.com

HAPPY HOUR 2 for 1 ALL drinks

beers & wine at the bar

Mon-Fri : 4-6 Locally owned & operated!

Photograph: Angela Bond pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

25

WHERE THE BEST MUSICIANS IN THE WORLD PLAY

KNUCKLEHEADS F re e S h u tt le in S u rr o u n d in g A reth e a

MUSIC | STREETSIDE

GWAR RATIONS

The world’s most disgusting band debuts its barbecue sauce at Grinders.

BY

D AV ID HUDN A L L

APRIL: 10: Miss Major 11: RJ Mischo Band 11: Electric Rag Band CD Release 12: Jason Eady & John D Hale 13: Cassie Taylor 13: Fred Eaglesmith’s Traveling Steam Show 17: Micky & The Motorcars 18: Atlantic Express w/ Hal Wakes Garry Mac’s B-Day Party 6:30-10:30 19: Jimmy Thackery Living Room Session 19: Samantha Fish 20: Bobby Simkins 20: Webb Wilder w/ Moreland & Arbuckle

FRIDAY, MAY 10TH

bj thomas

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry Hey Won’t You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song Rock & Roll Lullaby Hooked on a Feeling

For more info & tickets: knuckleheadskc.com 26

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

T

he music industry continues to collapse, but booze sales are holding steady. In the last decade, there has been a marked increase in the number of musicians peddling their own alcoholic products. Sammy Hagar blazed the trail with Cabo Wabo tequila. Diddy has Ciroc vodka. Train offers a line of wines. (I’m “calling all angels,” praying that the new 2011 Soul Sister Pinot Noir is as brawny and fullbodied as the 2009 Drops of Jupiter Petite Syrah, am I right, you guys?) The list goes on: Willie Nelson, Whitesnake, the guy from Tool.

Marketing food products is a less explored revenue stream for bands. But Gwar, a satirically grotesque thrash-metal group that regularly stages beheadings at its shows, is getting in on that action. It has a new barbecue sauce, Gwar-B-Q. And there’s a local angle: Its guitarist, whose parents named him Balsac the Jaws of Death, created Gwar B-Q at Original Juan’s, the sauces-and-spices manufacturing operation on Southwest Boulevard. On Monday night, Gwar debuted Gwar-B-Q on the back patio at Grinders, in an event billed as a “Meat and Meet.” I didn’t have a whole lot else going on.

Turnout was strong — easily more than a hundred people! Many were clad in black; some wore jackets with pins and patches on them; one guy donned a T-shirt that read, “Gwar: A Bloody Good Time.” (Fake blood abounds at Gwar shows. Also common: fake jizz.) The crowd sat at picnic tables and chatted, waiting for Gwar to arrive. I got in a line and bought a bottle of Gwar-B-Q for $10. I found a bench, flagged down a waitress and ordered an “Intergalactic Gwarbage” sandwich — non-Gwar fans might call it a “pulledpork sandwich.” It came with chips.

According to info on the side of the Gwar-B-Q bottle, “Whether you slather it on

pitch.com

ribs, chicken, seafood, or roadkill, it makes all dead things taste better.” I poured some onto my sandwich. It was spicy, and it did make my sandwich taste better. But there was a bit of cognitive dissonance going on. Everything about Gwar is repulsive. We’re talking about a band that dresses like mutant barbarians.

They have an album called This Toilet Earth.

Enjoying the sauce requires the clearing of those facts from one’s mind.

As I ate, I eavesdropped on a conversation four metal nerds were having nearby. A few highlights: “I’d definitely see Trouble over Saint Vitus.”

“Fuck [Slayer guitarist] Kerry King. He turned his back on everybody.” “[Megadeth frontman] Dave [Mustaine] is not a pussy.”

I snickered to my friend. A guy with long gray hair, a Batman T-shirt and an artillery belt gave me the crook eye. I was wearing an oxford button-up with a seersucker pattern.

I hung my head, returned to my Intergalactic Gwarbage sandwich.

About an hour into the party, Gwar emerged in full monster regalia from its tour bus. One of the members got down on his knees and pretended to vomit on his way in. As he spit and coughed hideously, another Gwar member said, “Somebody help him.” A fan walked over and patted him on the back. “Don’t fuckin’ touch me,” the Gwar guy roared.

“You guys make my dick hard!” another fan screamed.

“Get the fuck away from me,” said drummer Jizmak Da Gusha. Then he called a woman, who was attempting to take a photo with her iPhone, a “gaping sore.” She swooned.

As Gwar set up behind tables to autograph posters and bottles of Gwar-B-Q, I tracked down Jeff “Stretch” Rumaner, owner of

Mutant barbarians, meat aficionados Grinders. It turns out that Rumaner and Gwar go way back — they attended Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts together back in the 1980s.

“Oh, yeah, I was in the ‘Phallus in Wonderland’ video. I would go on tours with Gwar in the late ’80s,” he said. “I built their second tour bus. I was a welder and I taught sculpture at VCU to Bobby [Gorman], who’s one of their main artists. I used to get checks from Slave Pit Inc. — that’s the name of the company they do business as.”

Rumaner pulled out his phone and showed me a photo of his seven-week-old twins being cradled by grown men wearing spiked helmets and loincloths.

“I heard they wanted to do their own barbecue sauce, so Brad, or I mean Jizmak, and Balzac came down to Juan’s awhile back, and we scoped everything out,” Rumaner continued. “And I figured, what better way is there to start a Gwar tour than here at Grinders, debuting the barbecue sauce? Did you get a sandwich? It’s my meat, my rub, and Gwar’s sauce.”

“There’s other stuff happening, too,” Rumaner said. “There might be a Gwar Bar opening in Richmond. And they do a huge Gwar-B-Q gathering in Richmond every year, with food and music, and it’s possible they might be bringing a second version to the Midwest.”

An employee working the event came over. “The band wants Jäger shots,” he said.

“Will you get a round of Jäger shots for the band?” Rumaner asked a passing waitress.

“In plastic cups.”

E-mail david.hudnall@pitch.com

pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

27

MUSIC

ROUNDUP!

What’s good and what sucks among recent local releases.

THE BLACKBIRD REVUE Glow

daveysuptown.com

3402 Main 753-1909

open til’ 3am

WI•FI

MONDAYS @ 7pM: OpeN Mic SiNger/SONgwriter THU | 04.11 SONic ANgelS frOM Outer SpAce 9PM THE HEAv Y fIGS FRI | 04.12 BONNIE MONTGOMERY • THE SAWYERS 9PM | $7 HOWARD ICEBERG AND THE TITANICS SAT | 04.13 AuStiN McfArlAND 7PM | $3 DEAD NOTE • BuDDAHS GROOvE SHOES 9PM | $6 GREEN RIvER kINGS MON| 04.15 ADAM lee & pete SteiN 10PM | $5 CARRIE NATION AND THE SpEAkEASY THU | 04.18 FRI | 04.19 8PM | $8 SAT| 04.20 9PM | $7 TUE| 04.23 8PM | $5 WED| 04.24 8PM | $3 THU | 04.25 9PM | $7

NExT 2 THE TRACkS 9PM|$5

DREW BLACK AND DIRTY ELECTRIC Dead Kings & Queens

ADAM LEE • DREW BLACk AND THE ELECTRIC BuRLESquE • THE quIvERS

(Self-released)

fORSAkEN fEW • GHOST Of NORMANDY BEATING WOOLY BuLLY • fOR THE BROkEN

99 bOttleS uNCOuTH fOLkICIDE • RABBITT kILLER MA jOr MAtt cOwbOY iNDiAN beAr AlbuM releASe pArtY "LIvE OLD DIE YOuNG" pALACE • HEARTfELT ARNACHY

FRI| 04.26 DEMON LIpS • kILL NOISE BOYS 9PM | $7 REx HOBART AND THE MISERY BOYS SAT | 04.27

MICHALE GRAvES

9PM (Of THE MISfITS) [fuLL BAND] $10 ADV / $12 DOS AMericAN DiScOrD 28

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

If you import Dead Kings & Queens, the debut EP from locals Drew Black and Dirty Electric, into iTunes, you’ll find that the group has classified its genre as “Sexy Glam Rock.” Need more reasons to ignore this band? Let’s start with how singer Drew Black is channeling Ed Kowalczyk, from 1990s melodramatic rock band Live. Black never passes over an opportunity to imbue an ordinary word with false weight. As one small example among many, on “Saint Andrew” — a new contender for the worst song I have ever heard in my life — he pronounces “fire” like “fi-yahhh.” Pretty cool, huh? On the title track, he slips into French;

pitch.com

D AV ID HUDN A L L

songs. The clearest touchstone is probably the Jayhawks, who also like the way acoustic guitars, jangly electric guitars and vocal harmonies sound together. (Although, what kind of monster doesn’t?) There’s also a bit of pub rock in the proceedings (opener “Bad Boys”) and a few unexpected instrumental flourishes (the pretty accordion on standout cut “In Your Car Tonight”). There’s nothing remotely cool about Lonely Tonight — technically, it’s dad rock — but that doesn’t matter a whit. A nice, warm verse-chorus-verse has a way of transcending fashion.

(Self-released)

Churchy McLachlanisms abound on Glow, the new four-song EP from husband-and-wife duo the Blackbird Revue. They establish the mood straightaway, on opener “When You Are Mine.” Where you go, I will go/Where you lay your head, I’ll be/Where you go, I will go/I am yours eternally, Jacob Prestidge sings, accompanied by some flavorless folk strums. Then Danielle Prestidge chimes in for a virginal verse of her own. This terrifying earnestness goes on for two and a half minutes, but in the song’s last 30 seconds, we get a blasting guitar solo, suggesting that Blackbird Revue might have aspirations beyond coffeehouse fare. It’s the same deal on “Winter Rest”: three minutes of meadow wandering, and then some scorching guitar work to close it out. The Prestidges needn’t play it so safe: More Ryan Adams, less 7th Heaven. Nobody wants to listen to music that reminds them of their parents’ tender kisses.

BY

MAT SHOARE Domestic Partnership tries on a deep, Danzig-lite growl; and sings, quite seriously, the line There’s an empire inside of her. I suppose these unfocused attempts at epic theatricality are why the group cites Bowie as an influence. But until Bowie goes through a butt-rock phase, let’s just call Dead Kings & Queens what it really is: a record that has no reason to exist.

PHIL NEAL & THE WORNALLS Lonely Tonight (Self-released)

Phil Neal’s résumé as a local pop songwriter dates back to 1979, when his band the Artists played shows with Kenny Loggins and later landed some brief MTV rotation. Nothing much came of the Artists, but Neal has been hobbying around with heartland rock in various bands — the Rockhills, the Phil Neal Band — in the years since. Like the Rockhills, his new outfit is named after some Brooksidearea geography: Phil Neal & the Wornalls.

Their recently released debut album, Lonely Tonight, is no great departure for Neal, just another friendly batch of rootsy power-pop

(Golden Sound Records)

The one-dude-with-an-acoustic-guitar road is a tough one to hoe, and it’s littered with the bad poetry and boring chord progressions of a million pseuds. On previous solo outings, Mat Shoare (who also fronts the bratty surf-rock group the Empty Spaces) worked this terrain, and the results were average in a sub-Saddle Creek kind of way. On Domestic Partnership, he has wisely opened up his sound. On opener “Patterns in the Sand,” the acoustic guitar is supplemented by some piano chords and spectral backing vocals, which elevate the track from a folkie moper to something like Radiohead’s “Karma Police.” It bleeds into “Keeping Everyone Happy,” a Kinks-like shuffler with some twangy electric-guitar fills; it’s surely the best song that Shoare has penned to date.

Elsewhere, on tracks like “Meadowlark” and “Put That in Your Pipe and Smoke It,” there’s a strong whiff of the nasal folk-pop of Fruit Bats.

Domestic Partnership is a bit front-loaded — sadwhite-boy fatigue sets in sometime around the sixth track — but on balance, it’s a win for Shoare and a big step in the right direction.

E-mail david.hudnall@pitch.com

pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

29

MUSIC

RADAR

M U S I C F O R E CAST

BY

Other shows worth seeing this week.

D AV ID HUDN A L L

T H U R S D AY, A P R I L 11 David Allan Coe: VooDoo Lounge, Harrah’s Casino, 1 Riverboat Dr., North Kansas City, 816-472-7777.

The Polish Ambassador, Panduh, DJ Oblivious: 8 p.m. The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire, Lawrence, 785-841-5483.

Sam Adams, T. Mills: 7 p.m. The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-842-1390.

Artopia

Artopia, the annual Pitch-sponsored party at Screenland Crossroads, is a reliably weird celebration of art, fashion, food and, yes, music.

In addition to burlesque performances, live painting and free shit from Accurso’s Italian Restaurant, the Melting Pot, Grace’s Best Cookies, Tallgrass Brewing and Smirnoff, $25 ($30 day of event) gets you a nice smattering of local music. Slated to perform: heartland rockers John Velghe and the Prodigal Sons, singersongwriter Vi Tran, and DJs Brad Ireland and Joc Max. Saturday, April 13, at Screenland Crossroads (1656 Washington, 816-287-0114)

F R I D AY, A P R I L 12 Jason Eady with the John D. Hale Band: 8:30 p.m.

Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester, 816-483-1456.

S AT U R D AY, A P R I L 13 Lewis Black: 8 p.m. The Midland, 1228 Main, 816-283-9900.

Fred Eaglesmith’s Traveling Steam Show: 9 p.m.

Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester, 816-483-1456.

Joshua James, Isaac Russell: 8 p.m. The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire, Lawrence, 785-841-5483.

Stephen Lynch: VooDoo Lounge, Harrah’s Casino, 1 Riverboat Dr., North Kansas City, 816-472-7777.

Now Now, Lonely Forest, Anakin: 9 p.m. Jackpot Music Hall, 943 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-832-1085.

One More Time: A tribute to Daft Punk: 8 p.m. The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-842-1390.

Soilwork, Jeff Loomis, Blackguard, Bonded by Blood, Hatchet: 7:30 p.m. The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway, 816-442-8179.

Cassie Taylor: 9 p.m. Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester, 816-483-1456.

Akron/Family

If there is such a thing as good, modern hippie music (and there is), Akron/Family has been quietly refining the aesthetic for about a decade. The group cuts its noisy psych-rock with cosmic freak-folk and sprinkles a little peak-era Grateful Dead mysticism on top. Its albums are relentlessly unpredictable without sacrificing approachability. What can we expect from the group’s latest, Sub Verses, out later this month? Says singer and bassist Miles Seaton, in an artist’s statement on label Dead Ocean’s website: “From Shamanic hypnomantras to noise-damaged soul anthems to North African street frenzy, from droning microtonal balladry to modular synthesizer destruction to Lynchian doo-wop and back again.” Yeah, that sounds about right.

Thursday, April 11, at the Jackpot (943 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-832-1085)

Bon Jovi

I have now listened to the new Bon Jovi album, What About Now, three times all the way through. Will I ever play any of the songs again on purpose? Probably not, no. But for Bon Jovi, this is not a terrible album; I’d venture that it’s probably the best Bon Jovi album so far this century. Unlike, say, the group’s 2007 countrypop abomination, Lost Highway, What About Now is a rock-oriented record. Shimmering, U2-style guitars abound — come to think of

John Velghe appears at Artopia. it, I prefer these songs to most of the schlock that Bono and Co. have been armpit-farting onto the public for the last decade — as do subSpringsteen populist lyrics about being down for the count and standing strong and never giving up. Yes, it’s cheesy and predictable. Yes, it’s about as rock-and-roll as the checkout lane at Kohl’s. But if you want to turn off your brain, stand in a crowd of about 10,000 people and hear some anthems, you could do far worse.

Saturday, April 13, at the Sprint Center (1407 Grand, 816-949-7000)

Howard Iceberg and the Titanics, with the Sawyers

Sometimes, all you want out of a Friday night are the basics: a couple of gritty Americana acts at a local venue and, let’s say, nine domestic beers. That is actually what I want every Friday night, and this week Davey’s delivers it. Howard Iceberg’s sad-eyed lit-rock tunes have earned him a kind of living-saint status in the Kansas City music community.

He sets the stage for the Sawyers, a medium-

F O R E C A S T

30

gruff folk-rock act led by songwriter John Greiner. With Bonnie Montgomery.

Friday, April 12, at Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club (3402 Main, 816-753-1909)

The Revival Tour

On tour years ago with his band, Hot Water Music, Chuck Ragan noticed that, most nights, everybody on the bill eventually ended up playing a couple of songs together onstage at the end of the show. He decided to build a tour around that idea of camaraderie, and in 2008, the Revival Tour debuted. It has become something of an annual thing, and it usually features former and current punks playing stripped-down songs on acoustic guitars.

(Over the years, it has included Kevin Seconds and members of Lucero and Against Me.) At this stop, we get performances from Ragan, Rocky Votolato, Tim McIlrath, Dave Hause and Jenny O. Friday, April 12, at the Granada (1020 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-842-1390)

..........................................................Mom Jeans

........................................................... Americana

.......................................... Discreet One-Hitters

................................................... Corporate Rock

........................................................ Aging Punks

........................................................ Neo-Hippies

.................................................. Locally Sourced

................................................. All Together Now

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

Good for You, Greg Ginn & the Royal We, Brandon Phillips: 8 p.m. The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway, 816-442-8179.

Spoken Nerd, Dropjaw: 11 p.m. The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire, Lawrence, 785-841-5483.

Watsky, Dumbfoundead, Reach: 8 p.m. The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-842-1390.

T U E S D AY, A P R I L 16 Kris Allen, Jillette Johnson: 8 p.m. The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire, Lawrence, 785-841-5483.

The Bam Margera Experience with Fuckface Unstoppable, Hunter Moore, Six Percent, Approach, American Dischord: 7 p.m. The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-842-1390.

The Mowgli’s, Family of the Year: 10 p.m. RecordBar, 1020 Westport Rd., 816-753-5207.

W E D N E S D AY, A P R I L 17 Josh Abbott Band, William Clark Green: 7 p.m. The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-842-1390.

Fear Factory, Hate Eternal, Kobra & the Lotus: 7:30 p.m.

The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway, 816-442-8179.

Fierce Bad Rabbit: 9 p.m. Jackpot Music Hall, 943 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-832-1085.

Micky & the Motorcars with the Bryant Carter Band: 8:30 p.m. Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester, 816-483-1456.

FUTURECAST

K E Y

..................................................Pick of the Week

the pitch

S U N D AY, A P R I L 1 4

pitch.com

THURSDAY 18 Katey Sagal: An Evening of Music and the Cast of Sons of Anarchy: The Midland SUNDAY 21 Josh Ritter: Liberty Hall, Lawrence MONDAY 22 Weird Al Yankovic: Uptown Theater

M O N T H X X–X X , 2 0 0 X

THE PITCH

1

#11 – The Pitch – 04-11-2013

•A LITTLE SLICE OF IRELAND• IN DOWNTOWN KANSAS CITY

---------------

Come Shake Your Shamrocks!

THURS April 11th: Transients Duo 8-12 FRI April 12th: Flannigan’s Right Hook 10-2 SAT April 13th: Garry Lincoln 10-2

170 E. 14TH ST. KCMO IN P&L DISTRICT 816-268-4700 • THEDUBLINERKC.COM FACEBOOK.COM/THEDUBLINERKC

---------------

UT O

lD SO

STEPhEn LYnCh

SHAMROCK InVASIOn

april 13, 2013

april 26, 2013

KITCHEN OPEN TIL 12:30AM! ThE BLaCK CrOWES

ChEaP TriCK May 25, 2013

May 31, 2013

leD DU e H SC Te Re DA

Game Dog Guardian presents Rock N’ Rally: Friday, May 3rd at 6pm at The Bulldog a fundraiser for GDG • Indoor/Outdoor event • Live Music Featuring music by: Green GodDammits, The Blarney Stoned, The Uncouth, Scott Eggles, Brodioke (karaoke) inside Raffle • Silent Auction Great drink specials all night long

1715 MAIN | 816.421.4799 | KCBULLDOG.COM

Live Music drink specials nightly:

nights

WEDNESDAY:

$1 Night with Dueling Pianos 8:30-3am

THURSDAY:

Live Band Karaoke 9pm-3am

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY:

DWIgHT YOAKAM June 16, 2013

JULY 11, 2013

UPCOMinG ShOWS: 4/12

Flirt Friday

4/24 RAWednesdays

4/19

Stairway to Zeppelin

4/20

Saturday night Vibrations

4/27 V ooDoo Presents: The Stolen Winnebagos

1-800-745-3000

Dueling Pianos

DAVID AllAn COe

• VooDooKC.com

SUNDAY:

Folk and Country night with AJ. Gaither and Tyler Gregory 10pm-3am

MONDAY:

Jazz and Blues with James Sullivan and special guests 7pm-3am

TUESDAY:

Brian Babcock covers whatever the hell he wants 10pm-3am

VISIT

WWW.ERNIEBIGGS.COM

FOR SPECIALS AND LINE UP. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK FOR UPCOMING PROMOTIONS AND SPECIAL OFFERS.

Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-888-BETSOFF. Subject to change or cancellation. Phone and online orders are subject to service fees. Must be 21 years or older to gamble, obtain a Total Rewards ® card or enter VooDoo ®. ©2013, Caesars License Company, LLC.

V1_88525.11_4.776x9.8125_4c_Ad 2.indd 1

pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

31

4/3/13 4:32 PM

NIGHTLIFE

SUNDAY BRUNCH FROM 10-3PM

$12

BUFFET

$8

We Deliver!

FRANK JAMES

& STATION OMELETTE

BOTTOMLESS

SALOON

Send submissions to Berry Anderson by e-mail (berry.anderson@pitch.com), fax (816-756-0502) or phone (816-218-6775).

Continuing items must be resubmitted monthly.

Bloody Mary Bar & Breakfast bar Sundays 11am - 2pm

ROCK/POP/INDIE

Lunch Buffet, Salad Bar Daily Food & Drink Specials

MIMOSAS

Karaoke Sundays 6-10 • Happy Hour 3-6

4/12 river rock 5031 MAIN ST. // SOUTH PLAZA 816.960.4646

10919 NW 45 Hwy (3.5 mi west of I-29)

CHECK FACEBOOK FOR UPDATES

Parkville, MO 816-505-0800

T H U R S D AY 11 Knuckleheads Saloon: 2715 Rochester, 816-483-1456. Electric Rag Band, 8:30 p.m.

RecordBar: 1020 Westport Rd., 816-753-5207. Appropriate Grammar, Prevrat, Thick & the Foolish, 10 p.m.

Replay Lounge: 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-749-7676.

Bo & the Locomotive, OILS, Y[our] Fri[end], 10 p.m.

The Riot Room: 4048 Broadway, 816-442-8179. Fierce Bad Rabbit, David George & A Crooked Mile, Eyelit, 8 p.m.

Tomfooleries: 612 W. 47th St., 816-753-0555. Gov’t Cheez, 10 p.m.

BLUES/FUNK/SOUL B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ: 1205 E. 85th St., 816-822-7427. John Paul’s Flying Circus, 7:30 p.m.

Knuckleheads Saloon: 2715 Rochester, 816-483-1456. R.J. Mischo Band, 8 p.m.

Quasimodo: 12056 W. 135th St., Overland Park, 913-239-9666.

Kris Bruder’s Freight Train, 7 p.m.

DJ The Gusto Lounge: 504 Westport Rd., 816-974-8786. Pop Shots with Clockwerk & DJ Archi.

Milieu: 7300 W. 119th St., Overland Park. DJ Mike Scott.

MiniBar: 3810 Broadway, 816-326-8281. DJ Tequila Bear.

The Uptown Arts Bar: 3611 Broadway. Playe, 10:30 p.m.

JAZZ The Blue Room: 1616 E. 18th St., 816-474-8463. Sons of Brasil.

The Kill Devil Club: 61 E. 14th St., 816-877-8312. Brandon Draper, 9 p.m.

The Majestic Restaurant: 931 Broadway, 816-221-1888. Bram Wijnands and Joe Lisinicchi, 6 p.m.

Take Five Coffee + Bar: 5336 W. 151st St., Overland Park, 913948-5550. Rob Scheps and Jerry Dodgion, 7 p.m.

EASY LISTENING Coda: 1744 Broadway, 816-569-1747. John Keck’s Devil’s and Angels, 8 p.m.

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts: 1601 Broadway, 816-994-7200. William Baker Festival Singers, 8 p.m., $25.

The Uptown Arts Bar: 3611 Broadway. Songwriter’s Showcase with Megan Birdsall, 7:30-10:30 p.m.

F R I D AY 12 ROCK/POP/INDIE Coda: 1744 Broadway, 816-569-1747. The Heavy Figs, Uzis, Liquor Buddies, 9 p.m., $5.

Czar: 1531 Grand, 816-421-0300. North of Grand, the Dead Girls, Sons of Great Dane, 8 p.m., $5.

Jackpot Music Hall: 943 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-8321085. Fourth of July, ACB’s, 9 p.m.

RecordBar: 1020 Westport Rd., 816-753-5207. Sonic Angels, Big Iron, Hossferatu, Filthy 13, 10 p.m., 7pm.

Replay Lounge: 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-7497676. Tattoo Judi, Paige & the Hardbacks, 6 p.m.; Hot & Ugly, 10 p.m.

BLUES/FUNK/SOUL B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ: 1205 E. 85th St., 816-822-7427. J.J. Johnson’s R&B All-Stars.

Jazzhaus: 926-1/2 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-749-1387.

Band That Saved The World, 10 p.m.

The Phoenix: 302 W. Eighth St., 816-221-5299. Lonnie Ray Blues Band, 9 p.m.

Quasimodo: 12056 W. 135th St., Overland Park, 913-239-9666.

J. Love Band, 9 p.m.

The Riot Room: 4048 Broadway, 816-442-8179. David Hasselhoff on Acid, Arm the Poor, Janet the Planet, Dogs of Delphi.

ROOTS/COUNTRY/BLUEGRASS The Brick: 1727 McGee, 816-421-1634. Truckstop Honeymoon.

Czar: 1531 Grand, 816-421-0300. Starhaven Rounders, 6 p.m.

32

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

Martin City Brewing Company: 500 E. 135th St., 816-2682222. Brad Allen, 9 p.m.

JAZZ The Kill Devil Club: 61 E. 14th St., 816-877-8312. Chris Hazelton’s Boogaloo Seven, 10 p.m.

The Majestic Restaurant: 931 Broadway, 816-221-1888.

Patrick Gilbert, 4 p.m.; Bram Wijnands Trio, 7 p.m.

The Phoenix: 302 W. Eighth St., 816-221-5299. Lonnie McFadden, 4:30 p.m.

Take Five Coffee + Bar: 5336 W. 151st St., Overland Park, 913948-5550. Shay Estes, 8-10 p.m.

COMEDY ComedyCity at Westport Flea Market: 817 Westport Rd., 816-842-2744. Major League Improv, 7:30 p.m.

Improv Comedy Club and Dinner Theater: 7260 N.W. 87th St., 816759-5233. Gerald & Isiah Kelly, 8 p.m.

INGS Stanford’s Comedy Club: 1867 LIST E AT N I Village West Pkwy., Kansas City, ONL M Kan., 913-400-7500. April Macie, 7:45 PITCH.CO & 9:45 p.m.

MORE

CLUB

BAR GAMES/DRUNKEN DISTRACTIONS The Bottleneck: 737 New Hampshire, Lawrence, 785-8415483. Super Nerd Night, 7 p.m.

Hamburger Mary’s: 101 Southwest Blvd., 816-842-1919.

Maryoke, 9 p.m.

Helen’s Just Another Dive: 2002 Armour Rd., North Kansas City, 816-471-4567. Trivia Riot with Roland, 7:30 p.m.

VooDoo Lounge: Harrah’s Casino, 1 Riverboat Dr., North Kansas City, 816-472-7777. Flirt Friday, 9 p.m.

S AT U R D AY 13 ROCK/POP/INDIE The All-Star Rock Bar: 7210 N.E. 43rd St., 816-452-2660.

Under the Covers, 9 p.m.

The Brick: 1727 McGee, 816-421-1634. Wrong Kata Trio, Jorge Arana Trio, Francis Moss.

The Brooksider: 6330 Brookside Plz., 816-363-4070. The Zeros, 10 p.m.

Czar: 1531 Grand, 816-421-0300. Vinyls, Spork & Spinster, Hector Anchondo, 6 p.m.

Danny’s Bar and Grill: 13350 College Blvd., Lenexa, 913-3459717. Loaded Goat, the Vondrukes, the Silver Maggies, 9:30 p.m.

FOKL Center: 556 Central Ave., 913-207-9549. Daytime Party, Bad Mouth, Gay Science, 8 p.m.

Replay Lounge: 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-749-7676.

The Tontons, 10 p.m.

Sherlock’s Underground Coffeehouse & Pub: 858 S. 291 Hwy., Liberty, 816-429-5262. The Earl Baker Band, 8:30 p.m.

BLUES/FUNK/SOUL B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ: 1205 E. 85th St., 816-822-7427. Blue 88; Mama Ray’s Jazz -Meets-Blues Jam, 2-5:30 p.m.

Coda: 1744 Broadway, 816-569-1747. The Filthy 13, the King Devilles, 9 p.m.

Czar: 1531 Grand, 816-421-0300. J.C., the New King of Funk, 9:30 p.m.

Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club: 3402 Main, 816-753-1909.

Buddah’s Groove Shoes, Dead Note, Green River Kings, 9 p.m.

The Phoenix: 302 W. Eighth St., 816-221-5299. Brody Buster Band, 9 p.m.

Quasimodo: 12056 W. 135th St., Overland Park, 913-239-9666.

Doghouse Daddies, 5:30 p.m.; Cadillac Flambe, 9 p.m.

JAZZ The Blue Room: 1616 E. 18th St., 816-474-8463. Paul Draper Band featuring Brandon Draper.

Jazz: 1823 W. 39th St., 816-531-5556. Midtown Quartet.

The Phoenix: 302 W. Eighth St., 816-221-5299. Tim Whitmer & KC Express, 4:30 p.m.

Take Five Coffee + Bar: 5336 W. 151st St., Overland Park, 913-948-5550. Origins of Groove, 8 p.m.

COMEDY ComedyCity at Westport Flea Market: 817 Westport Rd., 816-842-2744. Major League Improv, 7:30 p.m.

Stanford’s Comedy Club: 1867 Village West Pkwy., Kansas City, Kan., 913-400-7500. April Macie, 7:45 & 9:45 p.m.

Westport Coffee House: 4010 Pennsylvania, 816-756-3222.

The Kick-Off Improv Comedy Show, 8-9:30 p.m.

SINGER-SONGWRITER Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club: 3402 Main, 816-753-1909.

Austin McFarland, 7 p.m.

The Uptown Arts Bar: 3611 Broadway. Quirk & Ruckus with Lauren Krum, 10:30 p.m.

Hamburger Mary’s: 101 Southwest Blvd., 816-842-1919. Trivia Slugfest, 7 p.m.

Jackpot Music Hall: 943 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-8321085. Karaoke.

MiniBar: 3810 Broadway, 816-326-8281. Robert Moore’s Name That Tune, 7 p.m., $5 entry fee.

The Red Balloon: 10325 W. 75th St., Overland Park, 913-9622330. Karaoke, 8 p.m., free.

The Uptown Arts Bar: 3611 Broadway. Tango Tuesday, 7 p.m.

The Velvet Dog: 400 E. 31st St., 816-753-9990. Beer pong tournament, 9:30 p.m.

VA R I E T Y

OPEN MIC/JAM SESSIONS

RecordBar: 1020 Westport Rd., 816-753-5207. Dollar Fox, Old Crows, Camry Ivory, Jennifer Collier & Jessica Bassett, noon; Pedaljets, Filthy 13, Gentleman Savage, Dolls on Fire, 7 p.m.

Czar: 1531 Grand, 816-421-0300. Elkheart’s Downtown Outlaw Fiasco, 7 p.m., free.

Quasimodo: 12056 W. 135th St., Overland Park, 913-239-9666.

Dave Hays Band Open Jam. Stanford’s Comedy Club: 1867 Village West Pkwy., Kansas City, Kan., 913-400-7500. Open Mic Night.

S U N D AY 1 4 JAZZ The Majestic Restaurant: 931 Broadway, 816-221-1888. Rich Hill’s jazz brunch, 11 a.m.

RecordBar: 1020 Westport Rd., 816-753-5207. The People’s Liberation Big Band, 8 p.m.

EASY LISTENING Chaz on the Plaza: 325 Ward Pkwy., 816-802-2152. Les Mengel Duo, 5-9 p.m.

Ernie Biggs Dueling Piano Bar: 4115 Mill, 816-561-2444.

Singer-Songwriter Sundays.

Johnny’s Tavern: 13410 W. 62nd Terr., Shawnee, 913-962-5777.

Chill with Phil.

Take Five Coffee + Bar: 5336 W. 151st St., Overland Park, 913948-5550. Kate Cosentino, 7 p.m.

M O N D AY 15 JAZZ The Blue Room: 1616 E. 18th St., 816-474-8463. Jazz Disciples.

The Majestic Restaurant: 931 Broadway, 816-221-1888. Mark Lowrey Trio, 6 p.m.

The Phoenix: 302 W. Eighth St., 816-221-5299. Millie Edwards and friends, 7 p.m.

ROOTS/COUNTRY/BLUEGRASS The Brick: 1727 McGee, 816-421-1634. Rural Grit Happy Hour, 6 p.m.

Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club: 3402 Main, 816-753-1909. Adam Lee & Pete Stein, Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy, 9:30 p.m.

W E D N E S D AY 17

B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ: 1205 E. 85th St., 816-822-7427. Shinetop Jr., 7-9 p.m.

Jazz: 1823 W. 39th St., 816-531-5556. Billy Ebeling.

Jazz: 1859 Village West Pkwy., Kansas City, Kan., 913-328-0003.

Andy Dewitt.

Knuckleheads Saloon: 2715 Rochester, 816-483-1456. Gospel Lounge with Tom Hall, Rick Gibson and Klear Ambition, 7:30 p.m.

Quasimodo: 12056 W. 135th St., Overland Park, 913-239-9666.

John Paul Drum & Bill Dye, 7 p.m.

ROOTS/COUNTRY/BLUEGRASS Replay Lounge: 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-749-7676.

Adam Lee, Pete Stein, Tyler Gregory, 10 p.m.

B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ: 1205 E. 85th St., 816-822-7427. Hudspeth and Shinetop, 7-10 p.m.

Slow Ride Roadhouse: 1350 N. Third St., Lawrence, 785-7492727. Lonnie Ray Blues Band, 6-10 p.m.

BAR GAMES/DRUNKEN DISTRACTIONS Black & Gold Tavern: 3740 Broadway. Geeks Who Drink Trivia, 8 p.m.

Coda: 1744 Broadway, 816-569-1747. Team Trivia with Teague Hayes, 7 p.m., $5 buy-in.

Duke’s on Grand: 1501 Grand, 816-527-0122. Xtreme League Trivia, 8 p.m.

403 Club: 403 N. Fifth St., 913-499-8392. Ladies’ Night.

Need some

EAR CANDY?

Bar & Grill TRIVIA TUESDAYS • KARAOKE EVERY FRIDAY 9 - CL

LIVE MUSIC:

Apr 13: Blue Simon Apr 20: Shades of Grey Apr 27: 71 South May 4: The Mooreheads •816.455.3344•

5410 NE ANTIOCH RD. KANSAS CITY, MO

Sign up for MUSIC NEWSLETTER

RecordBar: 1020 Westport Rd., 816-753-5207. Brett Gretzky, John Price, Mooni Downz, S.A. Abolitionist, 10 p.m.

The All-Star Rock Bar: 7210 N.E. 43rd St., 816-452-2660.

Ultimate Karaoke.

The Blue Line: 529 Walnut, 816-472-7825. Karaoke.

Bulldog: 1715 Main, 816-421-4799. Comedy Night, 8 p.m.

403 Club: 403 N. Fifth St., 913-499-8392. Pinball tournament, cash prize for winner, 8:30 p.m., $5 entry fee.

Hamburger Mary’s: 101 Southwest Blvd., 816-842-1919. Charity Bingo, 8 p.m.

Hurricane Allie’s Bar and Grill: 5541 Merriam Dr., Shawnee, 913-217-7665. Bike night.

J. Murphy’s Irish Pub and Grille: 22730 Midland Dr., Shawnee, 913-825-3880. Karaoke, 9 p.m.

Jake’s Place Bar and Grill: 12001 Johnson Dr., Shawnee, 913962-5253. Karaoke.

Missie B’s: 805 W. 39th St., 816-561-0625. Dirty Dorothy, 10 p.m.

Nica’s 320: 320 Southwest Blvd., 816-471-2900. Trivia with Matt Larson, 7 p.m., $5 per person.

The Quaff: 1010 Broadway, 816-471-1918. Karaoke.

The Red Balloon: 10325 W. 75th St., Overland Park, 913-9622330. Karaoke, 8 p.m., free.

Retro Downtown Drinks & Dance: 1518 McGee, 816-4214201. Karaoke with DJ Jason, 8 p.m.

The Roxy: 7230 W. 75th St., Overland Park, 913-236-6211. Karaoke.

Sherlock’s Underground Coffeehouse & Pub: 858 S. 291 Hwy., Liberty, 816-429-5262. Open mic.

Westport Flea Market: 817 Westport Rd., 816-931-1986. Trivia, 8 p.m.

BLUES/FUNK/SOUL

816-561-1099 • 3740 BROADWAY KCMO

HIP-HOP

The Brick: 1727 McGee, 816-421-1634. Karaoke with Nanci Pants, 10:30 p.m.

Bulldog: 1715 Main, 816-421-4799. Trivia, service industry night.

Green Room Burgers & Beer: 4010 Pennsylvania, Ste. D, 816216-7682. Geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz.

Jazzhaus: 926-1/2 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-749-1387.

Karaoke Idol with Tanya McNaughty.

Moxie Bar & Grill: 4011 N. Oak Tfwy., North Kansas City, 816455-9600. Beer Pong Mondays with DJ E-Rock.

RecordBar: 1020 Westport Rd., 816-753-5207. Sonic Spectrum Music Trivia, 7 p.m.

RecordBar: 1020 Westport Rd., 816-753-5207. The Crayons, 7 p.m.

The Riot Room: 4048 Broadway, 816-442-8179. Deviator, Yellowbricks, Attic Lights, 8 p.m.

WIFI NOW AVAILABLE!

CHECK OUT THE NEW ALL DAY HAPPY HOUR

OPEN MIC MATINEE 6PM-9:30 BANDS 9:30-CLOSE 4/11: LADIES NIGHT W/ DJ SOULNICE 4/13 CROSSED WIRES / AUSTERITY / THE BRANNOCK DEVICE / BOMBS OVER BROADWAY 4/16: EVERY TUES. TRIVIA W/ GEEKS WHO DRINK KC 4/17: WHISKEY & BANDS WEDNESDAYS OPEN MIC MATINEE 6PM-9:30 BANDS 9:30-CL: WICKEN // UMBER 4/18: LADIES NIGHT W/ DJ SOULNICE

BLUES/FUNK/SOUL

BAR GAMES/DRUNKEN DISTRACTIONS

ROCK/POP/INDIE

1515 WESTPORT RD. • 816-931-9417

ROCK/POP/INDIE The Bottleneck: 737 New Hampshire, Lawrence, 785-841-5483.

Spirit Family Reunion, Fruition, 8 p.m.

RecordBar: 1020 Westport Rd., 816-753-5207. Bob Walkenhorst, 7 p.m.

Tomfooleries: 612 W. 47th St., 816-753-0555. Flannigan’s Right Hook, 9:30 p.m.

BAR GAMES/DRUNKEN DISTRACTIONS

T U E S D AY 16

4/10: WHISKEY & BANDS WEDNESDAYS

OPEN MIC/JAM SESSIONS Black & Gold Tavern: 3740 Broadway. Bourbon & Bands Open Jam. Jazzhaus: 926-1/2 Massachusetts, Lawrence, 785-749-1387.

Acoustic Open Mic with Tyler Gregory.

Jerry’s Bait Shop: 13412 Santa Fe Trail Dr., Lenexa, 913-8949676. Jam Night, 9 p.m.

The Uptown Arts Bar: 3611 Broadway. Poetic Underground.

pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

33

S AVA G E L O V E

A FIRST Dear Dan: I’m a gay man who has been seeing a devout Christian gay guy for one year. We have many of the same interests and respect each other’s feelings and beliefs. However, I’m a Catholic but not that religious.

Some of his friends oppose gay marriage and think being gay is immoral, and they’re against our relationship. Some of his friends say he should not be gay at all and that God doesn’t love him because he’s gay. I refuse to hang out with his friends.

Sadly, he thinks God really does hate him because he’s gay. I try to reassure him that God doesn’t hate him. One friend insists that God doesn’t approve of his being in a gay relationship.

The scary thing for me is, he actually listens.

Is our relationship going to work? Should he dump these bigots?

Devoutly Gay Washingtonian Dear DGW: We’ve had all sorts of guest experts

in the column over the years. But this week’s guest expert is a first.

“As a bishop of the church, first let me say that I am convinced that God loves DGW’s boyfriend, loves DGW, loves me, loves all of us beyond our wildest imagining,” says the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, Episcopal bishop (retired) of New Hampshire, the first openly gay priest to be elected bishop in a major Christian denomination. (Robinson is also the first member of the historical episcopate to appear as a guest expert in my column.) I asked Robinson to have a look at your question because I thought the advice of a fellow believer might carry more weight with your boyfriend than the advice of a raving atheistic twatsquat like me.

“This young man faces a couple of problems in his relationship, one that touches on religion and one that touches on what it means to be in a healthy relationship,” Robinson says.

“His boyfriend seems wed to a religion and to friends who espouse the church’s traditional teaching condemning homosexuality,” he said.

“The most alarming thing he said is that his boyfriend is listening to them. Surely this must cause him a great deal of pain.”

But it’s pain your boyfriend no longer has to endure.

“Today, there are oases of acceptance and inclusion even in the most oppressive and condemning churches,” Robinson says. “And he can find such a church, even in a faith that officially condemns LGBT people. Or he can seek out a different expression of his Christian faith in a denomination that loves, values and rejoices in its LGBT members. But this is work he needs to do for himself. DGW can’t do it for him.”

Robinson agrees that your boyfriend’s in34

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

BY

D A N S AVA G E

ability to break from his emotionally and spiritually abusive friends is a bad sign.

“How free is he to be the gay man he knows himself to be if that is accompanied by guilt and shame?” Robinson says. “DGW’s boyfriend needs to deal with his own internalized homophobia before he can commit to anyone.”

If your boyfriend can’t break away from these people and refuses to find a church that welcomes him (and you), then you may need to DTMFA. Robinson’s latest book is God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Gay Marriage.

Dear Dan: I’m a 22-year-old straight girl with a

lovely boyfriend of four years. We started dating during our freshman year of college. He’s a great guy, we live well together, and I could easily round him up to “the one.” My problem: I’m bored with our sex life, and I don’t know why. He always makes sure I come (which is not always an easy task), he goes down on me more often than I go down on him, he uses his fingers, and he isn’t insecure when I have to use my own fingers or a vibrator to get off. I know I’m lucky, but even after I come, I feel unsatisfied. I don’t have any kinky fantasies, but the lack of passion and interest in our vanilla sex is killing me. I’m only 22. My sex life shouldn’t be boring already!

He has voiced concerns that I don’t initiate sex often enough. He worries that I’m not attracted to him. I’m attracted to him. I just don’t want the hassle of waiting for him to make me come when I can do it faster — and I don’t have to worry about his getting tired or bored. Our sex drives are probably about the same. I just need to know where to start to make things more interesting.

Bored in Bed Dear BIB: Having a partner who focuses like a laser beam on our pleasure sounds ideal. But always being the focus of sex, always being expected to come first, always being expected to come — that gets exhausting. So order your boyfriend to focus a little more on his own pleasure during sex and a little less on yours, to be less giving and more taking. And if he worries about being selfish, tell him that a study conducted at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia found that people with selfish sex partners reported higher levels of sexual satisfaction (“Emerging Adulthood: An Age of Sexual Experimentation or Sexual Self-Focus?”

by Hayley Leveque and Cory Pederson, 2010).

I suspect that once the focus is off you, you’ll be able to relax and enjoy sex more. You might even initiate once in a while. Good luck.

Have a question for Dan Savage?

E-mail him at mail@savagelove.net

Fantasy-Girlfriend.com Join Private Chat with Your Favorite Girlfriend or Flirt with them all! e

s Browree For F + 18

Or call

1-888 X-FLIRTS (935-4787)

FREE PARTYLINE

1-712-432-7900

MEET SEXY SINGLES , REAL HORNY LOCAL GIRLS Chat , Connect or Live 1-ON-1!

(800) 409 - MEET 6 3 3 8

*Free Bonus Minutes with Package Purchase

pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

35

36

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

licensed massage NOW HIRING FOR

GRAND OPENING

CONCERTS CONVENTIONS SPORTING EVENTS

BEst AsIAN MAssAGE

Walk-ins Welcome

Open 7 days a week * FOUR NEW ASIAN GIRlS *

913-469-1616

EvENt StaFF, USHERS, tIckEt takERS

Swedish • Deep Tissue • LomiLomi • 4-hands 13410 College Blvd, Lenexa, KS 66210 (Pflumm Rd. QT Gas Station) cash / debit / Visa / Mastercard

APPLY IN PERSON 4050 Pennsylvania Ste. 111 KCMO 64111 OR ONLINE www. crowdsystems.com EOE

Alexis Massage

PRIVATE STUDIO ShOwER & BODY ShAMPOOS AVAILABLE Call for appT. 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Cash / Debit Mastercard / Visa 913-940-8874 • 913-400-3515

Soft Breeze Spa Haskell

X

Alabama

Lawrence, KS 2331 Alabama Street Suite #103

Naismith

785-856-4994

23rd Street

t at take a sho er! e r a c w e n a

WE ARE CURRENTLY HIRING FOR

FRONT DESK CLERKS (all shifts) RESTAURANT SUPERVISOR COOKS SERVERS

APPLY IN PERSON ANYTIME: 200 W. 12TH ST, KCMO | EOE | GREAT BENEFITS/GREAT LOCATION

pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

37

8

S*

W AS FE

TH

IN AS

CAREER EDUCATION

Life’s good as a Medical Assistant

Best Price Apts in Olathe!

Torries Chase Apartments

1 BR starting at $490 2 BR starting at $599

MON

913.782.8800 • www.torrieschase.com torrieschase@yahoo.com 139th & Mur-Len, Olathe KS, 66062

8 MONTHS is all it takes! *

• Medical Assistant • Dental Assistant • Medical Office Administration We also offer training for: • Health Information Technology NEW Online Option!

• Physical Therapist Assistant • Nursing • Practical Nursing • Dental Hygiene • Respiratory Therapy

Park Apartments

First Class Living in Downtown Overland Park

2 BR/1 Bath in Overland Park

Only $625!

913.381.6666 • www.parkapartments.org theparkaptsleasing@yahoo.com 79th & Metcalf, Overland Park KS

s E nrolling Now! Call Today—Classe

13-10520_CON_ad_MOMKC-PW_MA_9MLG_4x5_4c_[01].indd 1

38

the pitch

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

pitch.com

ATTENTION: EX-OFFENDERS & ATDoRISK JOB SEEKERS you need job placement assistance?

PA

AM GR R

O

W

O

For more information about our graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program, and other important information, please visit our website at www.concorde.edu/disclosures.

D

YELL

3239 Broadway • Kansas City, MO 64111 • www.concorde4me.com Accredited Member, ACCSC. *Program lengths vary. Financial Aid available to those who qualify.

VA Approved for Eligible Veterans in Approved Programs. Military Tuition Assistance Program now available.

OU

PARTICI

NT

PR

1.888.665.4104

R

Do you need your criminal record expunged?

Vehicle & housing available for Felons & At Risk Job Seekers Printing and general office services available Wills, Divorces, Child Support, Civil & Criminal Motions Filed Contact: Beyond The Conviction for these and other career and life barrier removal services.

(Some SeRViCe FeeS APPly)

816-842-4975 or 816-718-7423 beyondtheconviction.org 4/2/2013 8:19:49 AM

NorthlaNd Village $100 deposit oN 1&2 Bedrooms

$525 / up

Large 1, 2 & 3 Bedroom Apts and Townhomes Fireplace, Washer/Dryer Hook-ups, Storage Space, Pool.

I-35 & Antioch • (816) 454-5830

BUY SELL RENT

Are you out of housing options?

Have Credit Problems? Previous Evictions?

We rent to the rent challenged

Holiday Apartments $126/WEEK FREE $150/DEPOSIT* Studios Downtown Area

* Restrictions apply

Month to Month Lease!

On Site Loundry Facility

All Utilities Cable TV (816) 221-1721 Paid

APPLICATION WHEN YOU BRING IN THIS AD

HOUSE LOFT APARTMENT ROOMMATE OFFICE SPACE

& Classifieds pitch.com

A P R I L 1 1 - 1 7, 2 0 1 3

the pitch

39

APTS/JOBS/STUFF

速

816.218.6702 816.218.6759

FREE BANKRUPTCY CONSULTATION * PA Y M E N T P L A N AVA I L A B L E *

LAW OFFICE OF JENNIFER DODSON

APRIL 11-17, 2013

AFFORDABLE ATTORNEY

SPEEDING, DWI, POSSESSION, ASSAULT FREE CONSULTATION Call: The Law Office of J.P. Tongson (816) 265-1513

435 NICHOLS ROAD STE 200 KCMO 64112

816.977.2763

W W W. J D O D S O N L AW. C O M

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.

The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely on advertisement.

KC MARRIOTT-Downtown

NOW HIRING Front Desk Clerks-Restaurant Supervisor-Cooks-Servers Apply In Person Anytime 200 W. 12th St.

Attorney since 1976: 913-345-4100, KS/MO. Injuries, workers comp, criminal, divorce, DUI, traffic, and more. Low fees, Call Greg Bangs.

ADOPTION: Active Executive & Future Stay-Home Mom, Unconditional LOVE await miracle 1st baby.

Expenses paid 1-888-919-1604 Steve & Norma

$99 DIVORCE $99

ACT NOW INVESTIGATIONS

Scared? Anxious? Confused?

Solving Cases For Over 24 Years

DWI, Solicitation, Traffic, Internet Crimes, Hit & Run, Power & Light Violations.

****Confidential****Professional**** Infidelity-Domestic Dramatic Family & Child Issues Fully Licensed & Insured. KS-MO

913-469-0006 actnowinvestigations.com

SPEEDING DWI CRIMINAL SOLICITATION Call Tim Tompkins Today KCTrafficlawyer.com 913-707-4357 816-729-2606

Simple, Uncontested + Filing Fee. Don Davis. 816-531-1330

lifestylesofkc.com House Parties Every Friday & Saturday Night.

Hot Tub, Dance Pole, Live DJ, Pool Table 913-742-0022

* DWI * * CRIMINAL * * TRAFFIC * Practice emphasizing DWI defense.

Experienced, knowledgeable attorney will take the time to listen and inform.

Free initial phone consultation.

THE LAW OFFICE OF DENISE KIRBY 816-221-3691

$99 DIVORCE $99

Simple, Uncontested + Filing Fee. Don Davis. 816-531-1330

CASH FOR CARS

Wrecked, Damaged or Broken.

Running or Not !

Cash Paid ! www.abcautorecycling.com 913-271-9406

DUI/DWI, KS, MO

Reasonable rates!

Susan Bratcher 816-453-2240 www.bratcherlaw.biz

lifestylesofkc.com House Parties Every Friday & Saturday Night.

Hot Tub, Dance Pole, Live DJ, Pool Table 913-742-0022

Help Is Here!

816-221-5900 - www.The-Law.com David Lurie Attorney

816-221-5900 - www.The-Law.com David Lurie Attorney

P.I.--Work Comp.--Bankruptcy

Scared? Anxious? Confused?

DWI, Solicitation, Traffic, Internet Crimes, Hit & Run, Power & Light Violations.

Help Is Here!

Attorney since 1976: 913-345-4100, KS/MO. Injuries, workers comp, criminal, divorce, DUI, traffic, and more. Low fees, Call Greg Bangs.

KC MARRIOTT-Downtown

NOW HIRING Front Desk Clerks-Restaurant Supervisor-Cooks-Servers Apply In Person Anytime 200 W. 12th St.

ACT NOW INVESTIGATIONS ****Confidential****Professional**** Infidelity-Domestic Dramatic Family & Child Issues

Solving Cases For Over 24 Years Fully Licensed & Insured. KS-MO

913-469-0006 actnowinvestigations.com

CASH FOR CARS

Wrecked, Damaged or Broken.

Running or Not !

Cash Paid ! www.abcautorecycling.com 913-271-9406 ADOPTION: Active Executive & Future Stay-Home Mom, Unconditional LOVE await miracle 1st baby.

Expenses paid 1-888-919-1604 Steve & Norma

99.7% Toxin Free w/n an hour We can help you pass Coopers 3617 Broadway, KCMO 816.931.7222

AFFORDABLE ATTORNEY

SPEEDING, DWI, POSSESSION, ASSAULT FREE CONSULTATION Call: The Law Office of J.P. Tongson (816) 265-1513

SPEEDING DWI CRIMINAL SOLICITATION Call Tim Tompkins Today KCTrafficlawyer.com 913-707-4357 816-729-2606

HOTEL ROOMS A-1 Motel 816-765-6300 Capital Inn 816-765-4331 6101 E. 87th St./Hillcrest Rd. HBO,Phone,Banq. Hall

$37.06 Day/ $149 Week/ $499 Month + Tax