The Pitch: May 21, 2015

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May 21-27, 2015 | Vol. 34 No. 47 E d i t o r i a l

Editor Scott Wilson Managing Editor Justin Kendall Music Editor Natalie Gallagher Staff Writers Charles Ferruzza, David Hudnall, Steve Vockrodt Editorial Operations Manager Deborah Hirsch Events Editor Berry Anderson Proofreader Brent Shepherd Contributing Writers Tracy Abeln, Jen Chen, Liz Cook, April Fleming, Larry Kopitnik, Angela Lutz, Dan Savage, Nick Spacek

Hyatt Hopes The upcoming convention hotel is getting a lot more than $35 million in public funding.

a r t

b y s t e v e vo c k r o d t

Art and Production Director Jeremy Luther Contributing Photographers Zach Bauman, Angela C. Bond, Barrett Emke, Chris Mullins, Sabrina Staires, Brooke Vandever

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a d v E r t i s i n g

Advertising Director Mick Moore Senior Classified Multimedia Specialist Steven Suarez Multimedia Specialist Becky Losey Director of Marketing and Operations Jason Dockery Digital Marketing Coordinator Ashley Reed Sales and Marketing Assistant Jason Haflich

B u s i n E s s

Group Publisher Chris Sexson Accounts Receivable Jodi Waldsmith

sick Days More woes at Metropolitan Community College as its nursing program is denied accreditation.

s o u t h c o m m

Chief Executive Officer Paul Bonaiuto President Chris Ferrell Chief Financial Officer Ed Tearman Chief Technology Officer Matt Locke Chief Operating Officer/Group Publisher Eric Norwood Executive Vice President of Digital and Support Services Blair Johnson Director of Digital Sales and Marketing David Walker Vice President of Human Resources Ed Wood Controller Todd Patton Director of Financial Planning and Analysis Carla Simon Vice President of Production Operations Curt Pordes Vice President, Content Patrick Rains Creative Director Heather Pierce

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taste test

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

d i s t r i B u t i o n

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Chefs duel to make you drool at The Pitch’s annual Taste event. by charles ferruzz a

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QUESTIONNAIRE NEwS AgENdA STAgE ART fIlm fAT cITy ON TAp ThIS wEEk mUSIc d A I ly l I S T I N g S SAvAgE lOvE

M eaNw H i le at pi tcH.co M BiZOu FOOD TRuCK is now serving real Breton-style crepes.

BECK gave a sold-out Starlight audience something to party about (country legend WiLLiE NELSON was there, too).

The Pitch: Cover photo by zaCh bauman

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Questionnaire Midwest Brony Fest co-chair

s a b r i n a s ta i r e s

nicholas lewellen

Occupation: DJ, carpenter Hometown: Kansas City Current neighborhood: Gladstone What I do: I’m a drywall contractor and DJ. I

spend a lot of time spinning for Internet radio stations, comic/anime/My Little Pony conventions, and I build stuff.

What’s your addiction? Electronic music, Baileys and coffee, and anime

What’s your game? Annoying Englishmen and Life

What’s your drink? Cazadores Tequila Blanco Where’s dinner? Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue What’s on your KC postcard? “Boulevard Beer,

The best advice I ever got: “Don’t Panic.”

Worst advice: “You should care about what other people think.”

My sidekick: I’m a loner.

My dating triumph/tragedy: Marriage and then divorce.

My brush with fame: When I look in the mirror every morning. Ayy lmao

My 140-character soapbox: “Ponies, ponies, What was the last thing you had to apologize for? Never, no regrets!

“Kansas City needs …” A bigger EDM scene.

“In five years, I’ll be …” At the World Series

rooting for the Royals!

“I always laugh at …” Monkeys in human

clothes. pitch.com

“I just read …” Four hours of Reddit.

Finish this sentence: “Kansas City got it right when …” After 29 years of frustration, the

Light.

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µ’s.

ponies, ponies, ponies!”

“Kansas City screwed up when …” Power &

the pitch

“I can’t stop listening to …” Ryu★, Kors k, and

barbecue and Royals, GET IN IT!”

Royals are going to the World Series.

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“I’ve been known to binge-watch …” My Little

Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Who’s sorry now? As of 4/6/2015, the Chicago White Sox.

My recent triumph: I talked to a cute girl.

The Midwest Brony Fest–Kansas City takes place May 22–24 at the Overland Park Convention Center (6000 College Boulevard, Overland Park). Lewellen performs a DJ set as Kill Screen at Louder, Saturday night.

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chair

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City takes k Conven, Overland Kill Screen

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news

Hyatt Hopes

The upcoming convention hotel is getting a lot more than $35 million in public funding.

F

or as long as Kansas City officials have worked behind the scenes to develop a plan for a major convention hotel, conventional thinking held that the city would commit a huge helping of taxpayer money to make the deal happen.

Credit is due to City Hall leaders, who last week announced plans for an 800-room Hyatt near Bartle Hall that wouldn’t put taxpayers on a Power & Light District–style hook.

(The Pitch has learned that Kansas City was negotiating three different proposals at the same time, one apiece from Marriott, Omni and Hyatt. The next-best offer asked for $75 million from city coffers, which turned out to be too rich for City Hall’s blood.)

Of the various bond issues that will patch a quilt of financing for the $300 million project, taxpayers won’t guarantee hotel debt to bondholders — as they’ve had to every year since 2008 to the tune of about $14 million, to offset the Power & Light District’s inability to sell enough Bud Light. It’s the stinging legacy of that expensive P&L deal which for so long has hindered KC’s effort to land a convention hotel. City leaders have said the public subsidy for the hotel project will be just $35 million.

That’s true on its face. But the publicfinancing aspect of the hotel is far more extensive than that.

The $35 million represents the amount of bonds the city will sell to drum up quick cash for the hotel. Kansas City will repay that $35 million from $2 million a year in convention and tourism taxes over 25 years. The extra $15 million ($2 million a year over a quarter century works out to $50 million) represents interest and finance charges.

Also in the financing package for the hotel: $100 million worth of bonds repaid through tax-increment financing. It’s an atypical TIF plan in two key respects.

First, it’s proposed as what’s called a Super TIF. Ordinary TIF repays a developer 100 percent of future increases in property values for land within the district, along with 50 percent of economic-activity taxes generated by the hotel (earnings taxes from employees, sales taxes and so on). Super TIF pays the developer 100 percent of both revenue sources.

Second, the project will also include a community-improvement district, which will raise the sales-tax rate at the hotel by 1 percent and add special assessments. All of those proceeds also go back to the developer.

The property upon which the hotel will be built (bound by Truman Road and 16th Street and by Baltimore and Wyandotte) is mostly city-owned, which means that it currently generates no property taxes. Troy Schulte, the city manager, has said the land is worth $13 million.

Assuming that valuation is correct, it means that the land — if the city sold it to a developer and it returned to the tax rolls — would generate $333,998 a year in property taxes. Under TIF, the development captures all that money.

Given these arrangements, then, the public subsidy for the hotel is going to be a lot more than $35 million. About half the cost of the $300 million project will wind up being paid for by public taxes.

Still, even critics of public subsidies aren’t complaining just yet. One vocal opponent of many TIF deals, Crosby Kemper III, CEO of the Kansas City Public Library, lauds the project for bringing $150 million worth of private equity and debt to the hotel.

(He still has concerns about the viability of chasing convention business; more on that in a bit.)

The private partners in the hotel project include Michael Burke, a Kansas City real-estate lawyer; Timothy O’Byrne, CEO of hospitalitydevelopment firm Inland Pacific; and Steven Rattner, a New York financier who resigned

A new piece of the skyline from Credit Suisse in 2008 after details of his marital infidelity surfaced on the Internet.

The private partnership assumes most of the risk of this venture, ensuring that taxpayers aren’t in the uncomfortable position of guaranteeing the project’s debt if the hotel goes under.

Still, Kansas City risks damage to its reputation if the hotel underperforms — a distinct possibility, given how competitive U.S. convention business is.

Heywood Sanders, a Harvard-educated professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, researches the convention industry.

He tells The Pitch that there were 52.1 million square feet of convention and exhibit-hall space in the United States in 2000. By 2013, that had grown to 71.2 million, an increase of 36 percent. But the amount of convention business has not grown in proportion over the same timespan. “Put those two things together, and you get an overbuilt convention market,” Sanders says.

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S t e v e v ock rod t

Cities that build convention facilities are in something like an arms race, perpetually looking to erect new hotels and expand event space to keep up with, or to stay just ahead of, competitors. The results aren’t always encouraging.

Chicago’s McCormick Place, that city’s main convention center, attracted 1.4 million attendees to conventions and trade shows in 2000. The facility expanded in 2007. In 2014, it attracted 881,919 visitors for such events. So Chicago is building a 1,200-room convention hotel nearby.

A number of cities closer to KC’s size — Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Indianapolis — are in various stages of contemplating their next convention-center or convention-hotel project. “The dilemma you have here is, everybody is doing this and doing it on the assumption that you do one more thing to make it work,” Sanders says.

Kansas City knows this dilemma well.

The city has paid to expand Bartle Hall twice since 1994, with the second expansion sold as a means to stem the decline in Kansas City’s convention business. (Future Farmers of America left in 1999, saying it had outgrown the city.) Shortly after that second expansion was finished, in 2007, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart and SkillsUSA (all major conventions at the time) announced that they, too, were leaving.

Asked why Kansas City should expect to gain market share in an increasingly competitive convention industry, Mayor Sly James cites discussions he has had with unnamed people from unnamed organizations who say a hotel can bring back business.

Ronnie Burt, CEO and president of VisitKC, offers more concrete reasons. He says Kansas City’s central location, affordability and downtown walkability make the city an attractive choice in tandem with the convention hotel. “This just positions Kansas City in the right place to capitalize on new business and the old business that was here before,” Burt tells The Pitch. He points to Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Indianapolis as cities that have put up convention hotels in close proximity to their convention centers and seen positive results.

He adds that growth in Kansas City’s hotel business before last week’s announcement also helps.

“In 2014, Kansas City saw its highest hotel occupancy and highest rates in 13 years,” Burt says.

Whether Kansas City can reclaim its convention glory from the 1970s, though, remains to be seen.

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Sick DayS

More woes at Metropolitan Community College as its nursing program is denied accreditation

By

DaviD HuDnall

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atic plan for evaluation includes specific, measurable expected levels of achievement and a minimum of three (3) years of data for each component within the plan.

• A lack of evidence that graduate satisfaction, employer satisfaction and jobplacement rates have been assessed in an ongoing manner and sufficient data have been collected.

• The program’s three-year mean for the licensure examination pass rate was not at or above the national mean for the same threeyear period.

MCC–Penn Valley was one of only two schools out of 70 that was denied accreditation during ACEN’s fall 2014 review cycle.

The other, the University of the District of Columbia, is appealing ACEN’s decision; MCC is not. Visitors to the practical-nursing program’s page on MCC’s website are advised that it is “Under construction.” The site adds: “Please see an advisor.”

Lester Hardegree was hired in 2012 as the first dean of health sciences and the executive director of the Health Science Institute on the Penn Valley campus. In that position, Hardegree tells The Pitch, he was supposed to have direct oversight over the practicalnursing program’s director, Evelyn Claiborne.

But he says Claiborne regularly circumvented him and took all questions and issues related to the program to Walter-Mack.

“My forte — the reason they brought me to MCC — is that I have a skill for identifying strengths and weaknesses in healtheducation programs, and for turning those programs around,” Hardegree says. “Not long

CCCC

ast month, The Pitch examined the mounting problems at Metropolitan Community College (“Fizz Ed,” April 29). Those problems include a decline in the number of applicants; a mass exodus of faculty, staff and high-ranking administrators; a plunge in morale among those still employed in the district; and the erosion of the long-held system of shared governance among faculty and leadership.

Two figures loom large over the turbulence: Mark James, a career law-enforcement professional who had only one year of highereducation experience before being appointed MCC’s chancellor in 2010, and his chief of staff, Kathy Walter-Mack, a former lawyer and desegregation official for the Kansas City, Missouri, school district. Among the roughly two dozen former and current MCC employees The Pitch spoke with before and after the article’s publication, consensus exists that Walter-Mack — who also lacked higher-education experience prior to being installed as James’ second-in-command — essentially runs the entire five-campus district on a day-to-day basis, while James focuses on fundraising and community visibility.

Walter-Mack is also the district’s lawyer and its human-resources director, which many have characterized as a conflict of interest.

As the story was going to press, reports surfaced that James was a finalist for the position of president at Park University. Park confirmed this, but a representative from the school said last week that “no decisions have yet been made regarding the presidential search.”

The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing — the national organization that accredits nursing programs — recently made a decision, though. It has denied the accreditation of MCC’s practical-nursing program. Taught on the Penn Valley campus, the program gained accreditation in 1979.

After a 2012 ACEN review found that MCC was not in compliance with several of its standards, ACEN placed MCC on “warning” status. Schools given that probation have two years to steer their way back into compliance.

MCC evidently did not change course.

The summary of the commission’s action denying accreditation for the practical-nursing program cites 11 examples of the school’s noncompliance. Among them, according to the summary: • A lack of evidence that the curriculum incorporates established professional standards, guidelines and competencies.

• A lack of evidence that the program length is consistent with national guidelines and best practices.

• A lack of evidence that the system-

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after I got there, it became very clear that nothing was going to change at the school given the leadership there. That’s my personal feeling. I think all the problems stem from the leadership of Mark James and Kathy Walter-Mack. It starts at the top.”

Hardegree resigned last June. Claiborne declined to comment, directing The Pitch’s queries to MCC’s media spokeswoman, Christina Medina.

“The practical-nursing program is an accredited program,” Medina says. “The Missouri State Board is the only required accrediting body for this particular program.

ACEN is a newer accrediting body that goes beyond what is required by the state.”

The program is accredited by the Missouri State Board, but only conditionally.

The board’s bylaws define a conditionally approved program as one that has “failed to meet or maintain the regulations or requirements, or both, set by the board.”

Medina did not respond to a question about what these stripped and conditional accreditations would mean for the wouldbe nurses who shelled out $12,495 for the program.

Meanwhile, there’s little indication that James, Walter-Mack or the MCC Board of Trustees is taking any of this very seriously.

At a board meeting on Tuesday, May 12, Robert Martin, a long-serving board member, read aloud a resolution in support of James’ leadership at MCC. The board unanimously approved it.

E-mail david.hudnall@pitch.com pitch.com

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ick F self. legend di characters wielding C who wore Mr. Socko Now, h Mrs. Foley New York T recently, a you callin “I still The Pitch. stand-up I am mak comforta just love i an audien always th Foley i ence agai the Impro with Fole the tooth Hell in a C

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the last tim Foley: T have a sp they show that it’s a evidence. be coming WWE was a special network, whelming With th new show sas City i was a litt sas City b will get to There’s n up and ha and what striking g You’re a to hear tha It is. E stories are on. But th ral in see stages.

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Faces oF Foley

Wrestling legend Mick Foley grapples with the comedy circuit.

M

ick Foley knows how to reinvent himself. Professional wrestling’s hardcore legend did just that in the ring, developing characters that ranged from barbed-wire-batwielding Cactus Jack to the lovable Mankind, who wore his tube-sock tag-team partner, Mr. Socko, on his arm.

Now, he has done it again. Outside the ring, Mrs. Foley’s Baby Boy has found success as a New York Times best-selling author and, most recently, as a comic. But don’t let him catch you calling him a comedian.

“I still don’t call it stand-up,” Foley tells The Pitch. “I know it’s crazy because I’m in stand-up venues, and I am standing up and I am making people laugh, but I feel more comfortable labeling myself a storyteller. I just love it as a way of communicating with an audience and getting reactions, which is always the pull for me as a wrestler.”

Foley is about to connect with the audience again, launching his 2015 world tour at the Improv in Kansas City. The Pitch spoke with Foley about the evolution of his show, the tooth that got knocked out in his iconic Hell in a Cell match, and more.

The Pitch: How has your show evolved since the last time you were in Kansas City?

Foley: The biggest difference is that I now have a special that people can see. So when they show up, they will not be surprised that it’s a good show because I have video evidence. The difference is, people should be coming with high expectations now. The WWE was good enough to work with me on a special [Cheap Pops] that debuted on their network, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

With that in mind, it will be a completely new show. What’s kind of neat about Kansas City is, I’m in the same situation that I was a little over two years ago, where Kansas City begins my new tour. So you guys will get to see the first show of the new tour.

There’s nothing like that first time getting up and having no idea what’s going to work and what’s not, and then feeling like you’re striking gold when something really clicks.

You’re a natural storyteller, so it’s surprising to hear that you see that as a challenge.

It is. Even if you’re a natural storyteller, stories are at their best when they are worked on. But there’s something beautiful and natural in seeing them in their natural opening stages.

How did your WWE Network special come about?

Going back as far as three years ago, I was asked about doing the show at WWE Axxess, and I politely declined. They didn’t know what I did. I had to explain: It’s a show that requires people’s attention. It’s not just

By

Ju s t in K e nd a l l Mick Foley

Wednesday, May 27, at Improv Comedy Club and Dinner Theater, 7260 Northwest 87th Street, 816-759-5233, improvkc.com

something you walk by and happen to listen to on your way going somewhere else.

So we kind of talked the past year about the best time to do it. We thought we had something during WrestleMania week, but in retrospect, I’m glad we waited. I got a text from Mr. [Vince] McMahon, saying, “Call me.

It’s important.” I think he probably thought that I was going to be disappointed that we were not going to be doing the show during WrestleMania week. Instead, he suggested doing the show at Full Sail University, WWE’s state-of-the-art developmental facility, and I knew then that we’d have access to a great set and that the people coming to the show would be anticipating a good show.

WWE did not disappoint, and I did not disappoint them. We gave a much better show than anyone would have guessed.

Is this something that you’ll be doing more of with them in the future on the Network?

Ah, sure. I’d like to make it a yearly event, if not a biannual event. It’s likely that you’ll be seeing some stories that begin in Kansas City eventually on the Network.

One bit on your Cheap Pops show was a story about getting an e-mail from Stacy Keibler about

Foley: Still rugged, still endearing showing George Clooney a match of yours. I don’t recall which match you suggested that she show him.

I told her the [Hell in a] Cell match and then I gave her a couple of interviews. That was a story that I’ve been telling the first part of, off and on, for a while, and part of the fun of doing these shows is connecting the dots and finding out how you can make a story much more than just a punch line.

It’s a challenge for me. It’s fun. It feels very much like trying to put the best possible match together, where you may have a great series of moves and especially, in my case, because I was a guy who did not have too many moves, and the secret was always to put them together in the most meaningful way possible for the most powerful outcome. I was always concerned about leaving a lasting impression with the match. And that’s the way that I feel about my shows. Laugh for laugh, there’s got to be hundreds of guys who are going to provide more laughs per minute than I do, but I think on the big-smile ratio and the smile on a person’s face when they

leave the show, I’m very happy with where I stand in the entertainment community.

Do you wish you’d started doing stand-up while you were still an active wrestler?

Nah, I think it’s come in as a great way of filling the void that almost every wrestler feels when they leave the ring. So if I had been doing stand-up while I was wrestling, it may have been sensory overload. Plus, I received plenty of laughs, especially with the Mankind character. And then I had the books coming along, so I didn’t need another way to connect with the audience.

One of the iconic images of the Hell in a Cell match was the tooth stuck in your nose after the Undertaker slammed you through the cage.

What happened to that tooth?

It was placed into a glass of milk to keep it vital and it was reinserted and, unfortunately, after 17 years is about to make its exit, as the four teeth that were damaged in the Cell match all need replacing.

You were able to save it?

Yeah, yeah. It’s in there. Right now, it’s so loose that I could pull it out if I tried. As of this Friday, those four teeth are going to be history, and thus begins a six-month procedure to replace them the right way.

My hope is that I’ll have a partial flipper to cover up the four missing teeth. I have no concern about the two missing top teeth, but as I explained to my 12-year-old when he asked why I’m getting the bottom teeth replaced, I said, “Son, the difference from having a rugged, endearing smile and looking like a meth head.” So I’ll be replacing those four bottom teeth.

As for the Kansas City show, it sounds like people should expect a new beginning.

The polish won’t be there, but there’s something exciting and brilliant about seeing somebody try something and fail. The people in Kansas City can be assured that I’ll be extra nice at the meet-and-greet. And that will be the case for those first few weeks as I work out the kinks. I love it. It’s such a great process because you start out with so many ideas, you start seeing what shapes up and then you start seeing what the show is going to be. But it all starts with day one, and it’s just fun for me that my day one in 2013 was in Kansas City, and my day one in 2015 is in Kansas City.

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T r a c y a bel n

Judith G. Levy adds to La Esquina’s Disturbances.

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udith G. Levy has for a while now centered her art on uproarious fictions, rendered in believably deadpan ways. But for her new “Family Memoir” series — part of La Esquina’s latest group exhibition, Disturbances in the Field — she has hewed closer to reality. A reality still bent by the habits of storytelling, particularly the intimate storytelling native to families.

Stories passed down by relatives — or evolved from generations of guesswork based on vaguely captioned family albums — can be touchingly mundane. Your grandparents’ first new car was an non-air-conditioned Chevy.

But family trees also cast long shadows, obscuring in shame, say, the cousin who died young for reasons that go untalked about. In “Family Memoir,” Levy presents a range of such tales, fragments from a reconstructed past (her own family’s, she says) that spans approximately the very late 1800s to the early 1970s. The series of 36 small black-and-white posters, using reproductions of snapshots, dominates the gallery’s front wall.

Levy’s work is the first thing visible at this show, guiding you into the space with handlettered punch lines. The words are amusingly, sometimes poignantly reductive conclusions or descriptions of various relatives, first on photo-free yard signs staked around the parking lot of the gallery, then on the posters inside. The phrases outside include “Failed in Hollywood,” “Enjoyed Family Life,” “Wasn’t Jewish” and “Became a Magician.” They could as easily be epitaphs on headstones, reminding how someone’s whole lifetime is often reduced in a family’s collective memory to a single episode or trait. The sum of such recollections is how you learn your family history, piecemeal and with oddly accented, sometimes very flawed emphasis.

Straightforward but not linear, just like real

“Sappho Beach” (detail) by Levy Disturbances in the Field Through June 13 at La Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, charlottestreet.org

family memories, Levy’s grid of scrapbook photos, and their “one thing” about the people in them, lets your glance jump around and draw connections between times and themes.

It is akin to our own experience of family and memory, and therefore vivid, giving us plenty to think about when it comes to identity and acceptance.

Other works in this show summon a similar power to disturb, in a wide variety of ways: Scott Dickson’s inlaid photographic prints have an immediate impact, whereas the highly conceptual “Your Lupines or Your Life,”

by Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed, require that you read the provided materials. Sarah Lewison’s “Arctic Glitch” can be appreciated even if you don’t absorb the contextual writing. And Leo Esquivel’s two gouache drawings — depicting antique furniture sprouting plant life — are peacefully whimsical, a fairytalelike “disturbance in the field.”

Curator Lacey Wozny has also given us an opportunity to see another of Levy’s works, the latest in her panoramic postcard series.

Another take on the idea of constructed history, the wittily rendered, pseudo-vintage scene this time takes place at fictional Sappho Beach, in equally apocryphal Glory, Kansas.

Surely such a feminist enclave would disturb Gov. Sam Brownback — and anyone else who lacks a sense of humor.

E-mail feedback@pitch.com

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15

film

EscapE from Tomorrow

By

Cr a ig D. L inD se y

Disney tries dystopia in the kinetic, bewildering Tomorrowland.

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uch like the Disney theme-park attraction that supplies its name and inspiration, Tomorrowland is best described as a big pile of something.

Here’s what I believe I know about the movie: George Clooney, in grizzled Walter Matthau mode, plays a bitter inventor who has been stuck on Earth ever since being banished for some reason from the titular place, a breathtaking world where creativity flows like wine, technology is highly advanced, and the possibilities are endless. In Tomorrowland, life is one big TED conference.

But even though Clooney has top billing, he’s not really the star. Pole position goes to Britt Robertson, playing a smart, scrappy Florida teen who needs Clooney’s character to serve as her guide, once she gets a pin that magically transports her to the land. Apparently, she has been chosen as the one who can restore Tomorrowland to its spectacular original luster — and the only person who can save Earth from becoming an apocalyptic nightmare.

Just how does our heroine set out doing that? I really have no clue. Director Brad Bird, working from a story he scripted with ubiquitous blockbuster screenwriter Damon Lindelof and Entertainment Weekly TV critic Jeff Jensen, throws a lot of damn things on this huge wall, praying that something sticks. Most of the time, the movie seems like a cuter, more upbeat version of The Matrix, with our protagonists dodging dark-suited enforcers when they’re not trying to wake people the hell up and alert them to their doomed surroundings.

That makes Tomorrowland an oddly sunny dystopian vision, one that often comes off as a huge finger wagging at our slothful, morose civilization. With their popcorn-season tent pole, Bird and Lindelof seem intent on signaling their presumably youthful audience that

Clooney believes that children are the future. it’s not too late to cut down on the video games and work on bettering this planet. It would be a swell message, if only the movie had a legible story wrapped around it.

From the jump, though, Tomorrowland is devoted more to looking good than to being good. The actual Tomorrowland sequences are gloriously kinetic, especially the opening flashback to Clooney’s youth — a visual joyride that starts with a faulty jet pack at a World’s Fair and opens a portal onto the world of wonder beyond. Animator turned live-action filmmaker, Bird is as confident during such sequences as he was making the often amazing Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.

What’s missing this time is a narrative engine to sustain your interest or emotional involvement between the big set pieces. As much as I tried to submit to Tomorrowland, I just couldn’t stop thinking of plausible questions that the movie just doesn’t know how to answer. Which might not matter, if the characters weren’t written as grating, tiresome creatures. Clooney and Robertson spend too much of their time together bickering, and I haven’t even gotten to the ass-whupping little British girl (Raffey Cassidy) who brings them together, and with whom Clooney’s character has a history that’s more creepy than adorable.

Tomorrowland's cluttered, wandering premise never coalesces into something fully realized. For a movie that preaches the importance of always keeping your imagination going and your ideas flowing, it mostly just reminds you that thinking too much can distract you from successfully making your damn point.

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fat c i t y

TasTE TEsT

Chefs duel to make you drool at The Pitch’s annual Taste event.

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T

he Pitch’s annual Taste of Kansas City food-and-drink event, that lighthearted bacchanal signaling the approach of summer, this year boasts 23 local food and beverage vendors. Westside Local, Waldo Pizza, Scratch Bakery and Plowboys Barbeque are among the establishments ready to share samples of their products beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 21, in the KC Live Block of the Power & Light District.

Taste celebrates the local culinary scene by highlighting the invited vendors’ signature dishes and beverages — but doesn’t leave out the sometimes fierce competition for cooking primacy. This year, five of KC’s top chefs are battling it out to win our Golden Fork Award.

This year’s kitchen gladiators include last year’s Golden Fork winner, Justin Voldan.

Last May, he was flexing his culinary muscles as the executive chef of the Hotel Phillips.

Voldan left the hotel in October and took over the kitchen at Westside Local as executive chef. In what’s shaping up to be a goodnatured grudge match, Voldan faces, among other chefs, his Hotel Phillips replacement, Frank Lalumia. Also vying for the top spot: Jonathan Pye, of the Rozzelle Court restaurant at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Mario Galan of Avenues Bistro; and Vincent Paredes from the downtown Marriott, and Tito Le Chef (the nom de guerre of self-styled local chef Basilio de Dios), the chef and proprietor of the former Latin Bistro restaurant

The Pitch’s Taste of Kansas City Thursday, May 21, at the KC Live Block, Power & Light District, pitch.com

(it closed last October) and a new food truck called American Fusion.

“I’m the only chef from last year who is returning to the competition,” Voldan says.

“I wanted to come back because last year’s event was really fun, and I like competing in culinary events whenever I can. It’s a great way to promote our restaurants.”

Voldan, perhaps missing an opportunity to indulge a little Ali-Foreman trash-talking, has only kind words for his successor at the Hotel Phillips. “Frank’s doing a great job, and it will be fun for us to tackle this culinary challenge at the same time,” he tells me.

All of the competing chefs face the same challenge: Create a fresh, imaginative meal using the ingredients of a “mystery box,” the contents of which are unknown until shortly before it’s time to fire up the stove.

Once again, I’m on the judging panel, joined this time by restaurant veteran and professional cooking instructor Lisa Burgess and actor-writer David Wayne Reed. Hosting the contest are chef Stewart Lane, of Lon Lane’s Inspired Events, and Missy Koonce, one of Kansas City’s funniest leading ladies.

“I’ve never competed in one of these chef battles,” Lane says, “because our business is usually on the organizational side of the project. But being an emcee is the part I love.

It can get very tense during the competition, so I’m free to banter with the chefs and get them to be a little looser and interact with the audience. It’s a way to relieve tension and be entertaining.”

While the chefs duel, you’ll be able to chew your way through the vendor booths.

Besides the restaurants named above, expect bites from Blue Bird Bistro, Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant, Unforked, Morton’s Grille, the Melting Pot, Parkville Coffee, Pezzettino Italian Deli & Market, Pizza Bar, Hotel Phillips, Jerusalem Café, Tippin’s, Grace’s Best Cookies, and Hungry Monkey Party Bites. Beverage vendors include Captain Morgan rum, Red Bull, Stiletto vodka, Tallgrass beer and United Beverage. US Foods is the event’s presenting sponsor; other sponsors are Vapur West, Mac Properties, and the WellSpring School of Allied Health.

Taste tickets cost $45 for VIP admission or $35 for general admission. See pitch. com to purchase in advance or bring a few dollars more to buy at the gate Thursday evening. The event is for patrons who are 21 and older.

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18

fat c i t y

where you can find them

By

Natalie GallaGher

zach bauman

A fUll glAss

Four uncommon drinks and

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W

e live by a simple maxim: There’s a wide world of booze out there, and life is too short not to enjoy some of the more interesting spirits lining the shelves. Some people get tripped up on where to start. Or they can’t admit that they don’t know what, say, mezcal is or how to enjoy it.

So here are a few libations that are a little more interesting than your go-to beer or glass of wine. And where to find them, too.

tender Dominic Petrucci has a few more ideas.

Digestifs are usually taken straight, but a few of Petrucci’s selections — Sambuca, Fernet, green Chartreuse and Cynar — have mixers to help them go down easier. (On their own, these spirits can be potently syrupy, with a slight medicinal quality.) Pro tip: Don’t leave without trying the “Uomo Scuro,” which combines Cynar with bourbon, Angostura bitters, espresso and cream.

like tequila, there’s a whole world of producers out there with different takes on the spirit. At Port Fonda, you can sample from 33 mezcal options. And you don’t have you choose: With mezcal flights, you can pick three varietals at your price point.

Or, for those who prefer a gentler introduction to mezcal, Port Fonda’s mezcal sour combines smoke, froth and lime for some delightful sips.

Apéritifs And digestifs

MezcAl

chAMpAgne

Apéritifs and digestifs have long been popular cocktail ingredients, but rarely are they highlighted on a menu the way River Market pizzeria Il Lazzarone spotlights them. Here, classic apéritifs — the dry alcoholic beverage traditionally made from fortified wine and designed to stimulate the appetite — are offered with soda and a fruit twist.

If you’re unfamiliar with the bittersweet tug-of-war taste that is Aperol, Campari, Casoni or Cappelletti, here’s how these spirits were meant to be enjoyed: with some bubbles, immediately before woofing down a traditional Neapolitan pizza. Bonus: Most apéritifs have a lower alcohol content, which means you can toss back a couple at lunch and not feel too bad about it.

Once you’re through the meal, lead bar-

If you’re of the agave persuasion, you’ve probably bellied up to the bar at Westport’s Port Fonda and found your heart at the bottom of an empty margarita glass. But it would be a damn shame if you overlooked tequila’s sister spirit, mezcal.

Though both are made with the agave plant, tequila is made with only blue agave, and it’s traditionally steamed; mezcal may feature multiple varieties, which are usually roasted. The roasting lends a smoky, peaty profile to the mezcal — think of it as the lovechild of scotch and tequila.

Over the past decade, mezcal has become increasingly popular in the States. For many, the first introduction to the spirit was with the Del Maguey brand. (The Del Maguey Vida is something of a bar staple these days.) But,

Champagne is meant to feel exclusive: Its high price — mandated in part by the French government — often drives would-be drinkers to such bargain counterparts as the Spanish cava and other sparkling wines. But if you’ve ever tasted a truly great champagne, in which delicate, sweet fruits swirl together with creamy bread notes and fairy bubbles, you know that the price tag is worth it.

Drinking champagne doesn’t have to mean dropping crazy cash, though Westport’s champagne bar, Ça Va, does carry a selection of high-end bottles that go for more than $200. But for anyone wanting to experience the finer things in life, the charming, Francophile-friendly bar offers luxury at a more affordable price: bottles that go for $50 and up, glasses of champagne that

Il Lazzarone 412 Delaware, 816-541-3695

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Port Fonda 4141 Pennsylvania, 816-216-6462

Ça Va 4149 Pennsylvania, 816-255-3934

19

?

?

Thursday, May 21 New Belgium Clips preparty tapping, with

It’s not a one night stand if you buy them breakfast in the morning.

Whiskey Barrel Aged Belgian Salted Chocolate Stout on Nitro, at Riot Room (4048 Broadway), 4 p.m.

Transatlantique Kriek, at the Foundry (4057 Pennsylvania), 4 p.m.

Breakfast  Brunch  Lunch  Coctails  Events

?

4059 BROADWAY (816) 931-4401 THECORNERKC.COM

New Belgium Clips beer and film tour, with

Film Noir Milk Stout, La Folie, Transatlantique Kriek and more, at Theis Park (Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd. and Oak St.), 7–10:30 p.m.

Kansas City’s Most Intense Happy Hour, with

Leinenkugel’s Grapefruit Shandy and Summer Shandy, on the rooftop park of Onelife Fitness (1261 Main), free for members, $15 for nonmembers, 6 p.m.

Kona beer cocktails, at Bier Station (120 E. Gregory Blvd.), 4–11 p.m.

?

New Belgium Clips preparty tapping, with

May I?

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Evil Twin Mission Gose, at Flying Saucer

range from $17 to $23. (There are cheaper, nonchampagne options for the more economically minded, too.)

An additional entry into the world of champagne is Ça Va’s Wednesday-night flight option. For $30, you experience a trio of 3-ounce pours of this most magical of juices.

Flight night gives guests the option of trying some of the bottle-only champagnes, and any one of Ça Va’s bartenders can help guide your palate. If you’ve ever wanted to know what makes champagne so special, there’s nothing like tasting one glass against another and reveling in the complex characteristics in each sip.

sherry

Tannin Wine Bar & Kitchen 1526 Walnut, 816-742-2660 La Bodega 703 Southwest Boulevard, 816-472-8272 You have to feel a little bit bad for sherry: The Spanish fortified wine is so often misunderstood. Average wine drinkers dislike it, and anyone else it might appeal to knows little about it. Perhaps, after so many dormant years, this liquor — often regarded as an old man’s drink — is finally coming into fashion.

Well, it’s about time.

For those new to sherry, here’s a quick tip: The liquid — which usually comes in hues of

Left: Il Lazzarone’s Uomo Scuro is the stuff of dreams. Above: Bring on the bubbles at Ça Va. brown from tawny to dark — has been produced for thousands of years in Andalucía, in southern Spain. There are five main types of sherry, and most — to correct a common misconception — are more dry and earthy than they are sweet. These are slow-sipping drinks, to be enjoyed with food: Fino and Manzanilla sherries pair well with salty appetizers and raw seafood; Amontillado and Oloroso go well with richer foods, game entrées and creamy sauces. (Palo Cortado, a rare and kingly sherry, is best experienced on its own.)

Because sherry has a higher alcohol content than regular wine, a 3-ounce pour (typically about $7) has about the same effect as a 5-ounce pour of wine. Think of sherry as the whiskey lover’s alternative to wine: Anyone who digs a potent drink profile will appreciate the complexities of a sherry.

If you’d like to dive into the world of sherry, the Crossroads boasts two excellent options. Tannin Wine Bar, which stocks all but Palo Cortado, offers a flight option for $20. And if you’d like to experience one of Spain’s favorite drinks along with traditional Spanish food, La Bodega has a devoted sherry program.

(101 E. 13th St.), 7 p.m.

frozen custard

in beautiful Brookside

Friday, May 22 New Holland beer, whiskey and cigar tasting, with beer-infused Dragon’s Milk cigars, at Rimann Liquors (15117 W. 87th St. Pkwy., Lenexa), 4:30–6:30 p.m.

Tallgrass tasting, at Gomer’s (3838 Broad-

way), 4–7 p.m.

Defiance Brewing deck party, at Gomer’s (201 Hwy. 291, Lee’s Summit), 5–7 p.m.

saTurday, May 23

Bur Oak tasting, at Gomer’s (9902 Holmes),

2–5 p.m.

Torn Label beers, at U.S. Air Guitar KC Qualifier, at RecordBar (1020 Westport Rd.), 9:30 p.m.

$18

EVERY GAME DAY

Monday, May 25

Rogue Nation Memorial Day tapping, with Brutal IPA, 7 Hop IPA, and Dead Guy Ale, at Bier Station (120 E. Gregory Blvd.), 5–11 p.m.

BUD A BUD LIGHT TOWERS

Tuesday, May 26

Schlafly tasting, at Rimann Liquors (3917 Prairie Ln., Prairie Village), 4:30–6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 27

Schlafly tasting, at Rimann Liquors (15117 W. 87th St. Pkwy., Lenexa), 4:30–6:30 p.m.

Gulden Draak Egg Glass night, at Flying

Saucer (101 E. 13th St.), 7 p.m.

e-mail natalie.gallagher@pitch.com pitch.com

7425 BROADWAY STREET KANSAS CITY, MO 64114 816-822-7525 TANNERSBARANDGRILL.COM M ay 2 1 - 2 7, 2 0 1 5

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music

Roots Code

Monzie Leo & the Big Sky: strangeness at the Westport Roots Festival.

By

Natalie GallaGher

he three members of Monzie Leo & the Big Sky — lead singer and guitarist Monzie Leo Brummett, banjoist Derek Long and fiddler Brett Grady — have their own secret language. When we meet on a Tuesday night in Lawrence, the three are wearing similar denim vests, ornamented with various patches and pins, arranged in what they tell me is a code.

Beyond that, there’s a special signal for when the members need to convene in private.

There’s a specific gesture for when it’s time for pizza.

There are other meanings embedded in their vests, they say, and other ways in which they communicate nonverbally. They aren’t about to declassify any of it for me. And if these guys are joking, they have remarkable poker faces.

Beers in hand, we take up a corner inside the Bottleneck, and the unspoken dialogue among all three is fairly easy to decode: a certain merry exhaustion. They’ve just gotten back from a weekend jaunt to Nashville, Tennessee, and Louisville, Kentucky, to play a handful of shows. Brummett has had less than one full hour of sleep since their return, he tells me with the kind of pride that comes only from fatigue. They head out nearly every weekend for this or that destination, spreading the Big Sky sound bit by bit, county by county.

“Ideally, we want to be on the road as much as possible,” Grady says. “We’re just finding that balance, how to be on the road and how to maintain our daily lives.”

The band — which recently parted with its bassist, Melodie Ayres — is working on a new album, a follow-up to last December’s Sunflowers, Sunsets and Sons of Bitches, released on Little Class Records. Talking to the three about the new project is like being dropped into a foreign country without a map.

“Basically, it’s a concept record about a wizard we’ve conceptualized,” Brummett says.

“His name is Forrest Riverwalker. It’s historical fiction about this character, who is the illegitimate son of Hugh Cameron and Carrie Nation.”

Over the next 10 minutes, the bandmates, like blood brothers in a treehouse, relay a feverishly imagined plot. Cameron, the “Kansas hermit,” whom Brummett calls a “total badass wizard dude” who lived in a tree near Lawrence in the 1800s, has immortal offspring with temperance advocate Carrie Nation. Their hero, Forrest Riverwalker, was raised by turtles. He has an evil twin, Ignarus.

Trying to jot notes about this story feels a bit like tracing a black thread down a rabbit hole.

Brummett, Long and Grady could be pulling some kind of elaborate prank, but the minutiae is too expansive.

“I can’t decide if you guys are really smart or totally switchblade crazy,” I tell them.

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zach bauman

T

Monzie Leo & the Big Sky

Brummett laughs. “We came up with this while we were super fucking stoned at Golden Corral,” he says. This is the least surprising thing any of them has so far uttered.

But the band members insist that they are utterly serious about executing this story as an album, and they add that the songs on Forrest Riverwalker — the working title for the forthcoming record — won’t be so convoluted. (One theme, Brummett tells me, will be dealing with feelings of emotional loss. Forrest Riverwalker has suffered just so, of course, because of his evil twin.)

Another act would be hard-pressed to pull off such a project, but Monzie Leo & the Big Sky seems unusually poised to get it done. The band has spent four years building its electric bluegrass, and it started with a spoken-word project; the members set out to record poems over natural soundscapes. That gave way to the traditional-leaning, folk-inspired tracks that gave Sunflowers, Sunsets and Sons of Bitches its grand gusto. There’s something dark, even sinister, about the way that Grady and Long work their strings together, and Brummet’s clear, prairiewide voice sounds ready to sing about aliens or taxes with equal conviction.

pitch.com

Nothing but wide-open skies for Long, Brummett and Grady (from left).

Those qualities are what attracted Little Class Records to the band in the first place, and the three agree that signing to the local label last November has been nothing but good for Monzie Leo & the Big Sky. “We considered it really heavily because we were like, ‘This isn’t getting married, but it is moving in together,’” Brummett says. “And getting in on the ground level with an up-andcoming label, it’s been cool. The DIY element there is bar none.

“In the music industry, I feel like there’s a learning curve, and there’s a lot of things that people aren’t going to tell you,” he adds. “But now there’s a family that you didn’t necessarily have when you were by yourself.”

Long nods. “It’s cool that Little Class is growing at the same time that we’re growing,” he says. “I mean, we’re four years in, but I feel like the last two years, we’ve been taking it a lot more seriously, to the point where now we know what we’re doing.”

E-mail natalie.gallagher@pitch.com

Saturday, May 23, at the Westport Roots Festival at Westport Saloon

J a z z B e at Marilyn MayE, at thE GEM thEatEr

People tend to use the term legend with a certain looseness these days, but when it comes to Marilyn Maye, the title fits. Maye appeared on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show more than any other guest — 76 times. The singer, now in her 80s, still commands the stage with a veteran’s savvy and a kid’s energy. She builds a rapport with her audience — she may lull you with a classic ballad or electrify the night with a show-stopper. It’s the American Songbook delivered with cabaret mastery and ageless playfulness. Saturday at the Gem Theater, don’t miss this opportunity to see one of the greats light up the stage.

— Larry Kopitnik Marilyn Maye, 8 p.m. Saturday, May 23, at the Gem Theater (1615 East 18th Street, 816-474-6262); tickets start at $40.

21

Live Music

every FriDay Night 8-12pM June 5 - Allied Saints

June 12 - June Bug & The Porchlights June 19 - Ronni Ward Band

June 26 - Doghouse Daddies CheCk out our website for food speCials & upComing band dates!

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816.942.0400 • www.theDailyLimitkc.com

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music

n

Rising tidE

o

y

W NE re

Ka vi n

s Cciotry’s a s l re d st

Surfer Blood looks for a comeback with a new label and album.

By

Natalie GallaGher

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he last few years have been rough for Surfer Blood. In March 2012, frontman John Paul Pitts was arrested for domestic battery, and though he was cleared of all charges, the incident hung over the release of the band’s second album and major-label debut, Pythons.

Sales were disappointing, and Warner Bros.

Records dropped the band.

Surfer Blood regrouped, and now comes a new full-length, 1000 Palms, released earlier this month on Joyful Noise. Three years have done nothing to tarnish Surfer Blood’s sunny riffs and shiny hooks, of which 1000 Palms has plenty. But Pitts’ lyrics, washed in frustration and doubt, don’t always align with this sound.

Ahead of Wednesday night’s show at the Riot Room, The Pitch caught up with Pitts about the band’s recent struggles and the necessity of taking one day at a time.

The Pitch: You guys went home to Florida to record 1000 Palms, and it sounds very DIY. I get a back-to-the-basics feeling from the recording process for this record.

Pitts: Yeah, absolutely. We’ve pretty much done all sides of the recording process. Our first record [Astro Coast] was recorded in an apartment with instruments that we borrowed from friends, and our second record was recorded with a major label in a classy studio with a high-end producer [Gil Norton]. We’re not on Warner Bros. anymore, so if we wanted to make this album, we knew we were going to have to do it ourselves.

For us, that’s not a bad thing. We’re all kind of dorks about recording, and we just decided we were going to do this ourselves and record without thinking about it too much. We recorded this in our living room. We decided to trust our instincts and just have fun with it.

It was a good feeling, and I think, hopefully, you can hear that in the songs.

It’s interesting you say that because some of these songs make me sad. More often than not, your lyrics are at odds with the tempo and the shine of what you guys are doing.

Well, I’m a big fan of the Smiths and Morrissey stuff, how lyrics can be sung over a really poppy, catchy hook, but it could still be a sad lyric. I’ve always been a sucker for songs like that, songs that are more than meets the eye. And I do think that our music is not just supposed to be one thing. We’re not just a pop band. We’re supposed to be more than that, and that means that not every song has an extremely happy or uplifting message.

So much of the album feels really confessional — particularly “Feast/Famine” and the line I feel so out of touch with who I am, which feels sort of chilling. How do you get past performing such personal songs for an audience of strangers?

I think at first, it feels strange, but you get used to it. After a while, I don’t even think

pitch.com

Surfer Blood Wednesday, May 27, at the Riot Room

about the lyrics when I sing the songs live. I think some songs should be confessional. I think there’s a nice balance between songs that are not all open-ended poetry and songs that are straightforward. As far as the crowd, I think sometimes when you’re onstage and the crowd isn’t enjoying themselves, it can feel like pulling teeth, but when they are enjoying themselves it’s the best feeling there is, and different crowds have different energies.

1000 Palms is out on Joyful Noise. In some ways, it would be easy for a band to view being dropped from a label as a setback. How did that affect the band?

It all depends on what your idea of success is. People assume that being on a major label is success, that going from indie to being on the radio is the only way things should go.

Honestly, with Joyful Noise, we get a lot of attention. Our music is on every format possible, from cassette to online. They’re not just throwing money at it and hoping something happens. They’re being responsive and strategic.

To me, no matter how big a label is, as long as they’re responding to your e-mails and helping you, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Warner Bros. wasn’t proactive [with us].

We were low on their list of priorities, and it was frustrating sometimes. Being able to do this, to put out records and tour — whether or not our song gets on commercials for iPods or whatever — being able to do this for another five years and continuing to put out records, that’s what I consider success.

Thomas Fekete isn’t touring with you. He’s at home, going through treatments for cancer. He has been your guitarist for six years. How are you all coping with that?

Thom’s like a brother to us all. He’s more than a friend at this point. We’ve seen the best and worst of each other, and we understand

Surfer Blood survives shark attacks. each other on such a deep level. His personality has been so important to our band over the years, and it has taken some adjusting to figure out how to do the live show without him. We’re lucky to have our friend Mikey [McCleary], who we’ve known since high school, stepping up and taking on the role, but we think about Thom every day and miss him onstage.

This isn’t something any of us were expecting, and it’s made us realize how fragile this whole thing is, this whole dynamic, and we’ll see what happens in the future. It’s pretty unclear. But we know that he’s gonna pull through this.

It seems like Surfer Blood has seen so many ups and downs over the last few years — your arrest, your move from Warner Bros., and now Thom’s cancer — but you guys seem to be soldiering on.

How do you stay positive?

I just tell myself there are no guarantees, especially in music. There’s not a clear path to success or wealth or happiness. You can have one or the other, but there’s no guarantees you’ll have any of this, in life and especially in music. But the fact is that this is what I love doing. If I got a 9-to-5 job tomorrow, I would still come home and work on music. And the fact that I get to do that as my job, that’s what I’ve always wanted since I was 13 years old and picked up a guitar.

Doing interviews with people that are critical of you, being on the road for 50 or 60 days when you’re exhausted, even then, it’s still amazing. At the end of the day, none of us want to go home or go back or stop. And you have to take the good with the bad, just like anything else.

E-mail natalie.gallagher@pitch.com

23

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24

Music

Music Forecast TRAVELERS GUILD TASTE OF KC IN THE LIVE BLOCK ~ TRY A SLICE!

2015 U.S. Air Guitar — Kansas City Qualifier

SUN MAY 24TH PATRICK WOOLAM EVERY TUESDAY 8PM KARAOKE WITH

DJ DIRTY SQUIRT WED MAY 27TH MITCH AND KYLE

Kodascope

Starting

MAY 20TH EVERY 1ST & 3RD ted

Sugges

$5

Be honest: You probably don’t dance enough.

Luckily, Kodascope — a newish local funkand-soul collective — is here for you. The six-piece has been making music since last summer, and Saturday at the Brick, the group releases a loud and thoroughly fun six-song EP. For the most part, the self-titled release sounds like Talking Heads crashed nogginfirst into David Bowie. The result is a beautiful cacophony of 1980s electronic weirdness.

At the helm is lead singer Michael Tipton, whose theatrical voice leads you across the dance floor. Sweet summer nights, this is your new soundtrack.

Saturday, May 23, the Brick (1727 McGee, 816-421-1634)

n

Donatio

4010 Pennsylvania Ave. KCMO 64111

SUBTERRANEAN

BLUES

WEDNESDAYS from 8PM to 11PM

Big Sean

The massively successful Dark Sky Paradise was Big Sean’s first album on Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label, and Yeezy’s influence is everywhere. For the most part, the Februaryreleased album serves the Detroit rapper well: The production on Paradise’s 12 tracks is slick,

DRINKS & FOOD

Available from Green Room & Westport Coffeehouse

the pitch

M ay 2 1 - 2 7, 2 0 1 5

moody and tasteful — undoubtedly exactly as West directed. Big Sean’s flow fits confidently among these beats, and he can hold his own in verses alongside heavyweights such as West and Drake (“Blessings”). But there are still moments on Paradise that seem a little too much like an imitation game. Big Sean may be the protégé, but it would be a shame if he got lost in trying too hard to sound like someone else. Thursday at the Midland, find out if the rapper is as impressive standing alone.

Thursday, May 21, the Midland (1228 Main, 816-283-9921)

Tennis seems to take every opportunity to schedule a tour date in Kansas City, not that we’re mad about it. The Colorado threepiece — founded by husband-and-wife team Patrick Riley (guitar, bass and keyboards) and Alaina Moore (lead singer) — specializes in a dreamy, lush, 1970s-era pop that manages to stay fresh on each release. Case in

f o r e c a s t

Tom “Trashmouth” Baker: vocals, harmonica Jim Beisman ( J.B. Law ): piano Brandon Hudspeth: guitar, vocals

24

It’s all about airness.

Tennis

WEDNESDAYS

at the Westport Coffeehouse Theater,

n ata l ie G a l l a Ghe r

point: September’s Ritual in Repeat, which features endless, smooth grooves; subtle synths; and Moore’s hypnotic, graceful voice. It’s exactly the kind of music you should be listening to right now.

Friday, May 22, RecordBar (1020 Westport Road, 816-753-5207)

THU MAY 21ST

WESTPORT COFFEEHOUSE THEATER PRESENTS

By

Junior Brown

Junior Brown sounds like he belongs to the era of Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard.

Cut as he is from the same outlaw country cloth and wearing the same magnanimous cowboy hat, the 62-year-old Texas singersongwriter has an extensive catalog that started in 1984. Brown’s songs, as much as they sound like traditional honky-tonk, often have lyrical components that give away their true age (see his hit “Hang Up and Drive”).

Anyone familiar with Brown knows him by his guit-steel — the double-necked guitar made of a six-string and a lap-steel guitar — that he invented 30 years ago. That, plus Brown’s inimitable baritone, make Saturday’s show one for the books.

Saturday, May 23, Knuckleheads Saloon (2715 Rochester, 816-483-1456)

K e Y

Pick of the Week

Finding Paradise

Are You Ready for the Country?

Locally Sourced

Hippity Hop

Original Outlaw

So Much Soul

Yeezy Approved

Guitar Nerds Unite

Warm Weather Jams

Match Point

Unleash Your Inner Rock God

pitch.com

PB

If you think air guitar is for nerds, that’s fine.

Stay away from RecordBar Saturday night, when the 2015 U.S. Air Guitar Championship’s Kanas City qualifier takes place. The rest of us know the truth: Airness is real.

Some people have it, and some don’t. Saturday, we’ll watch as local air-guitar heroes and heroines shred their imaginary instruments in the hopes of qualifying for the regional competition. The 2013 Air Guitar World Champion, Eric “Mean” Melin, emcees the event, and yours truly will be judging, something I am extremely proficient at doing. Haters, stay home.

Saturday, May 23, RecordBar (1020 Westport Road, 816-753-5207)

the pitch

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26 continued from page 11

shelby lynne

TheaTer

Dates and times vary.

fr i day

5.22

ine n imag We ca e th t a e Lynn Folly.

The Birds | Late Night Theatre, Missie B’s, 805

W. 39th St.

Hairspray | New Theatre Restaurant, 9229 Foster, Overland Park, newtheatre.com

Hold Up on Dead Man’s Creek | KC Mystery Train, Woodsweather Café, 1414 W. Ninth St., kcmysterytrain.com Love Song and On an Average Day, performed in repertory | The Living Room, 1818

McGee,, thelivingroomkc.com

Million Dollar Quartet | Starlight Theatre, 4600 Starlight Rd., kcstarlight.com Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom | Fishtank Performance Studio, 1715 Wyandotte

Sticky Traps | Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Copaken Stage, 13th St. and Walnut, kcrep.org Stillwater | Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Spencer Theater, 4949 Cherry

What They Did for Love: the songs of marvin Hamlisch and Burt Bacharach

Thursday | 5.21 |

| Quality Hill Playhouse, 303 W. 10th St., qualityhillplayhouse.com

shelby Lynne | 8 p.m. Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th St.

Performing Arts fiLm

national tap Dance Day Celebration, with the

music of Victor Perelmuter and Mike Ning | 7 p.m. Uptown Arts Bar, 3611 Broadway

new Belgium Clips beer and film tour | 7-

L i t e r A r y/ s P o k e n W o r D

musiC

John mcCrae: Behind the Legend, an evening

commemorating the 100th anniversary of the poem “In Flanders Fields” with historian Linda Granfield | 6-7:30 p.m. National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, 100 W. 26th St., theworldwar.org

10:30 p.m. Theis Park, Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd. and Oak

B side Players, Page 7 | 10 p.m. Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence

Big sean, Casey veggies | 8 p.m. The Midland,

1228 Main

Bike night with Damien gunn, the Bang Bangs |

ComeDy

Boi vs. Blaze: Comedy Combat | 7:30 p.m. Improv Comedy Club and Dinner Theater, 7260 N.W. 87th St. Jokefighter Comedy show | Jazzhaus, 926-1/2

Massachusetts, Lawrence

kauf Drops with Dustin kaufman | 10 p.m. Uptown Arts Bar, 3611 Broadway

6 p.m. Worth Harley-Davidson North, 6609 N. Oak Tfwy.

Jason Boland and the stragglers | 7 p.m. The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts, Lawrence

kevin frazee trio | 9 p.m. Green Lady Lounge, 1809

Grand

grand marquis | 7 p.m. Jazz, 1823 W. 39th St.

26

the pitch

M ay 2 1 - 2 7, 2 0 1 5

miss tess & the talkbacks | 7 p.m. Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester

katy guillen & the girls | 7:30 p.m. B.B.’s Lawnside

roger Wilder Duo | 7 p.m. Broadway Jazz Club,

Haunting Heather | Local Tap, 7300 W. 119th St.,

nigHtLife

the Hump with Alv Diesel | 8 p.m. MiniBar, 3810

DJ g train | 10 p.m. Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence

BBQ, 1205 E. 85th St.

Overland Park

Broadway

Local H, All eyes West | 9:30 p.m. RecordBar, 1020

Westport Rd.

3601 Broadway

DJ Just | 10 p.m. MiniBar, 3810 Broadway DJ Parle & DJ savy | 9 p.m. Prime Blu, 619 Mas-

sachusetts, Lawrence

of mice and men, Crown the empire, volumes | 7 p.m. Uptown Theater, 3700 Broadway

karaoke | 9 p.m. Uptown Arts Bar, 3611 Broadway

Brother moses, Lost and found, rambling Pan | Jackpot Music Hall, 943 Massachusetts, Lawrence

Damon Parker | 7-11 p.m. The Phoenix, 302 W.

Leisure sports League | 5 p.m. Barney Allis Plaza,

the Business, the uncouth, Braindead, make your mark | 7 p.m. The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway

Phin | 8 p.m. The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway

mondo Disco with ray velasquez | 10 p.m. The

Peggy Chilson & geoff Wilcken | 7 p.m. Coda,

sam riggs | PBR Big Sky Bar, 111 E. 13th St.

Eighth St.

Community events

shrine rodeo and Demo Derby | 6 p.m. Leavenworth County Fairgrounds, 405 W. Fourth St., abdallahdays.com

society red | 7 p.m. The Blue Room, 1600 E. 18th St.

1744 Broadway St.

Jason eady & Courtney Patton | 8 p.m. Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester

pitch.com

snuff/Dope with mark southerland | 9:30 p.m.

The Ship, 1217 Union

12th St. and Wyandotte

Foundry, 424 Westport Rd.

open-mic night | 8 p.m. The Tank Room, 1813 Grand

continued on page 28

27

Are you looking for office space

e B’s, 805

nt, 9229 m

C Mystery Ninth St.,

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!

Day, per-

oom, 1818

atre, 4600

om | Fish-

tte

Theatre, ep.org

Joe Bonam muasssa riid @ ThePM laTnhdeater @ Uptown

AIDBas S Wsne alkctar @ T@ heThe sis PMid arkland

Theatre,

ongs of charach

10th St.,

0 E. 18th St.

nuckleheads

y Jazz Club,

6 Massachu-

ay

lu, 619 Mas-

roadway

y Allis Plaza,

First Fr Run idI T ayrolley @ CroCsCV sro@ adPslaza

Work in the heart of Kansas City!

rriors Roller Wa GumptioKC icipal Auditorium MnuLnaus nVap orarty ch P @ Scre@ Aqu enlaeou ndOpe Croning ssroads Grand

Located between the Crossroads district and Power & Light

Upcoming Events

Next to future streetcar stops 2,100 RSF $14/SF

5.21 Taste of KC @ Live Block Power & Light District 5.30 Heart & Stroke Walk @ Thesis Park 5.31 Tame Impala @ Uptown Theater 6.2 Lindsey Sterling @ Uptown Theater 6.4 Pitch Golf Tournament @ Minor Park Golf Course

8th floor, 1627 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64108

See more on the “promotions” link at p

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on page 28

in a great location?

For more information, contact Chris Sexson at csexson@southcomm.com

pitch.com

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the pitch

27

28 continued from page 26

arT exhibiTs & evenTs

gridiron glory

Friday | 5.22 |

Ferran Adrià: Notes on Creativity | Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak, nelson-atkins.org

ay satu r d

5 . 23

Performing Arts

es n com Canto to KC.

Wylliams/Henry Dance Company spring Performance | 7:30 p.m. White Recital Hall at UMKC, 4949 Cherry, wylliams-henry.org/home

American Soldier | Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak

Animalia: 19th- and 20th-Century European Prints and Drawings | Nelson-Atkins

ComeDy

Museum of Art, 4525 Oak

steve Hytner | 7:45 & 9:45 p.m. Stanford’s Comedy Club, 7328 W. 119th St., Overland Park

Blaque Lyte Royale, featuring Chicago artist-

rod man | 8 & 10:30 p.m. Improv Comedy Club and Dinner Theater, 7260 N.W. 87th St.

curators Paul Nudd and Chris Kerr | 2-7 p.m. Saturdays, Telephonebooth Gallery, 3319 Troost, telephoneboothgallery.com

exPos

Make Your Mark | Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 4420 Warwick Blvd., kemperart.org

kansas City science fiction and fantasy society hosts ConQuest 46 | Noon, Kansas City

Piranesi: Imaginative Spaces | Nelson-Atkins

Marriott Downtown, 200 W. 12th St., conquestkc.org

Museum of Art, 4525 Oak Chris Crum

midwest Brony fest | 2 p.m. Overland Park Convention Center, 6000 College Blvd. mwbfkc.net Community events

shrine rodeo and Demo Derby | 6 p.m. Leav-

enworth County Fairgrounds, 405 W. Fourth St., abdallahdays.com

royals vs. Cardinals | 7:10 p.m. Kauffman Stadium

third thursday at the nelson: Between a rock and an Art Place, with the Cave Girls,

molly Hammer, stan kessler | 7 p.m. Broadway

Jazz Club, 3601 Broadway

musiC

the Band that saved the World | Jazzhaus, 9261/2 Massachusetts, Lawrence

Banditos, Birch street, Connor Leimer | 8 p.m.

The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway

Ali Harter, Wink Burcham | 6 p.m. Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence

rich Hill | 4:30 p.m. Broadway Jazz Club, 3601 Broadway

Hookers, Black Wizard, melting Point of Bronze | 10 p.m. Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts,

Billy Badass, Drew Black and the Dirty electric, Heavy figs | 9:30 p.m. Davey’s Uptown, 3402 Main

Lawrence

Boogaloo 7, tim Whitmer Quartet | 5:30 p.m.

george keen and the All-nighters | 7 p.m. Knuck-

Green Lady Lounge, 1809 Grand

Carswell and Hope | 9 p.m. Coda, 1744 Broadway Chick norris, the rowdy Congregation | 9 p.m.

leheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester

koan sound | 8 p.m. The Granada, 1020 Massachu-

Lonnie ray | 7 p.m. Jazz, 1823 W 39th St.

Cimino, Bridges Burnt, shoot for Wednesday, Civil symphony, Damien gunn, noveria | 7 p.m.

the m80s | 8 p.m. American Garage Bar, 1 S.E. Fourth

Duncan, via Luna, trey Cop | 6 p.m. The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway

the elders, she’s a keeper | 7 p.m. Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester

943 Massachusetts, Lawrence

the pitch

soul revival 3.0 | 6 p.m. RecordBar, 1020 Westport Rd. south side souls | 8 p.m. Trouser Mouse, 410 S. Hwy. 7, Blue Springs

DJ Miscela, a pop-up record swap, Twitter bingo, a happy hour, and other activities | 5:309 p.m.Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak

M ay 2 1 - 2 7, 2 0 1 5

midwest

tion Center

open for

View High D

march A

Nichols Fou

shrine r

enworth C abdallahd

tennis, kuroma | 9:30 p.m. RecordBar, 1020 West-

What Am I Looking At? group exhibition |

orson W

port Rd.

6-9 p.m. Fridays, Kiosk Gallery, 916 E. Fifth St.

rich Wheeler Quartet | 8 p.m. Take Five Coffee +

What You Might Have Missed , works by

Bar, 6601 W. 135th St., Overland Park

yojimbo | The Brick, 1727 McGee

David Ford and interdisciplinary performances | Saturdays, Plug Projects, 1613 Genessee

World War I and the Rise of Modernism | nigHtLife

Check your Head with DJ Johnny Quest |

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak

Lawnside BBQ, 1205 E. 85th St.

DJ e | Quaff Bar & Grill, 1010 Broadway

twist and shout | 10 p.m. MiniBar, 3810 Broadway

mikey needleman | Local Tap, 7300 W. 119th St.,

fuel’s Back to the Lake Bash | 9 p.m. Fuel, 7300

the Quivers, scotch Hollow, interstate Astronauts, keil grove | 8 p.m. Westport Saloon, 4112

goomba nights with Bear Club | 10 p.m. Replay

pitch.com

Marriott D

sporting

The Ship, 1217 Union

Pennsylvania

kansas C society h

Blue Room, 1600 E. 18th St.

Chippendales | 7 p.m. Star Pavilion at Ameristar Casino, 3200 N. Ameristar Dr.

Overland Park

9:30 p.m. R

4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park, nermanmuseum.org

Broadway

Hank mowery & the Hawktones | 9 p.m. B.B.’s

2015 u.s

Doug talley Quintet, gray matter | 5 p.m. The

10 p.m. Eighth Street Taproom, 801 New Hampshire, Lawrence

St., Lee’s Summit

skivvies

10 p.m. Upt

third thursday at the nerman | 3:30-

W. 119th St., Overland Park

moon Boots, sheppa | 10 p.m. Riot Room, 4048

soul Preservers featuring elliott oliver | 7 p.m.

Saturday | 5.23 | Performing Arts

fair Weather Criminals, gradivus, vitalis, mantles, she sees ghosts | Jackpot Music Hall,

28

E 18th St.

setts, Lawrence

Uptown Arts Bar, 3611 Broadway

Aftershock, 5240 Merriam Dr., Merriam

spectrum fantastic Art Live 4 | 3-6 p.m.

future kings, stephen Berry, trapper | 8 p.m.

Coda, 1744 Broadway

sPorts & reC

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak

Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sunday, Bartle Hall, 301 W. 13th St., spectrumfantasticartlive.com

sister Hazel | 7 p.m. Crossroads KC at Grinders, 417

rod man

Theater, 72

A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America |

Gridiron Glory: The Best of the Pro Football Hall of Fame | The traveling exhibition opens Friday at Union Station, 30 W. Pershing Rd., unionstation.org/football.

steve Hy

Club, 7328

Lounge, 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence

Wylliams/Henry Dance Company spring Performance | 7:30 p.m. White Recital Hall at UMKC, 4949 Cherry, wylliams-henry.org/home

1400 Main

Kansas City

Amigoni u

music, food | 11 a.m.-7 p

29

s

tivity | 25 Oak,

steve Hytner | 7:45 & 9:45 p.m. Stanford’s Comedy Club, 7328 W. 119th St., Overland Park

Museum

rod man | 7 & 10 p.m. Improv Comedy Club and Dinner Theater, 7260 N.W. 87th St.

y Euro-

10 p.m. Uptown Arts Bar, 3611 Broadway

n-Atkins

go artistp.m. Sat9 Troost,

Contemerart.org

n-Atkins

skivvies Comedy show with Patrick moore |

2015 u.s. Air guitar kansas City Qualifier | 9:30 p.m. RecordBar, 1020 Westport Rd. exPos

3-6 p.m. m.-4 p.m. ectrum-

ay thursd

5.21 els

kansas City science fiction and fantasy society hosts ConQuest 46 | 10 a.m. Kansas City Marriott Downtown, 200 W. 12th St., conquestkc.org

r T. pe Booke layers. he back t

midwest Brony fest | 11 a.m. Overland Park Convention Center, 6000 College Blvd. mwbfkc.net sPorts & reC

merica |

ak

Talking Music wiTh booker T. Jones

ComeDy

open for beach season | Longview Lake, 11100 View High Dr.

780 series: talking music with Booker t. Jones | 7:30 p.m. Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts, Lawrence, lawrence.lib.ks.us

Community events sPorts & reC

march Against monsanto | 10 a.m.-2 p.m. J.C. Nichols Fountain, 47th Street and Main. kcmarch.com

royals vs. Cardinals | 6:15 p.m. Kauffman Stadium

shrine rodeo and Demo Derby | 6 p.m. Leav-

musiC

fast Johnny ricker, two Headed Cow, Alexis Barclay, the Clementines, the Billybats | 6 p.m.

Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club, 3402 Main

tween a

ve Girls, Twitter es | 5:304525 Oak

enworth County Fairgrounds, 405 W. Fourth St., abdallahdays.com

hibition | Fifth St.

works by rmances see

ernism |

ak

sporting kC away game | 9 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, 1400 Main

orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight | 1:30 p.m.

Kansas City Central Library, 14 W. 10th St., kclibrary.org f00D & Drink

Amigoni urban Winery Anniversary Party, with

music, food trucks and release of the 2013 Urban Drover | 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Amigoni Urban Winery, 1505 Genessee

Lawrence

the Quebe sisters | 6:30 p.m. Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester

Billy Beale, Brody Buster, molly gene one Whoaman Band | 8 p.m. Coda, 1744 Broadway

Green Lady Lounge, 1809 Grand

myles gorham trio, organ Jazz trio | 6 p.m.

rockshow | Local Tap, 7300 W. 119th St., Overland Park

Drew Black & Dirty electric, Andra taylor & nate Dodge, merit Badge | 9 p.m. Coda, 1744

Jazz Disciples with Lisa Henry & glenn north | 8:30 p.m. The Blue Room, 1600 E. 18th St.

7 p.m. Broadway Jazz Club, 3601 Broadway

kodascope, schwervon, DJ ser matt | The

Lawrence

Paula saunders, Doriel Demps & Ben Leifer |

fiLm

n | 3:30-

m of ConOverland

millage gilbert | 9 p.m. B.B.’s Lawnside, 1205 E. 85th St.

Cory Phillips | Jazzhaus, 926-1/2 Massachusetts,

Broadway

Boogaloo 7 | 8 p.m. Take Five Coffee + Bar, 6601 W.

135th St., Overland Park

Brick, 1727 McGee

Lonesome Hank | 7 p.m. Jazz, 1823 W. 39th St.

the sluts | 10 p.m. Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts,

turnpike troubadours, Jamestown revival, Jonny Burke | 7 p.m. Crossroads KC, 417 E. 18th St.

e-40, Cool nutz, nessasary, stevie stone, Chauncey Clyde and young Bleed | 10 p.m. One%,

Diles mavis | 9 p.m. The Kill Devil Club, 61 E. 14th St.

nigHtLife

Billy ebeling’s Bob Dylan tribute show | 7 p.m.

maximus, onward to glory, fair Weather Criminals | 6 p.m. Jackpot, 943 Massachusetts, Lawrence

Audio Alchemy with DJ Proof | 10 p.m. The Eighth Street Taproom, 801 New Hampshire, Lawrence

1520 Grand

Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester

marilyn maye | Gem Theater, 1615 E. 18th St.

continued on page 30

Room, 4048

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29

ENTER

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MuseuM exhibiTs & evenTs

specTruM FanTasTic arT live

Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries | Museum at Prairiefire, 5801 W. 135th St., Overland Park, museumatpf.org

Ingenious Objects: geometric puzzles by stewart Coffin | Linda Hall Library, 5109

Cherry, lindahall.org

Lewis and Clark: Great Journey West | Union Station, 30 W. Pershing Rd., unionstation.org vintage military vehicles Display, presented

continued from page 29 Come sail Away with Wstendgrl and Hoodnasty | 10 p.m. MiniBar, 3810 Broadway Dirty stomp with Hector the selector | 10 p.m.

Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence

DJ e | Quaff Bar & Grill, 1010 Broadway

Julie Dillon

by the Military Vehicle Preservation Association | 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Monday, National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, 100 W. 26th St., theworldwar.org

spectrum fantastic Art Live 4 | 3-6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, at Bartle Hall, 301 W. 13th St., spectrumfantasticartlive.com

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M ay 2 1 - 2 7, 2 0 1 5

meta Hi-fi | 10 p.m. Uptown Arts Bar, 3611 Broadway unofficial Chive meetup summer kick-off |

5 p.m. McFadden’s Sports Saloon, 1330 Grand

Sunday | 5.24 | ComeDy

rod man | 7 p.m. Improv Comedy Club and Dinner Theater, 7260 N.W. 87th St.

showcase sundays open-mic Comedy | 7 p.m.

Club Encore, 700 Southwest Blvd.

tornado rose, the global Warmers | 5 p.m. Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence

Lorna k’s Country kutz | 8 p.m. The Ship, 1217 Union Aaron Alexander, Wyatt West, save the great, the greeting Committee | 4:45 p.m. The Granada,

1020 Massachusetts, Lawrence

Monday | 5.25 | ComeDy

the Confessors | 6-9 p.m. B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ, 1205 E. 85th St.

Cut up, Dead Weight, something and the Whatevers, goat rainbow, By this time tomorrow | 7 p.m. Aftershock, 5240 Merriam Dr., Merriam foundation 627 Big Band | 8:30 p.m. Green Lady Lounge, 1809 Grand

open-mic night with kCstandup.com | 7 p.m.

MiniBar, 3810 Broadway

musiC

Blue monday Jam with Bill mckemy | 7 p.m. The

Blue Room, 1600 E. 18th St.

eve to Adam, i exist, the Devil’s marmalade, mojo saint, Civil symphony | 8 p.m. The Riot Room,

Jeff Harshbarger presents an Alternative Jazz series | 7 p.m. RecordBar, 1020 Westport Rd.

4048 Broadway

Jazz brunch with roger Wilder, Peter schlamb and karl mcComas-reichl | 10 a.m. Take Five Coffee

La fin Absolute du monde, sie Lieben maschinen | 9:30 p.m. RecordBar, 1020 Westport Rd.

exPos

kansas City science fiction and fantasy society hosts ConQuest 46 | 10 a.m. Kansas City Marriott Downtown, 200 W. 12th St., conquestkc.org

midwest Brony fest | 10 a.m. Overland Park Conven-

tion Center, 6000 College Blvd. mwbfkc.net

+ Bar, 6601 W. 135th St., Overland Park

kutt Calhoun, Donta slusha, Demond Jones, Be Bulletwound, Hood nizzle, yung keys & ox Bolo, Johny stone, emma frost, Loogey | 8 p.m.

The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway

Desmond mason trio | 9 p.m. Green Lady Lounge, 1809 Grand

rural grit Happy Hour | 6-9 p.m. The Brick, 1727

McGee

Community events

Parallel Path, kangaroo | Jackpot Music Hall, 943

kansas City symphony’s Bank of America Celebration at the station concert and fireworks display | 8 p.m. Union Station, 30 W. Pershing Rd., celebrationatthestation.com sPorts & reC

royals vs. Cardinals | 1:10 p.m. Kauffman Stadium

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Massachusetts, Lawrence

the Protomen | 8 p.m. The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway Psychic Heat, foul tip, gnarly Davidson | 10 p.m.

Waldo Jazz Collective | 7-10 p.m. The Piano Room,

8410 Wornall

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geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz | 8 p.m. Green Room

Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence

Burgers & Beer, 4010 Pennsylvania

this Legend, stanley & the search | 8 p.m. The

karaoke sammitch | 10 p.m. Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts, Lawrence

Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire, Lawrence

31 open mic | 8 p.m. The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire,

Harpoon Comedy | Jackpot Music Hall, 943 Mas-

martin roth, sheppa | 9 p.m. The Riot Room, 4048

fiLm

Lawrence

Broadway

sonic spectrum music trivia | 7 p.m. RecordBar,

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The Flying Dutchman , presented by the Royal

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Tuesday | 5.26 | ComeDy

Comedy night | 8 p.m. The Tank Room musiC

Angelspit, the gothsicles, the god Project | 7:30 p.m. The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway

Billy ebeling | 7 p.m. Jazz, 1823 W. 39th St. four Arm shiver, rackatees | Jackpot Music Hall, 943 Massachusetts, Lawrence

ay, at Bartle

karaoke | Jackpot, 943 Massachusetts, Lawrence Lyric Lab: music open mic | 9-11:30 p.m. Uptown

Arts Bar, 3611 Broadway

p.m. Replay Hermon mehari trio | 6 p.m. The Majestic, 931 Broadway

naughty Pines honky-tonk dinner show |

6-9 p.m. Coda, 1744 Broadway

rock, Paper, scissors | 7 p.m. RecordBar, 1020 om | 7 p.m. Westport Rd. nick schnebelen trio | 7 p.m. B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ,

1205 E. 85th St.

12th Street Jump featuring Dave Chael celebrating Paquito D’rivera | 7 p.m. Broadway Jazz Club, 3601 Broadway

Cryptopsy, Disgorge, erimha, soreption, unmerciful, the Convalescence | 7:30 p.m. The Riot

rich Hill & the riffs | 7:30 p.m. Coda, 1744 Broadway Camry ivory, miss massive snowflake | 7 p.m.

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J Bomb, Apollo Lason, Lindsey Alderman, 1 Bounce, DJ kfAn | 9:30 p.m. RecordBar, 1020

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mikey needleman | Local Tap, 7300 W. 119th St.,

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Pat nichols | 7 p.m. B.B.’s Lawnside, 1205 E. 85th St. Brian ruskin Band | 7 p.m. The Phoenix, 302 W.

Green Lady Lounge, 1809 Grand

shinetop Jr. | 7 p.m. B.B.’s Lawnside, 1205 E. 85th St. surfer Blood, Alex Calder | 8 p.m. The Riot Room,

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mick foley | 7 p.m. Improv Comedy Club and Dinner Theater, 7260 N.W. 87th St.

tim gaither | 8 p.m. Stanford’s Comedy Club, 7328 W. 119th St., Overland Park

girlz of Westport | 8p.m.Californos,4124Pennsylvania the Hump with DJ Alex reed | 10 p.m. MiniBar,

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JoCo Dems happy hour | 5 p.m. Lucky Brewgrille,

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E-mail submissions to calendar@pitch.com or enter submissions at pitch.com, where you can search our complete listings guide.

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32

S ava g e L o v e

Car Talk Dear Dan: Yesterday, I found my 5-year-old son putting things up his butt in the bath. This isn’t the first time — and it’s not just a “Hey, there’s a hole here! Let’s put things in there!” kind of thing. The little dude was rocking quite the stiffy while he did it. I’m well-aware of how sexual kids can be (I freaking was!), although I wasn’t quite expecting to be catching him exploring anal at this young age. I want to avoid a trip to the emergency room to extract a toy car, or whatever else, from his rear end, and I don’t want to see him damage himself.

Do you have any suggestions of what I can give him as a butt toy? Yes, I’m serious, and no, I’m not molesting him. I know he’s going to do this on his own with or without my knowing, and I want him to be safe! Just today, he proudly showed me a toy car that he stuck up his butt.

I told him that it wasn’t a good idea due to the sharp bits on it, and while he may have gotten this one out, one could get stuck, and then we would have to go to the hospital. Help!

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Dear HISMOM: “HISMOM has handled this really well so far, and I am impressed with her clarity and calm about this situation,” said Amy Lang, a childhood sexuality expert and educator, a public speaker, and the author of Birds + Bees + Your Kids (birdsandbeesandkids.com). But no butt toys for 5-year-olds! This is insane and will cause a host of problems. Can you imagine if he says to his teacher, ‘Yesterday, I played with my butt plug!’ Instant call to child protective services!”

I’m going to break in for a second: Do not buy a butt toy for your 5-year-old kid — if, indeed, you and your 5-year-old kid’s butt actually exist. I’m way more than halfconvinced that your letter is a fake, something sent in by a Christian conservative out to prove that I’m the sort of degenerate who would tell a mom to buy a butt toy for a 5-year-old. I’m some sort of degenerate, I’ll happily admit, but I’m not that sort.

“This clearly isn’t a safe way for her boy to explore his body for a variety of reasons,” Lang said. “His butthole is tiny. It’s an adultlike behavior, and it’s germy.”

And while adults who are into butt play are (or should be) proactive and conscientious about hygiene, grubby little 5-year-olds aren’t particularly proactive or conscientious about hygiene — or anything else. You don’t want his hands and toys smeared with more fecal matter than is typical for the hands and toys of most 5-year-olds.

“It’s also on the outer edges of ‘typical’ sexual behavior in a young kid,” Lang said.

“He may very well have discovered this sort

By

D a n S ava ge Dear Dan: I’m a longtime fan but I disagree with your advice to CIS, the lesbian who wanted to add “not into trans women” to her online-dating profile. I’m a straight guy, and if I met a woman online, I would want to be sure she had female genitalia under her clothes.

It’s a requirement for me, and that doesn’t mean I’m not a trans ally. I’m not into people who don’t have female genitalia. Should I go out on a coffee date with a trans woman just to make her feel better?

Not an Asshole Dear NAS: There’s nothing about prefer-

of outlier behavior on his own, but there is a chance that someone showed him how to do this. HISMOM needs to calmly ask her son, ‘I’m curious — how did you figure out that it feels good to put things in your bum?’

Listen to what he has to say. Depending on his response, she may need to get him a professional evaluation to make sure that he’s OK and safe. She can find someone in her area to help through rainn.org. While it doesn’t sound like he’s traumatized by this — he’s so open and lighthearted about it — you never know.”

Regardless of where he picked this trick up, you gotta tell him that it’s not OK to put stuff up his butt because he could seriously hurt himself. I know, I know: You are a progressive, sex-positive parent — if you exist — and you don’t wanna saddle your kid with a complex about butt stuff. But think of all the sexually active adults out there, gay and bi and straight, who have overcome standardissue butt-stuff complexes and now safely and responsibly enjoy their assholes and the assholes of others. If you give your son a minor complex by, say, taking his toy cars away until he stops putting them in his ass, rest assured that he’ll be able to overcome that complex later in life.

“She should tell him that she totally gets that it feels good,” Lang said, “but there are other ways he can have those good feelings that are safer, like rubbing and touching his penis, and he is welcome to do that anytime he wants — as long as he’s in private and alone. You can also tell him that the safest thing to put up there is his own finger. But he must wash his hands if he does that. Nothing else, finger only. And did I mention no butt toy? Seriously.”

ring — even requiring — a particular set of genitalia that will result in your being stripped of your trans-ally status. The issue is adding a few words to your profile (“no trans women”) that might spare you from the horrors of having coffee with one or two trans women over the course of your dating life but will definitely make every trans woman who sees your profile feel like shit.

The world is already an intensely hostile, unwelcoming place for trans people. Why would someone who considers himself (or herself, in the case of CIS) an ally want to make the world more hostile and unwelcoming? Awkwardness and “wasted” coffee dates are built into the online-dating experience. Trans women who haven’t had bottom surgery aren’t going to spring their dicks on you — they’ll almost always disclose before it gets to that point — and you’re not obligated to sleep with anyone you don’t find attractive.

Dear Dan: I’m a cis straight woman. I went on

dates with a lot of guys from dating websites (200-plus) before I got married. Just writing to say I agreed with your advice to the lesbian dating-site user. I agree that putting negative/ exclusionary notes like “no trans women” or “no Asian guys” in a dating profile is a turnoff — and not just to the excluded group but to those who find those kinds of comments to be mean-spirited and narrow-minded. And are there really so many trans people out there that such a comment is even necessary? Are there really that many trans people out there causing massive confusion on dating websites? And honestly, if someone is trans and you wind up meeting them for coffee, what would be the big deal anyway? It’s just coffee!

I don’t understand why this would be such a huge problem.

Straight Chick in DC Dear SCIDC: My point exactly.

Have a question for Dan Savage?

E-mail him at mail@savagelove.net

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REAL ESTATE

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Homes for Sale

ALL AREAS ALL PRICES 913-488-8300 www.FORMLS.com Short SalesForeclosures-Condos Townhomes-Single Family Homes.

New & Resale Want to see what your home is worth?

CALL NOW RE/MAX STATELINE

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BUY, SELL, TRADE, MARKETPLACE Miscellaneous

KC Smoke & Vape Huge selection of tobaccos, cigars, shishas, pipes, e-liquids, mods, tanks, & vaporizers. Your one stop tobacco shop.

1605 Westport Road (corner of Westport & Wyoming, just East of State Line), KCMO 64111 816-931-4434 KCSmokeAndVape.com

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AUTO/WHEELS/BOAT

6004 Cars/Trucks/SUVs CASH FOR CARS Wanted / Unwanted Autos, Wrecked, Damaged or Broken.

Cash Paid abcautorecycling.com 913-271-9406

1102 Apartments for Rent

CALL TODAY! Rent Studios, 1 & 2 BR Apartments & 3 Bedroom HOMES. Colliers International, EHO MO-MIDTOWN $415-$515 816-560-0715 ARMOUR FLATS APARTMENTS Studio & 1 bedrooms available in a newly remodeled building. Great location! Next to bus stop. Gas, water, trash paid.

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Roommates

ALL AREAS ROOMMATES.COM. Lonely? Bored? Broke? Find the perfect roommate to complement your personality and lifestyle at Roommates.com! (AAN CAN)

BUY

SELL

Sharon Sigman

1102 Apartments for Rent PUBLISHER’S NOTICE: All real estate advertised herein is subject to Federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to adverise, “any preferences, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or intention to make any such preference, limitation, or dicriminaton.

We will not knowing accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on a equal opportunity basis.

BECOME A

INSIDER SIGN UP FOR OUR

&

NEWSLETTER

CLASSIFIEDS

http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/NewsletterInfoRegistration/Page

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HOUSING/RENTALS

Stylish Apartments in Historic Building on W 39th

RENT

913-488-8300 or 913-338-8444

Travel Services

AIRPORT SHUTTLE

4028

1000

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KS-KCKS | $475-$575 913-299-9748 HEAT & WATER PAID...

NO GAS BILL!KCK25 ACRE SETTING. 63rd & ANN, 5 minutes West of I-635 & I-70 One bedroom $475; Two bedroom $575. No pets please. You CANNOT BEAT this value! Don’t miss out on this limited-time offer!

Call NOW! MUCH NICER THAN THE PRICE!

p

MO-MIDTOWN $650/MONTH Large Midtown apartment. Hardwood floors, many windows, beamed high ceilings. Heat, trash and water paid. Utility payments would be for electricity and gas for the stove. Off street parking and coin fed laundry facilities. Front and back porches. While we like dogs, not in this apartment building. 302 west 34th, 64111.

Please email kshgram@att.net

NEED A PLACE TO LIVE? GO TO:

pitch.com

M ay 2 1 - 2 7, 2 0 1 5

the pitch

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FREE BANKRUPTCY CONSULTATION * Payment Plan Available *

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435 NICHOLS ROAD SUITE 200 KANSAS CITY, MO 64112 816.977.2763 WWW.JDODSONLAW.COM

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.

INDULGE In Your Wildest Fantasies!

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HOTEL ROOMS

foldingcartstore.com

6101 E. 87th St./Hillcrest Rd. HBO, Phone, Banquet Hall $39.99 Day/ $169 Week/ $499 Month + Tax

CASH FOR CARS

A-1 Motel 816-765-6300 Capital Inn 816-765-4331

Because you can’t carry it all.

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Hersouth.com

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EROTIC CITY

THE SPOTT

Newly Remodeled Showroom Featuring FULL LINE of: Detox & Whizz Kits, Vapes, Glass & Sex Toys 8401 E Truman Rd, KC, MO 816-252-3370 9am-Midnight 7 days per week

thespottkc.com LSF2.com

$99 DIVORCE $99

Simple, Uncontested + Filing Fee. Don Davis.

816-531-1330

House flipping: the road to riches or bankruptcy?

Have you wondered if house flipping is right for you?

I have put together a panel of experts to teach you the right questions to ask before you ever make an offer on real estate. The class is 8:00 a.m. to noon on May 30, 2015 at 4120 NE Vivion Road, Kansas City, Missouri 64119 (across the street from Penguin Park). I have a $50 off coupon available until May 26, 2015. The prices are $199 for 1 person and $299 for 2 people for advance tickets and $249 and $349 at the door. Seating is limited. You will walk out of the class with information you can put to use that day.

SALES & SERVICE 816-521-0229

Sponsored by Bratcher Legacy Estate Planning (816) 453-2240.

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SYNTHETIC CHEMICALS ARE NOT NATURAL!

The makers of AvoDerm are now facing a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT alleging DECEPTIVE LABELING in direct violation of State & Federal laws. Join our plaintiffs in holding this manufacturer accountable for MISLEADING consumers! Contact us today!

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Kansas City Sports Collectibles & Memorabilia Auction Baseball cards, signed memorabilia, photo balls, photo cards, rookies cards, entire sets, Kansas City Chiefs memorabilia & more!

AUCTION ENDS: May 31, 7pm

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AUTO INSURANCE STARTING @ $40

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Free Mother’s Milk Try free samples of the country’s top rated e-liquids including

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KC Smoke & Vape @ 1605 Westport Road 816-931-4434.

KCSmokeAndVape.com

the art vaping supplies.

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

NEED A PLACE TO LIVE? Check Out:

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

SYNTHETIC CHEMICALS ARE NOT NATURAL!

The makers of AvoDerm are now facing a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT alleging DECEPTIVE LABELING in direct violation of State & Federal laws. Join our plaintiffs in holding this manufacturer accountable for MISLEADING consumers! Contact us today!

1-800-701-3672 CLASSACTION@HOLLISLAWFIRM.COM

DUI-TRAFFIC-SPEEDING! Kansas & Missouri Reasonable rates!

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

HOTEL ROOMS

A-1 Motel 816-765-6300 Capital Inn 816-765-4331 6101 E. 87th St./Hillcrest Rd. HBO, Phone, Banquet Hall $39.99 Day/ $169 Week/ $499 Month + Tax

INDULGE In Your Wildest Fantasies!

WE HAVE MOVED Call for new Lawrence Location.

Catering to all lifestles, bdsm, swing, TS/TG, & all other fetishes.

Hookahs Welcome! Every Fri. & Sat. Night 8pm-5am Hot Tub, Dance Area w/pole. Live DJ. Pool Table. lifestylesofkc.com 816-892-0322

SALES & SERVICE 816-521-0229 EROTIC CITY

Newly Remodeled Showroom Featuring FULL LINE of: Detox & Whizz Kits, Vapes, Glass & Sex Toys 8401 E Truman Rd, KC, MO 816-252-3370 9am-Midnight 7 days per week

AUTO INSURANCE STARTING @ $40

Auto & SR22, Renters, Homeowners, Motorcycle, Business

MO & KS DeMasters Ins. LLC 816-531-1000 KCinsurance.com

foldingcartstore.com Because you can’t carry it all.

Free Mother’s Milk

Try free samples of the country’s top rated e-liquids including Space Jam, Suicide Bunny, The Sinner, Andromeda, The Lover, Derailed, Astro, & more. Plus, check out our huge array of state of

KC Smoke & Vape @ 1605 Westport Road 816-931-4434.

KCSmokeAndVape.com

the art vaping supplies.

NEED SHOES? loafers.com

THE SPOTT thespottkc.com LSF2.com

VOODOO

TOB A CCO & P IP E COMPA NY

KC’s #1 American Owned Smokeshop! Specializing in Glass, Vapes & Detox

6801 N. OAK GLADSTONE, MO•816.420.0044