The Pitch: October 2023

As the Kids Online Safety Act moves forward, what are its real intentions—and most likely impacts— for Missouri and Kansas? Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Kids Online Safety Act as a measure to combat the harm done to minors by large technology companies. KOSA has attracted bipartisan support, including from President Biden himself. However, the language in the bill is extremely vague and could lead to censorship of LGBTQIA+ content, reproductive health information, and gender-affirming healthcare information. In Missouri and Kansas, state attorneys general would hold much of the responsibility of enforcing KOSA given its current wording.

Jason Klamm’s We’re Not Worthy charts an oral history of ‘90s TV sketch comedy from the biggest names in the biz On September 12, Comedy on Vinyl podcaster Jason Klamm launched We’re Not Worthy, a thorough dive into the rich history of ‘90s TV sketch comedy. The new release features some of the decade’s largest names, such as Kids in the Hall, The State, and Upright Citizens Brigade, as well as other ‘90s classics. With 150 interviews with influential figures in the TV sketch comedy scene of the decade, this book is an avenue to the extensive past behind a monumental era of this niche industry.

13

Graveyard Smash Monster maker Haley Lane shows us her teeth BY SOFIA MONGILLO

14

Summoning Circle Sustainability meets spooky season with Cursed Candle Co.

BY EMILY JACOBS

15

FOOD & DRINK

I Am The Leggman

Quindaro’s Turkeyleggman has wacky presentation and deadly good bird BY

LIZ COOK

16

Sleight of Hand

Kata Nori is rolling out high-end sushi in the heart of the Crossroads

BY JORDAN BARANOWSKI

Bone Appétit

Calaveras stuns with its glamorous frozen cocktail bar and metallic decor

BY LAUREN TEXTOR

17

Black Country, New Road pack the Granada and prove they’re invincible Black Country, New Road, despite losing their lead singer after their latest EP release, reinvented themselves in front of a packed crowd in Lawrence. The show was originally scheduled at the Bottleneck but was quickly moved to the Granada as the size of the line at the door went on for blocks. Black Country, New Road chose not to play any songs performed by their old singer and instead delivered a fresh 10-song set where three of the members took turns sharing the lead vocal duties.

Eat This Now Specialty Combo at The Combine

BY SARAH SIPPLE

Drink This Now Espresso Martini at Thou Mayest BY EMILY

JACOBS

18

Mise en Place

What nurtures the nurturer with Ashley Bare of Hemma Hemma BY SARAH

SIPPLE

19

MUSIC Dust in the Wind

Metal mainstays Sevendust settled in Baldwin City farmhouse to write new record BY NICK

SPACEK

20

Brink of Extinction

Conservation efforts hope to save North KC’s endangered rock’n’roll hub

BY BRYNN WINKLER

Keep Them Coming

Exploring love’s dark corners with AI

BY KRISTEN THOMAS

KC CARES

KC

Cares

FosterAdopt Connect

BY BETH LIPOFF

That’s a Wrapp Bubble Wrapp Toys pops off in Westport with collectible figurines and merchandise BY SOFIA

22 EVENTS

October Events Calendar

BY THE PITCH STAFF Cover by

Courtesy Adobe

Jason Klamm. Courtesy photo

Black Country, New Road. Nick Spacek

Editor-in-Chief

Brock Wilbur

President & Chief Operating Officer

Andrew Miller

Director of Marketing & Promotions

Jason Dockery

Managing Editor

Steph Castor

Community Manager & Food Editor

Sarah Sipple

Sales Executive

Erin Carey

Music Editor

Nick Spacek

Film Editor

Abby Olcese

Little Village Creative Services

Jordan Sellergren

Art Director

Cassondra Jones

Contributing Writers

Liz Cook, Michael Mackie, Barb Shelly, Beth Lipoff, Kristen Thomas, Jordan Baranowski, Lauren Textor, Adrian Torres, Kate Frick, Scott Poore, Hana Kim, Brynn Winkler, Sofia Mongillo

Editorial Interns

Emily Jacobs, Hayden Kalp, Joe Ellett, Mar’Che

Boggess, Zoe Strohm

Contributing Photographers

Zach Bauman, Brooke Tramel, Maura Dayton, Isabella Galvan, Allison Scavo, Pilsen Photo Co-op

Contributing Designers and Illustrators

Alex Peak, Chloe Freeman, Jake Edmisten

VOICE MEDIA GROUP

National Advertising

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DISTRIBUTION

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COPYRIGHT

The contents of The Pitch are Copyright 2023 by The Pitch LLC. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written permission of the publisher.

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Letter from the Editor

OUR SPECIAL PLACE

By Brock Wilbur

Welcome, dearest reader and travel companion, to the October issue of The Pitch. As per tradition, this issue has been lightly haunted with a dash or two of Spooky Season offerings amid our more standard editorial fare. We’ve got some big ideas at play—killer food and drink, frightful toys, monstrous delights, and even a few local sports haunts.

Up front this month, I thought I’d talk about my favorite place in the world—a seaside resort town that I’ve spent hundreds of hours in but will never have the opportunity to visit. As anyone who knows me even in passing can predict from this setup, I’m here today to spread the good word about a happenin’ little spot called Silent Hill.

Our special place.

In 1999, the game Silent Hill was released on the Playstation and immediately broke ground as the defining Millennial creepypasta experience—break brains and sleep cycles for those who dared tread its digital grounds. As one of the first big forays into the survival horror genre, Silent Hill defined itself by being the opposite of a power fantasy. It’s about weakness and humanity and discomfort. You aren’t some supercop hero with an infinite supply of rocket launchers gunning your way through hordes of zombies. You’re just some guy who can’t find your kid. You’re not particularly strong or smart or brave. There’s a world filled with monsters, but you’re not special in your ability to deal with them. You can pick up things like a knife or a bit of pipe and try to hit them with it, but you’re more likely to get killed in the process. When you do find a gun, you’re not very good at aiming it; there aren’t nearly enough bullets, and mostly, the bullets seem to annoy shadowy, slithery things that don’t like you very much.

Four Inane Questions with rhinestone entrepreneur Glittah Gal

Legendary Kansas City drag queen Glittah Gal turned her love of rhinestones into a full-time gig during the pandemic and hasn’t looked back since. She launched her business, Glittah Glam, where she specializes in rhinestoning costumes and rubber ducks. Her work has been featured on shows like America’s Got Talent and RuPaul’s Drag Race. In this Q&A, Glittah Gal lets us in on her idea of a perfect sandwich, the best way to pick up pesky bits of glitter, and her love for Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Silent Hill as a game isn’t especially fun. But for a very select group of people—much like those who actually enjoy Jeppson’s Malört or the films of Richard Kelly—those who love it, love it. It’s a lot like that meme of Trent Reznor, where he promises: “We’re here to have a bad time.” Yes. Yes, we are.

I’m one of those people. To me, it’s almost impossible that the first Silent Hill game exists, much less than it spawned decades of sequels, spin-offs, movie adaptations, comic books, and so on. That’s not because the game was popular or sold well. It’s because the game introduced a world that is too intriguing to leave behind.

Silent Hill is an abandoned resort town covered in fog that used to be a real nice place to hang out. Where there was once a bustling town, there are now a lot of monsters and nasty secrets. The thing that makes each reimagining of Silent Hill so engaging is that this is not Hell on Earth, it is simply a place. It is a place that changes based on who is there. It’s a destination that adapts to the dreams and nightmares of the people who come into contact with it. Silent Hill has its own history, but mostly, it’s just a mirror to hold up to the player, reflecting back the darkest, deepest parts of their psyche and occasionally refracting that into slimy things with too many teeth.

That idea—that you change the places you inhabit just by being there—has oddly taught me a lot about who I am, who I was, and how I interact with the world today. It’s perhaps odd to take life advice from a scary video game, but I could have found my inner truth in much worse places. [Raccoon City from Resident Evil, for example.]

Along that path, I met someone a few years back named Whitney Chavis. She’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest private collection of Silent Hill memorabilia. During the pandemic, we did a little project together where we revisited every bit of Silent Hill together—all the games, movies, books, and even a pachinko machine. As huge fans with too many thoughts about what Silent Hill is and what it means to us, we documented a series of conversations into a gigantic book

that we just released: Our Special Place: Conversations on Silent Hill. With all the proceeds

from the book going to Extra Life and the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, that’s a fun haunted tome that is now available wherever haunted tomes are sold. If you’re like us and truly enjoy having a really bad time every now and then, we invite you to check it out.

Alright. Thanks for taking a detour with me. Please be good to each other this Halloween season. Remember not to believe anyone who tells you that trick-or-treaters are being given drugs. Or, if you find someone who is giving out drugs to trick-or-treaters, please let us know where we should start trick-or-treating.

Pitch in, and we’ll make it through,

Glittah Gal. Courtesy photo

Brockhead. Illustration by Cassondra Jones

Backwards K

By Barb Shelly

Give it up, sports fans and taxpayers, for your Kansas City Royals—champions of suspense.

Not on the field, alas. The biggest question as the 2023 season winds down is whether the team will post its worst record ever or just something close to it. No one is waiting with bated breath for that answer.

The more riveting show is the one being staged by the Royals front office, which has held the region in thrall for weeks with a guessing game over the location of a ballpark to replace the venerable Kauffman Stadium.

Will it be the so-called East Village, just northeast of City Hall, where the Royals are promising to enhance the downtown revival with a year-round entertainment district?

Or will it be in North Kansas City, where some Clay County leaders think a major development like a ballpark district could convince people that the Northland is where they want to live and work?

Either way, the tactic is genius. By pitting neighbor against neighbor, Royals owner John Sherman and his team have short-circuited the debate about whether Kansas City actually needs a new ballpark project priced at around $2 billion. We’ve gone from if to where in about the length of time it takes a well-hit ball to leave the plate and splash down in the fountains beyond center field at the K.

Around the Horn

In the fall of 2021—two years after Sherman officially took over as the controlling owner of the Royals—the team announced it would be undertaking “a diligent, deliberate, and transparent process to explore the possibility of a new ballpark district.”

But when team officials started hosting public “listening sessions” a few weeks later, it was clear the fix was in. Royals brass swept in with architects, drawings, and economic studies tailored to favor relocation. The only listening that went on was the audience’s absorption of their talking points.

The stampede to abandon the K isn’t really surprising. Powerful Kansas City business interests have wanted to move the Royals downtown for years. (They hadn’t planned on the competing bid from North Kansas City, which we’ll get in a minute.)

What is surprising is the Royals’ success in commandeering the narrative.

Consider their rationale for abandoning Kauffman Stadium. According to team leaders, the 50-year-old K is old and terminally ill. It has been diagnosed with the dreaded alkali-silica reaction (ASR), known as “concrete cancer.” The architectural firm Populous, presumably a contender to design the new stadium, compiled slides detailing the dire condition of the ballpark, complete with photos that

make it look like the place has been struck by a mortar.

The Kansas City Star, in a news story in January, noted that the Jackson County Sports Authority publishes annual inspection reports of Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums on its website. The latest diagnosis, backed up by the Burns & McDonnell engineering firm, is that the stadium is in “satisfactory” condition.

“Minor physical deficiencies were observed throughout various locations within Kauffman Stadium and the immediate environs,” the report says. “Such deficiencies are expected in such a large facility and typical of a high-use facility. Most deficiencies can be easily addressed by the Kansas City Royals through standard maintenance procedures.”

The Royals told the Star that the reports” had “different objectives” and were not comparable.

The cancerous concrete story is key to a central team talking point—that the Royals’ current home is so far gone that it would actually cost a bit more to renovate Kauffman Stadium than to build a ballpark from the ground up. The cost for both projects is a little over $1 billion, according to Populous. The other half of the anticipated $2 billion-plus cost is for the entertainment district.

There is no independent analysis of the team’s claim. But in the months since

Sherman and others made the cancerous concrete claim, it’s moved from a contention to an accepted fact. An Associated Press story published in late June declared without attribution that the concrete at the K “is beginning to show irreparable damage.”

Long Toss

To their credit, Mayor Quinton Lucas, Jackson County Executive Frank White, and some other elected officials have been properly skeptical about jumping on the Royals downtown express. They’re the ones, after all, who would have to put proposals for public investment before the taxpayers.

Their peers across the river have no such reservations. Clay County leaders seem all on board with the idea of public subsidies for a project they believe will vault the county and little North Kansas City, in particular, into the big leagues of the Kansas City metro.

There’s even an ad campaign funded by so-far anonymous backers but connected to Axiom Strategies, the firm belonging to controversial but successful political operative, Jeff Roe.

Sherman and his Royals team must love the intrigue.

We don’t yet know exactly what public investment the Royals will be asking for, but it begins with a dedicated sales tax amounting to nearly half a cent—threeeighths, to be exact.

Jackson County taxpayers are paying that already to maintain Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums, so extending the tax doesn’t seem like an especially difficult sell. It would be a new tax for Clay County, however.

And let’s be real: The sales tax would only be the start of what the Royals are likely to ask for. Sherman wants the public to pay about half of the cost of the stadium-village project.

Get ready for tax-increment financing demands and who knows what else. Clay County, which has fewer residents and a smaller sales tax base than Jackson County, should expect to have to make up the difference through other subsidies.

Also, beware of claims that a ballpark entertainment complex would eventually pay for itself, drink by drink, T-shirt by T-shirt. Those same promises were made when Kansas City issued bonds in 2006 to pay for the downtown Power & Light District. They have never panned out.

Every year, Kansas City forgoes investments in other services because it has to make up the difference between what the P&L District generates in tax revenue and what’s required to stay solvent on the project’s debt. The city’s cut this year is $15.2 million, which will come from the general fund. Officials plan to look at possibly refinancing the loan, a spokesperson told The Pitch

They might want to get that done

SHELL GAMES AND SUSPENSE HAVE MADE FOR THE MOST INTENSE ROYALS SPECTACLE IN YEARS

Illustration by Bob Unell

sooner rather than later. A glitzy new entertainment district 10 or so blocks away, or even a couple of miles away in North Kansas City, is not great news for Power & Light. Or Westport. Or the Crossroads. While the Royals say they envision local businesses populating the hypothetical Ballpark Village, downtown is already hopping with the same kinds of local food and retail joints that Sherman seems to be talking about.

Pitch Clock

For most of the time I have lived in Kansas City, the Royals have been the backdrop of my summers. They were on my TV, part of my daily conversation. I would go on frequent outings to Kauffman Stadium, usually stopping at Gates BBQ on the way. My husband and I would settle happily into lawn chairs in the parking lot and have a beef-onbun and beer before the game started.

Then came 2020 and the pandemic, when the season was shortened, and actual fans were replaced by cardboard cutouts.

I heard someone refer to the cancellation of much of that season as the longest rain delay. For me, the sun has never come back out.

The 2021 season brought the nasty surprise that we could no longer watch Royals games on our streaming service. I could fork over an additional $20 a month for Bally Sports, and maybe I should. But the team lost 88 games in 2021, and 10 players—a third of the roster—were unvaccinated and couldn’t travel to games in Canada.

I was angry and opted not to pay to watch them. The Royals’ presence in my summers faded. If I want to see baseball now, I’d just as soon drive to Wyandotte County to watch the Kansas City Monarchs. Tickets are cheaper, you don’t pay for parking, and they usually win.

That infuriating year, 2021, was when talk started bubbling up about a downtown ballpark. I fired off an X (tweet, back then) to Mayor Lucas. Something like, “Until this team is 90% vaccinated and over .500, don’t even talk to me about subsidizing a downtown stadium.”

The significance of the vaccination rate has waned. But I still need the Royals to get their act together on the field before they ask me to subsidize a ballpark I’m not convinced any part of the metro needs.

You know those cool visualizations that have been in the news showing what a new Royals ballpark would look like? If you look closely, the seats in every picture are packed. But we in KC have experienced too many dismal seasons to believe in Field of Dreams miracles. They can build a ballpark, but beyond an initial novelty visit or two, the fans will not come as long as the team sucks.

The Royals and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred tell us that a new ballpark district will draw fans, who will spend money, which will be invested back into the team, and everything will be great.

“A new ballpark district will help position us to compete with bigger markets on and off the field,” the Royals say on their promotional website.

I don’t buy that for a minute, and neither do people who follow the intricacies of sports a lot more closely than I do. Royals observer Jerry Edwards makes the point here that some teams have actually reduced their payroll spending after winning approval for new stadiums.

But suspense is the Royals’ new specialty, and I will wait on the edge of my seat to see if the team can cement that narrative, as it has done with the others.

If they succeed, then we, Kansas City, will most certainly have been played.

Light the Lamp

KANSAS CITY WOMEN’S

HOCKEY LEAGUE HAS PLENTY TO ‘CELLY’ AFTER ONE YEAR ON THE ICE

By Erin Woodiel

Melissa Foley showed up to her first hockey practice in December 2022 wearing the jersey of her hero, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.

Despite her lifelong love of hockey, she grew up understanding it to be a boys-only sport, settling for the “girl option” of figure skating into her teenage years. Joining the Kansas City Women’s Hockey League felt like walking through a door that she never thought would be open to her.

By the end of that first practice, 27-year-old Foley came away with two assists, a few bruises, and an ignited passion for the game.

“I got off the ice and threw up because I was skating so hard,” says Foley. “And I said, where do I sign up? When is the next practice?”

Since formally incorporating as a league in May of 2022, the KCWHL has provided women like Foley the opportunity to find themselves and gain confidence while learning a new sport. Team leaders focus their efforts on creating a supportive environment for new players so women of any skill level feel empowered to play.

“Not only is it hockey, which a lot of us believe is the greatest sport in the world, but also, for many women, this is their time out with their girlfriends, taking a break from family life and coming here after work—getting to blow off some steam with friends,” says KCWHL

President Maggie Wagner.

Wagner has been embedded in the hockey scene in Kansas City for years. Before the KCWHL, she played with a loosely organized group of women whose seasons often got canceled partway through due to a lack of funding. When yet another season came to an untimely end in February of 2022, the group knew something had to change.

“We thought that the women hockey players of Kansas City deserved better,” says Wagner.

It’s now been over a year since the creation of the league, and Wagner calls it a “crucial” addition to Kansas City athletics.

“A lot of adult women grew up in a time when girls playing hockey were not as supported as they are these days,” she says. “There’s been a lag in opportunities for women, and we’re trying to step in and close that gap.”

While there are games against local men’s recreation teams and other women’s teams across the region, the KCWHL isn’t about winning games. Instead, it’s about developing skills and a love of the game.

During practices, new players learn to skate with confidence and handle a puck. Scrimmages provide opportunities to better understand the rules of hockey before hitting the ice in a real game.

Wagner says that through coaching new players, she realized learning hock-

Erin Woodiel

ey is like having to learn two sports at once. Skating is its own challenge to master, let alone stick handling, shooting, and passing. It makes her all the more proud when she sees her fellow players shine.

“We see players start from having absolutely zero experience, and every single week, they really tend to improve pretty rapidly,” she says. “We definitely see increases in confidence, even from the very beginning. They’re just having a blast.”

As a way to further instill confidence in the least experienced among them, the team has built the habit of specifically noting players’ improvement during postgame locker room talk. Maybe someone was skating three times faster than she was a month ago, or another started implementing a new defensive strategy. By naming the progress these women make each game, team leaders hope it will show how much they are appreciated and keep them coming back.

Foley says that level of encouragement and validation from her teammates was the key to her falling in love with hockey. The focus isn’t on winning games or who is the fastest or strongest. It’s about building relationships and finding joy.

“We’re here to learn,” says Foley. “We’re here to get better. We’re here to pump each other up and make sure that, at the end of the game, we’re all still happy and smiling.”

Jimmy Petersen, recreation director at Line Creek Community Center and Ice Arena, teaches a how-to-play-hockey course on the ice Tuesday nights. His focus for the last 17 years in Kansas City has been on growing the game, and he acknowledges that women’s hockey has been long underserved.

“The benefit that Kansas City women’s hockey has provided for hockey and women in this area is just immeasurable,” Petersen says.

Since the start of the KCWHL, he says he’s seen a lot of women attending his class. Even if they start out timid, he says, before long, the women are going toe-to-toe with the men.

“There’s such a vast array of ability levels, and the camaraderie is incredible,” he says. “It lends itself to helping each other become better.”

Foley says the support from men like Petersen at Line Creek has been “life-changing.” They ensure a consistent ice time for the women’s league, help maintain equipment, and cheer them on at games. That connection to the hockey community at large is an important piece of validation.

Foley remembers playing in her first-ever hockey game with the league, when the nerves that nearly prevented her from showing up to the ice only increased as she saw that their opponents were a team of men.

She voiced her surprise, to which her teammates replied, “What, did you think there was another team of women who play hockey around here?”

She came nose-to-nose with a large male player who asked her, “Is this your first game?” She said yes, and he responded, “You’re doing freaking great, kid.”

They still joke about this moment months later, now that Foley says she can “skate circles around” other players.

“When I go out there, I don’t want you to just see who I am as a woman,” she says. “I want you to see who I am as a hockey player.”

The biggest obstacle Wagner sees to starting in hockey is the cost. The KCWHL charges regular fees for ice time, and the equipment alone is a large expense for prospective players. To counteract this, the league has a large equipment library where any woman can borrow what they need for a few practice sessions, completely free of charge.

“We want them to just be able to show up and try it,” Wagner says. “They’re figuring out if this is for them.”

Showing up to try hockey has worked for dozens of women since the league’s founding. Both Wagner and Foley formed strong friendships amongst their teammates that extend beyond the ice. They say there’s something special about the bonds formed on the ice that can’t be easily replicated in other environments. They feel a responsibility to clear the path so more women can feel that same rush.

“As a matter of principle, we just love hockey, and we want other women to see what it’s all about,” Wagner says. “And have the chance to really love playing hockey too.”

The KCWHL encourages and accepts new members at any time of the year. Practices and scrimmages run Saturdays at 5 p.m. at the Line Creek Community Center, with games and other learning opportunities set throughout the schedule.

MY BROTHER, MY SHUDDER, AND ME

NIGHTMARE JUNKHEAD HAS GROWN FROM HORROR PODCAST HENCHMEN TO GENRE-LEADING GENERALS

By Joe Ellett

On a normal school day in the mid-’80s, Jenius McGee, a then-middle schooler, put his love for horror on display for his classmates and woodshop teacher to see. The students were given the task of building and decorating a clock to their liking.

McGee took this as an opportunity to craft the most spine-chilling clock that his middle school contemporaries had ever laid eyes on. He started by cutting out different snippets of horror magazines, such as FANGORIA.

Once he had his creepy cut-outs, he methodically began assembling them to the clock. Different forms and characters of horror were on display, with Jason on the 12, Chucky on the 6, Freddy Krueger on the 3, along with other depictions of guts and gore throughout.

“I turned it in, I was proud as shit,” McGee says. “I got an F. My teacher said, ‘You need to see me after class,’ and he accused me of being a satanist.”

After the shop teacher did not take kindly to McGee’s terror timepiece, his mother was quickly called into the school. Addressing the situation, McGee’s mother backed his creation, mentioning the teacher had stated that students could decorate the clock however they pleased. While McGee did not receive an A for his work, his mother’s resilience got him out of the F.

This horror story was not the first nor the last throughout McGee’s life, yet merely a moment when the subculture was molded into his soul. From that moment forward, horror and entertainment would be integral parts of his upbringing, contributing to the emergence of the Nightmare Junkhead Podcast

McGee is one half of this two-man talk show, with Greg D. making up the other 50%. Greg grew up with horror on the periphery up until his high school days, specifically his junior year when he saw Evil Dead 2 for the first time.

“It was Evil Dead 2, actually, that cemented, ‘Oh yeah, this is fun and crazy and wacky and weird,” he says.

While he did not have a shop assignment turned horror project, Greg has embraced the genre throughout his youth up into adulthood. Their background in the horror scene has been a clear-cut path for the two of them to start Nightmare Junkhead as well as an avenue of involvement in multiple entertainment ventures.

Greg, a 47-year-old advisor and parttime public speaking teacher at Metropolitan Community College-Maple Woods, and McGee, a 45-year-old auto-insurance salesman at Geico, both love spending their free time indulging in anything entertainment-related.

In 2008, Greg found himself amidst a poor crowd of movie-goers when seeing The Strangers in theaters. Afterward, he made the executive decision to screen movies strictly in his backyard, a prime location for observing peaceful cinema. This is where the initial gears for the podcast began turning.

He was also beginning to listen to podcasts such as SModcast and The Film Junk Podcast at the time.

“I felt like I could get involved in the conversation the way they were talking about stuff and I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna start a podcast,’” Greg says.

Greg then began a podcast with his friend Adonis and a cheap USB microphone, covering the different movie showings at Greg’s home. Soon after, his thenwife ran into McGee at a Burlesque showing. The two hit it off rather quickly, with her mentioning that McGee should show up for a movie night at their home.

McGee promptly jumped on the offer, under the impression that she was giving ‘Netflix and chill’ vibes.

“I didn’t hear the word husband,” he says as Greg chuckles. Nevertheless, McGee was still there to watch movies, and that is what he was going to do.

With Terminator showing that night, a movie that McGee likes, it was easy for him and Greg to plunge into conversation after they met. Through a compelling discussion of different movies and interests, the two quickly became cordial. That is when Greg decided to shoot his shot.

With McGee putting on an event called “Monster’s Ball at Kansas City Horror Club” to raise money for the Walk and Roll Foundation, which he has been doing for 15 years, Greg’s podcast was a great way to promote the event. At the drop of a dime, McGee accepted Greg’s invitation to join.

“He pops on and from the get go, simultaneously instant chemistry,” they both say. “In my head I’m like, this guy has either done radio before or he’s podcasted before because there was almost immediate banter,” Greg says.

Greg was not far off with his assump-

tions. McGee previously worked as a standup comedian from the late ‘90s to the mid2000s, making for an easy transition to podcasting. With his booming voice and larger-than-life presence, McGee is the perfect counterpart for Greg’s straight-laced style.

What was initially supposed to be a 10-minute conversation rapidly turned into an hour and a half of movie banter between the two. From there they created their monthly show, Nerds of Nostalgia, where they covered all movie genres.

They brought on their first guest, Tim Canton, co-founder of Panic Film Fest, who mentioned that he was kicking off a new podcast network where he wanted to feature a weekly horror show called Nightmare Junkhead

“What the hell is a nightmare junkhead?” the two asked Canton.

“I don’t know, we’ll figure it out later,” Canton responded.

At that moment in 2015, the Nightmare Junkhead Podcast was born.

They then found themselves doing their Nerds of Nostalgia show, the Nightmare Junkhead Podcast, as well as hosting live shows at Screenland Tapcade and the Alamo Drafthouse. On top of that, McGee was also doing a podcast with Canton at the time called Super Creepy FunTime Hour, and his own podcast, Media Rewind, which is ongoing to this day.

During COVID, they began hosting a telethon at Screenland Armour Theatre to stay involved in the entertainment industry as well as to supply aid to the theater during the pandemic. This led to their partnership with Screenland to host their weekly live show, Friday Night Frights

“In my opinion, there’s no better place

for horror than Screenland,” says John Pata, a filmmaker out of Wisconsin and co-founder of Head Trauma Productions. “And Greg and Jenius are at the forefront of that.”

Every Friday night, the dynamic duo hosts an audience at the independent theater, providing them with pre-show entertainment, custom trailers, giveaways, and more before showing the film of the night. One of the key features that separate their showings from any other theater is their ‘yackity smackity.’ This is the term they use when they dive into discussions about the film, providing facts, trivia, and more—just bullshitting with the audience for a more personal feel.

“I think that someone like Greg and Jenius make going to the movies into an event, rather than just going to see a movie,” horror freelance writer Orrin Grey says. “I think they help keep a community alive, as opposed to all of us just sitting around in our living rooms watching movies by ourselves.”

Not only are the terror tandem keeping a community alive, but they are also expanding horror horizons.

“I truly believe Kansas City has the most welcoming, supportive film community out of any city I’ve been to, and I am not joking when I say that they’re kind of the forefront of that,” Pata says.

While Greg and McGee center their focus on horror in their numerous endeavors, the pair also embody differ-

ent forms of comedy. With McGee’s background as a comedian, he is consistently bouncing jokes off of Greg, making for a very laid-back, comical feel to their podcast. They strive for their work to be ‘ifi’, which stands for informative, funny, and insightful.

“That has always been something that I’ve loved: how they just work so well together,” Cati Glidewell, horror critic and influencer out of Chicago, says. It’s just like a beautiful horrific orchestra in the best way possible.”

Glidewell has been involved in multiple podcasts and events with the Nightmare Junkhead duo after meeting them at a horror festival about seven years ago.

Once Pata had become familiar with Greg and McGee through mutual friends in the Kansas City horror scene, he saw them in a similar light that he perceived the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy from the mid1900s.

“They just have this ebb and flow to them that is so genuine,” he says.

While the two remain steady with the Nightmare Junkhead Podcast and Friday Night Frights, they continue to further their involvement in Kansas City’s film scene through their upcoming events.

With Halloween right around the corner, Mcgee and Greg are both very excited to host their annual Nerdoween event on Oct. 7. The event consists of three mystery movies picked by the duo, only giving audiences the theme before their showing. They do a similar event during the winter holidays called “Christmas with the Nerds.”

Since this is their ninth year hosting the event, the two decided that this year’s theme will be “Nerdoween Nein,” where they will display three movies that portray ‘nazis dying all night long.’

The six-hour event will also consist of the pair’s ‘yackity shmackity’, making for an enjoyable independent theater experience at Screenland Armour. Tickets for the event are $15 and are open to all ages.

The two encourage all lovers of cinema to join them at any of their upcoming regularly scheduled and annual events.

“You’re gonna get something here that you won’t get at B&B, that you’re not gonna get at AMC, and it is a little bit more personalized, and it’s coming from people that genuinely love the cinema,” Greg says.

Illustration by Chloe Freeman

An episode in the making.

Courtesy photo

That’s a Wrapp

By Sofia Mongillo

On the corner of Westport Road and Main Street sits Bubble Wrapp Toys, filled to the brim with more toys than any kid you know.

Business owners, seasoned toy collectors, and life partners Kitty and Nate opened their physical shop in Oct. 2022 after a year of official Bubble Wrapp sales online.

Now, the Westport hotspot serves as a haven for collectors, knick-knack lovers, and those seeking something a little different.

After an unexpected medical emergency at 29, Kitty was bound to the confinement of their Salem, Massachusets home. With differing backgrounds but a common love for collector toys, the couple took to eBay in hopes of making some extra bucks.

“We’ve been collectors ourselves since about 2007, which is when we had our first introduction to art toys,” says Kitty. “We started googling, found Kid Robot, and then started diving deeper into the lowbrow art world, which a lot of those artists also do toys. I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we had a shop one day? But it was never like a lifelong dream of mine.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic approached, they collected their desired merchandise and readied for resale. Luckily for them, the online toy collector community was only growing.

“Instead of doing something nice like going to dinner or a concert or getting plane tickets, people were buying things online, and certain people had already been collecting,” says Nate.

Uniquely, Bubble Wrapp offers a special service available to overseas shoppers, allowing them to fill a “box” with items on hold for up to a year. This way, the customer pays for shipping all at once rather than with each purchase.

According to Kitty, roughly 80% of sales made through their site are from collectors living in either Asia or Europe. Their sales were through the roof, and as the world slowly prepared to come out of social isolation, the two decided to expand their horizons.

“We thought, why don’t we turn this into a legitimate thing?” says Kitty. “Nate did a crash course on how to set up an official website, we got a business license, and started really talking shop.”

While searching for Bubble Wrapp’s forever home location, the two set their sights on destinations they call “toy deserts”—Kansas City being one of them.

“Basically, it means you can’t really drive anywhere close and find a store that sells such products,” says Nate. “And that’s a lot of the U.S. because the majority of stores like ours are on the coasts, like California, New York, or Florida. The closest one in the Midwest, other than us, is Chicago.”

With Nate having been previously stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas, it meant they were somewhat familiar with the KC area after a few weekend trips.

They took a peek at the Westport storefront and signed the lease in a matter of no time.

Graveyard Smash

MONSTER MAKER HALEY LANE SHOWS US HER TEETH

By Sofia Mongillo

Monster maker Haley Lane’s work can be found scattered around the globe, but the creatures’ beginnings are homegrown: Kansas edition.

For a month, over 20 monsters sat tucked away in the Crossroads’ Upper Level Gallery—all creations of Kansas City’s creepy cute expert and sculptor.

As a young girl growing up in Frontenac, Kansas, Lane was surrounded by the views that come with a small, Midwestern town—farms, crops, and, well, taxidermy.

Fascinated by the animals around her, the aspiring artist took note of their features, stature, and proportions.

“I’d go to sporting goods stores, and they’d have all these exotic creatures on the wall,” says Lane. “I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that they had forms like that, and teeth like that, and claws like that. It was amazing to me.”

Six months later, their shelves were heavy with the likes of Smiski, Sanrio, and Sonny Angel, along with various designer exclusives.

“Kansas City is perfect in the sense that it’s accommodating, easy to navigate, and has all the things you’re looking for like Boston, Chicago, or LA, but you can actually afford to do that on a Wednesday night and not have to stay in for a month to be able to afford to do it,” says Nate.

Upon opening, clusters of couples, groups, and individuals from out of town have told the store owners that Bubble Wrapp was on their bucket list of things to do in KC, according to Nate. In fact, some will even take trips to stop on by for products unavailable elsewhere.

“There are certain places now that are selling the blind boxes, but we have people continue to tell us when they come in that they don’t want to go to the mall; they’d rather support small businesses,” says Kitty. “To be transparent, something might be the same price here as it is at Hot Topic. They can offer sales that we don’t because we don’t like to mark down on merchandise. Everything you see here is created by an artist, and we don’t like to devalue their work.”

Being located where they are, Nate says, has been essential in the development of the toy mecca, with Kansas City Art Institute students being one of the leading customers.

“The students have absolutely been the best and biggest factor for us in terms of growth and word of mouth,” says Nate. “When they come in, I feel like there’s a certain extent of understanding to where that money goes. Sure, it helps put money in our pockets, but most of it goes back to our employees. We spent the better part of seven months, just the two of us.”

In turn, several of the team members at Bubble Wrapp are KCAI students— all of varied skill sets and interests in the world of collector toys.

“Without every single person who has ever bought something from us at any point, whether it was a $3 sticker sheet or a $300 custom piece, we would not be here without them,” says Nate. “We are so extremely grateful to everyone who comes in and supports us.”

After discovering YouTube art channels, Lane’s captivation translated onto paper as she strengthened her drawing skills. Backed by the encouragement of her parents and inspired by biology and taxonomy, she dreamt up her own animals… with a twist.

Surely, she couldn’t have predicted that her knack for creating otherworldly marsupials would end up being not only her passion but her livelihood.

“It started with me drawing these angry dogs with giant teeth,” says Lane. “I thought that the best way to be a good artist was to make the most realistic drawings of things and was stuck in it. I found doodle YouTuber Peter Draws, who was creating art for the process of it. It gave me a whole new perspective on art where I could just enjoy creating instead of putting so much pressure on the final outcome.”

In high school, Lane began dabbling in the art of polymer clay, opening up the world of 3D for her.

“That was what changed everything,” says Lane. “It used to be a real battle to take these forms that were in my mind and place them into 2D paper. But then I unlocked 3D art.”

Outside of drawing, the Lane never received any formal, technical 3D education. This meant relying solely on the help of the internet when learning the process of mold-making in order to create sound structures full of claws and teeth.

“I love combining sapiens and creatures that you want to cuddle, but you’re also kinda scared of,” says Lane. “The animals in our world have crazy defense mechanisms; they might be spiky or gooey. Looking at how different species are classified and their evolutions helps me come up with creatures that I think could have a functional life.”

Soon enough, the DIY critter collector was allowing intrigued neighbors to take a peek at her workspace.

At 24, she created an Etsy shop following her first two commission pieces at the advice of a neighbor.

According to Lane, the first piece sold in her online shop was a faceless poodle with a mouth full of

BUBBLE WRAPP TOYS POPS OFF IN WESTPORT WITH COLLECTIBLE FIGURINES AND MERCHANDISE

The Bubble Wrapp storefront. Brooke Tramel

gnarly teeth.

“It was bought instantly by someone in the Philippines,” says Lane. “It was then that I realized there was an audience for my work, and I couldn’t believe it. My full heart is full for those two people who supported my early artwork because they saw the potential in it instead of my technical ability at the time. Because people believed in me from the beginning, I was able to get better art supplies, expand my skills, and actually afford to learn how to create better art.”

Four years and over 2700 Etsy sales later, Lane’s art has expanded from freestanding creatures to wearable pieces like corsets and functional home decor such as ottomans and side tables.

Her TikTok viral monster mirrors, bought by the likes of Rico Nasty, boosted her Etsy traffic even further, establishing Haley Lane Art as a brand. This, she says, was revolutionary for her.

“I wasn’t always convinced that art was a possible path for me,” says Lane. “I thought it was unattainable and that there was very limited access in regards to who got to have that life. But you really get to make your own now with the internet. Any path that you want, it’s just a matter of putting work into it.”

In an effort to stay true to her work and maintain originality, Lane only posts short clips of the final products and less so the process itself.

“It’s incredibly important to me that I

always deliver ingenuity in my work,” says Lane. “The problem with TikTok is that posting your original ideas means there’s a chance for them to become a DIY trend, essentially. I don’t want to take away from my creations by encouraging that.”

And when Upper Level Gallery was accepting submissions for a July-Aug. 2023 exhibit in their space, Lane presented her long-time friend, “Angel Dog.” The toothy, horned, blue canine from another dimension worked his charm, and the artist was given six months to prepare a gallery’s-worth of original pieces to debut July 21.

In a period of time Lane calls the “art Olympics,” she whipped up eight colorful outer space dust bunnies, a handful of glowing teleportation portals, and nothing short of a dozen other monster concoctions, creating her own land of misfit toys, also known as Show Me Your Teeth

“My mom used to drive us up here to check out the street together; we’d take photos, and then we’d go to Flanders,” says Lane. “It’s full circle for me now. I would come to the Crossroads to admire all the artists that I thought were the coolest people. To have an art show here is a dream.”

For the Kansas Citian and Monster Dentist, living her truth means creating something each and every day, she says.

“I want to make the world more exciting for everyone to look at and live in,” says Lane. “I want to inspire the childhood awe that I felt while paying homage to monster childhood nightmares. In this universe, we’re constantly hurtling toward the unknown. And I really love this idea of playing around with a monster lurking around the corner.”

Haley Lane and her monster creations. Courtesy photos

Bubble Wrapp Toys will feature part of Haley Lane’s Show Me Your Teeth exhibit (and other monsters) Oct. 1-31

Summoning Circle

SUSTAINABILITY MEETS SPOOKY SEASON WITH CURSED CANDLE CO.

By Emily Jacobs

Self-described as a librarian by day and a candlemaker by night, Logan Heisman runs Cursed Candle Co., specializing in black-dyed candles, from their home in Lawrence.

Candlemaking started as just a hobby for Heisman right before the start of the pandemic.

“I like to jokingly tell people that I have apocalypse hobbies,” says Heisman.

Heisman got started with their hobby when they were broke for Christmas one year. While trying to think of gift ideas, they came up with the idea to make candles.

“I started with that, and then thought, I could make these black and make them really cool and make a whole brand out of it,” says Heisman. “And it just kind of grew from there.”

Heisman learned everything they know about the craft from the Internet. They started out using mason jars as vessels and selling them at farmer’s markets.

As Cursed Candle Co. grew, Heisman moved to using steel vessels as well as glass. They only use vessels that are recyclable and offer refills through a partnership with

L.e.s.s., a sustainability shop in downtown Lawrence, where customers can drop off their used vessels to be cleaned and reused.

The candles use 100% soy wax and certified clean ingredients. Heisman is constantly coming up with new scents, matching ideas to fragrance names. They love coming up with fandom collections, including a Star Wars-inspired line (with light-side and darkside-themed candles) and a Lord of the Rings line for J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday. Heisman even came up with an early 2000s nostalgia collection, where they collaborated with Lawrence-based Strange Rocks Ceramics for the vessels and created scents inspired by several different perfumes that were popular at that time, including Victoria’s Secret’s “Lovespell,” Bath and Body Works’ “Cucumber Melon,” and Abercrombie & Fitch’s “Fierce.”

Heisman also takes custom requests, which often include housewarming and wedding gifts. Their favorite custom order was for Canadian interior designer and tattoo artist, Hilary Jane.

“I’ve sincerely admired this person’s work for years,” Heisman says. “She’s on my list of travel destinations for a tattoo. And then she very randomly reached out to me wanting to do a collaboration on a candle. Her idea for the collaboration was to essentially recreate an ancient fragrance combination known as ‘Kyphi.’”

Kyphi, which Heisman says is sometimes referred to as “the fragrance of pharaohs,” is a unique combination of over a

dozen ingredients.

“She had a sample that she wanted to match the fragrance to. Of course, doing this from a different country was a challenge because she couldn’t just hand it to me and be like, ‘Like this, please,’” Heisman says. “I think I sent her six different versions of this recipe, and she was like, ‘This one. This is it.’ So we made a line of those, and that was really cool.”

Heisman loves collaborating with local artists for product labels as well. They’ve done prayer candles (in black, of course) with local brand Wasteland Society and also did a collaboration with Lawrence’s Standard Electric Tattooing.

“I just really love putting dope art on my candles,” says Heisman.

Heisman works as a librarian in Lawrence during the day, primarily working in fundraising. They’ve donated their candles to various nonprofit efforts as incentives for people to participate to get a free candle.

After work, they go home to make candles, which they say takes up a majority of their free time.

“My partner would tell you that all I do is work,” Heisman says.

Cursed Candle Co. is largely a solo project, though Heisman says they hope to involve their partner more in the future

and that they’ve had help from family and friends.

They hope to eventually take their business full-time so they can make their own schedule. However, Heisman isn’t interested in turning their brand into a brick-and-mortar. Instead, they want to combine business with their love of travel by taking their products abroad.

Currently, Heisman is getting ready to roll out new fall fragrances and preparing to travel to Hot Springs, AR, for a craft fair this October.

“I feel like I’m kind of on the precipice of it [success],” says Heisman. “I just poured more candles than I’ve ever poured at one time, I ordered more supplies than I ever have. I’ve gotten myself into these markets where I will be in front of bigger audiences than I’ve ever been in. So this really is my year.”

Leah Evans Photography

I Am The Leggman

QUINDARO’S TURKEYLEGGMAN HAS WACKY PRESENTATION AND DEADLY SERIOUS GOOD BIRD

By Liz Cook

I’ve spent the last seven years reviewing Kansas City restaurants—which means I’ve spent the last seven years living like a fugitive, rarely returning to the scene of the crime. As of this issue, though, I’ve officially retired as a restaurant critic for The Pitch. I have time to develop fixations, again. And for the past several weeks, I have craved only one thing: the Turkeyleggman.

Maybe it’s the restaurant’s name—KC Turkeyleggman that confluence of consonants in a crowded compound subject. Maybe it’s that you can order something there called the “Buss Down Legg”—a smoked turkey leg the size of a caveman’s club, slashed and stuffed with glossy mac and cheese. Maybe it’s the way that legg seems to leer at you from its styrofoam tray—a little glamorous, a little grotesque.

But it’s not all that complicated. KC Turkeyleggman is fun. It’s funny. And the barbecuing(g) is serious.

That’s all thanks to Matthew Montgomery, the titular leggman, who has spent the last six years perfecting his smoked turkey legs. He started by hocking a case of legs every weekend in the parking lot of Suite 39, a salon at 39th and Paseo. All he had back then was a cheap backyard grill—“maybe $25,” he says. The next summer, he upgraded to a barrel grill. In March 2020—just a couple weeks before the city’s first wave of COVID-19 closures—he bought an offset smoker and trailer off of Facebook Marketplace and launched Turkeyleggman as an official food truck.

This May, the Leggman found a permanent home: 1916 Quindaro, the KCK address previously claimed by Mexican restaurant Gallardo’s. The vibe is casual: the walls are black, the ordering counter is trimmed with corrugated aluminum sheeting, and the main aesthetic gesture is a cartoon mural of a grinning face—Montgomery’s face—in sunglass-

es. There’s a single table and a couple of stools, but on all of my visits, I was the only weirdo who used them. Most of the customers trickling in and out are taking their turkey to go.

People don’t come here for the ambiance. They come here for the leggs. I’ve eaten my share of bland, stringy turkey legs at Renaissance Faires and roadside barbecue stands. Turkeyleggman’s version is altogether different. The standard leg ($15) is crisp-skinned but never charred, moist but never greasy. Montgomery tells me he uses a dry and wet rub and that he smokes with wood—hickory, mostly, but also cherry and pecan.

The classic legg is large enough to feed two, and it’s the plate I order most. But for sheer linguistic (and caloric) excess, it’s worth trying the Buss Down Legg ($25) at least once. As you might expect, the slangy name has a story. “‘Bussin’ is like real good or real fly,” Montgomery says. “There’s a place in Houston called the Turkey Leg Hut, and they sell a different version of it down there, and people kept asking me about it. It didn’t look appealing to me, but customers were constantly asking, saying ‘I be bussin’ down for that.’’’

The Turkey Leg Hut’s stuffed leg is called just that—a “stuffed leg”—and the standard filling is dirty rice, not mac and cheese. Montgomery’s right: It doesn’t look appealing. A “Buss Down Legg” blanketed with creamy mac and cheese, on the other hand, looks like a Rococo masterpiece.

It helps that the mac and cheese is good: neither especially saucy nor dry, with just an even, creamy, elastic coating of cheese on each noodle. Montgomery uses four kinds of cheese—Parmesan, Havarti, white American, and white cheddar—“and a couple little secret seasonings.” Does the mac-stuffed leg offer any advantages over ordering a legg with a side of mac-and-cheese ($7)? Not really.

Is the Buss Down Legg Instagram bait? Unequivocally. But it’s also just fun.

Even with the restaurant’s obvious poultry framing, the other menu items feel just as thoughtful. Montgomery typically offers smoked chicken wings (five pieces for $12; eight pieces for $15, served with crinkle-cut fries) and burnt ends ($15, also served with fries, and better than the burnt ends at some of the city’s decades-old barbecue institutions). But the single dish most worth ordering here (besides the legg) might be the greens ($7), which are a tender mix of collards, kale, and red and green cabbage. Montgomery’s greens are tender, smoky, comforting, rich—and studded with smoky morsels of turkey, of

course. There’s nothing quite like them in the city.

Turkey’s always going to be the focus here. But Montgomery has the barbecue chops to expand the restaurant’s offerings. He hopes to add mutton barbecue to the mix soon—an homage to his grandfather, who he says was well-known for his mutton barbecue in New Bloomfield, Missouri. (If he does, he’d be paying accidental homage to a Kansas City icon, too. Although mutton barbecue is typically associated with Kentucky, KC has its own sheepish tradition dating back to Henry Perry).

And while the menu is compact, KC Turkeyleggman showcases a couple of other fun, local brands. The restaurant serves regular and strawberry lemonade from Douglas Lemonade—a budding company helmed by Montgomery’s childhood friend, William Douglas—and desserts from Handmade with Love.

The only snag? Right now, the Turkeyleggman isn’t always easy to catch. KC Turkeyleggman’s hours are ostensibly 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, but life sometimes intervenes. When I showed up at 1 p.m. on a recent Saturday, the restaurant was dark, and the billowing black “TURKEY LEGS” banner I’d seen out front on previous visits was gone. My distress must have been noticeable because a woman shortly puttered into the parking lot on a riding lawnmower. She was towing a wheeled cart where three children sat quietly under a sun umbrella.

“You here for the Turkeyleggman?” she asked. I nodded. “When he’s here, you’ll see a big black truck.”

Those physical markers—the truck, the banner—are a reminder: KC Turkeyleggman is a neighborhood joint. For the rest of us, there’s social media. Montgomery is active on Instagram—@kc_turkeyleggman—and tends to post legg on main when the kitchen is open.

It all gives the Turkeyleggman the air of an inscrutable legend, where the process of securing the legg falls somewhere between “limited edition sneaker drop” and “riddle of the sphinx.” In my household, the quest spawned a series of aphorisms. If the truck is gone / no turkey’s on. When the legg’s online / it’s time to dine.

Those hours are likely to firm up soon. Although the restaurant has technically been open since May, Montgomery says he’s still planning a Grand Opening, with no date set as of this writing. That, too, has a slightly mysterious feel.

“We’ll know when the time is right,” Montgomery tells me. Whenever it is, I’ll buss down.

HOURS: Wednesday–Sunday, 1-8 p.m.

ENTREES: $12–$25

SIDES: $5–$7

1916 Quindaro Blvd, KCK (913) 242-7710 Turkeyleggman.com

KC TURKEYLEGGMAN

Buss down with Matthew Montgomery (aka KC Turkeyleggman). Zach Bauman

Sleight of Hand

When it comes to sushi options, Kansas City has a number of strong contenders. Although everyone has a favorite, you can’t help but notice how many feel like a slightly different shade of the same color.

Kata Nori Hand Roll Bar, open now in the Crossroads Arts District, is looking to color outside of the lines.

Kata Nori looks to bring elegance and a more deliberate hand to the KC sushi scene. It all starts with a chef-driven mentality from executive chef/co-owner Anh Pham, whom the other owners (and seemingly everyone) refer to as “Bass.”

“The three of us grew up in the Kansas City area,” says majority owner Nam Phan, speaking of him and the other owners. “We talked a lot about the types of food that we wish we could see here—high-end sushi has always been near the top of the list. Bass worked at Uchi, a top sushi restaurant in Texas, and it got us thinking: Why not bring that style of sushi back home?”

Located inside the old Ron Rico space near Grinder’s and Brewer’s Alley, Kata Nori has a few aces up its sleeve to ensure a unique experience. The first is the way the space is laid out: You won’t be eating at tables here. Instead, the room is dominated by a 24-seat, U-shaped bar. There is a lounge area for the waitlist, where you can sip cocktails while other parties finish eating, but the bar-only dining lends itself to a more social environment.

Bone Appétit

CALAVERAS STUNS WITH ITS GLAMOROUS FROZEN COCKTAIL BAR AND METALLIC DECOR

By Lauren Textor

Despite its name (meaning “skull”) and Day of the Dead theme, Calaveras in Lee’s Summit has little in common with the traditional, colorful Mexican restaurants elsewhere in Kansas City.

When asked what makes their rolls unique, Bass is happy to share: “Our fish is definitely the star of the show, but we’re going all out with our ingredients to make every bite perfect. Our rice, and even the seaweed wrapping we use: It’s all a super-high quality to make for a better bite. Everything you order is seasoned and dressed to have a complete flavor profile—you won’t need to dip into any sauces or add anything in order to enjoy them.”

404 E 18th St, Kansas City, MO 64108

The team has put together a concise menu to start things off, and they really want to push things beyond the standard flavors (eel sauce, spicy mayo, etc.) you’ll find at other sushi spots in town. There are also a few items outside the hand roll options, like sashimi plates.

In addition to the top-notch food, Kata Nori also features a full bar program. They have started things out with standard cocktails, beer, sake, and wine but eventually plan on bringing in a bar manager to create specialty cocktails. As much as they are able, the team at Kata Nori wants to feature Japanese beers and spirits, and they want to try to bring in unique sake choices that are tough to find at other restaurants.

The restaurant is housed in a former mechanic’s garage, which retains its original 1928 ceiling. The floors have been polished and ground down, while the garage doors have been converted into windows that open to let in as much fresh air as possible. Cars used to pull out of the garage onto what is now the back patio and frozen bar.

Skulls are everywhere, of course—it would be hard to claim a connection to Día de los Muertos without them. But rather than brightly patterned sugar skulls, Calaveras boasts gold, silver, and copper-toned versions that sometimes double as bottle openers. The skulls beside the entrance are crafted by artisans and imported from Haiti.

Of course, the main draw of any restaurant is going to be the food. Kata Nori is also looking to set itself apart in that area. They specialize in hand rolls—a slight variation on what you’d typically expect at a sushi spot. Most sushi restaurants in KC create sushi rolls with a mat and then slice those rolls into bite-sized pieces. You pick them up with chopsticks, dunk them in soy sauce, and enjoy. Hand rolls are—you guessed it— rolled by hand rather than with a mat, and they are left intact. You are meant to pick them up and take bites of them.

Kata Nori is currently only open for dinner service, but they plan on eventually opening for lunch hours. They recommend reservations with such a small space, but walk-ins are welcome. Like many restaurants, Monday is their only day off.

If you’ve found yourself wanting to expand your raw fish horizons, then Kata Nori Hand Roll Bar is just what you need to fill the tuna-shaped hole in your heart.

Co-owner Kyung Kim is excited about the possibilities: “We know sushi is a fun, shareable style of dining. We want to embrace that laid-back, social experience but also bring Kansas City sushi into an upscale, fine-dining atmosphere.”

We are absolutely here for it.

Black and white marble bartop and herringbone backsplash complement the black lacquer walls and glass chandeliers. It’s sexy, glamorous, and classy—the passion project of co-owner Lanni Edwards.

Lanni co-owns Calaveras with her husband, Josh Edwards, and his father, Jeff. It’s right down the street from Smoke Brewing Co., their first restaurant.

“It’s different Mexican cuisine than most people are used to,” Lanni says. “It’s also a different look. It’s not typical, but I didn’t want it to be typical because there’s already a handful of Mexican restau-

KATA NORI IS ROLLING OUT

HIGH-END SUSHI IN THE HEART OF THE CROSSROADS

By Jordan Baranowski

KATA NORI HAND ROLL BAR

Courtesy photos

(Top) A full spread. Courtesy photo (Bottom) A frozen, boozy treat. Anna Perry-Rushton

rants in Lee’s Summit. They’ve honed in on their craft, and they do it well.”

Lanni and her husband also own a custom home-building company, which helped to foster her love of interior design and influenced her when it came to decorating. She also curated the playlist, which is a mix of sensual and upbeat pop. She had plenty of time to perfect all of the details, as the pandemic delayed the restaurant’s opening.

“It was two years, nine months, and 11 days between when we started construction to when we unlocked the doors,” Lanni says.

Luckily, Lanni was able to use the extra time to research Mexican culture and to help refine the Calaveras vision. Like Smoke Brewing Co., it is the Edwards’ love letter to Lee’s Summit.

a brain freeze, including the Lemon Drop Lifestyle (“looks like a slushie, tastes like a fancy way to justify day drinking”) and an icy key lime concoction that’s basically liquid pie.

Specialty Combo at The Combine

CALAVERAS

219 SE Main St. Lee’s Summit, MO 64063 Calaveraskc.com

“Even 25 years ago, Lee’s Summit looked really industrial,” Lanni says. “It’s changed so much with the love and attention that local businesses have put into it. It’s no different than Westport. When people find their area, and they love it, they go in and put their effort and money there, and you can feel that.”

Calaveras began with a simple conversation between Lanni and Josh about her desire for a frozen drink. Now, its frozen bar has more than half a dozen ways to give you

The well-rounded food menu includes the popular (and hefty) Black & White Burrito ($16) with grilled flank steak, fluffy cilantro lime rice, and sautéed peppers and onions. It’s smothered in queso and a smooth mole that’s on the sweeter side. Pork belly is having its moment in KC, so it’s no surprise that it features on the menu with the Hangover Nachos ($11) along with cotija cheese, Mexican beer, and a fried egg. It’s listed as an entrée and not an appetizer, so you don’t need to feel guilty about digging in hands-first and breaking the yolk. The Mexican Dip ($19) is a generously meaty flank steak sandwich with pickled red onion, Oaxacan cheese, and chili aioli on a French baguette. This spin on a French dip sandwich is enhanced by a side of salty, creamy queso or Guajillo consommé, a robust broth with depth.

Due to their success as restauranteurs, the Edwards have partnered with EPIC Center KC in Independence, MO, to add a second Smoke Brewing Co. location within the pickleball, basketball, and soccer facility.

By Sarah Sipple 2999 Troost Avenue Kansas City, MO 64109

The Combine resides in a former Wonder Bread factory at 30th and Troost. Flour filled the air there before most of us were born. Now, owner Alan Kneeland brings new life to the space with lunch and dinner offerings, a rooftop patio, and a welcoming atmosphere.

During the week, the main floor dining area is spacious and has a comfortable calm. Weekends are more lively, with Chiefs watch parties and live music now and then. An extensive bar with a cocktail menu also helps to keep the restaurant versatile.

One of the most economical options is the lunch special. It is ideal for a casual lunch meeting, quick carryout, or a filling meal before checking out the other shops in the building. These include Solid State Pinball Supply, HairKCMO, Ruby Jean’s Juicery across the street, and more.

The Specialty Combo includes a massive slice of any specialty pizza, a generously-portioned side salad, and a drink (with refills) for $10.50—or save $1 by ordering a two-topping slice if you are craving a simpler ‘za.

A mega-slice arrives well-baked but not too crispy and on the thinner side as far as pizza crusts go. Toppings take the spotlight as the sauce and cheese are satisfying but minimal. I opted for the Veggie Delight, but the opposite end of the spectrum would be Cowtown Lovers with pepperoni, beef, sausage, Canadian bacon, and Romano cheese.

In case you’re not in the mood for pizza, The Combine also serves hot and cold sandwiches, wings, calzones, and salads. As a nod to the building’s history, there is a selection of Wonder Bread sandwiches available, like a Fluffernutter sandwich with chips for $5.

The lunch special is available Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. for dine-in or carry-out.

Espresso Martini at Thou Mayest

By Emily Jacobs

The River Quay location of Thou Mayest is both a coffee shop and a bar in one, offering a lengthy list of herbal and caffeinated bever ages, beer, wine, and cocktails, along with a small selection of snacks and baked goods. It’s a small, cozy café with bar seating and a few tables, perfect for meeting up with friends over a drink or getting some work done—and one of the few places to grab a coffee in KC past 7 p.m.

Naturally, Thou Mayest’s best cocktail is their espresso martini.

Using several local ingredients and with a slight twist on the classic, Thou Mayest’s version uses their espresso, J. Rieger & Co. Caffe Amaro, Lifted Spirits vodka, vanilla, and orange bitters. Using the caffe amaro in place of coffee liqueur makes this variation less sweet than a traditional espresso martini. The inclusion of vanilla creates balance, and a few dashes of orange bitters complement the citrus undertones of the amaro.

Shaken vigorously and strained into a chilled martini glass, the aroma of the espresso wafts across the bar before you’ve been handed the drink. When you first take a sip, you’re greeted by the thin layer of foam resting on top, juxtaposing against the silky, smooth texture of the cocktail.

The espresso martini also happens to be part of the happy hour menu, which runs weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

Supposedly, the espresso martini was first created by a British bartender when a customer asked for a drink to “wake me up and fuck me up.” Thou Mayest’s version lives up to this—luckily, if you have too many, the streetcar is conveniently located nearby.

EmilyJacobs

Craft Cocktail Week

MISE EN PLACE

WHAT NURTURES THE NURTURER WITH ASHLEY BARE OF HEMMA HEMMA

By Sarah Sipple

Hemma Hemma may be new to Waldo, but Kansas City is no stranger to Chef/Owner Ashley Bare’s cooking. Hemma Hemma focuses on wholesome foods—to savor inhouse and on the go—but we wanted to find out what keeps Bare herself feeling whole and satisfied.

The Pitch: Tell us about Hemma Hemma’s origin.

Ashley Bare: I have a strong private chef background. After culinary school, I worked in restaurants for a hot minute. I realized that it wasn’t financially viable for me, living in New York City, so I got into private cheffing. I worked in a lot of people’s homes. It’s not that my childhood wasn’t great, but the notion of home has always been kind of something I’ve thought about. “Hemma” means “at home” in Swedish, and it has stuck with me. Just the notion of home, being in people’s homes, delivering to people’s homes—I want this place to feel like home to someone.

How are you cultivating a feeling of home here? I really didn’t want it to feel like a sterile, corporate situation; I needed it to feel cozy, elevated, interesting, collected, if you will. But then also our food: Our dishes are chef-driven and may use some ingredients that you haven’t heard of, but they should be presented in a way that is familiar and a bit homestyle. I don’t like to say our food is healthy. It’s healthful—like very vegetable-forward—but approachable in a way that people will recognize.

What is the difference between healthy and nurturing? I hate the word healthy. Because what does that mean? It’s so different for everyone. I think we should be eating nourishing foods that are whole, that are probably not processed, from scratch. Maybe other dishes remind you of this notion of home—they should be comforting. We need that sometimes.

From whom or what do you draw inspiration? Travel is huge—I cook the globe. I’ve been to, like, 42 countries, and the world is such a huge inspiration for me. But on that note, I just love variety. I want to eat differently every day, so that’s what we’re doing here. Some might think it’s a lot to

Mise En Place is a series of questions, answers, recommendations, and culinary wisdom from the food and drink masters that push KC flavor further. The following answers have been edited for length and clarity.

7122 Wornall Rd. Kansas City, MO 64114

take on, but truthfully, it’s kind of easy because it’s innate.

What aspect of establishing this brickand-mortar spot has stretched your creativity the most? Well, interiors are a big interest of mine also. It’s been really fun, and I hope that people feel that when they come in because I really love looking around here.

You have an impressive team of women helping you. Can you speak on that? I love women. I’m all about lifting up and empowering women wherever possible. And I’ve encountered other business owners who are not doing that. It really bothers me. The better you do, the better I do. But, like, women are just fucking great.

It’s a philosophical thing, a historical thing, but there’s so much asked of women and not of men, and this is why I’m constantly impressed by women. Most of us are holding down full-time jobs while also responsible for most of the things in the home. We deserve more credit.

What’s your go-to for self-care? I try to work out twice a week. I get massages here and there. And this sounds dumb, but my nail time is religious. It just makes me feel like a put-together human. Plus, it is a nice little alone moment. But truly, we spend a lot of time with our families, and we get together with our friends every at least two weeks. We all love each other a lot. So they really fill up our cups.

Ashley Bare of Hemma Hemma. Anna Petrow

OCTOBER 23-29

CLUSTERTRUCK

PICANTE STEAK TACO COMBO

Chef Matt did it again! New for The Pitch's 2023 Taco Week, Picante Steak Taco Combo. Flank steak thinly sliced in-house, seasoned just right, and cooked with sweet onions a top two corn tortillas. Two tacos, finished with cilantro and served with tortilla chips, sour cream, and another ClusterTruck Kansas City exclusive - Salsa Picante. No modifiers - enjoy these tacos as Chef Matt intended. Like nothing you've tasted before, these tacos are available until Sunday, 10/29/23. Try them while you can!

https://kansas-city.clustertruck.com

GAELS PUBLIC HOUSE & SPORTS

CHICKEN TINGA TACOS $9 (REG. $18)

Shredded tender chicken cooked with spicy onion and tomato, wrapped in double corn tortillas and topped with chipotle cream. Three hearty tacos with savory black beans, white rice, and corn salsa

TINGA CHICKEN NACHOS $9 (REG. $17)

Stewed chicken atop house-fried tortilla chips with queso blanco, black beans, corn salsa, jalapeño and sour cream

5424 Troost Ave., KCMO 64110

Dust in the Wind

METAL MAINSTAYS SEVENDUST SETTLED IN BALDWIN CITY

FARMHOUSE TO WRITE NEW RECORD

By Nick Spacek

Lajon Witherspoon, frontman and vocalist for long-running hard rock band Sevendust, has traveled the world over while on tour with his bandmates, but a decade ago, Witherspoon and his family chose to settle in Overland Park. Additionally, his wife Ashley’s grandparents left the family their farmhouse and 300 acres in Baldwin City, KS, which became the place where half of Sevendust’s latest album, Truth Killer, was written. It had a positive effect on the songwriting process, says Witherspoon.

“It was amazing to be just there and not worrying about anything other than maybe me chasing one of the calves that got loose out of the fence on the farm,” jokes the frontman, going on to say it was like the band being kids again. “Imagine having to find an area to jam in—we would set up in grandma’s room, and Morgan [Rose] would set up in front of the bed with his electric drum set.”

Sevendust rocked out for 12 hours straight, demoing their songs in two of the farmhouse’s bedrooms much as they would have in the studio. They were able to reconnect post-COVID in a way far less structured than they would have anywhere else.

“The stuff that came outta the farmhouse was great,” Witherspoon reflects. “Watching the sunset, barbecuing together, popping fireworks out there, just laughing like kids, you know? It was exciting. I think

it really did good for us.”

It was a “bro-down,” continues the singer. “There were no engineers. There was no one helping us other than my wife bringing us food down every once in a while.”

Truth Killer, the band’s 14th album, came out at the end of July. To celebrate, Sevendust is headed out on the road with longtime friends Static-X and Dope on the “Machine Killer Tour” this fall to support it. If it seems like it’s a tour that came straight out of the late ‘90s, that’s because this tour actually happened once before, all the way back in 1999. Given that Sevendust celebrates another milestone with its 30th anniversary next year, we ask Witherspoon what it’s like to still be standing after all this time.

“I just turned 50 last year,” Witherspoon says. “It’s an amazing feeling to go out there on stage and to look out and to see a young man the same age as me, but now he’s got kids, and now his kids have kids, and maybe his kids that have kids have kids, and they’re all at the show, and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, what are we doing?’ This is amazing that this is a family affair.”

In addition to getting to see their fans grow with them, the same can be said for some of the bands with which they’ve played. This past summer, Sevendust toured with Mammoth WVH, the band featuring Wolfgang Van Halen. From the outside, it seems like this would be a case of the Sevendust lifers playing with a hot new band,

Sevendust / Static-X with Dope & Lines of Loyalty

The Midland Monday, October 23

but Witherspoon doesn’t see it as getting onstage with some whippersnappers.

“Wolfie, man—we’ve known him ever since he was a kid,” says Witherspoon. “He’s a young man now, but he’s been coming around with us for years. He was actually with us when we recorded one of our albums. He was in the studio with us the whole time.”

The family aspect includes Sevendust’s fall tour, as well. While it’s been 24 years since Sevendust last shared the stage with either Static-X or Dope, Witherspoon has worked off and on with Dope frontman Edsel Dope for various projects over the years.

“We’ve been tight for years and years,” says Witherspoon. Sadly, Static-X frontman Wayne Static passed in 2014, so it’s not as true a return to 1999 as it might have been, but the Sevendust frontman is hyped about what the current version of the band has to offer as an homage.

“The production on this tour is gonna be amazing,” he says. “It’s gonna blow some people’s minds. Every night’s gonna be something special.”

Witherspoon promises video walls and a “massive” production for the tour, but he seems even more excited about reconnecting with both the bands onstage and the fans in the audience than the production aspects.

“I feel like there’s some fire that’s been set up under our butts, even after all these years,” Witherspoon says. “With signing that new record deal and that pandemic shutting everything down and us being back out and having the response and the new contagious energy, the good energy that’s out there definitely makes it feel new again.”

Courtesy photos

Brink of Extinction

CONSERVATION EFFORTS HOPE TO SAVE NORTH KC’S ENDANGERED ROCK’N’ROLL HUB

By Brynn Winkler

Ben Wendt considers himself a musician above all else. He formed his first band in middle school and got serious in high school with his pop-punk band Blackmore—the namesake of Wendt’s teacher crush.

With an itch for supporting bands and a penchant for hosting parties and guests, Wendt saw running a live music venue as the ideal mashup of his passions. He started promoting bands during his sophomore year of high school and hasn’t stopped since.

This July, Wendt and the Rino community celebrated six years of his lifelong dream: a live music and comedy venue created by artists for artists situated in the heart of North Kansas City on Armour Boulevard.

“One thing that we’ve tried very hard to do is to cultivate a true sense of community and a true sense of belonging—a true subsection of the scenes,” Wendt says.

Given the tumultuous past years at the hands of COVID-19, the Rino’s anniversary carries even more weight as Wendt reflects on the collective he’s helped cultivate. Now, with conversations buzzing about Northtown’s growth and its potential as the Royals stadium’s new home, North KC stakeholders like Wendt are gearing up for another wave of change.

“We are deeply rooted in North Kansas City,” Wendt says. “We don’t want to go anywhere.”

While Wendt is excited by this prospective new North KC, its associated growing pains, like increased rent, mean the Rino will be restructuring its model and parting ways with current subtenants by the end of the year.

The Rino will stay at 314 Armour Road, with subtenants Sweet EMOtion KC and the Leaf Eater ‘plant-based dive kitchen’ transplanting in a different stand-alone location. The Triceratops Room recording studio and Post Coffee Company will also be leaving the space, though the Rino will start operating as a ‘coffee dive’ during the day to continue providing caffeination to the community.

Lease negotiations concluded with the decision to downsize and no longer occupy the space at 312 Armour Road, making the venue now a 100-person capacity room. Wendt says that this will likely lead to a decrease in national acts booked but better quality than ever.

“We won’t also be landlords with subtenants having to make sure twice as much space is kept up,” Wendt says. “We’re going to be able to truly focus on a singular vision

in a way that we never have been able to.”

Since its founding in July 2017, the Rino has made a name for itself as a destination for local talent and those passing through the Midwest, continuing to book bigger names in music and comedy. Past lineups include bands like Remo Drive, The Acacia Strain, and Terror, as well as comedian Mark Normand’s Rino debut last year. This summer, Wendt turned on Netflix to find Normand’s face splashed across his screen when the comedic star made the Netflix top 10 chart.

In 2017, Wendt left his job as a bartender and projectionist at Screenland Armour, which he considers one of his favorite places in the world. But his dream since age 13 awaited him 300 feet down the road. Since its genesis, the Rino has maintained its signature essence from the get-go: a welcoming staff composed of many artists themselves and attention to every detail, from the talent they book to lighting quality.

“A truly great concert isn’t just about having good talent,” Wendt says. “You have to have all of it. The venue has to be well run. The sound has to be good. The lights have to be good, the stage has to be good. And the bands have to be good. Everybody has to do their job.”

On top of the quality shows booked, another characteristic pillar of the Rino is weekly open mics. Every Monday and Tuesday, they host a music open mic dubbed Song Lab, followed by a comedy open mic— or Laugh Lab—on Wednesdays.

But just like every other cultural hub during COVID shutdowns and restrictions, a pang of uncertainty shook the Rino community’s foundation built on large gatherings, intimate spaces, and shared experiences. It was only this past January that he

felt the Rino had bounced back after having no means of making serious revenue or hosting live shows for over a year.

Their neighbors at Screenland Armour saw similar events unfold at the independent theater. Owner Adam Roberts says Screenland quickly burned through their reserved funds, and he had to close his Crossroads arcade bar, Tapcade, after six years in business. Only in the past 18 months has he felt Screenland’s business and his anxiety somewhat stabilized, but Roberts is still reluctant to let his guard down.

“We have the WGA strikes happening, of course—so I’m not trying to get that comfortable,” Roberts says.

The Screenland and U.S. altogether had a strong theatrical summer, enlivened by the record-shattering Barbenheimer weekend. But Wendt says the effects of the Writer’s Guild strike have made their way to the Screenland, with several films pulled from September’s release schedule. The week prior to this going to press, they had just recorded their slowest day in 14 months the week after Labor Day weekend.

“A part that a lot of non-entertainment industry people fail to grasp is how long we were feeling the reverberations of COVID,” Wendt says.

Other KC venues, including the Riot Room and Westport Saloon, closed their doors during COVID, and Davey’s Uptown Rambler’s Club was gutted by a fire at the start of the pandemic. Without the outpour of support from their October 2020 “Save the Rino” telethon, they could have met that same fate.

Inspired by an old-school PBS telethon vibe, the 12-hour-long livestream included pre-taped musical performances, live musical performances, stand-up acts, and inter-

views with local musicians and politicians.

They raised thousands of dollars— enough to pay rent a few times while holding no live events and to help out some of their employees who had been without work. After hosting the event for 12 straight hours, Wendt was exhausted in the best way possible.

“That was one moment that I try to hold on to more than many others,” Wendt says. “When I’m in the middle of the difficult balancing act, feeling exhausted and like maybe I should sell out and get a corporate job that pays considerably better… I turn to that moment and think, ‘This is why it matters.’”

With the plans to downsize the Rino’s space this year, they will need to build out a new bar in the back of the venue. Wendt says they will hold fundraisers later in the year to help offset these costs—but thanks to the continued support of the North KC community, the Rino is no longer in need of “saving.”

With a revamped model for the Rino and excitement building around Northtown’s future, Wendt is ready for a positive wave of change—anticipating a rising tide lifts all boats scenario for the Rino’s neighborhood.

“Even if the Royals’ plans don’t go through, I don’t think people are just going to walk away with their tail between their legs,” Wendt says. “I think that they have seen the potential of growth for Northtown. You’re going to start to see more and more destinations and customer-facing businesses, where it’s worth coming from a different part of the town to check them out.”

A full house at The Rino. Seth Kean

October 1-2 Bob Dylan

The Midland

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bob Dylan is bringing his Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour to the Midland for two nights. Running through 2024, this will likely be KC’s last opportunity to host Dylan, as it could be his last tour at 82 years old. Nevertheless, he will be sure to bring his folk-rock ways and lyrical genius along as he bids farewell to his extensive touring career. As a phone-free concert, the use of any digital devices is not permitted and will be secured in individual pouches upon arrival until the end of the show. Both nights are open to all ages, with tickets currently starting at $52. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., show at 8 p.m.

OctOber cALeNDAr

By The Pitch Staff

ONGOING/MULTIPLE:

October 13-15

Cornucopia: KC’s Ultimate Fall Festival, Kansas City Power & Light District

October 13-15, 20-22

Dark Forest, Powell Gardens

October 21-22

Planet Anime Kansas City, Bartle Hall

October 24-29

To Kill a Mockingbird, Kansas City Convention Center

EVENTS

October 1

Beyoncé: Renaissance World Tour, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium

311, AWOLNATION, Grinders KC

October 3

The Eric Andre Explosion, The Midland Movements, Granada

October 4

Air Supply, Lied Center of Kansas

The Caaves, Arc Flash, LYXE, Replay Lounge

October 5

Warren Zeiders, Uptown Theater

October 14

PorchFestKC 2023

Roanoke & Valentine Neighborhoods

The Roanoke and Valentine neighborhoods of Midtown will host over 100 live musical acts for the 2023 edition of PorchFestKC. Conceived in 2013, PorchFestKC will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a variety of musical acts performing individual sets on volunteered porches. For more information regarding locations, lineup, or any other general questions, visit porchfestkc.com

October 9

Temptress & Dust Lord, miniBar Moon Hooch, recordBar

Dry Socket, Doldrums, Missouri Executive Order 44, Farewell KCMO

October 15

Autumn Handcraft Harvest Festival, South Park (Lawrence)

Chris Smither, Lied Center of Kansas

DEHD, recordBar

Stick To Your Guns, The Bottleneck

October 6

Amos Lee, Liberty Hall

The Wonder Years, The Truman Punk vs. Metal II, The Bottleneck

Sammy Rae & the Friends, The Madrid Theatre

The Band CAMINO, The Midland

October 7

Moe., Liberty Hall

Boris and The Melvins, The Bottleneck

tripleS, Uptown Theater

Bully Set Adopt 2023, Shawnee Mission Beach Volleyball

Fangirl Fantasy: Harry Styles vs. One Direction, Encore Room

The Temptations, Ameristar Casino Hotel

Kansas City

Boo in the Bottoms Spooky Plant Sale, Historic West Bottoms

Blacula Screening & Discussion with Giselle Anatol, Lawrence Arts Center

Fall Fest, North Park at Zona Rosa

October 8

The Mars Volta, Uptown Theater

John Lennon’s Birthday Bash, Knuckleheads

October 10

Lucinda Williams and Her Band, Uptown Theater Bahamas, Knuckleheads

October 11

The Darkness, The Truman Jessie Murph, The Midland

October 12

Kansas City Chiefs vs. Denver Broncos, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium

October 13

The Glorious Sons, The Madrid Theatre

Charlie Berens: A Good Old-Fashioned

Tour, Uptown Theater

Ravenscoon, The Truman ODESZA, T-Mobile Center

Sheer Mag, The Bottleneck

October 14

Ashnikko, Uptown Theater

Queer Bar Takeover, Grinders

1313 Mockingbird Lane’s Halloween Party, Granada

Noah Gundersen, The Bottleneck Disco Dick and the Mirrorballs, VooDoo Lounge

Kathleen Madigan, The Midland Brew at the Zoo, Kansas City Zoo

Matt Fraser - America’s Top Psychic Medium, Uptown Theater

October 16

Polyphia, Uptown Theater

October 17

Goblin Performing Dario Argento’s ‘Demons,’ Liberty Hall

Holy Fawn, recordBar

Gregorian, Uptown Theater

Tom Odell, The Truman

October 18

Kevin Gates, Uptown Theater

October 19

Lacuna Coil, Granada

October 20

Amigo the Devil, The Madrid Theatre

Haunted Stacks, Lawrence Public Library

Hannah Berner, The Truman

Big Gigantic, Kansas City Live Block

Ben Rector, The Midland

Travis Scott, T-Mobile Center

October 21

10th Annual Dia de los Muertos

Celebration, Kansas City Museum

Katt Williams: The Dark Matter Tour, Municipal Auditorium

October 25-30

Ghosting Lawrence: A Theatrical Tour of Downtown Haunts

Lawrence Arts Center

Lawrence Arts Center artistic director Ric Averill leads a mile-long tour of haunted Downtown Lawrence as he tells the story of the city’s spooky past with visual and audio effects. Trolley tours take place Oct. 25-26 and Oct. 29-30 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on all four days. Walking tours begin at 7 p.m. Oct. 27-28. The trolley tours will have snacks and a bar available in the Art Center’s Main Lobby 30 minutes before the start of the tour. Tickets for the trolley tour are $50, and tickets for the walking tour are $40.

Matt Rife: ProbleMATTic World Tour, Kansas City Music Hall

Dante Elephante, Encore Room

Halloween Bash & Macabre Market, Farewell KCMO

Liverpool Legends, Liberty Hall

The Taylor Party, The Truman Bullet for My Valentine, Uptown Theater

Replay’s 30th Anniversary w/ #ASSJAMZ, Replay Lounge

KC Mavericks Barn Party, Cable Dahmer Arena

October 22

Alluvial, The Rino

Rumours: A Fleetwood Mac Tribute, The Midland

Kansas City Chiefs vs. Los Angeles

Chargers, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium

October 23

Ruben and Clay: Twenty Years, One Night, Uptown Theater

October 24

The Brian Jonestown Massacre, recordBar JOHNNYSWIM, The Truman

October 25

Wilco, The Midland

The 1975, T-Mobile Center

October 26

Iration: IRL Tour 2023, Uptown Theater

Sully, Encore Room

October 27-28

P!NK

T-Mobile Center

It’s not often that you see an acrobatic routine mid-concert—unless you’re at a P!NK show. The pop singer and icon in her own right will bring her TRUSTFALL Tour to Kansas City for two nights, Oct 27 and 28. If you missed the chance to snag your tickets earlier this year for the Friday night show, consider the second show your saving grace. P!NK’s longtime DJ KidCutUp and rock band GROUPLOVE will be special guests for the night. Tickets start at $59.95. Show starts at 7:30 p.m.

Larry Fleet, The Truman Lauren Daigle, T-Mobile Center

October 27

Chris Webby, The Madrid Theatre

Peppa Pig’s Sing-Along Party, The Midland Spooktacular, Downtown Tonganoxie Essenger & Young Medicine, Encore Room

October 28

CarnEVIL Halloween Party, Kansas City Live Block

October 29

Wheeler Walker Jr., Uptown Theater Howl-oween Costume Contest, Casual Animal Brewing Co. Astronomy Associates of Lawrence Public Telescope Observing, Baker University Wetlands & Discovery Center

October 30

Cam Cole, Encore Room

October 31

LSDream, Uptown Theater Whitehall, miniBar

Cicadaween Costume Ball, The Bottleneck

Murder at the Mansion, The Oak Street Mansion

Halloween Pub Crawl, Atomic Cowboy

KC Mavericks vs. Rapid City Rush, Cable Dahmer Arena

October 29

Nikki Glaser

Lied Center of Kansas

Comedian Nikki Glaser returns to her college town with The Good Girl Tour at the Lied Center of Kansas. As a talk show host, podcaster, and stand-up comedian, Glaser is a jack of all trades on the stage. Known for her roasts and no-holds-barred comedy, she is changing the game around female comedians. Tickets are on sale now, starting at $35, but get them quick. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., show starts at 7:30 p.m.

Stay in the know about KC’s upcoming events on our interactive online calendar!

EXPLORING LOVE’S DARK CORNERS WITH AI

Artificial intelligence freaks me out in many regards to this day, yet it’s hard to argue against its growing practical benefits.

I used to give the contact info of the now-defunct Slutbot to clients who were not well-versed in the art of sexy talk. When I proposed options like practicing running lines in a mirror, practicing with a friend, or texting with a bot, people asked for that number with quickness.

Social competencies that make us good at flirting, such as holding spontaneous conversations, building rapport, and utilizing wit to woo people all fall under a chicken and egg situation—these skills require practice, but because some of us might feel silly while practicing, we avoid trying, and therefore never hone the art of flirtation.

If a piece of technology that uses AI can allow someone to get better at speaking a foreign language, why can’t it support us in learning how to be a flirt or a fabulous dirty talker? On the other hand, what if people only interact with a device, leading to more socially incompetent or deviant behavior? These are my internal dilemmas over AI infiltrating the dating world. I blame that prick

There are most certainly pros to using AI in dating situations, including making better quality matches, detecting scams, saving time, and preventing analysis paralysis.

OkCupid has 4000 questions available to hone in on compatibility. Allegedly, their algorithm really kicks into gear once you’ve answered 500 of their prompts.

AI can help verify user identities and detect fake profiles, making online dating safer by reducing the risk of catfishing and cyberflashing. Tinder reverse-image searches users’ photos since it’s a common scam to pilfer from Instagram profiles.

Bumble has been keeping unsolicited dick pics out of your DMs via image recognition set to scan for nudes. Some peoples’ junks have been floating around the internet, and now they are being utilized as data to train neural networks so you don’t have to see the horrors of unwanted flaccid cock in your inbox ever again.

Saving time is a natural benefit of AI as it helps automate tasks, making dating more easy and accessible. Tinder announced that they will soon roll out an AI-powered tool to help users select the most appealing photos.

I have been paid to do this task, so believe me when I say a second opinion, even a virtual one, is often valuable, and there are stats on what kind of photos get people more swipes.

Tech can help with what to say to break the ice. When it comes to sending a catchy first message, a recent poll by Kaspersky showed that 75% of surveyed dating app users are willing to try out ChatGPT for better pick-up lines. Is it because they see the benefit in AI helping them be more creative, or is it because they think anything has to be better than the typical “Hey” or “What’s up?”

OkCupid debuted a messaging partnership feature with ChatGPT in February of this year. According to their own num-

but also its pipeline to abuse. On this platform, one can create a customizable girlfriend and tell it to do anything. Anything As writer Ashely Bardhan wrote for Futurist, this allows people to “create AI partners, act abusively towards them, then post the toxic interactions online” via Reddit forums.

It’s more than moderately dystopian to think about how those who can’t abuse in person will practice abuse on a virtual character and then model such behavior for others if given the chance. Arguing it’s not abusive behavior if the subject isn’t sentient is akin to saying serial killers are no threat when they were killing small animals in their early years.

The System from the Black Mirror ep-

bers, OkCupid users who think ChatGPT is a “life-saver” get almost 40% more matches on OkCupid than those who think it’s “too big brother.” Bots like YourMove.AI offer both dating profile polishing and texting tête-àtête features.

You can use ChatGPT to craft opening lines for yourself, no matter what messaging platform you’re using. Tell it some of your match’s interests, and you will get mostly dadjoke-approved one-liners. It will not feed you lines that pick-up artists tend to use that include negging, comparison, or sexualization.

Not everyone is on board with tech infiltrating their dating life. OkCupid’s research showed that 70% of respondents said using AI for your profile is whack. Daters I talked to who felt icky about this topic shared opinions like “It would feel inauthentic“ and “Who would I be falling in love with?” Critics online share that AI-generated content on profiles and AI-assisted conversations often fall flat because they lack banter and cultural language subtleties, and there’s no way to convey an individual’s personality.

One writer on Medium had a striking title: “I Tried Rizz—The Hot New Dating Assistant That Flirts For You: And then I took a shower and wept for humanity.” Ouch! Is it the app, or is it humanity? Rizz has been styled as your “AI Wingperson.” Just like ChatGPT, it can be used for any messaging, but Rizz is supposed to turn up the cha”rizz”ma. However, this could lead to an overreliance on technology, making it even more difficult for individuals to develop essential social skills and emotional connections.

Replika users have been a topic of discussion online for this overreliance on tech

isode, “Hang The DJ,” feels eerily similar to Teaser.AI, where your trained avatars begin the interaction, simulating a conversation before one of you hops in and takes over.

Algorithms are not immune to bias and racism, and they can inadvertently reinforce societal stereotypes and inequalities, leading to discrimination in matching and recommendations.

AI-powered dating apps collect vast amounts of personal data, raising concerns about data security and how this information may be used or shared without user consent. Scammers get more and more clever, and this is another window of opportunity.

Certainly, people have a wide range of feelings regarding how much they are willing to allow technology to intrude on their dating lives. There’s hope for the best— instances of positive effects such as teaching manners, philosophy, and empathy—and yet, if I were writing a Black Mirror episode, there are endless possibilities at this intersection.

People have used quotes from books, poets, and songs for much of our history to strike up seductive conversations. Dating profiles are filled with quotes from TV and film. What does it matter if they used AI to generate a few questions to start a convo with you? Perhaps AI will come for us one day, but it’s more likely we are going to find a balance between utility purposes and having it overrun our lives.

You can find Kristen @OpenTheDoorsKC on Instagram or openthedoorscoaching com. Check out her podcast Keep Them Coming.

You can find Kristen @OpenTheDoorsKC on Twitter or openthedoorscoaching com. Check out her podcast Keep Them Coming

Photo by Nicole Bissey. Illustrations by Shelby Phelps

Bumble has been keeping unsolicited dick picks out of your DMs via image recognition set to scan for nudes.

James Cameron for this conundrum.

From locals to legends, emerging artists to global superstars, discover the sound of Kansas City on 90.9 The Bridge.

FosterAdopt Connect

By Beth Lipoff

Becoming a foster or adoptive parent is a big step, filled with lots of challenges. FosterAdopt Connect has several resources targeted at families in Kansas to make those transitions easier, including the Kansas Caregivers Support Network and Kansas Post Adoption Resource Center, which both give adults education and contacts that can help them be effective parents. Those caregivers might be grandparents, other family members, or folks who have no biological family connection to the children.

“They could need help locating financial support or navigating the different systems, such as the foster care system. It could be that they are struggling with meeting the needs of a child, so that child could then be in need of mental health or medical services,” says Crystal Fox, manager of family support programs for FosterAdopt Connect.

The nonprofit took over a state contract to make these services available in July 2021.

“We provide training to families, mainly involved around parenting children who come from hard places or have experienced trauma through abuse or neglect. In situations like that, we also provide a support group for families,” Fox says.

According to Fox, most of the employees at FosterAdopt Connect have been foster parents themselves, which gives them lots of experience when it comes to aiding families as they sift through their options.

“We have a conversation with the family and try to understand what they’re experiencing and what the most important need at that time is—and also look at that problem to see how that situation could be impacting other areas,” Fox says.

They develop a plan of action, refer

ring the family to the best-fitting resources for whatever the issue is and “trying to take some of that [stress] off the families themselves because many times families are reaching out in the midst of a crisis.”

A lot of the training they offer centers around trauma-informed parenting. Live training sessions are available for families and are free online.

It’s not just older children who may need extra help from their caregivers in a foster or adoptive situation. Foster and adoptive parents with children of any age may need help handling the effects of trauma a child has endured.

“I think there’s a misconception that when children are taken at a young age, the trauma is impacted differently. Say a baby is removed from the home and placed in a safe, loving home—there’s that misconception that that child’s not going to experience struggles related to the trauma they experienced even at that young age,” Fox says.

When LuAn Crowe moved back to Kansas in 2020 after taking custody of her grandchildren, having the classes available through FosterAdopt Connect was really important to her. Her own children were in their 20s and 30s, so suddenly parenting a 4and 6-year-old again took some adjustment.

“There were just a lot of different things in the world going on, and unfortunately, they have come from not a great spot, so

anything that could help me feel like I was on my own feet so that I could help them,” Crowe says. “...It was like being a brand-new parent again.”

She’s participated in a few retreats with the kids and even got a scholarship to attend the conference of the North American Council on Adoptable Children in Kansas City this past July. Just knowing FosterAdopt Connect is there and able to connect her family to whatever resources she might need makes a big difference for Crowe.

“Anytime I need them, I’m able to call them or email them. If they don’t know it, they’ll find out for me. I just feel more secure,” she says. “I don’t have a lot of family around us that can help us. They’re like family. They’re the village helping me stand up.”

Although some programs are specific to Kansas, the organization does provide other services in Missouri, too. If a family adopts a child through the Kansas foster care system but does not live in Kansas, they can still access the Kansas-focused programs.

One way to help is to become a respite care provider and volunteer at respite care events, which give caregivers a short break from the kids while also letting the kids meet others in similar situations to themselves. For more information on how to do

Courtesy photo

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