This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

 Thursday, August 7, 2003

In honor of National Blueberry Day (that's today), it would be nice to enjoy the sweet goodness that is the blueberry without going to a fluorescent-lit supermarket and handing over a couple of bucks, only to watch the fruit turn moldy in your fridge a few days later. The picking conditions at The Berry Patch (223rd Street and State Line Road, reachable either by Holmes or U.S. 69 Highway) haven't been so great lately; the berries ripened early this year. But the patch's Web site charts daily picking conditions so that you don't end up making the drive to pick your own berries when there aren't any berries for the picking. In addition to a U-Pik option, the facility offers a We-Pik option, allowing visitors to grab a gallon or half-gallon of prepicked berries (fresh and frozen), then turn around and leave. The Berry Patch is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. For information, call 816-618-3771. Other berry-picking venues include the Missouri Highland Farm near Jamestown (660-849-2544) and Stonehaus Farms and Winery in Lee's Summit (816-554-8880). Did you know that blueberries grow on thornless bushes? Man, screw roses.

Friday, August 8, 2003

The Spencer Museum has once again taken its impressive stash of very sexy Varga Girls pinups out of storage, but this time, it's not just the Varga Girls but other print works from the World War II era as well. The museum is showing a pacifist piece from 1944 that conveys loathing for war, and another from the same time that reminds us that ethnic profiling was not invented on September 11, 2001. It should be a pretty well-rounded show. As Print Curator Stephen Goddard explains, the museum is "always trying to show more than one side of things." The Spencer is located at 1301 Mississippi in Lawrence. For information, call 785-864-4710.

Saturday, August 9, 2003

Longtime readers may recall that we hate clowns. In a bold move against pop psychology's emphasis on letting go of negative thoughts and feelings, we vowed -- about a year ago -- never to like clowns, no matter how cool they became. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for us to confess that in the past year, we have seen one clown who filled us with cheer and joy: Delia Darling of the Burly-Q Girly Crew, who wore crazy-wide pants held up by suspenders and started shaking with fear as her cowgirl companion, wielding giant scissors instead of a gun, threatened to cut her braces, thereby depantsing her. It was funny, OK? But otherwise, clowns blow. All clowns but one. If you remain unconvinced, go to Clown Day at Crown Center today. Clown-related activities start at 11 a.m., turning Crown Center into Clown Center. We'll be the ones running away screaming because of irrevocable damage done by that traumatizing clown scene in Poltergeist. For information, call 816-274-8444.

Sunday, August 10, 2003

Your Face is more than the front part of Your Head containing Your Nose, Your Eyes and Your Mouth. It is also a venue that has brought us art of all kinds -- mostly the kind that Kansas Citians generally don't know about yet and wouldn't get to know about if not for six art kids scraping by to make it all happen. Tonight is the last opening at the 925 West 17th Street space, which is sad. But a few things make it less sad. Thing One: Gallery owners tell us, "Yes, after only nine months of production, Your Face will join the ranks of experiments thrown in the wastebasket at the expense of many tax dollars (namely our own tax dollars), leaving the frustrated scientists involved to find new ways to explore their arcane practices. Your Face as a concrete space will now be closing its doors. Rest assured, however, that Your Face will not cease to exist altogether." Despite the vague nature of that reassurance, this comes as a relief on more levels than one. Thing Two: The event taking place tonight should be unbelievably fun. Artists from a collective known as Paperrad take over, defying all of our attempts to describe them. They like bright colors in all media, it seems, and they will offer you a subscription to a mix-tape club through their Web site. Event announcements indicate we should expect Flash animations of Gumby, comics in which Garfield is stoned, handmade CDs, found objects, face painting, Nintendo music, live html writing, and unicorns. And you know, we were just sitting here thinking how it was high time we checked "see unicorns" off our list of things to do. The festivities begin at 7 p.m., and you'll be asked to make a $5 donation. For information, call 816-472-1854.

Monday, August 11, 2003