Archive Search Results

21. Martin

    Strangler Strikes Again

    With a $1 million contract at stake, the road gang at HNTB leaves nothing to chance.

    By David Martin

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Shooting dirty pool, one of Kansas City's best-known companies has landed a big contract to fix a mistake of its own making. The engineering giant HNTB is in line to receive...

22. Feature

    Uneasy Riders

    To be a bicyclist in Kansas City is to face fear, loathing — and death. It's just so wrong.

    By Carolyn Szczepanski

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Larry Gaunt was a regular customer at Chris Smedley's Bicycle Shack, just off Blue Ridge Boulevard. One day in late July, Gaunt brought in his granddaughter, 14-year-old...

23. Burnt Ends

    A New Score

    Who really wants to know how many points the Royals are down, anyway?

    Published: November 8, 2007

    You're driving west on Interstate 70, and you're about to reach those blinking yellow lights that tell you you're going too fast. Slow down or you'll miss, to your left, the...

24. Burnt Ends

    Tell Us

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Do you like to see your name in the paper? Even if that paper is The Kansas City Star? The Star's FYI section is forever soliciting submissions. This year alone, FYI's editors...

25. Letters

    Readers Tell Sex Police: Get Off

    After all, porn is one of the reasons God gave us eyes.

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Feature: "Sex Police," October 25 The Porn Supremacy I found Justin Kendall's "Sex Police" insightful and intriguing. I also find appalling the extent to which certain...

26. Ask a Mexican®

    Holier Than Usted

    Watch where you toss those insults and Bible verses, amigos.

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Dear Mexican: I like to think that I'm an open-minded sorta guy for a teenager. I fervently oppose racial stereotypes, though I do think that they're good for a laugh or two...

27. Interview

    Rapping With the Band

    Could live instrumentation lead the way out of rap's sales slump?

    By Chris Parker

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Hip-hop's bubble has burst. All those allegedly real gangstas are about to become personally acquainted with the capitalist concept of creative destruction. The only question...

28. Buckle Bunny

    Drag Rock

    Mercury Mad dresses up so we can get down.

    By Crystal K. Wiebe

    Published: November 8, 2007

    DOWNLOAD: Mercury Mad and the Plastic Bitches: “Single” MP3On Halloween night at the Uptown Theater, a red-wigged drag queen screams into the mic, "I'm Mercury Motherfuckin'...

29. Night Ranger

    The Search for Zen

    The Night Ranger searches for Zen and comes up with a cliffhanger ending.

    By Jen Chen

    Published: November 8, 2007

    The Night Ranger is about to turn 5 years old in December and, quite frankly, I'm feeling a bit sodden. During that time, I've written roughly 240 columns and left a trail of...

30. Bonus Tracks

    Piano Girl

    Tori Amos looks back on the characters who sang her songs.

    By D.X. Ferris

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Tori Amos is now on tour supporting American Doll Posse, her best CD in years. It's the piano-playing singer-songwriter's 10th studio album — if you count the record she...

31. Bonus Tracks

    Sputnik Sweetheart

    Regina Spektor comes out of a difficult romance and releases a brilliant album. Coincidence?

    By Michael Gallucci

    Published: November 8, 2007

    “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor, from Begin to Hope(Sire) Singer-songwriter Regina Spektor gets understandably frustrated when listeners try to distill parts of her private life...

32. Bonus Tracks

    The Download

    Saul Williams

    By Andy Vihstadt

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Saul Williams pulled a Radiohead last week. The hip-hop slam poet is giving away his third LP, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, on his Web site. Riding...

33. Critic's Choice

    Art Brut

    By Ben Westhoff

    Published: November 8, 2007

    With its most recent album, It's a Bit Complicated, London's Art Brut takes a step away from being simply a hilarious concept and toward being an actual rock band. Lyrically,...

34. Critic's Choice

    Lavay Smith

    By Lorna Perry

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Amy Winehouse's various shortcomings make for big news these days, but thankfully, she's not the only throwback singer out there worth her weight in torch songs. Lavay Smith,...

35. Critic's Choice

    A Life Once Lost

    By Andrew Miller

    Published: November 8, 2007

    On its 2000 debut album, A Life Once Lost played frenzied dervishes, with squiggly technical riffs and thrashy drumbeats overshadowing Robert Meadows' underenunciated growls....

36. Critic's Choice

    Tigercity

    By Richard Gintowt

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Plenty of indie-rock bands make tongue-in-cheek references to Prince, but the only ones worth listening to are the ones that can actually back it up. Tigercity is one of those...

37. Critic's Choice

    The Pedaljets

    By Jason Harper

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Pedaljets "Giants of May” by the Pedaljets, from the album The Pedaljets (OxBlood): If late-'80s local band the Pedaljets was ahead of its time, it was the members' own time...

38. Spin Cycle

    DJ Shad

    By Chris Milbourn

    Published: November 8, 2007

    Controlling a crowd of feisty clubgoers is the mark of a maestro. DJ Shad, who was just named Best Club DJ in our "Best Of" issue, continues to display his careful command over...

39. Cafe

    No Sad Song

    A sad state of mind just made Café Song's food all the more comforting.

    By Charles Ferruzza

    Published: November 8, 2007

    I'm one of those people who, when sad, wants to either cry or eat. I've been known to do both at the same time, but it's not really a pretty sight. I recently cried through a...

40. Fat Mouth

    Mac Like Crack

    When one joint stops serving macaroni and cheese, some folks nearly go into withdrawal.

    By Charles Ferruzza

    Published: November 8, 2007

    A reader called me last week to complain that one of his favorite fast-food fried-chicken spots in Kansas City, Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, had stopped serving his favorite...