The Pitch, Pitch

So is Kansas City International a convenient airport or not?

Steve Vockrodt — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:54:00 -0500

Plenty of local residents think that Kansas City International Airport is fabulously convenient, especially compared to larger airports.

Research firm J.D. Power & Associates agreed - at least they did in 2010 when they festooned KCI with their highest ranking for passenger satisfaction among medium-sized airports, in part due to its convenience at the check-in counter and security checkpoints.…

Soundgarden's sludgy sound, last night at The Midland (review)

Steve Vockrodt — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:53:42 -0500

After playing five songs to open its Wednesday night show at the Midland, Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell told the crowd the band was about to play a song it hadn't performed in about 16 years. "Maybe since the last time we were here," he said.…

Why you shouldn't eat the snow cones at Minute Maid Park

Jonathan Bender — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:12 -0500

The Kansas City Royals' most recent road trip was like taking snow cones in the bathroom, things went downhill in a hurry. After getting swept by the Oakland Athletics and then dropping two-of-three to the Houston Astros (who can now the thank the boys in blue for a whopping 14 percent of their 14 wins on the season), the Royals limp home at a game under .500.…

Kansas City is not a top-five beer city

Jonathan Bender — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:00:59 -0500

The challenge when one is aspiring toward greatness is being recognized too early. The danger is that you feel like you've arrived before you've actually done the work to reach your destination.…

Rob Zombie is coming to Cricket Wireless Amphitheater

David Hudnall — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:00:08 -0500

We missed this one in the flood of summer concert announcements, but: Rob Zombie is coming to Kansas City in a few months. He'll be at Cricket Wireless Amphitheater on Monday, August 5.…

Voltaire - the saloon, not the philosopher - opens tonight

Charles Ferruzza — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:01:00 -0500

It's been a long time - decades, maybe - since you gathered up your favorite vinyl records and hauled them anywhere (except a secondhand store in order to get rid of them). Now there's a venue in Kansas City where you can eat, drink and listen to your rare 1958 Somethin' Else LP with Cannonball Adderly, Miles Davis and Art Blakey.…

Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper are headed to Cricket Wireless Amphitheater

David Hudnall — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:47:34 -0500

Alice Cooper was a sort of shock-rock pioneer in the 1970s. Marilyn Manson took up the mantle in the 1990s.…

Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn face two new civil lawsuits

Ben Palosaari — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:20:00 -0500

Just one week after the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph settled a $600,000 civil lawsuit with a family swept up in the diocese's child-pornography scandal, it faces two new suits. A lawyer representing two Missouri girls filed civil suits Tuesday against the diocese, Bishop Robert Finn (who already pleaded guilty to misdemeanors during the scandal) and the Rev. Shawn Ratigan.…

WWE's Monday Night Raw returns to Kansas City October 14

Justin Kendall — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:01:26 -0500

Monday Night Raw may have just been in Kansas City, but the WWE's biggest weekly television show is returning to the Sprint Center on October 14 for another live go-round on the USA Network. Tickets went on sale for the return date as Monday's show played out.…

Big Rip Brewing Co. expands the Northland's beer universe

Jonathan Bender — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:00:00 -0500

Josh Collins flips open the lid of a white 5-gallon bucket to reveal the lustrous red juice inside.

"This is what we got from 60 pounds of organic raspberries and three hours with a juicer," he says.…

Yo La Tengo is at Grinders tonight

David Hudnall — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:37:44 -0500

Big surprise: Fade, the latest Yo La Tengo record, its 13th, is another gorgeous batch of gently fuzzy, melodic pop songs. (The moment when the strings come in on the chorus of "Is That Enough" is among the most pleasurable things I've heard on an album so far this year.)…

Courtney Cole, Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus executive director, answers The Pitch's questionnaire

Justin Kendall — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:00:29 -0500

Name: Courtney Cole

Occupation: Executive director, Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus

Hometown: Excelsior Springs

Current neighborhood: Elms Boulevard in Excelsior Springs

Who or what is your sidekick? My 5-year-old daughter, Mackenzie

What career would you choose in an alternate reality? I would be a professional political activist ... oh, wait, that's what I am.…

A consultant tells KC that big retail could save Citadel Plaza

Steve Vockrodt — Wed, 22 May 2013 06:00:15 -0500

In the retail industry, there's an old adage that "retail follows rooftops."

Which means: Retail stores such as Walmart and Target open in places where people already live, and where they expect those with good earning prospects to move in the future.

But a consultant hired by Kansas City, Missouri, seems to buck that analysis, suggesting that the blighted corner of 63rd Street and Prospect is ripe for four or five big-box retail stores.…

Fast & Furious 6

Jason Shawhan — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

by Jason Shawhan If the entirety of the nitro-burning delirium that is Fast & Furious 6 were just Gina Carano fighting Michelle Rodriguez, it would be the best movie of the year — a new-millennium Faster, Pussycat! Kill!…

Jazz Beat: The Jazz Disciples, with Book of Gaia

Larry Kopitnik — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

by Larry Kopitnik The hard-driving, in-your-face, contemporary jazz of the Jazz Disciples (Gerald Dunn on sax, Everett Freeman on piano, Bill McKemy on bass and Michael Warren on drums) anchors a couple of the Blue Room's most popular monthly shows. This Saturday night, the Jazz Disciples are joined by Book of Gaia, a sharp ensemble featuring three of Kansas City's finest jazz singers: Angela Hagenbach, Pamela Baskin-Watson and Nedra Dixon.…

Burt Bacharach looks back — but keeps going

Dan Lybarger — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

by Dan Lybarger Burt Bacharach turned 85 this month but did almost nothing to lighten his still hectic schedule. When The Pitch contacted the producer-composer-pianist by phone, he was about to leave a New York hotel to catch a flight, on to the next event.…

Hurlyburly: Coke is tough, being a man tougher

Liz Cook — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

A terrific cast takes its audience on a long, thrilling ride. by Liz Cook The Living Room's electric revival of Hurlyburly caps a spring theater season that has hummed with masculine energy. Director Bryan Moses' production exposes a male angst so manic and so thick that you picture the stage crew hosing testosterone off the walls after every performance.…

Does the city need a new, billion-dollar Kansas City International?

Steve Vockrodt — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

The city studies plans for a new KCI terminal. by Steve Vockrodt November 12, 1972, marked the middle of a terrifying 32-hour jet hijacking, one of the more remarkable such air-industry ordeals in U.S. history. A trio of hijackers, one of them a prison escapee, commandeered a Southern Airways DC-9 leaving Alabama with 27 passengers and four crew members.…

Streetside: Surviving the Mystery Train's murder-mystery dinner theater

David Hudnall — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

We take a stab at the Mystery Train. by David Hudnall There was a time, and it was not that long ago, when the promise of a free meal was enough to persuade people to accompany me to just about any event, no matter how stupid. But lately, everybody seems to have a little more money and a lot less time.…

Music Forecast May 23-29: Cheap Trick, Japandroids, Drive-By Truckers, El Ten Eleven, Dawes and more

David Hudnall — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

by David Hudnall Cheap Trick The power-pop pride of Rockford, Illinois, is still touring 40 years into its career. Cheap Trick knows no other way — or, at least, its members have no other marketable skills.…

Barry Anderson's The Janus Restraint: The Ascension chips off some Iceland for summer

Tracy Abeln — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

Barry Anderson's exhibit chips off some Iceland for summer. by Tracy Abeln Barry Anderson is known for his bright, colorful video works: bars and diagonals and bubbles, light-rich abstractions that act as moving collages. His art features regularly in group exhibitions around the country and is in a number of museum and private collections, and recently he has collaborated with bands such as the U.K.'s Written in Waters, making abstract videos for their music.…

Waldo's Kokoro Maki House makes decent sushi — and good Korean food

Charles Ferruzza — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

Find both Korean cuisine and sushi at this Waldo spot. by Charles Ferruzza "There are not four Korean restaurants in Kansas City," said a friend of mine who is something of an expert in the cuisine of the Korean peninsula. "There are seven."…

Nineties KC-Lawrence club fixture DJ Ray Velasquez returns home for a few shows

David Hudnall — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

DJ Ray Velasquez comes home for some shows. by David Hudnall Those tuned in to the local club scene in the 1990s will remember Ray Velasquez. In addition to hosting Nocturnal Transmissions, a Saturday-night, electronic-music program on the much-loved Lawrence station KLZR (the Lazer) 105.9, Velasquez was a pioneering DJ at venues in KC and Lawrence from 1983 until 1999, when he moved to New York City.…

DelHi Soul Food Buffet closes in KCK

Charles Ferruzza — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:04:42 -0500

Fast Pitch reader Chris Whitmore arrived at the DelHi Southern Cuisine Buffet, the family-owned soul-food restaurant at 8055 State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, a little too late. It was closed - for good.…

OSHA orders reinstatement of Wolf Creek whistle-blower

Steve Vockrodt — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:36:00 -0500

There's more bad news this week surrounding the closest nuclear reactor to Kansas City after regulators determined that a contractor for the Wolf Creek Generating Station was fired in retaliation for calling out unsafe practices there.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on May 15 published an order to reinstate an unnamed employee for Enercon, a contractor for the nuclear power plant 80 miles away near Burlington, Kansas.…