Arts & Entertainment, Pitch

Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat author, on his way to our fat town

Scott Wilson — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:21:00 -0500

"People keep bringing up wistfulness," Jim Gaffigan says. We're on the phone, talking about Dad Is Fat, the comedian and actor's first book.…

No producer Daniel Dreifuss' international connections include Missouri

Dan Lybarger — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:14:00 -0500

The Chilean movie No, which opens today in Kansas City, has taken festival prizes at Cannes and São Paulo, was an Oscar nominee this year for Best Foreign Language Film, and is well worth seeing. It depicts Chile's 1988 plebiscite, when a majority of the country's citizens voted to end the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, through the eyes of an ad man (Mexican star Gael García Bernal, The Motorcycle Diaries).…

Mondo's Army of Darkness poster unveiled

Scott Wilson — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:15:00 -0500

It's been a little more than eight months since Alamo Drafthouse brought one of its Mondo poster parties to town, and the wait was killing people. Tickets for tonight's Army of Darkness screening - at which the latest Randy Ortiz movie-poster design was just revealed, following the film - went faster than a chainsaw through human flesh.…

American Heartland Theatre closes in August

Deborah Hirsch — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:14:00 -0500

Crown Center's American Heartland Theatre, which opened April 1, 1987 - and just celebrated its 26th anniversary on Monday - plans to shut off the stagelights for good in August, according to a statement released Thursday afternoon.

For now, the shows go on.…

Harrison Ford coming to Kansas City for 42 screening in April

Ben Palosaari — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:40:00 -0500

Perhaps one of the most important lessons you learn at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is the role Kansas City had in Jackie Robinson's career and, ultimately, the breaking of baseball's color barrier. And on April 11, Hollywood is going to recognize Kansas City's part in the story.…

Lauren Faust, queen of the Bronies, set for KC FilmFest

Dan Lybarger — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:22:48 -0500

Lauren Faust, the woman who popularized My Little Pony cartoons with little girls and adult male fans, is scheduled to attend a Kansas City FilmFest screening of the documentary Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony at the Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet (at 14th Street and Main).

Faust, who is credited as an executive producer on Bronies, is slated for the Saturday, April 13, screening at 8 p.m.…

The Kansas City Japanese Film Festival returns tomorrow

Scott Wilson — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:00:30 -0600

It's been almost two years since the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami killed approximately 16,000 people. The World Bank has called it the most expensive natural disaster on record, and those injured or displaced by it continue to suffer.…

Ernie Hudson is coming to Crypticon Kansas City this summer

Jonathan Bender — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 07:00:00 -0600

With the talks of a third Ghostbusters movie refusing to die, perhaps it is only appropriate that Ernie Hudson is among the actors who will be attending Crypticon Kansas City. The annual horror con is slated August 16-18 in a new location that will be "announced soon."…

Travel Channel's Christmas Crazier features KC's Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Jonathan Bender — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:13:16 -0600

"This is how we do Christmas in Kansas City," say four bros in holiday wool, and with that you are brought into a universe of tipsy santas and elves. The Travel Channel filmed last year's Ugly Christmas Sweater Party in Kansas City and aired the results last week on its Christmas Crazier program.…

Mike Tyson's one-man show stops in KC next April

Jonathan Bender — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 08:34:42 -0600

The one-ring circus is coming to town. Mike Tyson, known to a few generations for his devastating punching power as a heavyweight and to the younger set for his cameo in The Hangover, has set the tour dates for his one-man show, Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth.…

Christopher Walken talks A Late Quartet

Dan Lybarger — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:53:00 -0600

With his slow Queens drawl, high forehead and even higher hair, Christopher Walken has never been anything less than distinct. But in a career that spans (according to IMDB) 121 TV and movie appearances, the Oscar winner is most widely known for a specialty portfolio of volatile antagonists, unhinged protagonists and generally obsessive types (one of whom memorably keeps demanding "more cowbell" from Blue Öyster Cult on Saturday Night Live, a show he has hosted seven times).…

Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three on surviving death row and proving his innocence

Dan Lybarger — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:00:00 -0500

In 1993, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. were charged with killing three 8-year-olds in West Memphis, Arkansas. Despite its slapdash case, the prosecution convinced a jury in 1994 to send Echols to death row, and Baldwin and Misskelley to life in prison.…

Tony La Russa talks One Last Strike at the Uptown

Jonathan Bender — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:00:00 -0500

Tony La Russa didn't always receive the warmest welcome in Kansas City, but that was when he was the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals (which was usually busy drubbing the hometown team). Now out of uniform, but back to talk baseball, it's an entirely different ballgame.…

Rizzloe Jones was unleashed on America in the KC episode of X Factor

Jonathan Bender — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 08:41:00 -0500

A prep-school version of Mac Lethal was the surprise of last night's X Factor — the singing talent show that stopped at the Sprint Center this June in an attempt to suss out Kansas City's hidden musical gems. Rizzloe Jones, the towheaded rapper who unbuttons just enough of his polo shirt to be edgy, freestyled his way into the next round (here's E Online's recap of the entire show).…

Cole Lindbergh can't stop singing about Worlds of Fun

Jonathan Bender — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:07:09 -0500

In case you hadn't heard, it's a Prize Winnin' Day. That's the latest track to come out of the Worlds of Fun crew, courtesy of a young MC by the name of Cole Lindbergh.…

Dee Wallace on healing, horror and Rob Zombie's new movie

Charles Ferruzza — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:00:00 -0500

Actress Dee Wallace — a native of Kansas City, Kansas — gets back to her hometown a couple of times a year, usually quietly for family visits (her younger brother and stepfather still live here) or to teach an acting class or to host a healing seminar. It's been more than two decades since she performed at Starlight Theatre, and she did Hay Fever at Johnson County Community College 10 years ago.…

Van Damme marathon 'Van Dammage' comes to Alamo Drafthouse on Thursday

Ben Palosaari — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:31:00 -0500

Anybody with a TV or who has visited even slightly male-oriented websites in the past three weeks knows that action meat salad flick The Expendables 2 is opening in theaters this Friday. The film features nearly every major star of action films (and Old Spice commercials) in the last 25 years.…

Alamo Drafthouse debuts latest Mondo poster: The Goonies

Ben Palosaari — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 20:32:00 -0500

Kansas Citians watching tonight's screening of The Goonies at the new Alamo Drafthouse (1400 Main) just got their first look at the event's special poster (which is quite a bit different from the one that originally accompanied the 1985 film). Now you get to see it.…

'Before I Die' art installation is up in the Crossroads

Jonathan Bender — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 07:30:00 -0500

A chalkboard version of this secret dreams list is now up in the Crossroads. Before I Die...Kansas City, an art installation about what we want to do before we leave this Earth, is currently spread across seven chalkboard panels on the brick facade at 214 West 20th Street.…

Todd Barry chides KCI for its earnest Twitter account

Ben Palosaari — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:35:00 -0500

One of the many great things about Twitter is that it allows PR folks, brand managers and press agents the ability to instantly reply to problems and concerns, but it provides too little space for them to be verbose and make excuses with bunches of qualifications. Kansas City International Airport's official feed is an excellent example of this new PR practice.…

KU professor to write and direct movie about 1957 Jayhawks basketball season

Ben Palosaari — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:33:10 -0500

KU Assistant Professor of Film Kevin Willmott is making a movie about the Jayhawks' 1957 run to the NCAA men's national championship basketball game. And, like just about every artist these days, he's looking to Kickstarter for help.…

Alamo Drafthouse makes its move to Kansas City official

Ben Palosaari — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:39:00 -0500

On Monday, AMC and Cordish finally broke up for good. They're no longer going to cooperate to run the AMC Mainstreet theater downtown.…

The Way It Was: Douglas Brinkley's new Walter Cronkite bio brings the newsman home.

Dan Lybarger — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:46:00 -0500

When Walter Cronkite declared, "That's the way it is," almost every weeknight from 1962 to 1981 on the CBS Evening News, it was easy to believe him. After all, the man was from Missouri.…

Johnson County boobaphobe wants Overland Park to disappear arboretum's Yu Chang sculpture

Scott Wilson — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:22:00 -0500

Here's a short list of things more important than the terror that the above sculpture, at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, is causing one think-of-the-children rube: (1) anything else; (2) no, really, anything else in the world; (3) especially the season premiere of The Real Housewives of New York.

Yu Chang's smart, socially engaged "Accept or Reject" is too nipple-y for ~~noted art critic~~ Stilwell mommy Joanne Hughes, who has started a petition to have the bronze statue hauled away from the public space.…

The Kansas City Public Library wants your nominations for the 2012 'Publitzer' Prize for Fiction

Justin Kendall — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:40:00 -0500

The Pulitzer Prize Board didn't give an award for fiction this year. In light of the snub, the Kansas City Public Library has stepped up and is asking for nominations for its first ever "Publitzer" Prize for Fiction.…