Subject: Christmas

• Merry Blue Christmas

  December 20, 2007

• Train-set tragedy at Union Station

  One of the best free things to do during the holidays in Kansas City is wander around Union Station. Workers there haven't put up any decorations yet, so it's too early to tell whether this year of financial distress means the Grand Hall will be less-decked. But one thing we can always count on is a giant train set. This one's been up and running for awhile now ... ​... with an opportunity for wistful Rockwellian nostalgia at every turn.​It just makes you feel all full of holiday cheer. (It

  November 12, 2009

• Spendy Entertainment

  November 19, 2009

• Gary Hoey

  November 26, 2009

• You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

  November 26, 2009

• Wayward Advent Calendar: "Hey, is that egg nog?"

  Wayward Blog would like to present to you a Video Advent Calendar. Every day from now until Christmas, we'll present a holiday-related video. Might be a movie clip, music video, or stand-up -- who knows? We promise to try and avoid anything from Bing Crosby or A Christmas Story, but make no promises. Our clip today comes from the 1996 cult classic by the Kids In the Hall, Brain Candy. If you've not seen it, you should be ashamed.

  December 1, 2009

• MP3: Sexy Accident, "A Merry Christmas To You (Steve Fisk Remix)"

  ​Easily the first local band to throw some original yule into the fire this year was KC's Sexy Accident, whose third album, Mantoloking (read our review), contained the original track "A Merry Christmas to You." That album came out, like, in August. Now, in time for the actual holidays, the Sexy Accident is back with a remix of that song, courtesy of Seattle songwriter and producer Steve Fisk. And it's pretty damn good. With reverberating electronic sounds and dialogue samples, Fisk has a

  December 1, 2009

• Festive Reprieve

  December 3, 2009

• Christmas Around Town

  December 3, 2009

• Wayward Advent Calendar: Atom & His Package, "What We Do On Christmas"

  Just to keep this balanced, as to not leave out members of other faiths, I'm throwing in the occasional tune or video that allude to other religions. In this case, it's Atom & His Package, with "What We Do On Christmas," which is the truth behind the Jewish conspiracy and how they use the fact that all good Christians celebrate Christmas. This leaves one day free for the Jewish world conspiracy to make their plans for the following year. Coast-to-Coast AM listeners -- this is a joke song, not p

  December 2, 2009

• 6 X 10 Festival

  December 3, 2009

• Friday Freebies

  KU music student Lindsey Knox will be giving her oboe recital at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon at Lawrence's Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vermont St. These student recitals are a fantastic way to get involved in classical music, without feeling as if you're being judged. You usually get a good mix of old and new classical, and there tends to be one whimsical or pop piece thrown in at the end to make things fun. Plymouth is a gorgeous church, and you should go in just to take a look at the stai

  December 4, 2009

• Last-minute Sexy Accident show tonight

  The Sexy Accident (Chad & Jesse) is playing a surprise acoustic show at the Beggar's Table Gallery tonight during First Fridays in the Crossroads. They're playing at the Beggar's Table Gallery, 2009 Baltimore at 7:30 p.m. They'll play about 15 tunes: some old, some current, and some brand new. Maybe if you ask them really nicely, they'll play that Christmas song of theirs.

  December 4, 2009

• Now you have plans for the weekend

  ​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of listings. In this post, all our problems are solved.Today is a First Friday, which means there is plenty to do and eat in the Crossroads. Start the night off at City Tavern's happy hour -- where oyster shooters are $1 between 4 and 6 p.m. If you stop in later, the daily soup is usually a winner.  No matter what type of cuisine you're cooking, you can always find guidance at the library. And now you can take that advice home permanently.

  December 4, 2009

• Wayward Advent Calendar: Lee "Scratch" Perry, "Santa Claus"

  If you're the sort of person who's more into bong rips than egg nog, we've got your song. From Lee "Sratch" Perry's most recent (and Grammy-nominated, no less) album Repentance comes the track "Santa Claus." ​We're going to be up front and honest about this. It's pretty much certain that aside from mentions of ice and snow, and Perry singing about Santa Claus soon being here, this isn't the most holiday-centric track ever made. It's pretty much a holiday jam by default, but don't get to

  December 6, 2009

• Tonight: Thunder Eagle at the Riot Room (MP3-enhanced)

  At this time of year, you can't just go to a regular old concert. That wouldn't be festive. But maybe you're not into Christmas carols and nativity scenes. Maybe you'd rather headbang to the devil's music while wearing a Santa hat. Useless Photography, courtesy myspace.com/thundereaglerockAll they want for Christmas is for you to come to their show tonight.​That sounds about right for the "Holiday Bash" happening at Riot Room tonight. At least, I can't imagine the young fellers from Thun

  December 7, 2009

• Concert Review: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's Swingin' Christmas

  BY ELGIN SMITH Well, it's that time of year again. Yep, that certain time when you start noticing Christmas trees, candy canes, visions of sugarplams and the like. While I'm generally not opposed to traditional Christmas kitsch, there is one part of Christmas that I dread: the music. Aside from Vince Guaraldi's music from the Charlie Brown Christmas TV special, I do my best to avoid traditional holiday tunes. Admittedly, I experienced a sense of skepticism when I learned that Sunday night's B

  December 7, 2009

• Wayward Advent Calendar: Snow Miser & Heat Miser

  Since Big Bad Voodoo Daddy knocked out one of the songs from the Rankin-Bass classic The Year Without a Santa Claus, it seemed appropriate to post the songs done by the villains. This is a Christmas classic on par with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but has fallen by the wayside in recent years. Christmas specials as a whole seem to be out, actually. Feel free to reminisce about specials that used to be a reason to drop everything and gather 'round the idiot box in the comments.

  December 8, 2009

• Unstoppable Singer

  December 10, 2009

• Formal Scene

  December 10, 2009

• Unstoppable Singer

  December 10, 2009

• Cookie ornaments from KCK at the Blaire House in Washington D.C.

  ​The next time you need to decorate your tree because world leaders are coming over for Christmas dinner, you should call Kodi Malott. Malott, of Kodi's Cakes in Kansas City, Kansas, was recently asked to create a series of cookie ornaments for the Christmas tree at the Blair House -- the President's guest house, across the street from the White House. It's where foreign heads of state stay while they're visiting and this month, they'll see Malott's creations. "It's exciting to think that some

  December 10, 2009

• Free EP: Matthew & Michael at Christmas

  Angel in back: "'Black Dog' next, follow my lead."​Hark, everybody! Earlier this week, I received a Facebook message from Matt Dunehoo, former frontman of the once-great Doris Henson. I hadn't heard from Matt in a while. Shortly after Doris broke up in the fall of '07, he moved to Brooklyn, NY, where he's been recording and playing around town as Baby Teardrops. It seems that back when DH was still together, Matt and his bandmate Mike Walker (who now plies his trombone for Olympic Size

  December 11, 2009

• War on Christmas not as warlike this year: Obama to blame?

  ​ We are deep into War on Christmas season (following hard upon the War on Thanksgiving season), and have noted some encouraging portents for the Jesus team. But as with the War in Vietnam, victory is in doubt if the people's hearts aren't in it, and in contrast to last year, the tone of War on Christmas commentary is now largely taking a turn for the trivial, the temporizing, and the irrelevant.Take, for example, RightPundits' WoC item, headlined, "The Christmas Atheists Are Back; Can't We A

  December 14, 2009

• Wayward Advent Calendar: Mikey's Xmas Ska Album

  Some kid posted this "ska" Christmas compilation online. Granted, several of the songs are punk, and one is nouveau swing, but for whatever reason, there's about five million ska bands out there doing Christmas songs. For instance: MU330's Winter Wonderland, Go Jimmy Go's Holiday Hell Yeah!, the Trojan Records Christmas box set, and Moon Records' Christma-Ska. I'm sure there are others. I think maybe it's the horns. ​Track listing: 1. The Blue Meanies - The Grinch 2. The Mighty Mighty Bos

  December 14, 2009

• Greetings from Crown Center at 40: Hallmark's island of misfit ideas

  December 17, 2009

• A Studies in Crap war on Christmas Special: '30s kids crave toys, neglect Jesus, attempt minstrelsy

  Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power.​ St. Nicholas for Boys and Girls Date: December, 1932 The Cover Promises: Exactly the kind of joyous, old-fashioned Christmas liberals elected Obama to destroy. Representative Quote: "Fat people may wonder why they become so very popular at Christmas time. Especially Aunts. If t

  December 17, 2009

• Who will be voted Kansas City's first 'Scrooge of the Year'?

  For the past 10 years, the St. Louis chapter of Jobs with Justice has raised thousands of dollars on the backs of misers. Each Christmas, during its "Scrooge of the Year" awards, labor unions and social justice groups nominate CEOs, media personalities and local politicians who screwed over working people during the past 365 days. Then, during an animated campaign season, participants vote with their dollars -- $1 for each vote. Jackson County Prosecutor, Jim Kanatzar​Tonight, the new Greate

  December 17, 2009

• Kansas pays Mangino $3 million to go away ... quietly

  A $3 million settlement will buy Mark Mangino's silence and a lot of oranges.​Don't expect to hear Mark Mangino bad mouth the University of Kansas any time soon. Part of Kansas' $3 million settlement to the now former football coach went to buying his silence.Mangino and the university agreed to play nice and "not disparage one another, or officials or employees or agents," blah, blah, blah. You get the idea. The $3 million is about a third of the $9.2 million that Mangino's four-year contract

  December 17, 2009

• Download Wayward Blog's Corrupted Christmas Mix

  Being as how the response to the Wayward Blog Halloween mix was so positive, we've decided to bring you our mix for the holiday season, entitled "Corrupted Christmas." It's a two and a half hour mix spanning genres and times. Neill Cameron​Basically, it's got some classics, some rarities, some happy Christmas songs, and there's the possibility that some of you with seasonal affective disorder might not want to listen to the last few songs. As the mix fades out, it gets a little grim. We

  December 18, 2009

• Wayward Advent Calendar: Cracker, "Merry Christmas, Emily"

  I suppose it's fair to assume that if Cracker's done a Christmas song, then the sky's the limit on who might do one. David Lowry's not exactly noted for his upbeat lyrics, and this song is more an ode to ex-girlfriends than an actual holiday tune. ​However, it's still pretty amusing, and who hasn't been maudlin and weepy when thinking about one's fuck-ups? The holiday season isn't exactly stellar when you're drunk and depressed, so Cracker managing to make "Merry Christmas, Emily" sound

  December 20, 2009

• Wayward Advent Calendar: David Sedaris' Santaland Diaries

  One of the joys of the holiday season is knowing that on the morning of Christmas Eve, NPR's Morning Edition will once again play David Sedaris' reading of the Santaland Diaries. However, while amazing, it's still not quite the full story. Sedaris has the whole story in print, both in his book Barrel Fever, as well as a collection of nothing but holiday stories entitled Holidays On Ice (which'll run you about nine bucks and fit neatly in a coat pocket). Here's the complete reading, in three par

  December 21, 2009

• The Sexy Accident gets some lady in the lineup

  December 24, 2009

• COMMUNION AND CANDLES

  December 24, 2009

• Family Open Skate

  December 24, 2009

• Chinese Eve

  December 24, 2009

• Pre-Christmas Party

  December 24, 2009

• ON THE HOLIDAY FRONT

  December 24, 2009

• Download DJ lo-fi's The Cassette Years: Part 2

  Every year, Sound Opinions has Andy Cirzan on the show to play a whole slew of amazingly obscure Christmas music. The guy's to Christmas music as the Numero Group is to soul records. ​This year's mix is now available at the Sound Opinions website. As Cirzan's been doing this for 20 years, he's started going back an redoing some of the tunes he used when he first started. That first bunch of mixes was on cassette, and thus some people's copies have long since deteriorated. Now, you can j

  December 23, 2009

• Holiday Weekend Distractions

  It's almost Christmas! Now, what do you do Christmas day and the weekend? Suggestions: 1. Go to the movies! Most theaters are open Christmas day. And if you don't have your heart set on a new release, head to Union Station for Polar Express in 3D. 2. Yuk it up. Comedian Elliott Threatt performs at Stanford's Comedy Club tonight. 3. Hit the jackpot! Casinos are always open. 4. Save money while spending it! The day after Christmas is a notorious holiday for bargain hunters. While your mom's

  December 24, 2009

• Wayward Advent Calendar: "Santa Mosh"

  Oh, wow. Victory Records? You've made something that is amazingly ridiculous, stupid, and over-the-top in terms of Hessian aggression and meatheaded ridiculousness. Still...this video of moshing Santas, set to "The Warrrior," by Before There Was Rosalyn, makes me smile. Thank you for not taking anything too seriously. Even though it's Christmas tomorrow, please stop by for the final installment of the Wayward Advent Calender. I'm happy to say that we never missed a day, and provided what I

  December 24, 2009

• MP3: John Bersuch and Nate, "A Bassett Friend"

  John Bersuch (of Minds Under Cover and Bacon Shoe infamy) recently hipped us to a new tune he recorded on Christmas Eve. It's not necessarily a holiday song per se, but certainly qualifies as something to which you should get your ear holes turned towards. The story, per Mr. Bersuch: http://www.flickr.com/photos/megawump/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0​Last night I went to my moms to celebrate xmas, I was going to stay the night there but I really wanted to go down to the Record Bar. So I braved the

  December 28, 2009