That’s not quite the point of Pastor Timmy Gibson’s field trip, which he’s calling “24 Hours in the Life of a Homeless Person,” scheduled for tomorrow. But if it goes according to plan, the stunt will land Gibson and his church on television and attract an audience for his September sermon series, “Why We Christians Suck Sometimes.”
My August 8 post about the Josephine Collective’s reaction – well, at least one member’s MySpace-aired disgruntlement – to not winning an opening slot at the 96.5 the Buzz Beach Ball 3 concert has generated a shitstorm of comments. All of the name-calling, scene-bashing and misspelled-opinion-spewing that occurred both in Josephine’s defense and at its expense inspired one reader (who asked to be identified as Aaron August) to parody the Johnson County band in comic strip form.
"Tale of a True Rock ‘n’ Roll Band," which I received via MySpace mail yesterday, contains a few misspellings and grammatical errors of its own, as well as a few below-the-belt stabs at individual members of the band. (The Brokeback Mountain potshot taken at bass player and nice guy Colby Michael Logback is especially low.) But there’s a bit of genuine humor in there, too. Maybe Josephine singer Dillon Teague Devoe will see that, if he's able to stop taking himself so seriously for about 30 seconds. -- Crystal K. Wiebe
[Click to enlarge; download and re-open to view if necessary. Two more panels after the jump.]
STUFF TO DO THIS WEEKEND FOR LESS THAN THE COST OF A DOWN-PAYMENT ON A CHEESEBURGER
If you’re like me, you’re nearly broke enough to consider applying to be Jerry Mazer’s intern and breaking into the subprime cheeseburger loan market. (I just totally squicked myself out even writing that.) Of course, I do have my own milk crate to sit on and, according to my girlfriend, am more than capable of talking in a wheedling, whingey voice. This would not be a paid internship, would it? You’d be sitting on your milk crate outside Barnes & Noble right next to Jerry, so you could totally absorb Jerry Mazer’s Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Non-existent Cheeseburgers, and he would be all hot and sweaty, and people would shout “GET A JOB!” at you all day.
While I was in Lawrence last night, I swung by Liberty Hall to check on the turnout for a concert promoting the book You’re Welcome, aka Ho’ Huntin’ and Bitch Bangin’, Wurd, which basically encourages men to use alcohol and deception to get women into bed. I don’t think authors Clay Perkins and Devin Lawrence liked the Night & Day blurb I wrote about them in the August 23 issue of the Pitch very much, especially after it inspired local band Pendergast to pull out of the show.
The Pitch and Pendergast probably can’t take all of the credit for last night’s failure, though. I’m guessing the rest of the line-up – unknowns Justin Hopkins of Los Angeles and Nick Pagliari from Memphis – probably figured in there, too, along with the event’s $10.50 ticket price. My friend Lisa and I encountered Lawrence and Hopkins in front of the Liberty Hall at about 9:30 p.m. Hopkins, whose name was on the marquee, said there was “no one” inside. Lawrence, all spiffed up for a night carousing as his alter ego Ash Nightshade, shoved fliers at us. He winked and said they had decided to make the show free “for all the ladies of Lawrence” (the city).
Yeah, we just kept walking.
-- Crystal K. Wiebe
Hundred Years War, with Ladyfinger (NE) and Attack on Uranus
Wednesday, August 29
The Record Bar
Better than: Having piping-hot Velveeta ladled into your pants.
By Jason Harper
The fairly new and not seriously conceived but seriously awesome Hundred Years War reminds me of the spoken-word monologue Nick Cave bellows on the opening track of Grinderman. It's called "Get It On," and at the opening, Cave manically yells: I got to get up to get down and start all over again!/Head on down to the basement and shout!/Kick all those white mice and black dogs out!/Kick those black dogs and baboons out!/Kick those baboons and other motherfuckers out!/And get it on! Get it on! "It is a lament for the messianic rock 'n roll hero," Cave says on the Web site, "and begins, of course, with a statement of intent."
Fucking. Sweet. (You won't hear the statement-of-intent album version of "Get It On" on Grinderman's MySpace, by the way. Go buy it.)
As Ashley Brown's article (linked above) confirms, the intent of the members of Hundred Years War -- all guys in their 30s who've been in and around bands in the midtown music core -- was to form a riff-metal band for the hell of it and see how far they could infiltrate Jim Kilroy's Metal Wars. What they've ended up with is a working, lumbering beast of a band that still doesn't take itself too seriously but rocks the fuck out.
Chris Wagner is HYW's badass bass player.
Pet lovers are slamming Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser with e-mails protesting yesterday’s decision by the parks board that puts a stop to the well-organized movement to build a dog park inside Sunnyside Park in Waldo.
The parks board put the resolution – which states that dog parks should avoid residential areas such as the one surrounding Sunnyside Park -- on the agenda with minimal notice and did not allow public comment on the item. “Makes me want to just throw in the towel and move to Johnson County, Kansas,” disappointed constituent Allyson Berberich wrote to Funkhouser in an e-mail shared with the media.
Funkhouser is out of town. A spokesman, Kendrick Blackwood, says this morning that the mayor supports the construction of more dog parks and would applaud the Waldo group's efforts. But he indicates that Funkhouser will not move to overrule the parks board’s decision. “He appointed them, and he empowered them as well,” Blackwood says.
Asked about the way yesterday's meeting was conducted, Blackwood says he expects that Funkhouser will be briefed on how the decision was made. – David Martin
Because KC hearts the Boss, we thought we'd let you know that the first single from his upcoming record, Magic, which reunites Bruce with the E Street Band, is downloadable free on iTunes. It's called "Radio Nowhere," and it rocks. It's not cut out to be a classic, epic Springsteen burner, but it's a breath of fresh air after that great but really, really rustic Seeger business.
Follow this link to be redirected to the iTunes store. You'll need iTunes on your computer, obviously. And if you haven't downloaded it free yet, now's the time, champ.
Magic hits stores October 2.
Last night, after a relaxing, late-evening jaunt through Westport, starting with dinner at McCoy's and ending with drinks until last call at Dave's Stagecoach Inn -- and can I just add how cool it was to walk by and see people enjoying live blues at Blayney's and DJs on the Hurricane deck and bands inside the joint on a Tuesday night -- a visiting out-of-town buddy and I went back to my pad and fired up the YouTube ... as men do after a night of fraternal drinking and manly carrying-on.
I wanted to show mon ami this hysterically bizarre duet between French pop godfather Serge Gainsbourg and American voodoo bluesman Screamin' Jay Hawkins. It's them riffing on the song "Constipation Blues." Basically, Hawkins yelps, hoos and makes farting noises while Gainsbourg cracks up and mutters things in French.
My friend hadn't heard of Serge Gainsbourg, so we did a tour de VousTube that led to this video for Gainsbourg's classic "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus." G-bourg originally wrote and recorded the song with his lover Brigitte Bardot, but she didn't want him to release it. She was just in it for the hot sex, evidently. They broke up, and after hooking up with gorgeous English actress Jane Birkin, Gainsbourg recorded the song with her and released it. She's the babe in this video. German anthropologists are still at work studying how the goblinlike Gainsbourg got these stunning women.
Watching this video half-bored and fully drunk, my friend observed, "I took a couple of college French classes and never really learned anything, but I would venture that what's going on here is she's saying 'I love you. I'm really hot.' And he's saying, 'I have a jacket.'"
Just thought I'd share that with y'all. Salut. -- Harper
These days Paul Lovelace is a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker in New York City. He travels the country shilling his own motion picture projects – and on his own dime. Last night Lovelace returned to Kansas City (he’s a 1995 graduate of Shawnee Mission South High School) for a screening of the film The Holy Modal Rounders…Bound to Lose at Screenland; Lovelace co-directed the documentary about the famed psychedelic folk duo with Sam Wainwright Douglas and was also one of the film’s four producers.
Well, it’s official. More than half a million dollars, and almost a year in planning and the anti-violence Community Mediation Program still won’t start until this fall. That means they’ve missed the summer -- and the time of year shootings are most prevalent.
We first reported on the program here, back before it had the cool name, AIM4PEACE: Community Meditation Program. Back then, in May, they said the program might make a late August launch at the earliest. At the time, Rachel Riley, organizer of the 24th Street Nonviolent Marchers, worried that the program would focus more on fat salaried jobs for city staff than actually stopping violence. An August 24 release from the city says the program is still looking to fill 12 positions, including a program coordinator and intervention and outreach workers. They’ll be recruiting until September 10, so if you think you’ve got what it takes to talk people out of shooting each other, you can get in touch with Tracie McClendon, of the Community Justice Program, at 816-513-3886, or apply online here; or apply in person on the fourth floor of City Hall.
The program is worth a chance. It would just be nice if it would get moving before Christmas. – Peter Rugg
Alan Ashurst tracks Kansas City's illegal dumpers
Pie Five looks to make its dough in Overland Park
Boulevard and Sierra Nevada join forces for Terra Incognita, which hits shelves Wednesday
Shatto's Cookies & Cream milk is still out there
Can't decide which urban farms to hit? Start here.
MLS All-Star Game logo being painted on side of Crossroads building
Jerry Rapp, CinemaKC president, answers The Pitch's questionnaire
McDonald's sued by employee who wants a check, not a debit card