The Pitch: February 2019

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CONTENTS

THE PITCH

Publisher Stephanie Carey Editor David Hudnall Digital Editor Kelcie McKenney Staff Writer Emily Park Contributing Writers Traci Angel, Liz Cook, Karen Dillon, April Fleming, Roxie Hammill, Libby Hanssen, Deborah Hirsch, Dan Lybarger, Eric Melin, Aaron Rhodes, Barbara Shelly, Nick Spacek Little Village Creative Services Jordan Sellergren Contributing Photographers Zach Bauman, Chase Castor, Joe Carey Graphic Designers Austin Crockett, Jennifer Larson, Katie McNeil, Danielle Moore, Gianfranco Ocampo, Kirsten Overby, Alex Peak, Vu Radley, Zachary Trover Director of Marketing & Promotions Jason Dockery Senior Multimedia Specialist Steven Suarez Multimedia Specialist Becky Losey Director of Operations Andrew Miller Multimedia Intern Rebekah Lodos Design Intern Jake Edmisten

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Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Carey Chief Operating Officer Adam Carey

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COPYRIGHT

The contents of The Pitch are Copyright 2019 by Carey Media. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written permission of the publisher.

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

28 MUSIC

Youth Group LK Ultra is ushering in a more diverse, more inclusive era in the Lawrence scene.

BY NICK SPACEK

30 Unholy Spirits

Inner Altar’s DIY doom.

BY AARON RHODES

20 6 GET OUT

Your February Agenda Who to see, what not to miss.

BY DAVID HUDNALL

10 NEWS

Minor in Communications A troubling lack of transparency is hobbling JCCC at a time when it should be celebrating.

BY ROXIE HAMMILL

12 PROFILE

Freedom It seems everybody wants McClain Bryant Macklin to run for something.

They will have to wait.

BY TRACI ANGEL

14 Good, Clean Fun

With Sans Bar KC, Melissa Saubers aims to disrupt Kansas City’s boozecentric culture.

BY EMILY PARK

16 SHOP

Hey, Hot Stuff Say “I might kind of like you” this Valentine’s Day with these local spicy bois.

BY LIZ COOK

18 CAFE

Beirut in Briarcliff In a Northland strip-mall storefront, Queen Sweets and Bakery is serving up some seriously tasty Middle Eastern treats.

BY LIZ COOK

20 FOOD

Cheap Eats A recession’s coming. Brace for it with these deliciously frugal KC food tips.

BY APRIL FLEMING AND DAVID HUDNALL

23 The Midtown MAGA Diet

How to eat like a good boy, own the libs, and make our big president proud.

BY AARON RHODES

24 EAT

32 Big on Instagram

Wichita’s Tommy Newport embodies a new brand of digital-native rock star.

BY AARON RHODES

34 FILM

Early Returns The Academy Awards would do well to ignore several Golden Globes favorites.

BY ERIC MELIN

36 SAVAGE LOVE

Fursuit of Happiness Getting serious with a furry husband; getting curious about becoming a cuckoldress.

BY DAN SAVAGE

38 EVENTS

February Calendar More events to fill your schedule.

Eat This Now Farro with crispy egg at The Campground

BY APRIL FLEMING

25 DRINK

Drink This Now Pickled Beer at Krokstrom Klubb and Market

26 ARTS

Wellin’ Out Two chances this month to take in the socially conscious compositions of Kurt Weill.

BY LIBBY HANSSEN

COVER

“Burger and Fries, Please,”

by Zach Bauman

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GET OUT

February

Shelf Life

Thursday, February 7 The Brick thebrickkcmo.com

A bimonthly series from David Wayne Reed, Shelf Life picks a common theme — this time around, it’s “Guilty Pleasures” — and builds an evening of object-based storytelling around it.

On the bill for this show: Cathy Barnett, Jose Faus, Benji King, Kristen Thomas, and the man himself, DWR.

ia-based songwriter into a new stratosphere. It’s a calm, cool, collected type of guitar-rock record that occasionally drifts into moments of sweeping majesty and surprising tension. Check out the song “Night Shift,” and you’ll want to check out this show. Illuminati Hotties open.

Elton John

Wednesday, February 13 Sprint Center sprintcenter.com

Elton John played the very first concert at Sprint Center (back in 2007!), and he returns this month to play his last. The old man is hanging up the touring life for good and nearing the end of his multi-continent, 300-date “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour. The stage show is described as a “highly visual journey spanning a 50-year career of hits.”

Lucy Dacus

Tuesday, February 12 The Bottleneck thebottlenecklive.com

Lucy Dacus’ 2016 debut album won a bit of buzz, but last year’s Historian propelled the Richmond, Virgin-

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

Travis Scott

Sunday, February 17 Sprint Center sprintcenter.com

The Texas-bred performer and Kar-

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February dashian accessory brings his maximalist aesthetic to KC for a Sunday-evening installment of his Astroworld tour.

Endless Variety, Matchless Talent!

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From Around Here

Thursday, February 21 Kansas City Public Library — Central Branch kclibrary.org

A collaboration between photographer Lara Shipley and journalist Ann Friedman, the multimedia project “From Around Here” examines migrational dynamics in Columbus Junction, Iowa, where the white population is thinning out as immigrants arrive for jobs at Big Ag operations and meat processing plants. Shipley and Friedman discuss the implications at this library talk.

KC Symphony Presents: The Music of Michael Jackson

Friday, February 22 and Saturday, February 23 Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts kauffmancenter.org

The King of Pop gets the symphony treatment. Expect hits spanning MJ’s 40-year career: everything from “ABC” to “Man in the Mirror.”

Kurt Vile and the Violators

Wednesday, February 27 The Truman thetrumankc.com

More than a decade deep into a prolific career, Philly songwriter Kurt Vile returned last fall with Bottle It In, a max-chill zone-out record studded with noise jams, country flourishes, and subtle humor. It’s his best record since 2011’s Smoke Ring for My Halo.

Canadian country-rockers the Sadies open.

2 p.m. l Saturday l Feb. 2 Lisa Loeb – Feel What U Feel A Kids Sing-Along l Pre-K to 1st Grade

8 p.m. l Saturday l Feb. 2 An Evening with Lisa Loeb Hear Loeb perform her hit single, “Stay (I Missed You),” from the film Reality Bites, along with “Do You Sleep,” “I Do” and many more.

Soccer Mommy

Tuesday, February 26 RecordBar therecordbar.com

Clean, by Soccer Mommy — aka 21-year-old Sophie Allison — cleaned up on end-of-year critics’ lists. The melancholy, guitar-driven, indie-pop record drew raves across the internet, and even from The New York Times, which declared it the best record of 2019. Hovvdy opens.

Action Bronson

Thursday, February 28 The Granada thegranada.com

The rapper slash gourmand arrives in Lawrence in support of his recent, perhaps self-referentially titled album, White Bronco. Meyhem Lauren opens.

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thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

9

NEWS

Minor in Communications A TROUBLING LACK OF TRANSPARENCY IS HOBBLING JCCC AT A TIME WHEN IT SHOULD BE CELEBRATING. BY ROXIE HAMMILL

A guy in mid-15th Century swashbuckler attire beckons you forward and up the walkways of the student center at Johnson County Community College. Rather than his usual feathered chapeau, the cartoon drawing dons an orange hard hat, with arrows pointed to show you how to safely pass through the boarded-up area that will one day be the college’s new front door. The mascot, an English cavalier named Jean Claude, is supposed to represent the grit and determination of students.

But these days, Jean Claude may just as likely be drawing his sword in self-defense from the onslaught of criticism some recent school decisions have wrought.

There was the highly-publicized cancellation of the track program, followed by a protest walk and demolition of the track.

There was a decision on College Now placement that prompted a blistering faculty censure. An audit by the

college’s accreditation agency noting concerns about communication. A confrontation with neighbors over a proposed emergency exit through an adjacent park. And most recently, a vote taken just as finals ended that would raise tuition $1 per credit hour next fall.

Through it all, the college has been fighting a reputation for opaqueness. Over the past couple of years, alumni, faculty, and neighbors have complained about late or zero notice about important decisions.

Those decisions, they say, are often crafted at committee meetings in which minutes are hard to track down. Even trustee meetings sometimes note important issues like the recent tuition increase under a vague agenda heading the average reader is not likely to notice.

A cavalier attitude, you might say.

Good for a mascot.

But not what you look for in your local community college.

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Johnson County Community College is one of the things Johnson County leaders like to bring up when they brag about their quality of life.

The school, founded by county vote in 1967, sits on 200 acres at College Boulevard and Quivira Road. Today, enrollment is at 18,300 students, and most would agree the school serves the community well. JoCo high schoolers commonly sign up for college-credit classes through JCCC before graduating, or take their first couple of years at the community college to save a little cash. There are a lot of adult learners there too. Once in a while someone — usually a Johnson County old-timer — will make the mistake of referring to JCCC as “juco,” or junior college. But as the school’s president, Joe Sopcich, is always quick to note, JCCC has a national footprint, showing up on some lists of top community colleges in the U.S. Sopcich himself is one of 19 community college presidents on the board of the League for Innovation, a nonprofit group that encourages new ideas in community colleges.

In keeping with its quest for excellence, the school is currently at work on a $110 million

building project. It started out as a way to upgrade JCCC’s career and technical education building, which dated all the way back to 1981. Then a consultant was brought in, and things began to snowball. Other building projects were added. Fine arts will soon have its own building. Tutoring centers will be added to the library. The student center will have a new front door facing a parking area, with more of a welcoming common area inside. “We’re just trying to get beyond having the US Bank branch being the first thing people see when they come into the student center,” Sopcich says.

With all this action and all this acclaim, the college should be sailing into its 50th anniversary on a magic carpet. Instead, the building project has been marked throughout by controversy.

Take the track. Alumni and high school hopefuls said they were blindsided last year when JCCC decided to end its track program. The track, which still appeared in a different location on one of the rough drafts of the building plan, was totally done away with by the time the building plan was voted on. It was demolished a few months later, but not before some alumni and local track advocates started a campaign. There was a website, social media organizing, and a gathering to “walk the track” before it was torn up. Save the Track advocates printed up t-shirts that they wore to the school’s fundraising 5K in October, using a spirit of irony to take Sopcich up on his offer to donate $5 of his own money to the scholarship fund for each person who outran him.

Looking back now, Brian Batliner, one of the organizers of Save the JCCC Track and a former track team member, says his group tried to plant a seed of positive change at the college.

“It was a nice moZACH BAUMAN

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

NEWS

ment,” Batliner says. “It seemed to me we were breaking down some of these barriers.”

Nevertheless, the school’s position has not changed. Last year, Sopcich said keeping the track program would end up raising students activity fees, which fund sports scholarships. He still says the decision was strategically correct. As for reinstating the program, “That’s an issue for the future. It depends how it could work. It depends on whether or not the trustees would approve it. We’re holding to what we’re doing now as far as our strategy goes.”

Homeowners around Stoll Park near the college also took issue with a different part of the master plan last year when the college asked the county park district for a small connection that would allow cars to leave the campus through the adjacent park in an emergency. The college eventually lost that battle, after residents set their ears on fire about it and the park district voted it down.

The homeowners, remembering secret talks to give the college the park 14 years ago, spent hours telling school officials they doubted their motives and transparency. At one point, a counselor employed by JCCC stood up and said, “I just don’t trust the college.”

For them and others, the objection is not only about the decisions but the way the college goes about them. Cancelling the track program, for example, never appeared as a separate agenda item at a trustee meeting and was voted on under the umbrella of the entire building program. Records of its discussion were sparse to non-existent.

Likewise, a recent vote to increase tuition by $1 per credit hour for Johnson County residents ($2-$3 for those outside the county) happened at the end of the semester under an agenda item on “budget guidelines.” Student Senate President Tiger Harris-Webster says he only heard about it ahead of time because another faculty member mentioned it to him (though Sopcich differs on this, saying he specifically pointed out the proposed increase).

Most students were taking finals around the time the trustees had their vote, meaning the Student Senate did not have enough time to hold a meeting and form an official opinion beforehand, Harris-Webster says. When it came up at the Dec. 13 trustee meeting, Harris-Webster and Christopher Bergin, another student senator, asked for a delay. But trustees approved it anyway, citing the restrictions of the budget-setting deadlines.

Nowhere was unhappiness with the decision-making process at JCCC felt more keenly than among the math faculty, though. In late 2017, the faculty senate censured administrators who rewrote enrollment requirements on College Now without consulting the faculty. College Now

students can earn dual college credit in high school and college if they are approved for the program. The new guidelines allowed high schoolers, in some circumstances, to enroll in math and science courses without showing proficiency through a placement score. Some 417 students were allowed to enroll without meeting proper guidelines, said Beth Edmonds, chair of the math department, in a letter to her colleagues. She went on: “I’ve had occasion recently to explore the dictionary to find synonyms that I could use for this situation. Here’s what I found: shocked, exasperated, galled, irritated, annoyed, vexed, angered, infuriated.”

That the administration didn’t collaborate with the faculty was “unsettling” and

ZACH BAUMAN

“SOMETHING IS TRULY GOING ON RIGHT NOW WHERE TRUST AND RESPECT ARE AT A LOW EBB.”

contributes to the college’s trust issues, Edmonds says in an email to The Pitch, stressing that these are her personal opinions and don’t represent the faculty.

“In all honesty, there are always trust issues,” she says. “This is probably true in any educational institution that does not exercise shared governance.”

But mistrust has been particularly keen since the College Now decision. Edmonds quotes a long-time colleague at JCCC, who says, “I have never experienced a time at JCCC when morale was so low.”

She adds, “Something is truly going on right now where trust and respect are at a low ebb.”

Today, Edmonds says she believes the strongly worded censure, written by an-

other faculty member, at least empowered instructors there to “use their collective voice to communicate through the only channel they had open to them. From that perspective, it should be considered impactful. From the perspective that in the future, JCCC administration may be more thoughtful about its actions, it’s possible this may occur. However, this remains to be seen.”

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Dissatisfaction with the College Now decision rippled into the college’s accreditation audit this year when some faculty members brought it up during the site visit, which was JCCC’s first in 10 years. The result was a recommendation from the Higher Learning Commission that JCCC submit a report this fall updating the commission on how the administration and faculty communicate among themselves and with each other. (The college did, however, get re-accredited.)

Administrators take that seriously, says

Sopcich. “We’ll be stronger for it. Our whole attitude about accreditation is they’re going to find things here and it’s an opportunity for us to get better at it and to be stronger.

So we welcome their insights.”

In fact, transparency will be improved this spring, when the administration expects to begin putting all committee meeting minutes in one location, says Chris Gray, associate vice president of communications and marketing for JCCC. Sopcich concedes there’s always room for improvement.

“But the other issue is it’s a relatively large organization of about a $150 million budget and almost 3,000 people working here,” he says. “We don’t really screen every decision in a public forum. It’s almost impossible to do.”

Sopcich says his administration stands by its past decisions. All of the decisions were made with the goal of keeping the school safe and student-centered while maintaining standards and competitiveness, Sopcich says. The college hosted listening sessions with Stoll Park neighbors and eventually gave up the access plan, even though it would provide an extra safe exit option, he says.

Likewise, he says, the tuition increase, taken after three years of no increase, was relatively minor and done to mitigate a bigger increase when the next recession hits.

The track decision was also strategic. Sopcich points out the college still invests $6.2 million in athletic facilities that will also be used by the community.

“There’s always going to be displeasure when you say no,” says Gray. “You’re always going to hurt one side when something doesn’t go their way.”

“Nobody likes to have anything cut,” Sopcich says. “But sometimes you can’t do everything.”

JCCC still get gets high marks in satisfaction in the community and has seen an increase in giving, Gray says. And the comments from the accreditation agency were only one blemish in what was overall a glowing report, he adds.

Batliner says all the conflicts of the past couple of years have been instructive, even though the school still has a ways to go. It’s all served to get the administration’s attention, he says. “My theory is that they’ve sort of been forced to look themselves in the mirror and say, Maybe we do have some changes we need to make here…”

Student president Harris-Webster says he’d like to eventually have a non-voting student body member on the board of trustees. “I’m not trying to throw anyone under the bus,” he says. “I believe everyone there really has a heart for the students and for the school to do well. But I don’t believe there are avenues set up that really spread out information very well.” thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

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Freedom

IT SEEMS EVERYBODY WANTS MCCLAIN BRYANT MACKLIN TO RUN FOR SOMETHING. THEY WILL HAVE TO WAIT.

BY TRACI ANGEL

CHASE CASTOR

In October, up on the 26th floor of City Hall, McClain Bryant Macklin was meeting with Keslie Spottsville, a member of the Black Archives Board and an advocate for development in the 18th and Vine Jazz District. As new development marches eastward from the Crossroads, the historic district — a civic cash-guzzler, dogged for decades by mismanagement — looks more attractive by the day. Spottsville was looking for a way to emphasize younger voices in the discussion about the future of 18th and Vine. Branding would be key. Spottsville was energized.

“It’s a jewel of an asset that we aren’t capitalizing on,” Spottsville said. “It’s an international draw that should not require that much effort. I want to protect it [the district’s culture and history] but also draw in others. Are you ready to make 18th and Vine and First Friday as big as it can be?”

Bryant Macklin seemed like precisely the right audience for this kind of pitch.

Most obviously, there was her title: director of policy for Mayor Sly James. But Bryant Macklin also comes from eastside royalty.

Her father, Mark Bryant, was a city councilman in the 1980s and later the president of Freedom, Inc., the political club that, among other things, helped launch now-Congressman Emanuel Cleaver’s career. As Kansas City’s first black mayor, elected in 1991, Cleaver was instrumental in the early efforts

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

to redevelop 18th and Vine. If anybody was capable of merging the rich but complicated cultural history of 18th and Vine with James’ branding-centric, creative-class politics, surely it was McClain Bryant Macklin.

Instead, though, not a lot happened.

Bryant Macklin sat back and listened, and then said, “We will try our best,” agreeing to help put together a focus group of millennials to figure out how to generate interest.

On her way out, Spottsville asked about Bryant Macklin’s plans for the future.

“I work for the mayor,” Bryant Macklin replied. “When he’s out, I’m out.”

Actually, she didn’t even make it that long. James leaves office this summer. In January, Bryant Macklin became director of policy and research for the Civic Council of Kansas City, a quiet organization many people in this city have never even heard of. Some people, including her own father, suspected she might run for an at-large city council seat this year. Nope.

“There isn’t any question she is going to be in the upcoming generation’s leadership corps,” Cleaver tells The Pitch. “I just don’t know what she will want to do.”

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Growing up in the cradle of Kansas City eastside politics, Bryant Macklin got an ear-

“THERE ISN’T ANY QUESTION SHE IS GOING TO BE IN THE UPCOMING GENERATION’S LEADERSHIP CORPS.” EMANUEL CLEAVER

ly education in ideas about civic responsibility. While her father advocated for policy on the city council, her mother, Rosemary, Batey, worked with neighborhood associations, helping establish Troostwood. Many Saturdays, Bryant Macklin would be out posting yard signs. She was friends with the children of Missouri state legislator Mary Bland as well as Cleaver’s children (“He was like an uncle to me,” Bryant Macklin says of Cleaver.) It was a group of kids that worked the precincts as soon as they were out of the crib.

“It was explained to her that every citizen has an obligation to participate in the democratic process and that very few people do, but if they do participate you have the ability to impact people’s lives so to get involved and stay involved,” Mark Bryant says.

Bryant Macklin eventually moved out east of Kansas City with her mom, graduating from Blue Springs North in 1999. She only applied to one college, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, where she ultimately enrolled in a five-year MBA program. She graduated summa cum laude but then “wondered what I could do with my MBA,” she says.

She went to law school: George Washington University, in D.C. She did an internship on Capitol Hill and briefly considered becoming a lobbyist. The plan was to stay

PROFILE

out east; Kansas City wasn’t looking very appealing. Then her dad suggested she return to her hometown, telling her he saw new opportunities in KC. In 2007, she took a job clerking at the law firm Husch Blackwell. Stylish by nature, she started hanging around Method, an upscale men’s clothing store owned by fellow Husch clerk David Lloyd and Shomari Benton. (She helped select the women’s inventory.) Lloyd says he thought of Bryant Macklin as reserved until he got to know her.

“We would go to these big events for the law firm and nothing seemed to phase her,” he says. “In a non-climber way, she is really driven.”

Bryant Macklin’s community background helped her connect with Sly James, whom she met while she was practicing law. “[His] reputation preceded him,” she says. “He was a legend among minority associates.”

During a break on a case James was mediating, Bryant Macklin approached James and told him about her Freedom Inc. background. She mentioned she was interested in modernizing the political club and establishing a younger base.

“She was in touch with a different demographic than I was — hanging around the younger folks,” James says. “I knew that she could help in that regard.”

When James decided to run for mayor, Bryant Macklin, Benton, and Lloyd organized campaign fundraisers and invited their friends, many of them young professionals. After James won, in 2011, he appointed Bryant Macklin to be his policy director, serving as liaison between his office and various departments.

Over the last eight years, she’s worked on a variety of issues: housing, immigration, transportation. One of the things she’s most proud of is co-drafting a digital-equity strategic plan for the city. Her work involved finding revenue sources and designing a program for donating surplus equipment to refurbish for low-income residents. She helped to promote and pitch the KC model to other cities.

“It helps ensure residents are equipped to take part in the digital economy and find ways for residents get connected to broadband,” she says. “We made a lot of progress and we have to keep on maintaining that progress so that it reaches all parts of the city and that it’s equally shared among residents.”

“She has done wonders in trying to bridge the digital divide [between] public, government, and private business, and [worked for] digital literacy on both sides of Troost,” James says.

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Cleaver is right: a new generation of political leaders in Kansas City is beginning

to take shape. You can see it in the upcoming mayoral and council races, which feature several serious candidates from the millennial generation. And it’s right there on social media, where eager and engaged civic voices can make themselves heard without seeking permission and favor from gatekeepers.

Bryant Macklin doesn’t really fit snugly into either of these descriptions. She’s largely behind the scenes, preferring to view herself as a quiet unifier. At an Urban Summit meeting in late September in the Northeast, Bryant Macklin sat off to the side holding her then-three-month-old son Micah on her lap.

“I go [to these meetings] every Friday to stay abreast on what might impact the black community,” she told me. “They are the eyes and ears to the streets, and I go to make sure I am aware.”

Cleaver still attends the occasional Urban Summit meeting and says he often sees her standing to the side.

“A lot of leadership is showing up and being there and not trying to inch your way to the front of the room,” he says. “She doesn’t say, ‘Look at me.”’

In small ways, Bryant Macklin has begun to dip her toes into more political waters. She’s served on the boards at KC Parks and Rec, Mattie Rhodes, Jewish Family Services, Calvary Community Outreach, Swope Health Services, and Women’s Leadership Forum (which is, notably, part of the Democratic National Committe). “She has given us well rounded advice and she has such a broad network,” says John Fierro, president of Mattie Rhodes.

She also was appointed to the board of Metropolitan Community College after another member moved out of the district.

MCC made a lot of sense for Bryant Macklin, as workforce development was an area she focused on at the mayor’s office. But when she came up for reelection, she lost to Cindy Adams. It’s just as well, Bryant Macklin says.

She married in 2017, to Joseph Macklin, a music producer who has worked with Justin Bieber, Jill Scott, and Ariana Grande. And motherhood has made her more conscious of how she spends her time. “I’m narrowing my focus,” she says.

Likewise, she passed on running for city council this time around. “It would be difficult for me to be the kind of candidate and run the kind of campaign right now with [my son] being so young,” she says.

Hence, the Civic Council — a post that will put her in closer contact with the corporate community’s priorities (and money) as opposed to street-level neighborhood policy.

“Long term, I want to continue to serve the community,” she says. “I hope there are a bunch of opportunities that come my way.

My goal is to just keep working in and with the community and advancing community interest and making my city better.” thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

13

FEATURE

Good, Clean Fun WITH SANS BAR KC, MELISSA SAUBERS AIMS TO DISRUPT KANSAS CITY’S BOOZE-CENTRIC CULTURE. BY EMILY PARK

Angela Braun describes herself as “sober-curious” — she drinks occasionally but is interested in exploring a social life that isn’t built around alcohol. So, this past New Year’s Eve, she tried something new, transforming her Waldo hair and yoga studio, Hagoyah, into a nightlife venue, with a dance floor, live music, food, and drinks.

The drinks, though, were mocktails, with ingredients like blood orange, ginger shrub, sparkling water. No alcohol.

“We wanted to do something a little bit different for New Year’s,” Braun says. “I feel like there’s kind of a stigma to people who don’t drink, and I wanted to help bridge that if I could.”

The booze-free bash — which drew about 60 revelers — was the first Kansas City installment of Sans Bar, a series of alcohol-free pop-up bar events planned by Braun’s neighbor, Melissa Saubers. Saubers, who founded and owns Cowork Waldo, doesn’t drink at all; she quit two-and-ahalf years ago after noticing her reasons for drinking were motivated by stress and that the results were no longer particularly fun.

But she worried that cutting alcohol out of her life would be devastating to her social life.

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

“One of my biggest fears was that I would lose all of my friends, that I wouldn’t have anything to do, that I wouldn’t be fun anymore,” Saubers says. “I found out that none of those things are true. But what I also found out is that most of society doesn’t think about people who don’t drink.”

Throughout her journey of sobriety, Saubers was encouraged by meeting people who, like herself, defied old-school stereotypes of non-drinkers. One was Baylee DeLaurier, whose decision to stop drinking came not after some rock-bottom episode but rather after realizing she was drinking too many nights of the week. She’d attempted to quit before, but always felt dragged back in by the alcohol-centric culture in her work and social circles.

“I didn’t feel like I had a ‘capital P’ problem,” DeLaurier says, “but it was in the way of me having the best life I can have.”

Saubers was also delighted to learn about Sans Bar, a wellness-oriented pop-up bar in Austin, Texas. Sans Bar hosts gatherings with alcohol-free, handcrafted beverages and encourages local businesses to hold events with a comparable number of non-alcoholic and alcoholic drink options.

Saubers thought the idea could work in KC.

MARISSA WEBB TONKOVIC

So, along with DeLaurier and Braun, she got to planning the New Year’s Eve party at Hagoyah. By all accounts, it was a success.

“I didn’t feel like I had to worry about anybody,” Braun says of the New Year’s party. “It was just safer — it’s hard to explain the energy of it, but it just felt lighter and more genuine. People were really having a good time.”

The long-term goal for Sans Bar KC is to establish a permanent physical location, but for the foreseeable future it will take the shape of monthly pop-ups. Next up is a Valentine’s Day party at Williams Way Event Space (208 W. 19th Street) in the Crossroads, to be held on February 9. The event is designed to be inclusive for both singles and couples, and will include a live performance by the local band Mark Crouse and Friends.

Other events are scheduled for April 20 and July 20, and Saubers says they’re considering a St. Patrick’s Day party on March 16.

(For tickets and more information about Sans Bar KC’s events, visit sansbarkc.com or check out its social media under the handle @sansbarkc.)

Saubers encourages those on the fence about a booze-free night out to try it at least once. It’s a flexible environment, she says, ideal for those recovering from alcoholism, but also for those who just don’t like to drink, or even people who just want to enjoy a night out without it.

“I now have a whole, huge, new group of friends,” Saubers says. “I never would have found all these wonderful friends if I didn’t stop drinking.”

KELCIE MCKENNEY

Sans Bar KC Valentine’s Booze-Free Bash Saturday, February 9, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM 208 W. 19th Street, $30

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Valentine’s Day gifts, particularly if you’re in a new relationship, can be a minefield. Flowers and chocolates seem a little impersonal (and a lot cliché).

But grand gestures and heartfelt homemade crafts can backfire, too. Ever been held hostage while a nascent boyfriend tried to play you a Ryan Cabrera song on guitar?

You say it best when you say it with capsaicin.

The pain from hot sauce inspires your brain to release feel-good endorphins. It’s like negging, only without the misogyny! Plus, the hot sauce bouquet still invites plenty of cringe-y Valentine’s Dad puns. For your consideration: “Hey, hot stuff.” “For my saucy sweetheart.” “Are you a scorpion pepper? Because you’re tearing up my insides.”

We’ll stop there.

If you’ve got a hot sauce fanatic in your life, the best gift is something they haven’t tried before.

Which means: step away from the Marie Sharps and Tabascos in the grocery store aisle and slip into something a little more local. Whether you’re buying for a significant other or engaging in some solo saucing, these five local options are a great way to round out your blazing bouquet.

Zombie Blaster Burnt Marshmallow Hot Sauce My pantry is a graveyard of novelty sauces. I can’t resist buying dessert hot sauces only to invariably end up disappointed when they taste more like dessert than hot sauce. But Common Descent Provisions has finally gotten the balance right with Zombie Blaster, a slightly sweet “burnt marshmallow” sauce that doesn’t shortchange heat. The sauce pours a molasses brown with char-black freckles, and the spice (courtesy of dehydrated Thai chiles) lingers on the lips and the tip of the tongue.

The burnt sugar flavor shines through, but the sauce isn’t overly bitter. In fact, it’s surprisingly versatile thanks to a base of tomato puree, vinegar, and garlic. Use it anywhere you’d use Huy Fuong’s Sriracha, which is no less sweet.

Pro tip: Zombie Blaster is especially good at waking up a sad frozen pizza.

Find it: commondescentprovisions.com

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

Hey, Hot Stuff SAY “I MIGHT KIND OF LIKE YOU” THIS VALENTINE’S DAY WITH THESE LOCAL SPICY BOIS.

BY LIZ COOK

Boys Grow Avocado Hot Sauce I can think of plenty of reasons to support Boys Grow, a local organization that mentors young men and provides hands-on experience in agriculture, cooking, marketing and design. But the tastiest one might be the avocado hot sauce engineered by the Boys Grow class of 2014. The smooth, medium-bodied sauce is a little nutty and a little sour, with a generous splash of lime and salt. The creamy avocado sands off some of the jalapeño bite — as hot sauces go, this one’s fairly mild. The upside is that you can drown your food in it without sweating off your mascara. Pour this on eggs and tacos or tip it into your pozole.

A, um, friend tells me it’s also great sprinkled liberally on the broken tortilla chips in the bottom of the bag.

Find it: The Sundry, Nature’s Own Market, McGonigle’s Market

Zim’s Nuksas Hot Sauce Roeland Park-based Zim’s makes different heat levels of its signature sauce, but for my money, Nuksas is the best balance of flavor and fire. This is buffalo sauce in barbecue cosplay: it comes in a chubby brown glass bottle, lists molasses as the third ingredient, and pours the rust-brown color of a well-spiced brisket. Although the sauce has a rounder, mellower tang from apple cider vinegar, the heat is still the main event, with a slowly building back-of-the-throat burn.

A savory kick of Parmesan cheese funks up the sweet notes like jazz. I suspect this would make a hell of a wing sauce, but I never seem to have enough left in the bottle to test the hypothesis.

Find it: Made in Kansas City, Nature’s Own Market, McGonigle’s Market

Rat Bastard Red [Na]palm Pepper Sauce When I started taste-testing sauces, I was committed to choosing five different purveyors for #balance. But a fair accounting isn’t always balanced, which is why Common Descent is taking up two of the slots on this list. Rat Bastard is an all-purpose workhorse, with a clean, habanero-forward heat and a bright citrus profile from grapefruit concentrate. Jerk seasoning adds warmth and complexity to the sauce without overpowering the other flavors, and lemongrass lends a subtle fragrance.

Although the sauce includes ghost chili pepper, you don’t need a scorched palate to appreciate it. On the oven dial of spice, this one’s somewhere between medium and medium-high. Fringe bonus: Common Descent’s labels, designed by founder and saucier Chris Bengston, are comic-strip colorful and look great on the (refrigerator) shelf.

Find it: The Bunker, commondescentprovisions.com

Test-Kitchen Sauces from Original Juan’s This pick feels like cheating, since it’s not technically a single sauce. But if you’re a fan of flavor, you owe it to yourself to visit the Original Juan’s factory outlet store on Southwest Boulevard at least once. The sauce-to-dollar ratio here is obscene. In addition to blending and bottling sauces for local and national brands, Original Juan’s has an onsite test kitchen where a research and development manager and a full-time chef experiment with sample batches. The test-kitchen sauces aren’t going to win any awards for packaging design, but they’re an inexpensive way to taste new and experimental flavor combinations. Recent highlights include a white-chocolate jalapeño hot sauce (creamy, zesty, thick) and a Korean-style barbecue sauce brimming with spicy gochujang and earthy, fermented flavors.

The offerings are constantly rotating (and never available for long), so keep checking in until you find something you love.

Find it: Original Juan’s Factory Outlet Store

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thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

17

CAFE

Beirut in Briarcliff IN A NORTHLAND STRIP-MALL STOREFRONT, QUEEN SWEETS AND BAKERY IS SERVING UP SOME SERIOUSLY TASTY MIDDLE EASTERN TREATS. BY LIZ COOK

It’s hard to carve out room for dessert in a wellness culture that’s latched onto sugar as its current Big Bad. It’s harder, still, when many restaurants treat dessert as an afterthought. Pastry chefs have increasingly vanished from restaurant payrolls, and they’ve taken my appetite with them. What’s the point of another flourless chocolate torte or grainy sorbet churned out mindlessly from a kitchen that resents plating them? What exactly are we doing here?

We’re doing fine, as it turns out. But I needed a trip to a Northland strip mall to learn how to love dessert again.

Queen Sweets and Bakery opened last February in a narrow storefront between a massage parlor and a halal meat market and grocery. For the first few months of business, husband-and-wife team Mohamed and Kay Bataineh focused on the sweets. Mohamed managed the store; Kay, the executive chef, kept the pastry cases filled with battalions of baklava and platters of Jordanian cakes and confections as small and delicate as doll furniture.

You can buy Kay’s walnut or almond

baklava by the pound, and it’s good enough to buy in Costco portions. But the main draws here have less of a foothold in the local dining scene. I was bowled over by the basbousa, a humble-looking semolina and coconut cake soaked in simple syrup to yield a moist but delicate crumb. On the other extreme, texture-wise, was a single-serve round of kanafeh, a spindly bird’s nest of pastry held together by a hidden disc of sweet, unsalted cheese.

My favorite was a pastry whose name Mohamed translated from the Arabic as “between two fires” (“bain nareen” appears to be the most common spelling in Latin script). Queen Sweets’ version starts with a flaky cup of phyllo dough, its edges curled like a spring-drunk flower. In goes a dollop of fresh clotted cream; on goes a sprinkling of chopped pistachios. The confection tastes deceptively clean and light, sweetened only by a crown of rose-honey syrup drizzled just before serving.

Eating the bain nareen is an exercise in visceral, childish pleasure: stiff cream that threatens to plop from the pastry, flakes

HAPPY HOUR

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

The lamb shawarma sandwich (left) and assorted sweets — rolled baklava, kanafeh, baklava, and bain nareen.

ZACH BAUMAN

The lamb shank was a simpler dish but no less flavorful. Each morsel was luscious and fatty, plucked easily from the bone. The dish comes with two sides, and I’d firmly nudge you toward the dolmas if they’re available. Although they aren’t yet listed on the menu, the tangy grape leaves (stuffed with a gooey rice filling and rolled into tight little cigars) provide the ideal acidic bite to complement the rich lamb.

But if you can only order one side, make it the baba ganoush. I’ve tasted so many versions of the dip bittered with smoke and char that I’d forgotten just how good an eggplant can be. Kay’s baba ganoush is bright and garlicky, blended just to cohesion to retain a homestyle texture with a few tender islands of fruit.

Another lesson in execution: the falafel sandwich. Each puck was a textural marvel — soft but not gummy, crisp-crusted but not crumbly. For once, I was focused more on the falafel than the addictive tahini sauce that dressed it.

The shawarma sandwich applied that same sauce to a generous filling of grilled meat (you can order the sandwich with either chicken or a lamb mix, and both are delicious). Eating it was a messier endeavor

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of phyllo that fall onto your lap like ash, a sticky, floral syrup that coats the pads of your fingers long after you’ve finished the last flaky bite. Yes, sugar can be a mindless endorphin mine — a bowl of M&Ms in a dreary corporate cubicle. But it can also be this thoughtful, this careful, this good.

Attentiveness appears to be the Batainehs’ calling card. In May, the couple expanded the bakery into a full-service restaurant, with a lunch and dinner menu marrying northern Jordanian dishes with Lebanese recipes from Kay’s grandmother.

The mashawi mix plate provides an ideal introduction to Kay’s food. Three different (halal) kebabs, each with a slightly different spice and flavor profile, sizzle atop a mound of fragrant saffron rice studded with allspice berries.

When I ordered it, the chicken pieces were juicy and rouged with spice, the lamb bites were perfectly chewy, and the koftas of ground beef were luxuriously seasoned and seared on one side for the optimal balance of tender meat and flavorful crust. Lumberjacks or couples can order a larger mashawi plate that doubles the meat and feeds two.

But the single plate is still a small mountain of food. In addition to the rice, my plate was piled with a small Mediterranean salad (stippled with sumac and parsley) and a creamy, elemental hummus that let the subtle flavor of the chickpeas shine.

4010 Pennsylvania Avenue Suite D KCMO 64111 greenroomkc.com | 816-216-7682

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CAFE

Queen Sweets and Bakery 4107 North Cherry Street, Suite C 816-462-8252

Hours: Sunday–Thursday: 11 AM–8 PM Friday–Saturday: 11 AM–11 PM

Prices: — the thin flatbread couldn’t quite hold up to all that moisture — but I take a certain primal pleasure in lapping a rivulet of sauce from the inside of my wrist.

Fortunately, this isn’t a place that demands fussy etiquette. The ambience is about what you’d expect from a family-run joint in a strip mall: fluorescent lights, white drop-ceiling tiles, artificial brick-patterned facades. Ketchup comes in individual packets; the brown paper napkins are branded with the Macy’s logo.

But Mohamed knows how to craft hospitality with limited resources. As the general manager, Mohamed is the de facto

face of the restaurant — he bags a steady trickle of carry-out orders for GrubHub and DoorDash drivers, weighs and boxes the sweets, and runs the register all while serving and bussing the restaurant’s scant handful of tables.

Somehow, he never seems stressed.

Somehow, he finds time to describe each dish and dessert to unfamiliar diners with the unhurried air of an old friend. Somehow, the dishes always hit the table on time.

Queen Sweets and Bakery is one of those restaurants that feels paradoxically endangered by its own success. Maybe I’ve got the winter blues, or maybe I’m just burned

Sandwiches $5–$7 Turkish coffee (left) and the mashawi plate with saffron rice and baba ganoush

Entrees $8–4

ZACH BAUMAN

out on the nothing-gold-can-stay lessons of the Trump epoch. Every day seems to provide another grim object lesson, another this to chalk under the column labeled why we can’t have nice things.

I would like us to keep this one nice thing, even if we have to keep it in the Northland. Queen Sweets and Bakery is a small, necessary reminder of the meaning of hospitality and the gift of a thoughtful meal.

From full service to express drop-off and everything in between, you can rest assured that you will get the menu and service you need to make your celebration a success!

Desserts: $6–10/lb

Best bet: Order the mashawi mix plate with saffron rice and a side of baba ganoush. The only wrong choice for dessert is skipping it.

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thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

19

CE HA ET AS P FOOD

It’s not just you: going out to eat is way more expensive than it used to be. Food prices have risen 24 percent since 2008, with costs expected to continue to escalate 2-3 percent a year moving forward. Now compare that to your salary ten years ago. Now, health insurance. And so on. Even at mid-range restaurants in Kansas City, $20 plates — sometimes $30 plates — are increasingly common. Unfortunately, you should probably just get used to it.

Or: maybe not! Hack this city’s food scene by strategically eating cheap and delicious food at the following places. Some are classics, some are new, some are happy-hour-only, some are once-a-week deals. But they can all ease your bank-account anxieties while keeping your tum sated.

Distrikt Biskuit House What to get: the Distikt Biskuit Price: $8

A RECESSION’S COMING. BRACE FOR IT WITH

THESE DELICIOUSLY

FRUGAL KC FOOD TIPS. WORDS BY APRIL FLEMING AND DAVID HUDNALL PHOTOS BY APRIL FLEMING AND ZACH BAUMAN

There is no debate: the best chicken biscuit in the city is made by chef Guroux Khalifah at his ever-relocating Distrikt Biskuit House.

(It’s currently inside the Adam’s Mark Hotel out by the stadiums, at 9103 East 39th Street.) Starting with buttery, fluffy, thick biscuits — 4 inches tall and baked every morning on site — Khalifah adds a crispy,

highly seasoned, fried chicken thigh, a fried egg, and a smear of tangy aioli. This absurdly delicious, lovingly made sandwich works as either breakfast or lunch (it comes with home fries) and will fill you up for the better part of the day while costing less than a Big Mac Extra Value Meal.

Town Topic What to get: double cheeseburger Price: $5.80 The humble Town Topic (multiple locations; we favor 1900 Broadway) cheeseburger is seen by many as the city’s greatest late-night indulgence: thin, never-frozen, all-beef patties seared on the griddle and topped with caramelized onions and gooey American cheese. The burger is so iconic that it has spawned tributes at recently opened high-end spots like the Savoy at 21c and Corvino Supper Club and Tasting Room. But the original remains the king,

FOOD

tively cheap, but our pick for the cheapest and tastiest is Carniceria y Tortilleria San Antonio (830 Kansas Avenue), where you can pick up four tacos for $5 any day of the week. These tacos are filled with your choice of meat: stick-to-your-ribs barbacoa, tangy al pastor, buche (stomach), tripa (tripe) and juicy, savory carnitas. Stop at the salsa bar to next-level your taco order by loading up on onions, cilantro, pico de gallo, fiery habanero salsa, pickled carrots, and more.

Bella Napoli What to get: pizza Price: $5 on Mondays This neighborhood deli-market-restaurant (6229 Brookside) serves half-price pies on Mondays. What does that mean for you? A $5 pizza, but also a bit of a wait. People know a damn-good deal when they see one.

and it can be had at any hour of the day for a mere $5.80.

Kitty’s Cafe What to get: pork tenderloin Price: $5.25 The standard Kansas City pork tenderloin is a comically oversized chicken-fried patty that dwarfs the bun on which it is served. Kitty’s (810 ½ East 31st Street) is different. It stacks up three crispy, tempura-battered pork cutlets and serves them alongside classic fixings — lettuce, tomato, pickles — and a healthy dash of hot sauce. This $5.25 sandwich (chicken and fish options are also available) has a remarkable origin story as well. It was created by the restaurant’s original owners, Japanese-American Paul Kawakami and his wife, “Kitty,” who founded Kitty’s after being forced to live in an internment camp during World War II. The restaurant transferred ownership many years ago, but this classic items remains, and has surprisingly few imitators in taste or price.

Papu’s Cafe What to get: gyro Price: $6.99

Joe’s Kansas City may be world-famous, but it’s not the only joint in town serving

up amazing food adjacent to the unleaded pumps. Papu’s Cafe (604 West 75th Street), located inside a Shell station in Waldo, has a reputation that’s slowly spreading beyond its neighborhood. It is certainly the only gas station in town with its own gyro spit, from which generous hunks of tender lamb and beef are cut for the restaurant’s much-loved gyros — served traditionally with tzatziki sauce, tomatoes and onion on warm, pillowy pita bread.

Fric and Frac What to get: tacos Price: $2.95 for three on Saturdays The price points at Fric and Frac (1700 W. 39th Street) are unusually specific: $5.65 for this, $11.15 for that. We don’t mind, especially when we’re there to take advantage of its various weekly deals. After 6:30 p.m., they do two-for-ones on burgers (Mondays) and gyros (Wednesdays). But Saturday’s special is our fave: $2.95 for three simple, addictive, served-in-a-red-basket hard tacos. All day long, baby.

Poi-Ō What to get: half-chicken Price: $8 At Poi-Ō (1000 West 25th Street), chef Carlos Mortera and his father (also named Carlos Mortera) brine their chickens for 24 hours in a blend of vinegar, garlic, chili powder, salt, and pepper before slow-roasting them whole over an open flame. The half chicken comes served with spicy pickled vegetables, warm tortillas, and an addictive salsa verde. It’s a lot of effort, but the resulting birds are intoxicatingly good.

Empanada Madness What to get: empanadas Price: $3

Bizz and Weezy What to get: sweet potato panini Price: $5-ish Most people know Bizz and Weezy (1800 Baltimore) as a confectionary, but the Crossroads spot quietly serves a mighty fine — and mighty affordable — lunch as well.

Healthy salads and half sandwiches hover around $5, and you can toss in chips for an extra dollar. We like the sweet potato panini, a vegan option that comes dressed with cranberry chutney, mixed greens, and feta.

The Rieger What to get: the pork soup Price: $9

Stuffed with shredded beef, chicken, or potatoes and eggs, the empanadas at Empanada Madness (906 Southwest Boulevard; 13155 State Line) are good enough for Royals catcher (and Venezuelan native) Salvador Perez, and thus they are good enough for us.

A perfect low-key lunch for those who work downtown.

Go Chicken Go What to get: snack pack Price: $4.79 Gizzards with G-Sauce is the main draw at Go Chicken Go (multiple locations, but the best is 59 N. 7th Street in KCK). And we respect that. But we’re also partial to the simple “snack pack,” which gets you two pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes, and a roll for under five bucks.

The only dish that has remained on the menu at Crossroads favorite the Rieger (1924 Main) since it opened in 2010 is the pork soup. Pork confit and roasted garlic is added to a deep, silky pork broth, which is topped with a layer of brûléed comté cheese and a chicharron “crouton.” Few dishes under $10 anywhere feel quite so luxurious.

Especially on a cold night, this dish will tuck you right in.

Carniceria y Tortilleria San Antonio What to get: tacos Price: 4 for $5 The best taquerias in Kansas City, and quite possibly all of the Midwest, are located in Wyandotte County. All of them are rela-

Marco Polo’s What to get: Italian sausage Price: $2.95 A longtime favorite among Kansas City baby boomers, the Italian sausage at Marco Polo’s (1201 W 103rd Terrace) wears its age well. thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

21

FOOD

Grilled potatoes, peppers, and onions, plus a nice sausage, served on a roll — and just three bucks.

Caddy Shack What to get: pizza Price: $10

gro w n by h and

made by han d

The crust is crispy, the sauce is sweet (we like sweet sauce; some don’t), and the toppings are generous at this Columbus Park dive (700 East 3rd Street). Bonus: they deliver.

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These wings just happen to be gluten free, egg free, and dairy free but don’t let that scare you - they are truly awesome.

Carollo’s What to get: Napolitano sandwich Price: $6.95

A trip to Carollo’s (9 East 3rd Street) in the River Market is a great reminder of Kansas City’s Italian heritage as well as an opportunity to sample imported Italian foodstuffs at reasonable prices. We favor the craveable, big-as-your-head sandwiches, and our favorite is the Napolitano, stacked tall with capocollo, salty salami, and prosciutto, and topped with shredded lettuce and a tangy giardiniera (pickled Italian vegetables). Feeling proud of your savings? Finish off the meal with a homemade cannoli.

Niecie’s Restaurant What to get: chicken and waffles Price: $11.25

Completely Different . . . and Absolutely Better!

1110 E SANTA FE ST OLATHE, KS 66061 (913) 210-5170 STRIPSCHICKEN.COM

22

THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

Chicken and waffles are all over KC menus these days — no complaints here — but our

favorite is at Niecie’s (6441 Troost Avenue).

Here, you receive a generous dish of crispy, crunchy fried wings served atop a fluffy, powdered-sugar-dusted, butter-plopped waffle, with hot sauce on the side. Pair it with some house-made lemonade, and you have a decadent meal that works any time of the day.

The Brick What to get: burger basket Price: $6 on Wednesdays We love the damn Brick. We love the easy vibe, we love that it’s O.G. Crossroads (open at 1727 McGee since 1999), we love its Saturday Brickfast (all-you-can-eat biscuits and gravy, $1 bloodies), but we especially love the Wednesday special: burger and fries for $6, with veggie and turkey options available.

Costco What to get: hot dog and soda Price: $1.50 Costco has a pharmacy. Bear with us here.

There’s a pharmacy, and if you tell the greeter that you’re there to pick up a prescription, he or she likely won’t ask you for your Costco card, which as we understand it costs something like $120 a year. Now you are inside Costco. Sell the lie by walking toward the pharmacy, then angle back toward the food stand. At the food stand, they do not ask for your Costco card. Don’t be distracted by the flashy menu items, like the chicken bake or the brisket sandwich. Eyes on the prize: a hot dog, which comes with a 20 oz. soda, for only $1.50. Order it confidently.

You have reached an elite level of frugality.

There is no going back.

Bon Bon What to get: anything Price: half-off on Tuesdays We stopped by Bon Bon (806 Pennsylvania, Lawrence) in December, eager to order the Thai wings we’d so enjoyed on our last vis-

it. But they weren’t on the winter menu. So we settled for something called Bon BBQ: Carolina rice grits, Chinese barbecue pulled pork, kimchi, an egg, and crispy shallots.

And it was even better than those wings!

Moreover, it happened to be a Tuesday, and at Bon Bon on Tuesdays they do happy hour all day. Which meant the food, plus the tasty APA we ordered was, like, nine dollars. Long may it Bon. Vietnam Cafe What to get: beef pho Price: $7.25 Rich, peppery bone broth lies at the heart and soul of the pho at Vietnam Cafe (522 Campbell Street). This is straight-up comfort in a bowl. Get it with slices of tender beef.

Rico’s Tacos Lupe What to get: tacos Price: $1 We had to include one Taco Tuesday, and of all the Taco Tuesdays, Rico’s Tacos Lupe (802 Southwest Boulevard) is the champion.

Corn-tortilla street tacos served with onions and cilantro, with plenty of meats to choose from: carnitas, asada, chicken, chorizo, even lengua. A buck apiece.

Cosentino’s Overland Park What to get: burrito bar Price: $5.99/pound Should you find yourself way out south, they’ve got a burrito bar at the OP Cosentino’s (8051 W 160th Street). For a mere $5.99 a pound, you can choose from a selection of three better-than-Chipotle meats, plus various salsa and vegetable options (and you can add your own guacamole). If you stack that bowl right, you can get, like, four meals for about seven or eight bucks. Best of all: you serve yourself, no social interaction necessary. Pile it on. No one is judging you here.

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The Midtown MAGA Diet HOW TO EAT LIKE A GOOD BOY, OWN THE LIBS, AND MAKE OUR BIG PRESIDENT PROUD.

BY AARON RHODES

Hey, fellas. Colton, great to see you again. Brayden — I dig your new haircut. Nice weather we’re having.

Gentlemen, I’m sure you’re well aware at this point that we — straight, cis, white males in America, and more specifically Kansas City — are the most oppressed group of people in the history of this once-great nation. After building America from the ground up, we have been cast aside and left to fend for ourselves. The older among us — baby boomers, Generation X — had years to prepare for today’s regrettable shift in demographics and rise in progressive communist thought. We, on the other hand, have been dumped into the frying pan: burdened with college loan debt, horny as hell with nobody to fuck, and forced to fight the most critical battles of our age — Pizzagate, as one example — on our own and on an empty stomach.

My fellow Americans: those days are coming to an end. Fast food is now presidential.

And so today, I’m proud to outline for you a valuable new tool for the Kansas City incel freedom fighter: the Midtown Scumbag Diet. Fortified by superfoods at these superestablishments, you will discover you have the energy to accomplish any personal goal, whether it’s gaming in a chair for nine hours, replying first to Daddy Trump’s next tweet, or checking in with your cousin Todd about that Kris Kobach internship opportunity.

GATES 3205 Main As my favorite author, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson (still looking for a bootleg of his Uptown Theater set; DMs are open), would tell you: “Eat meat at any given opportunity. It’s always very good for you.” That’s why I like to go with the old standby of beef on bun with fries at Gates. Despite being crafted from potatoes, these fries, if entirely submerged, are the most efficient way of consuming the restaurant’s barbecue sauce. Good. Yes. Feel the sauce coursing through your veins.

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TEXAS TOM’S 709 Linwood This place has it all, baby! Burgers! Biscuits!

Seafood! Tendies! It’s like if Amazon was a greasy fast food joint with a drive-thru. The lights outside may flicker ominously, and the food may just barely taste like the word used for it on the menu, but boy is it a thing you can eat. If you plan on setting up a table in the courtyard at UMKC and wearing a diaper to own the libs, make sure to grub down at T-Tom’s first.

PANCHO’S 3540 Main Mindless, Trump-hating sheeple will tell you that our president is a racist. Have they forgotten the time he enjoyed a taco bowl prepared in his own Trump Tower Grill?

Pancho’s unfortunately lacks this Mexican food staple, but fret not, as its burritos make a fine enough substitute. I prefer to skip the much-praised California burrito (steak, potato, cheese, pico) in favor of the more dignified blue-state option: the Texano burrito (chicken, potato, sour cream, cheese). Most menu items hover around $5, leaving you more money to send to the border wall GoFundMe page.

CHINA FEAST 200 Linwood I’ve never eaten here myself, and I’ve observed many a MAGA ally rendered immobile following a visit to the great China Feast. Plus, the Chinese are communists.

Those are three strikes. But China is a tremendous global power, everybody is saying it, they’re really a very huge deal, and they’re killing us on trade. Know thy enemy and order some lo mein.

There you have it, boys. I know it’s rough out there right now. This woman who keeps calling herself “your girlfriend, Aaron” keeps pushing vegetables in my face and telling me to “better myself,” hoping that I’ll succumb to the MSM-Michelle Obama food agenda.

No thanks. We must persevere. We live in the city. We participate in the gig economy.

We’re the big boys now. thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

23

EAT

Eat ThisNow

Drink ThisNow

Based on his work at Howard’s Cafe in the Crossroads, we were already very much aware of chef Craig Howard’s talents; his burger, served with house-made American cheese, is one of the city’s best. But Howard’s recent work as executive chef and partner at the new West Bottoms spot The Campground is really demonstrating just how deep those talents run.

One example: his farro salad, which sounds like a humble, perhaps even dull dish. Howard takes pearl farro (an ancient grain that looks like fat brown rice but has a chewier texture that’s closer to a pasta) and cooks it to a perfect al dente texture before dressing it with a bright lemon oil. It’s topped with savory roasted root vegetables (currently parsnips, though this may change depending on what’s available) and microgreens. The salad is then topped with what can only be described as magic: a breaded, deep-fried soft-boiled egg. To eat, you cut into that egg with your fork, letting the still-runny yolk drench the farro and roasted vegetables. The dish is hearty and healthy, bright and decadent all at once. Thank you, Howard. --April Fleming

It’s not unusual to find beer incorporated into a cocktail, but around here it’s exceedingly rare to find a modified beer on a cocktail menu. Krokstrom Klubb and Market has one, though, in its Pickled Beer, a favorite at the midtown eatery.

The drink was developed by bar manager Scott Deigert, who says he was inspired by his past work at beer bars in Denver. There, customers can often order their beers “fresh hopped,” meaning that hop cones are added to infuse extra flavor into a beer. At Krokstrom, dill, mustard seeds, bay leaves and other spices are mixed into a French press along with a generous pour of Carlsberg beer. The concoction steeps like tea for a few minutes before being pressed down and poured into a tulip glass, rimmed with horseradish salt.

“It’s all the flavors of pickle in a beer, without the vinegar,” explains owner Josh Rogers. “And the more you drink it, the more savory it gets, because the flavor builds.” --April Fleming

FARRO WITH CRISPY EGG AT THE CAMPGROUND

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

PICKLED BEER AT KROKSTROM KLUBB AND MARKET

DRINK

Weillin’ Out

TWO CHANCES THIS MONTH TO TAKE IN THE SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS COMPOSITIONS OF KURT WEILL. BY LIBBY HANSSEN

The music of Kurt Weill is a laugh in the dark — sorrow masked with whiskey and dancing.

Helmed from the desperate gaiety that followed World War I and forced to leave Germany by the Nazi regime, Weill’s work translated naturally — both literally and figuratively — to the American scene as he took the gallows humor of 1920s Berlin music theater to Broadway and Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s.

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

“The task,” Weill wrote in 1927, “is to create the new genre which gives appropriate expression to the completely transformed manifestation of life in our time.”

He set out to reform music, and people have been whistling his tunes ever since, as each generation’s giants discover his music anew: David Bowie, Frank Sinatra, Jessye Norman, Tom Waits, Teresa Strata, the Doors, and Ella Fitzgerald have all covered the man. In Kansas City this month, the

ARTS

Owen/Cox Dance Group and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s Explorations Series will do the same.

It is perhaps more than pure coincidence that there are two completely different interpretations of Weil’s legacy in backto-back performances, indicating a miniature zeitgeist as we navigate yet another slalom of social and political upheaval. From February 1-3, Owen/Cox Dance Group draws primarily from Weill’s collaborations with Bertolt Brecht in its production “What Keeps Mankind Alive.” Reprising its 2015 show with choreography by Jennifer Owen and arrangements by Brad Cox, the ensemble includes vocalists Shay Estes, Leigh Adams, and Krystle Warren (in from Paris) and a cohort of instrumentalists. (Disclosure: my spouse performs with OCDG.) At first listen, Weill’s music seems all ragged edges and vaudevillian diversions, sung by killers, drunkards, and prostitutes.

But Weill — who had experience in religious, classical, and avant-garde music, as well as third-rate opera companies — experimented with unsophisticated sounds in a sophisticated way, Cox says, “in the same way a modern dancer might try to make a movement look labored or heavy.”

“In their early songs,” said Cox, “Weill

Owen/Cox Dance Group, “What Keeps Mankind Alive” Friday, February 1 and Saturday, February 2 , at 8 p.m., Sunday, February 3: 2 p.m., Musical Theater Heritage, Crown Center. owencoxdance.org.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City, “Mack the Knife is The Man I Love: A Weill-Gershwin Cabaret” Saturday, February 9, at 7:30 p.m., Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building. kcopera.org.

and Brecht present a pretty bleak take on human nature, and a lot of the lyrics deal with hypocrisies inherent in so-called civilized society. Jennifer and I are basically trying to approach these issues through music and dance.”

The title tune is taken from “The Threepenny Opera” and includes the line “Mankind is kept alive thanks to the brilliance of keeping its humanity repressed,” with the gritty, stuttering accompaniment sidestepping and subverting the grim message.

“Weill was brilliant at using bright music or beautiful melodies as a foil…[adding] an emotionally contradictory element that brings out the biting humor,” Cox says, noting the broad social themes that permeate Weill and Brecht’s work, railing against the destruction of war and capitalism.

The program also includes “Letterbox,” with Owen’s choreography set to Cox’s own compositions, which aren’t nearly as dark as Weill’s. Some are downright playful.

In contrast, LOKC’s production on February 9 is a cabaret-style concert in “Mack the Knife is The Man I Love,” weaving Weill’s music with that of his contemporary George Gershwin. New York Citybased pianist Mark Markham directs and

performs with LOKC’s Resident Artists and apprentices in a collage of evergreen songs and a nod to the encroaching holiday.

“The theme is love, but as we all know, love can take us in many directions,” Markham says. “There are lines in these songs which are so poignant in today’s political-cultural climate.”

There’s more than a hint of melancholy, but “[Weill’s] music could be suggestive without hitting people over the head,” Markham says. The program goes for a balance, with Gershwin’s good humor and gentle irony serving as complement to Weill’s cynicism. Art songs, musical theater, and jazz standards coalesce in the American songbook.

In working with the LOKC artists, Markham paid close attention to the lyrics, written by Brecht, Maxwell Anderson, and Ira Gershwin, but encouraged them to bring their own style to the works. “The American part is sometimes ‘trained out’ of us because we spend so much time studying European music,” he says.

Weill’s songs were written in a different era, but these productions encapsulate his wide-ranging appeal: tuneful social critique that transcends trends.

thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

27

MUSIC

CREDIT

ZACH BAUMAN

Caption

Youth Group LK ULTRA IS FIGHTING FOR A MORE DIVERSE, MORE INCLUSIVE LAWRENCE SCENE.

BY NICK SPACEK

LK Ultra calls itself an “indigenous-fronted queer indie rock band,” which is not untrue. That hefty description still leaves out a few things, though, namely that its members are quite young — high school-aged. And they’re tight — super tight, in a way people that high school-aged people sometimes are.

“We’re kind of a hive mind,” says August Hyde, keyboard player and background vocalist for the Lawrence indie-pop act.

“There’s no way for one person to shine through, because we’re all the same person.

It’s like there’s only one person talking.”

It’s a gorgeously sunny and unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon in December, and the rest of the hive — drummer Aoife Conway, vocalist-guitarist Inez Robinson, and bassist and background vocalist Lily Pryor — and I are seated at La Prima Tazza, the Lawrence coffee shop. Conway buzzes in for a reiteration: “We’re best friends, so we spend way too much time together.”

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

LK Ultra is in high spirits, having just finished recording its new EP with Mitch Hewlett (Westerners) at The Coop, in north Lawrence. The songs — high-energy, catchy as hell, ramshackle indie-pop that bashes about beneath socially conscious lyrics — represent the first recorded output for LK Ultra that’s not a live YouTube video.

“We’re like a real band now — expected to record and release songs,” Hyde jokes. “It’s a lot to deal with.”

The EP’s three songs — “Dwop Out,” about Robinson’s struggles in school; “Two Spirit,” about being trans; and “Boys Club,” which features lyrics from each member about their experiences in the music scene — will soon be available on Bandcamp (definitely), Spotify (probably), and CD-R. The latter reflects the band’s DIY approach, which also includes homemade merch such as stenciled t-shirts, lyric zines, and Shrinky Dink buttons.

“MY MOM WILL PICK ME UP FROM LILY’S, AND SHE’LL BE, LIKE, ‘GIRLS ROCK WAS THE BEST THING TO HAPPEN TO YOU,’ AND I’M LIKE, ‘I KNOW.’”

“[Although] I don’t know if six hours making Shrinky-Dinks before a show is actually cheaper,” Hyde says.

“My poor parents,” says Pryor, whose father, Matt Pryor, is singer and guitarist for the Get Up Kids. “They were like, ‘This is good, but this is also a lot.’ We were there for a long time, and we didn’t move, and we were very loud.”

LK Ultra formed in the summer of 2017, the result of friendships formed at the annual Girls Rock Lawrence camp. Robinson had never picked up an instrument prior to attending.

“I had always wanted to [play], but didn’t have any of the resources,” Robinson says. “I have seven siblings, so how do I get a guitar and lessons? I don’t.”

Girls Rock paved the way for LK Ultra by giving the members the time and resources to learn, as well as putting them in contact with encouraging mentors who helped teach them to play and supplied them with gear.

It’s been huge, they all agree.

“I’ve been in America for three years,” says Conway, who moved to the U.S. from Ireland because there were no doctors in that country able to help with their family’s chronic illnesses. “Before I did Girls Rock,

MUSIC

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I only had one friend here, and he doesn’t leave the house. I was just home, with my dog, all the time. My mom will pick me up from Lily’s and she’ll be like, ‘Girls Rock was the best thing to happen to you,’ and I’m like, ‘I know.’”

LK Ultra’s emergence is part of a youth explosion in a town that has struggled to support all-ages music in a scene dominated by college-age bands and performers. Most venues in Lawrence are 21 and up, or else charge extra for minors to cover liquor sales.

“It makes us so angry,” says Conway.

“The music should be about music, not about drinks.”

“When they’re focused on alcohol sales and ticket sales, there’s not much room for considering safety and considering fun,” Robinson adds. “We’re just trying to change that.”

The members have also been vocal about their displeasure with certain bathroom policies.

“We’re not all cis people who can just instantly know what bathroom is going to be for us, and which bathroom is going to be safe,” Hyde says.

At last year’s Farmer’s Ball Battle of the Bands, at the Bottleneck, Hyde says he was verbally abused by a doorman for requesting a gender-neutral option. The incident blew up on social media, which in turn meant that it’s often the first thing that springs to mind when LK Ultra is mentioned around Lawrence.

“People are like, ‘Was is good? Did it help you? Was it nice to get that exposure?’”

Pryor says, irritated. Robinson experienced the same thing at school: people suggesting that the publicity must’ve been good for the band.

“It attributes our success to this asshole that we don’t want anything to do with,” Hyde says.

It’s for reasons like this that LK Ultra mourns the recent loss of the Jackpot Saloon, which had become a hub for young bands over the last year. “It was a good environment for safe music,” Hyde says.

At least, though, there’s still the White Schoolhouse, a venue north of town that the band agrees is owned and run by folks who see the bands and crowds as people, rather than just another alcohol sale.

“We played a show with Diet Cig and Spook School there back in February, and that really helped us along,” Conway says.

“The White Schoolhouse is one of our best hopes,” Robinson says as we wrap up.

“We need to protect it and keep it around.

Hopefully, if more young musicians go there, there’s more of an influence, so there’s not just one LK Ultra that opens the Bottleneck’s eyes and everyone gets gender-neutral bathrooms because they’re scared of us. There will be more influential bands that are like us, and we can transform our whole scene.”

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MUSIC

Unholy Spirits INNER ALTAR’S DIY DOOM. BY AARON RHODES

The day after a mid-January snowstorm rocks Kansas City, knocking out power for thousands of residents, I shovel the white stuff off my car and drive to meet up with the members of Inner Altar (who also rock and are also liable to knock out your power).

Inside bassist Stephen Snow’s apartment, which sits two floors above Garozzo’s, in Columbus Park, Snow, guitarist Neal Dyrkacz, drummer Dillon Bendetti, and I dine on some fine Italian cuisine (courtesy of Papa John’s). Guitarist Alex Tunks and vocalist Andrew Snow — Stephen’s brother — call in to the interview from Lee’s Summit via Facebook Portal. We set about discussing the metal band’s punk-rock origins and its debut album, Vol III. All five members came up in the city’s hardcore scene, frequenting shows at the Anchor, Wolf Den, and El Torreon. “I remember Neal at the Anchor being too tall to mosh right,” Andrew says.

A precursor to Inner Altar was Blood Shaman, a punk-scene favorite circa 2014.

In that band, Max McBride, a former member of Inner Altar, and Andrew Snow played doom metal at a speedy, punkier clip, with Snow’s cavernous, nearly operatic baritone in the foreground. Andrew says he thought that Shaman made for a solid “practice run”; his bandmates sing the praises of Shaman’s sole tape.

Over the years, the members of Inner Altar stopped playing as many hardcore gigs. Tunks and Bendetti still play in Midwest hardcore juggernaut Spine, but the other three members have made Inner Altar

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

their lone musical pursuit. The band’s first gig was in the fall of 2014 — a Halloween show at Vandals (formerly the Newsroom, currently Woody’s). They came up with “two and a half or three songs,” Steven says, then got to work on their first EP. The band’s early sessions consisted mainly of Dyrkacz and Andrew formulating riffs, drinking, smoking pot, and trading obscure late-sixties and early-seventies metal tracks on YouTube. They were really into Pentagram.

“We all loved Sabbath and shit, but we wanted to dig a little deeper,” Andrew says.

He cites the Sir Lord Baltimore song, “Lake Isle Of Innisfree,” as particular inspiration.

Dyrkacz’ bright guitar tone and quick-picking on numerous Altar songs (including “Undine’s Kiss”) mimic the “medieval, majestic” use of harpsichord on “Lake Isle” and play into the band’s mythical imagery.

After two EPs and a subsequent live album, the band got to work on Vol III. Despite the fact that the band already had some material ready, saved from earlier writing sessions, the process stalled as McBride departed and Tunks and Stephen joined the band. There was also an issue with some noisy neighbors at the practice space.

“The entire fucking time we were track-

ing this album, every time we were there, [this other band] would show up and they would play a three- or four-hour practice, their grandma would come and hang out and smoke cigarettes,” Stephen says. He musters up his raspiest grandma voice: “‘You guys sound good, Johnny!’”

Stephen’s not done: “They played the same beatdown breakdown riff every time.

There was no writing, just, ‘Let’s play that same breakdown every time.’” The Altar boys contend that early mixes, if turned up loud enough, contain trace amounts of what the neighboring band’s ReverbNation page refers to as “djent/deathcore.” (Apparently, they were super nice, though.)

Once Tunks’ mixing work was done — he says it’s by far his largest project yet — the band was finally left with its masterpiece.

The Snow brothers explain some of Vol III’s intricacies, including its heaven-to-hell (or Mount Olympus-to-Hades) arc.

“It starts off, you’re basically in the heavens with the gods,” Stephen says. “By the middle of the album, you’re out on the battlefield. And by the end, your soul is doomed to suffer for the rest of your life.”

Andrew says that “Lives Of Fire” is inspired by Vesta, the Greek goddess of the hearth, whose servants threw themselves

Inner Altar Vol III is now streaming on most platforms; physical copies available at TheCompanyKC.BigCartel.com.

into the fire. “Ritual sacrifice: that’s just kinda what I’m into, y’know?” he says.

Stephen also believes that the A side of the record is more accessible, while the B side packs the punch that metalheads and fans of Real Heavy Shit™ will love.

Josh Wilkinson, owner and founder of Kansas City-based metal label The Company, falls into the latter camp. Long before the album was anywhere near completion, Wilkinson, who Dyrkacz calls Inner Altar’s biggest fan, offered to release it. Mercy Seat Tattoo artist Mikey Wheeler created some epic illustrations for the album cover and insert; it’s a record that feels good to gaze at and hold.

Staying true to its DIY spirit, Inner Altar — along with friend of the band Cary Thrasher — helped create the album’s first big promotional push with a homemade video for “Lives Of Fire.” Filmed at the infamous Vine Street “workhouse castle” on one camera (and a beer in Thrasher’s other hand) and lit by a few torches and a set of car headlights, the band goes to town in the 19th Century ruins. (It’s as close to medieval as they’ll get in Kansas City). Dyrkacz also worked in some green-screen clips after hours at his place of employment.

It all adds up to a sort of good-humored metal.

“I think coming from punk and hardcore, you have to acknowledge the ‘goof factor’ in any sort of musical subgenre,” Tunks says. “And if you’re going to be playing epic doom rock-n-roll metal, there’s a fair bit of cheese involved sometimes.”

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31

MUSIC

Caption

Big on Instagram

is what I’m doing. So yeah, they’re probably nervous, but they support.

I’m sure the phrase “gap year” is proving to be helpful here. Yeah, gotta justify it. [laughs] I was at Wichita State. I was gonna do business and marketing, but I’m on a gap year that might last longer than a year.

WICHITA’S TOMMY NEWPORT EMBODIES A NEW BRAND OF DIGITAL-NATIVE ROCK STAR.

BY AARON RHODES

In this age of social media supremacy, young and completely unknown musicians can upload a track to the internet and become a chart-dominating star quite literally overnight.

That’s not quite what happened with Oliver Milmine — it’s harder when you’re making guitar-based music — but the Wichita teenager does have social media to thank for the shot he’s been given to make music professionally. His Toronto-based management team first heard him on Instagram, where his songs, digital prowess, and instincts for branding added up to something resembling a Generation Z indie-rock star.

He’s now known as Tommy Newport (itself a blended nod to two well-known brands — Hilfiger and the cigarettes), and singles from his 2018 release, Just To Be Ironic, have landed on Apple Music playlists and Complex blogs.

Newport has been touring North

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

America of late — he’s in Kansas City on February 10 at the Uptown — but he’s not living that Drake life quite yet. When I checked in with him by phone recently, he was back in Wichita, doing carpool duty.

The Pitch: How was high school for you? Would you rather have been home making music? Newport: Yeah. I liked the social part of high school, but I wasn’t much of a studious kind of kid. I would always kind of leave school early and make music and things like that. But there were enough kids around that were like me for me to enjoy my years in high school.

Is your family nervous about you not attending college right now and going out on tour? I’m sure they are. They don’t really project it, but I was in college for about a semester and I just couldn’t focus, so I decided to take a break, and this

CREDIT

Tommy Newport Sunday, February 10 Encore (at Uptown Theater) Just To Be Ironic is now streaming on all platforms.

How did you first get in touch with the management you have right now? I got a message on Instagram from Chief [Bosompra, manager] and he was asking me what I had going on and if I had any other projects going on. And I think I didn’t respond, just because I wasn’t sure who he was. And I left it for a week or two, and then he got back to me and I responded and he told me more about what he did and the people he was surrounded with. I think after that it just kind of sparked some conversation and phone calls and they set up this whole schedule to roll out a project with them. So I signed a contract to work with them.

What’s that situation like? I have two managers. Chief is more of a marketing [person] and event planner, and he was friends with 4th Pyramid and knew that

MUSIC

he was looking to work with someone. 4th Pyramid is more of a hip-hop producer and artist, so he was intrigued to work with me, and we could both push our boundaries, and I was OK with that. And it turned out with the album I just put out, that’s what we did together.

Do you know what song they heard and how they found you in the first place?

Yeah, it was “Emerald Bay,” that was on my [Milmine] album. [Chief] was in Toronto and some of the girls he followed had put it on their story, so he figured he would check it out, and he did, and he really liked it. He thought that I would’ve been an artist that had a big following by the way the song sounded, and when he went to my page and saw that I was not a big act, he wanted to make it a big thing. And that’s where his intentions came from and how he found me.

It’d be a stretch to call any of the material on Just To Be Ironic hip-hop, but I do get the sense that there’s some hip-hop influence on there. Is that right? Yeah, I don’t think I’d personally do any hip-hop or rapping, but what [4th Pyramid] and I do now, we make beat packs and tracks for artists like Jazz [Cartier] and artists in his circle, or anyone they have connections

with. We’ll make a file of five or 10 tracks that are hip-hop tracks without vocals and send those out to artists. If they bite, then that’s cool, and we’re able to produce tracks for hip-hop artists, but I don’t think I’ll ever embark on my own hip-hop album.

What was your experience with the Wichita scene like before you were picked up by your management? I kind of put my music out there for myself. I didn’t really expect anyone to listen to it, and then people did. I only made it for me, really, and my friends. I kinda just wanted to see it on all the platforms and be able to play it on iTunes, and I didn’t expect any of this to happen. That’s why I went to school. But after I got picked up by my management, I figured it would be a good time to take a break from school and see what we could do with that.

There’s some great local acts around here. The music scene is crazy around here.

There are so many kids making music and playing shows and things like that.

I thought “My Woman” and “Black Wedding” sounded really cinematic. Do you draw any inspiration from movies or want to work on soundtracks? That’d be really cool, actually. I don’t pull much

inspiration from movies, but probably subconsciously from Tarantino movies and stuff like that, but I’ve never thought about scoring any type of film, which would be really cool. But yeah, I just love the way that strings sound. I like to incorporate orchestras and stuff like that.

“Mr. Angel” also leans a lot on the piano and other instrumentation that isn’t really common in pop music right now.

Was writing that song a lot different than any of your others? Yeah, it was kind of like a satire of making a pop song. I knew when I was making it that it sounded like a pop song, and at the time I thought it was funny and that I’d never release it. But I felt that it worked well with the way I structured the album and how the mood changes from the start to the end, and I wanted to throw all the more poppy stuff at the start to throw the people off a little bit. But yeah, “Mr. Angel” is super poppy. More modern pop than anything I’ve done. At the time I found it kind of funny, but the story behind it is more the exact opposite of a pop song. I wrote it as “Mr. Angel” being kind of a drug and someone being addicted to it. But it was in the form of a major key pop song.

You said that you’d been sitting on this

set of songs for a long time prior to the album’s release. What sounds are you working with on your newer material?

I have an EP that should be done by May, that I wanna have out before summer that should have five or six songs on it. They’re all a lot different than the album. The album I just released has a lot of different songs on it; some of them are funky, some of them are poppy, some of them are more rock-y, and it was kind of just a waiting game to see which tracks people were more attracted to. It was important to me that I keep doing the things people are attracted to, and that I enjoy doing as well.

You’ve only played a handful of live shows so far, so what’s your mindset going into this big tour? We’re ready.

We’re ready to go, and I think we’re gonna kill it, so I’m excited. I haven’t really felt too nervous. I think we’re just gonna go out there and do what we rehearsed and it’ll go really well. We got to play at the Fonda [Theatre in Los Angeles, this past June], which was a good way to really shake your nerves, because there were 2,000-plus people in that venue, and we were just thrown into that situation and it was a great way to shake the nerves, so I think we’re all ready to go. I’m excited for it.

thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

33

FILM

Early Returns THE ACADEMY AWARDS WOULD DO WELL TO IGNORE SEVERAL GOLDEN GLOBES FAVORITES.

BY ERIC MELIN

With cultural movements like #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo, and streaming services making it so very easy for filmgoers to stay home for first-run entertainment, the cultural landscape of the movie industry has seen a major shift over the last half-decade.

A cynical person might say that the 91st Academy Awards — broadcast live worldwide on February 24 — don’t really matter anymore.

That same cynic might point also out the show’s declining TV ratings, the misguided announcement (and quick retraction) of a possible new Best Popular Film category, and the Kevin Hart hosting debacle.

I’ve got a different POV. Which is: the Academy Awards are a celebration of artistry in motion pictures, and more often than any of its televised awards-show compatriots, it gets it right. Not always the winners per se (and certainly not when the presenters literally announce the wrong one; looking at you, Faye Dunaway), but in spotlighting nominees in a wide variety of filmmaking categories, the show at its best encourages viewers to expand their moviegoing horizons and consider how films are put together, all while highlighting 100 years of film history.

And credit where it’s due: since #OscarsSoWhite, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has actually taken solid steps to make its membership more diverse

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

than ever. It ain’t perfect, but the Best Picture winners the last two years (Moonlight, The Shape of Water) were crafty, emotional stories about marginalized characters and outsiders. (And yes, one of those outsiders included an Amazonian fish-man as the romantic object of desire, but, hey, that’s the magic of the movies!)

So whether we are watching movies in theaters or on our phones or on Netflix, the Oscars continue to bring attention to exciting work from across the world. And the movies the awards honor are now more accessible than ever. So I’m not letting the trolls win. The Academy Awards continue to be my Super Bowl, and even though it’s silly to pit works of art against each other, I will continue to not only champion the movies that I feel the most passionately about but also bitch incessantly about the ones I believe are getting way too much attention. Let the directed complaining (and the critical fawning) begin!

Since the small group of foreign Hollywood junketeers that vote on the Golden Globes declared tone-deaf movies like Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody the big winners last month, everything seems to be truly up in the air this year in terms of predicting winners. Each of those movies present their own unique problems, and not just in terms of publicity firms mounting successful Oscar campaigns for them.

I’ve seen Green Book — which is essen-

tially a role-reversed Driving Miss Daisy that feels like it, too, could have been made in 1989 — described as a “feel-good” movie on too many occasions. It’s certainly designed to make white people feel good, and the performances of Viggo Mortensen as a racist white driver who transports black musician Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali, who also won the Globes’ Supporting Actor award) through a tour of the Deep South are charming indeed. But the movie misses an opportunity to provide Shirley with an actual inner life and takes cheap shortcuts to allow, for example, the white guy to explain to the black musician the merits of fried chicken and Aretha Franklin. It’s “based on a true story” but even while watching it, its many contrivances set off red flags. Green Book pushes a message of inclusion, but along the way, it humbles the black character and allows his redemption only through the “white savior” narrative that’s so prevalent in other films. It’s past time to retire this wellworn cinematic trope. Even more disturbing is that Green Book, directed by Peter Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary) is getting awards attention at all in a year when urgent — and far more deserving — movies like Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, and If Beale Street Could Talk saw African-American filmmakers telling their own unique and urgent stories from black characters’ points-of-view.

Notably, Bohemian Rhapsody won the Golden Globes’ Best Drama prize without director Bryan Singer — who was fired before its completion — even being nominated. Singer has lived under a cloud of sexual-abuse lawsuits and allegations for the last four years and is currently persona non

grata in Hollywood, which makes the movie’s big Globes win even more of a surprise.

Apart from its director’s own controversies, the movie itself commits all kinds of unforgivable sins, chiefly that it scolds and condescends to Freddie Mercury when it’s supposed to be celebrating his life. It’s maybe the least gay movie about a gay person ever, and it smashes up and re-arranges Queen’s thorny band history to fit snugly into a predictable Hollywood biopic narrative.

Rami Malek embodies Mercury well, but he’s constantly forced to move the plot forward rather than being able to relax into the role. What’s left is a really good impression, which is exactly what Christian Bale does as Dick Cheney in Vice.

If he wins the Best Actor Oscar, Bale should take his entire makeup and costuming crew up there with him, because that’s really what people are voting for. Like Bohemian Rhapsody, there’s no real person in there.

Vice is a sugary lollipop with a hollow center where the Tootsie Roll should be. The movie itself admits it doesn’t know Cheney’s motivations, but since most characters need one, it invents one for Cheney anyway (“power for power’s sake”), and just moves on.

There are a great many funny moments — and equally infuriating ones — in Vice, but, again like Bohemian Rhapsody, it’s devoid of a three-dimensional script and amounts to little more than a patronizing civics lecture, albeit one with a lot of star power. I’m hoping the Academy chooses instead to reward movies with genuine vision like Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, and Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma.

With Roma, Netflix has a real opportunity to win Best Picture. But so many factors stand in its way: The movie is shot in black and white, it’s told mostly in Spanish, and it’s a slice of life story that only truly takes shape in its final moments. Additionally, the film’s widescreen compositions, which showcase an amazingly detailed depth of field, are best appreciated on the big screen. It had a small theatrical run, but 99.9 percent of people viewing it now are watching it on Netflix.

I’ve had many discussions with people who thought it was too slow and shut it off — something people are far less likely to do in a theater. The first time I watched Roma, I recognized it had a slow pace, but my mind was engaged the entire time. The film didn’t seem slow the second time I watched it.

Each time a new scene would begin, I was eager to experience it again. So many of Roma’s beautiful images had been burned into my brain in just one viewing. Indeed, Roma seems like the polar opposite of Bohemian Rhapsody in every way. Rather than a suffocating fast-forward through someone’s entire life, Roma is a contemplative cinematic experience. It leaves you room to breathe and time to consider what you are seeing.

WHERE TO WATCH THIS YEAR’S OSCAR CONTENDERS Cold War

Boy Erased

Netflix

Roma

in theaters now

Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Black Panther

Bohemian Rhapsody

Netflix, Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD on Feb. 12

A Star is Born

First Man

Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD on Feb. 19

Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

BlacKkKlansman

First Reformed

Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Amazon Prime, Blu-ray, rent or buy digital HD now

H A RV E STE R S

Eat, drink & feed many Eighth Grade Amazon Prime, Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

A Quiet Place Epix, Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Join us for this exciting event benefitting Harvesters. Enjoy samples of gourmet food, wine and cocktails from more than 60 of Kansas City’s finest restaurants and beverage purveyors!

Leave No Trace Amazon Prime, Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Isle of Dogs HBO, Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Incredibles 2 The Favourite

Shoplifters

Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

in theaters now

in theaters now

Green Book

Burning

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

in theaters now

in theaters now

in theaters now

Oscar-Nominated Short Film Showcase

Ralph Breaks the Internet

starts Feb. 8 at Tivoli Cinemas

If Beale Street Could Talk in theaters now

Vice in theaters now

Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD on Feb. 26

Capernaum

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

starts Feb. 15 at Tivoli Cinemas

Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Mary Poppins Returns

Minding the Gap

in theaters now

Hulu

Beautiful Boy

RBG

Amazon Prime now

Hulu, Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Hereditary Amazon Prime, Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Thursday, April 4, 2019 | 6:30 to 9 p.m.

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Three Identical Strangers Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD now

Widows Blu-ray, 4K, rent or buy digital HD on Feb. 5 thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

35

SAVAGE LOVE

Fursuit of Happiness GETTING SERIOUS WITH A FURRY HUSBAND; GETTING CURIOUS ABOUT BECOMING A CUCKOLDRESS. BY DAN SAVAGE

Dear Dan: I’m an early-30s hetero woman in a monogamous relationship with my mid-30s hetero guy. We’ve been together 10 years, married seven, no kids. We have a lot of fun — traveling, shared hobbies, mutual friends, etc. We have sex fairly regularly, and it’s not bad. However, his primary sexual fetish and main turn-on is furry porn — namely, cartoon images. He doesn’t self-identify as a furry; he doesn’t have a fursuit or fursona. To his credit, he was up front about this with me once we started getting serious.

However, I think at that younger age, I conflated the emotional openness and acceptance of his sexuality with actually being satisfied with the sexual component of our relationship. He seems only marginally attracted to me, and it bums me out that his more intense sexual drives are funneled into furry porn. I feel somewhat helpless, as his fetish doesn’t allow me to meet him halfway. Real-life furry action (fursuits and the like) does not interest him (I’ve offered). We have sex regularly, but I always initiate, and his enthusiasm is middling until we get going, at which point I think we both enjoy ourselves. But I’ve found that this turns into a negative feedback loop, where his lack of initial interest leads to me being less attracted to him, and so on. I consider myself a fairly sexual person and I get a lot of pleasure out of being desired. We’re talking about starting a family, and I’m scared that the pressures that come with parenthood would only make this worse.

Fretting Under Relationship Shortcomings Dear FURS: Nothing I write is going to fix this — and nothing I write is going to fix him, FURS, not that your husband is broken. He is who he is, and he had the decency to let you know who he was before you married him. But nothing I write is going to put you at the center of your husband’s erotic inner life. Nothing I write is going to inspire him to initiate more (or at all) or cause him to be more enthusiastic about sex. Nothing I write is going to make your husband want you the way you want to be wanted, desire you the way you want to be desired, and fuck you the way you want to be fucked.

So the question you need to ask yourself before you make babies with this man — the question I would have urged you to ask yourself before you married this man — is whether you can live without the pleasure you get from being desired. Is that the price of admission you’re willing to pay to be with this man? Maybe it once was, but is it still?

Because if monogamy is what you want or what he wants or what you both want,

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THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

FURS, then choosing to be with this man — choosing to be with someone you enjoy spending time with, who’s “not bad” at sex, whose most passionate erotic interests direct him away from you — means going without the pleasure of being wanted the way you want to be wanted, desired the way you want to be desired, and fucked the way you want to be fucked.

Your husband was up front with you about his sexuality before you got married.

Everyone should be, of course, but so few people are — particularly people who have been made to feel ashamed of their sexuality or their fetishes or both — that we’re inclined to heap praise on people who manage to clear what should be a low bar. At the time, you mistook “emotional openness” and your willingness to accept his sexuality for both sexual compatibility and sexual satisfaction. I think you owe it to yourself to be upfront with your husband before you have kids. He’s getting a good deal here — decent sex with the wife and the freedom to take care of needs his wife can’t meet. And you’re free to ask for a similar deal — decent sex with your husband and the freedom to take care of needs your husband can’t meet.

There’s a far greater degree of risk involved in you going outside the relationship to feel desired, of course; you seeing another man or men comes bundled with emotional and physical risks that wanking to furry porn does not.

This isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. But if your shared goal as a couple is mutual sexual fulfillment — and that should be every couple’s goal — and if you want to avoid becoming so frustrated that you make a conscious decision to end your marriage (or a subconscious decision to sabotage it), FURS, then opening up the relationship needs to be a part of the discussion.

Dear Dan: Please discuss cuckolding in all its forms. Also all of the emotional risks and potential sexual rewards.

A Potential Cuckoldress Dear APC: It would take two years’ worth of columns — even more — to discuss cuckolding in all its forms, unpack all the risks, and game out all the potential rewards. Since I can’t possibly do that, APC, I’m going to send you to Keys and Anklets (keysandanklets.com), a terrific podcast dedicated to “the cuckold and hotwife lifestyle.” The host, Michael C., is engaging, funny, and wise, and his interviews with cuck couples and bulls are incredibly il-

luminating. If you’re considering entering into a cuckold relationship, you’ll definitely want to start listening to Keys and Anklets.

Dear Dan: I’m a twentysomething woman engaged to a wonderful twentysomething man.

I’m the kinky one. I’ve dabbled in BDSM and definitely have a taste for pain and degradation.

My boyfriend, meanwhile, considers himself a feminist and struggles with degrading me. I’ve been very patient and settled for very vanilla sex for a couple of years now. However, every now and then, he’ll joke about peeing on me when we shower together. I’m curious about watersports and would totally give it a try! I’ve tried to get more information from him on where these jokes are coming from, but he always changes the subject. And recently when I tried to make a joke back, I said the absolute wrong thing: “Okay, R. Kelly, settle down.” This was right before we watched Surviving R. Kelly. I’m afraid that joke may have sent any potential watersports play down the toilet. (Pun intended!) Any advice on how to get him to open up next time he makes one of these jokes?

Wants A Totally Exciting Relationship Dear WATER: You might want to reread the first letter in this week’s column, WATER, and then dig into the Savage Love archives and check out the thousands of letters I’ve responded to from people who failed to establish basic sexual compatibility before marrying their partners. Settling down requires some settling for, of course, and everyone winds up paying the price of admission. But sexual compatibility is something you want to establish before the wedding, not after.

At the very least, WATER, don’t marry a man to whom you can’t make simple observations about sex and ask simple questions about sex. Like this statement/ question/statement combo: “You joke about peeing on me, and I want to know if you would actually like to pee on me, because I would like to be peed on.” Pissing on you doesn’t make him R. Kelly, a man who has been credibly accused of raping underage girls and sexually and emotionally abusing — even imprisoning — adult women. If R. Kelly had raped numerous women and girls in the missionary position, WATER, all the other men out there who enjoy sex in the missionary position don’t become rapists by default. Where there is consent — enthusiastic consent — then it, whatever it is (missionary position sex, peeing on a partner), isn’t abusive. Sex play involving pain or degradation often requires more detailed conversations about consent, of course, but jokes and hints are a shitty way to negotiate consent for any kind of sex. Always go with unambiguous statements (“I would like to be peed on”) and direct questions (“Would you like to pee on me?”).

Question for Dan? E-mail him at mail@savagelove.net. On Twitter at @fakedansavage.

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EVENTS

February Events

• Voted KC’s Best Gentleman’s Club • 70 Girls • Oldest Adult Club in Missouri Full Service Kitchen • Great Place to Watch Sporting Events VIP Lounge • Cover Friday & Saturday ONLY! Premium Bottle Service

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2800 East 12th St. • Kansas City, MO 64127 816.231.9696 • KcShadyLady.com

For more events, visit local.thepitchkc.com

Armani’s Play House Known For Our Entertainment, Got a Event Give Us A Shout.

FEB. 1-3

FEB. 5

Kansas City Symphony presents Star Wars, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Dillon Francis and Alison Wonderland, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland

FEB. 1-10

FEB. 6

Indecent, KC Rep

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Playmates and soul mates...

FEB. 1-17

FEB. 7

Nomad Motel, Unicorn Theatre

Kelly Clarkson, Sprint Center

FEB. 2

Shelf Life, The Brick

Panic! At The Disco, Sprint Center

FEB. 8

Souper Bowl Saturday, Lawrence Arts Center

M 80s Dance Band, Knuckleheads Saloon

FEB. 2-6

Mid-Winter Art Fair, Ward Parkway Center

Alamo Encore: The Princess Bride, Alamo Drafthouse

Story Slam: The Unknown, Lawrence Arts Center

FEB. 3

Women’s Sports Awards Celebration with Simone Biles, Kansas City Convention Center

Sabbatical Super Bowl Watch Party, The Riot Room Kansas City:

816-841-1521 38

THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

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A La Mode, Knuckleheads Saloon

EVENTS

FEB. 9

Mr. and the Mrs, RecordBar Rainbow Kitten Surprise, The Truman

FEB. 14 Fidlar, The Truman Life’s a Beach Presents: Songs to Cry to, The Riot Room Valentine’s Day Paint and Sip Party, Happy Trees Wine is My Valentine, KC Wineworks

FEB. 15 JOE CAREY

Blake Shelton, Sprint Center I <3 the 80’s, VooDoo Lounge

Brunched, The Madrid Frank Werth, VooDoo Lounge Galentine’s Day Gathering: A Tea Party!, Artis Event Center Gala FashionAbility, Olathe Embassy Suites Herobust, The Granada

FEB. 15-24 Kansas City Ballet presents “Lady of the Camellias,” Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

FEB. 16 Red Hot Night Gala, Kansas City Convention Center

KC Brew Fest, Union Station

FEB. 9-13 Alamo Encore: Moulin Rouge!, Alamo Drafthouse

FEB. 10 Daley, The Riot Room

Free Tastings Every Friday Evening

Tommy Newport, Uptown Theater

Phone | 816-531-5900

FEB. 13 Elton John, Sprint Center KC Chamber Orchestra & Park ICM present: Bridges of the Heart, Folly Theater

Address | 4500 Belleview Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64111 Wiz Khalifa, The Granada

FEB. 17 As It Is, Uptown Theater

Hours | Mon-Thur: 9am to 10pm Fri-Sat: 9am to 12am Sun: 9am to 10pm

plazaliquorkc.com

Travis Scott, Sprint Center

thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

39

EVENTS

TICKETS

February Events For more events, visit local.thepitchkc.com

Go to thepitchkc.com/tickets to find the hottest events in KC.

FEB. 19

Oliver, Lawrence Arts Center

FEB. 22 - MAR. 17 ArtReach Auction, Brass on Baltimore School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play, KC Rep

PAINT & SIP Events Valentine’s Day Paint and Sip Party

Thu, Feb 14 at 7pm at Happy Trees at Hook Gallery

FEB. 22 - MAR. 3

Paint your Pet

FEB. 23

Fri, Feb 22 at 7pm at Happy Trees at Hook Gallery

Freddy & Francine Concert in the Cave, S.D. Strong Distilling

FEB. 25 KODO, Lied Center of Kansas National Geographic Live: Life on the Vertical, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Email us at stephanie@thepitchkc.com.

40

THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

FEB. 26 - MAR. 31

FEB. 19-24

Mr. Popper’s Penguins, The Coterie Theatre

One Funny Mother, Starlight Theatre

FEB. 26

FEB. 22

Soccer Mommy, RecordBar

Girl Scout Cookies & Wine Pairing, KC Wine Co.

FEB. 27

Paint your Pet, Happy Trees at Hook Gallery

KISS, Sprint Center

Taco Topia, Children’s Mercy Park

DO YOU NEED A TICKET PLATFORM FOR AN UPCOMING EVENT?

Champagne Cinema: You’ve Got Mail, Alamo Drafthouse

Kurt Vile and the Violators, The Truman

KS/MO Injuries, KS Divorce, All Family, Juvenile & More

TH EPITCH KC.C O M

Call

Attorney Since 1976

913.345.4100

Greg Bangs

for a FREE consultation

Pitch-Hiring-Feb-2019.pdf 1 1/18/2019 10:05:34 AM

THE BUSIEST IN KC IS LOOKING FOR THE BEST IN KC

NOW HIRING PART-TIME EVENT STAFF

$11.25 AN HOUR

CONCERTS, CONVENTIONS, & SPORTING EVENTS -

APPLY IN PERSON

4050 PENNSYLVANIA AVE SUITE 111 KCMO 64111

C

M

OR ONLINE

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CM

MY

CY

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N OW H IRIN G

SKILLED JEWELERS WATCHMAKERS SALES PROFESSIONALS

WWW.CROWDSYSTEMS.COM

WE’VE GROWN AND SO HAS OUR BUSINESS. SEEKING SKILLED INDIVIDUALS TO JOIN OUR TEAM. EXCELLENT PAY & BENEFITS STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITIES & EQUIPMENT WORK WITH OTHER SKILLED JEWELERS AND WATCHMAKERS

PhOEnix naTuRal WEllnESS, llC full line of american Shaman CBD Products

Tinctures Water Soluble Pet Health Vape Products Edibles Soaps Topicals

9627 W. 87Th STREET OVERlanD PaRK, KS 66212 913-730-8520 www.phoenixnaturalwellness.com

Now Hiring For Numerous Departments

CBD STORE

● $30 parking per month ● Generous travel discounts ● Vacation & PTO pay ● Holiday pay

● Discounted bus passes ● 1 free meal per shift ● Medical ● Vision ● Dental

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU HAS OPENINGS FOR TEMPORARY PART-TIME FIELD REPRESENTATIVES FOR THE UPCOMING AMERICAN HOUSING SURVEY IN THE KANSAS CITY, KS METRO AREA MAY-AUG/SEP 2019

Apply in person at 1329 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO 64105 Questions? Call HR at 816-303-1629

Scared? Anxious? Confused?

HELP IS HERE! DWI, Solicitation, Traffic, Internet Crimes, Hit & Run, Power & Light Violations, Domestic Assault Criminal Defense Attorney

David M. Lurie

816-221-5900 www.The-Law.com

(4 DAYS TRAINING MAR/APR) 20-40 HRS A WEEK, $14.39/HOUR & $0.545/MILE PLUS POTENTIAL ELIGIBILITY FOR OUR MONTHLY ON-GOING SURVEYS MUST BE A U.S. CITIZEN, 18 YRS OF AGE

OR OLDER, VALID DRIVERS LICENSE, RELIABLE VEHICLE, LIVE IN THE

KANSAS CITY, KS METRO AREA, PASS A BACKGROUND CHECK, HAVE EMAIL ADDRESS & PRINTER ACCESS, BE AVAILABLE TO WORK DAY, EVENING, AND WEEKEND HRS TO APPLY, SEND AN EMAIL ASAP TO: DENVER.RECRUIT@CENSUS.GOV INCLUDE YOUR PHONE #, NAME, ADDRESS, PO BOX IF USED, CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE & COUNTY The U.S. Department of Commerce is An Equal Opportunity Employer.

This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities.

If you need reasonable accommodations for any part of the application process, please notify the agency.

Decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

41

AUCTION DATE: 3/6/19

MARKETPLACE LOCAL 1000

2000

LEGAL

EMPLOYMENT

REAL ESTATE/RENTALS

BACCALA’ STRIP CLUB NOW HIRING DANCERS

VALENTINE NEIGHBORHOOD $400-$850 Rent 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments & 3 Bedroom HOMES. Colliers International. EHO

816-753-5576

Contact Frank 7pm-3am Mon-Sat

CALL TODAY!

816-231-3150

3000 KS-KCKS | $545-$650 913-299-9748

SERVICES

ADOPT: Young loving couple looking to adopt infant. We are passionate about this next phase in our lives and look forward to providing a supportive nurturing home. The child will become part of a large family, having several cousins and will be cherished indefinitely.

Please call our friend and attorney at 785-235-5497.

HEAT & WATER PAID...

NO GAS BILL! KCK 25 acre setting. 63rd & Ann 5 minutes west of I-635 & I-70.

One bedroom $545. Two bedroom $650. No Pets Please. You CAN NOT BEAT this value! Don’t miss out on this limited time offer!

Call NOW! MUCH NICER THAN THE PRICE!

BUY, SELL, TRADE

WANTS TO purchase minerals and other oil & gas interest. Send details to P.O. Box 13557, Denver, CO 80201

MUSIC EQUIPMENT FOR SALE 76 Key-Korg Krome Keyboard (Mint), with stand and dust cloth, for: $1,200.00.

Akai Mpc Touch Sequencer/Sampler (Mint) for: $490.00 in box.

Ibanez Sound Gear 4 string bass (Mint) w/case... $300.00.

Fender Rumble 25 (Mint) for: $75.00.

If interested-call: 816-256-2071.

THEPITCHKC.COM

MUSIC/MUSIC ROW Piano, Voice, and Guitar lessons

Available from professional musician and instructor. Instructor teaches in a fun and meaningful context from ages 4 to the young at heart. Sessions are 1⁄2 hour and 1 hour. Students who sign up before January 31st will receive $5 off For more info Please call/text Kathleen 913-206-2151 or Email: klmamuric@yahoo.com

FREE

Largest seLection of cBD ProDucts in Kansas city!

Hemp Oil Tincture, Topical, Edibles, Lotion, Lip Balm and E-Juice

400 E 18th Street, KCMO, 64108 • 816-474-7400 Thecbdstores.com

Gifts & Decor

NOW HIRING HOUSEKEEPERS | HOUSEPERSONS SERVERS | BUSSERS

7000

SAMPLES

Scared? Anxious? Confused?

HELP IS HERE DWI, Solicitation, Traffic, Internet Crimes, Hit & Run, Power & Light Violations, Domestic Assault Criminal Defense Attorney David M. Lurie 816-221-5900 www.The-Law.com

steven@thepitchkc.com 816-218-6732

Peakauction.com

4000

LEGAL

Classifieds

KITCHEN CABINET AUCTION

ATTORNEY SINCE 1976 KS/MO Injuries, KS Divorce, All Family, Juvenile & More.

FREE CONSULTATION Greg Bangs 913-345-4100

Swords & More

Best Kratom Prices in Kc! Loyalty program for Kratom cBD products • Smoking accessories • Metaphysical Essential Oils • Swords • Knives, Figurines

mOn-Sat 10am-8pm

913.782.4244

Employment Opportunities Link to

APPLY: www.arborlodging.com/careers FOLLOW US AT LIKE US AT

Sun 12pm-6pm

@PHILLIPS_JOBS

123 S. mur-Len, OLathe, KS 66062

HOTEL PHILLIPS

5 miles from Montauk State Park and Current River.

CALL NOW 42

home is worth?

Sharon Sigman, rE/maX STaTELinE 913-488-8300 or 913-338-8444 www.FormLS.com

THE PITCH | FEBRUARY 2019 | thepitchkc.com

YR MAKE/MODEL

VIN#

2012 Chevrolet Sonic

1G1JD5SB4C4113928

2003 Toyota Corolla

2T1BR32E23C101298

2008 Toyota Highlander

JTEES42A082053872

2013 Honda Civic

19XFB2F87DE008719

2007 Ford Fusion

3FAHP07Z27R263108

2012 Volkswagen Passat

1VWBH7A36CC100025

2011 Kia Optima

KNAGM4A79B5154165

2007 SAAB 9 3

YS3FD79Y876102176

2001 Ford Excursion

1FMNU40L41EC87466

2013 Kia Optima

KNAGM4ADXD5055413

2014 Jeep Patriot

1C4NJPFB5ED890693

2006 Buick Lucerne

1G4HD57276U228621

1996 Ford F150

1FTEF14N3TLA49938

2018 Volkswagen Jetta

3VWB67AJ9JM229182

1997 Dodge Grand Caravan

1B4GP54L9VB442702

1995 Dodge Ram Wagon

2B5WB35Z8SK578287

1990 Ford F150

1FTDF15N7LNA40366

2006 Infiniti G35

JNKCV51E96M511289

2008 Ford F150

1FTPW14V58FA60518

2010 Dodge Journey

3D4PG5FV4AT242825

2008 Subaru Tribeca

4S4WX92D384402007

2006 Pontiac Torrent

2CKDL63F566149928

2014 BMW I3

WBY1Z4C54EV274643

1995 Volkswagen Jetta

3VWRB81H6SM012929

2003 Ford Explorer

1FMZU73K93ZA54300

1996 Dodge Stratus

1B3EJ46X8TN117915

2003 Toyota Highlander

JTEHF21A730108989

2011 Chevrolet Camaro

2G1FF1ED3B9148414

2011 Dodge Caliber

1B3CB5HA3BD214723

2004 Dodge Stratus

4B3AG42G14E033566

2007 Mazda 6

1YVHP80C175M43286

2004 Ford Escape

1FMCU94154KA51301

2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer

1GNET16S326124640

2000 Toyota Sienna

4T3ZF13C7YU220115

1974 Ford Van

E26AHV64416

2004 Yamaha YXR661

5Y4AM06Y54A001711

Many of these vehicles run and drive. If you are looking for cheap transportation, don’t miss this auction/sale. We welcome all buyers. Terms of auction: All sales are “as is” “where is”. No guarantees or warranties. Paper work to obtain new title will be $75.00 Per vehicle. No guarantee that paperwork will produce title.Bidding will be number only. Terms are cash or certified check. Vehicles must be paid for in full at end of auction. No exceptions.

All sales are final. No returns.

NEWto see& what RESALE ALL AREAS | ALL PRICES Want your Short Sales-Foreclosures-Condos Townhomes-Single Family Homes.

WEATHER PERMITTING The following vehicles will be sold at public auction on Wednesday, March 6th, 2019 unless claimed by owner and all tow and storage charges are paid in full. For information, please contact Insurance Auto Auction at 913-422-9303.

Spacious one-bedroom cabin, sleeps four. $ /night

85

25 one-time cleaning fee

$

901-233-4496

INSURANCE AUTO AUCTION 2663 SOUTH 88TH ST. KCKS, 66111 | 913-422-9303

KC’s Premier Medical Cannabis Clinic Cannabis Education & Workshops Confidential - Safe & Legal Want to be the first to apply for a Missouri Medical Cannabis Card?

Schedule Your Appointment Online Now!

Grand Opening Event

Featured Speaker Dan Viets, JD Other speakers include Dolores Halbin, RN & John Kennyhertz, JD

* free physician evaluation exam will be given away to 1 lucky winner *

Wednesday February 13th, 4-7pm 415 Delaware St, Suite 4W, Kansas City, MO 64105

816-514-0023

TheGreenClinics.com #FeelBetter #RiverMarket

NOTICE OF GUARDIANSHIP ACTION TO:

SHACQUELL BAILEY

DOB :

12/07/1993

, Respondent

DOB :

, Respondent

FROM: ​Confidential Clerk of Family Court ROSALIE

(Petition number

JONES 18 - 34690

, Petitioner, has brought a civil action ) against you to obtain guardianship of your child(ren):

☐​ Minor Female,

DOB:

☒​ Minor Male,

DOB: 11/05/2018

☐​ Minor Female,

DOB:

☐​ Minor Male,

DOB:

☐​ Minor Female,

DOB:

☐​ Minor Male,

DOB:

If you do not file an answer with the Court and send a copy to the Petitioner’s Attorney (or to the Petitioner if unrepresented) at the following address:

601 SWALLOW TAIL WAY

DOVER DE, 19901

within 20 days after publication of this notice, exclusive of the date of publication, as required by statute, this action will be heard without further notice at Family Court.

Date:

01/22/2019

IF YOU WISH TO BE REPRESENTED BY AN ATTORNEY IN THIS MATTER BUT CANNOT AFFORD ONE, ​YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO HAVE THE COURT APPOINT AN ATTORNEY TO REPRESENT YOU FOR FREE​. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK AT FAMILY COURT, (302) 672-1000

MISSOURI

MARIJUANA

DOCTORS Medical Marijuana Questions?

Come by the clinic anytime or join us at:

Hemp Life - Waldo

7441 Broadway, KCMO Sunday February 10th, 12-3 PM

GET YOUR EXAM 1-888-MMD-INFO

WWW.MMD.CLINIC 204 Admiral Blvd KCMO thepitchkc.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | THE PITCH

43

FLOGGING MOLLY

ROBIN TROWER

WALK OFF THE EARTH

APOCALYPTICA

MARCH 12

MAY 17

APRIL 19

PLAYS METALLICA BY FOUR CELLOS

MAY 24

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Tickets available at VooDooKC.com or Ticketmaster.com/voodookc or by phone at 1-800-745-3000.

Located minutes from Downtown Kansas City. Unlimited Free Parking.

Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-888-BETSOFF. Subject to change or cancellation. Phone and online orders are subject to service fees. Must be 21 years or older to gamble, obtain a Caesars Rewards card or enter VooDoo®. ©2019, Caesars License Company, LLC.