The Pitch: October 2021

October 2021 I FREE I THEPITCHKC.COM

David Dastmalchian’s Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

BY ABBY OLCESE

Who Is Dave One?

BY CHASE CASTOR

Schmitt’s Creep

BY BARB SHELLY

The Fix Is In

BY LIZ COOK

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

CONTENTS

THE PITCH

Publisher Stephanie Carey Editor-in-Chief Brock Wilbur Content Strategist Lily Wulfemeyer Associate Digital Editor Savannah Hawley Music Editor Nick Spacek Film Editor Abby Olcese Contributing Writers Emily Cox, Liz Cook, Barbara Shelly, April Fleming, Deborah Hirsch, Brooke Tippin, Beth Lipoff, Dan Lybarger, Anne Kniggendorf, Aaron Rhodes, Allison Harris, J.M. Banks, Kristen Thomas, Rachel Potucek, Vivian Kane, Kelcie McKenney, Nina Cherry, Cameron Capers Little Village Creative Services Jordan Sellergren Contributing Photographers Zach Bauman, Chase Castor, Travis Young, Jim Nimmo, Chris Ortiz Contributing Designers and Illustrators Katelyn Betz, Austin Crockett, Jake Edmisten, Lacey Hawkins, Angèle Lafond, Bianca Manninger, Nidhi Shenoy Director of Marketing & Promotions Jason Dockery Account Manager John Phelps Director of Operations Andrew Miller Editorial Intern Tyler Schneider Design Interns Shelby Phelps, Enrique Zabala

CAREY MEDIA

Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Carey Chief Operating Officer Adam Carey

VOICE MEDIA GROUP

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DISTRIBUTION

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COPYRIGHT

The contents of The Pitch are Copyright 2021 by Carey Media. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written permission of the publisher.

The Pitch 3543 Broadway Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64111 For information or to share a story tip, email tips@thepitchkc.com For advertising: stephanie@thepitchkc.com or 816-218-6702

Dancers at the KC Irish Fest

4 LETTER

18 DINING

32 EVENTS

6 POLITICS

22 Eat This/Drink This Now

36 SEX & LOVE

24 MUSIC

38 Savage Love

Letter from the Editor Impathy Engine

BY BROCK WILBUR

Schmitt’s Creep Missouri’s litigious AG wages an endless war on imaginary tyranny

BY BARB SHELLY

8 FEATURE

Love Language A romance for the books

BY EMILY COX

12 CULTURE

Dave One Dave One

BY CHASE CASTOR

14 Upward Mobility

Author Adam Gnade on self-selfhelp

BY ANNE KNIGGENDORF

16 EVENTS

Super Sleuths on the Case The Pitch’s Scavenger Hunt made us fall in love with Kansas City all over again

BY LILY WULFEMEYER

The Fix is in Carnivore-confusing cuisine courtesy 31st and Cherry

BY LIZ COOK

Pastries from Little Butter Bakery and The CDMX Smog at Café Ollama

BY APRIL FLEMING

Nerd Mentality The Epitome isn’t just a sound, he’s a world

BY NICK SPACEK

JIM NIMMO

October Events For more events, visit thepitchkc. com/calendar

BY TYLER SCHNEIDER

Keep Them Coming Sex workers keep getting screwed (by online platforms)

BY KRISTEN THOMAS

Hands on

BY DAN SAVAGE

26 Big Sky Country

Riley went to Montana and came back Ana

BY ALLISON HARRIS

28 FILM

Rogues Gallery Overland Park’s David Dastmalchian is savoring the fruits of his twisted labor

BY ABBY OLCESE

30 KC CARES

New Roots for Refugees

BY SAVANNAH HAWLEY

Cover

By JSquared Photography thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

3

LETTER

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IMPATHY ENGINE

BY BROCK WILBUR

For Halloween, I’d like to share with you a different kind of ghost story. I’d like to tell you about a few friends of mine.

Lee came up during a famine on his family’s farm, and developed a hoarding issue that borders on the dangerous. Jeremy built his son a beautiful birdhouse but broke it in a fit of anxiety, and in doing so, broke his son’s heart. Ursula’s ex-husband abandoned her and her children. Bruin became obsessed with conspiracy theories he was fed by television, and his delusions pushed away everyone who cared for him.

These are my pals. They are also bears.

And they are all dead.

Welcome to the feel-good hit of the summer: Cozy Grove.

This video game is set on the island of, you guessed, Cozy Grove. You play a spirit scout—a kid who is sorta like a girl scout, but to get your merit badges you need to help spirits with unfinished business move on to the next life. On a constantly shifting, ever-expanding island, you wake up each day and engage with the ghosts of 17 bears—helping them find misplaced items, cook food, and resolve trauma from their former existence.

Chores and misery with deceased bears sounds like it should be Extra. And it is. It’s also the most calming, engaging, and heartwarming experience I’ve had with a video game in some time. This is why on behalf of myself, and all the other Pitch employees that have found some measure of comfort from our time in Cozy Grove, I bring it to you today with our highest recommendation. [Our Content Strategist Lily’s Twitter bio is: “aiming to become one of the deceased bears from cozy grove because I too am traumatized and can never find where I put things.” So, yes, we’ve all be emotionally leaning on it lately.]

To help explain why Cozy Grove works,

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

I sat down with several members of the team behind it. Jamie Antonisse, the lead writer of Cozy Grove, David Edery, game studio Spry Fox’s CEO, and co-writer Kris Lorischild [credited in-game as Kris Ligman].

Lorischild, as their first time working with the Spry team, has a bit of an outsider’s

that history.”

It is much of the cognizance that plays into one of the defining features of the game: that it is an empathy engine. That it teaches you to identify with other people who have had different life experiences, and to see things through their eyes—and heart.

“FOR THESE CHARACTERS, IT’S A RIDDLE TO UNTANGLE WHAT IS METAPHYSICALLY WRONG WITH THEM,” SAYS ANTONISSE. “YOU, AS THE PLAYER, EMBODY AN ACTIVE LISTENER. perspective on where this game fits within entertainment—especially in a time when people are lumping games like this and Animal Crossing under the, ironically titled, cozy games discourse.

“These are bleak times, and inasmuch as I understand this impulse to create these ‘good vibes only’ soft spaces, I don’t think Cozy Grove would be as cozy without acknowledging that bleakness,” says Lorischild. “It’s like a campfire—the side of you facing the fire gets warm, but as a result, you become keenly aware of the cold still encroaching from behind. The trouble with ‘wholesome’ as a barometer of goodness in a game is that, throughout history, ‘wholesome’ has often meant safe, conservative, unobtrusive. Queer people, people of color, disabled people, the poor, religious minorities have all at some point been scrubbed out of the stories we tell in the name of wholesomeness, and if we’re going to persist in using that label we need to be cognizant of

“For these characters, it’s a riddle to untangle what is metaphysically wrong with them,” says Antonisse. “You, as the player, embody an active listener. That’s an important thing to model in media. Just as it was important to us that you check in with these characters each day.”

And that’s perhaps a fundamental cornerstone of what has made Cozy Grove click in our lives at The Pitch: The game plays out in real-time, and only really allows you circa 20 minutes of ‘work’ each day. You check in with your ghost buds. You get their lives in bite-sized chunks. You never have to worry about not having enough time for Cozy Grove, because it always has a few minutes for you. All the various ghosts, bugs, fish, imps, and other flora/fauna are just waiting to give you a small reprieve from the stress of your day, to visit some friends on a chill island and calm the fuck down.

Edery highlights how this game can be both a gorgeous heart-warming experience,

but how it equally brings up real-world experiences that can be new for gamers that… probably went in without expecting all this.

“The mail delivery bear on the island is based on the father of a very good friend of mine,” Edery says. “He suffered from survivor’s guilt from a war, where they ended up not being with their troops during combat, and things went horribly wrong. For decades later, it was still a thing that would cause them to start crying unexpectedly. I’ve never experienced anything like that, but people have resonated with this and learned from it.”

The empathy engine turns onward.

There are far, far worse ways to spend a few minutes each day than listening to the calming soundtrack of Cozy Grove, planting a bunch of flowers, and imagining a place where everyone feels comfortable talking through the mistakes that are holding them back from being better.

Pitch in and we’ll make it through,

Cozy Grove is available on all platforms. Including phones. You have no excuses.

unicorntheatre.org thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

5

POLITICS

SCHMITT’S CREEP MISSOURI’S LITIGIOUS AG WAGES AN ENDLESS WAR ON IMAGINARY TYRANNY

BY BARB SHELLY

In a world where outrage is the new normal, certain news opening lines can still set one’s teeth on edge.

Like this one: “Today, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has…”

Take your pick: Sued China. Sued President Biden. Sued your local school board over its mask mandate. Sued Kansas City, St. Louis, and Jackson County over their mask mandates. Filed court motions to keep an innocent man incarcerated. Tweeted something pompous about his gallant fight against “power-hungry” public officials (like unpaid school board members who want to protect people from COVID-19). Sued his neighbor’s new puppy for chewing up his lawn. (Not really, but at this point, who would put it past him?)

Schmitt, a former Missouri Republican state senator and treasurer, became attorney general at the start of 2019 after Gov. Mike Parson appointed him to fill the vacancy created when Josh Hawley was elected U.S. senator.

Hopes that Schmitt, unlike Hawley, might actually use his new job to make Missouri a fairer, more just place, were quickly squashed. Schmitt took active roles in the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), a group that promotes right-wing policies like voter suppression. He even served as its chairman for a while.

In a story that didn’t receive as much notice as it should have, two St. Louis lawyers discovered that Schmitt’s office had been in communication with a fundraising arm of RAGA that promoted Trump’s lie

about a stolen election and even urged “patriots” to march on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6.

Last November, Schmitt officially won election to the AG’s office. By then, people had begun to notice that Missouri’s top legal official seemed unusually cavalier about using taxpayers’ dollars to promote his political career and causes.

There was that bizarre lawsuit he filed against China, claiming that suppressed information about the novel coronavirus harmed Missourians. Legal experts say it has little chance of success, but the litigation could drag on for years.

Schmitt then moved on to Texas, throwing the support of his office behind the Lone Star State’s ridiculous move to sue some swing states that had voted for Biden instead of Trump. He sued the U.S. Treasury Department over regulations regarding COVID funds. He sued the Biden administration over its ban on oil and gas drilling on federal land.

There’s more, but you get the idea.

All of that nonsense, it turns out, was just a warmup. In March, Schmitt announced—on Fox News, of course—his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Roy Blunt.

Prior to joining that competitive Republican primary, Schmitt had been spraying most of his legal pellets outside of Missouri. Now he’s turned inward, targeting officials around the state, especially in Kansas City and St. Louis.

Over a few frenetic weeks in August leading into September, the AG’s office

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

filed lawsuits against St. Louis, Kansas City, and Jackson County over mask mandates.

It ginned up a class action lawsuit against school districts that try to protect children and staff against COVID by requiring masks. And it hustled to delay a hearing that could result in freedom for Kevin Strickland, the prisoner convicted more than 40 years ago of three murders that Jean Peters Baker, the Jackson County prosecutor, says he did not commit.

On Sept. 2, Schmitt capped off his exhausting headline spree with a letter of “guidance,” advising parents to claim their students were “substantially impaired” in school if they were unhappy about wearing masks.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas responded with a post on social media.

“Praying for the State AG tonight,” he wrote.

“Honestly. May God bless him and keep him

far, far from us.”

No such luck. To win a Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Missouri, Schmitt will need to keep hurling grenades—partly to command attention and partly to cover up the dark secret of his past.

Oh, yes. Eric Schmitt has a past. Not the past with a sex scandal, a campaign finance scandal, and a who-knows-what-else kind of scandal. Those would be the domain of another GOP Senate candidate, ex-Governor Eric Greitens.

But for Republican primary voters, the skeleton in Schmitt’s closet might be worse.

You probably want to cover the kids’ ears before breathing this out loud, but here it is. It seems that, for much of his political career, Schmitt was...A MODERATE. “He has the reputation of being reasonable and likable and he counts a lot of Democrats as friends,” confirms Lauren Arthur, a

POLITICS

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt Missouri Attorney General’s Office

Democratic state senator from Clay County.

For Schmitt the candidate, this is the worst kind of rap. Missouri primary voters want flamethrowers. They want defiants who will stand up to the big, bad federal government. They do not want reasonable, likable aisle crossers who understand that the government has a role in correcting injustices and protecting vulnerable citizens.

But that indeed is Schmitt’s record, starting with when he was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2008 after serving as an alderman in the city of Glendale in St. Louis County.

While a reliable vote on core GOP issues such as limiting abortions and expanding gun use, he rarely took the lead on those things. Instead, he sponsored a bill requiring insurance companies to treat children with autism, and another allowing use of a cannabis extract in some epilepsy treatments. Both bills passed. The most conservative members of his party screeched about mandates and Obamacare, but Schmitt countered by speaking passionately as the father of a disabled son.

In a move that will likely surface in his Senate primary, Schmitt also sponsored a bill that would extend tax credits to none other than the nation of China to encourage cargo traffic at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. That one didn’t pass.

After the police shooting of Michael Brown and the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, Schmitt engineered a law to curb the “taxation by citation” practice used by municipalities around St. Louis. Their cops routinely pulled over poor and Black drivers for the sole purpose of issuing revenue-producing traffic tickets and fines. His work earned

Schmitt the 2015 “Best Politician” honors from the Riverfront Times, St. Louis’ alt publication.

“Risking conservative friendships, Schmitt teamed up with left-leaning adversaries to pass Senate Bill 5 in July,” the publication wrote, in a bouquet that Schmitt likely wishes would vanish from the internet.

“In my experience, Eric was a very reasonable senator,” says Jeff Smith, a Democrat from St. Louis whose tenure in the Missouri Senate overlapped Schmitt’s. “He was interested in helping kids with autism. He was interested in economic development for the St. Louis region. Eric was really trying to get at some of the inequities in the region and I appreciated it. He was willing to take ideas from wherever they came.”

Whatever happened to that guy? It’s no big mystery—just a combination of blind ambition and Missouri’s ongoing lurch into crazyland. Oh, and likely some outside advice. Schmitt’s Senate campaign is using Axiom Strategies, the firm founded by former Kansas Citian Jeff Roe, who treats politics as a blood sport.

Schmitt’s aggressive legal stand against his imaginary forces of tyranny and Marxism, as he likes to blather on social media, may be paying off. A new poll by the Remington Research Group, which is connected with Axiom Strategies, gave him an edge in a field of five declared candidates, with a lead of one percentage point over Greitens.

He also leads the field in fundraising.

Whether he becomes a U.S. senator or remains Missouri’s attorney general, Schmitt has revealed an ugly malleability.

Once a voice of reason, he now produces inaccurate, anti-scientific information on Twitter, in his office’s news releases, and even in his lawsuits.

Once a staunch advocate for the St. Louis region, Schmitt has basically gone to war with St. Louis and Kansas City. He has disrespected their mayors—who happen to be the state’s highest-profile Black elected officials—and thwarted their elected prosecutors on innocence cases.

“It’s sad to watch all the bridges that he’s burned amongst the people who worked with him and enjoyed his company,” says John Rizzo, a Democrat who represents eastern Jackson County in the Missouri Senate.

“People inside the Jefferson City bubble realize this is all an act to win the Republican primary,” Lauren Arthur says. But in the process, Schmitt is becoming unrecognizable, perhaps even to himself.

“What are you doing and why are you willing to compromise yourself in this way?”

Arthur asks.

Excellent question. But Schmitt is much too busy to answer. So many people to sue, so little time before that 2022 senate primary.

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thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

7

FEATURE

LOVE LANGUAGE A ROMANCE FOR THE BOOKS

BY EMILY COX

Kansas City has another feather in its cap: one of our own has become the first Black author for Harlequin Historical’s line of romance novels.

While Harlequin has published Black authors’ contemporary stories over the years, the Historical series has been the province of white authors since it launched in 1988. 1,604 paperbacks later, Harlequin published A Blues Singer to Redeem Him by Elle Jackson, the pen name of Dana Jackson, in August of this year.

Jackson, from Kansas City, KS never expected to be the first Black person writing for this series.

“I was amazed, I did not believe it at first. Surely that’s not true!” says Jackson. “I know that it’s changing, but good grief, it’s 2021.”

As a kid who loved to read, Jackson discovered that there weren’t many stories with people who looked like her, who shared her experiences.

“That was one of the main reasons I wanted to become a writer,” she says. “I was determined that I was going to add to the diversity in literature.”

And now she has contributed to the massively-read Harlequin imprint with A Blues Singer to Redeem Him, a love story set in Kansas City in the 1920s. The novel features a Black female blues singer who survived the Tulsa Massacre and an Italian man from a mob family who owns a club.

Jackson was inspired to write about Prohibition-era Kansas City after a tour at Tom’s Town Distilling Co. where they discussed the history of that time. As she researched, she learned about the Tulsa Race Massacre that happened in 1921, during which white people burned, bombed, and massacred Black folks in the affluent Greenwood District.

“It was kind of a shock to my system, honestly, to learn about the Tulsa Massacre as an adult,” says Jackson.

Many people remain unaware of this violent act of white supremacy, thanks to its exclusion from school syllabi. One hundred years after the massacre, it remains just like Jackson’s character Evelyn says in the book: “It’s like it never happened. No one was ever prosecuted for the murders or the destruction. The papers reported on it only briefly, and then nothing. It’s like

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

Dana Jackson, who writes under the pen name Elle Jackson

Greenwood never existed—like we never existed.”

Jackson seeks to honor the survivors by representing their stories in fiction. To tell their stories appropriately, you can’t leave out the violence. While this book still gives us the feel-good finale guaranteed by happy-ending assured (or HEA) romance novels, the violence, fear, and trauma that the book deals with sets it apart from your average fluffy romance.

The book opens during the Tulsa Mas-

ALEXIS GIAN

ways, continue to face today.

“My editor did push back on how violent my book was, so I had to take some of that out,” says Jackson. “So what’s left is actually a tame version of what I initially wrote. People are like, ‘Elle Jackson doesn’t shy away from the horror of that time,’ and I think that’s funny, like y’all shoulda read the earlier version.” [Spoilers are coming!]

In the face of violence, the book’s heroine stands strong. When she is kidnapped

by Klansmen and faces the possibility of

READ IT

“WHEN [EVELYN] DID ALLOW HERSELF TO CARE FOR SOMEONE—WHICH WAS EXTREMELY HARD TO DO, GIVEN WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN GREENWOOD—SHE COULDN’T JUST PRETEND THAT THERE WAS NOTHING BETWEEN THEM.”

sacre, and the first sentence gets right to it: “Evelyn Laroque had never smelled human flesh burn.” Jackson isn’t exploring sweet, simple love connections free from the obstacles of real life. She embraces telling the story of the very real violence that Black folks faced in the 1920s—and in many

rape, “She grabbed at the knife strapped to her thigh … She would fight, and they would be forced to kill her. That would be an admirable death.”

While the book’s hero, Lorenzo, has some patriarchal inclinations towards saving and protecting Evelyn, she makes it

clear she does not need him to do so. When Lorenzo tries to make decisions for her, she says, “I’m just tired of men who think they can dictate what I should and shouldn’t do.”

Evelyn is a survivor who is empowered by taking care of herself and finally finding the pleasure and safety that she deserves.

thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

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FEATURE

Trauma can alter one’s sense of safety with others, when what can be most healing is a connection with others. Feeling safe with someone in the aftermath of a traumatic event is a powerful feeling. Jackson touches on that.

“When [Evelyn] did allow herself to care for someone—which was extremely hard to do given what had happened to her friends and family in Greenwood—she couldn’t just pretend that there was nothing between them.”

While she struggles with how to handle her growing feelings for Lorenzo, Evelyn also embraces opportunities for pleasure with open arms.

“It didn’t have to mean anything,” A Blues Singer reads. “She was grown, and she could have fun with a nice man without it having to mean anything. She hated how women had this unrealistic expectation of being prudish. Marrying wasn’t something she ever wanted. She just wanted to be able to take care of her grandmother and sing.”

To see Evelyn pursue pleasure, joy, and care feels powerful as we live in a society that judges and scolds Black women for enjoying themselves and their lives. After

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

a sexual encounter between Evelyn and Lorenzo, the novel reads, “After all life had thrown at her, she deserved to have this pleasure.”

Still, there were significant obstacles facing Evelyn and Lorenzo’s love; at that time, miscegenation—or interracial relationships—were illegal in the United States. The consequences for breaking anti-miscegenation laws were more severe for Evelyn as a Black woman than Lorenzo, a white man. Evelyn’s grandmother even warns Lorenzo of how dangerous it is to be in an interracial relationship. “[Evelyn] wished there was a world where they could have feelings for each other and not be committing a crime,” the novel reads. “Evelyn needed to be a rule-follower. Most of the time her life depended on her doing the right thing and not being caught in situations where she might be accused of a crime.”

Placing an interracial romance at the heart of this story was always part of Jackson’s plan.

“Black women, in society, have gotten the short end of the stick,” she says. “I just wanted to highlight Black women as beau-

ty. It’s a story about love, and Black women are seen as beautiful by all races.”

The book loses some of its nuance in discussing racism of the era in its portrayal of the KKK as backward outsiders. At one point, it reads, “Lorenzo’s family … now controlled the politicians, the police department and the city’s transportation—but the KKK was a group of ignorant idiots who obviously had a death wish.” It’s strange to read this sentence that suggests politicians, police, and lawmakers are separate from the hooded white supremacists—when that has historically not been the case.

While the politics of Kansas City in the book diverge from our actual history, Jackson isn’t writing a textbook here. She is a romance author seeking to tell the story of an empowered Black woman opening herself up to love after trauma.

A previous editor, however, insisted that Jackson’s work appeal primarily to “a Black audience.” That wasn’t what Jackson was aiming for.

“I was like … why?” Jackson asks. “She was like, ‘Primarily only Black people are going to read your books.’ Well, okay, that’s going to be a problem for me, that you

think that. Because I’m not writing Black stories. I’m just writing stories.”

She adds: “It took me forever to even put my writing out there, I was just afraid it wasn’t good enough and people weren’t going to read it because I’m a Black author and they think Black authors can’t write.”

For Jackson, there’s added pressure to come out of the gate with a strong debut.

“You feel like you can’t just be good, you’ve gotta be the best,” she says. “And if you’re not, they’re gonna be like, ‘Yep, see, that’s why we don’t have any Black authors.’

Not that Harlequin would do that at all. But I am afraid that if my book doesn’t do really well, other Black authors aren’t going to have a chance.”

Jackson’s job isn’t an easy one. The “historic” element in the “Historical Romance” is an unbelievably complicated topic. How does one envelop hundreds of years of oppression as the foundation of a love story? For a truly impossible task, Jackson has fired the first salvo in a series that is long overdue for covering issues it has, perhaps, feared tackling.

Elle Jackson is both making history, and making history.

thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

11

CULTURE

DAVE ONE DAVE ONE WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CHASE CASTOR

“I wanna be everywhere as much as possible,” says Dave One. If you know who this near-mythological figure is, you probably aren’t a fan. It’s cool; I wasn’t either, at first.

Dave One is a graffiti artist whose tags you’ve probably passed while running around KC. The dude even has his own website, proudly featuring a photo of The Pitch’s graffitied front door.

My interest in Dave One was piqued when I saw folks talking shit about him on the KC Reddit. I was on board with the shittalking too. Dave One’s writing was clean but seemed like pretty basic handwriting. But more than anything, the tags were everywhere, it was like there was a new one on some part of my commute every day. I didn’t get why you’d want your graffiti identity to be Dave One—I

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

mean, “Dave!?” Aren’t graffiti names supposed to be cool and edgy?

A couple of months back, I reached out to Dave One about following him around to snap photos of him at work, and my opinion changed. The vision I’d built up in my head of a mischievous brat who took pleasure in ruining Kansas City’s exteriors with his lame tag melted away as I heard his story.

Dave One is 26, Black, autistic, and suffers from clinical depression. In June 2020, he was living in his car with his dog, after a recent suicide attempt. One day he was parked in the West Bottoms and was taken by the graffiti there. He watched some documentaries: State Your Name and Getting Up: The TEMPT ONE Story.

Once he got his graffiti practice up and rolling, his biggest inspiration became the

NYC graffiti from the ‘90s, specifically an artist called JA One. This is the style he wants to emulate. After trying a few different names, he kept coming back to his own. His depression largely stems from being unsure of his purpose in life, so he decided to give purpose to his own name. Graffiti helped Dave One’s mental health.

To Dave One, the point of graffiti is to go up and stay up; to write on as many spots as he can, in hard-to-reach and highly visible loca-

tions. He wants people to know his name. He enjoys when folks are grumbling about him on the internet. He welcomes beef with other writers. It’s all part of the gig for him. The point is for his name to be known, repeated, ingrained in KC’s psyche: Dave One. He’s still very new at graffiti. He’s only been doing it since June 2020. He knows he’s got lots of room to improve, and he’s enthusiastic about putting in the work to get better.

If you’ve been paying attention, you may have

CULTURE

noticed how his tags, throw-ups, and pieces have changed as he improves.

Dave One gets sensory overload. Loud noises, in particular, are a stressor for him, so graffiti pairs well. He spends most of his time tagging between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. when the city is quiet. He says his goal is, “To try and do as much as possible before the sun comes up or I run out of paint.”

Going up in some spots requires a lot of athleticism, but it doesn’t phase Dave One. He

is into martial arts and free running, and it shows. I watched him effortlessly bounce up to a rooftop spot on a KFC he’d been scoping out.

Dave One has some standards on what kind of business he writes on. He has no remorse in writing on a corporate chain.

“It’s a franchise and the owner decided to pay his employees below living wages,” says Dave One. “He can fix it up because he’s got enough money.”

“BEEF IS HEALTHY FOR GRAFFITI; IT HELPS YOU GROW, IT CHALLENGES YOU TO SEE IF YOU’LL HIT BETTER SPOTS.” When it comes to mom and pop shops, Dave One has a different attitude.

“I don’t try to go to mom and pops. I will be a troll sometimes. [Sometimes] I’m doing it again just because you called the fuzz.”

But don’t worry. His work likely won’t last long: “If you have a really good wall, I’m sorry, I’m just gonna have to. It usually gets buffed really fast.”

Kansas City’s subreddit isn’t the only group in conflict with Dave One. There’s also the competition from other graffiti writers who will write over someone to erase their work, claim a spot, or label someone a Toy, an insult insinuating someone is a poser or amateur. But Dave One is okay with having beef with other graffiti artists.

“Beef is healthy for graffiti; it helps you grow, it challenges you to see if you’ll hit better spots,” he says.

If you write over Dave One on Cleaver II one night, that’s okay because he went up on a dozen new spots the next night.

Dave One’s life has taken a turn for the better and he attributes a lot of that to graffiti and the purpose it’s given him. His mental health has improved, his name has new meaning, and he has a deeper connection to KC. To Dave One, graffiti artists place the city behind a new lens: “It has me seeing the city in a different way.” thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

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CULTURE

UPWARD MOBILITY AUTHOR ADAM GNADE ON SELF-SELF-HELP

BY ANNE KNIGGENDORF

Adam Gnade has never read a self-help book in his life. On the couple of occasions he started to—perhaps unwittingly—he dismissed it after only a few paragraphs.

“I have no patience for self-help or spiritual stuff. I’m not a very spiritual person, at least not in a religious sense,” he says.

So, the release of not one, but two books that smack of self-help came out of left field for the novelist and recording artist who lives on acreage near Tonganoxie, Kansas.

Gnade moved to rural Kansas from Portland, Oregon 11 years ago for perspective and space. Maybe he was seeking a type of geographical therapy, or maybe it was a bid to add light into his life as he struggled with depression.

Even so, not long after that relocation, he was struggling, as were a lot of his friends.

Gnade started writing down survival tips for his and their sanity. Most of the tips found their way into publications prior to 2014, and both those and some newly added tips are now part of two books: The Do-it-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfucking Sad (Bread & Roses Press, 2013) and Simple Steps to a Life Less Shitty (Bread & Roses Press, 2021).

They’re not self-help if you ask Gnade. In fact, he thinks they fly in the face of traditional self-help, or work as a response to that genre.

“There’s not any psychological jargon.

There’s no new-age platitudes. It sort of cuts a lot of the bullshit, I guess,” he explains.

Among many other things, the books coax readers to be gentler with themselves. In Simple Steps under the heading “Being Good To Yourself Is Not Self-Indulgent,” he writes: “Alright, let’s get the most obvious shit out of the way first. You have to eat—well and healthy. You have to drink a lot of fucking water (a lot more than you probably think you do).”

Gnade says that back in 2012 his life and his friends’ lives seemed to just get worse and worse. Grappling with “existential BS,” depression, general hurt, mortality, and so on, was bogging down their psyches.

While Gnade normally writes auto-fiction, which is also what he prefers reading— thinly-veiled fictional accounts of his real life and circumstances—with his world crashing down, he didn’t think that would cut it.

“Everyone I knew was sort of in tailspins and nosedives, and imploding and exploding,” he says. “Me being able to give somebody something, and then later on the book, felt a

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

little more worthwhile than just writing stories.”

It turned out that writing with an eye toward making his life better helped him a lot.

That’s partly why he decided to gather up the pieces that comprise Simple Steps at this precise moment; mental wellness is a hot topic as the world enters its second COVID-19 autumn.

But, also partly, Gnade has just had more time to sort through projects and complete a lot of new writing—he’s managed four new novels in the space of 18 months.

Moreover, in February of this year, he began a record label called Hello America Stereo Cassette that releases audiobooks and collections of poetry on cassette tapes. He makes one cassette a month. August featured a collective of rural Canadian writers, and soon he’ll release a recording by a man from Yorkshire, England.

Gnade’s recent fiction has featured characters digging themselves out of bad places with tactics very similar to what he offers in Simple Steps and Big Sad. While Gnade insists he doesn’t take his own advice—he says he’s too close to it now and has probably already internalized it anyway—his fictional avatar, James Bozic, does.

James is the hero of more than one novel in Gnade’s written universe that he hopes someday will stand as a sort of personal history of America.

In his novel, one of now seven books, This Is the End of Something But It’s Not the End of You (Pioneers Press, 2020), James, like Gnade, has battled the beast that is depression.

He vacillates between self-harm and self-healing until he literally buys a farm and rests in semi-peace.

On Gnade’s real-life farm that he shares with wife Elizabeth Thompson, life seems to be good. The two were evicted in 2020 from the first farm they lived on near Leavenworth.

The owner sold the property out from under them, and, in order to have the space they wanted, they bought a place of their own.

Their animal collection wasn’t right for a rental anyway.

“We have, I think, 14 chickens. We lost like half of them to a coyote a few months ago.

We have two donkeys who are really nice,” Gnade says. “We just got them this summer.

And we’ve got four cats inside, two dogs, and three outside cats.” They also recently released a blue jay they nursed back to health in their attic.

And don’t get him started on the garden.

He says something about the soil helped them have the most amazing garden this summer.

“It’s on the wane right now, but we grew so many things and put up canning jars of tomatoes and freezers full of squash and green beans and carrots. It was just a phenomenal garden,” he says.

The garden fits right in with his advice about eating well, but Simple Steps has a

charming bent away from the sort of self-reliance one might expect from a man intent on living off the land.

In fact, he writes, “Rugged individualism is self-sabotage.”

He urges readers, instead, to rely on friends and to ask experts for help.

“Don’t be afraid to reach out to people,” he writes in Simple Steps. “The worst thing you can do in that situation is sit and let your mind run through an endless fucking cycle of, ‘Is this really bad enough to ask for help?’”

And, similarly: “When it feels like the world is ending, you need to find someone to tell you it’s not. Never underestimate the benefit of a fresh perspective.”

That advice is precisely what’s carrying him through the pandemic. In the spring of 2020, he was under the impression that he was already a very solitary person, writing alone for hours on end. However, having suffered through two waves of the pandemic and experiencing true isolation out on the farm, he realizes that he actually was very sociable pre-pandemic.

“It’s like one of the things you don’t really notice what you have until it’s gone,” he says.

“I probably still was more socially isolated than most people, but at the same time, I’m noticing all the things that I’m not doing now, which is, you know, kind of hard.”

In Simple Steps, Gnade urges “communal work (and work in the service of others)” as a remedy. He goes so far as to instruct his readers to get out a Sharpie and write, “Your

Adam Gnade.

ELIZABETH THOMPSON

READ IT

friends will carry you home,” on their office supplies.

And he certainly does take this advice.

Even if socializing is still a trick, Gnade makes trips to town for provisions and chats with people in stores.

He says, “Every single one of those interactions—I’ve left feeling stronger and more energetic and more hopeful.”

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thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

15

EVENTS

SUPER SLEUTHS ON THE CASE THE PITCH’S SCAVENGER HUNT MADE US FALL IN LOVE WITH KANSAS CITY ALL OVER AGAIN. BY LILY WULFEMEYER From September 17-19, The Pitch hosted our Fall Scavenger Hunt, and Kansas Citians showed up to suss out some of our town’s greatest mysteries. Where does the flying pink pig live when it’s not soaring through the skies? Who is the man on The Paseo with a patina? What museum can you run around in and feel like Godzilla?

We sent our super sleuths to some classic locales, some new favorite hidden gems, and even a couple of secluded glens out in nature to enjoy the autumn air. But we

told them: “Pics or it didn’t happen.” To prove that they had really solved our riddles, they had to take team photos at each location, yielding some shots that are nearly Nelson-worthy.

We owe a hearty congratulations to Team The New Dorothys for being the grand champions of the whole game! With almost 40 teams racing against each other to win $500 and swag bags full of goodies from our sponsors, the competition was tight. While The New Dorothys might

have solved the most clues and won the tie-breaker, there are some honorary mentions to be had. Team It’s Always Saucy in Kansas City had shirts made. Team KC Margaritaville ended their search with a skinny dip and a huge bottle of margarita mix. There was a team named “Flossy Pussies.”

Enough said.

Look, we could sit here and make jokes all day. But we’re going to shut up because each of these pictures could pretty much make up the next Visit KC ad.

“Rock On!!!” ––Team Mighty Murts at Lemonade Park “I smoke 2 joints In the morning, I smoke 2 joints at night. I smoke 2 joints in the afternoon, it makes me feel alright” ––Team Mighty Murts at Fresh Karma

Team The New Dorothys came together for this heartfelt photo-op

“And Then You’re Free to Check the King!” A.k.a an outstanding Harry Potter reenactment. ––Team The New Dorothys

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

“Life sized beer can, yum!” ––Team KC KZ at The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures

“Ceci N’est Pas Un Arc.” ––Team The New Dorothys at the Rosedale Memorial Arch.jpg

EVENTS

Team Dead Pixels won the Queen’s Gambit at the Downtown Kansas City Public Library

Team KC KZ says, “Happy 8th birthday!” to our presenting sponsor, Cinder Block Brewery

The Goof Troop and our friend Cori at BLK+BRWN say “#buyblackbooks”

“Checkmate!” at the Downtown Kansas City Public Library –– Team Neon Nation Wild Fyre Co, a.k.a. the team with the best outfits

“WE LOVE LOCAL NEWS” ––Team Lovehandles

“time for some margaritas” ––Team KC Margaritaville at Union Station “Found another team to help us out with this one!” ––Team KC KZ at Cave Spring Park

“The Gang is Here to Party” ––Team It’s Always Saucy in Kansas City at Main Event

“More pot? why not.” ––Team GET OFF MY LAWN at From The Earth

“Beach...Sunshine...margaritas...My Happy Place” ––Team KC Margaritaville

“I can ride my bike with no handle bars” ––Team Mighty Murts at The Mixing Bowl

“Met up with another group at the cave. We will win!!!” ––Team Flossy Pussies at Cave Spring Park

“Enjoy the Little Things” ––Team Mighty Murts at The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

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DINING

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

I’ve been thinking about that old joke about vegans—you know the one. It might as well be the only one, because I’ve heard it about as many times as the national anthem.

Q: “How can you tell if someone’s a vegan?”

A: “Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.”

My USDA-prime-beef with the joke isn’t that it’s hacky and predictable—though it is, to be clear, both of those things. It’s that it’s just not accurate.

Vegan diets are growing in popularity, but the branding’s gotten stealthier. When The Fix opened at 31st and Cherry in January 2020, “vegan” was noticeably absent from the menu even though the restaurant served no animal products. A few months later, the sisters behind food truck Mattie’s Vegan Eats dropped “vegan” from their name to open a Brookside brick-and-mortar, Mattie’s Foods. No one seems to want to be “vegan” anymore; if they take a label at all, it’s “plant-based.”

“It’s intentional,” says The Fix’s owner, Dave Swarts.

Swarts has been a fixture in the local animal rights community for a while—he directs the nonprofit VegLife KC as well as

Top: Fried chicken sandwich (buffalo style). Above: The exterior of The Fix

VegFest KC, the annual (until COVID-19) plant-based food and lifestyle festival.

“I don’t consider [The Fix] a vegan restaurant, just a restaurant that serves comfort food. The idea is for people to come in and not feel like they’re doing something that’s different.”

To be fair to Swarts, some of the dishes at The Fix might credibly confuse a carnivore. The biscuit in my half-order of biscuits and gravy ($5; $10 for a full order) was overly dense, but the caramel-colored gravy was silky and peppery; I didn’t miss the sausage. Still, I don’t recommend adding the faux-sausage crumbles for $1, which provided minimal flavor and the texture of wet popcorn.

The fried chicken sandwich I tried ($16) was a dead ringer for an engineered, fast food “chicken patty.” At The Fix, the non-chicken is made in-house from a blend of wheat gluten and tofu, and fried until the craggy breading takes on an auditory crunch. You can order it coated in barbecue

ZACH BAUMAN

or buffalo sauce, and I recommend the latter: The mild, tangy buffalo sauce provides a welcome base for the restaurant’s dill-heavy house ranch and thick, snappy pickle slices.

And though the price tag is a little high, the sandwich is enormous and comes with a treasure horde of salty, house-cut fries. It’s a strong contender in the city-wide fried chicken sandwich wars, vegan or no.

Still, I wondered how many vegan diners would be aware, just from a quick scan of The Fix’s menu, that they could actually eat here. The first ingredient listed in the fried breakfast burrito ($15) was “meat,” quickly followed by “queso” and “sour cream.” The “meat” in my burrito was Beyond Meat burger crumbles, the “queso” a gooey cashew sauce—but I only know that because I called Swarts to ask.

That burrito was frustratingly close to perfection. It looked incredible, because of course it did: It was a planet-sized chimichanga frosted with cashew cheese. But the bean and tofu-egg filling was bland, as were

DINING

THE FIX 600 E 31st St 816-800-5000 thefixkc.com Hours: Tuesday–Friday 4 PM–8 PM Saturday–Sunday 10 AM–4 PM Prices: Entrees: $7–$16 Sides: $5–$11 Coffee: $2.50–$4.2 Best bet: Order the fried chicken sandwich with a side of onion rings and a Jamaica tea (or the agua fresca du jour) the accompanying sides of fried potatoes and dirty rice. The textures were spot-on; the dish didn’t need anything more than salt, but it needed it everywhere.

Swarts’ version of comfort food leans heavily on the fry basket, and most of the fried sides and starters are well-executed.

The jalapeño poppers ($11) aren’t a perfect dupe for the cream-cheese-stuffed original, but are delicious in their own right.

Each order comes with three whole, mutant jalapeños the size of a corn dog (and breaded like one). The house-made “almond

cheese” filling tasted less like a cheese and more like a toothy purée, but it provided a neutral, fatty balance to the peppers’ heat.

The breaded onion rings ($7) might not win many points for innovation, but they were battered with restraint and seasoned without it—my ideal combination. For an upcharge, you can swap them out for the French fries that come standard with many sandwiches. You should.

Not everything here is fried, but maybe it should be. I had high hopes for the avocado BLT ($12), and it tasted great, but the textures faltered. The smoked tofu pinch-hitting for bacon was thick and soft; the untoasted Kaiser roll was also thick and soft; and the slippery combo of avocado, tomato, and thousand island dressing quickly deconstructed the sandwich into its constituent parts.

The “well-traveled dog” ($12; a rotating special) was less messy, even though the plant-based sausage had been split in half and filled with every condiment in the kitchen: honey mustard, sauerkraut, jalapeños, tomato, green bell pepper, onion, cilantro.

That combo worked—and the plating was fun—though the Field Roast-brand sausage didn’t bring much flavor to the party.

The Fix is counter-service right now and doesn’t serve alcohol but does have a small menu of coffee drinks, Jarritos, and rotating aguas frescas. I liked the Jamaica tea ($4), an iced hibiscus drink with the cocky color and acerbic edge of fresh cranberry juice. You could pass a leisurely evening here just sipping coffee and people-watching at one of the sunny sidewalk tables.

Inside, the dining room is sunny and elegant, combining modern design touches (like a live-edge wood countertop) with original tile work from the building’s former life as a drugstore. It’s also rimmed with plants which here come off less like a Millennial design trope and more like a vegan answer to steakhouses with antlers on the walls.

The Fix’s pleasant vibes and Southern-fried comforts should appeal to vegans and veganism-joke-tellers alike. The

Top: Diners enjoying The Fix. Above: The well-travelled dog with fries.

restaurant is a worthwhile addition to the city’s growing (and in my view, still underdeveloped) plant-based dining scene. But in an era of increased consciousness about food and food systems, the menu’s lack of plant-based specificity (and aversion to consumer-friendly labels) feels odd. Swarts told me by phone that he likes using easy-to-find products—Field Roast cheese slices, Beyond burger patties, “brands people can grab at the store.” But those brands aren’t listed on the menu, so I’m not sure diners will make the connection. Most people don’t want to

ZACH BAUMAN

call restaurants to find out what’s in their food; most people don’t want to call anyone, period.

But hey, if the stealth approach convinces a few skeptics that meat isn’t mandatory? That’s probably a net win—at least from the perspective of promoting animal rights and halting climate change. We’ve got a lot of work to do when it comes to improving a food system (and climate) altered by decades of agricultural and industrial consolidation and exploitative labor practices.

There’s no quick fix.

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

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Nacho Taco Fried corn tortilla with MTJ nacho beef, queso con cerveza, pickled jalapeños, cilantro lime crema, and pico de gallo.

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Drunken Worm Nachos Pulled pork, cream cheese blend, black beans, jalapeños, red onion, chipotle raspberry puree, and pepper jack.

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The Well’s Brisket Beef Tacos Two shredded beef tacos with pickled red onions and cilantro in a flour tortilla.

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Carnitas

Gochujang Tacos

4 traditional street tacos with carnitas (fried pork), soft corn shells, cilantro, and white onion. Served with a side of salsa verde.

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thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

21

DINING

EAT THIS NOW

Pastries from Little Butter Bakery order at littlebutterbakery. minimartapp.com

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY APRIL FLEMING

Kelsey Earl has only been baking under the name Little Butter Bakery since April—and in the handful of months since, her work has become something of a local phenomenon.

Earl isn’t new to hospitality. Prior to Little Butter Bakery, she worked for years as a server and bartender, and she briefly baked under the name Focaccia for Produce. It was the pandemic that bumped her out of her comfort zone, and she became convinced that this might just be the time to try something new.

“Little Butter is my passion project,” Earl says. “It’s something I always wanted but I just didn’t think I could have.”

Now, Earl’s weekly bakery boxes reliably sell out, and quickly. So do her pop-ups, which happen about two or three times a month, at places like Big Mood Natural Wines, Blip Roasters, and Foxtrot Studio. Earl loves using sustainable seasonal and local produce when she can, including local flours.

Recent options in her boxes and pop-ups have included a local tomato tart with parmesan ricotta and black pepper; a peach honey bun made with Howard’s peaches and salted honey labneh frosting; and a stuffed breakfast bun made with Local Pig chorizo verde sausage, hatch green chile, onions, potatoes, and queso fresco. There are also wildly good chocolate chunk cookies, local pear tarts, donuts, cakes, and pull-apart brioche. She mixes savory and sweet, and usually there’s at least one discernably local ingredient in the mix.

We can’t recommend one specific item because Earl makes different stuff all the time—but what we can recommend is to keep an eye on her Instagram account, and scooping up what you can get. Whatever it is, you won’t regret it.

Pictured: A Peach Fritter with local peaches and peach buttermilk glaze; Zucchini Cake with sesame and Valrhona dark chocolate buttercream; the Farmer’s Market Galette with ricotta, baby squash, mint, chile and lemon; and a Brioche Bun with tomato jam, prosciutto, and gruyère.

DRINK THIS NOW

The CDMX Smog at Café Ollama 523 Southwest Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64108

There is a lot to be happy about if you are a coffee drinker in Kansas City right now. Despite the pandemic, several brand-new shops have opened even in the past few months, many of them great. There are so many, even, that it’s difficult to stand apart from the highly caffeinated pack, as all of those flat whites, lattes, and house roasts become more or less indistinguishable.

But Lesley Reyes has managed it with Café Ollama, turning a storefront on Southwest Boulevard into a warm, homey environment.

The menu at Café Ollama is inspired by traditional Mexican beverages, including the wonderful Café de Olla. Café de Olla is coffee brewed slowly in a clay pot with cinnamon, cloves, anise, and piloncillo, which Reyes sources directly from Mexico. A critical element is that piloncillo, which is a type of unrefined raw cane sugar easily mistaken for brown sugar, but with a much punchier sweetness. (Brown sugar in the U.S. is actually refined white sugar plus molasses. Weird.) Sweet, aromatic, and complex, Café de Olla is good on its own and you should try it.

But Reyes does the already-good coffee concoction one better—she features the Café de Olla in a speciality drink called the CDMX Smog (Mexico City Smog). It’s made with té de manzanilla (chamomile tea), Café de Olla, and an orange slice(!), all topped with salted sweet foam that is dusted with cinnamon sugar. It’s irresistibly fragrant, with the cinnamon and spices noticeable long before you sip. When combined with the syrupy hallmark of piloncillo and the citrus that somehow works, this drink is pure comfort and feels like home. This is the fall drink you should have—well conceived, balanced, and interesting, a surefire antidote to the gourd-related coffee drink we’ll officially never need to discuss again.

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

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MUSIC

THE EPITOME

The Epitome.

CORNELIUS DEVAUGN TERRELL JR.

NERD MENTALITY THE EPITOME ISN’T JUST A SOUND, HE’S A WORLD BY NICK SPACEK

Rapper Glenn Robinson—better known as The Epitome—and I have been emailing back and forth for nearly four years now, so even before sitting down for a longer conversation, it feels like I know them. Epitome’s new release NNTT comes out this month, and the album’s title track encapsulates what I consider to be Robinson’s musical approach in a single line: “The duality is my artistry.”

Over the course of NNTT’s nine tracks, Robinson drops lines about Yu-Gi-Oh!, hentai, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, but also raps about smoking weed and fucking. As you can tell, the man contains multitudes.

But he’s often pigeonholed into a sub-genre of rap called nerdcore. The Epitome knows he’s pulling on a tentpole marketing strategy, but sees himself as a celebrator of extended, elaborate culture. Not just these slices of reference.

“I feel like I don’t really fit in with a lot of the other people that rap on anime and I

24

THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

feel like we’re on a different spectrum,” says Robinson. “It’s like, ‘Okay, well man, I rap about anime, too.’ It’s just in a different way.”

Savvy readers of The Pitch might recall that, when we posted the video for the NNTT collab with Amira Wang, “Big Bawdy,” in May 2020, we mentioned that the album would be out by that September.

Spoiler: COVID-19 is the culprit behind the 12-month delay.

“We had all these videos,” Robinson explains. “I had maybe four more videos shot, but when the pandemic happened, I couldn’t finish them. I didn’t want to drop the project and then have the videos—which we just finished probably last month—out for an additional year.”

The genesis of NNTT goes all the way back to 2019. Coming on the heels of 2018’s Still Trill, it began with just a few lines: “Nerdy [people] trap too / You’ll never catch us.” From there, Robinson got beats from producer Raisi K., after explaining the

concept for the album. “Big Bawdy,” was the first song to take on a life of its own.

“Amira and I just started performing ‘Big Bawdy,’” explains the rapper. “We were just having shows and doing stuff and the people were going really crazy. People were DMing and calling and texting to say, ‘Hey, when is this song coming out? We’ve heard it everywhere. When are you going to put it out?’”

Robinson laughs and adds, “The first thing you never do is you never put dates in your music.” Hearing someone on a track shout-out a year like 2007 instantly ages and distances the immediacy of a message.

“I have probably a hundred beats or more, and I have like, seven that I’m working on.

I don’t make music based on waves or what other people are doing. You gotta think about the longevity of the thing that you’re rapping about.”

He points to the first line of NNTT. In “Outro Because I Don’t Need No In-

tro,” Robinson drops, “Gryffindor trap lord / And I never saw the sorting / Only hat I knew was how I saw my life according to recordings.” That’s an instantly familiar reference to multiple generations.

Funnily enough, though, the third track on NNTT is entitled “NOTR,” which stands for “Not Old Town Road,” which could’ve been a very dated reference, but as NNTT drops on the heels of Lil Nas X’s Montero, it’s a cut which seems prescient—a song that was looking into the future and didn’t know it.

Marketing is a primary focus for Robinson. The artwork, lyrics, and aesthetic needs to fit into his neon-lit world. That space is videogames and anime, boisterous beats and powerful vocals. Robinson knows music fans these days want to see what’s going on in your life, too, so you can’t just make the post about your new music and get frustrated when they don’t engage further.

“You’re a character now,” offers the rapper. “They want to see your social media. Like, ‘What are you doing? Where are you at? How did you get there? What are you cooking? What are you eating? What type of drinks do you like?’ And this is crazy to me. I’m like, ‘Wow, you need all that just to listen to my new record?’”

To that end, not only will the Epitome be dropping NNTT this month, but there’s already another project ready to go, entitled Trap Ted Talk slated for early 2022. There’s a line in that album’s “Smell Good” which goes, “My time is money / Ain’t got none to waste.”

It seems like Robinson is living that truth.

The Epitome will be performing at The Rino’s Skimaskerade Ball on Saturday, October 23.

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Le awo o d | O l a t h e | D ow n tow n KC M O | B l u e Sp r i n g s | O ve r l a n d Pa r k | O n l i n e thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

25

MUSIC

RILEY THE MUSICIAN.

BIG SKY COUNTRY RILEY WENT TO MONTANA AND CAME BACK ANA BY ALLISON HARRIS

For Ana Kennedy Domville, known by her stage name RILEY THE MUSICIAN, it took a road trip to Montana to really discover herself. The 22-year-old from Lee’s Summit, Missouri found her trip so successful that the resulting writing and recording sessions evolved into her third studio album in as many years. The aptly titled album, Montana, is Domville’s first album under label Snafu Records, which she signed to in June.

She is going through a period of change at the moment. Not only is she getting to release her first label-backed project and tour,

I went to a place and [created] something I would want to listen to in 10 years,” she says.

“A lot of it is just about finding home and ‘where is home?’”

Montana was nearly finished and ready for release when Domville was signed by Snafu. The label went on to spearhead the final details of the album and its release, coming this fall. The exact release date is still under wraps as she finishes recording one more track.

Domville’s music up to this point has been an eclectic blend of pop, hip hop, and

artists just come up with words or a melody on the spot and fill the blanks in later. She credits this affection to listening to rap artists like Childish Gambino and Kanye West growing up.

“Hip-hop is the most dynamic genre in the world,” she says. “When I was 16, I got the album Because the Internet. I listened to Graduation over and over again. The super synth sounds on “I Wonder” just sound incredible.”

These hip-hop influences can be heard on songs like “Iced Out [Reloaded],” which

DOMVILLE’S MUSIC UP TO THIS POINT HAS BEEN AN ECLECTIC BLEND OF POP, HIP HOP, AND SYNTHETIC DANCE MUSIC. MONTANA COMES FROM A NUMBER OF FRESH AESTHETIC AND MUSICAL INSPIRATIONS, BOTH ELECTRONIC AND FOLK. but she recently came out as a trans woman.

In a tweet from September 19, she wrote, “riley went to montana and then came back as ana is how i want today to be remembered as.”

For Domville, the work of polishing the final project led her to entirely new discoveries about herself and her art.

“This is something entirely new where

26

THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

synthetic dance music. Montana comes from a number of fresh aesthetic and musical inspirations, both electronic and folk.

She’s currently obsessed with Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska (particularly “Atlantic City”), the work of Daniel Johnston, and Montanan Alaska Reid’s Big Bunny project.

Additionally, she is drawn to a style of songwriting inspired by freestyle, where

was a previous release remade for the Montana album. The song features glitching beat and a distinct, confident flow.

Domville’s music career has risen on the tide of diligently engineered music feeding off a sense of magic and otherworldliness. This aesthetic has thus far been essential to the RILEY THE MUSICIAN sound as she grew a following in an online music

TRAVIS YOUNG

sphere known by some as hyperpop.

“I grew up listening, when I was 17 or 18, to A.G. Cook and SOPHIE, all the PC Music roster all the time,” says Domville.

“They’re what got me into online music.

And then I met people online like Umru, Frax, and just became friends with people in those circles. I just got into it that way.”

SOPHIE, who passed away unexpectedly in January 2020, remains one of the biggest influences to hyperpop as a whole and to Domville personally.

“She meant everything, especially to trans people,” says Domville. “I think she really opened my eyes to that as a young kid and made it okay. I grew up in a pretty Christian environment, and it was always like, ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do this, you can’t do this.’”

Both as a transgender woman and an electronic artist, SOPHIE’s legacy is one that Domville’s career honors in many ways.

Her dreamy songwriting and revisionist approach to music—many of her songs were performed live only, and were often slightly different when she played them—are two things the artists share. Whether it be the songs on Montana or previous releases she’s changed to fit her current narrative, Domville shares this drive to grow in her music.

As for the future, Domville’s dreams involve isolating herself and honing her craft.

“I would be happy just moving to Montana in the middle of nowhere and just flying people up and making music,” she says.

“That’s really my vibe. I love songwriting and I love producing with people. I’m so much better just on my own. I feel like the pandemic changed so much, permanently, that you can succeed anywhere now and do whatever.”

RILEY THE MUSICIAN

thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

27

FILM

ROGUES GALLERY OVERLAND PARK’S DAVID DASTMALCHIAN IS SAVORING THE FRUITS OF HIS TWISTED LABOR

BY ABBY OLCESE

There’s no shortage of great creative talent with their roots in the Kansas City region. We’re the hometown of Gillian Flynn, Janelle Monae, Heidi Gardner, Don Cheadle, Robert Altman, Jason Sudeikis, Paul Rudd, Rob Riggle, and David Koechner. Like most Kansas Citians, I feel no shortage of pride for all these folks, and I’m beyond pleased that they’ve displayed their support and pride for our fair city in turn.

David Dastmalchian hits differently.

I was only aware of everyone else’s KC roots after they’d already become mega-successful. The Overland Park-raised Dastmalchian’s star, on the other hand, is still on the rise. In the last eight years, he’s gone from small but memorable turns in movies like Prisoners and Ant-Man to meatier roles in The Suicide Squad and the hotly-anticipated Dune, out this month. He’s not just the native son we’re proud of, he’s the native son we’re actively rooting for.

Dastmalchian is having an absolute monster of a year, too—in addition to his breakout roles in two of 2021’s biggest movies, his Dark Horse comic series Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter was picked up for another run. In January, he got to live out his lifelong dream of being a TV horror host during the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards broadcast.

When we speak, he’s in Malta on a shoot for The Last Voyage of Demeter, an André Øvredal-directed horror film speculating on Dracula’s sea journey to London and the fate of the doomed crew that took him there.

I ask Dastmalchian how he’s handling this intense, all-at-once success.

“That’s a good question,” he responds.

It turns out having all your ships come in at the same time can feel like kind of a lot.

Fortunately, he tells me, he’s got a good support system to keep him grounded.

“I can’t express how grateful I am that I have the family and friends I do, who help me feel like I’m enough whether all this stuff is happening or not,” Dastmalchian says. “All the joy, all the gratitude, all the excitement I feel doesn’t discount the fact that it’s all happening in rapid succession, and in a way that feels overwhelming for my brain. At times it does induce anxiety, but it’s thoroughly positive.”

Even his pets are famous now. While shooting The Suicide Squad in Panama, Dastmalchian encountered a stray cat that his family adopted.

“There was a very sweet, very malnour-

28

THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

ished kitty who kept climbing up into the video village guy’s lap every day and kept wanting attention and wanting to be loved,” Dastmalchian says. “The day I shot the ‘I’m a superhero’ scene, which was one of my hardest scenes to shoot in the whole film, that cat came up, and I pet her, and she calmed me down, and I thought ‘I’m fucked man, I need this cat.’ I called my wife and she was like ‘yeah of course.’ She adopted us, and she’s been part of our family ever since.”

Abner Bubblegum Polka-Dot Cat went viral after Dastmalchian posted a photo of his furry new family member wearing a miniature version of his The Suicide Squad character’s costume created by the film’s costume designer, Judianna Makovsky.

Dastmalchian’s Twitter feed, where he shares fan artwork of his characters, currently features as many drawings of the cat as of himself.

“Bubblegum is a unique cat,” Dastmalchian says. “You can call her by name. She seems to know when I need a lap cuddle, leaves me alone when I don’t, and lets the kids put their crazy energy on her.”

Dastmalchian is also working on a script for a project currently titled Hide Your Eyes, a supernatural horror drama that deals with themes of mental wellness and addiction, themes that Dastmalchian, who’s been open about his experiences with both, has a deep connection to. Like Dastmalchian’s previous screenwriting effort All Creatures Here Below, which shot predominantly in and around Kansas City, Hide Your Eyes will be set in the midwest.

“There’s no other landscape like what you get in Kansas and around Kansas City,” Dastmalchian says. “You can say ‘we’re making a story set in the midwest’ and then go shoot it in Louisiana or Georgia, and those places are beautiful and look really cool, but they don’t look like Kansas, or Northwest Missouri. It’s such a specific terrain that’s particular and simple and simply beautiful. That had a big impact on me.”

Advocacy for expanded filmmaking opportunities in Kansas City is a long-term passion of Dastmalchian’s, but as he says, “It’s a long fight.” One reason many big-budget productions that shoot in the United States use certain states or cities (Georgia, where The Suicide Squad was shot, has filled in for Indiana in Stranger Things, Michigan in The House with a Clock in its Walls, and Kentucky in Hillbilly Elegy) is because of competing tax exemptions, lifted location

David Dastmalchian.

JSQUARED PHOTOGRAPHY

fees or other perks that make it easier for productions to film there, creating jobs and revenue in return. Missouri’s statewide film incentive ended in 2013, and hasn’t been reinstated since.

Dastmalchian says he’s actively trying to change that. “The midwest is a crucial part of the United States storytelling, but because of something as simple as tax incentives, they can’t shoot those stories here,” Dastmalchian says. “One of my missions as a filmmaker is to help the KC film office to push for comprehensive tax incentives and get state legislators to get behind the idea of how much capital and business we could bring into our places if those things were on the table.”

That advocacy comes from a long-standing loyalty to the area where he grew up. Dastmalchian credits local institutions like Clint’s Comics Books, Rainy Day Books, and the Tivoli Theater with providing early creative inspiration.

“Kansas City in the ‘80s, when I was a kid, was starting to boom for a lot of reasons. It was a real bizarre melting pot of different points of view,” Dastmalchian says. “It was very traditional in one sense, and a conservative community that also had a rad, fringe, artistic, progressive tribe of people who were finding connectivity through the arts and the culture of KC and the surrounding suburbs,” Those competing worldviews, with help from supportive teachers in the Shawnee Mission School District who encouraged his interests, allowed Dastmalchian to develop strong tastes and opinions early in life, and learn to defend them.

“Growing up in the midst of such extremes—for me it was Reagan’s conservative dominance, while being on the edge of a city that was so multicultural and had been progressive since the 1920s—that was an interesting place to start formulating ideas and opinions,” Dastmalchian says. “I

FILM

The Suicide Squad.

learned early on how to fight for and use my imagination to explore ideas that went against what was acceptable or the norm in our communities.”

In 2015, Dastmalchian returned to the Tivoli, this time as a filmmaker, with a special premiere of Animals, his first collaboration with All Creatures Here Below director Collin Schiffli. He says the experience was

profound.

“That was one of those life moments for me that was so important,” Dastmalchian says. “Getting to be back home and seeing my films in those theaters was something I’ll never forget.”

On October 22, audiences around the world will get to see Dastmalchian in Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune. Dastmal-

chian plays Piter de Vries, who serves the movie’s villain, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, played by Stellan Skarsgård. This will mark his third collaboration with Villeneuve, having had memorable roles in both 2013’s Prisoners and 2017’s Blade Runner 2049.

“Working on it was pretty difficult because I play a character who is literally and figuratively twisted. He’s a human computer

WARNER BROTHERS MEDIA

who’s been twisted by Baron Harkonnen,” Dastmalchian says. “There’s not a lot of conscience at play, which is usually a big doorway for me. Without one, you’re kind of a computer program-version of sociopathy, which was challenging to play, but very rewarding. I think we came up with something I hope people will be creeped out and entertained by.”

With a growing gallery of troubled, fascinating characters building up on his resume, I ask Dastmalchian if going deep on emotionally complicated figures is something he’s sought out. It turns out the answer is a little inscrutable, even to him.

“There must be something about me that these directors feel is appropriate or kindred that they think I’m right to play these characters,” Dastmalchian says. “I don’t know how to take that exactly, but I’m grateful for the chance to work and play complex, dark, struggling characters because they have so much to overcome, and that gives me a great journey. Why I bring so much is a mystery to me, and one I’m happy exists.”

thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

29

KC CARES

NEW ROOTS FOR REFUGEES

BY SAVANNAH HAWLEY

When you buy produce on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at local farmer’s markets, you may already be supporting refugees in the area. Since 2008, New Roots for Refugees has helped people settling in the Kansas City metro start farm businesses through a collaboration between Catholic Charities and Cultivate KC. The four-year program begins at Juniper Gardens Training Farm, where farmers have a quarter-acre plot to grow vegetables according to sustainable practices and learn how to adjust their growing practices to the changing Kansas City climate. Many in the program bring expertise and new crops from their home country to the midwest.

After the growing season, New Roots for Refugees provides winter classes covering everything from farming workshops to English lessons. Each year, the program transfers more responsibilities to the farmers in the program until they have control over the totality of their business.

“We work with folks over that four-year period to adapt their farm,” says Meredith Walrafen, program manager of New Roots for Refugees. “We recruit people who have farming skills already. And our goal is to help them adapt those skills to be successful in the climate and in the market here in the Kansas City area so that they can start their own small farm business.”

new ingredients and food practices—New Roots for Refugees even shares recipes that involve the crops.

“There’s a lot of barriers to come into a new country and start a new life, especially as a refugee. Giving people access to space to grow food for themselves and their families really ties people to home,” Walrafen says. “It can make you feel like you miss your home if you don’t have the food you’re used to. So, people being able to grow the things that they’re familiar with—while also supporting their own food communities and the broader community that they’re new in—is all really powerful in different ways.”

Last year, the 16 farmers in the New Roots for Refugees program grew 72 different crop varieties. Beyond the food they grow, participants in the program are integral members of the Kansas City community.

“There’s a narrative around refugees in particular and the things that they take— that they come here and they utilize benefits and resources,” says Walrafen. “I really love that this program showcases the skills and knowledge, the benefits, and all of the wonderful things that immigrants bring to this country. I think that’s really powerful and it brings to the forefront how much people have to share. It’s a shift in the narrative and I think that’s really important.”

4th year farmer Biak Par and her daughter holding a farm share from last season Top row: Semra Fetahovic ( Juniper Gardens Training Farm Manager, Cultivate KC), Mediatrice Niyonkuru, 3rd year farmer from Burundi, Second row: Dhan Rai, 2019 graduate from Bhutan (his farm business is “The Natural Farmacy” and can be found on social media); Tin Tun Aung, 4th year farmer from Burma; Ngun Tial, 4th year farmer from Chin State in Burma, Standing, far right: Ibrahim Dugudu, 2020 graduate from the DRC (farm name is Maisha Mapya), Standing, far left: Ca Saw, 2nd year farmer from Burma, Sitting front: Taw Meh, 2nd year farmer from Burma NEW ROOTS FOR REFUGEES

“I REALLY LOVE THAT THIS PROGRAM SHOWCASES THE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE, THE BENEFITS, AND ALL OF THE WONDERFUL THINGS THAT IMMIGRANTS BRING TO THIS COUNTRY.” That goal has largely been accomplished. To date, 21 of the 30 program graduates still operate farms.

Farmers in the program have full autonomy over what they choose to grow, but New Roots for Refugees does teach them about what successfully sells in area markets.

It’s the culturally relevant crops that farmers plant from their home countries that make the program shine. What makes the farmers feel more at home also introduces people to

30

THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

To support the farmers in the New Roots for Refugees program, visit one of the 13 different markets that they sell at. All of the proceeds from market sales go directly to the farmers. The program also offers farm share boxes. For just $16-24 a week, Kansas Citians can support the farmers and get spring greens or early and late summer vegetables.

The farm share is aggregated based on the availability each farmer has, so there’s al-

ways a rotation of produce. Farmers see 80% of the money from the boxes while 20% goes towards paying a Community-Supported Agriculture specialist—whose family is a graduate of the farming program.

New Roots for Refugees also wholesale sells their produce to 10 different restaurants in Kansas City and is looking to expand that program. The Homesteader, The Rieger, Jax Fish House, The Savoy, Heirloom, and even Betty Rae’s are some of the local spots where

you can eat produce sustainably grown by the program’s farmers.

Supporters can also volunteer to help farmers sell at marVisit the website: kets, host a pop-up market, or donate directly to Cultivate KC or Catholic Charities to help run New Roots for Refugees.

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thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

31

EVENTS

OCTOBER EVENTS

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

Downtown Lawrence Farmers’ Market, Lawrence, KS Lenexa Farmers’ Market, Lenexa Civic Campus Brookside Farmers’ Market, HJ’s Youth and Community Center KC Renaissance Festival, Bonner Springs, KS The Great Pumpkin Fest, Worlds of Fun Halloween Haunt, Worlds of Fun Dirty Heads & Sublime with Rome, Grinders KC Mahan the Band, Aztec Shawnee Theater Freight Train Rabbit Killer & Of Tree, Kaw Point Park Out of the Darkness Walk, Aspiria/Old Sprint Complex Knuckleheads Saturday Jam, Knuckleheads Saloon Gleason Magic Experience, Prairiefire 10th Annual KC Natural Hair and Wellness Expo, HyVee Arena

OCT. 3

Downtown Lawrence Farmers’ Market, Lawrence, KS Evening at the Square, American Public Square Rex Hobart & The Honkey Tonk Standards, The Ship Badflower, The Granada Deep Sea Diver, recordBar

OCT. 6

Ben Folds with the Kansas City Symphony, Kauffman Center for Performing Arts Pitbull with Iggy Azalea, Starlight Theater Jackie Myers Duo, Chaz on the Plaza

OCT. 7

Jenna Bauer Duo, Chaz on the Plaza The Reminders, Midwest Trust Center St. Vincent, Uptown Theater Buddy Guy with Ally Venable, Knuckleheads Saloon Jeff Shirley Organ Trio, Green Lady Lounge The Reminders, Yardley Hall Jungle Boogie with Steve Cruz, The Ship The House Rockers, Knuckleheads Saloon Ice Cream Social, Torn Label Brewing Co Comedy Open Mic, Comedy Club of KC

OCT. 8

Machine Gun Kelly, Azura Amphitheater Hamilton, Kansas City Music Hall J Fowler, Parlor Sunday Afternoon Music, KC Wine Co KC Renaissance Festival, Bonner Springs, KS Oktoberfest 5k, Kansas City Running Company The Great Pumpkin Fest, Worlds of Fun Halloween Haunt, Worlds of Fun Art Garden KC Weekly Art Fair, Art Garden KC Dagorhir Boffer LARP, Meadowmere Park

Jason Aldean, T-Mobile Center Funk Syndicate, Aztec Shawnee Theater Nikki Glaser, Uptown Theater Kevin Neal, Improv Comedy Club at Zona Rosa Center Halloween Haunt, Worlds of Fun Gleason Magic Experience, Prairiefire Community Assistance Council Eating Smart and Being Active Program, Online POAC Succeeds charity golf tournament, Paradise Point Golf Complex

OCT. 4

Oktoberfest Live!, KCP&L Brew at the Zoo and Wine Too, Kansas City Zoo 2021 Linden Square Whiskey Fest, Linden Square Marc Anthony, T-Mobile Center Japanese Breakfast with Luna Lee, The Granada Lenexa Chili Challenge, Lenexa, KS

Stringfest 2021, Kiosk Gallery Danny Duncan, recordBar Jeff Shirley Organ Trio, Green Lady Lounge Karaoke Monday, Black Box Theater

OCT. 5

Ben Folds with the Kansas City Symphony, Kauffman Center for Performing Arts

OCT. 9

Stay up to date on the most recent events with our online calendar.

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Primus, Grinders KC Les Claypool and his bizzaro experimental funk-metal group, Primus, will grace Grinders KC with some tasty, slinky basslines and screeching guitar notes, Oct. 9. The creators of the iconic South Park theme song will stop in KC for their “A Tribute to Kings’’ tour, in which they will be performing Rush’s “A Farewell To Kings” in its entirety with special guest Black Mountain. Doors open at 6 p.m, with the show—presented by 98.9 The Rock!— starting at 7 p.m.

The House Rockers, Knuckleheads Saloon Ice Cream Social, Torn Label Brewing Co Comedy Open Mic, The Comedy Club of KC

Shen Yun Performing Arts Show, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Calvin Arsenia, Leavenworth, KS 2021 Fall Chick Event, Town Center Plaza October Par 3 One Club Challenge, Heart of America Golf Course KC Renaissance Festival, Bonner Springs, KS

Andrea Bocelli, T-Mobile Center Garmin Kansas City Marathon, 2600 Grand Blvd

OCT. 15

Wonderfuzz, KCP&L Cornucopia Fall Festival, KCP&L The Instamatics, Aztec Shawnee Theater Kansas City Ballet Presents: Celts, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Halloween Haunt, Worlds of Fun Gleason Magic Experience, Prairiefire

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Michigander with Kat King, recordBar Kadesh Flow, Kaw Point Park Marcus Lewis Big Band, Black Box Theater The Mengel Brothers, Chaz on the Plaza J Fowler, Parlor Dagorhir Boffer LARP, Meadowmere Park KC Renaissance Festival, Bonner Springs, KS Carbon Leaf, Uptown Theater

OCT. 11

KC Renaissance Festival, Bonner Springs, KS Jeff Shirley Organ Trio, Green Lady Lounge Karaoke Monday, Black Box Theater

OCT. 12

Erykah Badu, Arvest Bank Theater Rod Wave, Uptown Theater The Naughty Pines, The Ship Devon Baldwin, The Riot Room

OCT. 13

Emily Dix Duo, Chaz on the Plaza History on Tap: Immigration Through a Modern Lens, Shawnee, KS Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, The Truman

OCT. 14

Baby J Duo, Chaz on the Plaza Rite of Joy Conference, Unity Village Jungle Boogie with Steve Cruz, The Ship

Kevin Garnett’s Hoop It Up: Show Me Showdown, HyVee Arena 15x NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett has acquired the three-decade old Hoop It Up 3v3 basketball tour. Recognized as “one of the prolific grassroots basketball tours’’ with millions of worldwide participants, the Kansas City “Show Me Showdown” will feature Missourians of various skill and age groups at the HyVee Arena starting at 9 a.m., Oct. 16-17. The winning team of the Pro-Am 3v3 tournament will advance to the Hoop It Up National Championship in Phoenix, AZ, Dec. 4.

The outing will also feature a threepoint tournament, skills challenge, dunk contest, esports tournament, live music, concessions, and cash prizes of up to $3,000.

thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

33

EVENTS

Alyssa Murray & Teri Quinn, Atchison, KS The Martika Show, InterUrban ArtHouse Liz Miele, The Comedy Club of Kansas City Joe McGuire Trio, The Ship Almost Kiss & KCDC, Aztec Shawnee Theater KC Renaissance Festival, Bonner Springs, KS Cornucopia Fall Festival, KCP&L

OCT. 17

Bob Bowman Quartet, Midwest Trust Center Dagorhir Boffer LARP, Meadowmere Park KC Renaissance Festival, Bonner Springs, KS Cornucopia Fall Festival, KCP&L

OCT. 18

Jeff Shirley Organ Trio, Green Lady Lounge Karaoke Monday, Black Box Theater

OCT. 19

Jake Miller, recordBar Watkins Family Hour, Knuckleheads Saloon Judas Priest, Cable Dahmer Arena Lorna Kay’s One Night Stand, The Ship Karaoke Monday, Black Box Theater

OCT. 20

Jackie Myers Duo, Chaz on the Plaza LiveJazzKC Big Band, The Warwick Theater

OCT. 21

Matt Kearney, Liberty Hall Bahamas with Sam Weber, The Truman Tom Dreesen, Improv Comedy Theater Sunflower Writers Workshop, Online Trey Kennedy, Uptown Theater

OCT. 22

School of Rock, Missouri Theater Black Stone Cherry, Knuckleheads Saloon KC Mystic Fair, Stoney Creek Hotel Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, Midwest Trust Center Majors House Ghost Tours, Alexander Majors House Museum Kansas City Ballet Presents: Celts, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

OCT. 23

Dr. Dog, The Truman Runnin’ with the Pack, Aztec Shawnee Theater Ron White, Ameristar Casino Rescue K-911’s Barktoberfest, Rice-Tremonti Home

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

End of the World Pub Crawl, Martini Corner Advertised as “the crawl to end all crawls,” the End of the World Pub Crawl returns to Martini Corner on Oct. 23. Bring a group of friends to witness the end of the world as you and your team crawl through The Dead Zone in an attempt to make it to all participating venues while protecting your brains (flags) from swarms of zombies.

Any hypothetical survivors will be in for a prize, but there will also be prizes for the crunk zombies that still finish the crawl even after losing their flags. Tickets are $35 or $40 at the door. Proceeds from the event will benefit Uncover KC, Hope House, and Connecting For Good.

School of Rock, Missouri Theater

OCT. 24

Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience, Midwest Trust Center Bleachers with Claud, Uptown Theater School of Rock, Missouri Theater Mayday, The Riot Room Dagorhir Boffer LARP, Meadowmere Park Whiskey Run 5k, Kansas City Running Company Chili Cook-off and Beer Fest, BeerSauce KC

OCT. 25

Jeff Shirley Organ Trio, Green Lady Lounge Karaoke Monday, Black Box Theater

OCT. 26

Blackberry Smoke, Uptown Theater Slim Hanson & The Poor Choices, The Ship Pink Martini ft. China Forbes, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

OCT. 27

Black Violin Impossible Tour, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Emily Dix Duo, Chaz on the Plaza

OCT. 28

Baby J Duo, Chaz on the Plaza Majors House Ghost Tours, Alexander Majors House Museum Jungle Boogie with Steve Cruz, The Ship Jimmy Vaughan, Knuckleheads Saloon The House Rockers, Knuckleheads Saloon The Anarchy Fun Time Show, Westport Coffee House Jeff Shirley Organ Trio, Green Lady Lounge Ice Cream Social, Torn Label Brewing Co Comedy Open Mic, Comedy Club of KC

OCT. 29

Grupo Firme, T-Mobile Center Todd Snider with Chicago Farmer, Folly Theater Masterworks and Ovation Series, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Carl Worden with Hazzard County, Aztec Shawnee Theater

EVENTS

Cowtown Vintage & Art Exchange, El Torreon KC Octetoberfest!, Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church Majors House Paranormal Investigation, Alexander Majors House Museum Trunk-or-Treat, New City Church

OCT. 30

Florida Georgia Line, T-Mobile Center The Ronni Ward Band, Aztec Shawnee Theater GHOST SHIP with Sheppa, The Ship CarnEvil Halloween Party, KCP&L Asleep at the Wheel, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Historic Howl-o-Ween, John Wornall House Museum Masterworks and Ovation Series, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Majors House Paranormal Investigation, Alexander Majors House Museum

OCT. 31

Dude Perfect, T-Mobile Center Champions of Magic, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Dagorhir Boffer LARP, Meadowmere Park

Art Garden KC Weekly Art Fair, Art Garden KC J Fowler, Parlor Gleason Magic Experience, Prairiefire The Mengel Brothers, Chaz on the Plaza Majors House Paranormal Investigation, Alexander Majors House Museum Masterworks and Ovation Series, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts The Great Pumpkin Fest, Worlds of Fun MasterChef Live!, Arvest Bank Theater at the Midland Gordan Ramsay, notable for yelling “it’s fuhking rawwwr” at any scallop within a ten mile radius, may be pleasantly surprised by the midwest niceties of Kansas Citians when MasterChef Live! records a taping for its 12th season at the Arvest Bank Theater, Oct. 31. This spin-off show features past contestants from MasterChef and MasterChef Junior competing in cooking challenges while also providing an immersive viewing experience for its audience. Tickets run from $39.99 to $59.99 and doors open at 1 p.m. for this all-ages show. Proof of vaccination is required to attend.

thepitchkc.com | October 2021 | THE PITCH

35

SEX & LOVE

KEEP THEM COMING SEX WORKERS KEEP GETTING SCREWED (BY ONLINE PLATFORMS)

BY KRISTEN THOMAS

OnlyFans, a site that is culturally synonymous with online sex work, made headlines in August. In five days’ time, OnlyFans (OF) went from saying they would ban sexually explicit content beginning Oct. 1 to “suspending” their decision. It sent content creators into a tailspin, though many were familiar with the trope.

While early internet blame was placed on Mastercard and Visa, OF’s elusive CEO Tim Stokely named JPMorgan Chase, BNY Mellon, and Metro Bank’s policies as the culprits behind the decision. Stokely denied that Mastercard’s policies had any influence on them.

However, Alana Evans, president of the Adult Performance Actors Guild Union, has a different take on the situation.

She and I spoke about the debacle on my weekly podcast, Keep Them Coming, where she guided us through this train wreck that we couldn’t look away from.

As Evans points out in our conversation, Mastercard and other payment processors’ internal policies created fear among users as to whether their client’s payments would be accepted. This is large-

shot with an actor who had since passed.

Mastercard said that was not their intent.

“They just wanted to guarantee that the content that was available to its customers was legal and that people were of age,” says Evans. “And it seemed that they really heard us at that time, and we warned them this would happen.”

Two months later, OF made their first announcement that they would be banning NSFW content.

The five days between OF’s two announcements were unnerving for Dr. Girlfriend, local OF performer and KC Twitter personality. She heard the initial news through Bloomberg, who broke the story.

This prompted her and other creators to message each other and then contact OF. “They said they weren’t [banning our content], then they issued the official statement the next day,” says Dr. Girlfriend.

Mx. Pucks A’Plenty is a long time activist, Pro Domme, sex educator, and co-national coordinator for The #OldProProject, which “seeks to elevate sex worker history through art.” A’Plenty says online

“WHAT’S THE POINT OF ONLYFANS IF THERE’S NO BOOTY?” A’PLENTY RIGHTEOUSLY AND RIGHTFULLY ASKS. “I WANT TO WATCH FOLKS CREATING PORN THAT BRINGS THEM JOY, AND IT WAS ONE OF THE FEW PLACES I COULD DO THAT.” ly due to back-end enforcement of internal policies that go beyond government regulations.

On June 30, less than two months before OF’s first announcement, Evans and APAG representatives met with Mastercard to discuss their policy changes. Mastercard decided it would require consent lists—signed documents with personal information and verification of age stating the act filmed was consensual—which are not required by law.

APAG maintained that the policy would have unintended consequences.

Consent lists would push old content off of the internet, effectively deleting any scene

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

SW communities were saying it was simply a matter of time before they would be chased off OF once celebrities like Cardi B. and Bella Thorne jumped on. (Which they did.)

As the Bloomberg article hit, there were posts with resources and infocards to help SW’s take next steps, which A’Plenty says is a testament to the community’s resourcefulness. But to the SW community and many users, OF content is synonymous with sex work.

“What’s the point of OnlyFans if there’s no booty?” A’Plenty righteously and rightfully asks. “I want to watch folks creating porn that brings them joy, and it was one of

Kristen Thomas

NICOLE BISSEY PHOTOGRAPHY

the few places I could do that.”

The first ban, arriving at the during the second wave of the pandemic, was particularly callous.

“It was the height of lack of self-awareness, and the cruelty of it, knowing that this is how a lot of folks are keeping food on the table—just the lack of respect,” says A’Plentys.

Ultimately, history is just repeating.

“Sex workers join a site, build up the platform, everyone makes money off what’s happening, and then it’s, ‘Thank you sex workers, you gotta fucking go,’” says A’Plenty.

Yet, if platforms are building a fortune on the backs of sex workers, it is only right that they stand with SWers. Banks need to implement SW industry standards. In many cases, the necessary documentation already exists in the adult performance industry, but is not yet utilized by banks, such as 2257 paperwork. This paperwork is used by the porn industry to prove content is made with consenting adults, rather than the aforementioned consent lists.

We at The Pitch unequivocally support sex workers and respect their professions.

We know that you don’t have to be a sex

worker or a bank exec to take action to support SW. Between the influx of people who got into the profession during the pandemic, those who frequently purchase content/ services from SWers, and those who support workers’ rights, push-back is possible.

Here are four steps to get you started: Be more vocal on social media about supporting SW and start a conversation with your friends. Donate to Sex Workers Outreach Project USA, the forerunning social justice organization fighting for SWer’s human rights. Check out The #OldProProject that A’Plenty works with. And be unabashedly pro-hoe.

We leave you with the words of Killer Mike: “I support the sex workers unionizing their services.”

To read the rest of Kristen’s column, head to thepitchkc.com Also, if you’re a SWer in need of support, check out APAG at apagunion.com You can find Kristen @OpenTheDoorsKC on Twitter or openthedoorscoaching.com.

Check out her podcast, Keep Them Coming on The Pitch’s podcast network!

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SEX & LOVE

HANDS ON

BY DAN SAVAGE

Dear Dan: I’m a 35-year-old straight woman living in the Midwest. I was seeing a massage therapist for three years and we became very close friends. I referred my friends to him and helped him grow his business. He eventually disclosed to me that he had developed feelings for me. I went into instant shock and said that I had no idea and I thought we were only growing in our friendship. He told me that he had to tell me and wanted to leave it up to me if I felt comfortable continuing to see him. I was really numb from my shock and thought I was okay at first, only later realizing how upset and violated I felt. I never went back to him.

I found out that he closed his practice during COVID. My question is: Should I report him to his ethics board?

—Really Upset By Bewildering Erotic Disclosure Dear RUBBED: No.

This guy was initially your massage therapist, RUBBED, but you eventually became very close friends. I’m going to assume this was one of those consensual friendships, meaning your former massage therapist didn’t force his friendship on you and you welcomed his friendship. So, while you may have gotten to know him in a unique professional setting, you wound up in a kind of two-track relationship with him: He was your massage therapist and also your friend. It’s not uncommon for friends to catch feelings for each other and it would seem to be in that capacity—in his capacity as your friend—that your massage therapist caught feelings for you.

Given that he developed feelings for you, I don’t see how he could avoid making this disclosure. Indeed, keeping these feelings to himself while continuing to see you as a client, or dropping you as a client without explanation, would have constituted an ethical violation.

“What he did was borderline, but not unethical,” said a physical medicine practitioner that I shared your question with.

“That he brought up the fact that she could/

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THE PITCH | October 2021 | thepitchkc.com

should consider no longer seeing him keeps it just in bounds. The most correct thing would’ve been to maintain boundaries and not become friends in the first place.”

A massage therapist I shared your email with told me that your former massage therapist handled this the way he was trained to handle similar situations in the professional ethics courses he was required to take to get his license: disclose and discontinue the professional relationship.

Another massage therapist I spoke to did think your former massage therapist was guilty of an ethical lapse. He referred me to the professional code of conduct published by his professional association—the College of Massage Therapists of British Columbia—which bars entering into a “close personal relationship” with a client. He felt the friendship was the ethical violation; If your massage therapist had done the right thing and kept your relationship strictly professional, he wouldn’t have caught feelings for you the way he did.

And if he hadn’t caught feelings for you the way he did, RUBBED, he wouldn’t have put himself in the position of having to disclose those feelings to you. Or put you in the position of having to listen to him make that discomforting disclosure.

I understand not wanting to see this massage therapist again, RUBBED, and I understand feeling icky about this. If I were in your shoes, I would probably wonder how much time, if any, passed between my friend/massage therapist becoming consciously aware of his romantic feelings for me and the moment he disclosed those feelings—and I might find myself thinking back on our previous sessions and feeling a little goobed out. But while it’s uncomfortable to contemplate a massage therapist taking his own pleasure in your sessions, RUBBED, that’s always a risk. (Kind like friends catching feelings for friends is always a risk.) We rely on massage therapists to be professionals and to quash feelings of sexual attraction during a session, regardless of how long we’ve been seeing them.— and regardless of what kind of relationship we might have with them outside the treatment room.

Some of the massage therapists I spoke with felt you should report him, but the majority did not. I’m going to stick with my advice not to report him. But you get to make your own call.

Dear Dan: I’m a healthy and active 72-yearold man who found love the second time around. In fact, I have discovered not only a depth of love I never knew existed, but with my new mate I have the most active and satisfying sex life I’ve ever known.

My question is this: During nearly a year of solitary processing after my marriage ended, I chanced upon writings about tantric lovemaking practices and was fascinated by them. I began to practice withholding ejaculation, which is a tantric practice that

has tremendous benefits. One of those benefits is existing in a state of perpetual desire for my partner and this lovely hum of continual sexual energy between us.

But, after two years of practicing withholding semen, I now find it almost impossible to come at the time of my choosing. It is almost as if my inner tantric shaman has taken hold of the controls. The wonderful woman in my life consistently has multiple orgasms, but I come about once every seventh or eighth time, and only when we have a long, involved, and deeply connected sex session. While the release, when it comes, is always spectacular, I would like to have more control over my orgasms. Do you have any suggestions?

—Wanting A Direction Dear WAD: Men who practice orgasm denial—whether they’re withholding their own orgasms or being denied orgasms by their dominant partners—often report existing in a pleasantly buzzy state of perpetual horniness. Doms who lock their lover’s cocks up in chastity devices (instead of relying on them to refrain climaxing or jacking off) often report that their perpetually horny partners are more attentive. And while those are attractive perks, I’ve never been tempted to go the orgasm denial route myself. First and foremost, I enjoy coming too much to give it up. And coming in a

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close second, multiple studies have shown a link between frequent ejaculation and a lower incidence of prostate cancer. Maybe at 72 you’re not worried about prostate cancer seeing as you haven’t gotten it by now, but guys who don’t want to risk prostate cancer should err on the side of busting those nuts (which is not to be confused with busting those balls).

As for your problem, WAD, if withholding orgasms is making it difficult for you to have ‘em when you want ‘em, well, then you might wanna stop withholding ‘em. But considering how much pleasure you get out of withholding them—that buzz, those spectacular orgasms when you do come— maybe unpredictable orgasms are a price you’re willing to pay. It’s also possible that age caught up with you and your orgasms became a little less reliable at the same time you took up tantric sex practices. (For the record: Tantra is a nearly two-millennia-old tradition/body of wisdom that originated in India and is typically practiced by Hindus and Buddhists. While sex is a part of tantra, sex isn’t the only thing tantra is about.)

Question for Dan? Email him at mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Check out my new website at Savage.Love!

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