A new season of flying fishnets and sharp elbows is underway for those derby vixens of the Kansas City Roller Warriors. Lauren Taylor, a.k.a. Auntie Embolism, joined us to discuss their upcoming bout and the face-smashing feminism of our very own roller derby league.

The rubber-walloping weekend warriors of Kaw Valley Kickball League are back. While the kingly pursuit of kickball has sprouted leagues across the nation, KVKL has developed a distinctly Lawrencian character all its own. This rich pageantry of townies, pre-pubescent sport, and beer has become a summertime staple. Thirty teams representing many Lawrence businesses and other groups take to the diamond every Sunday starting this week, often with costumes and mascots, for the silliest spectacle...

Charles S. McVey joins us to discuss his new album,"Animal," and getting peed on by Jesus. (CAUTION: This interview may contain backwards messages.)

Could high school students make the next “Citizen Kane”? Well, realistically, probably not. But it’s not like Orson Welles was cranking out masterpieces while struggling with the most awkward years of his life—so the kids in the Focus Film Festival deserve some accolades. Organizer and Lawrence High teacher Jeff Kuhr—along with underage auteurs Chase Billings, Ryan Hobbs, and Kyler Thomann—joined us to discuss the upcoming Liberty Hall event and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.”

The Found Footage Festival salvages our shameful VHS heritage from the dumpster of history.

The noxious depravity of comedian Doug Stanhope, set to soothing digital white noise and space age lounge music.

Mayor Mike Dever and Simran Sethi chat up the Climate Protection Task Force and how Lawrence can kick ass in the green economy.

Jacki Becker and Deron Belt preview the upcoming season of Kaw Valley Kickball League. Prepare for short shorts and awful gonad jokes.

Kevin Willmott chats up his new Sundance Film Festival entry, "The Only Good Indian," at a crowded diner in Park City, Utah.

Auditory hallucinations from the year that was.

On Thursday nights, in a peculiar phenomenon which might inspire a spit take from ascetic fuddy duddies, Henry’s Upstairs transubstantiates from a secular saloon into a slightly sloshed seminary. Theology on Tap invites people of all faiths and denominations to gather round for some spirited talk about the spiritual. Hosts Valerie Miller-Coleman and Rev. Josh Longbottom join us to discuss God, government, and Grey Goose.

If you've got a premature ejaculation problem and/or a shoe fetish you're afraid to bring up with your partner, then "Kansas in Heat" wants to hear from you. This KJHK call-in show has been fielding questions about everything from chronic masturbation to kinky pillow talk for over a year now, and they've yet to drain the well when it comes to issues of sex and relationships. Hosted by PhD students Mike Anderson and Nichole Kathol, "Kansas in Heat" offers a forum for those with love life...

Who knew that taking benign clip art of office toadies and filling their word balloons with blisteringly profane political commentary would propel you to the upper echelons of contemporary American satire? David Rees, apparently. His comic strip, "Get Your War On," is carried by Rolling Stone and alternative newspapers across the country (including, FYI, lawrence.com at one point) and has recently been adapted into an animated series appearing online at The Huffington Post and 23/6 News. "Get...

After releasing dozens of albums and touring virtually non-stop for 20+ years, one could be forgiven for slipping it into cruise control for a while. But that's not what won Ani DiFranco an army of devotees and feminist icon status. The outspoken folk-funk-rock pioneer shows no sign of slowing her crusade to achieve independence both artistically and politically. "Red Letter Year," her 18th studio LP-not counting her numerous live albums-is out via her own label, Righteous Babe Records the...

John Wilson is literally a fresh face on the Kansas political scene. This 24-year-old KU alum looks more like a clean-shaven grad student than the usual stuffed suits and liver spots you'd find moldering in the halls of Topeka. Given his youth and relative inexperience, few expected Wilson to make much of a dent when he threw his hat in the ring as the Democratic candidate against Tom Sloan, who's represented Lawrence and the 45th district in the state House for 14 years. Yet Wilson actually...

You know what? Screw the Olympics. They think that just because the world lavishes so much attention on them, and they're a symbol of human achievement and the ties that unite us as a species and blah blah blah, that they're better than the rest of us Jane and Joe Sixpacks? Phooey! Deron Belt and Jason "Cougar" Hwang-warrior-scholars of the Kaw Valley Kickball League-joined us to discuss the clash of kickball titans known as the KVKL Playoffs and why those underage Chinese gymnasts should...

You know what? F*ck the Olympics. They think that just because the world lavishes so much attention on them, and they're a symbol of human achievement and the ties that unite us as a species and blah blah blah, that they're better than the rest of us Jane and Joe Sixpacks? Phooey! You haven't reached the pinnacle of diddly shit until you've chugged a few of our namesakes and spent an afternoon in seminal fluid boiling heat while kicking the holy snot out of a four square ball. Michael Phelps...

Jim Slattery has the unenviable task-some would say quixotic journey-of attempting to be the first Kansas Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate since 1930. A former member of the Kansas delegation of the U.S. House of Representatives, Slattery is now facing popular incumbent Pat Roberts, a Republican senator who has become an intractable institution since first arriving in Washington in 1967.

The Victor Continental Show has been lauded with many superlatives over its impressive decade-long run. This intrinsic pillar of the Lawrence arts could alternately be described as a raucous variety program harkening back the heyday of Vaudeville, or as an incisive sketch comedy revue satirizing our culture's innumerable foibles a la Swift or Voltaire. But perhaps nothing captures the essence of The Victor Continental Show with more precision, or more insight, than labeling it a "Tijuana...

A 250-pound dwarf named Bleachy and '70s soft rock pioneer Christopher "F*cking" Cross are on the line for you. Well, not really-your life isn't that exciting-but you can simulate the experience with "Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1 & 2: The Greatest Prank Phone Calls Ever!" The collection is a reissue of long out-of-print punkings by Andrew Earles and Jeff Jensen-Jensen being a former Kansas City resident and current KU "star f*cker." "Just Farr A Laugh" is less about humiliating the poor...