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Inside the lavender-painted brick walls of Nefertiti’s, a banquet hall in Kansas City, Kan., recorded gospel music welcomes guests as they move in an orderly but animated procession past prints of Egyptian rulers and African-inspired figures toward their ultimate destination: down-home soul food, made from scratch.
You may not be going anywhere cool this summer — bad economy and everything — but the same can’t be said of your hot dogs. Do you even know the whereabouts of your wiener? Last time you looked, it was hanging out somewhere in the back of the fridge, cold and shriveled.

American Idol” had a Beatles week, a Mariah Carey week, even a Dolly Parton week. But if the show really wants to be “current,” as judge Simon Cowell is fond of saying, it should have an Auto-Tune week.
A high school teacher's recipe for sucess: Raw talent and lots of hard work. The yield: More than $1 million in scholarships.

Jenny Vergara recalls the day she stopped apologizing for Kansas City’s restaurant scene. The Lenexa blogger, who dishes about the local food scene at www.makingafoodie.com, was sipping cocktails with Marshall Roth on the patio of Le Fou Frog, the funky French bistro just east of the River Market.
For a first-time, online film festival we had many successes and a few growing pains. But tech hassles aside (how about that HDTV ad?), nearly 70 films managed to make it through the hoops and onto computer screens far and wide. Each was a 29-second, homemade achievement, and all had a certain added value as momentary entertainments.

Any woman who has ever tugged on a bra strap sliding down her shoulders will tell you: When it comes to many things in life, fit is everything. Here’s a guide to fitting some of them.

Loud, giggly girls clomp around in their rented skates at a party at Ice Midwest. Someone’s celebrating a birthday, and the girls have come for a free skate.
Mom and Dad may not realize it right away, but that photo of their pride and joy trying to escape the fat guy in red by whatever means necessary? It’s destined to become a classic.
No kid wants to admit to the “naughty” label — not this time of year. Anyway, it’s such an up-or-down kind of question. Naughty or nice? What, no gray area?

Megan Birdsall has a cold. A knit cap covers her straight blondish-red hair. She’s poking around near the piano at Jardine’s looking for something, then sound-checks the microphone.
Actress Angela Cristantello does a lot of screaming in the Coterie Theatre's production of "Night of the Living Dead." A lot. In the spirit of Halloween, Cristantello demonstrates how you can be a Scream Queen too -- without hurting your throat, of course. "Night of the Living Dead" runs through Oct. 29.

From killer hurricanes and crushing fuel costs to rising food prices and falling 401(k)s, this has been a rough year. You've got frustrations? We've got pumpkins. Let the cathartic destruction begin!
Moshe Safdie, principal architect of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, gives a tour as the center undergoes construction.
Rachel Leyh creeps us out. She was coming out of church one day when she was attacked by zombies. They slashed her throat, and she became One of Them.
After decades of working in prisons, a former guard and historian takes outsiders on an inside tour of the big house in Leavenworth
BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK, S.D. | Marcia McMacken stepped off the boardwalk and took a long look at the sweeping scene around her — bright green meadows in front, craggy tan peaks and deep forbidding canyons behind. She was clearly enamored.
Instructor Kelly Colln led an outdoor yoga session over the noon hour Wednesday at the Power & Light District downtown. The district and North Kansas City Hospital used the event to announce their official partnership.

Summer’s over. (Sigh.) And it went by so fast, didn’t it? (Double sigh.) Was there anything you wanted to do but didn’t get around to? Maybe you ran out of time. Maybe you just forgot. Or to be blunt: What did you blow off this summer?
With the Performing Arts Center beginning to take shape downtown, and the Sprint Center and the Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art still garnering praise, architecture has a high profile in Kansas City now. But what’s going on in residential architecture these days?
Where the architects live | photo gallery with commentary

For JoAnne Fluke, it is all about the freedom … the movement … the feeling. Oh, the feeling of ballroom dancing in a wheelchair.
Wheelchair dancing | photo gallery
Friday night and the lights are low Looking out for the place to go Where they play the right music, getting in the swing…

In a time when nothing seems to last anymore, the world still has Martha Smith. In 1926 she took a job at the tiny Coal Creek Library in Vinland, Kan. Eighty-two years later, she’s still there.
No offense to Syesha or Carly or Jason or Michael. But much of the love outside the Sprint Center before their American Idols Live concert Friday was aimed squarely and largely at hometown boy and this year’s winner, David Cook.
It happened at a music festival, as you probably could have guessed. “There was a girl who let me borrow her hoop, and I haven’t put it down since,” Sarah Noelle Dettmer said.
The Star's Brian McTavish interviews the Class of 2021 at Manor Hill Elementary in Liberty, asking what they want to be when they grow up.
It’s just minutes before 6 a.m., but hundreds of people are streaming quietly through Gate 30 of KU’s Memorial Stadium in Lawrence.
The ukulele is so easy to learn, anyone can do it — and get hooked on the fun of playing with others.

The Force is with Tom Kane, voice of Yoda in the upcoming animated movie “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”
Kansas City Star staff artist Hector Casanova attended the recent Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego and shares a few of his snapshots.
About 4,200 independent representatives from all over the world attended the Silpada Designs convention recently at Bartle Hall. The Lenexa company was founded in 1997.
Star reporter Brian McTavish uncovers the story during his visits to Cherry's Deluxe Burlesque, Ms B.D.U. 2008! and The Alley Cat Revue at KC Fringe Festival.
Turning Point offers hope and resources to those dealing with chronic and terminal illnesses.
The Animal Haven shelter in Merriam is part of a growing trend: a "no-kill" policy, in which animals are not euthanized unless very sick or aggressive. Most are reunited with their owners or find good homes.
After a quick trip back to his hometown of Blue Springs last weekend, “American Idol” winner David Cook is back in Los Angeles, where he started work this week on his first post-‘Idol” album. He talked with us on Wednesday about that record, his hometown and other “Idol”-related issues.