KansasCity.com | FYI Multimedia

Auto-tune a sound reason some songs are perfect

May 12, 9:36 AM

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.

Robert Brassard is turning Shawnee Mission students into chefs

May 10, 8:36 AM

A high school teacher's recipe for sucess: Raw talent and lots of hard work. The yield: More than $1 million in scholarships.

Cutting-edge cuisine finds home in KC

Mar 21, 8:18 AM

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.

Video: Bluestem Chef Colby Garrelts demonstrates his signature torchon de foie gras

The Star�s 29-Second Film Fest winners

Mar 2, 4:22 PM

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.

Girl hockey players a passionate, small sisterhood in KC

Feb 9, 4:34 AM

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.

For crying out loud, it's Santa!

Dec 23, 7:34 AM

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.

In the lap of the jolly old elf | photo gallery

Kids admit to being naughty and nice this year

Dec 16, 9:08 AM

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?

Naughty, or nice?

Megan Birdsall finds her voice and sings again

Dec 13, 7:45 PM

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.

Life is but a scream VIDEO

Oct 23, 4:03 PM

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.

The Halloween Vault

Smashing pumpkins feels so good in these frustrating times

Nov 11, 3:33 PM

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!

Video: Smashing pumpkins is fun -- and cathartic

Take a tour of the performing arts center VIDEO

Oct 16, 1:40 PM

Moshe Safdie, principal architect of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, gives a tour as the center undergoes construction.

Just say gnaw and become a zombie

Oct 14, 4:09 AM

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.

Audio slideshow | Zombie 101 at the Coterie

New Leavenworth penitentiary book offers photo history

Jul 23, 4:10 AM

After decades of working in prisons, a former guard and historian takes outsiders on an inside tour of the big house in Leavenworth

Inside Leavenworth | Slideshow

Yoga featured at P&L District to mark hospital partnership VIDEO

Sep 18, 4:11 AM

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.

What did you blow off this summer?

Sep 13, 8:50 AM

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?

Watch the video

You�re invited into the homes of those who design homes

Sep 10, 12:33 PM

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

Photo gallery with commentary | Where architects live |

With Groovability, wheelchair dancers dismiss notions of disability

Sep 7, 11:40 PM

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

Video: 'Boundaries are limitless'

�Mamma Mia!: The Sing-Along Edition� is irresistible

Aug 28, 4:48 PM

Friday night and the lights are low Looking out for the place to go Where they play the right music, getting in the swing�

Love of books keeps 102-year-old librarian working

Aug 30, 7:18 AM

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.

Video of Martha Smith at work

�Idol� devotion knows no bounds

Sep 2, 9:54 AM

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.

Today’s hooping craze is not quite the same old Hula dance from the ’50s

Aug 27, 4:19 AM

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.

What do you want to be when you grow up? VIDEO

Aug 19, 4:23 PM

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.

Calisthenics and running draw hundreds to KU�s Memorial Stadium in Lawrence

Aug 17, 7:02 PM

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.

Uke it up

Aug 12, 4:25 AM

The ukulele is so easy to learn, anyone can do it — and get hooked on the fun of playing with others.

Ukesters: Little instrument, big fun

Yoda he sounds like

Aug 7, 5:38 AM

The Force is with Tom Kane, voice of Yoda in the upcoming animated movie “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”

Tom Kane talks about voicing Yoda

Comic-Con 2008: A photo gallery

Aug 1, 4:12 AM

Kansas City Star staff artist Hector Casanova attended the recent Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego and shares a few of his snapshots.

The Silpada silver rush VIDEO

Jul 30, 9:33 AM

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.

Turning Point offers hope VIDEO

Jul 22, 10:17 AM

Turning Point offers hope and resources to those dealing with chronic and terminal illnesses.

David Cook, front and center

Jun 11, 5:33 AM

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.