St. Joseph band Injected Element has only been around for a little over a year, but they’ve already managed to accomplish some pretty big things.
The band won first place at Metal Wars 2008 in Kansas City, beating out more than 30 of the Midwest’s best metal groups for the title. They also were nominated as one of the best new bands of 2007 by the Kansas City-based Heavy Frequency Magazine.
Yeah, the past year’s been pretty good for Injected Element.

Cinco de Mayo is almost here, and whether you’re planning on celebrating this weekend or on the actual Cinco de Mayo, it’s likely that a fiesta is in your future.
Your fiesta menu is one of the first things you’ll want to figure out. Rick Palma, owner of Palma’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant, says tacos and enchiladas are always popular Mexican dishes. He also suggests pork chili, which is cubed pork cooked in a spicy red chili sauce.

If you watched the premiere of CMT’s newest show, “Can You Duet,” you might have seen local country duo Phil Vandel and Matt Snook (aka Vandel-Snook) on it. You’d have to look closely though. They only appear in crowd shots.
Vandel-Snook made the trip to Nashville in January to try out for the show, and they made the first round of cuts. The crowd of thousands was cut down to 200 duos, who were given a number and told to wait for a call.

It’s not many sporting events where you get to watch girls on wheels body-check each other, or fans compete in crowd competitions to win VIP seating on a couch.
The Kansas City Roller Warrior matches, though, are not like most sporting events. It’s rare that a sport can combine sex appeal and physicality like a roller derby.

Cordonnier’s Place sponsors a bowling league, but the teams don’t go to the alley to play. There are no heavy balls, no rented blue and red shoes, no team shirts.
Instead, the teams meet at Cordonnier’s and the game is electronic, played on an arcade console. Players “bowl” by using a trackball controller that they move with their hands.

Whether you’re interested in the Old West or that state out west known as Colorado, the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art has a couple of exhibitions you might like.
Two new exhibitions are opening this weekend, the first of which is “At the foot of the Rockies: Artists from the Moffett Collection.” It features 80 works from about 50 artists who lived, worked or studied in Colorado, according to museum registrar Ann Tootle.

There’s a fight every Wednesday night at First Ward House, but iPods are the weapons of choice, not fists, and you’re more likely to leave with a new favorite artist than a black eye.
It’s the weekly U.B.A.D.J. iPod fights, where the crowd controls the music. The idea came from new manager Mike Bransfield, and it’s one he’s had for awhile. As a DJ, he’s seen his share of people who think they know how to pick music to please a crowd.

Kansas City musicians Bob Walkenhorst and Jeff Porter each have had long and varied music careers, with more than 50 years of music between them. The two will share their musical history with an acoustic set at 9 p.m. Saturday at the First Ward House.
Walkenhorst, who started playing music with his brother at the Ground Round in the ’70s, became front man for The Rainmakers, which released five albums in the U.S. and Europe from 1986 to 1996.

Chris Fleck knows a few things about organizing a pub crawl. He’s celebrated his birthday with one for the past five years.
“We had such a blast the first, we just started thinking of how to outdo last year,” he says.
Whether you’re throwing together a last-minute one for St. Patrick’s Day weekend or want to get a head start on Cinco de Mayo, hosting a pub crawl takes some planning.

Acrobats and jugglers and clowns, oh my!
The St. Joseph Civic Arena will be transformed into the big top this weekend, as the Moila Shrine Temple Circus comes to town. Show times are 7 p.m. tonight, 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday.
This year’s circus revolves around animal acts, says ringmaster Billy Martin. There are frisbee-catching dogs, elephants, ponies and Clayton Rosaire’s “educational as well as entertaining” act with white, tabby and Bengal tigers.