Yearly Archives: 2011
Donnelly: Eleven Productions Jacki Becker is Throwing You a Party This Friday for 11.11.11
What’s that old cliché? — Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life. 
It’s obvious that Jacki Becker, founder and boss woman of Eleven Productions, is doing what she loves. And while I’m sure she would admit that at times it takes a tremendous amount of work, there are rewards as well.
"Working with incredibly talented and creative people every day, how could I ask for more?" explained Becker, before revealing perhaps the best perk of working in the music business. "Oh, and the fact that I have never needed to buy t-shirts, hoodies or cloth bags in my life."
Hey, it’s the little things sometimes people, c’mon!
Becker has seen bands come and go, seen the ups and downs of the industry, and discovered many artists "before they were big." For 10 years now, her company has promoted bands in the Lawrence and KC area, as well Omaha, Iowa City, Springfield, and St. Louis.
Star Search: KC International Raceway, Eight-Year-Old Drag Racers Get Light Touch
Last year I embarked on a mission to blog the Kansas City Star each and every day…
To critique and comment on the news and views presented by the Star to by far the largest number of Kansas Citians reached by any other local news media.
What a genius stroke that was.
Two or three weeks in, it became painfully obvious that the job entailed bagging on the newspaper over-and-over for much of the same stuff. Frankly, I got tired of the nagging, so I backed off. The idea being that every so often, I’d trot out a Star Search column when the muse hits.
To that end, let’s take a gander at yesterday’s Star…
Glazer: Where Was God When Penn State And The Children Needed Him?
When things like the Penn State child sex scandal happen in this world, it only supports my belief that THERE IS NO GOD!
Sorry for that, but once again a pillar of the sports world in America has fallen. Joe Paterno, Penn State’s head coach for like 500 years failed to turn in his longtime employee, a coach named Jerry Sandusky for CHILD RAPE.
By now most of you have heard the tale. Defensive coordinator, Sandusky is caught raping a male child around the age of age 10 in the locker room. The shower area to be exact. A witness, coach Mike McQueary sees it, doesn’t stop it but tells his boss Paterno. Paterno doesn’t call the police he tells his boss the athletic director.
What was done? Not much. Nobody called the COPS. Are you kidding? Nobody.
Leftridge: Chiefs’ Midseason Grades Part One; The Highly Offensive Offense
A football team is a lot like a tree. No seriously, play along with me here. A football team is like a tree in a number of ways. Often times, both are strong, deeply rooted objects firmly implanted in one specific place. Dependent upon on location, and how this tree (or team) is tended to, it can either flourish and become a mighty, leafy beast full of life and vigor, or it can die a slow, painful death due to neglect and oversight.
Any arborist will tell you it’s possible to nurse an ill tree back to health with proper care, and the same can be said about a football team. Though injuries may decimate, a general manager and his coaching staff have the ability to bandage the lightning strikes, to eradicate the borers and help the tree live to its fullest potential. The question is, eight games in, how is the Chiefs’ tree doing?
The Quarterback/ The Hawk: D-
Matt Cassel’s bi-polar passing attack is terrifying. From the highest of highs—last year’s pro-bowl appearance and fantastic TD-to-INT ratio— to the lowest of lows—this year’s litany of head-shakingly awful performances. You’re never certain which Matt Cassel will show up on Sunday. Will he protect the tree from predatorial assault, or will he spastically flip-out and peck off the face of his children? It’s anyone’s guess.
Glazer: Scribe Says Goodbye to Smokin Joe Frazier
Smokin Joe Frazier, a man who was a friend and a great champion passed away yesterday…
The Hall Of Fame boxing champ, died at age 67. As many of you may know I produced two feature films starring Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The movies also starred George Foreman, Larry Holmes and Ken Norton, thus the title, Champions Forever. It’s the biggest selling boxing documentary of all time. We did the original movie in 1990 and the followup last year.
When I did the movie in 1990, the five heavyweight champs had never been together as a group before.
And they never were again. Baseball hall of famer Reggie Jackson was the host. I interviewed Ali on camera and off.
Mermaid: Melt Your Face at Snow & Company in the Crossroads
Don’t take this the wrong way, but…
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
Lose the parkas, forget the Uggs – wear something sexy people. Because this place is H-O-T.
Snow and Co. has arrived in the Crossroads, courtesy of the four UMKC students who got their MBA’s together and decided to dodge the office cubicle bullet and go for their dream instead.
Snow – meaning delicious frozen cocktails and Co. – somehow meaning all local ingredients.
I think they should call the place Blonde (or maybe Blind) because after two of these concoctions I committed a major Mermaid faux pas. I brought my Nikon D7000 to get some professional pics of the place but I was so tipsy I couldn’t figure out why my screen was black.
Did I trip some secret off switch I didn’t know about? Nope, the old lens cap on the camera trick!
My god, how many people just saw me try to take pictures like that? I was mortified.
New Jack City: Deck The Halls With Ticket Stubs & Holly; Holiday Movie Preview
It’s been a rough year for the movie industry…
On the studio and distribution front there were escalating costs of production, 3-D and dried up movie financing while exhibitors had to deal with increasing film rental terms and huge sums of money connected with digital conversions at their theaters.
The big question: will the all important upcoming holiday season make up for some of the slack the industry experienced earlier this year?
Now here are Hollywood’s major Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday offerings and their K.C. opening dates
Starbeams: Earthquake Rolls Through Town, Takes Toll on Chiefs, Top 5 Local Disruptions
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake centered about 45 miles northeast of Oklahoma City was felt in Kansas City Saturday night at 10:53 p.m. The quake was very shallow at 3.1 miles deep. It did very little damage but it did leave a big hole in the Chiefs defensive line.
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TOP 5 DISRUPTIONS CAUSED BY THE EARTHQUAKE:
#5. My wife complained she wasn’t used to feeling the earth move in bed with me.
#4. Residents at local cemeteries were doing "the wave."
#3. Plaza Security briefly awakened from napping.
Donnelly: Moment Too Big For Sporting, Houston Advances to Final With 2-0 Win
Sporting Kansas City wanted so badly to summon their best against the visiting Houston Dynamo…
But in the end, it might have been the anticipation, the yearning, the added bit of pressure, that undid Sporting and ended their season in front of a standing room LIVESTRONG crowd.
The atmosphere was second to none as both teams warmed up, with the electricity of playoffs and the possibility of the MLS Cup buzzing around all corners of the stadium. The late-fall sun cracked its way onto the playing surface, and the cool fall air filled with song, including choruses from the healthy dose of Houston fans that made the trip.
But once the whistle blew, Sporting seemed out of sync in a way I haven’t seen for months. Prior to Sunday’s game, the boys in blue have had purpose in their attack, cohesion in their defense, and an aggressive mentality.
Today: Lawrence Journal World Scoops Star With KU Coach Bill Self’s Parting Shot
You know what they say in Lawrence about KU‘s home court advantage in basketball…
So it is that KU basketball’s hometown newspaper, the Lawrence Journal World, scooped the daylights out of the Kansas City Star in getting a reaction from KU basketball coach Bill Self on Missouri’s decision to leave the Big 12 for the SEC.
"KU’s Self not fretting over Missouri’s decision to leave Big 12 for SEC," the headline reads. " ‘Majority of Kansas fans don’t give a flip about playing Missouri,’ " Jayhawk basketball coach states."
Think of it as gorilla journalism – performed late at night Sunday in Lawrence where the Journal World’s Gary Bedore got the better of the Star‘s KU beat writer J. Brady McCollough.
“I think everybody hoped that Missouri would stay, but I don’t know of any Kansas fans that are crying over them leaving,” Self told the Journal-World Sunday night," while McCollough was checking his voicemail.
"Self was asked if the Jayhawks and Tigers would play again in men’s basketball, the Journal World pressed.
Leftridge: Tales from the Tweet; Hot-Stove, Kietzman Talks Tacos & DeVito Stays Up on Current Music
As football reaches its meaty middle, and the NBA continues to labor on through pissy-pants negotiations, the nation turns its lonely eye to Twitter—woo-woo-woo—for some steamy, illicit, hot-stove talk. So what’s on the burner? A little Royals chatter, for starters. And while some of the hardware won’t roll in until Monday, November 14th (Rookie of the Year), standout 1st baseman Eric Hosmer is already bringing home some honors.
@KCKaegel (Dick Kaegel, Royals writer, Guy with Generic Twitter Picture of an Egg)
“Rookie 1B Eric Hosmer wins KC’s Joe Burke Special Achievement Award in vote by BBWAA members. More details coming on http://royals.com.”
Though this is an award specific to Kansas City, a trophy is a trophy. After exhaustive internet research, it appears that the award is named after front office/managerial legend Joe Burke, who was serving as Royals club president at the time of his death in 1992. This makes much more sense than my original theory, where the award was named after the actor who played Corky on the 1990’s dramatic television series “Life Goes On”.
Glazer: Halloween’s Over, Real Chiefs Return to Form; Back to Hoping for a Good Draft Pick
"They are who we thought they were," famous, former NFL coach, Dennis Greene…
The Chiefs are who I thought they were; a pretty poor NFL team. Yes, they have improved from being the worst team in the league at the season’s start. Yes, they play hard. Matt Cassel tries with all his might and we now have a damn good receivers group led by Dwayne Bowe and Johnathan Baldwin. But our defense is still up and down, average at best. Matt is a bottom 10 quarterback and our running game is just OK.
The Chiefs are below average, but again not the worst team in the NFL.
If we got a solid quarterback, we could compete next year with a team that could be dangerous in the play-offs. Short of that NO.
Donnelly: David Bazan@The Bottleneck, November 5, 2011
The road is hard…
On the way to Lawrence to play a gig at the Bottleneck with local indie rockers, Cowboy Indian Bear, David Bazan and his band mates ran into some trouble with their transportation. Something about a messed up wheel, "but they will definitely be here eventually" the Bottleneck staffer assured me.
There’s nothing worse than breaking down in the middle of nowhere, especially when you have some place to be. You feel helpless, you’re not sure if you can get the right parts in time, and you’re resigned to just hanging in the local truck stop drinking coffee and perusing the Dr. Hook Greatest hits cd rack for hours.
Hearne: Don’t Blame Mizzou for Bailing, Take a Look in the Mirror
When it comes to double standards, we’ve all got em…
So while there’s been no shortage of bellyaching about Missouri leaving the Big 12, why the vilification? All that hocus pocus about it being shameful for Mizzou to turn its back on family and friends in the Midwest. How dare they perform such a tasteless act of conjugal sports infidelity.
Is nothing sacred?
In a word, no. It’s been a lifetime since sports fans shed what few illusions remain as to professional sports teams true loyalties. Not since Babe Ruth left Boston to play for dreaded rival the New York Yankees. Who doesn’t recognize that today’s Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs are merely mercenaries. We root for them with a suspension of disbelief, just like when we pretend what we see at the movies is real.
Rarely do members of pro sports teams have much more than fleeting affiliations with the cities and fans that root for them.
Glazer: Scribe Calls Upon Clark Hunt to Step It Up For Otis Taylor
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Few would argue that without No. 89, Otis Taylor, the Chiefs would have won ZERO Super Bowls.
"I can tell you this, Taylor scared the hell out of every team we played against," former Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson. said at a rally for Taylor a few years back. "More than anyone on this football team’s offense, he deserves to be in the Hall Of Fame."
Taylor and Dawson with a great defense sent Kansas City to Super Bowls One and Four. It was Taylor’s dramatic sideline catch, memorialized forever on NFL films, that broke open Super Bowl Four and sent KC home as World Champions in 1970.
Now it’s time Clark Hunt and the Chiefs organization put the pedal to the metal for Otis Taylor.
Sounds Good: HUM, Gift of Gab @ Record Bar; David Bazan @ Bottleneck, WWIII Tour @ Uptown
This weekend has a little something for everyone. Yes, everyone…
The sportos, the motorheads, the geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies and dickheads. That pretty much covers all the readers here at KCC, doesn’t it?
So the question isn’t, "What are we going to do?" The question is, "What aren’t we going to do"?
Friday, November 4th
Hum at the RecordBar in KC
Glazer: Scribe Still a Bit Goosey but Looks Ahead to ‘Game of Century’ & Prays for Chiefs Loss
Well, last week was my worst…
Just over 50%, it was bound to happen.That drags my season down to just under 90%. So I need a comeback week. Lke I said, I never really expected to be picking at this high level in the first place. Over 65% is very good.
However, we made this far and now that the second half of the season is well under way, let’s roll, baby!
There’s game of the century – big – but not the biggest; LSU at Alabama.There’ve been plenty of Oklahoma/Nebraska, Ohio State/Michigan,USC/Notre Dame games, but this is still one of the top games in the past 25 years. Both teams are undefeated, have great defenses and great coaches.
But this game falls short for one big reason, NO BIG NAMES.
Hearne: The Truth, The Whole Truth & Nothing But The Truth About Holly Starr
Did Holly Starr get fired by 38 The Spot? Is she pregnant? Did she sleep with Jason Grill?
The answer to all of the above questions is a resounding No.
As in, none of the above. Now let’s get down to the business at hand; finding out the latest on Kansas City’s missing-in-action, smoking hottest star. The grrrrl who ceded her post as spokesmodel for local television station 38 The Spot last summer to stay home with two-month old daughter Brinklee.
That’s right, Brinklee. That a family name?
"No, it’s just something I thought of," Starr says. "I couldn’t think of a name and I was researching names and I thought, I’ve always respected Christie Brinkley. So she’s not named after Christie Brinkley, but that’s where I got the name. And then I changed the spelling."
Starr kept her TV gig through the majority of her pregnancy, calling it quits only last July as she morphed from the two year-old pic of herself in the red bikini shown here, to queen-sized mother-to-be.
"Thank goodness you didn’t say, king-sized, but I’ll be wearing that red bikini again very soon," Starr quips.
Leftridge: Weekend Watch: Filet o’ Fin, K-State’s Slide Continues & National Champ is Crowned
The weather has gotten decidedly crappier. The leaves are all mostly dead, the winds have turned bitter and hateful, and everywhere around the city, heaters are clicking on left and right, making that weird, burning smell they get the first time you use them for the year. Wait… your heater does that, right?
Oh shit. Am I going to die?
Well, if I am, I certainly hope God finds it in His compassionate heart to wait until after this weekend. There’s a lot of good football to be watched, and couches to be lounged upon. It may even be time for the first pot of chili. You heard me, chili.
And though one could be driven nuts trying to pare down what to watch, here are but a few ideas.
Miami Dolphins (0-7) at Kansas City Chiefs (4-3), 12pm CT, Sunday
Miami is really, really, really… really bad, right? I mean, 0-7. A rotating cast of Keystone quarterbacks (well, two, but you’ve gotta imagine that the recently signed JP Losman will make it into a game sooner or later, after Matt Moore throws three or four picks in a half, right?). A mostly terrible running game. This should be a cakewalk for the Chiefs, right?
Starbeams: Time-Warner to the Rescue, Smoked Money & Hot Intern Fundraiser
Kansas residents are fed up with people crossing over the median and causing head-on collisions on K-10, so the state will finally install cable where crashes have occurred. The cable will be installed by Time Warner so it should be done by Tuesday between noon and four.
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Bank of America at College and Antioch closed Wednesday because of a small fire in the computer room that filled the bank with smoke. Now the bank is charging five dollars for the withdrawal of fresh-smoked money.
