Yearly Archives: 2011
Today: Travel Channel Brings Royal Gorge Vote to Westport Flea Market Today
Plainly put, the Travel Channel wants to manifest a cult experience to the hallowed Westport Flea Market.…
Got that? The Travel Channel, for crying out loud!
Somehow – don’t ask – the cable channel that wants to spirit us away to exotic, restfull, amazingly beautiful locals – has determined that its devotees have somehow become enamored with people who eat ridiculously large portions of food in ridiculously short periods of time.
Make sense to you? Me neither.
Hearne: Slacker & KCFX Widen Lead Over The Rock & Johnny Dare in July
Let’s narrow down one of the more hotly contested radio ratings contests, shall we?
One that raised more than a few eyebrows in the June rankings in men, 25 to 54 during morning drive, 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., Monday through Friday. Remember? KCFX FM‘s Slacker nosed out Rock 98.9 FM force-to-be-reckoned with Johnny Dare for the top slot.
A ratings fluke? Apparently not.
Donnelly: Kanrocksas 2011 Wrap Up
So what’s my takeaway from the inaugural Kanrocksas festival at the Legends?
First, I have a question:
What was the actual attendance? No, wait, even better:
How many tickets were really sold?
I’d like to know.
If you can answer that you win half of a happy hour cocktail and 30 minutes of meaningful conversation with none other than KCC godfather Hearne Christopher, Jr.
On to the observations…
Donnelly: Muse@Kanrocksas Day 2, August 6, 2011
Day two of Kanrocksas boasted what I considered the better lineup of the two days – Muse, The Black Keys, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Cage the Elephant, and a bunch of others.
If you can’t tell, I’m more into the rock than the electronic and hip hop stuff.
Saturday night’s headliner was the band I was most looking forward to, English prog-rockers, Muse. I mean, how can you go wrong with the band that Queen’s Brian May called "probably the greatest live act in the world today"?
You can’t .
Muse emerged to warning sirens blaring, right on time at 11 p.m. – just like nearly every other act of the weekend, the on time part, not the sirens – and they were coming hard right off the bat, with one of their biggest hits, “Uprising.”
Too bad the crowd was probably half that of the previous night for Eminem…
Today: New Local Radio Ratings Champ & The July 2011 Top 20
Buckle up radio ratings junkies, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride…
The July digits are in, so let’s take a quick look and we can make some closer examinations later. To that end, here are the Top 20 KC Radio Stations for July in adults 25 to 54, Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to midnight.
I know, I know, they don’t include the high dollar infomercials, Royals games and weekend filler. But this is where 90 percent of station’s revenues come from and where they suit up their best and their brightest, the personalities you love and/or love to hate.
So here we go….
Glazer: All That Glitters is Not Golden When it Comes to Trading Gold
There’s Gold in them there hills, was the battle cry in the mid 1800’s for people to go to California, pick up some nuggets, get rich and end all of their problems…
At that time gold was under 20 bucks an ounce, now its $1,700 an ounce.
And with what looks like stock market crash number three of the decade – and who knows how bad this one gets? – once again, it’s all about gold.
Hearne ADVISED ME NOT TO DAY TRADE GOLD TWO YEARS AGO.
I didn’t listen.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘THE HELP’ is This Summer’s Knockout Oscar Contender!
When you see as many marginal movies like critics have to, it’s easy to become a bit jaded.
So when something very special comes along we tend to go overboard and want to tell everyone about it. And that’s the case with THE HELP, the superb screen adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s # 1 best selling novel.
Set in 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi during the height of the civil rights movement, THE HELP tells of southern society girl Skeeter (played by Emma Stone). She’s returning from Ole Miss, becoming a writer for the local newspaper, but begins to turn the town upside-down when she decides to interview many of the black women who’ve spent their lives as maids, taking care of prominent white southern families. Almost single handedly raising their own kids yet having to use separate bathrooms in their houses.
"They carry different diseases, you know."
Today: Westport Party Czar High Fives P&L District’s Cover Charge Controversy
There are those who say the Power & Light District’s credit card-only cover charge policy is racist…
That locals should boycott the downtown entertainment district because of it. Not Bill Nigro. Funny thing about it is, Nigro has every reason to look for excuses to bag on the P&L. As a businessman who owns and/or has owned any number of nightclubs and/or restaurants in Westport – Kansas City’s former leading entertainment district – Nigro felt former KC Mayor Kay Barnes screwed Westport by granting all those tax breaks to the P&L.
He’s got a point and he’s not alone in that thinking….
But what’s done is done and aside from leveling the playing field, Nigro (and Partner Bill George) want to connect all of KC’s entertainment districts via their KC Strip trolley shuttles for the betterment of partykind.
And that’s hard to do when you have to devote money and resourses to dealing with sprawling, unruly crowds of errant urban youth who gather on hot summer weekend nights causing disturbances and scaring off paying customers.
This summer, those crowds have shifted for the most part to the P&L District and grown in size.
Glazer: How the Comedy Club Biz Works & Why The Comics Hate Me
It’s been clear to me for years the young comics you promote at your local club will end up hating your guts.
Not always, but usually.
We started doing comedy at Stanford’s in 1980. Stanfords in Westport opened in 1975, but my brother Jeff and I didn’t start doing comedy until later. David Naster came to us with an idea of doing it on a regular basis. I’d been to LA and at the Comedy Store. Originally I thought my father Stan and I would perform as well.
So we started it on Sunday nights in our waiting area bar called THE TREE HOUSE.
Star Search: Frink Alert; Dallas Shuts Down Its Version of INK Magazine
One journalist’s nightmare can be another’s dream-come-true…
Take the ongoing battle for survival between Ink and venerable local alt weekly the Pitch. Light as Ink‘s content’s been (and continues to be), the Pitch has been having the rougher go. It was, until very recently, for sale for years by its now-former out-of-town owner. Its longtime editor bailed for the paycheck-friendly seas of the healthcare industry. Its top journo took a powder this past spring. Its page and ad counts are at levels that caused its former owner to audibly wince.
Then there’s Ink….
It’s hard to imagine the content of the weekly Tony likes to refer to as an "ad rag," being any more inconsequential. Outside of its ads, of course – and there is something to be said for that. But now that the Pitch is cleaning up its act under new owners a possible new variable has reared its head.
Might Ink‘s parent, the Kansas City Star close it down?
Hearne: Kanrocksas 2011, The Gnarly, the Obnoxious & the Excellent
Here’s the deal on Kanrocksas….
Forget the official accounts from newspaper reporters who went for free, get majorly schmoozed and aren’t about to bite anything resembling the hands that feed them. I think readers can smell something funny when they read headlines with expressions like "top notch" and "world class" and are unable to locate a single critical comment in the coverage.
Donnelly: Sporting Shattered By Heartbreaking Loss At LIVESTRONG
What an atmosphere Saturday night at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.
The 17,000-plus in attendance was the most energetic crowd of the season thus far. A packed Cauldron kept the place loud with chants taunting Seattle Sounders’ keeper Kasey Keller all game long.
Sporting’s play was gutty and inspired, especially so when they went down to 10 men after Omar Bravo was shown a red card early in the second half.
Before the red card, SKC dominated possession and created multiple dangerous chances mostly off crosses. Winger Kei Kamara played an inspired 80 minutes, and put KC on top in the 20th minute with a nice header off Matt Besler’s long throw-in (which is becoming quite a weapon).
For 90 minutes of regulation KC battled and scrapped, putting together what I thought was one of their best performances of the season, holding onto that one goal lead all game.
Then with mere moments left in the game, and a scrappy victory seemingly in hand, everything went to shit…
Glazer: The King of Sting Flashes Back
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My partner, Don Woodbeck, drove up to the campus at Arizona State in Tempe…
I remember it as being damn hot out, fall and I was not yet 20 years-old. It was the early 70’s. I had just cut my hair kinda short. Remember, those were the days of long hair. I did that to look older, more like a cop. Woodbeck said to me, "Are you ready kid?"
Don wanted me to fly to Chicago with him the next day, to set up our first STING.
New Jack City: Airlines Play Fast & Loose with Controversial FAA Tax Money
You purchased an airline ticket in early June for your great vacation getaway in late July. Then Congress didn’t see fit to extend FAA funding before they went on recess last week, which stopped the agency from collecting federal ticket taxes.
You’re familiar with the controversy.
So were you in luck?
It sure looked that way because if you’d paid for your ticket before July 23, 2011 for flights after that date you were surely due the tax refund.You remember all the cable news stations moaning about the tax revenue being lost.
Not so fast!
Donnelly: Kanrocksas Day 1, Friday August 5, 2011
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Thousands of music fans flocked to the Kansas Speedway this past weekend to partake in one of the weirdest named festivals ever: Kanrocksas.
When I first arrived I noticed the main stage was packed out with half naked twenty-somethings pumping their fists in the air.
Who was playing?
It sounded like a DJ, spinning tunes at the Granada or something. Nope, it was none other than Bassnectar, spinning records for probably the biggest crowd of the festival.
What happened to live musicians?
They’ve been rendered obsolete.
Or so I thought until the sun went down and I wandered to the second stage…
Glazer: Kansas Speedway Comes Up Short at Boiling Hot, Lightly Attended Kanrocksas
First off the Star, as usual, lied about the numbers or just don’t know…
Thirty-five thousand people? Give me a break.
I got there to see Eminem about 10:55, the star of the show and many people were already leaving. Some happy, some not so much. Too hot. Too far to walk to anything. Not the right venue for this event. Crowd size was maybe low twenty thousands at best.
And I’m being generous.
Almost nobody was in the (unlighted) stands. And maybe the infield was, at best, a third full. So there could have been 20,000 people. It looked like a slightly bigger Red Friday when we had Joe Montana in Westport back in ’94.
The good news; Eminem was great!
Donnelly: My Morning Jacket@The Uptown Theater, August 3, 2011
There may not be a more interesting personality in rock music right now than My Morning Jacket’s enigmatic front man, Jim James.
During his band’s Wednesday night concert at the Uptown Theater, James mentioned that the brightly painted interior of the venue made him feel like he was in a small village in Mexico. (Maybe that was because of the heat and humidity inside the Uptown. Or maybe that’s just James.)
He raised his open palms to the sky in what looked like a pagan rain dance while spewing guttural shrieks at the sky. And at times he wore a hooded cape that looked like it came straight out of Sleepy Hollow.
Obviously he and his band have ample style, but their substance is what really sets them apart as one of the premier live acts around right now. And Wednesday night they delivered big time.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of openers, Delta Spirit…
Today: Kanrocksas Brings Chris Fritz Full Circle From Ozark Music Festival
The Pitch touched on it ever so lightly…
The year was 1974 and KanRocksas promoter Chris Fritz was about to unleash the unthinkable upon the unsuspecting city of Sedalia. The Ozark Music Festival. A three day rock fest a la Woodstock with a lineup that included the Eagles, Aerosmith, Lynryd Skynyrd, REO, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, BTO and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (who headline the Crossroads tonight with Brewer & Shipley).
"The whole idea was we would get a maximum of 50,000 people for three days," Fritz told me in the Star a handful of years back. "And we probably sold about that many in advance and at the door."
Glazer: My Forecast for the 2011 Chiefs; Fair to Partly Sucky
I’ve been looking around a buncha sites…
Like walterfootball.com, a good one. As well as other inside the NFL predicitons sites. And all of them say this: The Chiefs had a gifted season last year, because they played ALL LOSERS. The three playoff teams they played beat them except Seattle.
Free Agents: Signing Tamba Hali was great. He’s now a star. He got $60 million for five years with $35 million guaranteed. The signing of Steve Breaston, a slot receiver from Arizona, was a joke. He got a five-year $25 million dollar contract with – get this – $9.5 million guaranteed. Wow. Arizona said, "We didn’t even try to keep him; his knees are shot, he’s done."
Hearne: Glass Called Out as Second Worst Major League Baseball Owner Ever
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Consider the sad state of our unloveable losers, the Kansas City Royals…
With pundits as far afield as Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly taking off-the-cuff potshots – telling Alan Colmes recently that further deficit spending would be "like telling the Kansas City Royals to lose more games" – its time to take a look at how the Royal’s owner ranks in the scheme of things.
It’s not pretty…
Zen College Life, a "leading source for college and degree information online," offers an interesting array of Top 10 lists ranging from the "10 Most Effective & Essential Self Defense Techniques" to the "10 Celebrities Whose Deaths Were Tragically Predictable."
As might be suspected, Royals owner David Glass rates quite highly on Zen’s "10 Worst MLB Owners of All Time."
