Yearly Archives: 2011
OTC: JoPo Leave Kansas City With Only Memories
Joe Posnanski, announcing his family’s move to Charlotte in Wednesday’s Kansas City Star
GH: I have a unique perspective of JoPo’s time here in Kansas City if only from the fact I was writing for The Star when Joe was hired. While he hasn’t written for The Star as a fulltime columnist for almost two years, it speaks to his following in Kansas City that his decision to move to Charlotte would rate a column in his former newspaper. I have compiled here some thoughts of JoPo and my memories of his time with The Star.
Starbeams: Crown Center Day Care, Tammy Faye Rescues Scout & Incarcerated @ The K
A Real Paint in the Ass!
Someone splashed a bucket of paint all over the back of the Kansas City Scout statue overlooking downtown. Even with the vandalism, the statue isn’t as ugly as the painted cows display that came through town in 2001. It was actually somewhat refreshing to see area taggers going abstract for a change.
*******
A $15 million Legoland Discovery Center will open in spring 2012 in conjunction with a $15 million Sea Life aquarium at Crown Center. The giant Legoland will reportedly create a two- to three-hour indoor experience for children ages 3 to 10. Area parents are already calling it DAYCARE LAND.
Today: Morale Low at 18th & Grand Ghost Town
This just in…
The psychological, post-layoffs state of mind among staffers at the Kansas City Star: disheartened.
"Everybody is waiting for their turn," says one. "We’re all bummed and it’s like, ‘When is it my turn?’ You look around everywhere and it’s so empty. There’s nobody around anymore. It’s the atmosphere. You come in every day with things looking like a morgue.
Glazer: KC Actress Gina Ninci & Comic Will C Dance With Stars
Well, we all have stories about the one that got away, right?
When I was traveling between LA and KC – running Stanford‘s and producing sports films – I met this killer, blue-eyed, 20 year-old blonde, Gina Ninci. My brother, Jack, brought her to my office. She was centerfold material, and seemed to be a very nice person.
Smashing looking!
So I invited her to go back to LA with me and she said, cool. She told me her name and said she had a new phone number and for me to call information and get it. And that she’d leave the next day with me for LA. So I called information but no Gina Mince.
A year later I learned it was Ninci, not Mince.
OTC: Topeka’s Mark Turgeon Takes His Talents To Maryland
Mark Turgeon, in a message to the TAMU fan base after resigning to take the Maryland job, Twitter
GH: The college basketball coaching carousel got another hard tug when Gary Williams resigned from Maryland and Mark Turgeon bolted A&M to replace him. Will the Topeka kid be a success in the ACC? Read on.
Todd Leabo, 810 AM
GH: Maryland looked at high-profile candidates before “settling” for Turgeon. This is not a hire that will cause season ticket sales to spike in Terp territory but one I think will prove to be successful. Not everyone agrees.
“If Maryland’s inability to land (Arizona’s) Sean Miller as its basketball coach can be analogized to an open layup that was blown over the rim, how best to describe the Terps’ decision to hire Mark Turgeon? One might say it’s like shooting at the other team’s goal. Pursuing Miller was the right idea but horribly executed.”
Mike DeCourcy, SportingNews.com
NEW JACK CITY: Five Artsy Alternatives to Early Summer Tentpole Movies
With Hollywood’s recent onslaught of summer blockbusters and major tentpole productions, you’d think serious moviegoers were just plain out of luck…
Face it, FAST FIVE, THOR, this week’s BRIDESMAIDS, next week’s PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES, HANGOVER 2 on May 26 and X-MEN: FIRST CLASS set for June 3 aren’t exactly shooting for Oscars!
But several smaller films of interest will be filling the void for those seeking more than the annual early summer popcorn onslaught.
Like this weekend when Will Ferrell steps out of his usual laff-a-minute schtick in favor of the more bittersweet side of life. It’s called EVERYTHING MUST GO and has him playing an alcoholic salesman who gets fired from his job and locked out of his home by his wife only to find his possessions dumped on the front lawn—where he now proceeds to live.
Starsearch: Houston, We’ve Got a (Dead Soldiers & Noblemen) Problem
Geez, I take off for a week to Houston and all heck breaks lose at KC’s newspaper of record…
But no big surprises really on the layoffs and cutbacks KC Confidential forecast in early April. With a one-two punch of shrinking circulation and sour economy, the Kansas City Star and other print publications (like the Pitch) are trapped in a long term, downward trend – not a passing recession- as its publisher likes to imply.
Let’s look at it for a minute, then move on to the fleecing of dead soldiers.
Today: NewsRadio KMBZ Unleashes Ratings Spin on Advertisers
To riff on the old Richard Pryor movie, which way is up?
An email blast from NewsRadio KMBZ to advertisers boasts, "Today we have the facts to prove it! KMBZ AM/FM sees over 25% audience growth in just the first two weeks!"
A bar chart included in the blast shows for persons 12-plus, Monday thru Sunday, KMBZ grew from 178,700 listeners the fourth week of March on AM-only to 231,000 listeners the second week in April broadcasting on 980 AM and 98.1 FM, the former home of KUDL FM.
That’s a 29 percent jump!
Glazer: Time Traveling @ Shawnee Mission East w/ Conan Star
High School revisited…
How long’s it been since you walked the halls of your old high school? Time moves faster than we think it does. I graduated Shawnee Mission East in the 1970’s and didn’t fully realize it had been three decades since I’d been in my old haunt.
Thanks to my former girlfriend and friend Sandahl Bergman I got to relive my fun days of teenage drama one more time this past weekend.
Sandhal was in town for a special SME dinner and awards program honoring her as one of the all-time female film stars from this area. She graduated from East. In fact she went straight to Broadway and then Hollywood after senior year. No time for college, which she says would have been nice. She couldn’t pass up the big career, she explained in her speech to students, families and teachers at the special event.
OTC: Tyler Gabbert Transfers Out Of Mizzou
Chad Moller, Missouri Assistant AD, press release
GH: Maybe not a bombshell but at least a tremor through Pinkel’s football program. Just days after former Mizzou QB, Blaine Gabbert, is drafted 10th overall by Jacksonville, his younger brother drops out of what many thought were a highly competitive starting QB battle at Mizzou between him and James Franklin. Read on.
“One thing I’ve learned, people who are very jealous and insecure about themselves talk down about people on twitter. Sweet life!!”
Blaine Gabbert, Twitter
GH: Just a guess here but I’m pretty sure big brother Blaine was commenting about some of the snaky tweets regarding Tyler’s departure. Read on.
Glazer: Bodies Unrevealed, Bring Bin Laden Death Video & Pics to Union Station
Maybe Osama bin Laden will end up in Vegas in the Bodies Revealed Show…
Maybe he’ll come to Union Station. But right now he ain’t going anywhere. I know he’s buried at sea. The President has decided its a no go on showing photos or video from Bin Laden’s death day.
So here come even more people, not only in the Middle East, but all around the world questioning the entire event.
Our government explains it this way: "We buried him at sea to get him put away within 24 hours to be respectful of Muslim religious rights." We also did it that way so there would be no grave site. To not let him to become a martyr with a shrine. And we’re not showing photos or video cause well, hmmm…."Don’t need to spike the ball," Obama says.
I think we can all see the logic to that point.
Sounds Good: Tuneyards@Jackpot Saloon; Chuck Meade@Knucklehaeds; Of Montreal@Liberty Hall
Lots of good stuff going on this weekend…
Barbecue competitions, town festivals, and even Royals baseball games that people are exicted about.
If you’re into the whole "music" thing, though, here is what you should know…
OTC: Royals Bring Baseball Hysteria Back To KC W/ Surprising Hosmer Call Up
Ned Yost, 810 AM
GH: I heard the Royals’ manager utter these words live on Sports Radio 810 as I flipped on my car radio while dodging ominous thunderstorm clouds moving in swiftly from the southwest about 4:30 PM Thursday. Did he just say Eric Hosmer is comin’? I cranked the volume knob into double digits and smiled as my pulse and imagination began to run wild.
Joel Goldberg, FSRoyals sideline reporter, Twitter
GH: Goldberg later corrected his misspelled tweet but I kinda liked the original version.
Jack Goes Confidential: Chris Hemsworth Puts The Hammer To ‘THOR!’
So you think that I’ve got an accent? I thought so too!
Until I listened to Australian hunk Chris Hemsworth at CinemaCon in Las Vegas recently, where he was named ‘Male Star Of Tomorrow.’
Yes, it’s thicker than mine but he hides it well on screen as THOR, the $150 million Marvel Comics’ adaptation kicking-off Hollywood’s movie summer this weekend.
Hemsworth stars as THOR, Norse God of thunder who gets exiled to earth by his father
Anthony Hopkins
—landing him smack-dab-in-the-middle of the New Mexico desert and stripped of his powers.
OTC: Is Waiting Kila-ing Royals’ Chance At Pennant?
Steven St. John, 810 AM
GH: Ka’aihue is slumping just when he needs to be producing and proving his worth at the big-league level. Wednesday night he came up in the ninth with the tying run on second base with two out and flied out weakly to right. Meanwhile, Hosmer went 3-for-5 for Omaha and raised his average from .430 to .439. That will get people talking about moving Kila down and Hosmer up. Read on.
Soren Petro, campaigning for Hosmer to take over at first base for the Royals, 810 AM
GH: The media and fans have been patient with Dayton Moore’s vision of the Royals future. Some would say catatonic. But the whiff of success the Royals have shown the first five weeks of the season has us hungry for more than promises. If the future is now, Moore and Yost need to seize the opportunity. Waiting has never worked for this franchise in the past.
Tony: The Adventures Of Former Star Biz Editor Chris Lester Prove Life After Journalism Only Gets Rougher
Credit where it’s due: Chris Lester was ahead of the game when it came to abandoning ship at Kansas City’s paper-of-record.
His departure two years ago was celebrated with wonder and maybe a bit of envy by his colleagues. The announcement that he was moving to the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce as Senior Vice President For Business Growth was a bit of confirmation that The Kansas City Star was still a stalwart among the movers and shakers of this town.
Then, without any fanfare, Former Star Biz Editor Chris Lester was quietly “blown out” of his comfy new Chamber job last month.
Today: Funk & Fam’s Last City Hall Stand – You Are There!
Take a deep breath, the car-crash, fun-to-watch era of KCMO politics is o-v-e-r…
It landed with a whimper – no bang – last week in a marathon, boring-beyond belief, last hurrah City Council meeting. Chaired, of course, by outgoing KC mayor Mark Funkhouser. It wasn’t pretty. In fact, by most accounts it was massively boring.
Thank god I was two hours late!
One reason: a two-hour circle jerk between outgoing pols congratulating one another for the piss poor jobs they’d done the past 4 years.
Which might have been interesting except…
OTC: Nick Wright Nails Chiefs Draft W/ 5 of 9 Correct Picks
Nick Wright, after he predicting 5 of the Chiefs’ 9 draft picks correctly prior to the draft, 610 AM
GH: I heard Wright play an audio clip Monday from one of last week’s shows where he impressively nailed five of the Chiefs picks. He named Baldwin, Hudson, Houston, Stanzi and Powe. He didn’t just list a bunch of names as possible Chiefs’ picks, Wright went round by round and named all five of these players. He didn’t get them all in exactly the correct round but who cares? If 610 Sports hasn’t put together a promo add highlighting Nick’s picks, what the hell are they waiting for? The kid needs all the help he can get when it comes to sports credibility and this kind of pub can only help.
“I’ll send out a tweet Gabe and try and help you out (collecting Twitter followers).”
Nick Wright, to the Chiefs’ fifth-round pick, Gabe Miller, a DE out of Oregon State, 610 AM
GH: I chuckled when I heard Wright tell this new Chief he would help him out, with a tweet to his followers. I missed Wright’s tweet. He is the only member of the Kansas City media who has chosen to block me from his tweets. Some guys have thicker skin than others. Wright’s appears to be onion-skin depth.
Hovick: Give It Up For Mother’s Day 2011, Badass
Moms
We all got ’em or we wouldn’t be here
Moms have spidey sense
They know when their babies are sick
Moms know when their babies are sad
And they know when their babies need an ass wupping
Once a year, we have a special Sunday dedicated to the women who gave us life
Oh yeah, Dad donated but your Mom did most of the heavy lifting
Your nine months of development caused her to gain a lot of weight and probably made her ass not look so good in her jeans, so she maybe switched to stretch pants to be more comfortable
I know guys who took total advantage and ate like crazy while their wives were pregnant
Sympathy weight they told me
But when their wife had the baby and lost the weight she gained, the guy was still a fat ass
What is up with that?
Donnelly: “Jay and Silent Bob Get Old” at the Midland, May 2, 2011
You gotta hand it to Kevin Smith.
Writer, director, actor, comic book dork, fat man. Yes, he’s all these things.
But here’s the genius part: he gets paid to sit around and talk about shit that happened, like, 20 years ago.
Seriously. And it’s not even profound shit or anything. He just makes it up as he goes. I mean, he could get on stage and talk about the greatest dump he took during the grunge era and people would show up.
That’s not too far from what went down Monday at the Midland during the traveling shit-shoot known as "Jay and Silent Bob Get Old"…