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Katie: Daughtry Delivers (Family Style) at Midland by AMC
Daughtry is one of those people who didn’t win American Idol but is actually doing way better than many of the people who did win.
Which is, you know, kinda awesome.
Hey, he’s a super-talented guy and his vocals we’re spot on last night at the Midland by AMC. Which makes me wonder; why didn’t he win? The show wasn’t sold out unfortunately and most of the audience was – to my surprise – an older crowd. Even people were there with their small children. Not exactly a good sign hipness-wise.
New Jack City: The Legacy of Former Mayor Kay Barnes Killer KC Car Rental Taxes
Everything’s UP to date in Kansas City—Missouri, that is…
Especially when it comes to the renting of a car. K.C.’s total car rental costs exceed those of major cities like Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas—even Los Angeles.
According to the annual national "Per Diem" survey of the nation’s top 100 markets conducted by BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS, K.C. ranks as the ninth most expensive city in the U.S. to rent a car. St. Louis by comparison comes in at # 56.
Why so high?
Hearne: Down (But Not Out) in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
With all due respect, it’s not every day I take Craig‘s advice…
Yet as many of you were preparing to party this weekend I was emerged in a great escape to the country many Republicans want to fence out, Mexico.
That’s right, the land where I bought my first switchblade knife as a teenager after playing underage, cool guy in Nogales by going into a bar and ordering a Carta Blanca. Maybe drank like half of it or less, but it was the thought that counted.
This time out my Mexican destination of choice is Cabo. And while I won’t be bringing back any illegal cutlery, there’s all sorts of other ways to go wrong in the land down under. Like getting murdered or ransomed for vast sums to the good readers of KC Confidential. I doubt the Star would bail me at this point (although they and the Pitch would doubtless have fun covering the story).
However all of that’s highly unlikely, right?
And unlike Craig’s Puerto Rican wilding, my short trip is unlikely to involve any bimbo eruptions or dirty dancing.
Glazer: Scribe Gets Out His Baseball Bat and Goes After Hip-Hop & Rap
Are you like me?
Do you blame RAP and HIP HOP for the death of music to a large degree? I sure do. Call it racist – I don’t care – I’m a realist. There’s no talent – OK, almost none – yet we pretend there is when for the larger part THERE ISN’T.
I’m still in Puerto Rico. And after a long day of jet skiing, beach, partying and even dancing (I actually did some pretty decent dirty dancing), my girlfriend Jessie and I went to the room later and watched late night TV with Jimmy Fallen. Or was it, Last Call with the very talented Carson Daly. He’s talented, funny, sharp, my kind of guy.
Kidding.
In truth, it’s a race between him and Fallen for who has the least talent among the white guy, late night hosts. Add in Ryan Seacrest. Man, I wish I had their dough – I guess this gad guy thing only works in KC, huh?
So we’re watching the next big thing in RAP, HIP HOP from Carson right and it’s Jay Rock.
He’s a black, thugged-out rapper with ZERO TALENT. My dog Junior is a better singer. For real. The lyrics? Try bitch, gun, dope, my life sucks – what a genius! I wanted to get a large baseball bat and smash this guy in the face. STOP IT, for Christ Sake.
Leftridge: TV time: Kill These Shows, Please
Television is a strange industry. For every successful, acclaimed run of a Mad About You, viewers will be forever forced to live with the emotional scarring that occurs after a two-episode hiccup like The Paul Reiser Show. (and this is nothing compared to what it means for someone like Reiser himself, or his agent, for that matter). Some shows– underappreciated by the suits who dictate decisions—are gone too soon, the victim of poor time-slotting and/or marketing (see: Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks). Others hang on languidly, somehow avoiding the executioner’s axe long after the head should have been firmly in the basket.
Mancow: How the Hyatt Disaster & Bob Walkenhorst Derailed KC’s Rainmakers
In 1986 "Rockin’ at the T-Dance" by Kansas City’s Rainmakers was forbidden @ my former station Q104 back when it was a hit music station.
The song dared to blame the Hyatt Corporation for the Hyatt Regency Skywalks disaster. Too young to remember? Look it up. It’s a filthy, dark mark in Kansas City history that many "suits" would like the Cowtown to forget.
Shoddy, cheap work lead to a massacre.
My parents lost friends at that Tea Dance while the band played Duke Ellington‘s "Satin Doll" on a hot July evening. It impacted my family & haunted me with nightmares for years .
Why did Q104 ban the Rainmakers song?
Starbeams: Gentlemen, Start Your Pinholes, White Flight & Birth of an Egg
Our first solar eclipse this year is late Sunday afternoon. It’s also one of the few times I can look at something through a pinhole in public without getting arrested!
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Minorities have now surpassed whites in U.S. births. Does this mean Johnson County residents will call the police if they see me in the neighborhood?
Whinery: Marilyn Manson Disappoints at Uptown
Don’t know what it is with rock stars who don’t play their hits…
I saw Marilyn Manson last night for probably the 10th time- but only the second show since the late 1990’s. I’d seen him several times on the “Dead to the World” tour –in support of the seminal recording “Anti -Christ Superstar”
Which coincided with the 1996 Presidential Campaign – the second term of Bill Clinton, a “laydown” (sorry sexual metaphors are intrinsically linked to the man) – over the Great Senator from Kansas- Robert J. Dole. Back when America wasn’t perpetually involved in major wars.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Battleship’ Turns Naval Exercise into Oceanic Transformers
The Hasbro toy empire has done well for itself…
To date they’ve brought, among others, TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE to the big screen and both franchises were hugely successful.
So why quit now?
Hasbro’s latest transformation is the overly-long board game, alien invasion spectacle BATTLESHIP. Think of it as a ‘Transformers’ of sorts on the high seas.
"Let’s see if we can buy the world another day!"
Donnelly: Taj Mahal @ Knuckleheads, May 16, 2012
Taj Mahal celebrated his 70th birthday onstage Wednesday at Knuckleheads in front of an enthusiastic crowd that packed the patio and upper decks, and filled about half of the inside area.
Even KC mayor Sly James and his crew found their way into the Bottoms to catch the show, drink some beer, and eat a bunch of fried food. Now there’s a platform I can really get behind.
As Taj took the stage he was presented with a huge guitar-shaped cake and serenaded with a spirited rendition of happy birthday. The storied bluesman seemed to appreciate the gesture, but didn’t say much and quickly launched into the opener, an instrumental jam that displayed his trademark tremolo-soaked, syncopated guitar picking.
He’s still got it, I thought to myself, even at 70.
Mermaid: Pistol Packing Mama Hits the Bullet Hole for Thrills & Chills
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I guess my curiosity with guns started when I saw a hot pink Sig Sauer Mosquito. 22 online…
It was a lot meaner than a new pair of shoes but still toted some major bling! I’ve wanted a gun ever since.
This week I got my wish when my boyfriend, David, took me to the Bullet Hole after some extreme begging on my part. We both have family heirloom guns and I thought it would be great to learn how to shoot them. It’s always been on my bucket list and I think in the back of my mind I now wanted to have the personal protection in my home. I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy the experience or not, but I was pretty excited to try it out…
Walking in to the Bullet Hole, it was a serious yet friendly atmosphere.
We showed them our guns and they checked them to make sure they were in good working order. Corey, an expert Bullet Hole guide, seemed impressed with my Belgium Browning 9mm. He said he’d never seen one quite like it.
Naturally I was pleased that my gun was getting some respect.
Hearne: RockFest 2012; So Many Boobies, So Few Beads
About last weekend’s RockFest at Liberty Memorial…
The one where an estimated 55,000 head-bangers bellied up to 15 bands for nearly a dozen hours of drunken and disorderly debauchery. A politcally correct, freelance concert review in the Star glossed over the depravity by referring to "the antics of uninhibited women" and musicians who "actively encouraged…lewd behavior."
Leaving to reader’s imaginations the question, how lewd was it?
"It was a great people watching crowd," says Westporter Bill Nigro, who worked the event. "Because you saw everybody from the beautiful people to the not-so-beautiful people. There were some stunning women there and there were some other ones that weren’t."
Diplomatically said – but let’s take it a step farther – how stunning?
"There was quite a bit of flashing," Nigro says. "I’ve never seen so many flashes. Ever."
Hearne: Best Buy Victim of Times, Sex Scandal, ‘Psychological Marketing’
What goes around comes around…
Last year Jack Poessiger and I were talking to the head of one of Kansas City’s biggest commercial real estate firms about a fancy-schmancy new retail development he was working on. One for which he’d procured Best Buy as an anchor tenant. Isn’t that a little risky, I asked. Nah, he assured me, Best Buy was blue chip. A few days later I sent him a couple links to business stories suggesting otherwise.
Now check out this graph from an Associated Press story earlier this week about an unrelated sex scandal that has cost Best Buy both its CEO and founder.
"The latest revelations are part of a scandal that couldn’t have come at a worse time for the 46-year-old retailer. The company, which has more than 1,400 U.S. locations, is struggling to regain its footing as it faces increased competition from online retailers and discounters. Customers have all but abandoned buying at so-called ‘big box’ stores like Best Buy."
"All but abandoned" Sound familiar? It should.
Sounds Good: Taj Mahal@Knuckleheads, Grant Hart@Tap Room, P-Funk@Crossroads, Bad Veins@Replay, CIB & Ghosty@Replay
For those that don’t know, this week is American Craft Beer Week...
Yeah, I know it sounds like it was made up by American craft brewers. But it does have a few benefits, particularly if you’re in the Larry neck of the woods this Thursday evening. Free State is teaming up with local milk gurus Iwig’s Dairy at the Farmer’s Market near 19th and Mass. Word on the street is that these two local favs will be combining their wares to make the famous Oatmeal Stout Ice Cream Floats.
And that’s just ONE of the benefits of American Craft Beer Week! Trust me, there’s lots more.
By the way, next week is KC Entertainment Blog Week, so you know what that means.
Some good music this week, check it out…
Starbeams: So Spray Me, Dodge City Showdown & Snakebit @ Walmart
Spray-on seed has been has been added to the grounds at Liberty Memorial as part of a $3.6 million restoration. This is nothing new as several dudes at the memorial over the years have asked me if I would like some of their spray-on seed.
*******
Dodge City street gang members have been charged recently with alleged racketeering and murder. The term ‘Dodge City Street Gang’ was immediately trademarked by the History Channel.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘The Dictator’ In Loving Memory Of Kim Jong-Il
What can I say about Sacha Baron Cohen that hasn’t been said a million times before?
You either love him or hate him. He’s the master of unstaged and unscripted ambush, confrontational comedy. And naturally, most of it’s pretty offensive by today’s PC standards.
The old DA ALI G SHOW followed by BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHAN and BRUNO certainly are proof of his obsession and his success.
But with THE DICTATOR Cohen ventures into uncharted territory.
Namely, scripted comedy using real actors. In this case Ben Kingsley and Anna Faris and a storyline of a tiny nation’s dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.
Glazer: Scribe & Hottie Off to Puerto Rico for a Week
As we reach middle age we often find that we have or take very little time for ourselves…
We’re always saving for our futures – but guess what – if you’re over 45, it’s already here! It’s time to enjoy life and your friends. Most of you have all worked hard and maybe raised a couple kids, now it’s your turn.
However, too many of us bought into the big lie. One of many, actually.
That when you grow up everything will be swell. You’ll be able to drive and own a car and won’t need your mom or the neighbor to give you a ride. You’ll get married, have a great job and kids and everything will be aces. Oh yeah, and you’ll have great and loyal friends – tons of ’em!
What we eventually learn is that life is not too fair.
Glazer: An All Star Game With No All Stars, the Indignity of it All
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So how bad is this Royals season thus far?
We have an All Star game here in about a month and we don’t even have a single All Star on the Royals!!! At least not now. Maybe one will pop up in time for the mid season classic, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Before the season we thought we had about three or four.
Eric Hosmer, for sure, maybe Mike Moustakas, Alex Gordon and possibly even Danny Duffy. It looks like this today: Hosmer is batting under .200 and has all year – there’s even talk of sending him back to the minors. WOW! Mike, I mean Moose, is decent with an average just over .300 and a weak four homers. He’s our best bet as of today. Moose is also an outstanding 3rd baseman. Alex Gordon has been average, batting in the mid .200’s (.258 now) with just 4 home runs and 16 RBI’s – very average.
Now we get to the best – or is it worst – news.
Hearne: Pitch Congratulates Bogus ‘Best Of’ Buddy, Travel & Leisure Magazine
Will we ever learn?
I mean, really – we’re such suckers. It’s high time Kansas City media quit pandering to inconsequential "best of" promotions promulgated by loser magazines with little to no research credibility. Publications’s like Travel & Leisure, which twice in two months has annointed KC in one of its so-called "surveys."
Contrived surveys that are published with zero information about how they were complied, the number of participants – you know, pretty much whatever one would want or need to know to consider the survey relevant or legit.
Kinda like those Pitch ‘Best Of" issues…
So it’s not really surprising that it was the Pitch which annointed Travel & Leisure‘s latest bit of tripe by "reporting" the results:
That Kansas City is the country’s 8th best burger city.
Hearne: KU Students & Fans Celebrate Basketball Coach Bill Self’s Rug
You know what they say about, if it ain’t KU basketball season in Lawrence, it ain’t happening…
And while it’s not like every single thing in Larry revolves around Allen Field House, it does seem that way at times. Take the recent student newspaper Top 20 "KU Bucket List" of stuff the kids want to do before graduating.
No. 10: "See Bill Self without his toupée: ‘That’s something I’ve always been interested in. It looks so real. I think he has the sides still, but not the top.’ — Killian Cull, a sophomore from Overland Park."
KU fans and foes have argued for years about whether the KU basketball coach wears a rug or not.
