Author Archives: admin
Glazer: The Death of Boxing As We Knew It
There was a time, not long ago, that THE title in sports was…HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!
The title was held by the world’s best known men – men like Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali. Today it’s over. Boxing is nearly dead.
Sure, there’s still Floyd Mayweather and Manny Paciauo, but that’s nearly all there is. Not to forget the not very popular Klitschko Brothers who have held the heavyweight belts for more than a decade and are even older than Floyd or Pacuiauo.
Clearly Floyd and Manny are now far past their prime – both in their mid 30’s. Neither have had much competition so they have slowed down, gotten a bit fat, sloppy and happy. Floyd is headed to jail for three months for beating up a girl…again. And Manny is too busy being a political leader. The two household name fighters have made well over $200 million each as champs…of what we don’t really much know.
Whinery: R.I.P. Beastie Boys MCA
Tragic news from the music world, Adam Yauch – or as he was known, MCA from the Beastie Boys – passed away today after a long bout with cancer…
Like most white kids from the burbs, I dabbled some with Run-DMC and LL Cool J but never really gave up “Hair Metal” for rap music until Licensed to ILL was released in ’86. And after seeing their video- back when MTV still played music- for their song Fight for Your Right (To Party) I went to Metro North Mall the next day, picked up the cassette and have been a huge fan of the Beasties ever since….
First saw them live at the Uptown with my good friend Anthony Turner in 87’, or thereabouts, and WOW!
Hearne: Lawrence Busts Orscheln for Trafficking in Baby Chicks, Duckies
Talk about going Daffy Duck…
Lawrence officials have put the kibosh on "Chick Days" at the Kansas City-based Orscheln Farm and Home. Something about it being a violation of a city code intended to regulate raising of chickens in the city limits.
"Oh my god, are you kidding me?" says Kansas City attorney / Orschlen owner Phil Orschlen. "That’s just crazy. I mean, we’ve sold chickens and ducks from our stores since the 1960s. We call it ‘Chick Days’ and it’s one of our best sellers. It’s amazing."
Among other things, the ordinance requires Orschlen to maintain a minimum living space of 10 square feet per peep. In other words, 1,000 square feet of store space for every hundred chicks. That’s a lot.
Practically converting Orschlen’s farm fowls as "free range," if you will.
Leftridge: Royals April Recap
At this juncture, there’s no point in discussing just how abysmal this year’s Royals team is shaping up to be; everyone knows how unbearably awful they are and almost everything that is worth saying has already been said.
The starting pitching is uniformly poor.
The offense—teeming with youngsters full of promise and talent—has looked overmatched and been ineffective.
The bullpen has been inconsistent and riddled with injuries.
Ned Yost is a complete jackass ill-equipped to manage a t-ball game.
Yes, pontificating on the sorry state of your Kansas City Royals is akin to beating a dead horse—and then repeatedly raping that horse while the young horse’s son looks on, crying.
That’s why I thought it might be beneficial to take a look at the good—and it’s an admittedly short list—that transpired over the first month of the season. With bad, surely there must come good, right? Anyone…?
Sounds Good: Damn Yankees, Til Willis, Hank III, Allison Olassa & Hearts of Darkness
We’ve got lots and lots going on this weekend.
There’s plenty of music to go around, which I’ll get to in a sec. But there’s also some other stuff to keep you out of trouble. Or get you into it.
For example, starting Thursday the team everyone loves to hate- the New York Yankees- roll into town to throttle our young Royals.
Sporting KC plays Saturday at home against expansion Montreal after their much needed week off.
Then there’s First Friday in the Crossroads, which is featuring free music and some art by a pro skateboarder.
And by the time Sunday rolls around I suggest you get your ass to Lawrence’s Burcham Park (it’s by the river) for a free show from some hipster bands like Robocopter, Johnny Booth, Ask an Adult, and Bloody Knives. It’s BYOD (dog) and it’s also BYOB (beverages?) so long as it’s not in glass bottles. Starts at 4:00.
Now on to my awesome and well-informed picks…
Whinery: The Death of Privacy- Part 2- Surveillance Systems
OK Everyone, get out your tin foil hats and prepare to be briefed on the latest surveillance systems.
Straight from the battlefields and to an airbase near you come unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones. Drones soon to be deployed from 45 airbases across the United States, according to the FAA. The closest to the Kansas City Metropolitan area will be located in Manhattan, KS. They won’t be armed like those over Afghanistan- not for now anyway – but they are quite sophisticated.
And according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) the drones can collect huge amounts of data. Some are equipped with gigapixel cameras that can track people and vehicles from over 20,000 feet and can zoom in on what they’re doing with great detail. Some need no runway for take off or landing, can fly more than 12 hours without refueling, and have the capability of monitoring up to 65 targets simultaneously.
Others may be equipped with live-feed video cameras, infrared cameras, heat sensors and radar which will be able to track people inside buildings or homes. And all this data can be run through a variety of databases. For instance if you’re at a political rally hostile to the State – the info can be added to your file.
Glazer: Suicide Shocker! Junior Seau Dead at Age 43
.jpg)
He was an NFL idol…
One of the all-time, best football players ever. Players were in awe of the man who dominated defenses for 20 seasons. And now it appears that Junior Seau, age 43 and sure Hall of Fame football star, took his own life.
His girlfriend called the police and they could not help Seau when they arrived. Junior was gone. Shot himself in the chest with his own gun. The gun was in the room by his lifeless body. The man many consider the best linebacker of all time was dead. Only two years after he left the game.
All this today in Oceanside, California not far from where Seau’s 15 year career with the San Diego Chargers went down.
It’s one of the most surprising suicides in modern sports.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘The Avengers’ a Feast for Geeks And Everyone!
.jpg)
If you’re going to kick-off what’s predicted to become the biggest movie summer EVER, you’d best do it in a mighty big way…
And Disney does just that with MARVELS-THE AVENGERS.
Walt would’ve been proud.
What we’ve got here is Hollywood’s ultimate superhuman good guy team set against an epic scope of production wizardry that would’ve been impossible to achieve just a handful of years ago.
I should mention that I’m not a comic book geek.
Hearne: Star’s Mellinger Obliterates Memory of Past Sports Columnists
Who doesn’t love a good, I told you so?
So allow me to take just a moment to congratulate myself and remind you guys what I told you in 2010 about Kansas City Star sports scribe Sam Mellinger:
"The Star Sports Kings – Jason Whitlock and Joe Posnanski – are dead," I wrote. "Long live new King, Sam Mellinger…Rome wasn’t tacked together overnight and rookie columnists don’t always hit full stride the first few steps out of the blocks. But Sam started out good and is attaining critical mass. He’s been kicking some pretty high quality journalistic butt. And dishing out corporal punishment when called for."
Some readers probably wondered at first how Sam might shake out. Would he be a bombastic Jason-ator? A painfully passionate Posnaski? Something inbetween?
And after more than a decade of W and P, did any other form of sports column writing even exist? Well, Sam has now proven that indeed that is the case. He’s totally his own man and Kansas City is the better for it.
A prime example being today’s column about the sorry state of the Chiefs quarterback situation.
Hearne: Who Gives a Dam? Local Metal Station Dies Quiet Death
You know that line about a tree falling in the forest?
Ditto for last week’s pulling of the plug by Cumulus on its local HD Translator station The Dam at 103.7 FM. The heavy metal radio station which debuted just two years ago with a Metallica song, is now simulcasting the somnambulant slate of boring right wingsters from KCMO 710 AM that range from Sean Hannity to Laura Ingraham to Mike Huckabee.
How boring does that sound?
As a hard rock refuge, The Dam was good for about a one share point in the ratings, which ain’t much.
Hearne: Landlord Spruces Up Jardine’s in Preparation for ???
Not to belabor the subject but…
Inquiring minds want to know…what’s the latest on Plaza area jazz club Jardine’s? It’s been five long months since the you-know-what hit the fan and owner Beena Raja found herself on the wrong end of a mini staff revolt that grew into a musician boycott and a tabloid TV news feeding franzy.
Since then Jardine’s doors have remained dark while owner-candidate after owner-candidate strode in (and then out) of the media limelight. And while sundry former and prospective owners and managers watched their fortunes rise and then fall.
In other words, it’s been one big, fat mess.
Which brings us to the here and now, and the buzz on the down-for-the-count jazz club about workers being spotted hard at it in Jardine’s space.
"Looks like the story is over," emailed propsepective Jardine’s buyer Paul Wilson. "I drove by (Friday), there is some kind of construction going on inside."
Hearne: Don’t Believe Everything You Read, Digital Movie Conversion Costs Plummet
About the effort to save the tiny town of Higginsville, Missouri‘s local movieplex…
"Digital update costs $70,000," shouts an incorrect headline atop a front page story today in the Star‘s FYI section.
With movie studios rapidly switching from 35 mm to digital projection, small theaters nationwide – like Higginsville’s Davis – have been scambling to convert.
With the days of film being numbered, the conventional wisdom has been that the cost of conversion to digital was $70,000 per screen. Or $300,000 for Higginsville’s four-holer.
Thus a $25,000 prize the Davis won from a Readers Digest contest would only cover a fraction of the switchover cost, the story states.
Glazer: Johnson County Evolving Rapidly into Police State
Most readers don’t realize Johnson County is THE biggest money maker in the nation regarding ARRESTS…
Or that Johnson County puts almost all misdemeanor charges on pre trial probation or supervision. No, not for simple parking or speeding tickets, but almost anything and everything else. Examples include, trespassing, destruction of private property, any assault case, even yelling at your girlfriend or wife – you don’t need to hit them – just yelling and someone calling the cops is enough.
And no priors are needed.
Even for driving on a suspended license, or even an outdated one – pretty much anything.
Starbeams: Dial ‘M’ for Murder in KC, NYC Cattle Call & Kissing Royals
New signs along Main Street in midtown feature the letter "M" inside a red circle. The signs are symbolic because the red stands for blood and the "M" stands for murder.
*******
One World Trade Center officially became the tallest building on the New York skyline this week. A 408 ft. needle will eventually be placed on the roof, but New York still won’t be cool until they get a giant cow statue overlooking Manhattan.
New Jack City: Unraveling Sin City Cinema’s Great Movie Week
I’ve just returned from CinemaCon-Las Vegas, the world’s largest annual movie convention and I’m still trying to sort out an objective view of the Industry…
An industry which incidentally is up almost 20% in ticket sales over the first quarter of 2011, I might add. And one that beginning Friday with MARVELS-THE AVENGERS, will be hit-bound almost weekly through Labor Day weekend.
There are so many convention highlights to touch on—which I will in future columns—but here are just a few.
Hearne: Generations X, Y & Z Brush Aside Boomers, Rescue Joplin
Younger people are fed up with Baby Boomers…
Can you blame them? Boomers are spoiled, always want their way and think the world owes them. Doubters need look no further than the mirror.
Take it from one of Baby Boomdom‘s most celebrated, underground pop culture icons, Bob Lefsetz…
Two years ago the Huffington Post described the 58 year-old Lefsetz as "the most influential man you’ve never heard of," further describing him as "a reclusive, sardonic writer who has the ear of every exec in the (music) industry."
One national blogger went as far as to suggest` Lefsetz was so cranky he might be auditioning for deceased 60 Minutes crankpot Andy Rooney‘s job.
I offer up Lefsetz as proof that Boomers are a pain in the butt, as anyone under the age of 40 (47 technically) generally knows.
Hearne: Is Joplin Better Off a Year Later Because of the Tornado?
They’ve got a new mayor and a new lease on life…
As Joplin preps for the onslaught of its one-year tornado anniversary, the untold tale is that the disaster has transformed the battered midwestern burg into something of a boom town.
If you weren’t hit or killed by the tornado (or left town), there’s a good chance you’re better off now than you would have been had the tornado not struck.
The reason for the financial uptick?
"We’ve had over 125,000 registered volunteers and that’s not even counting the unregistered ones," says new mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean. "And it’s helping out everybody. Our sales tax for the city is up. The stores are doing good. The hotels are doing good. The restaurants are doing good."
In other words, a disaster boomlet?
Glazer: Chiefs Brass Futures Safe But Boring , Fans Pay the Price
Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli has it all figured out…
Make the play-offs here and there – even if you lose in Game One or game Two – and you’ll have a job in Kansas City forever.
Our top pro teams, the Chiefs and Royals, can’t even spell the word "championship," so just makin the post season is totally swell. In fact, with the Royals, winning half their games is something worth considering having a parade over.
Yes sir, we’re Number Two!!!
Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel see it this way: They’ve got nice jobs, why not keep ’em a few years?
Hearne: A Look Back as Joplin Braces for ‘Twisterversary’
Dateline: Joplin…
I come to you now from the land down under, Joplin, Missouri. Where in less than one month, this humble burg will commemorate a one-year anniversary of the brutal devastation visited upon it by an EF-5 tornado that took "at least" 161 lives and left key portions of the town in ruins.
But first let me say this.
To drive into Joplin today from Kansas City you would scarcely notice a thing out of order. While the well-documented damage was significant, you’d almost need a Tornado Damage Map to find the areas that were wiped out. Which if you recall, is exactly what the Joplin Convention & Visitors Bureau put out resulting in a wave of anti "tornado tourism" among locals. KCC covered that story in January.
Make no mistake, the evidence is there, you just have to come upon it.
Now let’s take a look at a town probably most of you know little about, then I’ll bring things up to date over the next day or two while I’m here looking over a little town that says it’s proud of its past and is shaping its future.
Starbeams: THE TOP 5 SIGNS YOUR POLICE OFFICER HAS BEEN TWEETING
.png)
The Kansas City Police Department experimented with LIVE TWEETING Thursday. It was the department’s attempt to explain to the public how busy and stressful their job is.
TOP 5 SIGNS YOUR POLICE OFFICER HAS BEEN TWEETING:
#5. When the officer breaks off hot pursuit he calls it "unfollow."
#4. Refers to your mug shot as your avatar.
#3. Follows more cars on Friday for #FF.
