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Hearne: What You Don’t See (On Television) is What You Get at Live WWE Matches
Now it can be told…
After years of dodging the pro wrestling bullet, I broke down Monday and bought tickets to the WWE Gangbang at Sprint. And I can now report, plenty has changed even since the not-too-distant days of the WWF, before to the name change from Federation to Entertainment.
Here’s what I saw and learned, starting with my suggestion that if you really like watching over-the-top, wrestling soaps and steroid-buffed out dudes, by all means have at it. However, save your ticket money and stick to the TV action – the live shows are way too long, with way too much between match silliness and way too little wrestling action.
It’s really that simple.
Glazer: Stood Up by Joe Namath After Bimbo Schmooze
When they mention the best quarterbacks, you just don’t hear these names anymore, Len Dawson, John Hadl, Bob Griese and most shocking Joe Namath – Broadway Joe…
I saw Namath’s new HBO Special a few nights back and it was well done. Namath narrates the program and the guy still looks pretty sharp, even handsome for a 68 year old man with bad knees. There was a time when he ruled the sports world along with Muhammad Ali. Both are heroes of mine. You all know I did a couple movies with Ali and got to know him.
Joe Willie, well, that’s another story.
Starbeams: Starbucks Index, Aixois to Commerce Tower & Justin Bieber to SNL
American incomes rose 0.5 percent in December – the biggest jump in nine months – but it still wasn’t enough to keep up with the rate increases of Starbucks Coffee.
*******
Starbucks will open its first store in India later this year. That means, the guy giving me tech support that I can’t understand will be talking even faster.
Sounds Good: Ryan Adams@Music Hall, Old 97’s@Bottleneck, CIB & Fourth of July@Jackpot, Dr. Dog@Granada, Broken Lizard@Stanford’s
Last week I erroneously pointed you in the direction of a party that wasn’t there…
I was operating on some bad information I guess. My bad.
This week, though, I’m almost 75-80% sure all of the events listed in here are actually happening.
It’s Larry-centric again, with KCK thrown in for good measure. Check it out…
Glazer: The Annoying Hassle of Having to Become Rich a Third Time
Something all of us think about, even strive for is….BEING RICH…
What it would be like to not have to worry about all those weekly, monthly payments. To wake up instead to, "Now, what kind of fun will I enjoy today?"
If you’re like me, well, I just have never been that lucky. Like many of you, I’ve had my moments – those times in life when things were pretty darn good – it just never lasted.
FLASH CASH for me came only a couple of times; when I was 19 in Arizona and you could buy a loaded, almost-anything car for six or seven grand. I had a few months of what it felt like to be RICH. But not rich by today’s standards.
More importantly, I had a partner, Don Woodbeck, to hang out with and enjoy the moments. We lived in a huge house, traveled to warm places in the winter (hell we lived in Arizona – it was always kinda warm), had cool cars, cash, girls, almost the whole nine yards – even body guards. But by the end of my 20th year – poof – it was all gone. The government saw to that. I had to be my father’s son again and open a restaurant. I think my starting salary was about $14,000 a year.
I was average again. The pain.
Hearne: Fear & Loathing in Joplin, Missouri with Anderson Cooper / Tornado Map
Whole lotta shaking going on Joplin way as the tornado ravaged town preps for the first anniversary of last May’s disaster…
Recent news has centered on the demolition of the stricken Saint John’s Mercy hospital. And naturally, the Star has milked its fair share of tear jerker survivor tales from the tragedy.
But it’s the news that’s not been covered…
Glazer: Peyton Manning, the End of an Era the Chiefs Won’t Miss
If you love the NFL or even merely glance at it, the time has come to say goodbye to Peyton Manning.
Many will say he was the best that ever played quarterback in the National Football League. Some will say he fell just short, but nobody will deny his greatness.
This Friday is the date set for his release from the Colts. There is a chance he will accept a smaller paycheck and stay on as a teacher to Andrew Luck, the Colts new quarterback and No. 1 draft pick. That’s the only shot Manning has to stay on with the team. Taking say $10 million instead of $28 million and helping guide young Andrew – even if Manning never sees the field in uniform. Maybe they should name him Assistant General Manager and follow Denver’s move with John Elway.
Then everyone’s happy, the fans, the team, the media – and maybe, just maybe – Payton. Well, a warrior is never happy to leave the field, but it’s often his best option. With three spinal operations Manning would be a fool to step back out there and end up in a wheel chair for life.
The man is 36 years old.
New Jack City: ‘Mercedes Murder’ a Shot at German Americans?
It’s still a little tough for a German to get a fair shake in this country…
Subtle shades of bigotry and discrimination are very much alive today. The latest example being the recent homicide in Detroit where socialite / marketing exec Jane Bashara was found murdered in her car, with husband Bob Bashar‘s now a person of interest in case.
Yeap, they found her in her car, but just not in any car, mind you. It was a German-made Mercedes-Benz. Hence some national and local news media calling it, the MERCEDES MURDER. Stereotyping by association or plutocratic, teutonic racism?
What if the victim had been found in her KIA—would there have been a slight against Koreans?
Would it have been called the Kia Killing?
Donnelly: The Lemonheads @ The Granada in Lawrence, January 27, 2012
"It’s just that kind of night, I guess," explained Evan Dando after cutting a song off at the ten second mark and deciding to try something 
else.
It wouldn’t be the only time Dando cut a tune short during The Lemonheads’ quarter full show Friday night at the Granada. So I guess he was right about the night.
Sometimes the notoriously fickle front man feels it and sometimes he doesn’t. The thing is, despite Dando’s perceived moodiness and aloofness towards the crowd, he still has the voice and ability to carry a show.
This much was obvious at times on Friday night…
Leftridge: Here Comes the Pro Bowl; Shoot Me Now, Please
Here’s what’s wrong with the Pro Bowl: nobody gives a shit. The players don’t care, a stadium-full of confused Hawaiians don’t care, and unquestionably, television viewers back in the States don’t care.
Do you remember who won the Pro Bowl last year? Of course you don’t. NOBODY DOES. Even the Washington Redskins’ DeAngelo Hall doesn’t remember, and HE WAS THE MVP (oh and by the way, the NFC beat the AFC, 55-41). The year before, the AFC won 41-34, and the two years prior, the NFC won by a combined score of 72-51. Seriously, the over-under for the past 10 years is close to something like, 215 points. And why is this?
Well, if you know more about the Pro Bowl than I do—and trust me, you probably do—you know that the game is played with a whole ‘nother set of rules.
Hearne: The State of WWE Wrestling & Monday’s Matches @ Sprint
Was a time being a seven-time World Heavy Wrestling Champion like Handsome Harley Race was a big deal…
Less so these days since the WWE wiped out the NWA and other regional wrestling circuits around the country. For example, the current WWE world champ is a 210 pound dude named Daniel Bryan who rather unceremoniously won the belt minutes after Wichita refugee Big Show took it from fellow behemoth Mark Henry.
These days, wrestling is about two things; ridiculously improbable storylines and high risk acrobatics.
"Actually the belts aren’t that important today," says retired promoter Jon Lunkwicz. "If you look at one of the most important wrestlers today, it’s John Cena, and he hasn’t been a champion for awhile."
Cena wrestles "The Big Red Monster" Kane in one of two headline matches Monday at the Sprint Center.
Glazer: The Price Paid & Damage Done From Being a ‘Lady’s Man’
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I was watching the 1978 film, SAME TIME NEXT YEAR, with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn…
It was like 5 AM and I woke up early for radio and turned on the tube. It brought back memories of seeing the hit movie in the theater back in 1978. I watched as the story unfolded about a man and a woman who met at an out of way hotel one evening – both married – and began an affair that night. They continued to meet then for nearly 30 years, one weekend a year, until they were senior citizens. The night they met they were young and in love and it lasted a lifetime. Boy, what a tear jerker.
Remember the Johnny Mathis/Jane Oliver theme song, "HELLO I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW YOUR NAME..BUT I’M HOPING ALL THE SAME THIS IS MORE THAN JUST A SIMPLE HELLO…"
Yep, all my memories of the important ladies in my life began to flash through my mind…..
Mermaid: Check Out Restaurant Week in Kansas City, Last Three Days
It’s Restaurant Week everyone and let me be the first to say this is a fantastic way to try out places you haven’t been to yet or maybe frequent a favorite spot. My date and I tried out Starker’s Restaurant last night and had a wonderful meal. Kudo’s to them for hanging in there after the tragic death of owner / chef John McClure last October. They are doing great!
Here are the logistics for Restaurant Week:
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Man On A Ledge’ Spells Diversionary Vertigo
Granted, MAN ON A LEDGE could easily qualify as a so-called ‘high concept film’—meaning its plot can be described in a single paragraph.
However, that’s not fair to this ensemble action-thriller of vertigo proportions.
MAN ON A LEDGE stars Sam Worthington as a disgraced ex-cop who was framed, convicted and imprisoned for the theft of a rare and highly prized diamond. But to clear his name, he’s escaped the big house, checks into a Manhattan hotel and climbs onto the ledge ready to jump 200 feet down to 45th street and certain death.
Now it’s up to tough police negotiator Elizabeth Banks to talk Worthington down.
But does he really want to jump? And who is Worthington secretly communicating with from the window’s ledge on his tiny, hidden two-way?
Jack Goes Confidential: Liam Neeson ‘Dances’ with Hungry Wolves
Technically speaking THE GREY is a first class action thriller…
It’s got all the elements, fright, surprise, action and manly survival, one could ask for. And its primary setting of the sub-arctic Alaskan wilderness is relentless as duplicated for the film in Canada.
THE GREY stars Liam Neeson as an unlikely hero who, along with a group of oil-rig roughnecks, are the only survivors left and stranded after their plane crashes into this godforsaken icy horrorland.
But if the jet crash and the Alaskan winter wasn’t brutal enough, the survivors now face a new enemy, a vicious packs of rogue wolves.
And they’re hungry.
Hearne: Don’t Look Now But Jardine’s Saga May Be Nearing End
That’s right…
Two months into one of the longest – at times silliest – and frankly saddest chapters in modern Kansas City jazz, the dudes who jumped the gun last month by telling the Pitch and Fox 4 they’d bought Jardine’s are poised at to do just that – buy Jardine’s.
Today partners Robert McCain and Joseph Fulgenzi met a drop-dead deadline for a payment owed by Jardine’s owner Beena Raja to the jazz club’s founder Greg Halstead.
"We have, that is correct," Fulgenzi says. "We still have a couple more hoops to jump through, but it’s getting closer."
McCain and Fulgenzi must now finalize a deal on the lease with American Century, settle whatever taxes and outstanding debts may be owed and complete the aquisition of a new liquor license.
ETA on reopening Jardine’s?
Hearne: ‘Big Show’ Big Bro Flashes Back, Looks to Monday’s WWE Match at Sprint
To borrow a vintage local expression, Helloooooooo, wrestling fans!
Longtime wrestling afficionados may recognize announcer Bill Kersten‘s pre match incantation. Which brings us to the state of pro wrestling today and this Monday’s big WWE Raw Supershow at the Sprint Center.
The match features two main events – a first for Sprint – including a battle between John Cena and Kane, along with a host of WWE stars ranging from Chris Jericho, Mark Henry, The Divas and Big Show.
Speaking of Big Show, it was former Beaumont Club main man Jon Lunkwicz who helped him during his formative years in Wichita.
"He lived with me for a couple of years," Lunkwicz says. "And I helped him get through the brief years he was at Wichita State and helped him get into wrestling."
Donnelly/ Grogan: AWOLNATION @ The Beaumont in KC, January 22, 2012
If any of you guys were brave enough to make it out to the Beaumont on Sunday, you would have seen KCC photog Katie Grogan elbowing her way through sweaty dudes in the chops to hold her position up near the front.
And you would have seen AWOLNATION, a band that is gaining some real momentum among the alt-rock crowd, with its electronic infused party thrash that’s getting copious airplay on stations like 96.5 the Buzz and the like.
Word is they tore the roof off the Beaumont Club in front of a near sold out crowd. But don’t take my word for it, I wasn’t there. Hear’s how Katie put it, and check out a few of her shots of the band after the jump…
Glazer: Dov Davidoff, Jim Jefferies, Broken Lizards on Way to KC
People often ask, "Who’s the next big name coming to Stanford’s?"
And I say, "Well, I try to book big names every week. It’s just different stokes for different folks." Truth is, just like music or the NFL/NBA these days, the big names change very quickly. There are new stars every year and, sadly, some bigger names fall off the map faster than is fair. But that’s the way it is today.
We have two of the top three comics coming in the next couple months.
Sounds Good: The Lemonheads@Granada, Mountain Sprout@Bottleneck
Step yo game up, KC!
OK, yes, I love Lawrence. So maybe I’m biased. Scratch that, I’m definitely biased.
But lately it seems like LaLa is bringing all the shows right to ME. Just making it too easy, you know?
For example, the Greasy Hair Tour is stopping through this weekend with a trio of shows.
The headliner is, of course, Evan Dando of the Lemonheads with perhaps the greasiest hair this world has ever seen.
Then throw in some hillbilly folk and indie rockers who actually try to make their hair like that and, well… no one light a match, OK?
