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Katie: Pop Punk’s Not Dead Tour w/ New Found Glory, Set Your Goals, Wonder Years & Man Overboard
KCC photographer Katie Grogan has been a busy grrrl.
She’s been concentrating her talents on seeking out the kind of bands that would be more comfortable at the X Games than the Superbowl. You know, the kind of bands that have things pierced that you probably didn’t even know could be pierced. (What’s a body corset?)
In that vein, she thrashed out a night or two ago at the Midland to the Pop Punk’s Not Dead Tour with headliners New Found Glory, along with Set Your Goals, The Wonder Years, and Man Overboard.
To bear witness to that insanity, click on through…
Hearne: Houston, We Have Questions; Was Moon Landing Fake & Where R the Bluejackets?
What is it about astronaut quotes that make them so damn enduring?
From "One small step" to "Houston, we have a problem" – they’ve morphed from mere utterances into pop culture icons. And now that I’m trapped in Houston for the second time this year, it’s finally happened. I got kidnapped to the Houston Space Center – the home away from home of NASA – and forced by captors to take the new Discount Tire NASA Tram Tour. Which I can now report, is a bit of a snore.
In other words, don’t even think about canceling the family vacation to Bali Bali.
Not that I didn’t have a jolly good time, within reason, owing mostly to a college kid named Graham who was our tour guide. He updated me on vital NASA stuff like that after three long years on the job he’s still only making $8.75 an hour.
Houston, times are tough…
Sounds Good: North Mississippi@Knuckleheads, Lucinda Williams@Liberty Hall, 11.11.11@Downtown Lawrence, Jayhawks@Beaumont, Jakob Dylan@Indie
After looking at my picks for this weekend, I realized they’re super heavy on the rootsy, Americana thing.
Which is nice, if you’re into that whole deal.
If not, hey, you’re just wrong, that’s all.
I guess you can always go down to the Sprint Center and watch the bloated carcass that ate Axl Rose haul his ass on stage and try to scream without shitting his pants.
Seriously, I know he’s all old and stuff, and probably needs money real bad, but maybe it’s time to hang up the “leather pants-sexy rock star- front man” thing and just sign up for Celebrity Boxing or something.
New Jack City: Eastwood’s ‘J. EDGAR’ Pulls No Punches—Plays For Oscar Nominations
It’s got to be great to have the kind of power Clint Eastwood still possesses today in Hollywood…
Without his name attached to it, I doubt very much J. EDGAR would’ve ever seen the light of day.
J. EDGAR, of course, is Eastwood’s highly anticipated bio-eppic of legendary F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover.
It’s also a major player in the upcoming Oscar race where it’ll most likely compete in the Best Picture, Best Actor and Director catagories.
As J. Edgar Hoover, Leonardo DiCaprio serves up yet another memorable performance—starting as a spry 24 year-old and continuing on through his controversial career spanning some 53 years to the fading fast age of 77 as an often vindictive and paranoid creator of the nation’s federal police force.
For 2 hours and 20 minutes we experience Hoover serving under an unprecedented six U.S. presidents. Excercising his personal power over the likes of Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Eastwood provides a fascinating insight into this larger-than-life man who however was incapable of coming to terms with his own shortcomings.
Leftridge: Chiefs’ Midseason Grades Part Two; The Defense, et al
In chapter one, available in the archives (by which I mean, um, scroll down on the page a bit), we took a gander at the midseason grades of the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense. Pretty horrid, when you really give it any sort of piece-by-piece analysis. In case you missed it, I made this bizarre, admittedly far-reaching analogy about a football team being a lot like a tree.
And though it clearly doesn’t make a TON of sense, I’m this far into the thing, goddamnit, and I’d be a coward to stop now.
Today, we’ll look at the defense and special teams, which, coming into the season, showed a certain amount of promise. Has that held up? Has Tamba Hali physically consumed a quarterback yet?! Has Javier Arenas returned 6 punts for touchdowns?! Did Ryan Succop kick a 70-yard field goal, or was that just a weird, Propofol induced dream that I had?
Read on!
The Defensive Line / Fat City-Pigeons: D
Wait, what are a bunch of fat, bumbling pigeons doing in our beautiful, leafy, make-believe tree?
Precisely.
Hearne: Jason Whitlock Rips Penn State Coach Joe Paterno on MSNBC’s ‘Ed Show”
Long time no Whitlock…
Been a while since locals have had a chance to chew on former Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock’s cud. Other than his blog on Fox. Or the odd pissing match call to 610 Sports’ Nick Wright to rile up local sports bloggers.
But last night the straw that used to stir KC’s sports shake was live and large on MSNBC‘s "Ed Show" dissing newly axed Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.
"If he had an ounce of self-awareness – and he’s no different than the athletes, the young immature athletes (but) this guy is 84 – he would have stepped aside immediately," Whitlock told viewers.
New Jack City: Producer, Eddie Murphy Bail in Major Oscars Shakeup After Stern Show Appearance
After being criticized for making offensive remarks while promoting TOWER HEIST last week, director Brett Ratner has stepped down as producer of the upcoming 84th annual Academy Awards show.
Making matters worse Eddie Murphy dropped out as host of the show as well. All that just 3 months prior to the big event!
According to industry news sources, it went down after Ratner had appeared on Monday’s HOWARD STERN SHOW where a graphic discussion of Ratner’s sex life went down.
Katie: Uptown Punk Night w/ Hollywood Undead, Asking Alexandra & Bogore
If you were lucky enough- and brave enough- to make it out to the Uptown Saturday for the World War III Tour featuring Hollywood Undead, Asking Alexandria, Bogore and We Came As Romans and party with KCC photo scribe Katie Grogan, this is what you might have seen.
Kids, shield your eyes, please.
Hollywood Undead
Donnelly: Eleven Productions Jacki Becker is Throwing You a Party This Friday for 11.11.11
What’s that old cliché? — Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life. 
It’s obvious that Jacki Becker, founder and boss woman of Eleven Productions, is doing what she loves. And while I’m sure she would admit that at times it takes a tremendous amount of work, there are rewards as well.
"Working with incredibly talented and creative people every day, how could I ask for more?" explained Becker, before revealing perhaps the best perk of working in the music business. "Oh, and the fact that I have never needed to buy t-shirts, hoodies or cloth bags in my life."
Hey, it’s the little things sometimes people, c’mon!
Becker has seen bands come and go, seen the ups and downs of the industry, and discovered many artists "before they were big." For 10 years now, her company has promoted bands in the Lawrence and KC area, as well Omaha, Iowa City, Springfield, and St. Louis.
Star Search: KC International Raceway, Eight-Year-Old Drag Racers Get Light Touch
Last year I embarked on a mission to blog the Kansas City Star each and every day…
To critique and comment on the news and views presented by the Star to by far the largest number of Kansas Citians reached by any other local news media.
What a genius stroke that was.
Two or three weeks in, it became painfully obvious that the job entailed bagging on the newspaper over-and-over for much of the same stuff. Frankly, I got tired of the nagging, so I backed off. The idea being that every so often, I’d trot out a Star Search column when the muse hits.
To that end, let’s take a gander at yesterday’s Star…
Glazer: Where Was God When Penn State And The Children Needed Him?
When things like the Penn State child sex scandal happen in this world, it only supports my belief that THERE IS NO GOD!
Sorry for that, but once again a pillar of the sports world in America has fallen. Joe Paterno, Penn State’s head coach for like 500 years failed to turn in his longtime employee, a coach named Jerry Sandusky for CHILD RAPE.
By now most of you have heard the tale. Defensive coordinator, Sandusky is caught raping a male child around the age of age 10 in the locker room. The shower area to be exact. A witness, coach Mike McQueary sees it, doesn’t stop it but tells his boss Paterno. Paterno doesn’t call the police he tells his boss the athletic director.
What was done? Not much. Nobody called the COPS. Are you kidding? Nobody.
Leftridge: Chiefs’ Midseason Grades Part One; The Highly Offensive Offense
A football team is a lot like a tree. No seriously, play along with me here. A football team is like a tree in a number of ways. Often times, both are strong, deeply rooted objects firmly implanted in one specific place. Dependent upon on location, and how this tree (or team) is tended to, it can either flourish and become a mighty, leafy beast full of life and vigor, or it can die a slow, painful death due to neglect and oversight.
Any arborist will tell you it’s possible to nurse an ill tree back to health with proper care, and the same can be said about a football team. Though injuries may decimate, a general manager and his coaching staff have the ability to bandage the lightning strikes, to eradicate the borers and help the tree live to its fullest potential. The question is, eight games in, how is the Chiefs’ tree doing?
The Quarterback/ The Hawk: D-
Matt Cassel’s bi-polar passing attack is terrifying. From the highest of highs—last year’s pro-bowl appearance and fantastic TD-to-INT ratio— to the lowest of lows—this year’s litany of head-shakingly awful performances. You’re never certain which Matt Cassel will show up on Sunday. Will he protect the tree from predatorial assault, or will he spastically flip-out and peck off the face of his children? It’s anyone’s guess.
Glazer: Scribe Says Goodbye to Smokin Joe Frazier
Smokin Joe Frazier, a man who was a friend and a great champion passed away yesterday…
The Hall Of Fame boxing champ, died at age 67. As many of you may know I produced two feature films starring Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The movies also starred George Foreman, Larry Holmes and Ken Norton, thus the title, Champions Forever. It’s the biggest selling boxing documentary of all time. We did the original movie in 1990 and the followup last year.
When I did the movie in 1990, the five heavyweight champs had never been together as a group before.
And they never were again. Baseball hall of famer Reggie Jackson was the host. I interviewed Ali on camera and off.
Mermaid: Melt Your Face at Snow & Company in the Crossroads
Don’t take this the wrong way, but…
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
Lose the parkas, forget the Uggs – wear something sexy people. Because this place is H-O-T.
Snow and Co. has arrived in the Crossroads, courtesy of the four UMKC students who got their MBA’s together and decided to dodge the office cubicle bullet and go for their dream instead.
Snow – meaning delicious frozen cocktails and Co. – somehow meaning all local ingredients.
I think they should call the place Blonde (or maybe Blind) because after two of these concoctions I committed a major Mermaid faux pas. I brought my Nikon D7000 to get some professional pics of the place but I was so tipsy I couldn’t figure out why my screen was black.
Did I trip some secret off switch I didn’t know about? Nope, the old lens cap on the camera trick!
My god, how many people just saw me try to take pictures like that? I was mortified.
New Jack City: Deck The Halls With Ticket Stubs & Holly; Holiday Movie Preview
It’s been a rough year for the movie industry…
On the studio and distribution front there were escalating costs of production, 3-D and dried up movie financing while exhibitors had to deal with increasing film rental terms and huge sums of money connected with digital conversions at their theaters.
The big question: will the all important upcoming holiday season make up for some of the slack the industry experienced earlier this year?
Now here are Hollywood’s major Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday offerings and their K.C. opening dates
Starbeams: Earthquake Rolls Through Town, Takes Toll on Chiefs, Top 5 Local Disruptions
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake centered about 45 miles northeast of Oklahoma City was felt in Kansas City Saturday night at 10:53 p.m. The quake was very shallow at 3.1 miles deep. It did very little damage but it did leave a big hole in the Chiefs defensive line.
*******
TOP 5 DISRUPTIONS CAUSED BY THE EARTHQUAKE:
#5. My wife complained she wasn’t used to feeling the earth move in bed with me.
#4. Residents at local cemeteries were doing "the wave."
#3. Plaza Security briefly awakened from napping.
Donnelly: Moment Too Big For Sporting, Houston Advances to Final With 2-0 Win
Sporting Kansas City wanted so badly to summon their best against the visiting Houston Dynamo…
But in the end, it might have been the anticipation, the yearning, the added bit of pressure, that undid Sporting and ended their season in front of a standing room LIVESTRONG crowd.
The atmosphere was second to none as both teams warmed up, with the electricity of playoffs and the possibility of the MLS Cup buzzing around all corners of the stadium. The late-fall sun cracked its way onto the playing surface, and the cool fall air filled with song, including choruses from the healthy dose of Houston fans that made the trip.
But once the whistle blew, Sporting seemed out of sync in a way I haven’t seen for months. Prior to Sunday’s game, the boys in blue have had purpose in their attack, cohesion in their defense, and an aggressive mentality.
Today: Lawrence Journal World Scoops Star With KU Coach Bill Self’s Parting Shot
You know what they say in Lawrence about KU‘s home court advantage in basketball…
So it is that KU basketball’s hometown newspaper, the Lawrence Journal World, scooped the daylights out of the Kansas City Star in getting a reaction from KU basketball coach Bill Self on Missouri’s decision to leave the Big 12 for the SEC.
"KU’s Self not fretting over Missouri’s decision to leave Big 12 for SEC," the headline reads. " ‘Majority of Kansas fans don’t give a flip about playing Missouri,’ " Jayhawk basketball coach states."
Think of it as gorilla journalism – performed late at night Sunday in Lawrence where the Journal World’s Gary Bedore got the better of the Star‘s KU beat writer J. Brady McCollough.
“I think everybody hoped that Missouri would stay, but I don’t know of any Kansas fans that are crying over them leaving,” Self told the Journal-World Sunday night," while McCollough was checking his voicemail.
"Self was asked if the Jayhawks and Tigers would play again in men’s basketball, the Journal World pressed.
Leftridge: Tales from the Tweet; Hot-Stove, Kietzman Talks Tacos & DeVito Stays Up on Current Music
As football reaches its meaty middle, and the NBA continues to labor on through pissy-pants negotiations, the nation turns its lonely eye to Twitter—woo-woo-woo—for some steamy, illicit, hot-stove talk. So what’s on the burner? A little Royals chatter, for starters. And while some of the hardware won’t roll in until Monday, November 14th (Rookie of the Year), standout 1st baseman Eric Hosmer is already bringing home some honors.
@KCKaegel (Dick Kaegel, Royals writer, Guy with Generic Twitter Picture of an Egg)
“Rookie 1B Eric Hosmer wins KC’s Joe Burke Special Achievement Award in vote by BBWAA members. More details coming on http://royals.com.”
Though this is an award specific to Kansas City, a trophy is a trophy. After exhaustive internet research, it appears that the award is named after front office/managerial legend Joe Burke, who was serving as Royals club president at the time of his death in 1992. This makes much more sense than my original theory, where the award was named after the actor who played Corky on the 1990’s dramatic television series “Life Goes On”.
Glazer: Halloween’s Over, Real Chiefs Return to Form; Back to Hoping for a Good Draft Pick
"They are who we thought they were," famous, former NFL coach, Dennis Greene…
The Chiefs are who I thought they were; a pretty poor NFL team. Yes, they have improved from being the worst team in the league at the season’s start. Yes, they play hard. Matt Cassel tries with all his might and we now have a damn good receivers group led by Dwayne Bowe and Johnathan Baldwin. But our defense is still up and down, average at best. Matt is a bottom 10 quarterback and our running game is just OK.
The Chiefs are below average, but again not the worst team in the NFL.
If we got a solid quarterback, we could compete next year with a team that could be dangerous in the play-offs. Short of that NO.
