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Glazer: The King of Sting Flashes Back
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My partner, Don Woodbeck, drove up to the campus at Arizona State in Tempe…
I remember it as being damn hot out, fall and I was not yet 20 years-old. It was the early 70’s. I had just cut my hair kinda short. Remember, those were the days of long hair. I did that to look older, more like a cop. Woodbeck said to me, "Are you ready kid?"
Don wanted me to fly to Chicago with him the next day, to set up our first STING.
New Jack City: Airlines Play Fast & Loose with Controversial FAA Tax Money
You purchased an airline ticket in early June for your great vacation getaway in late July. Then Congress didn’t see fit to extend FAA funding before they went on recess last week, which stopped the agency from collecting federal ticket taxes.
You’re familiar with the controversy.
So were you in luck?
It sure looked that way because if you’d paid for your ticket before July 23, 2011 for flights after that date you were surely due the tax refund.You remember all the cable news stations moaning about the tax revenue being lost.
Not so fast!
Donnelly: Kanrocksas Day 1, Friday August 5, 2011
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Thousands of music fans flocked to the Kansas Speedway this past weekend to partake in one of the weirdest named festivals ever: Kanrocksas.
When I first arrived I noticed the main stage was packed out with half naked twenty-somethings pumping their fists in the air.
Who was playing?
It sounded like a DJ, spinning tunes at the Granada or something. Nope, it was none other than Bassnectar, spinning records for probably the biggest crowd of the festival.
What happened to live musicians?
They’ve been rendered obsolete.
Or so I thought until the sun went down and I wandered to the second stage…
Glazer: Kansas Speedway Comes Up Short at Boiling Hot, Lightly Attended Kanrocksas
First off the Star, as usual, lied about the numbers or just don’t know…
Thirty-five thousand people? Give me a break.
I got there to see Eminem about 10:55, the star of the show and many people were already leaving. Some happy, some not so much. Too hot. Too far to walk to anything. Not the right venue for this event. Crowd size was maybe low twenty thousands at best.
And I’m being generous.
Almost nobody was in the (unlighted) stands. And maybe the infield was, at best, a third full. So there could have been 20,000 people. It looked like a slightly bigger Red Friday when we had Joe Montana in Westport back in ’94.
The good news; Eminem was great!
Donnelly: My Morning Jacket@The Uptown Theater, August 3, 2011
There may not be a more interesting personality in rock music right now than My Morning Jacket’s enigmatic front man, Jim James.
During his band’s Wednesday night concert at the Uptown Theater, James mentioned that the brightly painted interior of the venue made him feel like he was in a small village in Mexico. (Maybe that was because of the heat and humidity inside the Uptown. Or maybe that’s just James.)
He raised his open palms to the sky in what looked like a pagan rain dance while spewing guttural shrieks at the sky. And at times he wore a hooded cape that looked like it came straight out of Sleepy Hollow.
Obviously he and his band have ample style, but their substance is what really sets them apart as one of the premier live acts around right now. And Wednesday night they delivered big time.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of openers, Delta Spirit…
Today: Kanrocksas Brings Chris Fritz Full Circle From Ozark Music Festival
The Pitch touched on it ever so lightly…
The year was 1974 and KanRocksas promoter Chris Fritz was about to unleash the unthinkable upon the unsuspecting city of Sedalia. The Ozark Music Festival. A three day rock fest a la Woodstock with a lineup that included the Eagles, Aerosmith, Lynryd Skynyrd, REO, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, BTO and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (who headline the Crossroads tonight with Brewer & Shipley).
"The whole idea was we would get a maximum of 50,000 people for three days," Fritz told me in the Star a handful of years back. "And we probably sold about that many in advance and at the door."
Glazer: My Forecast for the 2011 Chiefs; Fair to Partly Sucky
I’ve been looking around a buncha sites…
Like walterfootball.com, a good one. As well as other inside the NFL predicitons sites. And all of them say this: The Chiefs had a gifted season last year, because they played ALL LOSERS. The three playoff teams they played beat them except Seattle.
Free Agents: Signing Tamba Hali was great. He’s now a star. He got $60 million for five years with $35 million guaranteed. The signing of Steve Breaston, a slot receiver from Arizona, was a joke. He got a five-year $25 million dollar contract with – get this – $9.5 million guaranteed. Wow. Arizona said, "We didn’t even try to keep him; his knees are shot, he’s done."
Hearne: Glass Called Out as Second Worst Major League Baseball Owner Ever
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Consider the sad state of our unloveable losers, the Kansas City Royals…
With pundits as far afield as Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly taking off-the-cuff potshots – telling Alan Colmes recently that further deficit spending would be "like telling the Kansas City Royals to lose more games" – its time to take a look at how the Royal’s owner ranks in the scheme of things.
It’s not pretty…
Zen College Life, a "leading source for college and degree information online," offers an interesting array of Top 10 lists ranging from the "10 Most Effective & Essential Self Defense Techniques" to the "10 Celebrities Whose Deaths Were Tragically Predictable."
As might be suspected, Royals owner David Glass rates quite highly on Zen’s "10 Worst MLB Owners of All Time."
Murphy: Rick’s Rambling Sports Ramblings, Glass Bash, Thigpen et al.
After all these years the Chiefs have yet to figure out how to hold a press conference…
Here’s how it typically goes. Reporter: "Coach, waa waaa (static) waa (more undiscernable words)." It sounds like the adults in a Charlie Brown special.
Then you hear Coach Haley say: "You’re correct–that is what we’re doing, and we plan to continue doing that."
Can someone please give the media a mic so we can hear what they’re asking?
*******
I was going to say that the Philadelphia Eagles are going to be the Miami Heat of the NFL. But about 5,000 other sports writers are saying the same thing. So let’s just say they won’t be Super Bowl winners.
*******
Former Chiefs quarterback Tyler Thigpen has reunited with former Chiefs coach Chan Gailey in Buffalo. Tyler signed a three year deal and will be given the chance to earn the starting position. He had six teams interested in him. Biggest shocker being the Vikings, who were actually planning on making him starting quarterback. When they couldn’t land Thigy they went with second choice Donovan McNabb.
Do these teams know something the Chiefs didn’t?
Mancow: Changing Times Alert, Lame Comics Today Groupie Magnets
Watching a fascinating documentary on the legends of stand-up comedy…
George Carlin says "Comedians (of the 60’s and 70’s) never had groupies. If you were a woman that went home with a stand-up comic, it was the equivalent of going home with the monkey instead of the organ grinder."
HA!
Glazer: Hasta La Vista, Bubba. You Will Be Missed!
He was a mountain of a man…
All-Pro star of the Baltimore Colts, Bubba Smith is dead at age 66. They found him in his LA home. Officials say he died of natural causes. At one time he was a close friend of mine when I lived in LA. Bubba and I, along with Aaron Binder (who also passed) worked out together at 24-Hour Fitness near Barrington just inside Santa Monica. I used to live about two miles from the club. Next to the gym is the Santa Monica Airport.
I met Bubba through Sonny Landham shortly after my release from prison. Both were big guys. It was stranger still when I later met and worked with Bubba’s co-star in the Police Academy movies, Michael Winslow (the voice guy).
Jack Goes Confidential: “THE CHANGE-UP’ Out-Raunches Other Summer Comedies!
This has been the summer of raunchy movie comedies!
I’ve counted five so far: BRIDESMAIDS , HANGOVER II, BAD TEACHER, HORRIBLE BOSSES and FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS.
Number 6 takes it over the top!
It’s THE CHANGE-UP, which takes the traditional body switching formula, adds its own heavy dose of vulgarity and debauchery, then ties it up tightly and throws it off the cliff.
Today: Hendricks Out as Star Does Away With ‘Local’ Section Columnists
It’s not easy dying a thousand deaths, sleeping off the killer summer cold Jack Poessiger just gave me…
Over a lunch date with zero spit swapped, no less. But, as I inch back to life, and read today’s Kansas City Star like thousands of you, I learn that columnist Mike Hendricks is o-u-t and a new wave of "local’ section columnists are on their way. Oh joy.
But wait, are they really? Let’s take a look.
The moves signal the end of a very long, unstoried era. Shortly before I came to the Star, the newspaper fielded a lineup of Art Brisbane, Jim Fisher and Charles Gusewelle. Brisbane transversed the town laying down pithy columns about the people, places and things that were Kansas City at the time. Describing publisher Tom Leathers as "a Johnson County pundit who weekly squires his readers into a snake pit of stunning personalities and typographical errors"
And blowing the lid off of a controversial decision by Overland Park "that citadel of good taste and expert city planning" to not just welcome the area’s first Hooters at 106th and Metcalf, but to change the center’s name from the Overland Station Shops to the Hooters Plaza.
New Jack City: ‘MAMMA MIA’ Here We Go Again—How Can I Resist You?
"You already know you’re gonna love it!"
That’s what MAMMA MIA‘s print ads proclaim. And it must be true since after just 2 years the North American Tour of what’s been described as ‘the world’s most popular show’ is making a return trip to Starlight this week.
"When we conducted our annual audience survey at the end of the 2009 season, we asked our patrons what musical they’d like to see at Starlight in the future," says Denton Yockey, the theatre’s president and executive producer.
Glazer: Historic Bridger Building, Birthplace of Stanford’s Goes on the Blocks
The year was 1974 and Stanford Glazer looked around the old print shop, owned by Walter Langdon …
The Langsdon’s wanted $125,000 for the old building – the former Jim Bridger building – the oldest standing building in Kansas City. Instead Stan decided to lease the place for around $4,000 a month. He beat out Victor Fontana and it opened as Stanford and Sons in April 1975.
To say it was a smash hit, would be an understatement.
Stan had a few partners; me, Jerry Mays (former Chiefs great), his cousin Lenard Glazer, as well as the law firm that housed the Craig brothers and Steamer brothers. Nice group. Within two years Stan bought out his partners, except me.
Stanford and Sons with its "flower pot bread" and fun menu would rival Houlihan’s on the Plaza for the ONE fun spot in KC to see and be seen.
Glazer: Star’s Mellinger Hops on Glazer Train, Calls Out Chiefs
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It’s clear from Sam Mellinger‘s column Sunday about the Chiefs that he’s been reading me…
Sam jumped on the Chiefs and called them out, agreeing pretty much with all of my positions. Because they’re correct.
Mellinger made it clear that last year’s team was average at best. And by seasons end. below average.
The Chiefs went 2-5 to end the year. At times they had a decent defense, but they had no passing game and a spotty running game with Jamaal Charles making some big runs. But since our offense is not on the field very long it wears down our defense.
Caitlin: Armani makes hot Olympic athletes even hotter
When I first heard that Giorgio Armani would be designing Italy’s uniforms for the 2012 Summer Olympics, I was giddy. Hot sweaty men in chic, trendy short shorts? Yes, please.
But beyond my personal enthusiasm, his collaboration with the Italian National Olympic Committee really is brilliant—why not combine the talent of the most successful Italian designer with that of the country’s most successful performance athletes?
Sounds Good: My Morning Jacket & Delta Spirit@Uptown; Eminem, Muse, Ween @Kanrocksas
This week is looking like one of the best of the summer if you’re a live music fan in KC.
There is literally something for everyone, as long as you don’t mind getting a little hot and sweaty.
You don’t mind, do you KC?
I mean, at this point hasn’t your right elbow developed a callus from being burned so often on your center console?
Hearne: Is KCTV’s Gary Amble Worried About Gay Backlash Over Sister’s Comments?
The riding keeps getting rougher for KCTV weather wonk Gary Amble’s sister…
Channel 5’s done its part to milk that Amble’s sister – nut job Michele Bachmann – has blundered into the squared circle of presidential politics. Including a recent, "exclusive" interview with Amble, in which he dodged anything resembling a meaningful question about his controversial sister.
Not a big surprise.
Bachmann’s suffered more embarrassing revelations than all the other presidential hopefuls combined. At the end of KCTV’s puff piece, anchor Brad Stephens cautions that Amble would not be accepting any more media interview requests re his sister’s candidacy.
Which might sound a little funny until you consider a story in the August 8 National Enquirer.
Hearne: Plaza & P&L District Late Night Kiddie Gang Bang Update
The aftermath of this morning’s KC Police confirmation several weeks of kid problems on the Plaza…
KC Strip trolly point man Bill Nigro said earlier today that he didn’t see or hear anything, but after poking around, he now says that "several hundred kids were gathered in front of the Cinemark movie theaters again Saturday night."
Other sources indicated that pepper spray was used to break up part of the action, but Nigro’s guy "didn’t see the kids running around all over the place like they have in the past," he says.
As for the Power & Light District‘s urban youth gatherings that seem to have provoked a credit card only cover charge to get into the entertainment zone, "It really didn’t seem too bad this past weekend," Nigro says. "Maybe because it was so hot out."
How about the "boycott" of the P&L over what some call a racist cover charge policy?
