Author Archives: admin
Starbeams: Another Top 5 How Hot Wuzzits, Warrior Dash Overheats & Debt Ceiling
One last round of….HOW HOT WAS IT???
- It was so hot, Plaza Security couldn’t get comfy enough to take naps.
- It was so hot, the sequins on my underwear have been melting!?
- It was so hot, I stopped my car, popped the hood and drank the battery water.
- It was so hot, Farm Aid is changing its name to Gatorade.
Today: Saturday Night Youth Dustup on Plaza Incites Mayor, Tear Gas?
The long hot summer in Kansas City appears to have gotten hotter…
"I just got back in town and I heard from friends that there was a mini riot on the Plaza Saturday night," says Shawnee sparkplug Tracy Thomas. "But it involved college kids and white kids, not just black high school youths."
How bad was it?
"I heard that tear gas was used," Thomas says.
Mancow: Paul McCartney Cranks to Life @ Wrigley Field in Chicago
Paul McCartney on a HOT summer nite in Chicago took a couple of cranks to get started like my old Chevy Impala in winter…
And everyone there seemed more content just being in the same vicinity of the legend, than they did being swept up in the energy of the concert.
After his facelift he looks like an old English Python Woman now to me…
But Sir Paul was exuberant and very much game @ Wrigley Field.
Murphy: Recognizing the Joy in Sports Sadness
There’s no crying in baseball, allegedly…
When’s the last time something in sports touched you? I’m not talking about making you scream or unleash an end zone dance after a touchdown. Nor am I talking about a boneheaded throw by the quarterback that made you want to kick in your TV screen you we so pissed.
I’m talking about where you were so moved it was impossible to contain your emotions.
Murphy: My Top 10 Questions for This Year’s Chiefs & Bagging on Kevin Harlan
I’m a list guy – I like lists…
In high school I remember reading The Book Of Lists. Lists are great because they put things in perspective. Everyone has their own list. Here’s my list of 10 questions that I want the Chiefs training camp to answer.
1-Do the Chiefs have a back up quarterback? I heard I believe Kevin Harlan say that statistics show at least 50% of starting quarterbacks will miss at least one game. I hope one of these young guys step up. Tyler Palko is saying all the right things and seems very mature for his age. But I’d feel far more comfortable if we had a veteran behind Matt Cassell.
Speaking of Harlan. I really enjoy listening to his insight but I lost respect for him during the lockout because he was so over the top in his support of owners. I get that they provide income for him but he was just a mouthpiece.
Starbeams: Whitlock Stuck in Mayonnaise Jar & Garmin Zeroes in on Jumpin’ Catfish
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A poor coyote in Washington State spent most of the week running around with a mayonnaise jar stuck on his head. I saw this once while camping with Jason Whitlock.
*******
I’m not saying our national debt crisis is precarious, but today I saw my congressman at Check into Cash.
Donnelly: Late Game Heroics (Again) Salvages Tie For SKC Despite MLS Refs
Peter Vermes threw his hands up in disgust.
This would end up being a theme of the night.
The New England Revolution had just broken through on a longball that found a questionably offside Rajko Lekic who proceeded to bury an outside-of-the-foot shot past a hung out to dry Jimmy Nielsen.
Vermes was irate. And he had a right to be, Lekic certainly looked to be a good 4 yards off.
These officials were struggling to find any balance…
Today: Does The Pitch Still Ask Tough Questions? Not Where Farm Aid’s Concerned
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One has to wonder after reading a story in the current Pitch under the headline, "Does Farm Aid Still Matter?"
After breezing through the David Martin puff piece I still can’t find the answer to the local alt rag’s question.It must be yes though, since nowhere does Martin come close to dropping the hammer on the "charity" concert schmooze.
Not a single tough question was asked. Not how much money is raised, how much goes to actual charity, etc.
Nope, just a brief history of the event which can largely be found on Wikipedia. And that "a representitive from the Farm Aid…recently went to the White House" and "The Missouri Rural Crisis Center continues to receive grants."
Pretty thin. So allow me to do Martin’s work for him.
Glazer: How I Became an Outlaw & Learned to Pull the Trigger on My Fellow Man
"He stood six foot two, weighed 195, was kinda broad at the shoulders, narrow at the hips, and everyone knew you didn’t give no lip to Don Woodbeck"…
Play that back in your mind to the tune of the Jimmy Dean song, Big Bad John.
I had approached Woodbeck to be my partner and go after the prairie pirates that robbed me and years earlier tried to murder Don and his partner Jim Woyt. They got away, but their two friends weren’t fast enough and were shot dead.
That was the Arizona I knew in the early 1970s.
Star Search: Beauty & the Beast, New Star Publisher Faces Awful Earnings Music
In a perfect world I wouldn’t be writing what I’m about to write…
I’d be recuperating from hanging out until 3 a.m. in the Power & Light District, taking the measure of those pesky African-American flash mobs that threaten the struggling downtown entertainment Mecca.
Then, depending on my findings, I’d likely face a quandry.
Should I hold the story for my Wednesday print column? Or unleash it on the Star blog I was poised to set up on KansasCityCom. In other words, should the news come first online, or should the people who pay the bills – print subscribers – get first crack at it.
Therein lies a key dilemma facing the newspaper and print industries of yesteryear.
Starbeams: How Hot was it in Kansas City, Take Trois
The heat wave in Kansas City continues with no end in sight….
And you know what thatmeans, time for another round of…HOW HOT WAS IT?
- It was so hot, congress agreed to raise a the national debt CEILING FAN.
- It was so hot, my bank just installed a screen door on the vault.
- It was so hot, I didn’t even complain that CBS Survivor winner Danni Boatwright was topless in the studio Thursday!
Murphy’s Law: Speaking of Sports; Breaking Rules, Boosting Babes, Busting Hall
My first column on KC Confidential (and maybe my last) and I’m about ready to break four rules…
- Rule One. Don’t talk about the former person in the position. Folks don’t want to be reminded he’s gone. Unlike me the new writer, the old writer has a body of work to show his talents. I got zip. So I should just pretend he never existed.
- Rule Two. Don’t say anything negative about a a well-liked and now deceased public figure. I think the reasons for this rule are self explanatory. The person was well liked. The person is now dead. Nothing to be gained by saying anything negative.
- Rule Three. Don’t talk about fringe sports. That makes sense. When it comes to professional sports we’re pretty much a two team town. As a writer you want people to read what you write. So why write about a sport that has low interest?
- Rule Four. NEVER say anything negative about a female’s physical appearance. Especially if that female is a well liked local athlete. Actually this is a pretty good rule of thumb for life in general and not just for writing on a website. But it doesn’t make sense that we can write about how hot Anna Kornikova is but how unattractive other athletes are. Weren’t Dennis Rodman and Scotty Pippen two of the ugliest men ever to be on the same team?
But as previously stated, I’m going to break some rules.
Glazer: Heartless Chiefs Release Brian Waters, For What? You Watching, Sam?
He was NFL Man of The Year just two years ago…
He’s all that’s left of the last good Kansas City Chiefs team of the early 2000s. He was a pro bowler in last year. He was the locker room leader of the Chiefs. And he was cut yesterday.
Brian Waters, age 34, all-pro guard was released by the Chiefs. As usual with the Chiefs – and too many other teams – not enough kind words came from the top. Nor did they seem to care in the least.
"It was mutual," was the storyline. Sure.
Waters was probably in his last year, playing well and wanted to finish his career here in KC.
Uh, no. Bye.
Since Hank Stram, the Chiefs front office – especially Carl Peterson – has been at best, ice cold.
Tonight: I’m Back, Joe’s Leaving, Take a Number…
Talk about one-two punches…
I don’t know what you thought about me being mostly MIA the past two weeks, but it’s clear you were thrilled by my brainstorm to have Joe Miller execute a 10 parter on his way out of Kansas City. I thought Joe did a kickass job, by the way.
He butchered some sacred (and not-so-sacred) cows and let his hair down just enough to incur the divine wrath of KC Confidential’s finest, our comments Hit Squad. For the vast majority of readers who never venture into our online mosh pit, I assure you Miller’s exploits here – journalistic and otherwise – were significant.
That said Kansas City is a barbecue town and clearly our comments crowd prefers its ends burnt.
WWE style…
Joe Miller: Famous Last Words
Hearne’s been sending me ideas all week for things to write about.
He wants me to write about Gloria again. But I can’t upload vomit.
He wants me to write about Tony’s Kansas City. But it’s the same thing with diarrhea.
He wants the “top reasons why Kansas City will never truly make it to the Big Time.” But that would be pretty stupid coming from me because there are a lot more reasons why I won’t.
He wants me to write a “road map for KC to mend its small town mentality ways.” But I don’t really think KC has a “small town” mentality. I think it has a suburban mentality, which is worse. So my road map is this: Remember that Kansas City is a fucking city.
But that’s not really enough for a column. And not just any column. My last column.
Today: Major Renovations @ Downtown Marriott Send 12th Street Jump to Jardine’s
Time to do some reading ‘tween the lines…
Word that theater and jazz guy Mark Edelman‘s 12th Street Jump, old time jazz radio show is on the move again was an eyebrow raiser. The show will move this fall from the Downtown Marriott lounge to Jardine‘s jazz club, just north of the Plaza.
The show launched two years ago as the 12 O’Clock Jump and broadcast live at midnight on KCUR-FM from KC’s historic Mutual Musicians Foundation. That was then. A year later Edelman and the MMF parted company over – what else? – money and the show migrated to the hotel on12th.
But while a move to Jardine’s may also be money-motivated, this time there’s no bad blood. Sources say the Marriott is embarking upon a major redo of it’s dated lobby and lounge areas.
In the hope of staving off a 1,000 room convention hotel that’s been on the drawing boards for years?
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’ Delivers Character Driven Bittersweet Comedy
Finally a smart new bittersweet romantic comedy that doesn’t resort to raunch to get laughs and make its point!
In CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE Steve Carell seemingly has it all. Good job. Nice house. Great kids and married to his childhood sweetheart Julianne Moore.
And then it happens right over dinner!
They’re both studying the menu, when Carell asks her what she wants and she replies: "a divorce."
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ Brings Marauders from Space to Old West
Hot Damn…
A stroke of genius. Combining the western genre with that of today’s alien fascination. But hold it right there! Didn’t they do that back in 1999 in THE WILD, WILD WEST?
They sure did.
But in COWBOYS & ALIENS they do it a hell of a lot better job of it. Not only is the talent in front of the camera—
Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford—to be reckoned with, the movie’s production credits are impressive as well.
Joe Miller: The Writing Life
I’ve been writing professionally for about 17 years.
I’ve got boxes and boxes of clips and a whole wall of awards. I’ve written a book that was published by a top publisher and got great reviews and won a couple of awards. Yet I’m getting paid less now for articles than I did when I first started out.
For this 10-post series I’m writing for Hearne I’m receiving $500. And I had to fight to get that much.
I’m also working on a story for the Lawrence Journal-World about the Kansas Book Festival for which I’ll earn $50.
In the late 90s, when I was a largely inexperienced hack, I got paid $100 for the same kind of article.
By contrast, I sold my book for $150,000.
Barbarick: Even Foolish Dreams Come True: Cinderella @ Starlight 07/26/11
For a story hell-bent on making the audience wish it were the protagonists, Starlight’s production of Cinderella succeeded.
It did a great job of making me wish I was a member of the ensemble – one of the nameless, nearly faceless human props. If I could be so fortunate, all I’d do is dance with an attractive member of the opposite sex, wear brilliant costumes that accentuate the better parts of my body, look happy, sad or puzzled (when appropriate), sing choruses (with not too much passion), take my bow, then pick up my paycheck after the curtain dropped.
No eternal love, no happily-ever-after, but I’d feel honest because I’d have said nothing – would not have declared a passion I did not demonstrate.
