Category Archives: Hearne_Christopher

King Kong vs. Godzilla; Frankenstein vs The Wolfman; Jennifer Anniston & Angelina Jolie…

The annals of ridiculous rivalries are littered with the corpse-like memories of vicious cat fights between celebrity combatants. In Kansas City few have loomed larger than the one that went down these past four years between Kansas City mayor Mark Funkhouser and First Lady Gloria Squitiro and biting blogger Tony Botello.

It’s hard to imagine an indignity Botello has yet to inflict on the controversial first couple.

Raising the question of how thrilled Botello is with Funk’s election day throttling and if he’ll have to take up golf or ant farming to fill the deep void…

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There’s good news, bad news and weird news where the saving of the music store formerly known as Streetside concerned…

Let’s start with what passes for the good.

Unlike most failed, defunct businesses, Streetside’s phone number in Westport is alive and kicking. Nobody’s answering and no messages have been left but clearly somebody’s hanging onto the more than 20 year-old, number for some reason. Telephone numbers for most failed businesses go away pretty much immediately.

And despite a non-denial denial by Shawnee music store Vinyl Renaissance’s manager about reports it plans to reopen in Streetside’s digs, a funny thing happened. Someone slipped into Streetside’s now empty digs and planted a Vinyl Renaissance sign in the front glass door.

Now the bad news…

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About locally-based greeting card giant Hallmark‘s "I Love Us" Valentine’s marketing schmooze…

Original idea, or a movie concept ripoff? You make the call.

"Hallmark’s V-Day slogan ‘I Love Us’ was totally copied from (500) Days of Summer," reads advertising blogger Joe Dellosa’s Web site.

The slogan "appears to have been copied from the film," Dellosa says. "In fact, in the film, it’s used by a greeting card writer in the context of writing greeting cards."

Another embarrassing black eye for the hometown team that’s been accused before of ripping off others ideas?

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"Brad Storms Out On Angie – in bitter battle over money," the National Enquirer coveshouts!

And inside we find that actor Brad Pitt – a Missouri native with ties to the Kansas City area – is accusing his wife, actress Angelina Jolie of "wasting their fortune" and storming out on her.

"Right now Brad and Angie’s love affair is hanging by a thread," an insider tells the Enquirer. "With mounting debts and crushing overheads to fund their lavish lifestyle, Brad is ‘demanding that they reduce household staff, scale back on travel, artwork, expensive wine, buying up the most buzzed about scripts and books in Hollywood and rein in their charitable donations,’ the insider said."

Which brings us to the story’s fine print and the Hollywood couple’s ties to Missouri…

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This just in from Wild Bill Nigro…

Forget the headlines, crime is actually down in Westport, Nigro says.

"I just got our crime stats from the KCPD and our crime is the lowest it’s been in 10 years," Nigro says. "We’ve just had a couple of high profile crimes. But outside of those everything is much better here."

Then again, how could crime not be down with business in Westport down – way down – owing to competition from the Power & Light District, Martini Corner, Waldo , DUI checkpoints and the economy?

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This just in…

With the recent closing of urban club Karma in Westport, a single black dance club remains. That being former white boy Mecca America’s Pub. You may remember it as the scene of an altercation between a drunk-beyond-belief Brian Euston and a black dude who accidentally one-punched Euston into the Promised Land.

Followers of the venerable Cowtown party zone know America’s Pub didn’t start out with the intention of being an urban club. Check its name for chrissakes.

Far from it. Check out all the white faces on the America’s Pub St. Louis’ Facebook page. Like Stanford & Sons infamous Club 504 – the club that many Westporters blame for the area’s urban youth mobs of weekend’s past – America’s Pub started out going for the Kelly‘s crowd. When suburban competition and DUI checkpoints thinned Westport’s ranks, the club went black. Had problems and then went back to white.

But after Karma failed as a mainstream ultra lounge and went urban, America’s Pub shifted back to black.

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As previously stated, Sam’s no sham.

KC Star sports columnist Sam Mellinger may not have made everyone forget the ghosts of Whitlock and Posnanski’s past. But he’s well on his way.

Take his recent blog dropping the hammer on the tired practice of shouting "Chiefs" at the end of the National Anthem.

Arguably worse than Christina Aguilera’s Super Bowl snafu Sunday.

"If  there’s a good reason to scream CHIEFS!!! at the end of the anthem, please let me know," the headline reads.

"What’s the point, really?" Mellinger begins. "Is it just something stupid that kids in college do that are hilarious to them and stupid to most of the rest of us? Is it rebellious? Is there an inside joke I’m not in on? Are Kansas basketball fans just REALLY big Chiefs fans?"

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This is how history gets messed up…

There’s a responsibility that comes with running a virtual news monopoly as "the newspaper of record." That’s why print reporters and editors take their jobs so seriously. Sure they’re human and some of the news comes – however subtly – laced with views. But by and large newspaper are still the ones who document and help shape what passes for histtory.

So when they screw up, they correct it, right?

Uh, some of the time…

Which brings us to the case of the Kansas City Business Rights Coalition. A group largely composed of local bars, restaurants and casinos. Star columnist Mike Hendricks  erroneously reported last week that group’s primary objectives in the upcoming political races were to tell candidates they wanted a statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in Missouri and to end smoking in casinos.

That’s dead wrong, says KCBRC head, Bill Nigro.

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When it comes to money losers, there are a lot of ways to cut the cake…

Which brings us to the just-announced, $15 million aquarium going into Crown Center. This isn’t the first time a local fish wish has been tossed about. But this is no pie-in-the-sky, it’s the real deal.

Not that there won’t be casualties…

The aquarium will knock out the first floor Hall’s Crown Center’s mens store and all or part of its second floor where cards, silver and china are displayed. The third floor womens section will reportedly remain intact. The men’s store will reopen after moving to the retail part of Crown Center.

So will it work?  Yes and no.

Frankly $15 million is chump change where aquariums are concerned.

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It’s like this…

Unhappy with how the Kansas City Star blithely presented the results of a recent study about the smoking ban having no measurable effect on bars and restaurants, KC Business Rights Coalition head Bill Nigro took it to the next level.

"I called up Jessie Barker, the editor of the reporter who wrote the story," Nigro says. "And I told him all I got was like two sentences in there about making people go outside like animals to smoke and how now people werre outside drunk and unattended to."

Nigro’s quotes were accurate, but were asides in a 20 minute presentation citing examples of small businesses hurt by the ban.

Long story short, the editor agreed to have columnist Mike Hendricks call him and do a followup story.

Here’s where it gets ugly…

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The battle of defunct local sports-osaurs forges ahead…

Kansas City’s had its share of sports rivalries. The Royals and Yankees. The Chiefs and the Raiders. Jason Whitlock and Joe Posnanski. With an underlying theme of good versus evil always in play. Whitlock wearing the black hat, JoPo the white.

It’s been more than a year, but you remember. Those loveable/hateable clowns who used party with me down at 18th and Grand in the pages of the Star. Oh, make no mistake, there was indeed a strong sibling rivalry between effusive Joe and the erosive Jason.

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In a world of Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Butt, it’s hard to top the Star‘s Everything Must Go sale on Jason Whitlock…

Because, quite literally, everything that hasn’t gone – i.e. Whitlcock himself – with Big Sexy’s name on it is now streaking out the door at 18th and Grand at fire sale prices. Everything!

Take the newspaper’s however many year-old stockpile of Jason Whitlock bobbleheads. Got yours yet?

If not, hurry down to your closest Kansas City Star store because they’re going cheap, cheap, cheap.

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Once upon a time, it looked easy…

There was Amazon, then came eBay, Google, Facebook, Twitter. And now we’ve got Groupon. The red hot, daily half-off sale sales pitch that comes in the form of massive email blasts blanketing specific geographic areas. Half off at Jardine’s jazz club, cheap seats for KU football,  Royals ducats – yoga lessons, bikini waxes, you-name-it.

And now after watching Groupon take off,  everybody wants a slice of the action. Lucky Monkey, Living Social, Muncharoo and now, ladies and gentlemen, even our hip, horny friends at the Pitch.

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The Save Streetside Records watch party continues…

The final post last week on its 1,000-plus fans Facebook page hints a savior’s in the wings.

"Thanks to all those that came and wished a fond farewell (which reminds me of that Elliott Smith song). Stay tuned for more details on the New Store!"

That said, while staffers at Streetside and Shawnee’s Vinyl Renaissance have said VR would be doing the rescue/revival honors, its manager declined to comment, inferring that while something may be in the works, it might not be a straight down the line takeover. In any case, the Westport store was pretty much picked clean and now stands mostly empty, awaiting a new tenant.

Whomever that might be. So stay tuned.

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Let’s play a little catch-up…

Some passing observations on what was once one of the highlights of the year for millions of fans of the company known as Apple. The celebrated MacWorld Expo went down last week. Until last year, the annual January gathering of Mac product developers, fans and followers was a monster. It was beyond huge.

No mas…

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When liquor officials conclude the investigation into Brian Euston‘s .387 blood alcohol level, there’ll be plenty of time to reflect and learn from this very sad tale.

Euston, you recall, was the 24 year-old man who died in Westport last fall, following a one-punch altercation outside America’s Pub around 3 a.m. That after a night of intensely heavy boozing. Let me repeat, intensely heavy.

Missouri’s liquor control statute forbids the sale of alcohol "to any person intoxicated or appearing to be in a state of intoxication, or to a habitual drunkard."

Around the country prosecutors and states are starting to charge bars and bartenders serving liquor to intoxicated patrons.

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Talk about snow jobs…

The faux news coverage in today’s Kansas City Star about its stealth layoffs yesterday is disingenuous at best. Why? Because while the story reads, "The Kansas City Star announced Monday it is eliminating the jobs of about 20 employees and cutting a similar number of unfilled positions," little to no evidence exists of any such announcement.

No press releases, no meaningful news coverage on its Web site. Just a buried business brief in today’s paper and a lone comment on the Star Web site from a reader who didn’t find the story until 24 hours after the fact.

Clear evidence of the Star’s’s Grade A  job of turning its layoffs story into a journalistic game of hide-and-go-seek.

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There’s smoke pouring out of the eyes, ears, nose and throat of Westport businessman Bill Nigro…

Lots of it.

But all Nigro wants is fair treament from Kansas City’s news media on the effects of smoking bans. But he hasn’t been getting it, so he’s hot. Smoking mad, you might say.

Here’s why.

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Seems like just the other day…

That Channel 41 weather wonk Gary Lezak laid down a 13 inches of snow long range forecast for this winter’s total snowfall.

His take for today:

"We have had a major snow storm with blizzard conditions," Lezak says. "The total accumulation will end up in the 8 to 12 inches area and it will end around 10 p.m. tonight. It will be 10 below zero Thursday and this will not be the last snowstorm of the season."

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Did Kelly‘s overserve 24 year-old Brian Euston man who died last year?

And if so what sort of penalties might the Westport bar suffer for doing so? Those are questions only the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control and KC’s Regulated Industries can answer.  And right now they’re not talking.

But sources say an investigation of Kelly’s regarding the incident is imminent.

Euston had gone to Kelly’s to party with friends that fateful October night and stayed until closing time after his friends had left. He later was on the receiving end of a one-punch fight outside America’s Pub. That after getting in the faces of several people and a man and his girlfriend, prosecutors say. Euston fell, hit his head and later died.

The wild card: Euston was astonishingly super drunk with a .387 blood alcohol level. A level experts say often results in unconsiousness, even death.

As for what kind of trouble Kelly’s could get into, there are precedents.

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