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Whinery: THE REPUBLICAN VEEPSTAKES
We’re about a 110 days out from the most important Presidential Election this Country has ever seen…
Against the dynamic personality of President Obama, the Republicans have settled for Mitt Romney as their nominee. Unfortunately, Romney’s not the most charismatic fellow. Which is why his choice of Vice-President is of utmost importance.
Here’s what I’m afraid of…
I like Mitt Romney, he’s a likeable guy – but there’s not much about him that gets people fired up to go to the polls. He’s also not handling criticism of his career at Bain Capital very well. He needs to realize he’s in a street fight against “Chicago Machine” politics and they don’t apologize for “unfair” attacks – or for anything else they do to win.
Jack Goes Confidential: Christopher Nolan’s Batman Finale Explodes onto Record 11,000 Screens
It’s hard to describe the final chapter in Christopher Nolan‘s three part saga of Batman without giving away the juice—which I won’t do…
So consider this more of an impression than a review of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.
The story picks up eight years after the menacing actions of 2008’s THE DARK KNIGHT. Bruce Wayne/Batman has been out of sight in a self imposed exile, vilified as an enemy of Gotham City and still bearing the blame for the death of Harvey Dent.
But when an underground terrorist cell raises its ugly head in the metropolis, creating chaos and anarchy, our caped hero is persuaded back into action and ultimately bringing Christopher Nolan’s three part saga with twists, turns and turmoil to its conclusion….so to speak.
Glazer: Ring the Bell, Close the Book, Blow Out the Candle – Royals Are Done
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I’ve got good news, the Royals season is over!
Okay, they’re still playing, but now that they are 900 games under .500 – I’m kidding, OK? – and we are getting into August, it’s over.
The Royals season this year ended in April, as usual.
This time out with a 12 game home losing streak. Nice. The Royals never battled back, they have nothing to battle with!
There is no starting pitching and the hitting was a huge let down. As usual, the team is promising to be a contender…by 2014.
"You’ll see a big difference next season, just you wait."
Starbeams: Snakebit in Lenexa, Top 5 Ways to Spot a Joco Rattlesnake
Fifteen year-old Roy Christiansen had quite a surprise while walking down a sidewalk in Lenexa when a rattlesnake bit his leg! He received 11 vials of anti-venom and spent two days at Children’s Mercy Hospital.
Experts say snakes are attracted to rodents being attracted to our lawn sprinklers during this hot, dry summer.
The Top 5 Ways to Spot a Johnson County Rattlesnake:
#5. It hibernates in Fiji.
#4. Natural environment includes traffic islands.
Glazer: Matt Cassel Still Sucks but This Could be Chiefs Year
More good news…
I’ve done nothing but put the Chiefs down for several years, but can you blame me?
I had them under 7 1/2 wins on a bet last year and barely made it. Why? THE CHIEFS DEFENSE.
But this season – lord help me – I might just might buy into this football team.
If all goes well with Jamaal Charles, Eric Berry and Tony Moeaki back, and with Dante Poe in the middle, a much improved offensive line and the return of Dwayne Bowe and John Baldwin this team might just win 10 games. And if Peyton Manning fails, the Chiefs could win the division.
Problems? Let’s see what they could be. Oh yeah, quarterback Matt THE FRANCHISE Cassel.
Donnelly: Dirty Projectors at the Granada, July 18, 2012
"Sometimes they sound like they’re playing two different songs at the same time."
That’s how one concert-goer explained to me her experience with Dirty Projectors Wednesday night at the Granada in Lawrence.
And it’s kind of true.
The Brooklyn-based, experimental indie rock band has certainly never taken a page out of the songwriter’s handbook in crafting their intricate, and at times, off-putting tunes. And I’m guessing they wouldn’t be caught dead rhyming a lyric or doing the typical verse-verse-chorus-bridge thing, either.
Nope. Dirty Projectors pave their own musical way with unusual three and four part vocal harmonies that sometimes come blasting out at the audience like a warning siren. And plenty of hand claps, but not the Kid Rock kind. The three part, complicated, syncopated kind.
Glazer: Scribe Takes KBI ‘Lie Detector’ Test, Dodges Bogus Beating Rap
OK gang, here’s part two of my phony domestic violence charges story…
First I’d like to make a couple things clear for some of the comment section folks. THIS IS NOT ABOUT HOW COOL I AM, IT’S ABOUT HOW INSANE THESE CASES AND ARRESTS HAVE BECOME.
This is just an example of my personal experience where if a woman accuses you, even if there is absolutely no evidence, you still get arrested. Then you have to hire a lawyer, be on pre-probation, pay thousands of dollars and, oh yeah, nothing ever really happened. This is a favorite in Johnson County.
These cases and DUI are the corner stone of law enforcement in our county and we don’t do anything about it.
We just don’t care until we are accused.
Sounds Good: mewithoutYou@Granada, Dirty Projectors@Granada, Josh Ritter@Crossroads, Chicago, Doobies@Starlight, Phantom Blues@Frontier Park, Old Crow@Crossroads
The music scene here – like the weather – is on fire, so let’s get on to this week’s picks, of which there are many…
Tuesday, July 17th
mewithoutYou at the Granada in Lawrence
Damn, the Granada’s been killing it lately, bringing in a wide variety of interesting acts. And this one’s no different.
mewithoutYou plays indie rock and all its members have beards. Their latest release, Ten Stories, is a throwback to the band’s truer sound, after it ventured into more commercially accessible territory with its prior album.
“They’re not quite children’s songs,” vocalist Aaron Weiss explains, “with not quite coherent storylines, but there is an overarching and kind of child-like narrative: a circus train crashes in 19th century Montana. Some animals escape, others stay in their cages. The traveling menagerie re-rails, stays its course, and struggles to fill in the missing attractions. Meanwhile, freed from institutionalized life, the rice-cake rabbit takes to a peripatetic fortune teller, the monastic walrus is tempted by a hedonistic owl, a fish falls for an eggplant.”
Nuff said.
Donnelly: Win Free Tickets to Josh Ritter Show Thursday @ The Crossroads
Lately, here in the lavish music wing of KC Confidential, we’ve been getting hit up with tons of concert ticket giveaways…
And winning them is way easier than being the 96th caller or whatever. Which is great for you guys if you’re paying attention. Who doesn’t like free stuff?
This go around we’re giving away tickets for the Josh Ritter show at Crossroads Thursday.
We’ll choose several winners who each will get two tickets to the show.
Starbeams: Burrito Bonanza, American Idol Exit, (Almost) Free Hugs & Royal Ripoff
People camped out for the opening of Freebirds World Burrito in Mission. Folks were in line Tuesday night for the Thursday morning opening. Most of the people in line thought they were camping out for a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert.
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Steven Tyler is exiting as judge of American Idol. He says he finally ran out of rhymes that were cool in 1970.
Glazer: The Chiefs Need to Stop Cocking Around & Pay Dwayne Bowe
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So Chiefs star Dwayne Bowe is still not signed…
He wears the franchise tag which means he must stay a Chief at least through this season. D-Bowe will make just north of 9 million buckos this year with KC, which is not too shabby. But he wants a long term deal, likely a five-year $40 plus million agreement with about $25 or more million of that guaranteed.
But Chiefs boss Scott Pioli says no deal to long term, big bucks deals. Why? Bowe has been inconsistent, had off field issues and wide outs are a dime a dozen. Really?
Former Big Chief Carl Peterson once told me kickers were a dime a dozen after he let Nick Lowery go and settled for a cheaper Lin Elliot who cost the Chiefs a Super Bowl for sure!
Not since Otis Taylor have the Chiefs had a top wide out.
New Jack City: Southwest to Make Minneapolis Affordable
Have you tried booking a non-stop flight to Minneapolis lately?
The cost is ridiculous. Around $748 round trip. But then the Twin Cities have always been an expensive destination for air travelers from Kansas City. NORTHWEST AIRLINES pretty well owned the market and had the only non-stops between the the two cities.
Then along came K.C.’s short lived VANGUARD AIRLINES.
Oh how prices dropped when Vanguard start offering non-stop service to Minneapolism but that didn’t last long.
Donnelly: Peterson Sparks 2-0 Win at Columbus, Sporting Coming into its Own
Remember a week or two ago when I touted the insertion of journeyman winger/midfielder Jacob Peterson into the Sporting Kansas City lineup?
I believe I called him my new favorite Sporting player and politely asked Bobby Convey, who Peterson replaced, not to rush his rehab from a muscle strain.
Peterson’s energy and determination stood out on a team that already boasted a bunch of high energy guys like Roger Espinoza, Aurelien Collin, and CJ Sapong. And Peterson found some success taking on defenders and getting in front of the net.
That was roughly four or five games ago.
Today: Colorful Jardine’s Founder & Former Owner Greg Halstead Checks Out
One of Kansas City’s most truly colorful jazz and entertainment characters ever has passed away…
Greg Halstead, the founder and former owner of Jardine’s jazz club died Sunday. The 70-something Halstead may not have set out to lord over the local jazz live music scene, but that’s exactly what he did after taking over the former George’s Cheese and Sausage Shop space in the early 1990s at 4536 Main Street.
"You know, he never liked jazz, he just did it to survive," says former Jardine’s co-owner Pat Hanrahan. "When he first opened Greg started out with a player piano. Then he talked to the original owner of The Phoenix downtown and he helped Greg start the jazz thing, and Jardine’s became the premier jazz club in town. You know, he had Angela Hagenbach on Friday nights and Ida McBeth on Saturdays."
In August of 2000 Halstead nearly gave up on jazz.
Starbeams: Did D Bowe Fumble? Hot Weather Meets TV Hottie, Everybody Yahoo & Aretha
The 3 p.m. deadline for Dwayne Bowe to sign with the Chiefs NFL passed with no word on whether or not a long-term deal had been reached. Dwayne tried to reach a deal, but it slipped through his hands.
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Triple digit heat returns to Kansas City this week. The weather has made me hot, sticky and out of breath – and that’s just from watching Karli Ritter on Fox 4.
New Jack City: Free TV Is Costing You
First HEARST CORPORATION plays hardball with TIME WARNER CABLE over cable fees in 11 markets…
In Kansas City the cord was cut last with KMBC-TV, KCWE-TV and ME-TV.
Next Viacom shut out DIRECT TV customers for channels that include Comedy Central, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, The Daily Show and Dora The Explorer.
Even DISH NETWORK got into the fray when AMC‘S popular Breaking Bad among other shows became no-shows.
Here’s my take on the standoff.
I don’t have a problem with cable networks taking hard stands over fees they charge cable or dish systems if those networks only outlets are pay providers.
Today: KC Confidential Looking for Writers, Staffers & Sales Staff
It’s that time of year again and KC Confidential is on the prowl…
We’re on the verge of unveiling a new, improved website with lots of bells and whistles, a cleaner, hipper new design and lots of improvements that many of you have been clamoring for. To that end, we’re looking for a few good writers and staffers to up the ante and take things to the next level.
New Jack City: Jack’s Mid-Summer Movie Scorecard
It was an air-conditioned, summer night’s dream by the movie studios…
At the start of summer the studios were braced for what was anticipated to be one of the biggest movie box offices ever. However to date that dream has been more of a nightmare as they’ve watched one multi million dollar investment after another go down in flames.
Now as we enter the week of summer’s most anticipated movie—Christopher Nolan‘s THE DARK KNIGHT RISES—here’s my list of the season’s hits, misses, bombs and surprises—thus far.
But before we examine the summer scorecard thus far, let me predict THE DARK KNIGHT RISES upcoming three day boxoffice gross.
Glazer: Drunk Floozy Gets Scribe Arrested & Jailed Over 4th of July
This is a story I mentioned in a recent column…
What happened to me is important for many reasons and needs to be explained. We live in the greatest country on the planet, no argument. However many of our freedoms and fair treatment are being taken away and we need to step up and stop this dangerous trend before we look more like Germany in 1938.
I realize I’m a high profile guy. And I know many of you think of me as a womanizer.
Regardless, that has little to do with the insane police action taken against me one year ago.
On the evening of July 4th, a young lady I was seeing took a cab to my condo around 11 PM. It was already late, but it was a holiday. And she was clearly wasted when she arrived. She has a bad drinking problem and often carries a bottle of whiskey in her purse like she did that night.
To conceal her identity, let’s call her Julie.
I was aware Julie had a few DUI’s, thus the cab ride. She lived near Westport in Missouri and I live in Fairway on the Kansas side. You can see by her photo why I kept seeing her. So yes, there were red lights, but I never expected something like this to happen.
Leftridge: Will Royals’ Cain be Able to Make a Difference?
On Friday night, in front of an impressive, boisterous crowd at Kaufmann Stadium, center fielder Lorenzo Cain made his re-debut with the Kansas City Royals. After missing more than three months with what was initially a groin-strain, and later, a much more serious hip-flexor tear, Cain, 26, went 3 for 6, walked once, and scored 3 runs while driving in one of his own.
Impressive.
He also looked good in the field, chasing down fly balls that a lesser athlete may not have caught. Oh sure, regular (by virtue of Cain’s absence) CF Jarrod Dyson would have made it to these balls too—and even caught them—but he would have had to rely more on his speed, looking less comfortable in doing so than Cain.
Cain, who currently has the coolest, blackest black-guy name in the Royals organization (a title he took from Clint Robinson, who is, in fact, not black), has the natural grace and agility of the Royals’ LAST good center fielder, Carlos Beltran.
