When sorrows come, they bear not single spies…
Murphy’s Law or a sign of tough times? You make the call. A month or two back the URL for Pitch.com was listed for sale by Go Daddy. False alarm – just a fluke – publisher Joel Hornbostel assured. Somebody screwed up on the renewal and the alt weekly had to get a new credit card to the pub’s provider to protect its domain.
No harm, no foul. Continue reading
Photo by Jamila St. Ann
With Matt Besler and Graham Zusi out with the national team for the upcoming World Cup, Sunday’s lineup at the Chicago Fire was already going to look a bit different.
But then down went Aurelien Collin with a hamstring issue. Lawrence Olum got called up to play for Kenya. And Ike Opara is out for the season with an injury.
Since every other option at center back was ruled out, that meant that 17 year old KC native, Erik Palmer-Brown, would be making his professional debut earlier than expected. Despite his youth, EPB held his own physically fairly well. But he conceded a penalty kick in the first half, and picked up a second yellow card early in the second half forcing Sporting KC to play shorthanded for the rest of the afternoon. Continue reading
Buy cipro and Generic Ciprofloxacin tablets online for antibiotics. Available without prior prescription. Continue reading
Jeremiah Wright
Once more, our old buddie George Orwell gives us invaluable guidance on how to best deconstruct the pronouncements of the Kansas City Star editorial board…
In the phrase above, taken from Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, we hear the classic voice of authoritarianism. All groups in society are equal in theory but in actual practice the government favors those who are its most loyal political supporters, i.e. some indeed are “more equal” than others. The fact that the first part of the latter statement directly contradicts the second part can only escape someone with ideological blinders on.
The other way to analyze the Star’s offerings is to apply the methods of literary criticism, no matter how seemingly obscure. (I’ll admit I was formerly skeptical of most academic theory, just as I was skeptical of the writings of so-called mental health professionals. However, I read an article on “Narcissistic Personality Disorders” that succinctly explained a lot of otherwise inexplicable behavior by people I know so I’m willing to give the “lit-crits” a try!)
Literary deconstruction is an approach to analyzing writing, especially fiction.
It involves the close reading of text “in order to demonstrate that any given text has irreconcilably contradictory meaning rather than being a unified, logical whole.” If the text is by a KC Star opinion writer, you can be sure that’s true. Continue reading
The timing couldn’t be more perfect…
Think King Kong versus Godzilla – AMC Town Center 20 versus Cinetopia Overland Park 18 -Kansas City’s 800 pound gorilla versus the upscale, upstart from Beaverton, Oregon.
For two weeks now Cinetopia has been ushering forth in the local movie marketplace with soft openings at its spanking new movieplex at the ritzy Prairiefire shopping and entertainment complex near 135th and Nall.
And in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t get much grander than Cinetopia with three different levels of upscale auditoriums and – at long last – in-theater dining options that transcend glorified fast food. Meanwhile back at Town Center, AMC has spent seven figures improving its plex with more food options and roughly 40 percent fewer seats in order to make room for recliners with more legroom.
So the battle lines are drawn. Continue reading
It hasn’t been pretty…
Not since in 2011 when News Radio KMBZ broadened its horizons from broadcasting exclusively at 980 AM to simulcasting on 98.1 FM, the longtime home of former adult contemporary station KUDL.
“It’s obvious that putting KMBZ on FM was a waste of a signal,” says a radio insider who asked not to be named. “KMBZ was doing a 3.7 share on AM before and now they’re doing a 3.7 share on two signals.
“And it’s pretty obvious that in the prime radio demo of 25-54 would rank even lower because news-talk generally appeals more to 45-plus listeners.”
KMBZ ranked 12th with a 3.7 share of listeners 12 and older in the most recent ratings.
“Basically, putting KMBZ on FM did nothing to drive ratings at this point,” the source continues. “They’re about the same as they were on AM only.”
Another point to consider: Continue reading
KFKF heavy hitter Mike Kennedy
Round and round and round they go and…
The April 2014 radio rankings are in the books with country station KFKF still atop the heap – although slipping – and a surprise leap by classic rocker KCFX, the continued decline of News Radio KMBZ and another no-show by KCPT‘s new Triple A station The Bridge.
Check em:
1) KFKF-FM, country, 7.5 share with a cume of 369,200 listeners, down from 8.8 and 9.0 in March and February.
2) KCFX-FM, classic rock, 7.3 share with a cume of 461,700 – one of its highest non Chiefs season books in recent memory.
3) KPRS-FM, urban, 7.0 share with a cume of 353,500 – down from March’s 7.0.
4) KQRC-FM The Rock, rock, 5.4 share with a cume of 301,700 – up from March’s 5.0
5) WDAF-FM, country, 5.3 share with a cume of 374,300 – up from a 4.6 in March Continue reading
Jay Z
Allow me to share with you, grouchy music and entertainment pundit / attorney Bob Lefsetz curious array of takes on What’s Happening and What’s Not.
Check it:
WINNER
Luke Bryan, who creates a whole paradigm, releasing an EP every spring break, reaping dough and cred, and no one follows him. Kinda like none of the acts imitating Kid Rock‘s $20 ticket trek.
LOSER
Jay-Z. His sister-in-law hit him, but when you’re constantly parading around saying what a winner you are, people are looking to take you down, especially the press.
LOSER
Lady Gaga, who’s doing the same wrong thing once again, focusing on touring dollars while her recording career withers. Hell, she’s not even in the gossip columns anymore.
WINNER
Troy Carter. Brings back John Legend and builds up Lindsey Stirling, did anybody think this was possible? Looks like Gaga should have listened (to her former manager that she fired last year).
LOSER
SoundScan. Streaming is the only thing that counts. Don’t get depressed about the anemic sales numbers, people are listening to music ad infinitum…they’re just not buying it, (they’re) streaming it on YouTube, Spotify… The whole paradigm has changed, no one cares who bought it anymore, just whether they listened to it, and how much. Crunch the streaming data. If you’re not being played, be very afraid. Prop up your listens before you worry about touring or sponsorships.
WINNER
Metallica, playing acoustic covers of Ozzy, Deep Purple, Rare Earth and the Beatles at the MAP dinner. Unfortunately, the only people who seem to know are their fans. The band is still trying to live down the Napster fiasco, beware Jay-Z, be very afraid.
LOSER
HTC
No one cares if you make a GOOD hand-set, your product must be light years better than the competition and be cool to boot. The only future in smartphones is Samsung, Apple and the cheapies.
WINNER
Gossip. You may not be rich, but you can talk about the rich. People just can’t resist the travails of other people.
LOSER
Artists. Because the major label paradigm is not paying, even if you’re owed the money.
WINNER
Jimmy Iovine. Because unlike the losers at the labels, he found a way out. Or, to quote someone Jimmy hasn’t worked with, “He not busy being born is busy dying.”
LOSER
The Wall Street Journal. Once a paragon of business reporting it’s now a lame, biased mainstream publication with too many superfluous lifestyle items, the last section is the new Redbook. Continue reading
Give Disney credit…
Sports movies haven’t much ignited the box office of late. The last to strike out was Kevin Costner’s recent DRAFT DAY.
And in the ever more important international movie market football and baseball films have an even worse chance of succeeding. After all, countries with even the slightest hint of interest in American baseball and football—well, let’s just say they’re sparse.
Even Brad Pitt’s MONEYBALL only garnered just 31% of its total take overseas.
So hats off to the Mouse House for periodically developing ‘small’ pictures amidst its Marvel, Pixar and LucasFilm powerhouses and dropping them smack dab in the middle of major summer tentpoles.
That’s what Disney is doing this week with MILLION DOLLAR ARM. Continue reading
Mike Moustakas is not good right now. He hasn’t been good this whole season, and frankly, he wasn’t very good last season, either. In fact, statistically speaking, he is one of the worst everyday hitters in the Major Leagues.
Oh sure, he drove in three runs in Wednesday’s win over the Colorado Rockies. So he’s “fixed,” probably. And yeah, he’s tied for the team lead in homeruns, and he’s tied for third in RBI. But when you’re dealing with an offense that is this disgusting, this anemic, that’s like being the thinnest kid at fat camp: it doesn’t mean shit. Continue reading
All photos by Alex Jinks
For the first ten minutes, it was a pretty cagey back and forth affair.
After that Sporting settled in a little and started imposing their will on the game. Benny Felihaber had a couple nice sequences getting forward, as did Seth Sinovic. And Sporting KC was more than content to pass around their back and draw the visiting Philadelphia Union out.
For a moment it looked like KC could dominate like they did at Montreal a few days earlier. But then things started to unravel.
“Maybe they thought we were playing the same game on Saturday in Montreal,” remarked KC boss Peter Vermes afterwards. “We just didn’t have the juice we normally have. I’ll have to go back and look at the training that we’ve done over the last couple days. We lacked the pop that we normally have.” Continue reading
The Tree Huggers in Washington, D.C. won’t quit until every gas powered engine is rusted out …
You know, and we’re all are on bicycles, or better yet walking everywhere like in Europe.
Hey, it’s on the way – it’s happening now!
They want to rid the planet of fossil fuel and have pimped the government into paying farmers to grow corn to make a substitute fuel called Ethanol.
The process has begun; it’s being added to gasoline at filling stations and our engines are starting to rot and rust from within. Ethanol attracts moisture and turns to a corrosive substance. It rots the fuel pump, rusts gas lines, and clogs up the engine’s fuel delivery system.
Nice.
So now the car won’t run. Continue reading
Goose bumps, anyone?
Now that owner Blair Tanner’s completed $3 million in renovations to the pool and outdoors at Woodside Pool, Tennis and Health Club, he’s moving on to phase two and three and stepping up the pace at Kansas City’s number one health, tennis, outdoor and pool facility.
And this just in…
Tanner and his staff have opened the adult pool a month earlier than most other local private clubs.
“Why deprive our members and their guests of their opportunity to get some fun and sun from the first week of May all the way up to October if the weather holds up?” Tanner says.
It’s not a money grab, but rather a convenience to club members.
Tanner lives in LA – although he’s from Kansas City – so he’s used to warm weather nearly year round already. So hey, why not here? Continue reading
Let’s put Donald Sterling and Beyonce’s sister together and let them sort it out.
*******
Jadeveon Clowney and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix were chosen over the weekend in the NFL Draft. Meesa thinks Jar Jar Binks will go in the next round. Continue reading
There’s a donut hole smack dab in the middle of this year’s Hollywood’s summer release schedule…
It’s the month-long period beginning in mid June to mid July which is usually reserved for top box office producing hit movies.
Yet it’s pretty light this summer.
Matter of fact the studios have moved many of their biggest tentpole titles to either earlier or to late July and into August.
So what’s going on?
A little game called soccer—or football—as it’s known in the rest of the world. Continue reading
Will this magnificent Independence show place become a garage?
Is the luxurious Englewood Theatre in the Englewood Art District an endangered species? It’s been re-opened and closed many times since it was built in 1949.
However unlike 95% of the single screen neighborhood theaters it’s still standing.
Several Decembers ago the theatre re-opened with THE SOUND OF MUSIC. It’s 50 foot screen glowed with the Cinemascope panorama that can only be realized in a big screen theatre like the Englewood.
But two weeks into the run, disaster struck! Continue reading
Mimosas, anyone?
Talk about burying the lead…
More evidence that the Kansas City Star reads KC Confidential comes in the form of a top of the page sports section story about Mizzou footballer Michael Sam’s significant other in today’s newspaper in an item written by FYI writer Liza Gutierrez.
“Sam’s partner ex-Hawklet swimmer” is the headline to a piece rehashing days old news reports about Vito Cammisano having swam competitively for the University of Missouri from 2009 to 2012.
However instead of just owning up to a lapse in reporting – as did the New York Daily News – Gutierrez buried the part about Vito’s ties to his family’s famous local crime ties in the final paragraphs at the end of her story.
Almost as an afterthought. Continue reading
There’s such a thing as decorum…
And in the case of Michael Sam, the Mizzou footballer who planted a wet one on his boyfriend after being drafted near the bottom of the NFL barrel, it ought to have been observed.
“It doesn’t bother me, but if I were Sam I probably wouldn’t have done it,” Glazer says. “Why put that in everybody’s face? What’s to be gained? I mean, maybe if they were getting married or something, but it’s still unsettling to most people.”
Let’s see if turnabout is fair play.
Were Glazer standing before the cameras in a momentous moment – and say he was dating a stripper – would he have gone tongue fishing and copped a generous feel? Continue reading
Michael Sam and Vito Cammisano
Small world…
Amidst the hullaballoo about openly gay, Missouri Tiger defensive end Michael Sam’s draft day smooch with Mizzou swim star Vito Cammisano of Kansas City, one small detail went missing; that Cammisano is the grandkid of notorious KC mobster Willie “The Rat” Cammisano.
He’s also the son of Jerry Cammisano who did time for allegedly running an illegal sports betting ring.
“Normally cavorting with the son of an underworld gambling figure would get you investigated by the NFL,” wonders one gully KCC tipster. “I wonder if they will look into the connections. Then again maybe I’m wrong and there are lots of Cammisanos?”
There may be “lots” of Cammisanos, but according to Daily Mail – not the Huffington Post, ABC News, Washington Post or Kansas City Star – Vito is indeed that guy.
Continue reading
Been a while since we last heard from movie guy extraordinaire Wade Williams….
For years the prolific writer-producer-director-exhibitor shared his views in both news stories and the letters section of the Kansas City Star.
No mas.
“You know, I quit taking the Star after all these years because there’s nothing in it,” Williams says. “You’re not in it – you were fun – there’s no movie reviews worth a (darn) and all the news is a day old. And there’s not much movie news in the entertainment section; everything is about rock or some not very talented band playing at some bar.
“There’s nothing in it but sports and a bunch of ads. And the first thing I do is throw the sports section away and all the ads and then there’s nothing left. I’m not a sports fan and much of the paper deals in every aspect of sports. They don’t have much of a movie section anymore – they pick up syndicated reviews and have a couple of local freelancers.
Does Williams miss reading the Star? Continue reading
