Hey, it was good enough for former KU athletic director Lew Perkins…
However when my wife and I sampled the Italian restaurant Intorno in Lawrence shortly after it opened a year and a half ago, it was beyond bad.
It sucked.
Unbeknownst to be until right before we got up to leave, Sweet Lew and his fam were in the booth directly behind us. And they gave Intorno multiple thumbs up. You know what they say about there being no accounting for taste. Continue reading
If you can rip yourself away from your TV and the college basketball tournament that’s currently sapping this country’s GDP by billions per second, then you’re a better man than I.
We’ve already had several OT games, and a bunch of upsets.
This might be the best long weekend of college sports of the year, aside from, perhaps the World Cup that’s taking place this summer in Brazil. It’s pretty close for me.
Here’s a few non-sports items to check out this weekend… Continue reading
To the surprise of nobody—and to the consternation, perhaps, of only those who dislike things that are totally awesome—fire-balling phenom Yordano Ventura has officially been named as the final starter in the 2014 Kansas City Royals rotation. Call it the spring’s most “no-duh” moment, I suppose, but it’s one of those formalities that had to be addressed.
After a completely dominant, nearly unhittable campaign—15 strikeouts in 15 innings while only walking one, a WHIP lower than one, and a measly three earned runs—the 22-year-old Dominican will slide into the third spot in the rotation behind ace James Shields and new-hire Jason Vargas.
So if you’re needlepointing something to commemorate the season, the rotation is set like this:
1) Shields
2) Vargas
3) Ventura
4) Jeremy Guthrie
5) Bruce Chen
Or if you want to include my thoughts on your needlepoint, too, it’d look something like this:
1) Nice!
2) Um.
3) CAN’TWAITFORTHIS
4) Um.
5) 🙁
Seems like every year a certain little film comes along that’s being carefully nurtured by its distributor and eventually turns into a hit—right along with the major studio releases…
A good example would be last year’s THE WAY, WAY BACK.
This year’s candidate is the charming and melancholy melodrama interestingly titled THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.
The film opened in limited runs on both coasts a couple of weeks ago.
Runs were expanded last week and the reception the film has received to date has been magnificent.
Translation: great reviews from the critics and some of the biggest ticket sales for an independently produced motion picture in ages. Continue reading
Westboro Baptist Church founder and community activist Fred Phelps has died. He was just placed in an eternal gay-pride parade escorted by former Marines.
*******
Hallmark has just issued a card that says, “I’m sorry for your loss” on the front. But upon opening jot plays “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang.
*******
KISS and Def Leppard are touring this summer, but surprisingly, no Kansas City date has been announced. Regardless, I’m already making plans for the show. I just called my chiropractor. Continue reading
This week marked a watershed moment in the world of pay TV providers…
For the first time in history they have suffered a loss of 105,000 customers. U.S. cable providers make up 94% of the market, and while they have lost customers each year, this is the first, true NET loss.
That means more customers went out the back door than came in the front.
Ars Technica said, “We’re at the beginning of a major historical shift from watching TV to watching video — including TV shows and movies — on the internet or on mobile devices.”
Who’s to blame? Continue reading
Remember last week when Sporting KC boss Peter Vermes went off on his team for conceding a late goal against visiting FC Dallas?
“It’s unacceptable and it’s not who we are,” said Vermes at the time.
I wonder who Vermes thinks they are now, after a 5-1 beatdown at the hands of Mexican power Cruz Azul. The brutal loss knocks KC out of the CCL, after they had beaten the Mexicans at Sporting Park last week, 1-0. Continue reading
About that mostly information-less examination of sex in Kansas City…
The Urban Institute’s recent eight city sex study was long on information and data on larger cities like Atlanta and Washington, D.C. but short on the specifics here in Kansas City.
Comes now-former KC madam Ginger Madison to critique the study and fill in a few of the blanks.
“Where did they find that pimps make five grand a week here?” Madison asks. “Because that’s totally what I made.”
Madison and her partner/ex confined their business mostly to KC and St. Louis. Continue reading
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Kansas City is one of the top movie going markets in America on a per capita basis…
Box office figures show peg ticket sales here at approximately 25% above the national average. Not bad for being the 34th media market, I’d say.
Then again, it’s not like we have a bunch of oceans and mountains to distract us.
And yes, we’re one of the very few markets remaining with SEVEN – count ’em – first run Drive-In screens in three citywide complexes.
However as late as last fall things didn’t look promising for some of our ozoners. Only one Drive-In—the BOULEVARD—had converted to digital projection.
And with Hollywood’s plan to rid the industry of all 35mm film prints in 2014 the pressure and price tag to convert the four screens of the I-70 Drive-In and two screens of the TWIN Drive-In were daunting – between $65,000 and $75,000 PER screen to update the projection equipment.
However matters came to a winning conclusion during this past off season when regional movie circuit B & B THEATRES stepped in to aquire both the I-70 and TWIN drive-ins from Independence based GLOBE CINEMAS. Continue reading
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A funny thing happened on a recent Friday after KCC’s Paul Wilson tried to make contact with a local jeweler embroiled in an ocean of controversial rumors…
If you recall, the jeweler’s offices were closed that day with a posting on the door advising of that and there were several packing boxes in the darkened entry. And just before Wilson left, he noticed what appeared to be an unmarked police vehicle with numerous communications antennas on it in the parking lot.
Little did Wilson suspect that the jeweler – rumored to be behind on rent and facing eviction – would move out that very night, according to a source. Continue reading
Masten Gregory @ the 1965 German Grand Prix
When I left Nallwood Junior High in Overland Park for Pembroke Country Day almost 50 years ago, I felt a sense of liberation and elation…
I was leaving the land of Beatle boots, I.D. bracelets, and tight pants (plus mullet-style long hair). I was going to a place of madras, khakis, and tweed jackets (plus obligatory rep. stripe ties). I was abandoning a place where intelligence and literacy were suspect for a place where men of action were expected to be intellectuals. (The headmaster, Calvin Atwood, was a decorated paratrooper in WWII as well as a recognized poet.)
Above all else, I noticed a whole change of attitude, a sea change in one’s world view that went with my new surroundings. It’s only years later that I realize the style and sensibility of the new place were imbibed tacitly. You got with the program quickly because of the examples set by those who came before, the upperclassmen and the alums. (The school still reflected the ethos of the prior 30 years.)
Here are a few of the role models: Continue reading
Time wounds all heels…
Fred Phelps, the 84-year old “preacher” of Topeka’s Westboro Baptist “church” – if I may use those two terms – is about to meet his maker. Phelps hate filled little cult was established in 1955 and became a household name by picketing funerals, churches and businesses with signs attacking gays, Jews, soldiers and anyone else who fit their too-off-base-for-words theology.
God Hates Fags; Phelps’ version of John 3:16.
Rumor has it, Phelps was excommunicated from his own flock last summer, but no one seems to be able to fully confirm that. Your well-coiffed scribe called the church offices to ask that very question today and was told; “Sir, internal church affairs are not discussed with anyone other than church members!”
I then asked if, in his later days, maybe Phelps had mellowed and was no longer vile enough to retain his membership in good standing at Westboro Baptist, at which time I was promptly hung up on.
Apparently he was in good health until this month, at which time he was moved into Midland Hospice House where he stopped eating and drinking. I called Midland and spoke to Jessica who told me she could confirm nothing, but I could speak with Karren Weichert, their CEO. I’ve left a voice mail for Weichert, but I’m not betting on a return call; their phones are likely ringing off the hook with questions about our Near Dead Fred. Continue reading
Original art by Mark valentine
It is not always as dramatic as a Steven King novel, but a deal with The Devil always takes an evil twist in the end…
In the lawmaking business, they use the phrase “Sin Tax” when they make those deals. And there’s a recent evil twist on a current pact with “Old Scratch.” Because the income needed to fund education and veterans benefits is down. So cue the sinister background music as I reveal the culprit; that fewer people are gambling in Missouri Casinos.
The simple fact is Missouri gets money two different ways from casino gambling. The state gets a fee each time a patron walks onto the gaming floor and the state gets a cut of the overall action. Part of the per-head fee funds the Missouri Veterans Commission. And part of the tax on overall revenues goes toward public education.
The Kansas City mayor when Kansas City casinos first arrived was Emanuel Cleaver. And somehow, this is a man who has been involved in making several “Satan Sandwiches,” as he likes to call them. Continue reading
Ever wonder what it might be like to take the measure of an all-girl assemblage of horny housewives, errant strippers and girls-next-door gone wild?
Wonder no more because yours truly took one for the team last Thursday, when the Chippendales “50 Shades of Men” show descended on Stanford’s in the wilds of KCK. Continue reading
The secret to the Big 12 basketball tournament’s success in KC?
Not KU’s 80,000-plus strong alumni base in Kansas City. Nor K-State’s, and not Mizzou’s paltry 26,000 alums.
Nope, when it comes to propping up the Big 12 tourney (and fostering tourism) the undisputed champ is none other than lowly Iowa State.
“Oh, Iowa State’s the money,” says Stanford & Sons main man Craig Glazer. “Most people in Kansas City don’t know that. And Kansas losing will actually help local restaurants and bars, because otherwise KU fans would have stayed him and watched the championship game on TV.”
Forget about tourism from the other Big 12 teams. Continue reading
I’m a Virgo and I’m not apologizing…
Virgos are defined as being picky, exact, critical, methodical with great attention to detail. Which is why I’ve decided to get real bitchy today about the little things on the local television newscasts that really annoy me.
Sure they seem insignificant to you. But to me—hey—remember I’m a Virgo.
KCTV, Channel 5—
It really takes a lot of gall for local Channel 5 anchors to introduce a news package they’ve picked up from the network and introduce with, “And here’s KCTV’s (insert name of reporter).”
Which makes it sound like it’s KCTV’s reporter doing the story instead of CBS.
Of course the jig us up at the end of the piece when the report ends with “This is (Joe Blow), CBS News.” Continue reading
You know it’s a big game when Marlon Wayans is in the house…
Wayans was in town to promote his new movie Haunted House 2. Unfortunately, Sporting Kansas City couldn’t harness that Wayans energy for most of the game, providing the sold out home opener crowd with some unflattering play until the last few minutes of the game. That’s when Sporting finally got on the board via an Aurelien Collin header off a corner.
But just like last week at Seattle, the boys in blue couldn’t hold on. Dallas earned a free kick in the 90th minute about 25 yards out and played a curling ball toward the back post where an unmarked Matt Hedges finished the play. If Hedges hadn’t gotten to the ball, there were at least two other Dallas players right with him that could have made a play on it.
“It’s unacceptable and it’s not who we are,” remarked an obviously pissed Peter Vermes afterwards. “I’m not happy and the guys know it. It’s not who we are.” Continue reading
You wouldn’t know a guy named, Harley, would you?
As if the Power & Light District doesn’t have enough problems…
Lawsuits claiming racism, diminished business with ramped up competition from Westport, Waldo and South Johnson County.
Comes now more bad news in the form of first time ever beer sales at Sprint Center during Big 12 basketball games and a seriously depleted fan turnout owing to the defections of longtime Big 12 stalwarts like Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado – especially Mizzou.
Continue reading
