Lefsetz: Dem Debate Fiasco — Failing Grades Abound

Posted on January 18, 2020 by Bob Lefsetz

You probably didn’t watch it…

That’s the story of the social media age, we’re all in our own cocoons, and we get the news via absorption as opposed to first hand.

The younger generation doesn’t read the newspaper – certainly not they physical one – but the headlines do appear in their feeds, so they get a facsimile of the news online.

As for oldsters?

Sure, they care, they vote the most, but except for a small coterie who live for the political game, most are hunkered down in their bunkers, deep into news that confirms their bias.

Furthermore, an incredible percentage of Democrats have rankled their Republican friends. When these righties start spouting their talking points the Dems feel their blood boil. And since you cannot convince someone to change their opinion in an argument, at best they’ll reevaluate later – it’s a personal stand to avoid interaction, and many do.

So we had a debate and few people watched.

Tuesday night’s affair had the lowest ratings for a debate so far.

But it was one of the best. By only having six candidates on stage there was coherence, everybody got time to respond, to not only the questioners but their fellow candidates.

Let’s start with Tom Steyer.

How he polled high enough to get in this debate flummoxes me. As for those who didn’t qualify, they’re done, toast. Marianne Williamson dropped out. Cory Booker punted. You may align with one of those excluded but still running, but it’s a lost cause. Like a record, they’ve peaked, and no one is willing to invest in them anymore, not prodigious amounts, they want to focus on the winners.

Which brings us to Amy Klobuchar.

The Trust Me candidate. Yup, she’s from a red district, so she can beat the Orange Menace.

Only Minnesota is one of the most liberal states in the union. The rap is it’s cold, but if you want a social safety net, if you want a cosmopolitan center, if you want elbow room and outdoor activities, move to Minnesota. The people there know this, everybody else is afraid of the weather.

So intellectually, we get Klobuchar, but just can’t get behind her emotionally.

We agree she could do the job, she looks good on paper, it’s just that it’s hard to work up a passion about her.

Also, Amy’s debating in an old fashioned style. Quoting experiences about her dad and her father. These tropes no longer work, especially after Joe the Plumber. You look rehearsed, when we’re looking for spontaneity, humanity. Also, Amy was a bit off her game.

Pete Buttigieg?

Smooth.

Compared to the alta kachers on stage, he was a breath of fresh air, in that he was young, his memory was intact, he could turn on a dime. The only thing is he didn’t run his own city so well and he’s not believable – as in he’s made the tactical decision to run to the center and there’s little appeal for this.

Yup, just like with the nation at large, Democrats are now tribal. Either you want drastic change or you want to keep what you’ve got and get rid of Trump. Pete falls somewhere in the middle, and that’s nowheresville.

Which brings us to Joe Biden. Continue reading →

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Lefsetz: Whitney Houston in Rock & Roll Hall? Totally Bogus

Posted on January 16, 2020 by Bob Lefsetz

What kind of crazy, fucked-up world do we live in where Whitney Houston gets inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Judas Priest, Soundgarden and Todd Rundgren are not?

One in which the voters have lost all credibility, putting money over art, debasing the rock ethos and history to the point of irrelevance.

Come on, the only thing Whitney Houston has in common with rock is she OD’ed!

Then they constantly wank about influences.

Yup, Patti Smith is gotta be in because she broke ground and influenced those at home.

What new ground did Whitney Houston break?

Another pop singer, so what?

As for legacy…what did we get, American Idol? And to tell you the truth, Mariah Carey is more of an influence than Whitney. Yup, melisma reigns on TV competition shows.

Or is it because she married Bobby Brown and became a bad girl?

This is execrable, this is sacrilegious, I feel like the Nazi during “Springtime For Hitler”

I knew rock and roll, I was there, these people have NO CLUE!

Come on!

The biggest breakthrough in rock and roll – what built classic rock – was FM radio.

Yup, the Beatles opened the door and then underground FM radio blew the doors off.

FM stations played music AM wouldn’t dream of. Or if AM played it, it was eons late (kind of like terrestrial radio today, if you think about it – stuff breaks on streaming services).

As a result of FM we got extended songs.

We got side-long opuses. We got album-length extravaganzas. Yup, there’s more rock and roll in “Thick As A Brick” than in any song by Whitney Houston EVER!

But Jethro Tull can’t be in the Rock Hall because Ian Anderson is not warm and fuzzy and the band stole that Grammy from Metallica, even though that was the mistake of the ignorant Grammy voters, not the band.

Have you listened to “This Was” A blues-rock masterpiece?

I mean if you’re lauding Peter Green…

And “Stand Up” is enough to induct any band.

As for “Aqualung“…

And if Kiss can get in based on popularity – were you alive in ’71? – “Aqualung” RULED!

“Cross-Eyed Mary” still populates classic rock radio, somewhere Whitney Houston was never played. Continue reading →

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Lefsetz: Does Art Imitate Life in Norwegian Thriller ‘Occupied”

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Bob Lefsetz

When the revolution comes, which side will you be on?

Even more interesting, which side WERE you on?

This is the story of billionaires, this is the story of impeachment.

Now I believe that if a Democrat wins the Presidency, all hell will break loose – the Trumpers will not accept it. And in a world where the Russians have hacked Burisma, to get info on Hunter Biden to use against a possible Biden candidacy – when the results come in it’s gonna be open season…

Were the voting machines hacked? Can you trust the vote? The news?

You certainly can’t trust the news anymore – blame the internet – blame the Republicans.

While the intelligentsia keeps lamenting the decimation of newspapers, that’s no longer the story anymore…the story isn’t reportage, but believability. Who do you choose to believe?

And it’s not only the ignorant right, but the educated left.

Yup, I got e-mail saying I should not get the flu vaccine because it’s got aluminum in it. What next, no treatment for appendicitis? Are we all turning into Jehovah’s Witnesses?

So, if it’s in the NYT or the WaPo, it can’t be true. Yup, that’s what the right believes. And sometimes, up is down.

And the left can’t stop railing against Fox News, as if anybody on the right is listening to them complain.

And if you’ve got a name, and you stand up to the Administration, you’re inundated with blowback from the usual suspects, the same damn people, over and over.

This is what bothers me about the mainstream news sources, they live in a bubble, out of touch with the rank and file. They’re behind a wall just like the CEOs. Oh, they’ll tap someone on the shoulder for their opinion, to get a story, but they don’t penetrate the scene.

Actually, the scene penetrates you, if your name is big enough. And too many reporters’ names are not. Quick! Name the WSJ and WaPo White House reporters! You can’t!

And we’re living in a “2001” society.

Where the machines have taken over. Continue reading →

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Lefsetz: Is Patrick Mahomes The NFL’s Beatles?

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Bob Lefsetz

Did you watch the Chiefs game? 

I didn’t. I don’t think I’ve watched an iota of football this year, but I’ve read about Patrick Mahomes. 

I’ve been following him ever since he broke into the league.

You see, he’s revolutionized the game. 

The ground attack – the gut it out play of yore – is history. Now it’s all passing and Mahomes gave it the final push. 

The Chiefs were down 21 after the first quarter, looked like it was over. 

Who can come back from that, especially in a playoff game? 

Well, Mahomes moved the ball down the field for 28 points in the second quarter. I would have liked to see that!

Reminded me of Steph Curry.  Continue reading →

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Hearne: Senior Citizen Screams + ‘Perfect Nectar’ = Chiefs Football?

Posted on January 12, 2020 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

If I was half a man – and a true Chiefs fan – I’d be getting hammered right now…

It’s 8:18 am on Chiefs Sunday – the team is in a major playoffs game with the entire town’s fingers collectively crossed – hoping, praying, believing to the extent that’s possible, that the team is Super Bowl bound and destined to win it all.

That’s how things are supposed to work at this time of year – all Chiefs all of the time. Even the ghosts of Greg Hall and Craig Glazer are alive and kicking, hoping to sip some of that imaginary “sweet nectar of the end zone.”

Stop right there…

Dare I risk spoiling some of that fun by suggesting Chiefs radio announcer Mitch Holthus needs to 1) get a grip; 2) maybe attend a performance at the Kauffman Performing Arts Center; and 3) maybe grow the eff up.

People don’t need to hear a 62 year-old man from a town in Kansas smaller than my brain, scream like he’s about to be eaten-alive by wild pigs. Nor does Holthus need the invoke the imagery of “a politically organized community or major territorial unit having a monarchical form of government headed by a king or queen” in describing the Chiefs organization as a “kingdom.”

It’s not.

It’s just a really big biz owned by rich folks from out of town. Folks trying to get richer by hiring neanderthals from everywhere but Kansas City, to champion how great it is to live here in Flyover Land, with no mountains, oceans, great lakes or anything else that might be described as vacation worthy.

And where the heck did Holthus come up with that lame line, “sweet nectar  of the end zone” anyway?

Surely he doesn’t equate touchdown dancing with the birds and the bees. Or conjure images of Chiefs players sipping “the saccharine secretion of a plant, which attracts the insects or birds that pollinate the flower.”

“The life-giving drink of the gods”?

Either way, it comes across as a bit queer.

The closest thing to nectar I’ve even seen a Chiefs fan ingest is Jägermeister. Continue reading →

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Lefsetz: Time To Permantly Ground Boeing’s 737 Max

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Bob Lefsetz

“This airplane is designed by clowns who are in turn supervised by monkeys.”

— Boeing employee

Where’s Ralph Nader when you need him?

The 737 Max should be scrapped – stricken from the air- but regulators are afraid of putting Boeing out of business.

That’s right.

In a failed attempt to compete with Airbus, which had seen the future and designed a whole new plane to address it, Boeing was caught flat-footed and gussied up an old plane.

A FIFTY YEAR OLD PLANE!

Think about that, it’s like putting airbags in your Valiant. You can try, but what you end up with probably won’t work.

The 737 was designed for a different era, one without jetways, one in which you walked onto the plane from the tarmac.

Meaning the wings were low and the engines that hung from them were low too.

So if you wanted to add more power, you needed bigger engines, that would not fit.

So Boeing moved them forward. The only problem was that screwed up the stability of the plane, now it might stall because of this weight imbalance.

So, in a concept only Rube Goldberg could embrace, Boeing decided to solve the problem with software, and essentially not tell anybody about it. Yup, it was so foolproof, like Windows 3.0, that you’d never get the blue screen of death, it would always work as intended, it would never CRASH!

But, of course it did.

Now if you’re following this closely, the old guard, the Chuck Yeagers of this world – those who flew planes before computerization, who could land in your backyard – are saying it’s all pilot error.

Actually, Boeing said this too, as if everybody behind the wheel of an automobile should have the skills of Lewis Hamilton.

But not only are newbie pilots flying these planes, especially overseas, in America they overuse newbie pilots and underpay them as they fly you on regional airlines.

It’s business baby, and you’ve got to make a profit, and the public requires you to deliver low prices.

If you followed the recent numbers, manufacturing is continuing to crater in the U.S., although its revenue is being replaced by services, which is what every reasonable economist and techie has been saying for decades.

But NO! Trump was gonna bring back those well-paying jobs that if they exist today are being done by machines.

And it’s not only the right, the Democrats, and all those line workers used to be Democrats, believe we need a reset too.

Yet the public refuses to pay $2500 for a flat screen.

Yup, we love low prices – and we want the lowest – and if they made these items in America, they’d be much more expensive.

You can’t have it both ways, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

No one can sacrifice in America.

We’re entitled to drive monster trucks known as SUVs and live in giant homes and pollute. Jimmy Carter said to put on a sweater and he was excoriated!

The truth is America is sinking. Its reputation as the greatest country in the world?

Ask outside.

And yes, people are still dying to immigrate here – quite literally – but there’s no vision of the future, no idea that the future is coming, Hell, most of our elected representatives are tech-challenged, which is why Andrew Yang‘s presidential campaign is getting any traction at all.

So, the truth is, the 737 Max should be scrapped. Continue reading →

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Hearne: Death of a Car Mag — ‘Automobile’ Blows Taps

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

They’re dropping like flies…

The handwriting’s been on the wall for some time now, but it still comes as something of a shock when a publication like Automobile magazine bites the dust.

It’s far easier to wrap one’s head around daily newspapers like the Kansas City Star circling the drain.

In part because the lion’s share of the profits are in print and the print circulation has plummeted from the 200,000 neighborhood to 70,000 and change,

My best guess today is fewer than 200 employees remain out of more than 2,000.

“Another McClatchy paper, the Kansas City Star, will cut its workforce by 15% or 150 employees, in line with corporate guidelines,” Newspaper Death Watch reported in March 2009. “Pay will also be reduced by between 5% and 10% and management bonuses will be eliminated. With the latest cuts, the Star will have hacked 325 jobs over the last nine months, or about a quarter of its workforce.”

That problem being, world and national news is reported instantly these days, instead of over night like in the good old days of print journalism.

Car reviews and essays are another story…or so it seemed.

Imaginative, informative stories about cars, that people generally purchase or lease every three or more years, doesn’t require anywhere near the same level of expediency.

Cocking back and pouring over cool car stories, ads and information is more like reading a book – you don’t have to have it instantly to enjoy it. And once published, most reviews can be called up online as needed.

In Automobile magazine’s case, its 2016 circulation – according to Wikipedia – was 278,238. That’s more than three times that of the Star And I’ll bet you a dollar to a dime it’s full time staff was a fraction our the local newspaper’s.

Which brings us to today – amidst KC’s first major snow and ice event of 2020 – a letter from TEN Publishing explains succinctly that “After many great years and achievements, Automobile Magazine has been discontinued.”

So now in place of the multi year subscription they bagged me for last year, I get my pick of digital subscriptions to Motor Trend, HOT ROD or Four Wbeeler.

Nice.

In other words, they’re eating my paid-in-advance subscription money for something I actually wanted and cost them cold hard cash to produce and deliver – and giving me something that costs them zero, whether I want it or not.

There is a number to call, so I’ll find out next week maybe if there’s anything approaching money back, but I’m not holding my breath. Continue reading →

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Jack Goes Confidential: “1917”—An Immersive Odyssey In Filmmaking

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Jack Poessiger

What a thrill it was to see my favorite film of 2019, 1917, win Best Picture and director honors at The Golden Globes Sunday…

But how could that be? The movie hasn’t even opened here yet!

Permit me to explain.

“1917” was pre-screened for area critics in late November and voted best movie, director and cinematography by Kansas City’s Film Critics Circle on December 15th. Honors for the film haven’t stopped since. It finally opened in a handful of major markets on Christmas Day.

The good news: Now YOU will be able to experience director Sam Mendes’ most ambitious production beginning THIS weekend. And if there ever was a motion picture made to be seen solely on the big screen, this one is it!

“1917” is a World War I movie of epic proportions—it’s also a very personal story as handled to Mendes (‘American Beauty’, ‘Spectre’) by his paternal grandfather.

This is the seemingly impossible story of two young soldiers (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) sent through dangerous enemy territory to forewarn a a British battalion of a pending German ambush. A gut-wrenching journey against all odds.

What makes “1917” so special is the way director Mendes tells it!

Not only does he present it all in real time, he filmed the ENTIRE movie in one continuous shot.

No cutaways. No edits. CONTINUOUS! Continue reading →

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Lefsetz: Everybody is a Star…Well, Almost Everybody

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Bob Lefsetz

That’s right, the hoi polloi, the supposed flyover people, the peanut gallery…WE RULE!

And we have contempt for you if you step out of your lane. We may even have contempt for you if you stay in your lane!

That’s what the billionaire backlash is all about.

“Stoking the starmaker machinery behind the popular song”

No one is a free man in Paris anymore. Everybody’s findable. Just like you!

Jeffrey Katzenberg used to say if you don’t bother to come in on Saturday, don’t even think about coming in on Sunday, at least that’s the legend.

Today, if you don’t answer your e-mail on the weekend, if you don’t get back to people right away, you’re gonna lose your job. That’s what separates today’s winners from the losers. Those willing to work 24/7 and those who are not.

Oh, don’t give me all this wellness crap.

That’s just liberal b.s. to deal with future shock. This is the world we live in and we like it! We like the adrenaline hit of our phones buzzing, that means someone cares about us, someone needs us, WE’RE IMPORTANT!

So right now they’re televising the Golden Globes.

I remember when movie stars were heroes, larger than life.

Now they’re just actors, propped up by a hype-industrial complex that believes nothing has changed…you know, you hire a publicist to get you into the paper and you’ve got gravitas. Only today you don’t. Because stars aren’t made in the papers. As for the print ones, ask the reporters, they’re all on Twitter, not wanting to miss a beat.

So there used to be idolmakers.

They even made a movie about it. You find someone, even if they’re two-dimensional, without talent, and you turn them into a star. You’ve got all the relationships, you push the button and it happens, at least often enough.

But now terrestrial radio is calcified, stars are made on streaming services, the traditional outlets come last. And hell, even Ricky Gervais made a joke about the power of Netflix…yup, I caught that in the news online…do you really think I’m going to sit through all those commercials?

Of course there are (still) young nitwits looking up to pop stars.

But that’s also why the pop stars have gotten so young. Billie Eilish is their contemporary, not Zach de la Rocha. The young ‘uns aren’t into the oldsters and the oldsters…they don’t know what the hell is up.

So if you raise your head above the fray, if you think you’re important…

You’re gonna be knocked down.

If you haven’t experienced this, you’re just not popular enough. Continue reading →

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Smartman: ‘Voice From the Tomb’ Flashes Back

Posted on January 7, 2020 by admin

Stumbled onto this funny Top 10 list from the comments dude formally known as smartman after Greg Hall left KCC…

The Real Reasons Greg Hall left KC Confidential

Hearne got upset when Greg confused his girlfriend with the cleaning lady.

He got a case of crabs after sitting next to Craig at last staff meeting. Crabs had shirts that said Team Glazer.

Office romance with Tracy Thomas never blossomed.

Tony Botello enrolled him in the churro of the month club. Was killing his 5K time

Glazer kept insisting that Greg join The Club, not Woodside, The Hair Club

Mrs. Hall tired of Black Barbie stopping by at 4:00 am.for chicken and waffles.

Joe Miller just wasn’t that into him

KCC Press Credentials only accepted at AA meetings.

Wanted to move on to greener pastures like JOPO and Whitlock

Will never have to lie again when Kelly Urich asks hims if he thinks his stuff is funny

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Hearne: Is Hallmark Cards The Next KC Star?

Posted on January 6, 2020 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Everybody knows how gawdawful things are for magazines and newspapers…

Not to mention what online shopping’s been doing to retailers and shopping malls.

It ain’t pretty, right?

Hey, before long we’re all gonna to have to take Joe Biden‘s advice and get in line with the coal miners and learn how to code.

Count Hallmark Cards among the industries struggling to remain relevant.

I spoke at length recently to a dude who “retired” this past year from Hallmark’s Lawrence operation and he did not paint a pretty picture.

Here’s the deal…

Because Hallmark’s a private company they don’t have to disclose their revenues, – kinda like Donald Trump doesn’t have to release his tax returns. But behind the scenes – according to my source – the company’s been on a downhill slide for 10 years.

Sound familiar? Kinda like the Kansas City Star.

By the time this 14-year Hallmark veteran left last year, business had dropped  off dramatically, he says. When he started, it was not unusual for the company to do print runs in the tens of thousand for each card.

These days you’re more likely to see smaller runs of 1,500 to 2,000 cards, he  says. Continue reading →

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Hearne: Are Marathons Dangerous for Seniors?

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

The death by heart attack of Greg Hall at age 65 raises some serious questions..

Like can running in marathons for people of a certain ago be unhealthy?

Was it in n Hall’s case?

To most people who knew him (and thought he was younger), it came as a shock. Given that by virtue of his running he almost had to be far too healthy for anything like that.

But according to one KC Confidential reader, “Marathon’s put way too much stress on the heart. I ran half-marathon’s for awhile (and) my doc said even that’s too much..he said only do cardio for an hour at most.”

True story?

“Blisters and shin splints may not be the only health hazards of marathons—new research shows ambulances forced to navigate around road closures took longer to get to the hospital during U.S. marathons, and that some elderly patients hospitalized on marathon days had a higher risk of dying,” according to the Wall Street Journal in 2017.

A story in the Atlantic, “Running into Old Age,” reported that “in sports medicine, the years between 35 and 40 are often considered a turning point for serious athletes: Skill begins to erode more quickly with time as age brings changes in muscular strength and susceptibility to injury. Endurance tends to peak around age 35 and then slowly decrease until around age 60, at which point the decline becomes much steeper.”

So while many, if not most, online stories about marathon running focus on the positive benefits of exercise – even when talking about seniors – not everybody paints that same rosy picture:

In “The Evidence Against Long Distance Running,” Runners Connect writes, “Perhaps the seminal study on heart health and long-distance running comes from cardiologist James O’Keefe in 2012. O’Keefe, himself a huge proponent of exercise, found that, while ‘a routine of regular exercise is highly effective for prevention and treatment of many common chronic diseases and improves cardiovascular (CV) health and longevity, long-term excessive endurance exercise may induce pathologic structural remodeling of the heart and large arteries.’ Continue reading →

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Lefsetz: Summing Up Music in the 2010’s

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Bob Lefsetz

SALES DIED

Remember when we were arguing about the cost of cuts on iTunes and whether Apple could sell individual tracks or had to sell the whole album?

Funny how the battles of yesterday are meaningless today.

Of course I’m talking about file sales, but if you want to talk physical…CDs are great earners, but de minimis in sales numbers. As for vinyl…the statistics are all wrong.

They’re using a suggested retail price when digital is net.

Turns out people want to own things. And if you have something cut analog and are playing it on an expensive stereo system, more power to you.  However if the album was recorded digitally and transferred to analog and you’re playing it on a cheap system, the joke is on you.

STREAMING TRIUMPHED

Music has it figured out, we live in an on demand culture.

The movie business still can’t square with the digital age. As for those bitching about streaming, they were the same ones bitching about files, about Napster.

The past is never coming back.

And in the past, the key was to get a record deal, and then you could live off the tit of the record company. So numerous acts with few sales survived, the company hoping for a breakthrough. Today, record deals are not so rich, and mainly only in hip-hop and pop, and you live or die on your streaming numbers, i.e. demand.

And what we found out is that many acts who were loved by the press and tastemakers were not so loved by the public. Furthermore, tastemakers became irrelevant, critics don’t matter, it’s all about word of mouth. And everything is available and you get paid as long as people keep listening. So, in a business where everybody sells their rights it’s best not to, best to hang in there for the payments that will keep you alive down the road.

MAJOR LABELS

The center will not hold.

Major labels will decline in market share. You don’t need them for distribution and as far as their marketing efforts… Will TV and press make a difference? As for radio, unless you’re hip-hop or pop, it’s essentially irrelevant. So you’ve got Glassnote shifting distribution to AWAL. You’ve got a lot of wannabe rappers and pop stars trying to get signed, but everybody else, who can actually play, has given up on getting a record deal – they’re focused on building an audience, primarily on the road.

VIRAL VIDEOS DIED

You can only exhibit the trick once. One Radiohead “In Rainbows,” one PSY “Gangnam Style.” The public can smell a rat – if it’s not organic, they want nothing to do with it. And just like Guitar Hero and Rock Band before it, TikTok will fade as a way of breaking artists. Once everybody knows about it, the early adopters are on to something else, as the johnny-come-latelies try to monetize what is evaporating. Continue reading →

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Hearne: A Tale of Two ‘Huskers’ — What Greg Hall Left Behind

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

The Greg Hall that I thought I knew was leading a double life…

On one hand, the dude I just wrote about yesterday – and that most locals and sports aficionados knew – was the edgy skeptic who liked nothing more than making sports media know-it-alls eat their words by zeroing in on their dumbest utterances and making fools of them.

Greg hated former WHB kingpin Kevin Kietzman, for example.

Case in point, this soundbite taking Kietzman to task from a 2014 column in the Platte County Landmark:

“…Kansas City is not populated by a bunch of idiot Hoosiers. This is a city filled with great sports fans – just like a lot of cities that have professional sports teams. Kevin seems to be obsessed with how the rest of the country views Kansas City and whether or not they look down their nose at us. That is a problem with him not us. I think we are pretty darn great no matter what they’re saying about us on either coast.”

Greg’s earlier works were far harsher, as he gradually mellowed after throwing in the towel on landing a sports media career and settled into being a top notch family guy.

The latter was the Greg Hall I only knew tangentially…

However as I look around the Internet at some of the tributes to him, while it’s a bit foreign to me, it’s clear that in Hall’s second coming as the world’s nicest guy, he’d left much of his angry guy personality in the rearview mirror.

Check out a couple of the tributes… Continue reading →

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Hearne: The Unofficial Greg Hall Obit

Posted on January 4, 2020 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Nobody was closer to Greg Hall in his glory years than I was…

When it came to writing about sports media and the like Greg was a gifted hothead (kinda like a stable genius). Which contributed to his multiple media breakups like at the Pitch – and including the one with KC Confidential several years back.

That said, return with me now to the early 1990’s when a sports talk radio-aholic who went by the handle Husker, began his unusual ascent into the annals of local pop culture history.

Let’s start with an excerpt from my December 2014 column about Greg…

“I heard Husker one time on – I believe – 1340 AM and and called host Denny Trease to track him down. Unbeknownst to most listeners, his real name was Greg Hall.

Greg was one of the youngest in a large family of Nebraskans and he’d relocated  to Kansas City. A die hard Cornhusker and Chiefs fan, Hall became a regular (call in personality) on KMBZ 980 AM,1340 AM and KCTE-AM, a new station former Channel 4 weekend TV sports nerd Kevin Kietzman had signed on with.

In other words, when it came to sports talk radio Hall was everywhere.

And a clever rascal he was…”

Greg had carved out a unique niche, that distinguished him on local sports talk radio.

“For some time now a sports talk junkie who goes by the name of ‘Husker‘ has been making the rounds of area stations doing variations on David Letterman‘s Top 10 theme,” I wrote in the Kansas City Star in late 1994. “His identity: Greg Hall , a free-lance ad creative writer. His latest effort: A schtick on Chiefs honcho Carl Peterson‘s booting of former Chief Nick Lowery from the sidelines during a recent game. It’s called the ‘Top 10 Reasons King Carl Kicked Nick Off of the Chiefs Sidelines.’ Some highlights: ‘Carl can’t stand seeing anyone but him in an expensive trench coat; Nick was reading a copy of The Kansas City Star; Carl’s last suit from Peter’s Clothiers shrunk. ” And the No. 1 reason: “There isn’t enough room on the sideline for both Nick’s and Carl’s hair. ”

Clever stuff, right?

Anyone remember KC councilman/mayoral wannabe Dan Cofran and his memorable mustache?

A couple weeks after tracking Greg down, I called upon him to do the “Top 10 reasons Dan Cofran had a family of Czechoslovakians waiting in line at 13th and Locust.”

The councilman had hired the Czechs to stand in line for three days in order to get his name first on the ballot for KC mayor.

Some highlights:

“The Czechs figured waiting in line would be less boring than watching the Chiefs game; Cofran’s family was unavailable because they were vacationing in Czechoslovakia; the Czechs were cheaper than hiring out-of-work Royals. And the No. 1 reason: You didn ‘t think Cofran was going to stand out there in the cold, didya?”

From that point on, I called on Greg and used  his clever Top 10 lists on a regular basis. Until a new columnist dude named Jason Whitlock showed up at the newspaper and adopted Hall as his daily sports muse.

Greg’s main specialty though was grabbing and making fun of out-of-context quotes from local sports personalities like Don Fortune, Kevin Kietzman and Frank Boal.

He’d been faxing those soundbites on a weekly basis to the sports desk at the Star – and clever as they were – the sports know-it-alls had complained to him about wasting their fax paper and asked him to stop.

That’s how clued out the newspaper’s sports experts were. Continue reading →

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Sutherland: The Definitive Craig Glazer Sendoff

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.

I’ve spent some time thinking about the “was Craig Glazer really ‘Harley’” mystery…

And I’ve come down finally on the “no” side of that argument after talking with several people who knew Craig well.

First of all, the evidence for the affirmative view is largely circumstantial, i.e. Harley stopped posting comments around the time of Craig’s illness and death.

Remember, though, correlation is not causation. 

In other words, the fact that Harley going dark on KCC coincided with Craig’s demise may have been just that, i.e. a coincidence. 

I think the far more likely cause was Harley’s humiliation over the 2016 election.

Preemptive gloating on the outcome of any contested event can be fatal to one’s ego, as it apparently was with Harley – a.k.a. Jo-Jo, a.k.a. Boom-Boom – if it doesn’t turn out as you’ve loudly and obnoxiously predicted. 

The more persuasive reason to think we’re dealing with two different people was revealed to me in two lengthy conversations I had with people who knew Craig well. 

As obnoxious as Glazer could be, he was a doer, a wheeler dealer, but also someone whose reach often exceeded his grasp. 

There is no better example of this than Craig’s role in pulling off the first Chief’s Outlaw Red Friday rally in Westport in September of 1994.  Continue reading →

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Chuck: How Colin Kaepernick & ‘Me Too’ Made Me An LPGA Fan

Posted on December 26, 2019 by Chuck Lowe

Lexi Thompson

Let’s hope America is coming up for air…

After 20 years of being dominated by “scolds,” once again we’re laughing out loud at the previously “verboten”.

Dave Chappell‘s hilarious attack on the “cancel culture,” revealed that Antifa rebels were little more than brown-shirted, bandwagoning dullards seeking compliance by way violence – approved by the ersatz fascists in Washington D.C.

So, enjoy a guilt free, prurient present this Christmas season!

And maybe, just maybe, we can start telling the truth again.

Here’s one:  I love Colin Kaepernick.

Sure, he’s a dimwitted, narcissistic, overrated moron, but at least he opened up my world and forced me to watch the LPGA – that’s right – Ladies Professional Golf Association.

After I gave up on the NFL, I discovered all these gorgeous babes, playing golf on television. Seriously, what could be better than watching golf?  I’ll tell you what, watching hot, hot, hot chicks playing golf.

My metoo# guilt was encouraged by puritanical, prudish, progressives, who insisted that pre-op trannies were hot, good old-fashioned, cute GIRLS! Girls who play golf for crying out loud!

So, thanks to Chappelle and Kaepernick, a lovable lout like me can come out of the shadows and drool over girls again.

For 20 years, we guys were Fisher Kings in the dark – guarding a bygone era.

So bring on  the babes!

Take LEXI THOMPSON.

At the Indy Women In Tech Championship a couple of months back, she stood on the tee box, twice in a row and slammed a drive, straight down main street, 325 yards.

To give you an idea, of just how cool that is, Jordan Spieth averages 280 off of the tee. And her game is probably the very best over the last three years, she has no weaknesses. I seriously think that she could play on the men’s tour.

HOTNESS: Top 5.  Sweet personality and a smile that would melt the heart of Pol Pot.

WHO COULD DATE HER LOCALLY: Patrick Mahomes.  That’s it.  No one else has the gravitas, the name, or the dough. Other than that, she’s basically out of anyone else’s league in KC. Continue reading →

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Jack Goes Confidential: “Uncut Gems”—Adam Sandler’s Razor-Sharp Chaos!

Posted on December 23, 2019 by Jack Poessiger

We haven’t seen Adam Sandler quite like this since PUNCH DRUNK LOVE….

And that was back in 2002!

His latest big screen outing is a hard-hitting crime thriller called “UNCUT GEMS” directed and written by Josh and Bennie Safdie. The film’s location is New York City’s diamond district in Manhattan where we find Sandler totally transformed into a brash jewelry store owner.

He is also a compulsive  gambler. con-man, lousy husband and general low life who is constantly looking for the next big score.

Think of it as ‘Punch Drunk HUSTLE’!

And then he comes across a deal to be TOO good for his OWN good: A rare uncut hunk of a diamond that COULD change his life forever. But you guessed it, all hell breaks out instead with Sandler now barely surviving the collectors and enforcers who don’t take kindly to his latest scheme.

All this in a frantic and exhausting setting. Bad guys yelling on top of each other which should give many moviegoers a headache. Continue reading →

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Lefsetz: Which Dem Can Beat Trump?

Posted on December 23, 2019 by Bob Lefsetz

Most voters did not watch it…

Politics is show business for ugly people – Donald Trump knows this.

The RNC and DNC do not.

Come on, Trump was promoting himself using a fake name. That’s what Trump knows, fame. And his image was cemented by the Mark Burnett produced “Apprentice.”

At this point, we all know that reality TV is a creature of editing. You can look good or bad, depending upon the storyline the producers want to convey.

Donald Trump was depicted as a brilliant businessman – a hands-on billionaire who made quick decisions – who was all about the Benjamins.

And that message was conveyed week after week on network television, before it was eclipsed by Netflix and YouTube.

The issues don’t matter!

The people watching the debate already knew who they’re going to vote for.

It’s just the non-watchers who didn’t.

News trickles down to those not paying direct attention.

Oftentimes it’s inaccurate, but they don’t want to take the time to watch, to read, to research…they have other priorities.

And that’s fine.

But what they’re looking for is a star. Someone to believe in. Someone to follow. Someone to dedicate their life to.

Like musical artists.

Not actors, they play roles.

Musical artists? Their message is embedded in their songs. You believe they are these people.

But if you’re privileged enough to get up close and personal with these artists, in most cases you’re disappointed. They’re narcissistic, nonverbal and usually they are not interested in you.

The image prevails…

I could go through the history of show business and point out more stars, but one thing’s for sure, the Democrats will only win if they run one.

Tom Steyer?

I wouldn’t even want to have breakfast with him, I’d be fearful of being bored to tears.

Andrew Yang?

A nerd who struck it rich whose heart is in the right place but seems out of touch with reality, at least that which is involved with running for President.

Amy Klobuchar?

Like the girl running the bake sale. You know, like Paige Hardaway on “Atypical,” she’s always involved, always doing the right thing, but clueless as to how others perceive her.

So write those three off.

Let’s go to Pete Buttigieg.

He started off with star power, but somehow he’s lost it.

A star appears not to play the game. A star tests the limits, doesn’t shy away from them. A star, at least in the old days, is not a member of the club, but singularly in their own club.

Pete hanging with billionaires, raising money from the fat cats? Who can get behind that except for those donating?

Joe Biden? Continue reading →

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Hearne: Comments Dude Claims Glazer Was Harley

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Talk about confusing…

All this, “Who was Harley” stuff is getting out of hand, yet we’re way overdue for it all to fade into the nothingness.

However because the most controversial comments personality ever in the Kansas City blogosphere disappeared at the exact same time controversial KCC scribe Craig Glazer bit the dust, the mystery lives on.

At first blush, I bought into a theory that Glazer and Harley were one.

After all, I’d busted Glaze for making up fake comments section personalities, he’d confessed, and they were never heard from again.

But after stumbling onto emails from Glazer where he was furious over my allowing a Harley comment about a woman he was trying to hit on, I had new doubts.

How could Craig be so genuinely upset if he was the author?

Enter longtime comments section dude Super Dave with this comment:

“One of your writers, Hearne, reached out to me wanting my help with my IT connections to find out who Harley was,” it begins. “A request was made to do illegal things if need be to uncover who Harley was along with comments such as, “How much would this cost me to make happen?’

“What your writer didn’t know was that my friends were readers of your blog here and the Star in that past era of history long gone. What this writer might also not know is that all the emails and such related to the request were all kept and still stored in several places yet today by no less than three different people. You might call it ammunition for a later date sort of thing.

“But come on Hearne, some illegal activity didn’t need to take place to bust out who Harley was. Harley was Craig and Craig was Harley. Continue reading →

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