KC Confidential

Spinach Salad with candied walnuts and goat cheese and Chocolate Lava cake are among the offerings in the living room theaters at Cinetopia.
Photo by Steven Lane

How many failed efforts, how much mediocre movie cuisine must this Cowtown endure?

You know, before somebody gets the picture that upscale, dine-in movie theater food is not a viable proposition in Kansas City.

Because no less than six (count ’em) theaters have tried it, with disappointing (at best) results.

The two in Zona Rosa promptly went toes up. Cinemark on the Plaza has been in the game for more than 10 years, but its single, small auditorium is so tiny it feels like a rich guy in Hallbrook’s home theater. And who even remembers it exists in the grand scheme of things anymore.

AMC lost its you-know-what at the Mainstreet downtown before passing the baton to Alamo Drafthouse last year. But sources say that neither did enough biz to wad a popgun, and as a frequent flyer at both theaters, I can tell you the food was and remains, mediocre at best. Ditto for AMC’s Fork & Screen and Cinema Screens at its 30-plex in Olathe. Continue reading →

Let the record show KC Confidential has been home-sweet-home to some of the most ridiculous, stupid, boring, obscene comments imaginable…

It’s also given birth to some of the best, funniest, quirkiest and informative comments. And unlike some sites, almost all of the commenters here use either real names or a recognizable nom de plume. That enables readers to develop a familiarity and to get to know and form opinions about the people behind the anonymous comments.

Like who doesn’t have a pretty strong opinion about Harley, whoever he or she may be. There’s the dude, balbonis, Mysterious J – the list goes on. They come and they go and you love them and/or you hate them.

But I think most of you will agree, it beats the heck out of  just “anonymous.”

With the odd exception, “anonymous” is mostly boring to me. It’s kinda like an out of date fashion that someone who doesn’t know any better still wears. I mean, it’s better than nothing and can be entertaining or informative, but… Continue reading →

I’ve always been more than a little skeptical…

You know, about this Secret Santa business. For a couple of reasons, starting with I met and got to know the dude who played the role for just under 30 years. And I got a closer read on him, like the time he heartlessly dropped the hammer on a local single mom photographer for basically little more than minor league pissing him off.

He did so, after calling me one weekday afternoon at the Kansas City Star bragging about being on a private California beach and boozing with Alex Karras. Karras was a former footballer who played Mongo in the movie Blazing Saddles and knocked out a horse. I was supposed to be impressed. I was, but not in a particularly good way.

Still for people of the Mike Murphy generation – the former KCMO AM talk show host who died two years ago – “Secret Santa” was a BFD. Which was exactly the way Stewart wanted it and got it.

Which ties in with another reservation I had about Stewart’s motives. Continue reading →

How many times must we re-plow the same unartful furrow before getting it right?

According to internet blogosaurs like Tony – you know, the local dude who prides himself on the (over) use of catchy terms like “awesome TKC tipsters” and “dead tree media” – there are no limits on what should be allowed in the comments sections of online blogs and news and entertainment websites. The sky’s the limit, or perhaps better said, the bottom of the barrel.

Having little apparent understanding of  journalism, legalities, let alone what passes for good taste – or even the mere recognition that any boundaries whatsoever exist – these untrained, unrestrained bloggers open their arms wide to embrace crass, depraved screeds from anonymous posters with undeclared agendas…regardless of how abhorrent.

Common sense, civility and the slightest nod to good taste are out the window in the interest of “free speech.” That said, remember free speech does not include shouting fire in crowded venues, nor does it absolve one of criminal and/or civil liability. Continue reading →

Mission accomplished…

It wasn’t easy, but the friends and family of former KC boxer Tommy Morrison did indeed prevail and he was buried very quietly in a Sulphur Springs, Arkansas cemetery alongside members of his family.

“He has a headstone and everything and his mother was allowed to bury his ashes and so forth,” says former Morrison backer Susan Martin. “I think his wife Trisha figured out that nobody was going to buy his ashes and nobody was going to go to her tour stops where she was going to talk about the past two years of Tommy’s life and she was supposedly going to sell whatever she had to sell.”

A brief refresher:   Continue reading →