KC Confidential

Judith Hill performs at Sprint October 16th

It can difficult coming down too hard on the venue or performer, but, I’ve been lucky enough to cover artists I’m personally invested in. Josh Groban is a totally different situation but his show here a week from Wednesday has a silver lining. That being an opening act that offsets my opinion of the much loved headliner.

Groban is touring in support of his most recent album, “All That Echos.” For people buying a ticket and clamoring to see him, they probably aren’t going to get many surprises. The self-effacing, avuncular-styled Groban generally delivers an enjoyable, consistent product for his fans. It’s an interactive experience with him frequently taking questions from the crowd, cracking jokes and having a great time while on stage.

And Groban’s incomparable, richly textured baritone voice has few equals. Continue reading →

John Landsberg

Yesterday Hearne pointed out an article written by John Landsberg, media mogul at Bottom Line Communications…

I hadn’t seen the story but apparently Hearne is among Landsberg’s eight or ten readers and he asked me for my thoughts. So I decided to write a story about it for one reason and one reason only; hoping I could write a story Mysterious J could get all of the way through.

In Landsberg’s September 25th post entitled, “Popular Science Joins Others in Shutting Off Comments,” his thesis was based on the 114 year old magazine announcing it was shutting down its blog comments section, stating that comments can be “bad for science.”

Landsberg pointed this out as a trend “sweeping the country.”  Continue reading →

I’m sure most of you’ve seen the news about the NYC bikers who go by the name Hollywood Stuntz…

They mounted up Sunday for their end of summer ride to Times Square. A ride that resulted in a road rage incident in Manhattan on the Hudson Parkway between the bikers and the driver of a black Ranger Rover, his wife and two year-old child.

One biker, Christopher Cruz, 28, was charged with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly starting the incident by cutting in front of  the Range Rover then slowing down while staring at its driver, causing the car to bump into the back tire of the bike. The driver, Alexian Lien, pulled over then was surrounded by Cruz other bikers who hit the vehicle and spiked its tires, police say.

Lien then pulled away, frightened for his family, plowing into three bikers and over one  of them, breaking his legs and causing spinal injuries that left him paralyzed.

The bikers continued to chase the Ranger Rover, cornering the SUV after it became stuck in traffic. A video shows one of the bikers smashing the driver’s window, whereupon they dragged him out and beat him as his wife and child looked on.  Continue reading →

1958 Chevy Cameo

Having a life long interest in collector cars, I can’t tell you the number of rumors I’ve chased down to find nada at the end of the hunt…

A few of my dream searches came true. I tracked down a 1938 Talbot-Lago T-150 CSS in a shipping container in the back yard of a residential neighborhood in Southwest Missouri. Unfortunately the guy knew what he had and there was no buying it.

I heard a rumor about an attorney’s estate in Brookside where there reportedly was a 1960 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sport Special. He’d bought it at the factory in Milano, toured Europe with his wife then shipped it back to the states and, being an attorney, managed to fabricate “paperwork” for a car that should have never left Italy. That car did find it’s way to my garage.

I stumbled across a one of a kind open wheel vintage race car at a Lawrence, Kansas automotive swap meet. It was in baskets and mostly complete. I just had a feeling about it, so it too came home and I was right. Continue reading →