KC Confidential

Chef Patrick McDonnell

My my, such sensitivity…

I’m talking about some of the reader reactions to Pitch foodie Charles Ferruzza‘s somewhat caustic review of spanking new Prairie Village mini movie and dining plex, Standees.

First, let me say, calling out a restaurant on the basis of poor execution and a substandard finished product is totally fair game. And Ferruzza was right on target there.

Second, based on my recent experience, Standees was in sore need of being called out.

Now on to the quarrelsome commentary by Pitch readers – some with apparent vested interests in Standees or its current chef – which while off topic at times, ultimately proved insightful.

Continue reading →

Anybody else sense that there may be something fishy going on at Starlight Theatre?

I mean, Starlight head dude Bob Rohlf was there 28 years and then five years back he retires and all but anointed his successor Denton Yockey.

Then all of a sudden this week, wham bam!

Just like that, Yockey is mysteriously out with no explanation other than Starlight’s board is reorganizing and dividing his duties (like Rohlf’s before him) in two. Continue reading →

There’s something wrong with me, I’m sure of it…

And after some of my sports assertions, I’m sure many of you agree. That said, I’m still rubbing my eyes, pinching myself, thunking my noggin and trying to figure out a front page sports section story in today’s Kansas City Star. 

Maybe you can help me with this one.

It’s about a friend of former Kansas City Royals star Willie Wilson buying him a new 1985 World Series ring to replace the one he had to sell when he went bankrupt in 2001.

Nevermind that the replica ring won’t have the intrinsic value of the real deal original, here’s the part I don’t get. Or do I?

And that’s that in spite of the fact that this lady’s website williewilsonbaseball.org has been soliciting money for however long to buy Wilson a new ring – and despite that the Star has a front page story today – they’re asking the public to help keep this a secret so they can surprise Wilson next month.

Would you mind re-reading that last sentence? Continue reading →

When it comes right down to it, what’s bigger in KC than the weather and the Chiefs?

I mean, really.

We’re either burning up like last summer, water logged like this one or scratching our heads about snowstorms in May or how bad last year’s Kansas City Chiefs team was.

Everything else seems almost incidental at times.

And who better to weigh in on both topics than KSHB weather wonk Gary Lezak? Continue reading →

Some of you guys can’t stand it when a local celeb weighs in here with a sports opinion… 

Contrary to your own opinion, of course. Hey, that’s understandable.

Who does whoever it is think they are? What kind of journalism is that, letting a die hard KU fan air his thoughts in a public forum? And what does an effing comedy club owner know about sports, anyway? On and on it goes.

Well, newsflash: what does anybody really know about sports?

It’s not like there’s a gene or academic degree that somehow endows someone with the ability to divine the truest essence of football, basketball or soccer.

Unless of course the so-called “expert” happens to be a learned player of the game, like Matt Donnelly. But does that rule out former yell leaders like Kevin Kietzman of WHB sports talk radio? Continue reading →

It’s Sunday, time for some light hearted diversionary journalism…

Remember the story earlier this week about Pitch parent SouthComm shuttering one of its hometown newsweeklies, Nashville’s The City Paper? In essence the tale was about how incredibly difficult it is for print pubs – especially freebies like the Pitch and City Paper – to survive. And not just because of today’s rag tag economy, but the trend away from print by the younger readers they so desperately seek.

Note that City Paper isn’t just doing away with its print edition and retaining the far cheaper to keep online version. The reason being that there’s no where near enough revenue generated online to sustain a full service weekly. That’s why, even though the Pitch online is far superior to its print “twin” – because it’s updated daily and has far more information – if and when SouthComm pulls the plug, the entire Pitch is likely to go.

Kinda like the Johnson County Sun. Anybody remember them two years after?

Now let’s lighten up. Continue reading →

Oh my gosh, this is a little disturbing…

Cruising the web to see what’s up on the Pitch and Star websites a few minutes ago, I stumbled onto one of those bogus party pics pages that the newspaper uses to up their daily “hits” counts from folks curious to see who went wherever.

Remember a week or so ago when the Star had all the pseudo hipsters having a White Trash bash? Tacky at the very least. And hypocritical when juxtaposed with the George Zimmerman race baiting the newspaper had been engaged in, that it would play the “creepy ass cracker” card so blatantly.

Or as one readers put it, “Now that they finished chastising everyone about being racially insensitive, here come the white trash party pics on their main page, with a link to the gallery. I assume the ghetto party pics are soon forthcoming?”

That was then. Continue reading →