Deck the Halls…
Halls Plaza will close next summer and consolidate into a larger, remodeled Halls Crown Center some 20 blocks away. The downside; this is the last anchor tenant and old guard, local store left on the Plaza. On a positive note, this will consolidate all the pretentiousness into a single location.
Reliable sources tell me that three new tenants will occupy the old Halls space; Dollar General, Dollar Store and Dollar Tree. Continue reading
Lauren Ward
Disses Hickman Mills & Kansas City
About last night’s gargantuan Tony Awards ceremony in New York…
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the Kansas City Star‘s three front page feature stories Sunday implied that Kansas City was in for a big night on Broadway.
“Spotlight is on Kansas City at Sunday Night’s Tony Awards,” read the headline.
The implication being that Hickman Mills grad Lauren Ward and the KC Rep’s “A Christmas Story, The Musical” were strong candidates to bring home big time Broadway theater awards so we should all watch last night’s Tony Awards.
I mean, this was front page deal, right? Wrong. Continue reading
A black bear sighting has been confirmed near Nevada, Missouri. Experts say a black bear is very similar to a polar bear, except it’s a much better dancer.
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Your iPhone has 20 times more bacteria than your toilet. Michael Douglas has already claimed to have caught something from SIRI.
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There’s a reason the Kansas City Star promotes its Sunday edition as a coupon cornucopia…
Starting with the fact that it’s a no brainer. Smart businesses market to their strengths and clearly the Star views the vast tonnage of grocery coupons and ad inserts as it’s strong suit. And I’m sure for many people that’s true, but for many others like me, eh.
Paging through today’s Star, it struck me, not for the first time but it hit home, there really isn’t very much news or compelling content in the Sunday paper. Despite that it’s the newspaper’s main profit center.
It’s mostly filler really. Continue reading
Analysts agree that Dozier’s tight shirts enhanced his draft potential.
“With the eighth overall pick in the 2013 Major League Baseball amateur draft, the Kansas City Royals take O’Jesus Whogivesashit from For Fuck’s Sake State University.”
Or that might as well have been what they said. Because honestly, who SERIOUSLY gives a shit at this point? The team is awful again, the organization is appalling and the ability to draft and develop—it’s mostly a “development” issue, according to analysts—is embarrassingly bad.
So okay, okay, they took shortstop Hunter Dozier, a 6’4”, 220 lbs junior from Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas. The internet (via ESPN.com) said this about Dozier:
“There are amateur shortstops that can stay up the middle. Then there are those who will likely need to move to third base. Dozier fits in the latter category, but it looks like he has the profile for the hot corner. Big and strong, Dozier was putting up gaudy numbers during his junior season to move up Draft boards as the spring progressed.”
Well that’s just splendid. Continue reading
An overturned tanker on I-70 near the stadiums is causing major traffic problems. The cause of the overturn is unknown, but police have ruled out a Royals home run ball.
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Leonardo DiCaprio reportedly got busy with 7 women on his yacht during the Cannes Film Festival.
Not to brag, but I once did that on my john boat at Wyandotte County Lake. Continue reading
Will Gregory
About fleeing-the-scene media blogger John Landsberg…
First a quick reminder, I too will miss his “reporting” on the comings and goings of local television newsies. Landsberg’s takes may have been fuddy-duddy at times (and they were), but Bottom Line did its best filling a niche nobody else has really attempted to fill since the women folk in FYI at the Star ran off media dude Barry Garron in the 1990s.
Let me go on record here that I too will don a black armband when Landsberg moves his grandpa sweater collection to South Carolina.
As a going away gift to readers however, he opened up with some departing shots and explanations about local media and himself.
Let’s take a look. Continue reading
There are benefits to driving hundreds of miles into the desert…
Besides of course, the roadside marvels, gourmet dining, etc. For one, I got to check out a local alt weekly, The Santa Fe Reporter.
Funny thing.
In a town roughly one-twentieth the size of KC, during what might be described as the “off season,” The Reporter is whomping ass by comparison to the Pitch with 56 pages, more than 60 percent of them ads. Compared to a recent 44 page Pitch with less than 60 percent ads – many of which were promotional “Pitch Presents” ads, likely to have been discounted or free.
Now brace yourself for a sex shocker. Continue reading
Inquiring minds want to know…
What was it that caused KCTV to bid an un-fond adieu to “Better Kansas City” co-host Kelly Jones while retaining her on air partner Lisa Holbrook?
While the comments section is more often than not a minefield of misinformation and caustic cracks, every once in a while what appears to be a hidden truth will surface.
Take “interesting facts” entry yesterday in the story about Jones unhappy seeming departure from Channel 5: “another rumor has it was too many complaints about her.”
Bingo!
So says a source who spoke with stationalities at KCTV about the waffle-loving, not-so-dearly departed lifestyle show host. Continue reading
“The Way We Live Now” was the memorable title of an Anthony Trollope novel from the 1870’s. It would apply just as aptly to the books of a contemporary author, Thomas M. Caplan.
I had the pleasure of meeting Caplan a couple of years ago in New York. When we introduced ourselves and he heard I was from Kansas City, he startled me by asking me what we would be having for lunch if we were having it at the Plaza III restaurant in Kansas City that day.
After I told him about their signature steak soup, prime rib, and creamed spinach, Caplan explained that he was writing a spy thriller set in Kansas City and had decided to start the book by one of its characters eating at that restaurant. Continue reading
Is anyone really surprised that it doesn’t matter who the President is when it comes to abuse of power?
The revelations coming out today about the National Security Agency‘s (NSA) spying on Americans – which coincidentally leaked out on the 64th anniversary of Orwell‘s “1984” – show that every communication Americans engage in is being recorded and catalogued.
All the media companies – not just Verizon but Apple, Google, Sprint, et al – are under “secret court orders” to help gather, record and turn over those records to the Government. You don’t even have to be suspected of any wrongdoing.
EVERYTHING IS BEING MONITORED!!! Continue reading
This just in…
When’s the last time you had – you know – heavy duty romance at the movies?
Never?
Well, here’s your chance. The days when drive-in movie theaters were called “passion pits,” owing to the conveniences afforded by dark parking lots and steamed up car windows are in the rear view mirror. And chances are many if not most of you missed out on that action. Like I did.
But tonight you can travel back in time – free of charge – to the Boulevard Drive-In at 1051 Merriam Lane in KCK. Continue reading
I SO very much wanted to like this movie…
And I sorta did, but I sure didn’t love it. Maybe my expectations were just too high.
THE INTERNSHIP – which reteams Vince Vaughn with Owen Wilson – just doesn’t measure up to THE WEDDING CRASHERS which had ’em rolling in the aisles back in 2005.
For both laughs and raunch.
WEDDING CRASHERS was a solid R while INTERNSHIP uses a softer PG-13 approach. Continue reading
Kanrocksas Promoter Bill Brandmeyer
After Kanrocksas pulled the plug a week and change ago, reaction was mostly along the lines of “Fuck Kanrocksas!” I’m paraphrasing, of course, but that was the gist of it.
Ahhh, the internet.
But if you want a more measured and practical take, check out a good analysis written by David Hudnall over at the Pitch. He says a lot of things that I totally agree with regarding the balance sheet and why the fest was doomed from the get-go. Good read.
Now go out and see the shows I’m hyping. Otherwise I get no free beer… Continue reading
Maybe now she’ll date the Scribe…
I don’t watch much local television news. Never did really…
I’ve spent far more time reporting on and writing about local TV news personalities than basking in their tube time.
Stories that ranged from a major news anchor who a Kansas City Police Chief told me was arrested in Westport for flashing a two girls – the matter was dropped after the women opted not to press charges, the chief said – to trying to track down whether Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton hit on former, smoking hot Channel 4 anchor Kelly Minton.
Neither of those stories made it into my column, despite there being plenty of evidence to support both.
Which brings us to KCTV’s Kelly Jones. Continue reading
As I’ve written previously, it would be a stupid decision by the West to go to war in Syria and my prediction is being validated…
Not only has Syrian President Bashir-Al-Assad solidified his control of the capital, Damascus, he’s now winning back territory from the “Rebel Scum.”
Why do I refer to the rebels as scum and support the “dictator?” Because its the pro-Israel thing to do!!!
A few examples of misguided “NeoCon” policies… Continue reading
About the closing of the Halls Plaza retail store this summer…
This is no minor bump in the road, ladies and gentlemen. The shuttering of one of Kansas City’s most prestigious retail operations by arguably it’s most prestigious, locally headquartered corporation is not a good sign. Not a good sign at all.
Check out how Halls describes its Plaza location on its website:
“Halls Plaza is a luxuriously appointed jewel in the crown of Kansas City’s most famous and prestigious shopping district, the Country Club Plaza.”
Got that? Halls Plaza is the jewel in Kansas City’s crown jewel, that being the Plaza.
There’s more. Continue reading
Every now and then, we need stories that help to restore our battered faith in modern man…
While we hear about tornadoes in Oklahoma – a tragedy of enormous magnitude – a smaller but equally devastating disaster is taking place up north in the land of the self reliant individual. In Galena, Alaska.
As much news as I consume on a daily basis, I hadn’t heard anything about it, yet 90% of the tiny town has been wiped off the map. Continue reading
Here’s one that kinda slipped between the news cracks recently…
That Wichita is considering fines of up to $1,000 a month on residents and businesses that use too much water.
We don’t hear too much about water shortages in these parts – not like my adopted cities of Tucson and Santa Fe – but a wise old sage at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum advised my young daughters several years ago to study hard and specialize in water rights law for the future. Continue reading
Six down, sixty some to go…
The reapportioning of the rock festival formerly known as Kanrocksas continues. This time out Live Nation will present headliners Imagine Dragons, Capital Cities, twentyonepilots, Family of the Year and Churchill at Starlight on Friday June 28th.
Crossroads KC already snagged Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros late last week to headline on Saturday June 29th, on what would have been Kanrocksas second and final day.
Make no mistake, the Dragons bill at Starlight – a mini fest in its own right – is coup for both the theater and Kansas City music fans. Continue reading
