Today I reluctantly canceled my subscription to the Sunday NEW YORK TIMES…
The newspaper has been part of my Sunday morning ritual for nearly a decade, but lately it’s been more trouble than it’s worth.
Allow me to explain. Continue reading
New Jack City: NY Times Fun While It Lasted Until Contaminated by Star
Posted in Jack Poessiger
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Donnelly: Sporting Limps Into Break With 2-1 Home Loss to Montreal
This one was a big game for both teams…
Montreal came in as the #2 team in the East, with Sporting right behind in the standings.
So it was no surprise that Sporting Park was sold out, jacked, and ready to rock.
Unfortunately, according to KC captain and goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen, the team wasn’t quite as fired up as the Cauldron was. Continue reading
Posted in Matthew_Donnelly
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Starbeams: Wild Pigs @ Isle of Capri, Michael Douglas Gets ‘Oral Sex Cancer’ & Tiger Does Perkins
Millions of wild pigs are causing problems to Missouri crops. They’re also doing a number on all-you-can-eat buffet at Isle of Capri.
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Michael Douglas says he thinks he got throat cancer from oral sex. I was young! I needed the money! He said he was clean! Oh, with a chick? Never mind.
******* Continue reading
Posted in Starbeams
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Hearne: Prius Therapy for Wayward NFL Stars Like Jovan Belcher?
Shades of Jovan Belcher…
Think back to late last year and the chaotic end of the former Kansas City Chief‘s life. Belcher drove a $175,000 car, owned a small arsenal and was taking down $1.9 million a year. Not exactly chump change, but far from nosebleed levels where NFL stars are concerned. And remember how friends said Belcher argued about “normal stuff” like money with the girlfriend and mother of his child that he blew away?
Aside from the tragedy and the horror did it escape anybody’s attention that Belcher was living a ridiculously indulgent, over-the-top lifestyle? Like former Chiefs star Neil Smith who is reportedly, essentially broke.
It’s the age old story, right? Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Hearne: Wakarusa Attendees Debate This Year’s Mudathon
When it rains it pours…
There’s no way organizers of the Wakarusa fest could have predicted the monsoon and tornado threats that did in this past weekend’s fest a year in advance. And there’s only so much promoters can do when it comes to making the best of a horribly bad weather situation, given that most of their resources go into giving festival goers the best bang for their buck entertainment wise.
All of that said, the unwashed who attended this year’s 10th anniversary of the camping and music fest that started out in Lawrence, Kansas are engaged in a serious debate over how this year’s Wakarusa went down. Continue reading
Posted in Hearne_Christopher
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Car: Right Stuff Gets Short Shrift in Star’s Pretend ‘Automotive’ Section
Tom Strongman
I’ve preached to you guys about personal responsibility when it comes to your choice of cars. Maybe too much, I’ll admit. But the fact remains if you really don’t need to drive an oversized gas guzzler, you shouldn’t. It’s bad for the earth, bad for the future, selfish and helps fuel wars abroad and other abhorrent international hanky-panky.
In spite of all that, a friend of mine just bought a Porsche Cayenne.
Let’s do the math. Continue reading
Posted in Hearne_Christopher
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Edelman: ‘Spamalot’ Rocks Starlight, Now Through Thursday
Two references to excrement, hot chorus cuties in garter belts and a guy on stilts shouting “blow me”– this ain’t your granny’s Starlight, that’s for sure…
All the more reason to head out to Swope Park for the summer theater’s well-produced, wonderfully-acted opening production of MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT (now thru Thursday, June 6). Producer Denton Yockey went out on a limb with this not particularly wholesome entry to the summer’s theater fare. But judging by Saturday night’s chilly but chortling (and packed) crowd, Starlight supporters couldn’t be happier. Continue reading
Posted in Mark Edelman
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Donnelly: Wakarusa Mud People Brave Storms for Music
Things haven’t gone exactly the way someone putting on a huge, outdoor, four-day concert would have hoped.
Torrential rain, wind, and hail have descended on northwest Arkansas for the past few days, putting to the test the mettle of music fans, many of whom trekked from far to visit picturesque Mulberry Mountain. Continue reading
Posted in Matthew_Donnelly
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Hearne: Wakarusa Drowns While Pitch, Star, Journal World Slumber
It’s bad…
Global warming may be a controversial topic depending on your, um, politics, but make no mistake; the weather these days couldn’t get much weirder or worse.
Or could it?
The latest looming disaster: the Lawrence-birthed Wakarusa fest in Mulberry Mountain, Arkansas.
“200 bucks to see panic and stand in the mud all day. Plus that grueling and expensive 14 hour drive my buddies took from nc,” lamented attendee Logan Canale on the fest’s Facebook page.
“Why the fuck is waka not updating everyone by the minute?!” added an anxious J Alexander Mata of Chicago. Continue reading
Posted in Hearne_Christopher
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Hearne: Wakarusa Festival Getting Hammered by Storms
Kanrocksas isn’t the only area festival getting hammered this week…
Funny how the Kansas City Star and Lawrence Journal World are missing this story, but the area’s other big fest – Wakarusa – is in deep do-do and nobody’s talking about it.
Unlike the now defunct Kanrocksas, the fest that started in Clinton State Park in Lawrence in 2004 moved to Mulberry Mountain, Arkansas in 2009 and has been a smash success ever since.
However the widespread storms and rain that have blessed much of the drought stricken Midwest but cursed other parts with funnel clouds and tornado warnings, is taking a toll on Wakarusa 10. Continue reading
Posted in Hearne_Christopher
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Paul Wilson: Just When You Thought it was Safe to Go Back to Leawood…
Stop the presses…
Forget everything I said about loopholes, homeboy Eric Kaplan just closed them on himself. Arrested tonight just before 9;00 pm, he sits in the Johnson County Detention Center charged with stalking a second victim.
And this time out JOCO wants $50,000 before he gets to go back home. You may recall, girl number one only cost him $1,500.00.
These stalking gigs can get expensive! Continue reading
Posted in Paul Wilson
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Paul Wilson: Eric Kaplan ‘Stalking’ Case – The Early Prediction?
Go Home People, Nothing to See Here…
Criminal laws are written pretty tight for a reason. Usually, for the protection of law abiding citizens. That said, sometimes there are loop holes. In this case, alleged Overland park stalker Eric Kaplan may be the benefactor of one big enough to drive a BMW through.
The definition of stalking, according to the State of Kansas:
Recklessly engaging in a course of conduct targeted at a specific person which would cause a reasonable person in the circumstances of the targeted person to fear for such person’s safety.
GUILTY – Following a woman in a car for 15 minutes while wearing a ski mask could cause someone to fear for their safety. Continue reading
Posted in Paul Wilson
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Sounds Good: Black Crowes @ Voodoo, Lumineers @ Sandstone
So many options this weekend. 
There’s the Sporting KC game on Saturday at the Legends, featuring the 2nd place Montreal Impact squaring off against the 3rd place boys in blue.
There’s the Wakarusa Festival, a quick 5 hour drive down south to see Widespread Panic, Snoop Lion, and more.
And there’s Final Fridays in Lawrence tonight, which yes, is kinda like First Fridays in the Crossroads.
Plus some cool shows… Continue reading
Posted in Matthew_Donnelly
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Leftridge: May Royals’ Recap: Come to Suck
What a difference a month makes.
At the end of April, the Royals were 14-10. They were a game out of first place and everything was coming up daffodils. The pitching was invincible and the offense—while still not pounding out a ton of runs—was serviceable and wonderfully reliable in the clutch.
May started off with three straight victories—looking good, lads!—and then the bottom fell out. Hard.
Consecutive losses to the Baltimore Orioles. A masterful Jeremy Guthrie pitching performance that resulted in a win. Whoa!
And then, the rest.
Swept by the New York Yankees. Swept by the Oakland Athletics. Two losses against the lowly Houston Astros. Swept by the Angels. Swept by the Cardinals in KC.
Eight straight losses. Eight.
Eight wins and nineteen losses on the month.
Boom. Last place. Again. For the millionth time. Continue reading
Posted in Brandon Leftridge, Sports
Tagged Alex Gordon, Brandon Leftridge, cock-punched, KC Royals, recap
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Sutherland: I’m In With The In Crowd
Anyone who has lived in any community of any size for any length of time inescapably realizes there is an “In Crowd.”
By that term, I mean the people who not only make the decisions (financially, politically, culturally), but set the standards (and tastes) for everyone else.
Marketing gurus have often been puzzled by the underlying demographic info on the readership of various publications. The actual readers did not have the kind of levels of income and education advertisers assumed would be necessary to buy the goods and services pitched to the affluent audiences those publications were aimed at. The readership was, in other words, “aspirational.”
Closely linked to this is the uniquely American gift for reinventing yourself through social mobility. This is a constant theme in American culture and includes Benjamin Franklin’s “Autobiography,” Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby,” and Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” (best remembered as the 1999 movie with Jude Law and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as two Ivy League playboys, done in by Matt Damon as a “wanna-be” Ivy Leaguer!)
About the time that motion picture came out a scholar by the name of Jean Strouse rediscovered a fascinating woman named Belle da Costa Greene while researching her biography of Gilded Age financier J.P. Morgan. Continue reading
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
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Paul Wilson: What’s Wrong With the Johnson County Money Machine
Let’s Play Johnson County Jeopardy…
I’ll Take, “Why His Bails So Low,” for $1,500, Stephen!
Talk about ending one day with a premise and beginning the next with a 180 degree turn.
In my column yesterday about the Eric Kaplan stalking arrest and low bail, I indicated there may be a story behind the story and that I was on it. My suppositions included, but were not limited to, a well connected dad having put a Judge in a BMW from his dealership, religious and/or social affiliations, golf buddies, a high powered Jewish lawyer – you name it.
At the root of it all, I was looking for someone pulling strings that made young Kaplan’s bond what it was, a mere $1500.00. I just knew that was the answer and I was dead set on proving it.
However, the real answer appears to be a judicial system that has more ways to charge and collect fees than Bank America. With equal and deliberate intention no less. Continue reading
Posted in Paul Wilson
33 Comments
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Now You See Me’—The Closer You Look, The LESS You See
NOW YOU SEE ME is a caper thrill ride that pits an elite F.B.I. squad against a team of the world’s greatest illusionists…
It’s not the kind of thriller you’d expect to see in the summer. This sort of quality film fare usually shows up during the fall movie season.
Here we have a number of illusionists summoned by invitation to an abandoned New York City apartment where magically they become the recipients of instructions to pull off several highly involved capers.
Joining forces, they become known as The Four Horsemen with an act that would have even impressed the great Houdini. Continue reading
Posted in Jack Poessiger
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Starbeams: Retro Royals LOL, Al Qaeda Expense Reports, Grad Gifts
New Royals bumper sticker: “Kansas City RoyaLOLs.”
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The Royals have brought in George Brett to be their interim batting coach. And the team will be flying now on Braniff and we’ll all drive Datsuns and everything will be okay!
BUT ARE THEY EOE? Continue reading
Posted in Starbeams
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Paul Wilson: Monsanto – Dirty White Gold
Last weekend I drove by a larger than usual protest at the J.C. Nichols fountain on the Plaza…
There’s generally a protest de jour going down on that corner almost daily, so one becomes immune to the signs, car horns, etc. as you drive by the usual suspects picketing the most current cause. However this one was far bigger and getting far more attention – it was against Monsanto.
There are so many facets to this saga it’s hard to know where to begin.
But the whole Monsanto story is about GMO’s – genetically modified organisms. No, this isn’t about Craig Glazer, it’s about seeds, seeds and big, big business. Continue reading
Posted in Paul Wilson
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Paul Wilson: No Justice, No Piece – High Pranks 2013
Eric Kaplan
School’s out, summer’s here and pranks are a lot different than when I graduated…
At least they’re sure treated differently in the zero tolerance world we live in. If you have kids in public school, as do I, you can see firsthand how this rule works at times and not at others.
Kids can be suspended for using a finger as a play gun yet only given a “hard talk” after sending sexually violent, threatening messages on Facebook or by text. Because, according to the Johnson County District Attorney’s office, “If it happens on Facebook or the Internet we treat it differently, it’s kind of like fantasy land, people say things they don’t really mean.”
I wonder if the DA’s office wishes Columbine had been treated differently because, hey, the kid was just ranting on Facebook and the Internet, he didn’t really mean anything. Continue reading
Posted in Paul Wilson
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