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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
New Royals bumper sticker: “Kansas City RoyaLOLs.”
*******
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
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
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
Groundhog Day, anyone?
For the second time in three or so years, Bottom Line Communications honcho John Landsberg has announced that he will cease to exist. As a blogger.
The first time out, Landsberg said writing about local media was hurting his PR biz, but then had a practically immediate change of heart, relented and decided to stay in the game.
Until now. Continue reading
Nothing against NASCAR fans but…
Not all venues are created equal and sometimes a given location just doesn’t match up with a given event. Take the Kansas City Wizards and Arrowhead Stadium.
For the Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead is a perfect fit. However for Major League Soccer it was a bust.
Even on the rare occasions when Wizards’ crowds approached 20,000 – out of more than 80,000 available seats – the place looked like a ghost town.
Which is exactly what promoters don’t want. Continue reading
I know, I know…
After being gone a week, I’ve got bigger fish to fry, but a quick time out while I administer a little nausea medicine to myself over how predictable and lame local media can be when it comes to those bogus “best of” awards national publications dole out to garner publicity and magazine sales.
The latest?
Kansas City‘s No. 1 showing in Travel & Leisure magazine’s most affordable getaway “survey.”
I use the word survey quite lightly, given that the magazine offers no evidence whatsoever how it was conducted or what the specific results of the survey were. Rendering the “findings” in the neighborhood of zero in terms of credibility. Continue reading
Geez, I try and get away for a few days and…
The last time I left town, JJ’s blew up. This time out, Kanrocksas and Bottom Line Communications take a bullet. And there’s more.
Having just driven for like 18 hours, I’m going to take a few off to regroup and hammer these topics the way they need to be in the morning (it’s nearly 2 a.m. as we speak).
Meanwhile, let me say this about that… Continue reading
In times of fast breaking news, the traditional television network news and talk shows are not the place to be…
You’re better choice is CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.
Am I anti CBS‘s This Morning, GMA or the Today Show?
Not at all, but remember those shows are not broadcast live—unless you live on the East coast. The networks time-delay their cash cows to fit the all important 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. revenue periods throughout the country.
That’s why the actual times displayed on your screen during those broadcasts always are accurate in ALL time zones. Continue reading
