KC Confidential

Everybody loves a winner…

Up to a point – or maybe in the case of controversial media types – love to hate.

But where fallen WHB sports radio personality Kevin Kietzman is concerned, it would appear that next to nobody has anything approaching even like, let alone love at this point.

It’s a fairly safe bet that Kietzman is still shaking what’s left of his now fully-exploded head and wondering whatever happened to the friends and admirers he once took for granted. Friends who now seem more likely to speak publicly about how much they like Donald Trump or walk around in “Make America Great” caps, than admit Kietzman maybe got a rough deal.

One false move, a single slip – and a stellar career and superstar broadcasting status – was wiped away for all time. Every positive thing Kietzman ever said or did, is now a moot point, forever obscured by this single, unforced error.

Gotta be a tough way to go.

Cause like the song says, “Nobody loves you when you’re down and out.”

Not even Kietzman’s longtime friend and partner Chad Boeger, who apparently had little choice other than to fire his founding partner and broadcast superstar, then buy out his interest in WHB after untold numbers of advertisers and listeners threatened to boycott the station. Continue reading →

What a difference a day makes…

It was like Wednesday night was the kiddie table, and last night it was the adults, playing for real.

Marianne Williamson had it right. It’s not about specifics, policies, it’s about playing Donald Trump‘s game and beating him. The news says it’s about the weeds, when clearly it’s about the forest.

Now it’s a conundrum.

Where a couple of candidates are ahead of the public, most specifically Bernie Sanders. People attacked him for his radical ideas, but his message, that the hoi polloi have gotten screwed for 40 years and radical change is necessary resonated.

Incremental change is a thing of the past. That’s one thing Trump realized and Bernie has too. You’re playing the long game. It’s not about individual debates, you stick to your message and pray that it resonates.

That’s what screwed up Joe Biden.

He’s playing old style politics. Look at what I’ve done in the past and give me the reins.

Isn’t this exactly what snuffed-out Hillary Clinton‘s campaign?

Turns out people don’t want safe, they want change. Trump couldn’t fulfill all of his promises and Sanders or Elizabeth Warren won’t be able to either. D.C. doesn’t work that way. But the little things do count, like the appointment of Supreme Court Justices. Of course that’s a big thing – maybe the biggest thing – but it doesn’t resonate with voters. They’re interested in the veneer, not what’s inside.

Blame it on the educational system, blame it on a lack of time or interest – but just like people don’t want to know what goes into a hot dog, they just eat ’em – npeople want to turn over their problems to one person. They don’t want to dedicate their lives to politics.

But politics has become the story of the day Continue reading →

Answer the damn question…

I support Elizabeth Warren, but when asked about guns, she veered into gibberish and never tacked back. Why couldn’t she just speak English? Guns are a big problem in society but they’re here forever. We’re never gonna take guns away from licensed owners, but our goal is to increase public safety.

BINGO!

I’ve got a friend who agrees with a lot Warren has to say, but is literally afraid she’s gonna take his gun away – therefore he won’t vote for her. I tried to convince him his gun is going nowhere, but he doesn’t believe it.

Living in the mountain west he believes firearms are necessary for protection out in the wild and he’s been convinced by right wing rhetoric that Warren is gonna round up the guns. That would be fine with me, but that ain’t America. In the land of little pink houses guns are part of the fabric, seen as freedom.

As for the Second Amendment and rising militias, that’s just hogwash, people just love their guns, end of story.

Politicians.

I know it’s a long road to the nomination – never mind the election – but when you waffle, when you won’t own an idea, people lose faith in you. And what we need now more than ever is faith, belief.

“Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon

Going to the candidates’ debate

Laugh about it, shout about it

When you’ve got to choose

Every way you look at this you lose”

That’s the song that’s been going through my head this week, “Mrs. Robinson,” by Simon & Garfunkel. Continue reading →

It’s seldom these days I find a sequel or spin-off that’s better than its predecessor…

But that is exactly what’s happening at the movies THIS weekend.

TOY STORY 4 is just about everything one could wish and look forward to in Pixar’s legendary series, which first took the silver screen by storm some 24 years ago.

Before getting into the meat and potatoes of this terrific computer-animated comedy I must relate the disclosure advisory that came with Disney’s screening notice of the film:

“In order to give audiences around the world the opportunity to enjoy our movies to the fullest and allow them to discover any surprises and plot twists, we respectfully ask that you as press refrain from revealing spoilers and detailed points in your coverage.”

Fair enough.

So with that in mind, back to the beloved continuation which shows absolutely no creative slippage from 2010’s “TOY STORY 3″.

Come to think of it, this new installment comes complete with a fresh—and dare I suggest —even MORE creative approach.

And the look and feel of this vivid, animated presentation here is simply stunning.

As for the story line? Continue reading →

The mainstream media is always last…

No, wait a minute…even if you hate Elizabeth Warren you’ve got to hear what I say because it applies to you. The issue is how do you get famous and have your ideas heard in America today.

You’ve got to do the work and you must be selling substance.

Elizabeth Warren is on the road.

Most of the audiences are relatively small. There’s not a ton of press coverage of each event.

She’s just like a crack band bubbling under, that is not understood by the mainstream, is seen as an also-ran and then…THEY BLOW UP!

Can you say Bruce Springsteen? His first LP was an anomaly, not representative of his sound, the band was there, but deep in the background, “Greetings From Asbury Park” was more New Dylan than the Springsteen we all now know.

But the sound was there for everybody to hear on “The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.” Now Springsteen was no longer the new thing. And the mix on the LP was a bit muted, it lacked edge. So the album didn’t sell and Bruce went on the road convincing consumers one by one.

If you saw him, you talked about him.

Until that famous moment when music critic Jon Landau said he’d seen the future of rock and roll and the tide turned. The Landau article was in Boston’s Real Paper, the paper of record amongst the youth, devoured by everybody. Landau’s review wasn’t first, but it was the most important.

Same deal with Elizabeth Warren.

She’s been around for years. Mostly in the background until the right started attacking her. And before you get your knickers in a twist you righties, know that she wanted to protect the populace, the rank and file, from the corporations. You can’t be against that unless you’re sucking at the tit of the corporation yourself, making seven figures, and that’s a very small number of people. You’re getting screwed and don’t even realize it. Those insane interest rates on your credit cards? Warren wanted to stop them.

But Warren was depicted as a schoolmarm and no one on the left ran to her side, to defend her, because they don’t want to get caught up in any war that doesn’t benefit them directly – they don’t want the potential stink upon them.

So Warren went her own way and ran for Senate and won.

This is the act that refuses to do what the A&R person says to. Who won’t cowrite, who won’t work with the producer du jour, who has a sound he or she wants to get down and doesn’t want any interference. But can you go on your own, do it your way, prove it yourself?

We hear about the winners, but not the losers.

The truth is most people are scared to do it by themselves, they’re convinced they won’t succeed. They tell themselves they need money, that it’s undoable. But even today, if you’ve got the goods and you play live, or release an undeniable hit like Lorde, you can make it.

Then Warren got into the Senate and spoke English.

Nobody speaks English in D.C., it doesn’t behoove you.

You obfuscate, keep the lobbyists close, it’s all about raising money for your reelection campaign. Screw the people you’re representing, you give them lip service, but your true constituency is the corporations. And when someone comes along and blows the whistle on that, says she’s for the people, you blanch.

So the shadow news is where movements start, where stories break. And if you don’t think they have power, look at Steve Bannon and Breitbart.

But when the noise becomes big enough, when it’s loud enough, the mainstream media dives in, it wants to own the story. And this is a good thing if you’re the act/purveyor, it signals to everybody paying attention that you’ve made it. Whereas if you get the publicity first, it’s wasted, today you have to have something to back it up. Continue reading →

Uh, this would be “me”

Make no mistake, Kansas City loves its barbecue…

As evidenced in no small part by the barbecuing I just took on my Facebook page over yesterday’s Quinton Lucas piece. Check it out.

On second thought, allow me to shall share a couple of the more incendiary ones.

“Just what the hell are you doing, Hearne Christopher?” Phillip begins. “How dare you. Even hinting of outing someone who doesn’t say one way or the other is pretty evil.”

“This is ugly, awful gossip,” adds Jaime. “It is only his business, and other than how he advocates for all Kansas citians, it has no bearing on his qualifications or ability to lead. I expected better from you.”

“You ought to be fucking horsewhipped,” adds Chris. “How dare you?”

You get the picture…

Not that there wasn’t a comment or two – out of dozens – that actually got it.

“I don’t understand the uproar—the article doesn’t even remotely hint that being homosexual is bad or anything that would approach hate of a minority group,” writes Martha. “It’s just asking is Lucas authentic, is (he) really showing who he is to the public?
Isn’t journalism supposed to make us think outside our comfort zone, or should it just be a monotone repetition of popular in-vogue adherences?
I think the commenters do protest too much.”

Does it matter if Lucas is gay? Not to me, but probably to some…like the big shots and special interests backing him (of which there are many).

One point former KC First Lady Gloria Squitiro made in her new book that Dwight Sutherland reviewed recently; that Kansas City is controlled by big business and special interest groups.

In all likelihood – if Lucas is gay – those kinda people would probably prefer to keep that on the down low until after the election. Kinda like South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg did for three years after he was elected as a straight dude.

And just as the prominent Democrat political operative quoted in my story noted, the “black community” prefers to believe Lucas is straight and has a white girlfriend “tucked away” somewhere.

So why would Lucas want to hide the fact that he had a white girlfriend – or that he was gay – were either true? To avoid turning off voters who might find either one distasteful is the obvious answer. Continue reading →

There’s a good chance the next mayor of Kansas City will be gay…

And I’m not talking about Kansas City councilman Jolie Justus.

Because according to several sources, the openly gay Justus’s opponent, Quinton Lucas, is also gay…just not out of the proverbial closet yet.

“I heard that Quinton Lucas is closeted gay,” says one prominent gay woman professional.  “And that there may have been a man in the car with him.”

That in reference to Lucas’s high profile DUI bust in Lawrence late last year.

After months of legal maneuvering Lucas made a deal with the court to write a check and dodged a bullet by getting the charges dropped. And thanks to the hush hush way Lawrence Police and prosecutors handled his case, the full  police report and dash cam video of his arrest have been kept hidden from the public.

More on that, in a minute…

Back to the the reason Kansas City, Missouri  is likely to field its first gay mayor:

“Because both candidates are gay,” says one politically active Westport businessman, Lucas supporter and donor. “That story’s been out there for a long time.”

Ditto, adds another Lucas supporter and midtown businessman: “Quinton will be Kansas City’s first closeted mayor.”

There’s more…

“You hear lots of different rumblings about that,” says one politically active woman marketing exec who asked not to be named. “And I’m not sure that he is, but I hear from the gay community that he is. But the black community thinks he’s got some white girlfriend tucked away and that he’s straight. But gay guys are adamant that he goes to gay bars.”

Knowing Lucas as well as she does, the exec’s best guess as to which way he swings:

“I think I would go with gay, because he’s lied about so many things (to me) that he’s adept at it,” she says.

Adds an openly gay woman mental health professional,  “I heard that he was (gay) from two separate people at two different functions. Obviously, no one is upset about him being gay, but they call him a douchebag because he hides it while Jolie is totally out.”

Back to Lucas’s DUI bust… Continue reading →

Politics is show business for ugly people…

But this year, the politicians are playing the game better than the entertainers.

You’ve got to be able to say no. That’s one thing a musician no longer is capable of. If you’re willing to pay, they’ll show up. They’ll even sing for dictators. There’s no endorsement they won’t sign on to. The whole enterprise is built on cash, and everybody wants some, in fact they want more.

But Elizabeth Warren won’t take corporate donations.

Leaving her potentially with less cash, but a stronger bond to the rank and file.

The North Vietnamese won the war because of hearts and minds. South Vietnam and the U.S. didn’t have them. America felt its firepower could conquer anybody, but this proved to be untrue, it couldn’t overcome the guerilla tactics of its opponent.

You play to everybody, not just those with the cash or the supposed power.

A cache of individuals can always exceed the power of the so-called “man.”

Especially today, when the tide is turning. Continue reading →

critical consensus proclaims Late Night to be: “Smart, timely, and brought to life by a terrific cast, LATE NIGHT is a workplace comedy with a lot of heart—and just as many laughs.”

The low budget independent movie made quite an impact at this year’s Sundance Film Festival where Amazon Studios acquired its U.S. distribution rights for a record $13 million.

So what’s up here?

“LATE NIGHT” is a diversity-hire, media dramedy.

It stars Emma Thompson as British-born veteran TV talk show hostess Katherine Newbury whose New York City based ‘Tonight with Katherine Newbury’ program is frankly getting a bit long in the tooth.

Her writer’s pool? All male.

Now the network wants to replace her with a fresher, hipper host.

Time to take diversity action! Continue reading →

Long time, no see…

After a couple weeks off, returning to the task at hand brings to mind the state of local print journalism. What’s left of it, anyway. Because it’s impossible to escape the fact that pretty much across the board the Kansas City Star, Pitch and Lawrence Journal World are hanging on by mere threads.

Let’s start with the Pitch… 

By all rights the Pitch is the journalistic equivalent of a dead man walking.

The local news weekly has never really been profitable according to sources over the years. Not even in its hey day in the late ’90s / early 2000s when it did 60, 70, 80, 100 page issues or more…as a weekly.

These days, as a weakly – as in a monthly – it’s lucky to choke out 32 or 36 pages with gosh knows how many (or few) paid ads. Both of its former parent publishing company owners are now pushing up daisies.

Unfortunately for the current local owners – who continue to choke it out despite impossible market conditions – not only is there no money to be made, the future looks even bleaker.

Today’s Pitch is basically a one-man-operation with a smattering of freelancers keeping it afloat by writing entertainment reviews, more than likely for the joie de vivre (free meals and tickets to the events they review).

Other than being able to look backwards to stories from its glory days when the alt weekly laid the pipe to me and whomever else, there’s precious little in the way of new news to be found.

Too bad.

Then again, unlike legacy alt weeklies like The Village Voice and Boston Phoenix – wildly successful pubs that are dead and gone – almost by dumb luck, the Pitch is alive and kicking, churning out red ink.

Which brings us to the Lawrence Journal World... Continue reading →

I’ve been chided in the past for overlooking small, independent films in favor of major big budget studio releases…

This week I rectify those (unjust) accusations by focusing on a fresh, funny new coming-of-age comedy.

It’s a ‘small’ film called “BOOKSMART” that delivers on its title and promise—and THEN SOME!

The premise for “BOOKSMART” begins as the two smartest girls in their high school senior class come to realize that they haven’t had any social life. That they should have worked less and played more.

But it’s not too late as these two best friends are determined not to fall short of the rest of their class and now attempt to cram four years of lost fun into just one night. And DO THEY EVER!

“SUPERBAD” memories anyone? Continue reading →

What goes around comes around…

Seems like only yesterday theaters proclaimed in newspaper directory ads that certain movies showing in their multiplexes would be presented in the “revolutionary new” digital format.

(We still HAD newspaper movie ads back then.)

It was definitely an expensive transformation process for the industry.

Then before we knew it just about every major theater complex—with the assistance of the Hollywood studios—had converted to digital to the estimated tune of $100,000.- per auditorium.

A benefit for the distributors?

Which eliminated the lab costs of striking 35mm film prints, n expense which could run between $1,200.- and $1,600.- PER.

Savings to exhibitors included the cost of shipping these film prints as well as building them up and eventually tearing down the movies again in their projection booths.

The big plus for moviegoers, of course, was–and continues to be—a pristine screen presentation. No scratches, dirt,  bad splices or out of frames scenes to suffer through.

In other words the superb visual quality of “AVENGERS: ENDGAME” you saw on opening night will look and play exactly alike for weeks to come on that same screen. Continue reading →

Before…

The painfully long slide of Lawrence Journal World took a giant leap last weekend…

From appearances, the 108 year -old newspaper of record for Lawrence – proud home of the University of Kansas and its Jayhawk sports teams – is hanging by a thread.

Over the past weekend its remaining die hard survivors suffered the indignity of an embarrassing move from the Journal World‘s proud, high profile home in downtown Lawrence to a cheesy, nondescript strip center just off Interstate 70.

No longer will its reporters and interns freely roam the heart of the city by foot as it has for decades. Instead they’ll have to drive for miles from an industrial area near the city’s outskirts and play parking meter poker with shoppers and KU students.

It’s been a downhill trajectory for the Journal World since hiring me briefly to write a weekly column in 2012 until it was unloaded three years ago by publisher Dolph Simons, Jr.

Most halfway high profile writers and editors have quietly gone for dirt naps or fled to faraway cities like Boston. Continue reading →