Remember when bowl games were about Top 10 teams playing one another?
When you’d turn on the tube and see a stadium full of fans in the beautiful climes of say Florida and watch two college teams that actually mattered. And maybe they each had 8 or 9 wins?
Today there are something like 35 bowl games! WTF. Continue reading
We’ve all been wondering who would replace the beautiful Holly Starr as the new It Girl in KC…
The answer is now loud and clear; it’s KELLY JONES of KCTV. Jones has been saying, “Good Morning” to Kansas City since April of 2010 and she’s one of the most accomplished young ladies I’ve ever met. Continue reading
Think of it as the sorcerer’s companion…
The new Prospero’s Uptown Books at 3600 Broadway isn’t just another bookstore. After all, bookstores as we knew them are a dying breed. One of the many victims of technology and the Internet along with magazines, newspapers, CDs, DVDs and books themselves.
These are fast-changing times and in order to survive bookstores need to have a lot going for them. Like a vast array of offerings, competitive pricing and comfortable, attractive digs. And personality, food, libations, art, entertainment, a great location and a reasonable overhead wouldn’t hurt.
Guess what? Continue reading
So here we are, yet again. Another year has shed its skin, and along with it, all of the nastiness and strife has been washed away. We are ready to be born anew into the healthy optimism of an entirely new existence. And although nothing has changed but the turn of a calendar page (as if anyone anywhere actually USES a paper calendar anymore), the slate has been wiped clean. The blood you spilled and the tears you shed in 2012 are but a distant, hazy memory; the frozen burritos you ate naked in the kitchen at 3am are expunged from your record. You are a new person and you are absolved of any prior guilt.
And to this end, you must celebrate.
You’re too old (or smart) for the Power and Light however, and due to budgetary concerns, renting a tuxedo for something a little more opulent is out of the question.
And so you’ll host a party.
But to ensure that your party is a hit, you need some help.
To this end, please enjoy “Brandon’s Awesomely Lavish List of Spectacular Party Ideas for the Eve,” or “BALLS PIE,” if you will. Continue reading
I’m back people! Finally emerging from my holiday nog funk. If anyone wants to know how much nog is too much, get in touch and I’ll give you the breakdown...
Well, another year has come and gone, and so as usual, I’m taking stock of my 10 favorite shows from 2012. If you didn’t make it out to at least ten burners over the past 365, shame on you! There was certainly no shortage of killer local, national, and international performers swinging through our quiet little cowtowns, so step yo game up, get out of your sweats, and stop being lame yo.
Here’s my list, in no particular order: Continue reading
Well, it’s over after this Sunday…
A few surprises. The Chiefs being horrible was not one of them, at least not to this proven NFL guru. All one had to do was look at the entire preseason to know that the Chiefs would suck again.
The big surprises were Seattle and the Colts. Seattle with what looks like the NFL’s best D and maybe, just maybe the best offense, could be the sleeper Super Bowl Team. Look out.
With all that said, here are final NFL week picks as well as some tasty Bowl games.
And yes, I will do the playoffs and final bowl games later. Continue reading
Now let’s take a look at the dogs that made critiquing movies this past year a sometimes nauseating chore…
The BOW-WOWS, My BOTTOM OF THE BARREL Scraps of 2012: Continue reading
In 2012 Hollywood finally reversed its agonizing trend of both declining domestic box office grosses and theater attendance…
U.S. moviegoers spent around $10.8 billion at the nation’s movieplexes during this past year—a 6% increase over 2011’s haul of $10.2 billion.
Even more important, actual theater ATTENDANCE—bodies in seats was up 5% over last year and finally giving the industry something to smile about.
To that end I once again submit my picks and favorites that I had the pleasure of reviewing during the past year. Continue reading
Are you kidding me, really?
Matt THE FRANCHISE Cassel is not on this year’s Pro Bowl Team? WTF! The rest of the losers are. Yep, the worst team – not just in the NFL, but one of the worst in all-time modern football got FIVE guys on the Pro Bowl.
I kid you not.
My good pal AJ called me late last night with the incredible news.
“Glazer, the Chiefs got five guys on the Pro Bowl Team!!! How do you like that?”
I said I didn’t believe him. Continue reading
Christmas week usually represents the single biggest concentration of movie going days during the entire year…
From early afternoon on Christmas Day right on through New Years Day is prime time at the movieplexes across America. So it’s only logical that friends and acquaintances hit me up for suggestions as to what to go see.
To that end I once again offer my Top 10 picks for the best new and holdover film fare in Kansas City a.k.a. JACK’S BEST BETS AT THE BOX OFFICE Continue reading
Oh, it all sounded great…
Three nights at a posh hotel and a plane ticket for just 400 bucks. Yep, one of those last minute travel deals online. Well, they meant well, I guess. Hey, it was Vegas, last minute, the Mandalay Bay Hotel, a nice spot right near the airport near everything.
That’s where it all went wrong.
First off Las Vegas used to be a nonstop trip on several airlines. Southwest, U.S. Air, Frontier, United and others left almost every hour all day and into the evening. The flights lasted just under three hours, and on the way back with a tailwind, maybe 2 hours 15 minutes. Continue reading
Here is your Christmas gift Kansas City…
Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel retires next week after Denver beats us and general manager Scott Pioli is fired. Matt Cassel has been told goodbye already.
Merry Christmas!
As one of the nation’s top pick experts again, this is my call on the Chiefs.
Sadly they may keep Brady Quinn as a back up. The team has enough problems and jobs to fill. Quinn’s so-so performance Sunday may earn him the Chiefs backup role. Continue reading
As a reviewer and observer of the movie scene in general I hate it when someone tells me how disappointed they were with a new movie they just saw at their multiplex…
That shouldn’t happen.
It’s bad for the viewers who dropped 10 bucks on a ticket and were left with a bad taste in their mouths. And it reflects poorly on the industry in general.
Case in point, Universal’s :”THIS IS 40″ starring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann.
During the past few days several people have expressed their dislike of the movie. They went to the theater expecting to see the rip-roaring sequel to Judd Apatow’s 2007 comedy hit KNOCKED UP.
What they got instead was over two hours of mid-life crisis with more focus on dramatics than comedy.
They felt ripped off. Continue reading
After listening to all the opinions about how to stop the violence, I see one good answer…
To protect children at schools the only worthwhile answer so far is that we need to post armed guards at them period. It’s an expensive but strong deterrent to violence.
The crazy guys will think twice about walking onto a school property with armed guards all over the place. It will prevent many further attacks from happening at schools.
Nothing else I’ve heard seems to matter much, including stronger gun laws. Continue reading
I promise to give you the best bowl game picks…
Not too many, right? My faves now are Vanderbilt and Alabama, both to cover and win. I’ll give you some more next week.
This week it’s march to the playoffs time and my top three teams in each league, as of today, are: NFC 1) San Francisco 2) Atlanta 3) Green Bay (dark horse,Seattle).
AFC: 1) Houston 2) New England 3) Denver (darkhorse, nobody – neither the Colts or Bengals can make the Super Bowl).
This week’s picks coming up. Continue reading
Like it or not, it’s that time of year. The stockings have been hung by the chimney with care, some guy named Black Pete may or may not be coming to frighten your children to death, and everyone everywhere (except in unholy nations who do not believe in a Jesus-person rising from the dead) is eagerly anticipating the spoils of Christmas morn.
Unfortunately, our economy is robustly in the shitter. This is an undeniable truth plagued by still-catastrophic unemployment numbers (we know, we know—it’s been widely reported that our numbers are “the best they’ve been in years!” but we also know the statistics these figures fail to incorporate), a lack of borrowing ability, Obamacare concerns, money markets paying 0.01% interest and the inevitable “Thelma and Louise convertible ride” toward the terrifying reality of a fiscal cliff crash.
But hey—Christmas waits for no man, regardless of socioeconomic status. Your kid needs a Tickle-Monster-Elmo, a refurbished Furby and a bike that will resolutely be stolen the moment they lock it up outside at the bike-rack of their unaccredited school.
So before you embarrass yourself by touching your cousin’s boob at your family Christmas engagement, get your shopping done in style… on Craigslist. For free.
You’re welcome in advance. Continue reading
Does anybody today even remember who sang the song?
You know, “White Christmas.”
Or does it even matter anymore unless you’re well over the age of 40? Probably not.
What does seem to matter is that pretty much anybody and everybody – heathens even – are probably hoping for snow on Christmas Day this coming Tuesday.
Or at least have some on the ground, right? Continue reading
I walked out of the Les Miserables screening…
It was that ugly. That awful. It SUCKS!
Don’t believe the hype. Everybody in the movie has dripping sores. A girl’s teeth get pulled by a creep. Then she gets raped. Continue reading
Christmas is a magical time of year where, all over the world, regardless of age, race, sex, religion or socioeconomic status, people everywhere stop and recognize Santa Claus as their one true God.
One needn’t be Christian to appreciate the majesty of Christmas; Buddhists, Jews, Hindus and Mooslims far and wide recognize that in 33 AD, the world became a better place because Santa Claus rose from his cross and gave toys to crippled orphans living in the desert. And Philadelphia, I think.
The infallible truth that CHRIST-CLAUS IS SUPREME has built a cottage industry around the little holiday that initially began as a creative workshop idea of Walt Disney and Sam Walton; today, there are MILLIONS of ways to celebrate Christmas, from a simple, festive sweater to a sweaty make out session with someone who isn’t your wife in the chemical closet at an office-sanctioned “Winter-Festivities” party. Continue reading
