KC Confidential

Anybody out there got the recipe for stone soup?

The Star’s Mark Davis seemed to have found it with his front page story and the headline, “Google Fiber left customers in dark on why their service was out.”

Which might have been far more interesting – and possibly even mattered – had it not been for two things:

First, Google Fiber was far from alone among the utilities leaving a number of Kansas Citians in the dark utilities for well over a week after the big storm.

Anybody out there notice how many houses in high dollar hoods like off Ward Parkway and Wornall Road were still dark, long after the brunt of the first ice and snow storm struck two weeks back?

Secondly,. while local media went ape shit over how cool Google Fiber was in 2010 when KC got to be the guinea pig, the bloom has long since been off that rose.

Because Google awoke  long ago  from that pipe dream and realized it wasn’t the money maker it had hoped for (a la Google Glasses). Continue reading →

Generational change happens while you’re busy arguing about disruption…

Happened in the music business.

For over a decade, we heard about piracy.  After the advent of Spotify, we heard about streaming payouts.

Meanwhile the bitchers got older, the users younger and the paradigm shifted.

In music the oldsters have no chance, because they have not learned how to harness the power of the Internet. Never mind e-mail lists, which oldsters still do not have – not knowing that you are the one in charge of reaching your audience, but social media.

Sure, Atlantic Records gave Cardi B a platform, but it’s her Instagram account that is keeping her career front and center. Not waiting years to tweak albums that go ignored, Cardi B is in your face constantly with messages not only about Trump, but hygiene and sex and…it’s a train-wreck you can’t keep your eyes off 0f.

Oldsters pooh-pooh this behavior – they don’t understand the concept of a hit has changed. That you break on streaming services, if you’re lucky radio will amplify your track thereafter, and you keep yourself in the public eye by yourself.

Cardi B’s audience does not get the physical newspaper.

It is well-informed – there’s news all over their connected devices all day – but their interests vary from those of the oldsters who’ve made it and want to preserve it. They’re worried about the environment, left and right, and paying their student loans and making it. And life is so hard that they turn to Cardi B for mindless entertainment, while oldsters keep decrying that it’s mindless.

Meanwhile, Cardi B takes a stand against the President and everybody with a career prior to 2010 thinks it’s anathema. They don’t want to antagonize any potential fan, not realizing most people are not paying attention to them anyway and if they had a backbone this would appeal to people.

And now we have the curious case of the Oscars…

Continue reading →

The above headline is what you would call a leading question…

Right up there with, “When did you stop beating your wife?”

Then again, if you’ve been to a Chiefs game – with the possible exception of in the top notch club level seats – you’ve probably seen how disgusting the fan behavior at Arrowhead Stadium can be.

For years – until a handful of years back – my family had 50 yard line, club level seats for both the Chiefs and the Wizards.

No mas.

Last time I attended did a game I was on lower level, 35 yard line – in pretty decent seats –  but having lead a comparatively sheltered life, it was an eye opener.

As in rude and crude – an entirely different experience  than I was accustomed to.

Let’s cut to the chase with the following comment posted earlier today on KCC:

“Are Chiefs fans good fans?

“The latest act by a chief’s fan is shining a laser beam into Tom Brady’s face. That comes after several ‘chief fans’ pelted Colt players with potentially dangerous snow/ice balls. A few years back a visiting player complained he was taunted with the “N” word by a ‘fan’ and these are just the behaviors that have been publicized. Add to all of that the weekly disrespect shown Native Americans with the tomahawk chop and that silly boring adolescent chant and a pattern begins to develop. Continue reading →

Curses, foiled again…

It’s not easy trying to stay on top of local news when you’re hemorrhaging red ink. Take the Kansas City Star‘s story Sunday about Kansas CVity figure skating champion John Coughlin.

The two time U.S. pairs figure skating champion committed suicide here Friday and the newspaper ran a soft ball story about him being suspended for “misconduct” that could range anywhere from bullying to hazing to mental abuse. Almost forgot, one additional possibility being sexual abuse.

Absent any actual reporting – even though the dude was from KC and his father a retired police officer – the newspaper ran only Facebook quotes from his sister and coach talking about what a nice guy he was and how he had not received “due process.”

But for what?

Instead of drilling down for anything approaching an answer – the Star’s sports hands on deck were too busy fawning over the Chiefs -while USA Today was busy reporting the actual news that Coughlin “was facing three reports of sexual misconduct against him, two of them involving minors.”

In addition to getting scooped on the reason for Coughlin’s suspension, the Star missed the suspension story period that USA Today ran on January 7th and included Coughlin’s denial of the charges against him.

I hate to admit it, but…

I’ll go ahead and take credit for jinxing the Chiefs by hitching their fortunes to the ghost of Craig Glazer.

And for the record, the Scribe would have had plenty to say about the team’s losing. He was without peer in his ability to assign blame.

So allow me totake the liberty of doing it for him.

Most people would probably blame tonight’s loss  on a porous Chiefs defense.

Fair enough, but…

I’m going to point the fickle finger at star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Continue reading →

Brace yourselves…

The way things are going the Cowtown may be poised to rise from the dead.

Don’t take that the wrong way.

Not since the heady days of Joe Montana and Marcus Allen living here has Kansas City appeared on the world stage as much more than a flyover or nice place to raise a family.

And don’t think for a single second that fact has fallen on deaf ears.

For something like centuries local luminaries have wrestled with inferiority complexes. Over KC not getting much, if any respect.

You know the drill…

We don’t have mountains; nor oceans;  nor lakes of any magnitude. We don’t have Disneyland or Universal Studios; nor year-round balmy temps.

The awful truth: Kansas City’s a nice place to live but you wouldn’t want to visit there.

Unless you live in Iowa or Nebraska.

What we do have:

Decent restaurants, upscale movie plexes, a decent slate of touring concerts and musical theater productions. And of course, three usually outgunned pro sports teams -= the chiefs, Royals – and to a far lesser extent – Sporting Kansas City.

Our local mantra: Having the Chiefs and Royals makes KC a major league city.

Sans those teams, we’d be Omaha or Des Moines..

Fast forward to Sunday – and perhaps an upcoming Super Bowl appearance… Continue reading →

Chez Mahomes, Third Floor

In X-Files speak, the truth is out there somewhere…

Let’s see if I can inch a little closer to it via a tip from a KCC reader claiming that budding Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes was indeed moving to the Cowtown on a more-or-less full time basis, having purchased a $2 million home at 57th and State Line.

Hold it right there…

A check of real estate records shows that last year prior to the season Mahomes purchased a$400,000 and change condo just off the Plaza.

And while it’s a reasonably nice place…other than its somewhat prestigious address and killer views from the third floor, the 1,700 square foot abode, is nothing to write home about.

Pretty underwhelming, in fact.

Definitely not the sort of place a soon-to-be multi, multi millionaire NFL MVP would want to hole up in on a full time basis. July to January crash pad, maybe.

Check it out.

There’s more… Continue reading →

Stephen King, Wes Craven, John Carpenter—and yes, M. Night Shyamalan…

They’re all shock-meisters in their own right.

Whenever a new film is released with their names attached, fan curiosity peaks.

And so it is with the latest entry from M. Night Shyamalan credited with writing, producing and directing his latest psychological shocker called “GLASS.”

However this film marks a new and rather strange frontier for Mr. Shyamalan. A departure from the norm for the filmmaker who up until now has made his living by creating only original movies.

In other words for every previous project he invented basically a new tone, new life and a new world for his characters to live in.

So “GLASS” is really a diversion for him as he now blends characters from two of his previous films—“UNBREAKABLE” and “SPLIT”— into the story and creates a third new concluding version.

If all this sounds complicated—IT IS! Continue reading →

There’s been no shortage of overwrought Chiefs hoopla of late…

Don’t get me wrong… I’ve had as much fun watching Chiefs games this season as anyone, but the over-the-top handwringing, jubilation and faux deep analysis has been absurd.

What are we in high school?

Seriously, “adults” in the media (and actual Chiefs fans) have been fussing like children on Christmas Eve…over oversize out-of-town dudes with massive paychecks who’ve won a bunch of games…so what?

Beyond that it’s been fun to watch,

Nobody’s curing cancer here and Kansas City’s unlikely to experience a measurable influx of businesses or people fans moving here as a result of the team’s win-loss record.

Which is exactly what did take place in Manhattan, Kansas, courtesy of recently retired K-State football coach Bill Snyder.

As a commodities broker prior to Snyder’s arrival on the scene I passed through Mad Town any number of times and it was – in a word…desolate. The stereotypical backwater Kansas town that people on the east and west coasts would expect it to be.

Anybody been out that way lately?

It’s still in the middle of nowhere, but not only is that town on fire, it’s 10 times as hip and cosmopolitan as it once was. It’s no Lawrence, but who wants to watch Jayhawk football?

Can vaunted Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes breathe that kind life into the Cowtown? Continue reading →

The rich are just like the rest of us…

Only with a lot more money

But maybe they’re believe they’re entitled to what they want, that the rules of law and morality don’t apply to them..

First and foremost Amazon’s Jeff Bezos lied about when his affair with Lauren Sanchez began.

Is he living in a vacuum?

Does he not know that in today’s world, the truth always outs? People can choose to believe it or not, but the only thing private is what you say to yourself…alone…in the dark.

And sending his junk in a photo, what is he sixteen?

Celebrities bitch about Apple leaking their erotic photos, when the truth is it was their weak passwords at fault. And the world’s richest man decides to send a photo of his personal parts anyway? What, did he think, that he was immune?

And you know what they say about getting involved with someone who left a marriage for you – they’ll leave you too.

Oh, of course there are exceptions, but the axiom is proven true in most cases. Especially for those who don’t have the balls to be single. Play the field, see what it feels like to be alone in this world. As opposed to jumping from relationship to relationship, as if they’re stones that will take you to the other end of the river – that you will never slip and fall and get wet.

And this guy is lionized in the press, he’s a cultural institution.

Maybe a bit weird, but hewing the line. Then he blows up his whole life over a woman?

Proving, like my first sentence, we are all the same, and sex rules the world.

Kinda like Bill Clinton.

If I were President, I’d keep my penis in my pants, especially if that’s what people were looking for. Same deal with Gary Hart. But the rich and famous have large appetites, that seemingly can’t be satiated, and like I said above, they don’t think the rules apply to them.

She’s Patrick Whitesell’s wife. The couples are good friends. Shouldn’t she be off limits?

Does nobody have any morality – either Jeff or Lauren?

As for lying about the affair… Booking Lauren in the same hotel in Boston where you’re staying with your wife to visit your kid at college… Continue reading →

Chastain pic is enlarged and cropped for drama

When it comes to hiding in plain sight, the Kansas City Star’s in a league of its own…

Let’s be clear about one thing: these days the local newspaper of record doesn’t go out of its way to appear even handed.

I set off any sarcasm detectors?

Which isn’t to say when they gaze into their bathroom mirrors they don’t convince themselves otherwise.

Trust me on this one.

To be a “serious”  print journalist is to believe that outside of the odd error you’re totally fair, balanced and above all – dead right.

The awful truth: they’re just as opinionated and biased as the other losers on the barstools next to you.

Not that they don’t try to hide it or at least pretend otherwise.

In days gone by, editors had somewhat strict internal checks and balances.

No mas…

Just as CNN made the dramatic decision to abandon ship on its neutral approach to reporting a dozen or so years back (in search of Fox News-like ratings),  Star reporters and editors routinely allow their political leanings into what is supposed to pass as straight news.

An unimpeachable example of the newspaper’s flagrant disregard for fairness:

It’s practice of running unflattering pics of people whose views run counter to theirs… Continue reading →

No, not THAT kind of vice…

This one’s an extraordinary comedic bio drama of how George W. Bush chose Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney to be his running mate in the 2000 presidential election.

A VP pick that re-directed the country—and for that matter, the world.

And who better to helm the project than celebrated writer and director Adam McKay of “The Big Short” fame.

So did McKay properly capture the times and quirks of his subject?

More, I would imagine, than I could ever share in this brief overview.

Casting Christian Bale in the title role was a stroke of genius as Bale brilliantly transforms his entire being  into that of the vice president, down to his one-sided grin.

But without the support of the film’s impressive supporting cast we wouldn’t have the terrific end-product this movie has turned out to be. Proof in the pudding are the six Golden Globe nominations already bequeathed on “VICE” by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as well as numerous other honors from various critics groups across the country.

“VICE” was nominated in the following six Golden Globes categories.

* Best Picture

* Best Actor (Christian Bale)

* Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams)

* Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell)

* Best Director (Adam McKay)

* Best Screenplay (Adam McKay)

Which is surely a road map for the upcoming Oscar nominations (Bale won best actor, FYI)

“VICE” at times is an unflattering portrait of a complicated man. From his early days as a New Mexico lineman with poor work ethics, drinking and brawling through his congressional intern program….all the way up the ladder to the election alongside of Bush.

Yes (practically) everything you have ever heard about Cheney is (probably) true. Continue reading →

So what have we learned?

Bohemian Rhapsody was the worst-reviewed Golden Globe winner in 33 years. Not that I needed Rotten Tomatoes to tell me this. I’ve been tracking it all along.

(And yet…)

Excoriated in the press, I’ve yet to find one person who didn’t absolutely adore it.

This movie should have been a nonstarter. Aged rock band’s surviving members shepherd a biopic to the screen. The story is too old, not intriguing enough, and everybody will tell you you don’t want the subjects involved – they can never agree on anything and they want a whitewash.

But “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the highest grossing biopic of all time, with a $743,677,266 gross, with $193,644,966 of that in the U.S.

Furthermore, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the song, was not that big of a phenomenon when it was released back in 1975.

“A Night At The Opera” was a breakthrough for a band who famously listed “No Synthesizers” in the credits. Their debut, back in ’73, came out on Elektra in the U.S., the home of another band that resurfaced decades later, The Doors.

But it was Columbia and Warner Brothers who could push this stuff, not Elektra.

Still the second album got more traction and the third established a true beachhead, primarily “Killer Queen.”

But the amazing thing about “A Night At The Opera” was its breadth, its different styles. To tell you the truth, “I’m In Love With My Car” and “39” and “You’re My Best Friend” resonated with me more than “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was not “Stairway To Heaven,” it was not “Free Bird,” it did not sit atop the annual Memorial 500, it was just another arty track in a healthy, diverse scene.

One can argue quite strongly that the subsequent “We Will Rock You”/”We Are The Champions” had greater impact two years later.

However neither “A Day At The Races” nor “News Of The World” were as consistent as “A Night At The Opera,” the band’s apotheosis.

And after the relatively hitless “Jazz,” which did contain “Fat Bottomed Girls” and “Bicycle Race,” the band came back with “The Game,” the infectious “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Another One Bites The Dust”…and then Queen was done.

They switched labels in the U.S. and never had another hit, and in the rest of the world the situation was not a whole lot better.

But now they’re LEGENDS? SUPERSTARS? How did this HAPPEN? Continue reading →