KC Confidential

Let’s not get too critical here and accept it for what it is…

SKYSCRAPER is your basic summer action brain candy. No more. No less.

What we’ve got here is fan-favorite Dwayne (‘The Rock’) Johnson playing the part of Will Sawyer, a former FBI hostage team leader and armed forces vet who now makes his living as an international security expert.

Before I go on it’s important to note that due to an unfortunate prior assignment that went bad, Johnson is now operating with one (partial) prosthetic leg—which really comes in handy later in the film.

And he’s got a pretty wife (Neve Campbell) and two darling kids.

His latest assignment takes them all to Hong Kong where he’s hired as a security consultant at the world’s tallest and safest skyscraper known as The Pearl.

It’s a city in the sky!

Which doesn’t stop a crime syndicate from taking control of The Peak by shutting down its safety systems and setting the 220 floor tower into peril. Continue reading →

Record companies used to have a formula, they’d cross tracks over from one format to another, ultimately ending up on Top 40 radio…

That doesn’t happen anymore.

Prior to the Beatles the music business was a backwater. Of course we listened, but there wasn’t that much money in recordings, music was the land of uneducated, although oftentimes brilliant, hustlers. But when the Beatles arrived, so did mania, and dollars.

Yes, the Beatles ushered in the album format.

There were LPs before that, but they were just cobbled together creations of a hit or two and filler. But you had to own the Beatle albums, especially starting with “Rubber Soul.” And then came FM underground radio.

Of course there was FM before the Beatles, but it was a wasteland of classical and simulcasts. But when the government said you could no longer simulcast your AM programming on FM, the FM airwaves were cast over to innovators, ignored by the brass, who created a responsive listening experience that transfixed listeners and built hit acts, resulting ultimately in Woodstock. Then the usual suspects were stunned so many people attended, and the resulting movie garnered even more acolytes. Proving, once again, the news media will tell you where you’ve been, not where you’re going.

And ultimately Lee Abrams codified FM into a hit format, labels were rolling in dough, which was decimated by disco, but then MTV came along to rescue everyone.

Ultimately, MTV played a smorgasbord of hits, records in all formats. If a video was aired, the record sold, and radio followed MTV. We lived in a monoculture, we all talked about the same tracks. With the CD arriving labels and musicians were rolling in dough, and then the Internet came along and crashed the system.

And today the music industry is still operating on an old paradigm. Continue reading →

Here I am, a grown man attempting to critique ANT-MAN AND THE WASP…

But guess what, you don’t have to be a nerd to enjoy the 20th release in the past decade from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe series.

Because if for nothing else this sequel to 2015’s ANT-MAN makes it Marvel’s first SUPERHEROINE entry…and this wasp really stings!

Thanks to a much more Hope Van Dyne developed character by Evangeline Lilly.

She’s feisty and headstrong in this sequel, which makes things unfold both faster and funnier than the original.

But make no mistake, it is Paul Rudd‘s wit and wisecracking that makes this picture.   Continue reading →

“Your story’s going to be about me pretty much retiring from comedy,” says longtime Stanford & Sons main man Craig Glazer. “I’m closing Stanford’s downtown.”

Make that past tense.

“The last day was this past weekend,” Glazer says. “We’re closed now. You know, if I could pick it up and move it to Waldo I would, but downtown is just too dead.”

Here’s the deal…

“My brother Jeff Glazer passed away recently and sitting there every day watching him fade away was really hard on me and very difficult to watch. And to lose both brothers – both of them younger than me – caused me a lot of stress. And I got walking pneumonia. I’m going to be okay, but I’ll still be pretty weak for the next 4 to 8 weeks. I’ve lost 30 pounds and it’s going to take months for me to get back in shape. It’s been pretty dreadful. Continue reading →

Well ,it happened…

Lebron has signed with the Lakers and Magic Johnson.

These two will RULE the NBA and fast.

The Lakers are the most storied team in modern NBA history and now will be again. No, a title this year is not likely unless Magic and Lebron can bring another big name talent or two to help Lebron asap.

However playoffs, media attention, celebrity b.s., Alonzo Ball, his dad the boatlaod is here.

James signs a $153 million four year deal, nice.

He and Magic may end up owning the Lakers in a few years as well or the majority interest. These two will be a business partners and make billions.

At 34 and soon 35 Lebron will finish his career with a bang.

He will likely get to play a season or two and have a $5 million home in LA and his family will be set.

Without Lebron Cleveland will stink, may not even make playoffs. Continue reading →

Derek Donovan: He looks far less grim in person!

Forget right and wrong…

It’s always wrong to  take the law into one’s own hands and kill people. What’s more, there are always going to be nut cases – regardless of their affiliation – who will perpetuate this kind of evil.

Far as I can tell, it’s been that way since the dawn of time.

That said, because of the way today’s news media operates – so blatantly partisan – combined with the extreme levels of public animus about everything from Donald Trump to immigration, one has to wonder…

What took so long for something like this to happen?

Ten years ago when I was in the newsroom of the Kansas City Star big time news media editors were gatekeepers.

Sure, the Star’s politics always tilted to the left and once they more-or-less collectively decided who or what was right or who and what was wrong, the newsroom had a way of marching in lockstep…to the extent that readers with differing opinions became infuriated.

Yet, all things considered, there still was a concerted effort to at least pretend to be even handed. But little by little, the layoffs, empty cash coffers and the Internet combined to dilute the process.

In some ways, Star readers rep Derek Donovan helped lead the charge here in KC. 

In addition to being extremely thin skinned and fearful for his job security (he was after all hired as lowly head of the newspaper’s archival news library which is way past being extinct.

So instead of gleefully inflicting pain on reporters who fucked up like past reader reps (unless of course it was something painfully obvious like. a name spelling mistake), Donovan acted more as a defender of the realm. Star reporters and editors where mostly adjudged innocent and exonerated, sans the distraction of fair and even handed consideration.

Corrections became little more than a remnant of the past and Donovan repeatedly argued and hung up on readers rather than deal impartially with their issues.

I think retired Star editor Jim Fitzpatrick well could weigh in here.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg. Continue reading →

The drug cartel crime thriller SICARIO was not a major box office blockbuster…

The 2015 movie did however garner quite a following by fans of the genre via the various video delivery systems in its afterlife.

Hence this week’s sequel called SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO.

But before we get started, let’s translate the title:

‘Sicario’ stands for hit man while ‘Soldado translates to Latin American Soldier.

One other observation:  This is not really a sequel or story continuation as we’ve come to expect.

Instead it’s a stand-alone, action drama which re-unites Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro with some space of time between the operations of the original and this follow-up.

And just so you know, Emily Blunt is not part of of this spin-off.

The best description of the movie comes from its screenwriter Taylor Sheridan who says that, “If Sicario is a film about the militarization and that blending over, this is removing the policing aspect from it.”

In DAY OF THE SOLDADO the action begins at the U.S.-Mexican border but quickly moves to Kansas City, Missouri where Mexican bad guys blow up a big department store killing many in the process. Continue reading →

OK, so I lied…

Remember how I told you recently I was going to really start writing more? And then I did.

However, as the sun sets on my time here in Lawrence and my return to the wilds of Kansas City (July 6th) looms large, there are tons of loose ends to be addressed.  Resulting in me being spread super thin the next couple weeks.

Oh, I’ll continue to weigh in, but until I’m settled – mid July – it’s gonna be touch and go.

Take this morning… Continue reading →

It’s based on facial recognition technology…

Ticketing is broken, can anybody fix it? Will anybody fix it?

That’s what Nathan Hubbard has set out to do, the man who used to run Ticketmaster. He’s raised double digit millions and…

I first saw a demonstration last September, when it was in stealth. But now, since it’s public, I returned to the outfit to get an update. Rival used to be in a WeWork space. Now it’s in an old Howard Hughes hangar in Playa Vista. Everybody’s huddled over a MacBook Pro attached to a big screen, what are they doing?

Well, we’ve got a security problem in the events business. People may now be afraid to go. What if we knew everybody in attendance? You buy a ticket, scan a selfie, and then you gain entrance via facial recognition, a la iPhone X. But it’s much more sophisticated than that.

There’s depth-analysis. To make sure you can’t trick the system with a photo. And at every entrance there are cameras attached to the ubiquitous metal detectors, with an effective rate of essentially 100%. Yes, the technology’s just that good, and if there is a problem, since all your info is digitized, someone on site can help you out, you don’t have to go to the box office, they can take care of you on the spot.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? But what about minors?

You don’t have to scan their faces if you don’t want to. Their tickets can be attached to yours.

What about resale? Continue reading →

The good news about JURASSIC World: FALLEN KINGDOM is that it delivers on its hype and expectations…

If you’re looking for a big summer popcorn action-adventure, this one fits the bill.

The bad news: Well, there really isn’t any unless you were expecting something way above 2015’s successful JURASSIC WORLD reboot.

Anytime a sequel stays favorably within the framework of the original moviegoers should be grateful. Right?

And on those levels of comparison JW2 delivers for all ages. Continue reading →

Don’t get stung on your next car rental…

When picking up your rental car at the location keep in mind that the person behind the counter isn’t merely a customer service agent.

Oh no, he or she are much more than that. They’re sales people!

And just because you’ve got a price locked in through your travel agent or online booking site doesn’t mean that they won’t attempt to extract additional money from you.

They’re trained to do that and are usually very good in ‘scaring you’ into purchasing additional protection—in the form of insurance coverage you probably DO NOT NEED!

Some rental outfits even reward their agents for insurance up-selling with monetary bonuses.

Why you shouldn’t fall for their sales tactics? Continue reading →

Radio ratings, anyone?

Why do I get the same feeling writing about terrestrial radio that I get when I go to a Post Office or when I write a check or read the print edition of the Kansas City Star?

Because these sort of activities are fading fast.

The old ways die hard but doing any of the above is akin to buying a house with an outdoor bathroom.

Yet despite what seems like the obvious, the folks at Entercom and other radio companies come well-armed with creatively compiled statistics aimed at convincing us that paying exorbitant ad rates for the Johnny Dare show still makes sense.

Aided by the master manipulators at Neilsen Audio who are still hard at it compiling theoretical listenership data based on ultra small audience samples that purport to estimate the number of listeners each station has.

And for Neilsen’s efforts the company is paid handsomely by the stations, because sans those cooked up ratings, how could they con advertisers into shelling out big bucks.?

The bottom line: it’s a game – more weird than actual science.

And you only  have to glimpse at the “ratings” to see they’re skewed to oldsters.

For example, six of the top 10 stations play classic rock, country or news/talk.

Still life goes on, so I’ll get back to tracking these dinosaurs as they slug it out til death do they part… Continue reading →