KC Confidential

This just in…

If there was any remaining doubt, yesterday’s lightening quick dismantling of Roseanne Barr‘s hugely successful sitcom on ABC, put the subject to rest.

We live in Zero Tolerance Land.

Day to day life is now like mountain climbing – one small slip and you’re done for.

Gone are the “good old days” and notions like “second chances” and “mulligans.”

From this point forward – and I guess we’ll find out for how long – it’s every man and woman for his or herself. We live in a world where a single gaffe can result in disgrace and financial ruin. Where a single accusation can prove fatal. Where practically every individual out there can elevate themselves to the role of judge, jury and hangman.

The $64 million question: While for the time being, this seems to be more the case with high profile celebrities, politicians and the like, is this the direction our daily lives is headed in?

Think about some of the over-the-top, at times vile comments, for example, certain locals have left on KC Confidential. Or practically anywhere and everywhere for that matter.

When one of these days some leaker of bad news reveals who Boom Boom, aka Harley, aka Jo Jo is, will he be disgorged from his lofty perch atop a prestigious law firm or lending institution? Hoisted with his own petard? Or more likely perhaps, forced to walk the plank on the trash truck he jumps off and on however many times each week.

Face it folks, there’s pretty much nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

When I was writing for the Kansas City Star I took part in a number of speaking engagements. The first was painful – horrible – unscripted, unrehearsed and unbearable…at least for me.

I vowed never to allow that to happen again and quickly got up to speed in giving what amounted to tell-all talks.

My stints as a public speaker were largely behind the scenes peeks at people, places and things I’d written about along with the untold fallout and results.

Like the time the then head of DST cursed me like a sailor for revealing the sordid details of a downtown KC real estate transaction he’d crafted. And that shortly thereafter a high profile local mover and shaker called me later out of the blue to apologize for the execs rant.

Frankly, my candor in the retelling of some of those stories and details in this age of the iPhone and throw-thy-neighbor-under-the-bus, might well have gotten me fired. Continue reading →

At first blush the local media hoopla over nonstop flights from KC to Iceland (of all places) seems totally over-the-top…

Which had things been better reported and explained, it might not have. However running a snoozer on the front page of the local newspaper and goofy footage of people getting off the first flight here don’t really say a lot about something that to a lot of people appear at first blush to be a longshot at best.

Au contraire.

Given a somewhat deeper dive, the move actually makes sense.

For starters Iceland – while the most sparsely populated country in Europe – is in fact a European country, and thus a springboard to larger cities like Paris, Rome and Berlin. And while it’s named after one of the coldest substances on the planet – as in “ice” – the climate there is best described as “temperate,” i.e. moderate.

For example, the all-time record high and low in destination city Reykjavik is 79.2 degrees (July 2008) and -12 degrees (January 1918).

By Kansas City standards that’s tourism weather.

Now a little background…

“KCI’s been working on this for years and they haven’t been able to bring anyone else in,” says resident KCC travel expert Jack Poessiger. “So if this works, we may get another airline deal and the Icelandair deal may expand to year round. Right now the two year deal runs until late September.”

If the deal reminds anybody of Topeka’s failed effort a few years back to schedule weekly nonstop flights to Chicago, there’s a difference, Poessiger says.

“The difference is the city of Topeka put up money guaranteeing United a certain amount of money, and once the money ran out there wasn’t enough traffic and they went away. In this case I don’t think Icelandair is getting a guaranteed amount. It’s a marketing dollar deal, not a guaranteed amount.”

Poessiger was stunned when he first got word of the deal. Continue reading →

What some writers won’t do for a measly hundred bucks…

It’s not easy making a living as a freelance writer. So it almost goes without saying that every once in a while, you have to grit your teeth and choke out a puff piece about someone or something not wildly deserving.

Take former American Idol winner David Cook.

The Blue Springs export’s been in a 10 year downward spiral since winning Season 7 of the show, 10 years back in 2008. Yet from reading former Pitch music editor Jon Niccum‘s piece on the cover of  Sunday’s Arts + Culture section of the KC Star you’d think Cook was a world beater.

“Ten years ago, David Cook parlayed his commanding voice and amiable stage presence into becoming the first ‘rocker’ to win ‘American Idol,” Niccum begins. “But the Blue Springs-raised musician has hardly remained in his comfort zone, instead continually accepting challenges that take his career in new directions.”

That’s basically accurate, but it ignores that the challenges Cook “accepted” were forced on him based upon dismal music sales and not much of anything else positive than a bit of minor charity work.

From a live music standpoint, Cook’s gone from headlining Sandstone with Justin Bieber as his opening act, to playing Knuckleheads in the West Bottoms to barely getting a gig anywhere. Continue reading →

It only works if you mint stars…

The American Idol finale was the other night. Was it Sunday, or Monday, damned if I know? Then again, probably not Sunday, because that’s when the Billboard awards were, another sinking show, just check the ratings.

Weren’t live events supposed to save broadcast TV?

With their Twitter updates and wars? No, turns out the cultural zeitgeist has been captured by Netflix, and awards shows theoretically playing to everybody really appeal to nobody – or a very slim slice of the audience. Don’t try to go broad, play to an active niche, and then if you’re lucky it will grow.

We were stunned by the success of Idol the first time around.

Positively STUNNED.

I tell you, it proved the power of television and the power of pop – both of which have waned significantly since.

That’s right, this was pre-streaming. On demand was newfangled. People sat in front of the TV and watched what was served up to them. Furthermore, Idol had a gargantuan star, Simon Cowell, who dared to be naughty when you’re supposed to be nice. Who spoke the truth when that was considered anathema. He was the harbinger of Trump if you think about it. The boundaries, the rules, were not what we thought they were.

But in addition to Cowell, off screen you had Clive Davis andIdol was his crowning moment, his final hurrah. Clive said he had gifted ears and signed all the rebellious acts of the 1960s, but the truth is he was a pop meister at heart.

From Manilow to Houston. And despite his effort to remake history, we HATED them!

Manilow was an AM king when no one with ears listened to transmissions on that band. As for Houston…she happened when rock died on MTV.

But the hipsters who hated these two…the joke was ultimately on them. Continue reading →

Continue reading →

The Internet can be a vastly confusing place…

Take the recent “report” on season seven American Idol winner David Cook’s net worth. It’s been 10 years since the former KC bar band dude was crowned. Unfortunately, by most measures his singing career has been circling the drain ever since.

Following a banner 2009, Cook has struggled to keep his music career afloat. He’s gone from playing theaters to clubs – from major label albums to self produced online singles and EPs.

Cook recently announced he’ll be doing a charity freebie appearance at actor Paul Rudd’s Big Slick Celebrity Weekend here.

He also landed a brief gig this past month via a temp role in Broadway’s Kinky Boots. Going forward though, the only other thing Cook has going this year are a pair of small, late September free shows at Epcot in Orlando.

So it’s not like he’s raking it in.

Now a little head scratching.

According to the online publication MediaMass Cook’s the “highest-paid singer in the world.” Continue reading →

What’s in a number?

Quite a bit, especially when it comes to subscription prices for the Kansas City Star.

Take reader Steve Fehr who told former Star reporter and editor Jim Fitzpatrick that he ended his subscription recently after being “offended” by the difference between the print edition – $700 a year, he said – and $200 for digital.

Fitzpatrick agreed, telling Fehr, “They are asking way too much for the printed product – something like $80 a month, although it seems like there is never a set price.”

A year or two back I’d allowed my subscription to lapse and when the Star sales staff finally caught up to me, I basically told them I’d be willing to pay around $150 for a year. At the time they could only allow me a six month package for around $80, so I took it.

Then lo and behold, I got my new subscription invoice – an eye opener – last week.

As in $129.86 for a full year of seven days a week home delivery.

That’s quite a savings over Fehr’s $700 and Fitz’s alarming, eye-popping rate! Continue reading →

She was driving a BMW X4…

That’s an expensive car. Let me look it up online. It STARTS at 50k. Why is its owner driving Uber?

Well, maybe it’s not the person’s car. That’s right, I wasn’t sure whether it was a male or female, the name was VINEETA. But last night, the driver rented his new Audi Quattro to drive, it cost him $40 for the day. But an X4?

It was her car; it was the first thing I asked Vineeta, after I got into the front seat.

Sometimes I don’t want to ride in the back. I didn’t want to look at my phone, do any business, although Paul Anka did call while we were en route and WAZE was barking directions and I was disoriented and I’m worried I didn’t perform appropriately, but basically I wanted to experience the vista.

But the woman was dignified and well-dressed, what was going on?

Well, she was from India and she’d been here 15 years. That’s what you have to understand about Toronto. Supposedly it has the most ethnicities of any city in the world. If you’re a racist, it’s not the place to be, especially since many people of color have been here for generations.

So why was she driving?

Her kids were in school.

Did she need the money or the entertainment?

She was trying to keep herself busy. She’s got a degree in finance, but she has to take her son to swim practice every afternoon and it’s hard to hold down a full-time job. Her husband works in software. He’s a muckety-muck, but I didn’t learn that until I found out…

It was an arranged marriage. Continue reading →