Hearne: The Rise & Fall of INK Magazine

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Last one out, turn off the lights…

Forget about the Kansas City Star rescuing what’s left of The Pitch. The beleaguered, former alt weekly threw in the towel last month, but instead of merely curling up and dying, embarked on a path of monthly magazine publication on high quality, coated stock paper.

Fat chance thats gonna work out.

Which leaves INK magazine, the Star’s contribution to what passes for a watered down alt weekly. INK sprang to life during the inopportune year 2008 – a year in which big city newspapers and print publications were already hemorrhaging red ink (speaking of “ink”) and laying off staff by the thousands.

Yet somehow or other, the dudes with the fat paychecks at 18th and Grand calculated that there was money to be made by trying to eat The Pitch’s lunch via a cleaner cut, F word-free weekly.

And for a little while that almost seemed to make sense.

But not for long…

Because while from the get go, INK attracted the kind of advertising The Pitch thirsted for but could never land (mainstream retailers to whom being seen alongside sleazy sex ads was a deal killer), the newsprint format combined with free  distribution rendered profitably unattainable.

So as The Pitch withered away, shrinking from 100 page plus issues, chock full of ads each week, to 32 pages with not enough ads to even justify weekly publication, INK became – as the Star claimed anyway – “Kansas City’s best source for entertainment, lifestyle, food & music options for people in their 20s & 30s.”

Just one problem…

Despite its token online presence, like The Pitch, INK needed those fat revenues print pubs had historically attracted. Rather than the relatively puny ad dollars available online.  Continue reading →

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Glazer: Former KU Coach Roy Williams Leaves Bill Self in the Dust

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Craig Glazer

So much for KU’s delusions of grandeur…

North Carolina coach Roy Williams just moved to the No. 2 spot behind Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski on active coaches with national championships. Roy won his third in nine Final Fours, with his NC squad beating Gonzaga 71-65 last night.

So how does this make KU’s Bill Self  feel and look?

Roy had four trips to the Final Four with Kansas but didn’t win a single one. Self has two in his 14 seasons and won the one in 2008. That said, Self just went into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Now I’ll let you in on a little secret, that one championship granted Bill the love Roy was missing at Kansas with zero championships. However now with three at NC, Williams is in the chips.

I think Williams was more relieved than simply happy…maybe a bit of both.

But man, you can see how this grind has aged the former KU head coach. He’s aged a ton in just the last few seasons. Continue reading →

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Paul Wilson: Trump Unifies the Nation – AGAINST Him!

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Paul Wilson

When Ronald Reagan became president, he had the presence of mind to admit, “I’m smart enough to know what I don’t know.”

Similarly, I have the presence of mind to admit I voted for Donald Trump.

I did so with the hope he would turn things upside down and usher in real change. However with approval ratings rivaling Richard Nixon’s during Watergate, he’s managed to live out the concerns I had going into his term.

First and foremost, he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

“I’m going to build the wall and make MEXICO pay for it.”

“I’m going to repeal and replace Obama Care and it’s going to be so, so easy…”

“We will defeat ISIS in 30 days.”

Those claims already lie wasted on the floor alongside other election campaign promises embarrassing in number.

“So, so easy,” has been replaced, “Sorry, that’s not going to happen,” even though Republicans control absolutely everything.

Everything except a unifying spirit…and strategic negotiation skills. Continue reading →

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Glazer: So Many Questions, So Few Answers

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Craig Glazer

Not much national media noise on this year’s Kansas City Royals team…

The big question: Are they even a contender?

Answer: Nobody has a clue.

Las Vegas says no, with fewer than 80 wins. But Vegas has been wrong many times before. The other big question: Is this the last year for players like Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain,  Moose and Alcides Escobar?

If the season doesn’t go well early on there’s a good chance the Royals will unload the team’s top core players like Hosmer in order to get something in return, rather than just watch him leave next season when his contract is over.

Royals GM Dayton Moore picked up some interesting players in the off season.

Sluggers like Brandon Moss. A new starter and trying out some minor league guys. The team will go with Raul Mondesi at second base this season. Pablo Orlando will see more action and the DH slot is up for grabs. Continue reading →

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Edelman: King’s Catalogue Makes a Great Musical

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Mark Edelman

What would have happened if the great songwriters of the 1960s– those Brill Building denizens– hadn’t discovered Joe Turner and rock and roll? 

What if, instead of stoking the star-maker machinery behind the popular song, they’d followed Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Harold Arlen and their  Tin Pan Alley buds, writing for Broadway and knocking out Sinatra singles instead of 45s on Top Forty radio?

We get a taste of that “what if” in the sparkling new musical BEAUTIFUL, now thru Sunday at the Music Hall. Carole King and hubby Gerry Goffin plus fellow 60s songwriting couple Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil are the subjects of this bioplay, which traces the careers of these four songsmiths as they made rock and roll history, one three or four chord anthem at a time. Continue reading →

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Lefsetz: The ‘Man Bun’ Conundrum

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Bob Lefsetz

When did this become a thing?

I first started noticing it on hipsters. Yoga-pants wearing males sporting sandals who seemed to be saying, “I’m expending so much energy that I just cannot have my hair on my neckline preventing my sweat from escaping. Look at me – olfactory mess that I am – I’m a living, breathing human specimen you can only envy.”

But one you wouldn’t want to touch.

That’s the thing about man buns. Women make fun of them. I’ve never ever heard a guy talk about someone’s bun but women constantly confide and snicker, laughing at the wearer.

And now it’s expanded. Continue reading →

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Glazer: Time To End MLB’s ‘Roid Rage’

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Craig Glazer

The time has come to forgive the baseball players who used drugs and were banned from baseball and its Hall of Fame…

Some of the biggest names from the 80’s into today’s game have been kept out.

They include Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco and Alex Rodriguez to name a few. However the punishment has varied from player to player . There were long suspensions and loss of pay for some like Rodriguez, and all are not being allowed into baseball’s Hall Of Fame – not yet, anyway.

Yesterday it was announced that Jose Canseco would be a broadcaster for Fox and the Oakland A’s. Mark McGwire has been with the St. Louis Cards as a coach and Alex Rodriguez was allowed to come back to the Yankees and finish his career with a nice payday.

It’s also clear that Roger Clemens was baseball’s best pitcher during his era, yet he is not being allowed into the Hall owing to steroid use. Continue reading →

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New Jack City: KC Drive-Ins (‘Passion Pits’) Exceed Expectations

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Jürgen Poessiger

When I mentioned to someone that I/d emceed a “Celebration of Dedication” at a local Drive-In theater last Saturday I got a blank stare.

“Drive-Ins? I remember them,” he mused.

“They were a lot of fun back in the day. My father would pack the station wagon and the whole family went.”

Then when I told him that they were still very much alive and doing well he seemed skeptical.

Well, it’s true!

Kansas City is one of the premier Drive-In movie markets around.

We still have three complexes with a total of seven screens at the I-70, TWIN and BOULEVARD Drive-Ins. Continue reading →

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Chuck: Sanctimony, Thy Name is Congress

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Chuck Lowe

The cable news networks, are like expectant, proud fathers…

They’re poised to deliver their newest, 24/7 news cycle baby.

After a fervent, profound and dire opening statement from Senator Mark Warner – in his best baritone – concerning the possibility of “Russian Interference” in our most  “sacred” institution (and this is a guy who won’t even support Voter ID).

So we in the public have to endure the hue and cries by politicians on both sides of the aisle that this alleged interference is an “Act Of War” and that we should be OUTRAGED!

Here’s a short list of countries where, American politicians, in their wisdom, overthrew the elected and non elected governments”.

The Congo in 1960.  The leader was eventually hunted down and killed by the CIA.

The Dominican Republic 1961

Chile 1973 We really covered ourselves in glory on this one.

Brazil 1964

Iran 1953 This one is a disgrace.

Guatemala 1954.

Vietnam.  Things went swimmingly there.

Don’t think for a minute, that we’ve even learned our own lessons. Continue reading →

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Paul Wilson: How’s Your Scrotum Hangin’, Gentlemen?

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Paul Wilson

Last week I was reading Cosmo…

How about that for getting things going with a bang? All because your well-coiffed scribe needs to stay up with the most current trends. Anyway, I came across something that left me a little weak.

For years, men have been getting an increasing number of cosmetic procedures. A number that’s risen 355% from 2000 to 2015 – face lifts, alterations, Botox, all the standard fare. But just when you thought you’d heard it all….

Men have begun injecting Botox……into their scrotums.

I’ll give you a few seconds to catch your breath and remove your hands from your package.

Cosmo reports that “The procedure is called ‘Scrotox,’ a term made famous by a 2010 Saturday Night Live sketch.”

“Scrotox mimics the effect of a warm day: the balls appear lower and look smoother with fewer wrinkles.”

It was then I recalled how many times I’d thought, “I sure wish my testicles were hanging like they do on a warm day!” (said no one ever…)

The focus of the piece was a 29-year-old doctor who said that for he and his girlfriend – also a doctor – the determining factor was that Scrotox made his balls hang lower and looser, allowing for better contact with her skin during sex. Within a week, he felt his scrotum was more relaxed than before.

And as we all know, a relaxed scrotum is a happy scrotum. Continue reading →

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Paul Wilson: In Memory of Harold Michael Bowman – March 24th, 1958-March 23rd, 2017

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Paul Wilson

Life’s full of changes – you just never know…

Of late, change has been about the only constant for your well-coiffed scribe. After the firm where I spent the last dozen years folded – following a poorly implemented acquisition – another element of change visited in the form of unemployment.

When those times come, heavy doses of introspection always arrive with them.

What’s next?

What do I want to do?

How will this affect my retirement?

Do I really need that $25 cigar?

While my schedule’s freed me considerably since January 23rd, it’s also gotten so busy I’m not sure where I found time to work in the first place. But a constant mental health break has been sharing time with some of the guys at my cigar club. That’s where I went today for lunch.

On the coffee table, were parts of the Kansas City Star. Since I don’t read the endless, repetitively redundant articles by our illustrious blog editor about its pending demise (editor’s note, that’s the Pitch not the Star) I’ve not followed details of the Incredible Shrinking Star.  When I picked up the parts, I found out it was actually an entire paper.

Shocking…the flimsy fragments weren’t a Pitch, it was a Star!

A couple of stories in, I came to the obituary section. Obits are now a revenue stream for the Star as it squeezes every drop of blood out of a family it can, inch by column inch.

For a modest fee, you can print, “Bob Died.”

Anything more and you’ll pay dearly to extoll the greatness and memory of your friend or family member. It was then I noticed a whopping 14 inches dedicated to Harold Michael Bowman. A picture accompanying the obit indicated things were not exactly perfect with “Mikie.”

The authors, Mikie’s brother and sister, said he was finally “free of all the chains that had bound him during his stay on earth.”

Mikie lived a life of Down Syndrome, autism, epilepsy and psychosis.

But that isn’t what defined who he was. Continue reading →

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Glazer: ‘I Was Wong!’ Scribe Scowls

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Craig Glazer

So much for KU being invincible…

The Kansas Jayhawks were a total no show last night in the Elite Eight against a good Oregon team. Pretty much nobody came to play for KU. Frank Mason was solid but couldn’t save his team singlehandedly. He tried. However even Mason was slowed down.

The Jayhawks looked like they’d been up all night before the game. No energy, no electric moves, nothing. This game was over in the first few minutes..

Put another way, Kansas was not prepared to play ANYBODY.

Why, we’ll never know.

I don’t think they could have beaten much of anyone halfway decent last night. UMKC or Missouri, maybe.

They stunk and seemed not to care, until the game was totally out of hand in the second half…but there was no fixing anything by then.

Will Bill Self take heat for the team’s poor play?

Obviously.

It’s his fault too. Self’s team was just not there – he did not have this team ready to rumble. They were  maybe ready to just get JACKED. And again, I didn’t see much if any interest in their faces…did you? Continue reading →

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Hearne: Everytime KU Men’s Basketball Loses a Big One an Angel Gets Its Wings

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

I have a confession…

It may not come as much 0f a surprise to some, but here goes:

I like it when KU loses a basketball game – the bigger the better.

Here’s why.

Because living in Lawrence, Kansas the past few years has made one thing painfully clear; that KU basketball fans are so over-the-top in the tank for their team that virtually nothing else matters.

Let me restate that for emphasis:

Nothing in life is more important to KU basketball fans than winning.

Now allow me to back that off just a bit.

The murder of one’s loved ones and financial ruin still rule the roost.

However things like basic human values, morals and decency all take a distant backseat to whatever song and dance basketball coach Bill Self and the KU Athletics Department want to offer up in the way of pathetic excuses. Continue reading →

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Paul Wilson: Health Care Reform – ‘merica Just Lost…Again

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Paul Wilson

What a country…

On Friday Salon said, “Amid reports that Republican leaders have been frantically rewriting their Obamacare repeal bill so as to win more support, even as GOP voters themselves have only lukewarm support for it, there are now early signs that the Trump administration is pessimistic about the vote scheduled for later on Friday.”

How sad was that?

I’m a fiscal conservative, but I’m going to take this opportunity to speak to how Republicans have failed healthcare reform in a more egregious manner than even the Democrats.

Make no mistake, ObamaCare is a failure of Harvard Business Case magnitude. 

It was built on a flawed business model. The same business model any insurance plan operates from – that you must have more revenues coming in from premiums paid than outgoing expenses from claims filed.

From day one, this program based its success on hipsters and healthy young people – the ones who see themselves as invincible – buying policies in droves. All those revenues would offset older, less healthy users of the plans. However anyone who had a BUS101 course could tell you that was destined for failure – and fail it did.

That’s why so many providers have pulled out of so many states.

When my company closed in January, I had to turn to the AHC market. Prior to then, I had the best PPO plan money could buy. Office visits, drug cards, tiny deductibles, all you could ask for. For this I paid roughly $200 per pay period.

When I tried to buy a comparable plan, that price increased four fold.

After looking at all the limited choices available, the only thing I could afford was a plan that covered nothing for basic visits with a $6,000 deductible for me and my wife.

So for me, ObamaCare – Affordable Healthcare – was neither “affordable” nor “healthcare.” Continue reading →

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Glazer: Scribe Rolls On With Self, KU

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Craig Glazer

What did I tell you guys?

With another 90 plus point win – 3 in a row during NCAA Tournament – KU looks unstoppable. Who can beat them? Who can compete with their three headed hydra; Frank Mason, Devonte Graham and Josh Jackson.

Looks to me like maybe nobody.

Purdue was suppose to give KU all they could handle and perhaps end their run. Caleb Swanigan was too big and powerful to stop. He was the answer to Mason and Kansas too small defense.

NOT!

Kansas stopped Caleb and Purdue cold, 98-66.

Yes Purdue looked great for 15 minutes in the first half, then they got waxed.

After leading Kansas for 15 minutes, the Jayhawks took a seven point lead into halftime and then wore out the Boilermakers in the second half and simply destroyed them.

Mason and Graham had 26 points each. Kansas rained threes all night and outran and out defended Purdue as well.

Seems like nobody can stay with Kansas an entire game. Continue reading →

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Jack Goes Confidential: ‘WILSON’—An Offbeat Delight

Posted on March 23, 2017 by Jack Poessiger

Dude, where’s my life?

No, I’m not talking about the new POWER RANGERS or CHIPS movie.

I’m focused on WILSON, a movie based on a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes.

Here crusty, lonely, hilariously honest middle-aged blowhard Woody Harrelson sets out to track down his ex-wife Laura Dern.

So far, so good.

But now discovering that he is in fact the father of a daughter he thought was aborted 17 years earlier puts a whole new dimension into his insanely offbeat life.

Of course, he first has to find her—a task that turns from hilarious to touching on many levels as he tries desperately to connect.

You can imagine how everything is about to come to a boil. Continue reading →

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Hearne: Will Kansas City Finds Its Way?

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Hearne Christopher Jr.


Is Kansas City on the right track?

Think about it. In generations past the Cowtown had a lot going for it. The mighty Missouri River, the stockyards, Kansas City Board of Trade and Kansas City Southern Railroad for starters.

Moving forward, Hallmark Cards, Russell Stover Candies, AMC Theatres, H&R Block and more recently Applebee’s, Sprint and Garmin were the local big dogs.

Those are some of the iconic companies that helped put KC on the map.

Unfortunately most of those business icons have either tanked or are struggling to remain relevant.

Let’s count ‘em down:

The fabled stockyards – long gone – the Board of Trade – toast.

Even the vaunted Hallmark is fighting what appears to be a losing battle.

What’s left of Russell Stover sold out to the Swiss – AMC and Sprint to the Chinese –  and just about anybody and everybody from cellphone makers on down are eating Garmin’s lunch. It closed its flagship retail store in Chicago late last year.

Block soldiers on – bouncing from speed bump to speed bump – while nail biting about the possible arrival of a flat or simplified tax plan. Sprint is hanging on for dear life, waiting for a savior to put it out of its misery. Applebee’s bailed a couple years back for the Left Coast.

The $65 million question:

What companies will take these legends places?

Anybody? Continue reading →

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Glazer: Scribe Drops ‘I told You So’ on Comments Crowd

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Craig Glazer

A few years back Tom Izzo’s Michigan State beat Bill Self‘s  Jayhawks in the Sweet Sixteen…

Yesterday Self got his revenge.

KU defeated Michigan State 90-70. However the score doesn’t show how close this game was until the final minutes.  Kansas had a comfortable 11 point lead heading towards the end of the first half but Michigan State came back to close it to 5.

It didn’t feel good.

In the second half Kansas led the entire way but in the final minutes KU blew another big lead down to just a one point margin. Yikes.

Then Kansas led by Josh Jackson, Frank Mason, Devonte Graham and surprise defense of bench guy Dwight Colby went on a tear…a 14 point run and destroyed Michigan State in the final minutes ending the hard fought game with a 20 point winning margin.

Josh had 23 points against his former pals – he’s from Michigan, Mason had 20 and Devonte 18. Before he had to leave with 4 fouls, Landon Lucas scored 10 and was outstanding in his defense as well. It was a total team win.

” The game was moving so fast, hell they wouldn’t listen to me, the game was going too fast” said Self after the win. Continue reading →

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Sutherland: Pembroke, The Hilltop, Cool Guys, Class Acts & Ruling Class Heroes (Part Deux)

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.

Every school has what the alums regard as a Golden Age…

A period when students, faculty, and administration were working in unison to produce a good education for its graduates, with lasting memories and friendships as happy by-products of that era.

In speaking to Pembroke Hill grads, there’s surprising unanimity among them that the years 1955 to 1965 were a decade when the school – then known as Pembroke Country Day and still all-male – was enjoying such a time.

This is not to say that those who came before or after didn’t enjoy their experience there. It’s clear, though,that the disruptive and polarizing atmosphere of war and depression which marked other epochs was happily absent during that period. By 1965, when I started, Vietnam and the counter-culture were already on the horizon and the post-war consensus was beginning to fray.

I read an essay by the novelist Mark Helprin, in which he talks about his own time at a very similar prep school, where the curriculum was an equal mix of liberal arts and contact sports. His days there, during this exact same time frame, were given coherence and context because there was a “canon”-  a widely accepted body of knowledge – that one at least aspired to master.

By the same token, at Pem-Day the curriculum had been fixed since time immemorial, with the grade cards unchanged from the 1920’s because the course offerings were the same. This added to the sense of tradition and continuity, as did many long time faculty members and the beautiful Georgian architecture of the buildings. (Now, sadly, all replaced!) Continue reading →

Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr. | Tagged | 20 Comments

Lefsetz: The Definitive Chuck Berry Obit

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Bob Lefsetz

He was the father of rock and roll…

Oh, don’t talk to me about Bill Haley. Boomers were barely conscious at the time “Rock Around The Clock” was a hit, if they were alive at all. And Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis were vastly influential – especially in the U.K. – but the progenitor who pushed it over the top, made rock a staple, was Chuck Berry.

Not that we had any idea who he was either.

But we knew the songs.

“Tutti Frutti” was already in the rearview mirror.

But not only did the Beatles cover “Rock And Roll Music” and “Roll Over Beethoven”

But the Beach Boys ripped Chuck off for their gargantuan hit “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” which was really “Sweet Little Sixteen.”

Chuck’s got a bad reputation.

As being an ungrateful SOB who demanded cash upfront and played with unrehearsed pickup bands. Keith Richards tried to give him a victory lap with that movie, but thereafter the Glimmer Twin testified as to Chuck’s bad behavior and I’m not sure if Berry’s reputation ever recovered. You usually only get one shot at a second chance.

But you’ve got to cut the guy a break, he was there at the beginning! Continue reading →

Posted in Bob Lefsetz | 3 Comments