KC Confidential | Hearne Christopher, Uncensored

Lefsetz: The Cold Reality of ‘Living the Dream’

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Bob Lefsetz

The first person I saw was Arianna Huffington…

On the east coast it’s the Hamptons. On the west it’s Malibu.

And if you haven’t been to either, you’ve got no idea that it’s even further over the top than you think it is, if you think of it at all.

Where I grew up, in Southern Connecticut, there was a ferry to Long Island.

I never took it. The Hamptons were only a hop, skip and a jump away, but this is when you yearned to go to the Cape…Cod that is. The hoi polloi went to Hyannis. Yes, where the Kennedys were. I remember going there as a child and then right before I started college, just after I’d purchased the Moody Blues‘ “A Question Of Balance.”

In reality, this was the turning point, from credible to repetitive, but I didn’t know that yet, I hadn’t fully immersed myself in the LP, which was packed up back in CT, there were no iPods, never mind Walkmen. And I would have liked the record to keep me company, because it rained three and a half of the four days.

But it never rains in Southern California. Certainly not during the summer. Sure, happens every once in a while, but your odds of experiencing it are only slightly better than finding Bigfoot.

Now it used to be that Nobu was in a shopping center. A mess of buildings near the city center. But then it moved to the beach.

But the ocean is not the star.

Right next to the restaurant is a structure that’s been unable to find its way. It recently became a Soho House.

Wanna know how someone’s a poseur?

They go there. Continue reading →

Posted in Bob Lefsetz | Tagged Bob Lefsetz | 5 Comments

Chuck: ‘Pokemon Go’ West Bottoms Showdown

Posted on August 6, 2016 by Chuck Lowe

I don’t really get this Pokemon thing…

But here is a picture taken yesterday at 6:45 a.m. of Pokemon players in the West Bottoms waiting to get into some building. It looks like there’s a cop there. Jesus.

I read a book by Neal Stephenson recently called “Reamde“. It was an excellent escape about a family, whose patriarch invents a computer war game (a la Call Of Duty) that becomes monetized and delivers enormous sums of money to the winners.

Which got me thinking about POKEMAN GO. (Full disclosure, I have only a general idea of how to play it, certainly,but not why you would play it. However, I’m in my dotage and don’t understand why you can’t just meet a girl in the real world instead of on some dating website )

A friend of mine who works at a TRANE distributor, took this picture. The 50 or so people in it are PIKEMAN GO players, waiting for the business at that address (The Foundation at 1221 Union) to open. She thinks they were trying to get in when it opened which apparently wasn’t until like until like 10:00 AM.

The TRANE people were pissed because the POKEMAN people took all their parking. Continue reading →

Posted in Chuck Lowe | Tagged Chuck Lowe | 31 Comments

Glazer: Royals Suck. End of Story

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Craig Glazer

The Kansas City Royals today are once again one of baseball’s worst teams….

From the penthouse to the outhouse, yep – from World Series to can’t win two games in a row. We have no offense at all; nobody is hitting. Pitching is MUCH better than the offense, with Danny Duffy and his 7-1 record being the only bright spot anywhere in sight (save the new third baseman.)

The biggest failure this season has been with our middle hitting lineup.

Eric Hosmer has fallen apart with a long, long hitting slump. He’s now batting in the .270’s down from well over .300 in May. He hits few home runs and never when it matters (and only three of them the last two months).

Sal Perez has also been absent for the most part.

It’s hard to win when you score only one or two runs a game for a two months straight.

In close games – like 2 to 1 or 3 to 2 – when we lead going into the 8th inning our formula is give up a game winning homer to the other team. Even horrid Tampa Bay trounced our butts. And they’re the only team with fewer runs scored in the league than the Royals.

Today it seems like ages ago that we were a fun, outstanding baseball team.

What happened? Continue reading →

Posted in Craig_Glazer | Tagged Craig Glazer | 12 Comments

Lefsetz: ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Bob Lefsetz

Last Saturday I went to the Levitt Pavilion to see Peter Asher, Billy J. Kramer and Denny Laine…

However Billy J. had an infection, couldn’t travel and his place was taken by Terry Sylvester, of the Swinging Blue Jeans and Hollies. And Sylvester was…awful.

I know, maybe there was no rehearsal; maybe he couldn’t hear himself in the monitors.

It’s just that you and me could have done a better job. And it made me realize that not only is a whole generation of rockers fading away, so many of those still here are past their prime.

The truth is Paul McCartney – the tipper most of the topper most, with the best band in the universe – can’t hit the notes anymore. He’s the same guy but his pipes have corroded and contracted. You can say otherwise, but you know it’s true.

As for Bob Dylan, he hasn’t been able to sing in decades.

Never mind rearranging his tunes, did you listen to his covers record? Nobody else did either. You don’t have to, it’s execrable.

The greatest lyricist of the rock generation moved mountains with his songs, but if it’s a live performance you’re looking for, pass.

As for Roger Waters, at least he doesn’t sing much. Continue reading →

Posted in Bob Lefsetz | Tagged Bob Lefsetz, Perter and Gordon | 8 Comments

JACK GOES CONFIDENTIAL: ‘Suicide Squad’ Delivers—And then some!

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Jack Poessiger

I’ll be honest with you…

I’ve never been much into superhero comics or the movies that have been based on them.

But I did like DEADPOOL (a lot) this past February!

Disney’s Marvel Studios seems to have the commercial lock on these characters of late.

Warner Brothers’ DC Comics? Not so much.

(The last example of that was their BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE which seemed to disappoint the faithful in March.)

But not to fear!

Warner Brothers unleashes its quirky anti-hero battalion this weekend—and these dudes are super bad.

They’re the SUICIDE SQUAD and there is really no need for a backstory to enjoy it.

The first act of the film pretty well takes care of that.

The squad is a group of imprisoned super-villains—the worst of the worst—recruited by a secret government agency to execute dangerous Block-Ops missions.

In charge of the secret operation is U.S. intelligence officer Viola Davis who offers a deal to these scumbags they can’t refuse:

The more they help—the lighter their sentences will be. Continue reading →

Posted in Jack Poessiger | Tagged Jack Poessiger | 4 Comments

Hearne: End of an Era @ Lawrence Journal World

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Simons Sez

Talk about famous last words…

It’s no secret that daily newspapers are having a tough time surviving the Internet. Primarily because the ridiculously high advertising rates they were able to charge for print editions – given their effective news monopolies – are long since gone.

So it is that longtime Lawrence Journal World owner / publisher Dolph Simons Jr. penned his final, boring Saturday column this past weekend, before handing over the reins to the newspaper to the West Virginia based Ogden Newspapers chain.

The money quote in Simons’ otherwise snoozer of a column:

“The sizable number of terminations caused by the change of ownership of this paper is one of the most disappointing and sad consequences of the sale. It is a loss for the Journal-World and Lawrence.”

To which Journal World reader Barb Gordon quipped:

“(That’s) a consequence that you caused, Dolph. We all make choices, but it’s disingenuous to pretend like this was a total surprise. Dropping the ‘this writer’ style and taking ownership of your own decisions would have been an appropriate and fitting end to your columns.”

Ouch.

And truth be known, Simons has laid off more than his fair share of Journal World staffers in recent years.

Not to mention that as Gordon noted, Simons would have undoubtedly been aware of the fact that Ogden would need to make substantial cutbacks to put the newspaper he could no longer afford to own in the black. Continue reading →

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | Tagged Hearne Christopher | 6 Comments

Glazer: Fix is in on Presidential Debates

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Craig Glazer

Wow, maybe Trump is right; THE FIX IS IN FOR HILLARY…

Even network and mainstream cable news seems to be in on it. Let’s face it, America’s addicted to MONDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, huge audiences.

And we all expect the Trump/Clinton debates to attract nearly Super Bowl sized viewership. So why in God’s name would anyone schedule such a monster program against an NFL football game?

There’s no good answer except to STOP TRUMP.

Overall the news media’s down on Trump and pulling for Hillary.

The powers that be fear Trump will defeat Clinton. Sooooo, lits help her out by taking a large audience away from debates one and two. Set them up against NFL evening games. Remember, the audience for football is largely white males. They watch and they bet the games. So at best they will channel hop and miss much of the debates.

Nothing could be more clear than that someone in power doesn’t want old Donald in the White House. Are the Clinton’s behind this move?

Undoubtedly. Continue reading →

Posted in Craig_Glazer | Tagged Craig Glazer | 87 Comments

Jack Goes Confidential: Matt Damon Same Old (Same Old) in ‘JASON BOURNE’

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Jack Poessiger

Was I too stoked about Matt Damon’s return to the Bourne franchise?

Could be.

So it was that Jason Bourne certainly ranked high on my Must-See list of summer movie fare.

So if I come across negatively here, I sure don’t mean to. However my anticipation level was in overdrive—and THAT the picture did not deliver.

From a story standpoint we were transported from Athens, London and Berlin to Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas.

And yes, Matt Damon as iconic JASON BOURNE does finally uncover some major elements of his past—and IS hitting back.

However with the world facing unprecedented instability why is he now resurfacing into deadly situations while facing a new hunt on his life?

That’s what a major portion of the amnesia-based screenplay is all about. Continue reading →

Posted in Jack Poessiger | 3 Comments

Sutherland: The Intellectual Roots of Trumpism

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.

There has been next to no explanation of where the Trump Phenomenon has come from as far as its ideological provenance goes…

We have seen some commentators dismiss it as a classic anti-intellectual right-wing populist movement, akin to the George Wallace and Pat Buchanan campaigns. However, Trump’s actual political antecedents are more complex and interesting, if no less disturbing, than the aforementioned rabble rousers.

I’m thinking of another colorful billionaire with an unconventional personal life, who retired from the business world to take on elites pushing political and economic globalization.

Twenty years before Brexit, Anglo-French tycoon sir James (“Jimmy”) Goldsmith founded a one issue political movement. The purpose of his “Referendum Party” was to force the British government to allow a referendum on whether to cede power over their economy to the European Union, in particular to replace the pound with the euro. Even though Goldsmith and his party were not successful in that election, they crystalized the whole “Euro-skeptic” movement, which culminated in the vote to leave the EU this summer.

Goldsmith at the time wrote a book that reflected his thinking on a variety of issues, “The Trap.”

In it, he particularly focuses on free trade and the costs it imposes on the developed world. He begins the book by explaining how the fall of the Soviet Union and the shift of China to a form of state capitalism meant that four billion people entered the world economy for the first time.

With the ability to shift capital (and the jobs it creates) around the world instantaneously, business will shift production of goods and services to places where wages are lowest. When 47 Vietnamese or Filipinos can be employed for the cost of one person in a developed country like France or the U.S., how could it be otherwise? Continue reading →

Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr. | Tagged Dwight Sutherland | 91 Comments

Hearne: Yeehaw! Country Radio Losing It’s Kick

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Any guesses yet on what was missing from KC’s June radio rankings?

Here’s a hint: Florida Georgia Line.

That’s right, country music radio. Because all three of the Cowtown’s vaunted country music stations whiffed at making it into KC’s Top 10, settling for second tier status.

Q104 FM came landed in the 11th slot with a 4.3 share and a cume of 332,900 listers; followed by KFKF FM with a 3.9 share and cume of 295,700 and WDAF FM (The Wolf) with a 3.8 share and cume of 307,300.

Put simply, that’s quite a fall for a trio of radio stations that used to vie for the top honors… for decades. Which is something of a head scratcher since we, uh, do live in the Midwest.

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | Tagged Hearne | 10 Comments

Lefsetz: Could Hillary & The Dems Be More Out of Touch?

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Bob Lefsetz

Do you feel left out?

I most certainly do.

I’m a rank and file Democrat who feels that so far this Philadelphia party has been a circle jerk wherein the usual suspects want to feel good about themselves. Reminds me of the cool people in high school, who wanted nothing to do with me.

Does anybody there understand the real problems America faces?

And if I hear one more commentator, get one more e-mail about Michelle Obama‘s speech, I’m gonna explode.

Do these people live in such a small bubble that they don’t realize those who will decide this election don’t care a whit what the First Lady has to say?

As for taking the high road, that didn’t work for Donald Trump.

Trump rode the low road all the way to the nomination and it appears he’s gonna take it to the Presidency too.

Just wait until he lights into Hillary in the debates.

If you think he’s gonna leave out Bill’s peccadilloes and the speech money and the emails…you live in a land of decorum where the women still wear garter belts and the men wear bow ties. Continue reading →

Posted in Bob Lefsetz | Tagged Lefsetz | 16 Comments

Hearne: Life @ The Top in June Radio Ratings

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Kelly Urich, The Point

The Top 10 radio stations in Kansas City?

Think the usual suspects with one glaring exception (let’s see if you can catch it):

KCFX FM, classic rock, with a 7.4 share and a cume of 496,000 listeners.
KPRS FM, urban contemporary, with a 5.9 share and a cume of 342,000 listeners.
KZPT FM (The Point), Hot Adult Contemporary, with a 5.7 share and a cume of 513,500 listeners.
KMXV FM (Mix), Contemporary Hits, with a 5.5 share and 534,900 listeners.
KRBZ FM (The Buzz), Modern Rock, 5.4 share with a cume of 302,000 listeners.
KCMO-FM (Oldies), Classic Hits, 5.3 share with a cume of 469,600 listeners.
KCSP AM (610 Sports), Sports Talk 4.7 share with a cume of 381,000 listeners.
KQRC FM (The Rock), Rock, 4.7 share with a cume of 355,100 listeners.
KMJK FM (Magic), Urban Adult Contemporary, 4.6 share with a cume of 217,500 listeners.
KMBZ FM, News Talk, 4.5 share with a cume of 205,300 listeners.

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 3 Comments

Hearne: 610 Sports Continues to Punish WHB Despite Royals Slide

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Speaking of sports…

It may not be over tis it’s over, but it’s sure looking like Kansas City’s reign atop the world of Major League Baseball is coming to an end. It was nice while it lasted but given this area’s deep appreciation of sports and talk radio, one has to wonder will the Royals brief flirtation with excellence have any lasting effects?

Take the dramatic ratings shift of the past two years where longtime sports radio powerhouse WHB AM got dethroned by former weak sister competitor 610 Sports.

For years 610 Sports could do no right.

At its peak, local hero and former 610 stalwart Nick Wright spent practically an entire career struggling to compete with and vowing to defeat WHB kingpin Kevin Kietzman.

Never really happened.

Wright eventually threw in the towel and bailed for a morning radio show in Houston before latching onto a nondescript gig with Fox Sports in LA this past spring.

Meanwhile back at the radio ranch, a funny thing happened.

As the flagship station of the Kansas City Royals, 610 Sports rode the team’s coattails sweeping past WHB’s aging air staff with a cast of young unknowns, bantering about their dating lives, kids and the kind of cultural schtick that appeals to younger listeners.

The latest?

Even with the Royals’ demise this year, 610 continues to clean WHB’s clock. Continue reading →

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | Tagged Hearne | 17 Comments

Glazer: Somebody Call the Fat Lady, Royals Are Toast

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Craig Glazer

Famous Last Words

Two months to go in the 2016 MLB season…

Unfortunately our Kansas City Royals have fallen on tough times. For the first time in three years this late in the season they’re under .500 and it’s going to be a tough run.

For starters there are nine teams with better records than KC’s.

More to the point, KC needs to have at least be the 5th best record to make the playoffs.

There are three teams in second place or third have records over or at 10 games over .500. Boston, the Blue Jays and the Astros are all well ahead of KC right now. The Royals would first have to jump over teams like the Tigers, Seattle and even the Yankees. And the clock is ticking.

Right now we can talk about injuries to Moose, Lorenzo Cain, and losing guys like Wade Davis and Alex Gordon earlier in the season. However other than Cain, it’s really not about the injuries, is it?

Right now the best hitter on this team is Moose replacement, Cheslor Cuthbert with a .297 batting average and nine home runs. So you can’t make that argument, plus his fielding is outstanding. In fact, he may well replace Moose next year. Who knows?

The rest of team, save Paulo Orlando is just not hitting at all. Even Eric Hosmer has fallen to .291 and has but one home run in going on two months. And he looked like a guy who would easily hit 25 maybe 30 homers at the end of May but he’s stuck at 13.

Kendrys Morales has 16 and leads the team but has been up and down with a .257 average. As of late he has been our second best weapon. Even Sal Perez has slowed down with both homers and timely hits. Timing is everything and both Perez and Hosmer have been cold when it counts. And Alex Gordon looks more and more like a big mistake in the big money signing. Great guy, good hitter and was a tremendous arm but injuries have slowed him down and he may not ever be the same.

Our pitching staff has been off and on, but other than Danny Duffy, our ace at 6-1, every other starter is north of a 4.00 ERA. The bullpen has also been shaky other than Wade Davis, who we can’t use much because we have trailed in most games the last couple months.

This home stand after the All Star break was supposed to be a make it or break it before the trade deadline, but so far we are 2-4 losing both series to Texas and Cleveland.

Is there hope? Who do we trade? Do we go after a name starter, another bat? Who? Continue reading →

Posted in Craig_Glazer | Tagged Craig, Glazer: | 6 Comments

Glazer: Trump Train Explodes

Posted on July 24, 2016 by admin

Donald Trump has accepted the Republican Parties presidential nomination…

And despite some of the so-called media pundits, his speech was a SMASH HIT.

FINALLY, TRUMP IS AND CAN BE PRESIDENTIAL.

Trump redefined the Republican Party; it’s now his party. He is a nationalist; he’s the Billionaire Blue Collar Man. Trump spoke for over an hour and had a national audience spellbound. It was the longest and maybe best speech at a Republican Convention in decades, so said almost everyone.

And Trump made it clear he is working FOR US.

He ended his speech by saying “I Love You America,” you the people. Not I’m with HER, “I’M WITH YOU.”

Wow, Trump did it all calmly. He broke everything down clearly and looked great. And he defended gays and lesbians, saying THEY ARE AMERICANS FIRST. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 57 Comments

Glazer: Battle of the Political Losers

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Craig Glazer

Hillary Clinton‘s been backed into a corner with the FBI’s Computergate‘ report and her many scandals…

It’s really overwhelming and that will make it difficult for her to build much excitement over the next few months. She just isn’t very trustworthy and her past more than illustrates that.

On the other hand, Donald Trump continues to be all over the road. He did choose an excellent vice presidential partner in Indiana governor Mike Pence. Pence is the conservative many thought Trump needed to mend the fences with the right wing of the Republican party.

However in typical Trump fashion the announcement and his handling of it was shaky. Plus it appears that he had second thoughts on his pick up until the last day and hardly let the guy talk when they were interviewed all day. Trump continues to say many of the same things with little in the way of specifics to back up his plan to make America Great.

So while the Clinton’s have tried to hand this race over to Trump, he just can’t calm down enough to make people feel at ease with him. You really don’t see much of Clinton in the media compared to Trump. And with all the civil unrest and terror attacks everywhere, Trump sounds the tough guy candidate.

However no one knows exactly what the hell Trump would do to fix anything.

Trump continues to talk about Trump and not much else.

Yes, the polls have them in nearly a dead heat right now.

And if Cleveland isn’t a disaster Trump should pull ahead of Clinton in the polls following the convention. Clinton will then pull even or up after her convention. Way it works.

Thus America is left with a tough choice. Continue reading →

Posted in Craig_Glazer | Tagged Glazer: | 40 Comments

Chuck Lowe: Obama & Black Lives Matter Help Propel Violence Against Police

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Chuck Lowe

In a Huff Post piece, Christopher Lamb took Republicans and Ben Carson to task for criticizing Obamacare at a National Prayer Breakfast…

I won’t go into the specifics, accuracy or prescient premonitions of the coming ACA disaster, but, suffice it to say, umbrage was taken, feathers ruffled. So offended by Carson’s contumacious conniptions in the presence of the presidential demiurge, Lamb penned the following:

“Rudeness is the raison d’etre of the far right, where bluster is preferable to rational discourse, hyperbole beats knowledge, and what one feels in one’s gut is more important than the facts.

Rudeness is a form of currency that provides those with shrill voices and cynical minds their own talk-radio programs or Fox News appearances, or maybe a future in politics, where they can scream their way to fame and fortune like carnival barkers and snake oil salesmen by appealing to the vilest of our instincts.”

In other words, Lamb found Carson’s comments at the National Prayer Breakfast “rude”. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments

New Jack City: Discouraged by Current Filmfare? There’s Hope!

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Jack Poessiger

Not into spandex sporting superheroes, animated fowl or fighters of paranormal nostalgia?

Cheer up, Hollywood’s not forgotten you.

Here are four movies set to open during the next month with adult tastes in mind.

Upfront: ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: THE MOVIE featuring the big screen debut of (BBC) TV’s Edina and Patsy fleeing penniless to the glamorous playground of the super-rich (the French Riviera) with a plan to make the resort their permanent residence and live the high life forever more.

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS opens this weekend.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

One week later—on July 29—Woody Allen teams Jesse Eisenberg with Steve Carell, Kristen Stewart, Jeannine Berlin and Blake Lively in his 1930’s-set romantic-comedy CAFE SOCIETY.

Woody writes, directs and narrates but does not appear in the period piece.
Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Jack Goes Confidential: Bryan Cranston At His Best As ‘THE INFILTRATOR’

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Jürgen Poessiger

TI_D032_NW_00334 (l to r) Simón Andreu stars as Gonzalo Mora Sr., Bryan Cranston as undercover U.S. Customs agent Robert Mazur and Juliet Aubrey as his wife Evelyn in THE INFILTRATOR, a Broad Green Pictures release. Credit: Nick Wall / Broad Green Pictures

What genius decided to release THE INFILTRATOR during Hollywood’s popcorn summer?

It’s one of Bryan Cranston’s best screen roles yet and a true story to boot.

Set in the mid-80’s THE INFILTRATOR tells the intriguing story of undercover U.S. Customs agent Robert Mazur who became a pivotal player for drug lords laundering their dirty cash.

Mazur laid his life on the line to bring down the largest cartels not to mention the Bank of Credit and Commerce as he shook the underground economy to its core.

The film ends with an incredible sting that none of the bad guys EVER saw coming—and did them ALL in! Continue reading →

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Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Ghostbusters’—The Action-Comedy Classic That DIDN’T Need A Reboot

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Jack Poessiger

Where’s the laugh track when you need it?

At the GHOSTBUSTERS screening earlier this week mine was two rows behind me where a couple of older gals shrieked at just about every line coming off the screen.

The rest of the audience not so much.

To suggest that this re-imagined version of GHOSTBUSTERS has its share of haters is a giant understatement.

The badmouthing began when the project was first announced and went into overdrive after the film’s first trailer hit the internet.

Director Paul (Bridesmaids/Spy/The Heat) Feig’s new version is basically the same story Ivan Reitman told three decades ago.

Here researcher Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig team with nuclear engineer Kate McKinnon and streetwise subway worker Leslie Jones—not to mention their goofy new office receptionist/hunk Chris Hemsworth.

All that talent set to battle an evil and powerful paranormal invasion.

It must have looked good on paper. But I can’t say the same for the end-product. Continue reading →

Posted in Jack Poessiger | 2 Comments

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