KC Confidential

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures and declares “You’re fired!” at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 17, 2015. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – RTX1GZCO

Guantanamo Bay prisoners could be coming to Leavenworth.  Donald Trump says we should build a wall around the prison.

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Between the Stock Market and AshleyMadison.com, I’ve barely gotten any sleep this week.

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I was not at all prepared for just how intense and violent things would get in this movie…

After all the movie stars Owen Wilson—who is usually an easy going kinda guy.

But in NO ESCAPE he helms an intense international political action thriller that’ll have you on the edge of your seat for much of the film’s 103 minute running time.

Originally entitled THE COUP for an earlier March 2015 release, NO ESCAPE starts out innocently enough.

Owen Wilson as Jack Dwyer with wife Lake Bell and their two young daughters are on an incredibly long flight to some unidentified southeast Asian country.

Owen’s engineering job in Austin, Texas has blown up and he opts to accept a waterworks tech opportunity in this third world country.

But what follows would almost make one think of the place as really being in a fourth world.

Barely has the family settled in at the country’s only western-style hotel when all hell breaks lose. Continue reading →

Saturday, August 22nd

Turnpike Troubadours at the Granada in Lawrence

Not a country music fan?  Me neither.  Don’t let that stop you from checking out one of the best live bands I’ve seen over the past couple years.

I suppose we’re lucky here in northeast Kansas to be so close to Oklahoma, the home base of the Troubadour boys.  That proximity has afforded us several shows in recent memory – at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, at the Crossroads, and at the Granada – while those in more distant locales have had to scrap just to get a ticket to see these young red dirt boys blow up.

This show comes on the tail end of a long tour spent promoting their upcoming self-titled album, which drops on September 18th, so I expect the band to be right in the pocket, road-hardened and tight.  And the crowd at the Granada should be pretty good, most likely sold out, especially considering the students are just back in town.  As of writing this post there are still some tickets left here, but if you’re planning to wait until the day of, you may end up on the outside looking in.

Bonus tip: If you spot Hearne at the show, he’ll buy you your first shot of whiskey.  He’ll be the one in the chaps with spurs.

Radiolab

Why is it when major media is cropping its stories down to nothing, believing that’s the only way to achieve virality, because America is dumb and has a short attention span, that podcasts are gaining traction and are generating the word of mouth traditional outlets crave?

There’s the splash and then the regeneration.

Podcasting was all over the news in 2005 and then it crashed.

But suddenly, it’s been reborn as a long-form medium where those excluded from the traditional airwaves are making not only a home, but inroads.

It’s San Francisco in 1966. Seattle in 1991.

It’s passionate people pursuing their dream with money in the background. And if you partake of the art, you know there’s not enough time to listen to all the podcasts you may want to – still you’re addicted and can’t stop talking about them.

There’s the intimacy… In a world where you’re constantly being told you’re inadequate and don’t count, you feel close to podcasters (even if you never contact them).

It’s akin to FM radio back in the mid-sixties. It’s a small club and you’re thrilled to stay up all night listening.

Then there are  the stories…

Most podcasts cover stories that appear nowhere else.

There’s the humanity…

In this tech-dominated culture we love our smartphones, but we’re looking for something a little more squishy, a little more gray than black and white. Podcasting is primarily about people, their backgrounds and their flaws.

You can start with “Radiolab,” which happens to be going through an identity crisis. Continue reading →

Fox News spent all Sunday explaining why Donald Trump can’t win the White House…

“He has no real plan,” Fox railed. “He’s just a reality TV star and billionaire appealing to the 25% of Americans who are unhappy with professional politicians.”

HOWEVER, REALITY TV HAS TAKEN OVER TELEVISION FOLKS AND IT MAY TAKE OVER THE WHITE HOUSE.

Fox News played Trump’s interviews on his helicopter and hIs interviews on his plane. His name was on both. They played his call in interviews to everyone at the national networks … he is now a reality superstar and a news superstar.

Donald Trump is a first,  remember a guy named Ronald Reagan?

Reagan was the only movie star to be elected president, yet was never even as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger who also became the governors of California. Arnold may well have been able to capture the White House as well. Except was he was not born in America and got caught knocking up his maid. Arnold was a superstar actor Reagan was not.

So it could happen. Continue reading →

Former Mizzou offensive lineman Max Copeland will play a crazed killer in an independent horror movie.  The movie just got a rating of 5 on a scale of one to O.J. Simpson.

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A new study shows people who eat fried foods have a 56% greater chance of getting heart disease.  The study was conducted that the University of Stroud’s.

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