New Jack City: Hold On To Your Stubs, Here Comes the Bottom of the Barrel—The Razzies!

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Jack Poessiger

saving-christmasNot everything was glitz and polish in Hollywood this weekend…

Oscar Eve ushered in the 35th annual Golden Raspberry Awards—the RAZZIES.

It’s Tinsel Town’s tackiest trophy derby honoring the worst of everything the film industry had to offer during the past year.

And there was plenty to be trashed during Saturday night’s event at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre on Vine Street in Hollywood.

Here then the winners—no make that ULTIMATE losers. Recipients of the coveted RAZZIES for 2014. Continue reading →

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Leftridge: RIP Harris Wittels

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Brandon Leftridge

wittelsComedy writer Harris Wittels, 30, was found dead in his Los Angeles home yesterday from what was probably a drug overdose. Wittels, inventor of the humblebrag and producer/writer for Parks and Rec, Eastbound and Down and The Sarah Silverman Program was a funny guy and it’s super shitty that he’s dead. (He was, by all accounts, a genuinely good dude, too, and I guess that’s maybe more important in the grand scheme of things.)

I first discovered him on Grantland.com where he wrote monthly (for a while, anyway) pieces about “humblebrags” he found on Twitter. (The humblebrag twitter account was its own thing first; he’d find and retweet them to almost 250K followers. For Grantland, he’d pick that month’s top ten and then add his commentary. Check the link. They’re well worth reading.)

For the uninitiated, a humblebrag is exactly what it sounds like it is. Continue reading →

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Valentine: Cowardly Cartoonist Cheap Shots Republicans

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Mark Valentine
LeeJudge

Original art by Mark Valentine

It’s hard to talk politics…

Somebody will not like you forever. And what you can get away with saying among friends is different than the things you might say around strangers.

For example, never make your political opinion obvious in a business setting.

You could lose a sale or a promotion. You might even get sued,

Unless of course you’re a political cartoonist.

Political cartoonists can go way over every line. The Charlie Hebdo cartoonist feared for his life and he sparked violence all over the world.

The satirical rag turned a profit for the first time in its history after a few people died at the hands of Islamic Extremists. Thus by all measurements, the cartoon was a success.

The Kansas City Star has Lee Judge. Continue reading →

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Lefsetz: The True Meaning of ‘Stardom’

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Bob Lefsetz
Catfish & the Bottlemen One of Spotify's predicted Stars of 2015

Catfish & the Bottlemen
One of Spotify’s predicted Stars of 2015

MONEY

We’re impressed when you make it, and continue to make it. The more zeros the better.

CONTINUITY

Momentary blips are not stars, they’re comets. If you don’t last, especially in today’s overloaded, evanescent world, you’re irrelevant.

DO IT YOURSELF

Screw the millennial teamwork/group construct. We want to see individuals triumph, it’s the American Way.

CHARISMA

Necessary in art. You must have that something extra that intrigues us.

ORIGINALITY

If you’re not pushing the envelope, you’re not interesting. Continue reading →

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Steele: Underpaid Missouri Principal Breaks Bad

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Rich Steele

heroin-principalIf the case of former Hannibal elementary school principal Joshua “JD” Foust is indicative, Missouri educators are surely in need of a raise…

According to the 2012 listings, Foust, now 33, was making only $65,000 a year as principal of A.D. Stowell Elementary School. The obviously underpaid Foust had to moonlight to support himself.

The authorities apparently took exception to his sideline, namely the distribution of heroin. So Foust stepped down. He not only stepped down.

He took off. Continue reading →

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Jack Goes Confidential: Kevin Costner Scores With Sports Drama

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Jack Poessiger

635500985690760008-XXX-MCFARLAND-USA-MOV-JY-3690-68240686Sure Kevin Costner turns in sound performances and usually scores well with critics…

Sadly though some of his more recent movies haven’t fared as well with the ticket buying public.

Both DRAFT DAY and BLACK OR WHITE under performed at the box office.

This weekend Mr. Costner returns to more familiar turf.

And with McFARLAND, USA he seems to be back in his element.

The movie is an inspirational underdog drama reminiscent of the likes of ROOKIE and BILLION DOLLAR ARM with shades of STAND AND DELIVER and THE BLIND SIDE.

So is is schmaltzy? Continue reading →

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New Jack City: Forget the Rest, There’s Only One Oscar!

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Jack Poessiger

keaton-keatonIt’s that time of year again.

Time for my not so fearless predictions for Sunday’s 87th Academy Awards.

You’ll note that I only place my picks in the top six categories. And that what passes for my “reasoning” usually results in me to losing in several high stakes office pools.

Here then is the way I believe it will play out Sunday night:

* BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS-

Patricia Arquette pretty much has a lock on the category for “BOYHOOD.”

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

* BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-

Another sure bet. J.K. Simmons for “WHIPLASH.”

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

* BEST ACTRESS-

No contest here either. Julianne Moore takes home the Oscar for “STILL ALICE.”

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Continue reading →

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Hearne: The Great Disappointment of the Great Plains

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

great_mallHold the kind words…

Few if any tears will be shed for the soon-to-close Great Mall of the Great Plains. It wasn’t that it was too old, like Metcalf South and some of the other failing or failed area malls that the Kansas City Star’s Joyce Smith compared it to today.

That certainly wasn’t the reason for its not untimely demise.

It wasn’t in a bad location per se. The city of Olathe has long been a hotbed of population and economic growth – well before the Great Mall’s entry onto the scene in 1997.

Nor was it a victim of the vicissitudes of the economy, technology, the Internet or any other of the popular excuses businesses like to point to when speaking at their own funerals.

The fall of The Great Mall is easy to pinpoint. Continue reading →

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Steele: Great Plains Mall Wins 2015 “Best Alibi” Award

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Rich Steele

great-mall-of-the-great-plains-184817-198575830170566-150779594950190-675319-5730384-n_28_550x370To the disappointment of almost no one, Olathe’s Great Mall of the Great Plains is closing after 18 futile years…

If the mall management did nothing right during those years, they announced the closing with an industrial strength excuse.

First, the management excuse, then the translation:

“The decision to close was difficult, but one that was guided by very compelling economic realities. The development began to face struggles soon after it opened in 1997, and has been unable to recover in the intervening years due to a variety of factors, including the economic downturn and changes in customers’ shopping habits.”

The mall opened in 1997.

The national and local economy remained robust until a mild recession in early 2001. But even during those first four years, the mall faced “struggles.”

It faced struggles because the Mall was ill-conceived. Continue reading →

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Sounds Good: Turnpike Troubadours @ Granada, Martin Sexton @ Granada

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Matthew Donnelly

artist_45_hero_imgThursday, February 19th

Turnpike Troubadours at the Granada in Lawrence

So you’re not a “country music” fan?  Me neither, really.  I mean, I love Willie.  And I can get into a ripping pedal steel for sure.  But I don’t own a 10 gallon hat or chew tobacco or anything.  So I surprised even myself a little bit when the Troubadours starting growing on me.  I never really meant to see them, honest, I just stumbled across them one afternoon at the Wakarusa Festival a few years back.

They turned out to be one of my favorite acts of the weekend.  Just solid folk-roots songs with a ripping fiddle, stand up bass, and a dash of small-town red dirt, all projected through the subtle drawl of their young front man, Evan Felkner.

And despite the fact that this show is on a Thursday, don’t wait.  The Troubadours have been gaining momentum for the better part of a year now, last time pretty much selling out Liberty Hall, so it should be a packed affair with cowgirls aplenty. Continue reading →

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Glazer: Keeping it Real with Cindy Crawford

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Craig Glazer

cindy-blake-lively-13feb15-01She’s been a top model for nearly three decades…

Cindy Crawford is considered to be one of the world’s most beautiful women, even at the age of 48. You still see her promoting her cosmetic lines and more on late night television every week and she speaks out against unreal expectations from women’s figures as they age.

A photo from a test magazine shoot in Marie Claire magazine was released on twitter a few days ago. It shows a tan Crawford wearing a swim suit and wearing a hat. However it wasn’t touched up and you could see the stretch marks from her child bearing,  a bit of cellulite on her legs and some wrinkles. Make no mistake she still looks good for a lady pushing 50 and her beautiful face remains just that.

Like all photos, it’s maybe not the best angle, the lighting could be better and other issues, no question. Cindy was interviewed and that too is available online. She looked great – fit and trim.

A number of women of stature have praised the flawed photos of Crawford saying, :Hey, as we age we can’t stay perfect, this is a brave view of a real woman.” Continue reading →

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Sutherland: The Kansas School District ‘Hoarders’

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.

101612285-200235701-002.530x298One of the delights of living in the present day United States is access to the full range of wonderful reality shows on cable television…

Such shows include My 600 Pound Life, Toddlers & Tiaras and Bridezillas.

My personal favorite,however, is Hoarders, about people whose homes become filled with trash and debris because they can never throw anything out, but insist on hoarding it because they think they will need it someday.

Usually a family member has to intervene before the person who is suffering from this form of mental illness is forcibly removed by health authorities. A variant on this malady is displayed by misers,who obsess over hoarding money or other valuable property but only can only do so because they get someone else to pay their living expenses.

I represented a court-appointed client (I’ll call him Silas Marner) for a number of years ,who displayed symptoms of both disorders. Continue reading →

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Valentine: Dear Activist

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Mark Valentine
activist

Original art by Mark Valentine

Dear Activist,

I don’t have much interest in political movements and science blended together.
Politics and the desire for public money corrupts science. It’s not much different now than when The Pope declared the earth to be flat and anyone who disagreed must be punished.

When I was in college, “all the scientists agreed” that we were headed for an ice age. It didn’t happen.

Last week, it was revealed that the temperature readings had been changed by researchers to show more global warming. That should be no surprise. There is more grant money from public funds for a dire threat.

The models are always fatally flawed.
We don’t understand how the earth works.
We don’t understand how the sun works.
We don’t understand how our solar system works.
We don’t understand how the universe works.
We can’t even explain gravity.
I have seen no climate change model that includes the sun’s activity or volcanic activity.
And those are the two biggest factors by far.

The current Global Warming/Climate Change debate is the latest morphing of an extremely old argument. The root of pollution is people. If you follow that path, the only real solution is to get rid of people. The next most acceptable solution is to limit human population. Then someone will decide who gets to breed.  If either of these solutions become a political solution, we are finished.

On a more shallow track, we are only talking about carbon in the atmosphere. Continue reading →

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Glazer: ‘King of Sting’ Optioned by Touchstone Pictures

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Craig Glazer

Pitch-Craig-Glazer-kansas-city-cover-photography-photographer-kc-chris-mullins-iamchrismullins0001-582x600I’d always dreamed of attending the Academy Awards…

Better yet, I wanted to have a good reason to be there. It was 1990 and I was invited to go to the big dance. I’d just finished working on my first name picture, CHAMPIONS FOREVER starring Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, George Foreman and Ken Norton. And my feature documentary was in the running for best picture in the documentary category. In the end I didn’t make the cut. It was still a time when Ali was looked down on over his ties to a not popular religious group.

That would change later with, When We Were Kings. My movie was the only time all five champions were together in one room and interviewed about their careers and fights with Ali – he’d fought them all.

My best pal in LA, actor Sonny Landham, had invited me to go with him to the ceremony. Sonny’s career was hot with 48 Hours, Predator, Lock Up and more. And Landham was a longtime member of the Academy.

Even back then they checked to make sure only invited guests would walk the red carpet and get seats. Seats to the awards show were selling for up to $5,000 each. But if you got caught selling them you were terminated from the Academy. You had to get permission for a guest to use one of your seats.

Obviously, the theater didn’t have enough seats for all the members, so they did a lottery to see who got seats and who didn’t. I’m sure if you were say John Travolta or Spielberg, this wasn’t an issue. Continue reading →

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Leftridge: Crap for Sale on Craigslist: Valentine’s Day Edition

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Brandon Leftridge

VDaycoverSo once again, Valentine’s Day has landed unflinchingly upon us like a meaty ass plopping into a seat at Ryan’s Family Steakhouse. If you’re lucky, you’re single or maybe even widowed, unburdened with fiscal irresponsibility manifested in the shape of a mass produced card featuring Garfield the cat spouting some bullshit about “loving you more than (he) love(s) lasagna,” or a dented box of chocolates covered with (probably) measles and (absolutely) fecal matter from the unwashed hands of the countless guys who’ve pawed at it before.

This year, take a different approach. Rise above the herd, as it were, and find something unique and thoughtful. And cheap. Very, very cheap. I’m talking about Craigslist, y’all. Let’s go shopping. (Even if we ARE a day late… isn’t it pretty much Valentine’s Weekend, anyway?)

For the Techie in Your Life:

MacBook Air for Valentine’s Day! – $700 (Lee’s Summit)

“MacBook Air 11″ as described. In perfect shape. Has AppleCare protection (included) as well as the BOX. It’s in great shape. Under two years old. Has a new extension cord. Has Office 2008 and 2011 installed. Will also include the discs. Cash Only.”

Dig it—outdated technology AND the original packaging?? Buy this for your nerd-lady and you’re getting your hard drive cleaned tonight, Romeo. (Disclosure: I have no idea what a hard drive is, or what I even mean by “getting (it) cleaned.” I’m sorry.) Continue reading →

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Star beams: Fifty Shades of Kelly, Brian Williams Chopper Hopper & Upton Girl

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Kelly Urich

FFN_IMAGE_51279216|FFN_SET_60072875

I told my wife I wanted to work on some “Fifty Shades of Grey” stuff and she handed me my laundry.

*******

My love life is a lot less like “Fifty Shades” and a lot more like “The Slap.”

*******

Love Line #33:  Our love is as real as a helicopter ride with Brian Williams.

Continue reading →

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Steele: Yippee! MARC Wins ‘Major Award’

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Rich Steele
SACHEEN-LITTLEFEATHER_510x510

Sacheen Littlefeather

Sometimes you don’t know whether to loathe the people involved in these scams or just feel sorry for them…

President Obama has reached out to Kansas City to name MARC, the Mid-America Regional Council, one of this year’s “Climate Action Champions.”

MARC received the award for proposing the creation of something called “a regional Resilience Working Group.”

In the kind of language that usually accompanies the awarding of a merit badge, the White House tells us that “through leadership, planning, and action, the Mid-America Regional Council promotes regional cooperation and innovative solutions and seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2 percent per year.”

Is that 2 percent per year fewer emissions just floating over the metro? If so, how do we measure it? Continue reading →

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Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ – Softcore, Hanky-Panky Fetish

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Jack Poessiger

50-shades2I’m obviously the wrong person to review this decadent BDSM, Cinderella melodrama…

And I’m totally the wrong demographic for this (love) story of  fetish sex. I haven’t even read the books, for crying out loud.

Still I’m NOT letting those small forks-in-the-road stand in the way of sharing my undervalued opinion on Comcast Universal NBC’s screen adaptation of this just over two hour long sex romp of  E.L. James’ best selling mommy porn.

So here are my basic observations of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY.

*** The sexual titillation doesn’t get going until about 40 minutes into the film.

Up until then it’s a long and tedious  exercise in “getting to know you” interplay with any realistic signs of chemistry between Christian and Anastasia sorely missing.

*** And even in its most dramatic and compelling scenes, the film’s dialogue borders on sketch comedy material. Ditto the delivery of some of the lines.

(i.e. “I don’t do romance.”—“Enlighten me then.”

And how can you keep a straight face with this milk dud hitting you square in the face:

“I don’t make love. I f*ck!”) Continue reading →

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Hearne: The Rich Get Sleazier at KU

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
High road, anyone?

High road, anyone?

Henceforth and forevermore let the record show that college sports is about one  thing – and one thing only – the almighty buck…

And it’s about folks like us, trapped in flyover state cities, with nothing much better to do than feeding the dog, raising some kids and root for the home team while pretending they’re actually from anywhere near around these parts.

What it’s not about?

For decades – if not longer – it’s had zero to do with Lawrence, Kansas, Manhattan, Kansas or Columbia, Missouri breeding and raising world class, solid citizen athletes. They’re brought in from other cities, states – countries even – to stand up for the Sunflower and Show Me states.

Because with rare exception most anyone much any good that plays for our local teams are out-of-towners attracted and recruited by the lure of money and fame.

That’s why KU basketball deity Bill Self wants the school to build lavish living quarters for his athletes so he can keep a few of them from going to Kentucky. That’s also why the school just bought an $8 million luxury jet that the Topeka Capital Journal labeled a “high-flying perk for some of its officials.”

Money, power, greed – that’s what college sports today are about.

Dare to try and break away from that like the KU Student Senate did last year and you’ll get fly swatted by school officials cashing the six and seven figure paychecks. Continue reading →

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Steele: The Truth About Kansas Found in the Driest of Places

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Rich Steele

kansas_rocks_mesh_hat-ra1a17019cc004b0fb79759abdc31a724_v9wfy_8byvr_512Quite possibly the least ideological—and least sexy—publication in North America is the “Purchasing Economy Survey Report” produced by Creighton University…

Now unless some deep operative from the Sam Brownback administration bought the editors’ cooperation with promises of new farm implements, one can relay their findings with some degree of confidence.

The headline of this October 2014 story reads, “Kansas Cuts Taxes and Expands the Economy: Earnings Growth Soars Past U.S. and Neighbors Since Passage.”

According to the report, in 2012 Kansas Governor Brownback cut individual tax rates by 25 percent, repealed the tax on sole proprietorships, and increased the standard deduction. In 2013, the state legislature cut taxes again.

“How has the Kansas economy responded to these dramatic tax cuts?” ask the editors.

Well, since the fourth quarter of 2012, “Kansas grew its personal income by 2.92% which was higher than the U.S. gain of 2.85%, and was greater than the growth experienced by each state bordering Kansas, except Colorado.”

That is not all. Continue reading →

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