Tag Archives: Hearne Christopher Jr.

What do out of towners say about Kansas Citians?

Having interviewed hundreds, what I’ve heard most is how polite we are. To which I’d like to add, on the surface. That’s one reason we see so few edgy stories in the local media. Because outside of outright murder or mayhem, few folks are willing to speak their peace…in public, that is.

It’s poor form.

Behind closed doors or "off the record" though, character assassination is alive and kicking.

Take the recent departure of Waldo institution McClain’s Bakery from its longtime home at 74th and Wornall. When the local news media came a calling to report on McClain’s move, they served up a watered down tale of how McClain’s merely wanting more parking and a larger space.

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In a sad twist of fate, Starker’s owner John McClure was found dead today at his home…

Sources say Starker’s staffers discovered McClure at his home today after he failed to show up at the Plaza eatery and could not be reached. The unofficial word being that it was an apparent suicide.

Kansas City Police say there appears to be no foul play but are investigating.

McClure, 36, was from Tescott, Kansas and studied culinary arts at the Culinary Institute of America. He was also a chef and described himself as "Head Taco Maker at Barrio," a new Latin eatery poised toopen in Westport at 4141 Pennsylvania.

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Things haven’t been the same since Clancy left…

Once upon a time, there was Comedy Sportz. No mas. Oh, it’s still around, just not in Kansas City. Local improv dude Clancy Hathaway was the man with the plan in those dark ages of 1987. An out of work actor, Hathaway rented space in the back of Torres Pizza in Westport then richoceted around town to location after location for a dozen or so years before having a falling out with the Mother Ship and changing the name to Comedy City.

That was then…

And while Hathaway’s Linkedin page still describes him as "da’Mayor at Comedy City," he’s now retired says new owner Clay Morgan.

Morgan – a comic since 1997 – now runs the show in the Westport Flea Market – and is leading a bolder, edgier new charge.

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To borrow an expression, the Skies the limit…

Or is it? The Star‘s Joyce Smith reported recently that Skies – the Hyatt Regency Crown Center’s decades-old, revolving, rooftop restaurant – would close and be converted into a “Sheraton Preferred Guest” lounge after Sheraton takes over in December.

I visited the 20-plus year old restaurant Saturday to check it out one last time. I wasn’t alone. Reservations were tight and the best I could do was a 9 p.m. seating. The point being, if you want to dine in prime time, make your reservations early.

There was even an hour-plus wait to get into Skies scenic lounge – a cheaper thrill – although the hotel did allow small groups to ride the special elevator to the 42nd floor for a farewell look.

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Scratch one kickass KC New Year’s Eve bash…

Kansas City’s largest New Year’s Eve Party is no more. That on the heels of an announcement by Crown Center that the Hyatt Regency Crown Center hotel and three of KC’s most esteemed upscale eateries – Peppercorn Duck Club, Skies and Benton’s – will take dirt naps at the end of November.

The word on the street being the hotel was canceling its popular New Year’s bash.

For years the gargantuan event drew thousands of upscale Kansas Citians to the Hyatt to dine, drink, dance and dart into hotel rooms before embarking on the new year. Last year’s bash was headlined by The Elders and featured live comedy and every brand of band and music imaginable, swallowing the hotel’s lobby, event spaces and 732 rooms at an entry price of $75 per person.

No mas…

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What’s the matter with Trader Joe’s?

Obviously, not everything. It’s doubtful the company that owns and operates equally cult-like, cut rate grocer Aldi would expand into the Kansas City market if things weren’t going pretty well. Yet while much has been said about Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck wine ( still selling for $1.99 in Tucson but a buck more in KC) and its generous return policy, little has been written or reported about the actual Trader Joe’s shopping experience.

"It’s hell," says 30-something Topeka mom Kimberly Gerlach, recruited to check out KC’s twin TJ’s. "It’s just hard to shop there."

Put another way, the shopping experience at both Trader Joe’s here is a cluster fuck.

Gerlach’s bottom line after back-to-back visits:

"I’d go there again for wine and produce, but that’s about it. I hate it, I hate the shopping experience. And I hate that bell they’re constantly ringing at the checkouts up front because they add to the chaos."

The primary problem: the constant bustle and kinetic shopping pace that pervades both stores.

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Blame it on Darby O’Gill...

You know, from the movie Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Or was it Martin Luther King, Jr.? I forget but somewhere along the line, society decided that each and every splinter group should be granted however many exemptions from the English language – you know – as it is politely spoken.

In the name of political correctness.

In cases like the "N" word it was a capital idea. Less so in others. I mean, what’s wrong with referring to the characters in the new "Footloose" movie as crackers? They’re from Bomont, Georgia for goddsakes.

And so what if their great grandfathers ate hardtack during the Civil War? Let ’em burn a Confederate flag if they don’t like it.

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Think of it as the local equivalent of peace breaking out in the Middle East…

Quinton’s Bar & Deli,  one of the most popular KU and MU college haunts has splashed down in the wilds of Waldo. That after 20 years of existance as a Lawrence legend specializing in – wait for it –  "bread bowls and bomb ass waitresses."

The joint’s practically infamous for having a staff of 60 to 70 college grrrl hotties who party there when they’re off duty. Making it something of a dude magnet and actually difficult to get in at times..

But Quinton’s also been going strong for about 15 years in MU Tiger Country. Complete with a dance club and kickass rooftop patio.

Now its upscale game is afoot in Waldo in the former home of Hannibal’s Waldo Bar.

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Let’s take another look at Kansas City Star parent McClatchy head guy Gary Pruitt...

As my former colleagues at 18th and Grand hunker down and await another likely pre holiday bloodletting, yesterday’s column wondered aloud how Pruitt, having blundered so badly, has managed keep his job. He’s been doling out plank walks by the hundreds to journalists whose only crimes were working at a company he foolishly leveraged at the exact wrong time.

To be clear, layoffs would have come to the Star even if Knight-Ridder still owned the biz. But by Pruitt’s taking on such huge debt, the casualties have been far greater than they likely otherwise would have been. And piloting McClatchy’s stock from $63 to an all but worthless buck is no small feat.

Yet Pruitt still has his job. In what universe does that logic exist?

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Long time no Star stories; let’s play catch up on a big one…

And while it’s been pretty quiet in the local media rumor mill, chances are the Kansas City Star is in store for yet another round of layoffs and/or cutbacks now that the third quarter  has shuddered to an end.

Insiders say it was a rough, tough summer and having played the furlough card following the newspaper’s second quarter results, chances are it may not be pretty.

Yet despite all his missteps and dismal financial results, the guy up top, McClatchy head Gary Pruitt is still large and in charge.

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There’s a journalistic catfight brewing…

When Nashville-based SouthComm bailed Village Voice out of the local red ink machine known as the Pitch earlier this year, it was every alt journalist for his or herself. The handwriting, long on the wall, had sent longtime Pitch editor C.J. Janovy and top writing gun Nadia Pflaum scurrying for greener paycheck pastures along with carpetbagger Joe Tone.

And there’s since been strong journalistic evidence that – unlike the village idiots – SouthComm gets it.

If you want to be a successful alternative newsweekly, don’t weigh readers down with overly-long opuses and shopworn hipster subject matter and points of view.

Just come clean and give ’em some news they can use.

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My first encounter with iconic Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs went down at Pennylane Records in Westport…

It was in the mid-1980s and I was a promoter of mostly alternative rock musicians in an era when local radio had zero interest in those artists. Outside, that is, hit makers like Duran Duran and Simple Minds. I needed a vehicle to reach the target audience for those acts. And while there wasn’t a whole lot to Pennylane’s in-house KC Pitch monthly at the time – contentwise-  there really were no other viable options.

So off to the Land of Joe Bob Briggs, Matt Groening & LeRoi I headed…

However, I couldn’t get so much as a return call to buy an ad for my first show. So afterwards I tracked down record store owner Hal Brody and pitched him on my concept for expanding the Pitch. To transform it from a record rag running mostly "house" ads for Pennylane and bar ads for a handful of Westport clubs like the Hurricane and Lone Star, into something ressembling what it is today.

In other markets, small, homegrown hippie zines had evolved and were continuing to evolve into broadbased alternative newsweeklies, I told Brody. They covered fine arts, dining, a far wider swath of entertainment and edgy, often controversial news. And the Pitch could do the same in Kansas City where there was money to be made, fun to be had and dragons to be slain.

Brody took me up and I began working with his merry band of record store employees to grow the mag.

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I don’t want to pimp you guys or anything but…

Check out what The Atlantic had to say about Major League Baseball earlier this year.

Even Apple’s kicking MLB’s butt!

And while you’re at it, add this to my growing Steve Jobs slagheap. Here’s the headline:

"Is Apple More Popular Than Major League Baseball?"

Nice, huh?

Atlantic associate editor Nicholas Jackson does the honors.

"Of course Apple is more profitable than MLB, but it’s also managing to get more money out of every visitor that walks in the door," Jackson begins. "With millions of iPads sold and millions of iPhones sold and millions of laptops and desktops sold — and, yes, even millions of iPods are still sold — Apple is moving its products faster than its factories in China can even produce them. Certainly all of these gadgets bring in more money than peanuts — literally. Apple stores alone are more profitable than America’s favorite pastime, accounting for $9.8 billion of Apple’s reported $65.2 billion revenue in fiscal year 2010. For comparison, MLB reported $7 billion in revenue."

How do you like them Apples, "real sports fans"?

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Ahoy there, maties…

Loosen those barnacles and gather round while I tell a see-faring tale about Trader Joe’s ongoing aventures along the shores of Leawood. That upscale local burb famous for its proud stewardship of the color beige, wood shingle roofs and other eye-pleasing aesthetics.

Both Trader Joe’s in Leawood and Ward Parkway Center opened this past July.

But unlike its shipmates on the MU side of State Line, TJ’s Leawood landlubbers were trapped off base on two counts.

 For starters, there’s no parking for TJ’s 70 shipmates at the trendy new One Nineteen center, and the sea dogs must park at other nearby centers, then be ferried over by by RED Development land schooners that run every 10 minutes on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

That’s because parking is tight at One Nineteen, and with new businesses about to open it’s not gonna get any better.

"When this property fills up, it’s going to be a nightmare," says Trader Joe’s first mate Jerry Arns.

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Good thing I’m up late working on my Platte County Landmark column…

Because in what may go down as the local scoop of the century (I know, it’s early), KU Basketball coach Bill Self laid some major league pipe to the arch rival Missouri Tigers.

If MU bolts to the SEC, forget about playing KU in the regular season, Self told the Lawrence Journal World.

"If the Tigers do decide to bolt for the SEC, however, they will do so aware there’s the chance they’ll never play KU in hoops in the regular season again," the Journal World report begins.

“ ‘To me it’s a great rivalry, one of the best in college basketball without question, but I don’t think I would be interested in having a once a year game like I did when I was at Illinois, playing Missouri,’ ” Self told the Journal-World Tuesday night.

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When it comes to Ward Parkway Center, all that glitters is not Trader Joe’s…

Forget what you may have read, according to the retailers I interviewed Tuesday at the center, the much ballyhooed arrival of Trader Joe’s last summer had little to no positive effect on their businesses. And we’re talking about a fairly large cross section. Fom Sports Nutz to Green Smoke, Sprint to Claire’s, Bath & Body Works to Pier One.

Even the mall rental cop, when asked if the upstairs part of the mall had benefitted from Trader Joe’s said, "No. There’s not much traffic."

All agreed that Trader Joe’s has yet to bring any measurable additional business to their stores.

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Talk about gone in 60 seconds…

Just like that one the the Kansas City Star‘s premier advertisers – Dickinson Theatres – has gone missing. Sources say the heavy hitter, locally owned movie exhibitor quit the Star as of October 1st. Dickinson had been a seven day a week advertiser.

However its flight from print isn’t so much a sign of today’s difficult times, as the trend of moviegoers no longer consulting newspapers for movie times.

"I saw a survey recently that said that nationally 84 percent of moviegoers get their information on movie times from places other than newspapers," says movie industry veteran Jack Poessiger who writes for KCC. "And I spoke with someone at a movie convention in Las vegas who told me 92 percent of moviegoers were getting their movie times from places other than newspapers."

This isn’t the first time Dickinson or other exhibitors threatened to yank their ads out of the local daily, sources say.

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A moment of silence please for the dearly departed…

Including Circuit City, Movie Gallery Borders Books and Ultimate Electronics.

And now with Best Buy and Blockbuster, on the ropes, newspapers and magazines hanging on for dear life, it’s clear when it comes to the ravages of the World Wide Web, nothing is sacred. Raising the question of if we’re entering an era where local retail will be limited to a handful of specialty store survivors.

"If you had any doubts that nowadays people prefer to shop electronics online, the latest earnings report from Best Buy should make you a believer," CNN Money said last month. "The nation’s largest electronics ‘brick and mortar’ retailer announced a 30% decline in its net income for the second quarter. Same store sales slid 2.8%"

The flip side of that toe stubbing:

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