Tag Archives: Hearne Christopher Jr.
Hearne: The Sorry State of Affairs in Lawrence & Fond Adieu to MU
Think things are bad in Kansas City, it’s no cakewalk in Lawrence these days either…
That according to businessman John Kiefer, the owner of Kiefs Audio / Video and numerous shopping center and real estate properties around the city.
"Look at the last few months in Lawrence," Kiefer says. "Sears is going to close – that’s an 80,000 square foot store. Old Navy is going to close – that’s a 20,000 square foot store. Borders is gone and nobody’s leased that space. Blockbuster had a pretty good size store on 23rd Street and they’re gone. And downtown people are going in and out like crazy."
Hearne: The Somewhat Difficult Straits of Jazz in Kansas City
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There’s good news and bad news concerning the state of jazz in Kansas City today….
Mostly bad, actually, but let’s start with what passes for the good. Asked on KCUR FM this week to characterize the state of "modern jazz" here, piano man Mark Lowrey was upbeat…if measured.
"It’s kind of like if a tree falls in a forest kind of deal," the former pizza delivery dude said. "There’s a lot of output but not a lot of support."
As evidenced by the recent closings of both Jardine’s and 1911 Main and the financial woes at the Mutual Musicians Foundation.
In Jardine’s case there’s obviously more to the story, but clearly times have been tough on local jazz. For example Jardine’s owner says she had instituted an across-the-board pay cut last fall for the musicians that performed there – with the lone exception of Stan Kessler‘s band the Sons of Brasil.
Ironically, Kesssler was the one who reportedly called the band boycott of Jardine’s after the owner called the police on his stepson.
Hey, at least things have been colorful.
Hearne: America’s Pub Takes a Bullet – Last Black Club in Westport is No More
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It was bound to happen…
The track record’s clear; Westport does not look favorably on black nightclubs or large assemblages of black people.
Then again, what mainstream shopping and/or entertainment district in KC does?
Certainly not the Power & Light District, infamous for its exclusionary admittance policies. And not the Plaza, that made its intentions known long before KC mayor Sly James did a faceplant last summer to avoid whizzing bullets.
And now America’s Pub, the midtown entertainment district’s last black dance club, is no more.
Hearne: Local Buyers Circle Plaza Jazz Club in Hopes of bringing Back Jardine’s
So many rumors, so few facts….
With Kansas City’s top jazz club stuck in limbo, it’s time again to saddle up and see where – if anywhere – things have progressed. As the world turns.
For two long jazzless months Jardine’s has remained mostly closed, following a fallout between owner Beena Raja and a pair of senior staffers that snowballed into a musician boycott and local tabloid TV beatdown.
Net result; Raja got trapped off base and the club’s been mostly dark since Thanksgiving.
From the get-go a number of suitors emerged to buy the club. However the longer it remained closed, the tighter buyer’s wallets grew, and to date a final sale remains up in the air with three or more groups vying to make a deal.
Hearne: Penn State Paterno Interview by Washington Post Belies Good Journalism
This is what’s lame about print journalism today….
By most measures Washington Post reporter Sally Jenkins’ exclusive interview with disgraced Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was a grand slam homerun. It’s what newsroom editors like to call, a "great get." Which is that’s understandable, except for one thing.
Jenkins sacrificed her journalistic soul by writing a sugar-coated, Joe Posnanski-like schmooze piece rather than playing it straight down the middle, asking the tough questions and convincing readers that her mission was not to spare the rod.
Remember, this was supposed to be a hard news story / interview.
Hearne: Westport Nightclub Nabob Declares War on Kansas City Liquor Law
All’s fair in love and Card Wars…
For years Westport businessman Bill Nigro has waged a war of words against a pair of cards Kansas City has required workers in the service industry – bars and restaurants – to purchase and carry. Nigro polished one off – the health department’s "food handler" card – last month and as of this year, they are no longer required.
The so-called "health card" cost 20 bucks and required workers who handle food to take classes on hand washing and the like.
That leaves one last card on Nigro’s hit list, Kansas City Regulated Industries "liquor card."
Hearne: And Now, the Rest of the ‘Uncle Ed Muscari’ Story
This isn’t the first report this week on the death of former Channel 41 late night personality Uncle Ed Muscare...
However, in the interest of adding a bit of corrective information along with some news and views to the mix of mostly blogger driven reporting and commentary, let’s take another look. The New York native died in a Florida prison Sunday at the age of 79.
"He was creepy, the creepiest," says former Shawnee Counciwoman Tracy Thomas. "He was a cross between Ed Wood and a defrocked priest."
"I met him a couple times," says longtime radio personality and movie dude Jack Poessiger. "He was an entertaining guy at a time when late night ntelevision still had local programming and it became a local phenomenon. And when he left, his show got taken over by by Dick Wilson of KCMO FM."
Hearne: Crawfish ‘Shortage’ – Real or Imagined – Grips Local Cajun Eatery Jazz
Don’t look now, but there’s an imaginary crawdaddy drought going down…
For three long weeks a crawfish shortage has gripped KC’s top cajun restaurant chain, Jazz a Louisiana Kitchen. That according to a server Monday at the eatery’s 39th and State Line location. Which, of course, flew in the face of the restaurant’s Mudbug Mondays special, "2 Pounds of Crawfish and 2 Pints Select Draft Beer" for $14.99.
There were none to be had my server said.
What? No crawdaddies at an eatery who’s very logo is – you guessed it – cartoon crawdaddies!
"I actually don’t know why we haven’t been able to get them," Jazz staffer Jane said in a followup call Tuesday. "I assume because they’re not in season or something. I’ll have to ask my manager, but he’s not here. We haven’t been able to get them for a while, but I have no idea why. Sorry."
Today: The Strange Ascension of George Toma into Even an Stranger Hall of Fame
Before this column spirals out of control. allow me to say a few kind words about George Toma...
Without question the longtime Kansas City A’s, Chiefs and Royals groundskeeper was the gold standard among groundskeepers in Major League Baseball and the National Football League. The 80-something Toma started as groundskeeper for major league baseball in Kansas City in 1957, when the Athletics were playing at Municipal Stadium at 22nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue.
Toma’s also renown for his decades of duty tending to Super Bowl fields and sporting events worldwide.
So it comes as little surprise that in a sports short in today’s Star we learn he’s been inducted into the Major League Baseball Groundskeeper Hall of Fame.
Hold it right there…
Star Search: Month-Old Rehash of Report Masquerades as News in Star
Better late than never, I suppose…
That’s one way to look at yesterday’s front-page, upper right-hand story in the Star by Mike Hendricks.
"Drug of Choice For Kids Is Pot," reads the headline. "Use of alcohol and tobacco drops, but high school seniors’ daily marijuana use hits a 30-year peak."
However the story – masquerading as breaking news – was little more than a ginned up rehash of a month-old report widely covered by other news media around the country early last month.
Hearne: The Awful Truth About Why Ink is Eating The Pitch’s Lunch
It’s no secret that news light as it is, Ink magazine is kicking the Pitch‘s butt…
That after only three years on the scene to the Pitch‘s 30-plus. Things had gotten so bad at the Pitch last year that after years of trying to dump it, its former out-of-town parent finally unloaded it on the publisher of the Nashville Scene alt weekly.
When I interviewed former Pitch publisher Hal Brody a few months later, he was shocked to learn his former pub was barely choking out 40-page issues. Meanwhile, Ink was knocking back 56-pagers – 40 percent larger than the now lowly Pitch.
So what does Ink have that the Pitch doesn’t?
Hearne: Round & Round They Go, But When Jardine’s Will Sell Nobody Knows
It’s a story that just won’t die…
One of the comments section dudes spent the better part of a week needling me for writing so frequently about Jardine’s. He had a point. On the other hand, when Kansas City’s top jazz club goes down ugly (not to mention weird), who am I to ignore it?
Especially given that for better and for worse, I’m in the unique position of having access to most of the players in this jazz soap. Lucky me.
Besides, what’s not to like about the local alt weekly and Fox news getting taken for a ride on the bogus sale story?
Today: KU Fans Stoked Over New Football Phat Man Despite the Critics
This is a very unusual season in Lawrence…
And not just the weather. Basketball’s well underway but everywhere you go the scent of pigskin’s in the air. There’s a new phat dude in town and KU football fans are getting restless. They’ve all but put Missouri in the rearview mirror and out of their minds. However, instead of dreaming about going to the Big Dance, they’re buying KU football tickets.
Go figure.
To some in KC, hiring new KU head coach Charlie Weis was downright dumb. Star sports columnist Sam Mellinger labeled it desperate, calling Weis a failed head coach on his fourth job in four years with really bad health.
Mellinger didn’t quite have the guts to come right out and say it, but Weis isn’t just phat, he’s fat.
Hearne: Missouri’s Offer to Play KU in Football a Hollow Gesture
Add sports politics to the circus going on in Washington, D.C….
When Missouri told the world late last year it was leaving the Big 12 for the SEC there was no shortage of pissed off Kansans. Starting with comments by KU basketball coach Bill Self and continuing on to the school’s official Facebook page with: "Missouri forfeits a century-old rivalry. We win."
So as the final Big 12 KU-MU basketball games draw near, do the KU faithful still harbor ill feelings towards the departing Tigers?
"You’re funny," laughs Lawrence promoter Brett Mosiman. "No. None at all."
Today: Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it…Lezak Weigh in on (Possible) Record Setting Winter
Praise the lord and pass the suntan lotion…
The heat is on in Kansas City and elsewhere around the country in one of the warmest late December / early January cold spells ever. The question being, how long will it last?
"I think the second half of January will turn much colder," says KSHB weather wonk Gary Lezak. "There’ll be a couple of cold outbreaks, one of which will be an arctic outbreak which will be really cold."
The reason for the recent and current balmy climes?
Today: Guido Toledo on New CD, Jardine’s & What Your Favorite Classic Rock Band Says About You
This just in from KC expat Joe “Guido Toledo” Welsh in Nashville…
The former 4 Sknns front man sends his wishes for a Happy New Year to all and wants to let devotees know that his band has a new jazz/rock fusion album out that’s also available on iTunes under Joe Guido Welsh.
"Think 1974," Guido says. "It features some heavy hitters – three original members (Roger Powell, Kevin Ellman & John Siegler) of Todd Rundgren‘s Utopia on it, along with Reeves Gabrels from David Bowie‘s band Tin Machine and some of Nashville’s finest. It hits radio this month and we’re hoping to tour Europe by the Fall of 2012."
Here’s the lineup:
"The live band is HOT with: Yours truly on guitar, Jim Riley on drums (Rascal Flatts), John Siegler on bass (Utopia/Hall & Oates), Steve King on keys (Keith Urban), Chris Rodriguez on guitar (Keith Urban/Faith Hill),
and Randy Leago on sax, keys & percussion (Shelby Lynne). We’ll have a DVD out by Feb. 1 on Amazon.com and we hope to get to KC this year. Maybe another 4 Sknns reunion – we’ll see."
Which brings us to Guido’s dark side…
Hearne: The Uncertain Beat Goes on at Jazz Club Jardine’s, Former Co-Owner says
Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside…
Reports of new ownership and management at Jardine’s may be a bit premature, say former Jardine’s co-owner Pat Hanrahan and businessman Paul Wilson, who is still in what he has been told are negotiations to buy the local jazz club.
In other words, a report that local businessmen Robert McCain and Joseph Fulgenzi have purchased Jardine’s and Hanrahan will now run the show are questionable at best, Hanrahan says.
"I don’t know what the hell is going on over there," he says. "There’s all kinds of things going on, but I don’t think anything’s been finalized yet."
Case in point, Jardine’s calendar of events for 2012 is a complete blank.
Hearne: Unintended Mediocrity & Hedonism Collide on KU Campus at The Oread
I have been to the mountain and I’m back…
And I can now tell you that aside from its many sports, pizza and coffee bar offerings, the two-year-old Oread hotel high atop the University of Kansas campus is a bust.
At least as an upscale hotel.
It kicks ass as a sports bar hang for thirsty KU students and out-of-town parents. But its stately stone facade makes promises that the eleven-story ediface doesn’t come close to delivering on.
Despite its critics, the Oread fits in just fine with the other classic stone structures that dot the nearby KU campus.
But here’s the deal…
Today: The Jardine’s Saga is Over… For Now
When it comes to tangled webs, it doesn’t get much more convoluted than Jardine’s…
At least for now, the confusion and uncertain future of Kansas City’s top jazz club has been stemmed. things came to a head yesterday when Chartwell Realty main man Joseph Fulgenzi and his partner Robert McCain walked into the offices of the Pitch to buy advertising, identifying themselves as the new owners of Jardine’s.
Think perfect storm.
Perfect in the sense that Chartwell is Jardine’s nextdoor neighbor and a respected tenant of the American Century-owned building that houses Jardine’s. And perfect also because former Jardine’s co-owner Pat Hanrahan has agreed to return to the club and oversee its operations and the booking of local jazz bands.
Today: Jardine’s Saddles Up for New Year’s Eve Comeback
Amidst rumors of a deal to retool Jardine’s, the beleaguered Plaza jazz club has announced plans to be open for New Year’s Eve...
"Jardines has a new team that will start on New Year’s Eve," says owner Beena Raja. "Its a party with the Pete Cole Quartet featuring the one and only Chris Clark on piano. And we will jazz it out from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. with a $5 cover."
Attendees can opt for the four course NYE menue at $35 per person or you can order a la carte.
