Tag Archives: Hearne Christopher
Hearne: It’s Insane! Clown Posse Moves Again, Wrestling Returns to Memorial Hall!
So many Insane Clown Posse concert venues, so few actual shows…
As recently as Monday – two short days ago, to be exact – the Insane Clown Posse concert wilding was slated to go down at the Capital Federal Park at Sandstone. No mas. On Tuesday a press release was issued that the show would play the Beaumont Club in Westport. In all likelihood to accommodate a smaller than anticipated crowd.
“I’d be surprised if they played there,” former Beaumont Club main man Bill Nigro said yesterday upon being told of the switch. Continue reading
Hearne: Did Blonde Have More Fun? Last Call Saturday!
Most indubitability…
As Saturday’s final farewell to fallen Plaza nightclub Blonde approaches, one last question looms large.
How wild was it?
“You want me to say the wildest thing I ever saw at Blonde?” backpedals former Blonde PR point man Will Gregory. “On the record? Why don’t you just make that my quote?”
Done deal…
Now a few more specific words of wisdom from a more forthcoming – if still media shy – regular at Blonde: Continue reading
Hearne: Sticky Wicket Alert, Insane Clowns Bail on Sandstone for Beaumont
This just in…
Saturday’s Insane Clown Posse show at Sandstone has been last minute moved to the Beaumont Club. In all likelihood to reflect ticket sales. Should make for a cozy homecoming from the band’s 2001 sticky–thon at the Westport live music venue.
Longtime Beaumont honcho Bill Nigro recalls ICP last show like it was yesterday…
“They left a sticky mess that took months to clean up,” he reminisces.
Nigro’s take on the Clown Posse’s madness past, as it appeared in my column in the Star: Continue reading
Hearne: Flashback to Jose Lima at Jardine’s
Missing in action in the Star’s reflections upon stricken former Royals player Jose Lima…
An anecdote that ran seven years ago in my column about the colorful 37 year-old baseball star’s flirtation then with the Cowtown’s much-ballyhooed jazz legacy.
Lima checked out unexpectedly Sunday after a massive heart attack.
Return with me now to late August of 2003 when Lima was rocking it with the Royals:
About Royals star Jose Lima’s recent singing “audition” at Plaza jazz joint Jardine’s …the item began.
“Lima was outstanding,’ ” says Jardine’s honcho Beena Brandsgard. “You would not believe this guy. He’s a showman. And he is hot right now. This town just loves him. Some of my staff were just like groupies.”
Just one problem. Continue reading
Hearne: Gone But Not Forgotten – Pitch Foodie Charles Ferruzza Returns
You got it, you lay it off, you still got it…
For most folks, Pitch restaurant critic Charles Ferruzza has been something of an institution at the local alternative paper. For upwards of a decade, Ferruzza – formerly with the Johnson County Sun – has been dishing up restaurant reviews and related stories about the Cowtown’s dining scene.
“There was never a week that I wasn’t writing,” Ferruzza says. “And I was glad to have (still) had the gig.”
But as insiders know, Ferruzza took a major financial hit and was laid off (along with Night Ranger columnist Jen Chen) by the struggling newsweekly 17 months ago.
However, because he continued to write weekly reviews and daily blog posts, most readers of the Pitch had no reason to suspect that he – like hundreds of local print media refugees – had fallen on hard times.
“I wasn’t getting interviews and I kept thinking, ‘What’s wrong?’ ” Ferruzza muses. “And I kept re-writing my resume. It was very disheartening. It’s like, you work all your life and then nobody wants you.” Continue reading
Starbeams: Burning Bus at KCI, Flush Creek Fix & Royals-Cards Reddux
An ATA bus caught fire Sunday in front of the Continental gates at Terminal A at KCI. 
Only a Continue reading
Hearne: Rocking Lawrence’s Casbah – Burger War Style
Just last year one of Lawrence Continue reading
Hearne: Ex Star Sports Scribe Signs with Fox – Scoops Star, Disses Media
He’s back and he’s bad…
Former Kansas City Star sports columnist Jeffrey Flanagan has hooked up with Fox Sports and has already administered a bit of corporal journalistic punishment to his former employer and the local sports media.
“I ran into Jeff just now at the Woodside pool and I said, ‘Hey, congratulations, I heard you joined the Fox Sports team online,’ ” says Stanford’s Craig Glazer. “And he told me it’s a subsidiary of Fox Sports and that, “I will just be covering Kansas City. In fact, you can read my first story right now.'”
Flanagan’s kickoff piece for Fox was a humdinger…
“Glass says he didn’t order Hillman’s Firing,” the headline reads. Continue reading
Hearne: Journalist/Author/ Former Mayoral Aide Joe Miller Joins KC Confidential
One of Kansas City’s leading journalists, investigative reporters and authors – former Pitch top gun Joe Miller – joins KC Confidential starting Monday, Memorial Day…. Miller will author a weekly column every Monday (and whenever the urge arises). Similar to … Continue reading
Hearne: Buckle Up, Saturday Night Could Get Bumpy on the Plaza
This is it, baby…
The first warm, dry Saturday since the Plaza Riot early last month. Which, according to observers familiar with Kansas City urban youth wildings of recent years, well could mean the city is in store for Round Two of the Nightmare on Brush Creek.
“I think it’s going to be a big weekend this weekend,” says KC Strip party trolley honcho Bill Nigro. “The weather is supposed to be goof – warm and dry. I think it’s going to be a big Saturday, plus we’re having the Candy Strippers riding the trolleys Friday so that should be interesting.”
The last time Nigro had a big, warm Saturday night, he got caught up in a police state nightmare on the Plaza.
All that said, Kansas City Police will be at the ready, KCPD captain Rich Lockhart says. Continue reading
Hearne: Filthy Restroom at Union Station Harkens to Cutbacks
Tetanus shot, anyone?
Readers of the Kansas City Star know you can’t cut half the staff and not pay the price. Continue reading
Hearne on the Street: Can’t Can Aggie
It’s been a long, lonely ride this week for KC parks commish Aggie Stackhaus…
After solo knee-jerking into a rant about kicking Rockfest out of Penn Valley Park following last weekend’s mud fest, Stackhaus found herself on the receiving end of some major league public spankings. By no less than longtime Kansas City politico and former parks commish Bob Lewellen, KC mayor Mark Funkhouser and the Kansas City Star.
Oh and a gentleman by the name of Johnny Dare… Continue reading
Hearne on the Street: Dress Code Discrim Outside P&L? Lezak’s Claymaytion Sniffing
Kansas City’s Power & Light District may be the poster child for dress code discrimination controversies…
However, the controversy – on the local level – is neither new nor unique. Far from it. Continue reading
Glazer Guest Shot: Couch Potato Cancer
Seems like only yesterday Harpo’s had a small line to get into the bar cause it was Tuesday and 25 cent beer night… That same night an even larger group lined up outside Charlie Hooper’s in Brookside for dollar bottle beer. They had Hump Day Wednesdays, Ladies Nights all over town, girls get in free deals. On weekends at some clubs you had better know someone or you’d be in line forever at Atlantis in Westport. “Where’s Stuart, he’s my cousin, let us in. I’ll pay double the door cover.” No more. No lines, no lists, no busy clubs to speak of… Question is, why? Continue reading Hearne: Rockfest Deck Stacked Against StackhausDoes anybody really want to put the kibosh on one of the most successful outdoor promotions Kansas City has to offer? I mean, besides dog park dilettante Aggie Stackhaus… Apparently not. Not only did the powers that be at the Parks Department and Liberty Memorial react with veritable yawns to the fiery-tempered parks commissioner’s rant about pulling the plug on Johnny Dare and The Rock 98.9 FM’s wildly popular Continue reading Hearne: Anatomy of a Nightclub Murder; The Blonde FileThe painfully long, slow goodbye for Plaza nightclub Blonde continues… New operators of the space – not the actual dudes from Blonde who were 70-plus grand behind in rent at year’s end — continue to host farewell bashes this weekend and next. When that’s up, the space will close with tentative plans to reopen in September with a new name and concept. But it won’t be Luna. That’s the monicker chosen for the reopening next month – by the same folks behind the new Blonde – for the former Dolce at 1520 Grand. Time for a quick flashback. To what it was that made Blonde – at least for about half its not quite five year run – KC’s most smashing dance club/ultra lounge success story. Continue reading Hearne: Death of the KC Downtowner; Joe Miller Lays it DownGoing, going… The pending death of the KC Downtowner a Web site dedidicated to politics and downtown Kansas City, Mo. – finds former Pitch heavy hitter (and KC mayoral aid) Joe Miller in a reflective state. So was Miller’s parting with KCD bittersweet? “Well, yeah,” he says. “I don’t know what the sweetness of it is. It was a good deal for me and I wish it still was one.“ In Miller’s farewell column he suggested that there were only 350 regular visitors to the site. Is the 350 number accurate? Continue reading Hearne: Star Foments Bogus Rockfest ControversyA single pissed off parks commissioner does not a widespread panic make… “Rockfest mess angers officials,” reads the headline in today’s Kansas City Star. “…A parks commissioner wants the yearly concert to move.” The implication being that officials at Penn Valley Park and Liberty Memorial are furious over the muddy mess left by the 50,000 or so attendees of this year’s Rockfest, hosted by Johnny Dare and radio station 98.9 The Rock. That’s not the case, says longtime parks commissioner and civic sparkplug Bob Lewellen. “This has happened before and it will happen again – and not just with this Rockfest group,” Lewellen says. “It’s no big deal. These parks are easily healed and the company that puts on Rockfest, AEG, is very responsible. In 30 days you won’t even know they were there.” The single source for the Star story was incendiary parks commish Aggie Stackhaus, an on-again/off-again public official known for blowing her stack. Continue reading Hearne: Rockfest – No Breast Fest This Year!You watched the muddy television news footage, read the Star’s sanitized account… Now let’s hear about last weekend’s soggy Rockfest blowout at Penn Valley Park from veterinary technology Continue reading Hearne: Out with Blonde in with Luna? Plaza Nightclub Poised to SwitchThe skinny on the nightclub formerly known as Continue reading |
