KC Confidential.com

With New York Fashion Week finally in the books, one thing’s for sure…

This fall, FUR is back!!!  PETA supporters be on alert!!  Furs ranging from fake to fabulous were in abundance; vests to coats, shearlings to long hairs.  It seemed as though every designer from Marc Jacobs to Ralph Lauren were adding in the luxury fashion statement!

Marc Jacobs fur cuff trimmed coat towered above the rest, however, as the look of the season. Continue reading

From the weightyness of it, today’s Star must be chocked with information…

Let’s see, shall we?

First out with all the ads – this is a ritual of sorts I’ve practiced for years. Wonder if everybody does this? Most of the time, anyway.

Big surprise; even with the ad inserts and section removed  there’s plenty of newspaper here.

House + Home: doesn’t take long now that founding Star staffer Cindy Hoedel’s column has exited the section.

Parade: never had much interest in Parade either. Kind of a poor man’s People meets I-don’t-know-what.

Star Magazine: Wow, so this is where Fashion has landed after the departure of longtime Star fashion writer Jackie White? Continue reading

If there was a common theme this week in Kansas City it’s that this town is hopelessly divided between black and white.

While I don’t want to be a pessimist it’s nearly impossible to objectively look at this town without seeing eons worth of racial divisions that taint nearly every popular discussion in local discourse. What’s worse is that during The Great Recession people without cash or prospects have even more time to debate the vast array of inequities which define life in the American Midwest.

Let’s review just a few stories from this week that support my brilliant assertion.
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Five days on the Star Search beat and I’m starting to feel like Sisyphus…

Yeah, Sysyphus, the Greek king who was forced for eternity to roll a giant boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down and have to repeat the process. Kind of a variation on Groundhog Day. Uh, the movie – not the date when Tony unfurls his Simpsons beach towel, digs out the cocoa butter and starts giving his neighbors their money’s worth.

I digress, right?

But hey, it’s Saturday and I was kinda planning on doing this Monday thru Friday only, so we’ll see.

Today’s paper is a fatty (don’t take that the wrong way). But clearly we’re paying for the ads.

In an unscientific experiment, the ad supplements – including the auto and homes “news” placebos weigh nearly as much as the entire editorial sections of the newspaper.

The approximate math…

Counting the Joco Neighborhood News, there are 60 editorial pages in today’s Star. With just less than 40 percent of those pages coming in the form of advertising. Re-tip the scales and what splashed down in my driveway today from 18th and Grand was well over 50 percent ads.

Hey, Saturday is the day to shop and spend, right? Continue reading

Under the radar of even the most astute denizens of Kansas City’s entertainment scene there was a recent no-holds-barred dust up among competing burlesque events. I only wish I had more photos of the ruckus if only because my imagination leads me to believe there were feather boas and pasties flying everywhere.

What I like about the underground dispute is that it matches up competing ideologies related to Kansas City entertainment.

On one side: The Beaumont Club was putting together what they thought was a fun $500 burlesque contest in order to garner some of the momentum that local burlesque performers have been generating around Kansas City of late.

Meanwhile, neo-burlesque “purists” (and I use that term loosely) like The KC Society of Burlesque and The Burlesque Downtown Underground were offended that the art form they have championed was being used primarily for what they consider commercial interest with not of the feminist ideology that is often apparent at these shows.

Like any real fight over ideology: Somebody had to lose.
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How many times do you get a call to work with Catherine Zeta-Jones on Broadway? For Kansas City kid actress Katherine McNamara, once was just enough. She shines in the new revival  of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, warming up the Big Apple in a great season of 1,000 watt star power.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (Walter Kerr Theatre, 48th St between Broadway and 8th Ave), the Sondheim chestnut,  gets a luminous production from a master director, Trevor Nunn. Though he has plenty of great musicals under his belt, Nunn is first and foremost a director of plays. He gets past the music and movement that is too often the beginning and end of a stager’s work to find the story underneath. Directing Sondheim the way you’d direct Shakespeare and Shaw makes for better storytelling. That’s what you get with Nunn and this production.

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Full figured Star today…

Even with the inserts removed and recycled. Which leads me to FYI. I’m in a hurry – who isn’t?

In the scheme of things, short of being some sort of retiree, people don’t have all day to pour over a paper. Nor do I. A quick scan often suffices – has to.

Hmmm, positive movie review for “The Crazies” – that’s news I may well use since I have somewhat questionable taste in movies. Wonder why they chose a syndicated review to make such a big fuss over the new Helen Mirren movie. Did Robert Butler doze off again during this one? Continue reading

Next week passengers at KCI will be subject to random hand-swabbing for explosive materials.  KCI wants to introduce a full-body scanner but the XXL model isn’t available yet…

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A secret trial-run of the new hand swabbing security took place this week.

TOP 5 SUBSTANCES FOUND ON THE HANDS OF KANSAS CITIANS:

#5.  Clay Chastain DNA….

#4.  Bacon grease…

#3.  Jerry Mazer grease…

#2.  Meth…

#1.  Blisters from driving to Iowa to get to our airport…

Kelly Urich

According to the industry trade paper VARIETY, Disney has reportedly resolved its dispute with major worldwide exhibitors regarding the studio’s shortened theatrical window for Tim Burton’s upcoming ALICE IN WONDERLAND starring Johnny Depp.

Disney had wanted to reduce the theatrical window for the film from the usual 16 weeks before it would reach DVD sales—to just 12 weeks (http://www.kcconfidential.com/?p=13084). Continue reading

“I had no idea it would be #1. People were talking that it might be in the top 10. It’s just hard to believe.”
Trey McKinney-Jones, on the UMKC’s sophomore’s dunk highlight that was Thursday night’s ESPN SportsCenter’s #1 play of the day, 810 AM
GH: You can view the youtube video of Trey’s dunk here. Steven St. John and Nate Bukaty interviewed the young Kangaroo on his Friday morning show. This Roo has a 40-inch vertical leap! Nice to see UMKC basketball getting some ESPN SportsCenter love in primetime!

“It just happened so fast, nothing really went through my head. I just threw it down. Dunks like that just kinda happen.”
Trey McKinney-Jones, when asked to describe what he was thinking as he went up for the SportsCenter slam, 810 AM

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The hits! The hairpieces! The health care!

OK, only Elton John famously wears a piece, but maybe for fun he’ll share one of his rugs with fellow thin-on-top classic rocker Billy Joel when they team up at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Sprint Center, 1407 Grand.

The titanic twin bill is a rescheduling of a Dec. 1 concert at Sprint Center that got cancelled with a string of other “Face 2 Face Tour” dates in late 2009 when Sir Elton was hospitalized with E. coli and a bad case of influenza.

Tickets cost $55 to $177 and at this point appear to be available as singles only – but who needs a friend or significant other at your side when you have all those hits to rub up against? Continue reading

Director Kevin Smith has built a strong following for his edgy moviemaking with films like CLERKS, DOGMA, CHASING AMY, ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO and, of course, JAY AND SILENT BOB.

His independence as a filmmaker comes into question this week as Smith becomes a ‘hired gun’ by directing someone elses project.

Sure we see his touches in COP OUT—but they’re merely touches. No edge to speak of.

COP OUT is a tribute, action-comedy of sorts to those bonding buddy-cop movies of the 80’s like 48 HOURS and the LETHAL WEAPONS series. Continue reading

Don’t look now but the weekend is approaching…

Today’s paper feels just about right, coming in from the driveway. But after you remove the Sports section and ad inserts, it feels more like News Light again.

Not that everyone is going to write off sports. But aside from its columnist offerings – mainly Whitlock – there doesn’t appear to be much more there than one can glean from combing the Worldwide Web the day or night before. Maybe it’s me – cause I’ve kinda gone from being s fairly sports intensive guy to doesn’t interest me much. Still it seems like most of the content in sports is filler. If somebody truly cares that much about the stats and trivia, it’s hard to imagine them waiting an extra day for the Star to get their fix.

I’ll commence today’s exhumation of the Star with the FYI Weekend Preview. Continue reading

I took my first trip to a Missouri Mavericks game this week and got a good look at their new home, their product and their fans. Some notes from that night.

• 4,400 fans showed up on a frigid – I mean F-R-I-G-I-D Tuesday night to watch the Mississippi RiverKings take on the Missouri Mavericks. As I thumbed through my free program and perused the smiling faces of the Mavericks I had one thought – how many of these fans would even know if the two teams switched uniforms? Probably very few. Unlike the big leagues, minor league sports are rarely about the individual players. People just like watching and cheering the home team.
   
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If Sluggerrr loses control of his wiener a few more times can we change his name to Tiger?

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IT’S SO COLD IN KANSAS CITY...

…Sluggerrr is throwing Vienna sausages at people.

…Toyota owners can’t disengage their seat warmers.

…Larry Moore hasn’t talked about his garden in over 10 minutes.

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The president of Toyota’s U.S. operations testified in front of a Congressional Committee.  He said the cars are accelerating because they failed to take into account how tall Americans are.

Kelly Urich