Yearly Archives: 2011
New Jack City: Round & Round They Go, Hollywood’s Numbers Game
In case you may be swayed to rent some of this year’s earlier filmfare, let’s review what America’s movie fans wisely stayed away from in droves when Hollywood unleashed these stinkers.
That’s not to say that these films are totally unwatchable, but you should have fair warning that not everything here that shines actually glitters.
According to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER these are the biggest flops of 2011—SO FAR!
* MARS NEEDS MOMS—Estimated production cost $150 million / Domestic ticket sales $21.4 million.
Donnelly: KC’s Best Team Riding High Atop Eastern Conference After Houston Shutout
.jpg "C.J. Sapong celebrates vs. Houston Dynamo")
Kansas City sports fans, take notice.
KC has a first place team.
A team that at various times earlier this season floundered during a self-imposed two month road trip. A team that heard many call for the firing of their head coach and technical director. A team that many said was buried half way through the long season, starting off the 2011 campaign with a 2-6-1 record.
A team with grit, personality, and a penchant for late-game dramatics. A team with a local ownership group that doesn’t skirt issues, but tackles them head-on. A team that is committed to winning, and has made public that they will accept nothing less than a playoff berth THIS SEASON.
Today: Humble Scribe From Vegas to Comments Crowd; ‘I Told You So’
Get ready to wash the cars, run errands and do yardwork…
That’s how bad this year’s Kansas City Chiefs are. Why watch bad football and drink cheap beer when the Great Outdoors beckons?
With the Chiefs down 41 to 7, humble scribe Craig Glazer called from Vegas to say, "I told you so."
"The headline should read, ‘Humble Scribe says, Will the Chiefs Win Even One Game?’" Glazer says. "This will be Todd Haley‘s last season. Get Marty Schottenheimer back!"
Glazer’s been on record all summer that the Chiefs would have a gawdawful season.
Hearne: Kansas City’s Top 10 Radio Stations in Men 25 to 54 in August
It’s August, fall and football are already in the air…
Why not, given the sorry state of baseball here? It’s hardly surprising that local sports talk stations were looking ahead to the NFL season. Despite the Chiefsn poor preseason play.
Music heavyweights KCFX and The Rock were softer but still strong. But who tied a lead balloon to alt rocker The Buzz‘s formerly high flying kite? Maybe Lazlo should spend more time in a real church and less preaching politics in his. And now…
KANSAS CITY’S TOP 10 RADIO STATIONS IN MEN 25-54, 6 A.M. TO MIDNIGHT, MONDAY THRU FRIDAY
1) KCFX FM with a 11.9 share, down from 12.8 in July. Still going strong but awaiting will a shakey Chiefs season take a toll?
2) The Rock with a 10.1 share, down from July’s 10.6. Johnny Dare still living large with new contract in tow.
3) WHB with a 7.7 share up from 6.2. This is why you gotta ignore bloggers touting 6-plus and 12-plus seven day ratings that plainly do not matter. And where you’ll find ridiculous headlines like this one: "KCSP STILL AHEAD OF WHB"
Hearne: Kansas City’s Top 20 Radio Stations in August – For Real!
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You guys did a kickass job of indulging me on my explanation of why the seven day, 6-plus radio ratings are bogus…
Actually, you barely laid a glove on me. Not even Kansas Karl. Obviously, you had other radio things on your minds, which is fine. Not that I couldn’t use the abuse. Anyway, here are the Top 20 radio stations in KC for August in adults 25 to 54, Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
1) Who else? KCFX FM, The Fox, with an 8.7 share, up from 8.6 in July and the station’s best month in a year.
2) The Rock with an 8.1 share, down slightly from 8.5 in July.
3) K-Love with a 6.4 share up strongly from a 5.3. No two ways about it, these Christians are lions!
4) Mix 93.3 FM with a 5.6 share, up from a 4.5 share.
5) KCMO FM with a 5.2 share, up from 4.8.
6) KPRS FM with a 5.0 share up from 4.8
7) WHB with a 4.5 share up sharply from a 3.5 share.
8) Alice with a 4.0 down from a 4.4 in July.
9) The Buzz, freefalling to a 3.9 from a 6.1 share.
10) Q104 FM with a 3.8 share, down sharply from a 6.0 share a month earlier.
Hearne: Radio Station The Buzz Plummets from Top 5 in August
There’s only on word for the ratings fall suffered by radio station The Buzz in August…argggh!
Five short months ago the local alt rocker was kicking butt and taking names in adults 25 to 54 weekdays from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a 7.4 share of listeners. In August – during its bitter falling out with music fest Kanrocksas – it plunged from No. 3 in the marketplace with a 6.1 share to No. 9 with a 3.9 share. Ouch!
It gets worse.
In Men 25-54 in that same period, The Buzz fell from a 6.3 share to 3.9 for 10th place. Its morning drive show dropped from 4th to 15th from a 6.2 share in men 25-54 to to 2.9.
Things could be worse…
Glazer: Crashing Las Vegas, Fright Flight, Fat Folks & Terrorist Bathroom Bust
I come here not to bury Caesar, but to praise him…
Caesar’s Palace, that is. Well, they were sold out, so I had to go to my old favorite the RIO. You see it on TV with the Texas Hold ‘Em championship. Decent, but not as good as Caesar’s. Oh well, maybe I’ll learn not to book stuff at the last minute.
Had to fly to Phoenix first to save 500 bucks. That’s right, a round trip, last minute, day before, non stop flight cost $950. Mine was $465, not good, but oh well.
Next my new suit case wouldn’t fit into my brother’s new Porsche Boxster. So my Dad had to drive me to airport. Christ, he bitched the entire time.
Today: Here’s Why The 6 Plus Radio Rankings Really Don’t Matter
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I’ll give you the correct, accurate, important radio ratings and rankings shortly…
In the meantime allow me to explain why the publically published ratings for listeners ages 6 and older, Monday thru Sunday, 6 a.m. to midnight are unimportant. Misleading even. Those are the ratings Arbitron releases to the public and media largely for PR purposes.
They’re free-to-good-home, unlike the key ratings ad agencies and stations pay thousands of dollars to obtain.
If all Arbitron had to offer were the 6-plus numbers, it would be out of business.
The ratings that matter measure key listening hours and specific demographics important to stations and advertisers. And the timeslots where the most listenership and revenues are attained are on weekdays between 6 a.m. (morning drive) and 7 p.m. (afternoon drive).
Far fewer listeners tune in outside of those hours, with few exceptions.
What’s more, the 6-plus ratings actually distort the real radio ratings and rankings.
Hearne: Banned by KU – Forget KU Football & Twitter – It Could Happen to You!
Lost in shuffle and the blistering August heat was a story about banning at KU….
That’s right, banning. I’m not talking about KU football coach Turner Gill‘s banning of Twitter for the team. We’re talking "Banned in Boston" type banning. Or like the time the Plaza tried to banish panhandler Jerry Mazer.
You know, banning.
Take the case of former Pennylane music guru Saul Tucker, aka the KU sports mascot who goes by White Owl…
After pyramiding his strange looks and dance moves into a love affair with the KU football team (when it was good a handful of years back) and a 20-something KU coed, Tucker vaulted from homeless dude to toast of the town.
No mas….
Sounds Good: Bon Iver@Uptown, Blink-182@Sandstone, Crossroads Music Fest
I’m kind of confused… 
My friend says that Wilco is soft – at least anything post Ghost is Born. Really?
I mean, yeah, Wilco (The Album) kinda sucked, as did Sky Blue Sky to a certain extent, but does liking those albums automatically make me a pussy?
I’m asking.
He also says that the best new stuff around is Bon Iver. (Say it like you’re French, like "bone eve-air," squares). You know, wispy, high pitched vocals, songs about lost loves, and stuff like that.
And Wilco’s soft?
No, they’re not soft I keep telling myself. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, right? He’s the one who, after the My Morning Jacket show said, "Well, they’re no Bon Iver."
What does that even mean? I kind of want to release my "friend’s" contact info to the infamous KCC commentariat to do with it what they will. Hmmm…
Side note: Wilco is coming to the Uptown on December 3rd just shortly after the release of their new album, that I hear is not "soft" at all. Nor crappy like the last two. So to recap that’s: 1) new Wilco album and show at the Uptown; 2) not soft; and 3) not crappy.
On to this weekend’s picks…
Hearne: Gunslinger Sportswriter Wanted; Fumble Fingers Need Not Apply
Ready to get star struck?
Find yourself moping and daydreaming all day? Fantascizing becoming the next Matt Donnelly or something?
Mope no more.
KC Confidential is looking for someone to help lighten the onerous burden of almost single handedly carrying the entire Greater Kansas City and Lawrence sports scene upon his back; World’s Humblest Scribe, field marshall Craig Glazer.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘WARRIOR’ Wallops Punch-To-Gut During September Drought
For movie critics like me who deal primarily in so-called commercial releases (as opposed to art and speciality
films), September is usually not something I look forward to.
It never fails!
From about the last week of August through the later part of September, the studios seem to dust off their shelves and pretty well throw their leftovers into the marketplace.
You can’t really blame Hollywood.
The public’s attention span during early fall turns to back-to-school, sports and the new TV season – and not to movies.
That all changes though on or around late September and October when the Oscar hopefuls and more serious films begin to invade local cineplexes. Until then the old, saying seems to come into play: ‘If they don’t want to see it—there’s no stopping them!’
But hold it right there!
Car: Butt Kicking Alert; ‘Fiat Sells More 500s Than the Mini Cooper’
I ask you, would I make this shit up?
The above headline is from respected auto scribe, autospies.com. I realize this is going to be a little difficult for some to swallow, but let’s proceed.
"In a piece of copy published by that infamous New York paper, the story reads that the new 500 ‘essentially matched the sales of its chief competition, the Mini Cooper.’ " autospies says. "The 500 actually sold MORE than the Cooper if you discount the 600 or so Countryman pseudo sport-utility vehicles."
The numbers do not lie.
Glazer: Eric Hosmer Could be the Answer & the Royals Could Contend Next Season
Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer got tons of ink nationally when he joined the team this season…
I heard several reports about how he was the next ‘it’ player in the league. A couple weeks later his name almost went away – nationally. Not because he wasn’t playing well, it;s just that the Royals weren’t playing in games that meant anything.
Always in last or next to last place. So little national attention, right?
Wrong. This guy’s the real thing.
Hosmer has helped inspire this ball club to HIT. All of a sudden we are seeing decent power from this former boring group. Five guys are all at or near 20 homers including the rookie Hosmer with 16 and climbing. Remember Eric has only been up just over a half season. The other hot hitter, Alex Gordon already has his 20 and for the first time is a kind of scary hitter with a .300 batting average.
Today: KU Goes Courting, Fam’s Hatred of MU & Going To Greenwood to Save $7
READING KU’S "BIG 12" TEA LEAVES
Not every communication re the impending death of the Big 12 is meeted out to sports journalists. Take the email KU Alumni Association prez Kevin J. Corbett dispatched re KU’s plans for a Big 12 afterlife.
"Dear Jayhawk," it begins. "Amid the latest round of conference realignment discussions, I want all KU alumni to know that Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little and Dr. Sheahon Zenger, KU athletics director, are aggressively pursuing the best possible outcome for KU."
It doesn’t say much, but the message is clear. KU’s actively pursuing and presumeably considering its options outside the Big 12. And that it won’t be caught with its pants down when and if the nightmare unfolds.
Which is good, but…
It also feeds in to the demise of the Big 12, when pretty much all its teams – with the possible exception of Baylor – are out fishing for new conference affiliations. Can assuring alums that such a process/search is underway help but fuel the fires now consuming the Big 12?
Glazer: Nothing Lasts Forever, Not Even The Big 12
When I was a kid I watched my dad’s team the 1969 Missouri Tigers play Penn State in the Orange Bowl...
Wow, a win could mean the national title. The Tigers had sure pro quarterback Terry McMillan and stand out receiver Mel Gray. It was very close, but the Tigers lost at the end of the game. It was their best football season of all time. They were 9-2 and 6th in the nation.
A couple years ago they were nearly back, ranked number one (for a few days) and headed for a bright finish with Chase Daniels.
By the way McMillen never made it in the pros and the Tigers have never won a national title.
I followed them because my dad and mom went there. I did a year at UMKC but was never a Kangaroo. I mean, really. I always followed MU football and KU basketball. One decent program and one great program. And it didn’t hurt that our Chiefs were the best team in the NFL back then.
Today: Ruining LIVESTRONG, $402 Boz Tix, KU Goes Groupon & Indian Springs Hit Piece
Lots of things to elbow around today, so let’s get started…
ARE CONCERTS AT LIVESTRONG WORTH THE DAMAGE?
Did you see Matt Donnelly‘s sum up about the horrendous field conditions last night at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, home of the soccer team formerly known as The Wizards?
"LIVESTRONG has recently hosted two concerts on its turf, and the wear and tear has turned the once pristine grass into a total nightmare," Donnelly writes. "Throughout the game, players and coaches were seen tamping down large chunks of turf that made the potholes in Lawrence seem small."
Should Sporting Kansas City plan to continue raking in extra dough on concerts, they need to do one of two things or both.
Donnelly: Sporting Ties Best Team in MLS, LA Calls LIVESTRONG Pitch ‘Embarrassing’
The stars shone brightly on Monday night at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park...
Sporting KC and the LA Galaxy scrapped their way to a 2-2 draw, with late drama coming again in the form of a stoppage time penalty kick by Omar Bravo to even the score. LA’s David Beckham showed why he is still among the best passers in the game. And Landon Donovan came on as a substitute in the second half, looking speedy and somewhat agitated as he proceeded to get in the face of several KC players.
But despite another gritty performance by the boys in blue, after the game everyone wanted to talk about a couple of things that ideally should have been non-issues: the refereeing (surprise!) and the condition of the field.
Before we get to that, though, let’s talk about the exciting game played in front of the biggest crowd yet at our new stadium…
Hearne: Love Affair With Star Columnist Mike Hendricks Takes Startling Turn
Give it up for fallen Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks…
But first let’s get real. Odds are Hendricks would like nothing more than to poke one of my eyes. Or, in a kinder, gentler mood, cut out my journalistic tongue. Since leaving the newspaper nearly three years ago I (reluctantly at first) embarked on a course of citiquing it as I do other local media.
And frankly, there was no easier target than Mad Mike.
His columns,] – with some exception – were a paragon of mediocrity. While they shone brightly next to those of also ousted columnist Steve Penn and Mary Sanchez, column writing just wasn’t Hendricks’ thing.
I also remember the lengthy, at times futile search for Star "Metro" columnists long ago that brought Hendricks to power.
And I recall another Mike Hendricks – the other Mike Hendricks…
