KC Confidential

In the ’60s, the faders were pushed up, everything to the max and we could hear all of it… 

We started off with mono, ended up with 16 tracks. And by time the decade ended there was so much going on and you were aware of all of it. Of course, there was a generation gap, our parents were the last generation that got old.

Boomers today wear jeans and run marathons and are teenagers until they pass. Unlike their forefathers who were shell-shocked by the Depression and two wars and were risk averse.

The ’60s were all about testing limits, intellectually and emotionally. Sure, drugs were part of the equation, but they were billed as a way to expand your mind. We were in it together, developing together, and we knew it all.

In the ’70s we licked our wounds.

In the ’80s we had a monoculture, dictated by MTV.

There was more going on, but you didn’t hear about it.

Then in the nineties it all started to fracture – where today nothing is truly popular – nothing is known by everybody. Everybody’s got different facts and resides in a different bubble, but not in the 1960s.

In the ’50s…the underground was truly underground.

But it surfaced in the ’60s – the Beat poets – never mind Bob Dylan and the folk scene and then the Beatles.

We wanted more, we wanted it all.

America was the land of possibilities, and our generation spearheaded it. We’d brooked no crisis until the advent of the Vietnam War. Of course your view was different if you were a minority, but this was also the decade where others were exposed to the plight of minorities. And sure, there were some who didn’t like it.

And Nixon rounded them all up and emerged in victory, but we stood up to them, these were turbulent times.

But the transitions!

Like your hair… Crew cut and then after the Beatles, long.

Hats flew by the wayside with Kennedy’s inauguration.

Ties faded, bell bottoms arrived, along with paisley…your clothes were a statement…you were either with us or against us. And you’d be surprised how many found it difficult to change, they grew their hair out in the ’70s, bought Rolling Stones’ albums in the ’80s.

People were frightened, they needed their feet firmly planted, whereas everybody else was hopping from stone to stone, not believing it was even possible to slip and fall into the water.

Although the tide started to turn on the coast in the early ’60s, the pace was slower elsewhere. At first we believed in our country, were excited by the space program, by the possibilities. Then the Beatles swept us off our feet and they didn’t play by the rules. Lennon said the taboo, that the band was bigger than Jesus – and they were – the back to God movement didn’t really start until the ’70s.

It wasn’t like the internet.

There was no brittle break, no great leap forward, but an evolution. You were here, then you found yourself there. And it was surprising what you would not leave behind, like sports.

Which were also different in the ’60s.

The games may have been the same, but that was all. The stadiums were not branded by sponsors. There weren’t that many teams. The NFL grew into a monolith over the decade, its pinnacle being Super Bowl III, with Namath’s victory, but the truth is, baseball ruled. And it still rules for many boomers. Continue reading →

It was to have been the sci-fi action-epic of the spring—and then the summer…

But like so many other 2020 tentpole titles “TENET” was pushed back on Warner Brothers’ release schedule to coincide with the ever fluid state of the world’s pandemic and its effect on national, regional and local health advisories.

Give credit where credit is due.

Unlike other film distributors who took their summer titles to premium streaming platforms—or moved them way into the future—Warner Bros. finally settled on this Labor Day weekend for their domestic release of director Christopher Nolan’s 2.5 hour long spectacle and kept its release exclusively to the theater experience!

What to expect?

As with most of Nolan’s films expect the unexpected—and in a massive cinematic way tailored for the BIG SCREEN.

(Think back to 2010’s “INCEPTION”, his film within a dream. Or was it the other way around?)

With “TENET” we are served up another dose of the innovative filmmaker’s dimension-bending sci-fi thrills. And all in the realm of inversion and high-octane time zone jumping travel/reality.

So pay close attention as the film rapidly bounces within elements of time and could otherwise leave you behind. Continue reading →

Nothing really new here…

The Pitch has been mooching money from readers for years.

However, the former alt weekly – now a monthly freebie under new owners – is upping the ante.

Like never before.

It’s one thing to sit on a sidewalk on the Plaza, rattle a cup and beg for cheeseburgers. Or to race up to cars at traffic signals, smear soapy substances on some their windshield ,then charge them to make things right

Very conventional.

But that’s chump change, given the kind of red ink the Pitch is hemorrhaging these days.

You don’t treat a chainsaw wound with a band-aid.

Noop, times are tough and the Pitch is swinging for the fences.

Loyal readers:can now become “a member” for 50 bucks a year.

For which they get a monthly newsletter from one of the Pitch’s new publishers and a sneak peek at each monthly issue prior to it hitting the street.

Ah, but for a mere hondo ($100), you get all that plus discounts on “select” Pitch events -should they ever come to pass, post pandemic – and, “access” to giveaways like concert tickets and flood coupons – again – should concerts ever return post pandemic.

Got $200 that’s not working?

Now you can achieve what they’re calling a “feature” – and get a limited edition T-shirt and your name in an annual print ad slated to appear in the print Pitch.

But you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet… Continue reading →

Toronto, Berlin and Cannes…

Continue reading →

It starts with porn…

In the 1960s and 1970s porn was controlled by a small cabal of producers and distributors.

With the advent of the videocassette in the late ’70s and early ’80s profits went through the roof as a limited number of old and new players controlled the business utilizing professional actors. Then came the cracks in the system as the cost of production sank with the availably of cheap recording equipment. However distribution was always a snag.

Until the internet.

People used to talk about this a lot. In the early days of the web. How porn creeped into every nook and cranny, how it happened in porn first. But as the net was built, as it became more profitable with Amazon and Facebook, porn went back to its naughty news hole and got little coverage…while it was ravaging the web.

But this time, the story was the amateurs.

At first amateurs had their own brands. Distributing their product on their own websites. You could do it yourself, but the back end was not sophisticated, and people were reluctant to give up their credit card numbers.

Then the big boys went free.

In other words, intermediaries like Brazzers and PornHub became clearing houses for porn and the value of the majors and their product went down, and the amateurs got little monetary reward, but major distribution.

Meanwhile, porn stars were still trying to eke out livings with their own websites.

But now came the beginning of clips. Yes, once everybody had broadband, it was about video, and you could record yourself on your phone and sell clips on Clips4sale or ManyVids, but there was no sense of community. Meanwhile, cam girls was now a thing, but it had a dirty imprimatur.

You could Chaturbate – you could buy your time – but it had the appearance of a sleazy transaction. And all these cam sites were filled with amateurs, they ruled.

So, let’s recap.

As a result of the cost of production and distribution coming down, the usual suspect content creators and distributors lost power as new players entered the marketplace, and then the scene overflowed with amateurs.

Not everyone made a buck. Or they made a little buck. Or some bucks for a very short time. Still there was money in it, however it was divided. Continue reading →

No way it was planned this way.

Who could have predicted a formulaic action flick like UNHINGED would be the post pandemic gateway back into movie theaters?

But because of major release shifts due to the coronavirus—it is this week!

UNHINGED is a 90 minute-long road rage revenge thriller that takes us to the darker side of society.

A minor road rage altercation between Russell Crowe and stressed out single mom Caren Pistorius — who simply honks her horn at him—really ticks him off.

What follows is a path of psychological destruction. A vengeful exercise against the victim, her friends and family. A confrontational escalation that Crowe pulls off as we follow him and  he becomes unhinged in the worst way imaginable.

Not that we haven’t seen this subject matter explored before. But Oscar winner Russell Crowe letting lose certainly elevates this action-thriller to a step above the usual B-grade material.

So is this a violent film? Continue reading →

This is what Kansas Citians used to love (or hate) about Jason Whitlock…

Aside from pimping local sports fans in the pages of the Kansas City Star, Whitlock regularly delivered the pro white guy goods to the newspaper’s mostly non-black readership. These days he’s poking holes and obliterating political correctness online, like his column on the mainstream media’s current fave, the George Floyd mythology.

It didn’t really take that much, but Whitlock’s perspective on racial politics carried more cred given that a black dude was doing the honors. And despite the ups-and-downs of his career in the decade since he left KC, it’s made “big sexy” a popular Fox News guest for Bill O’Reilly, Tucker Carlson and the like.

Because almost without fail, Jason loves to debunk phony racism claims.

Usually skillfully, I might add.

Case in point, London Daily Mail’s recent release of the dramatic body-camera footage of George Floyd’s arrest.

Unfortunately, the way mainstream news organizations like USA Today and CNN covered the story, they mislead readers by casting police in a bad light so as not to contradict the media narrative that Floyd was a innocent victim of police racism.

Yet anyone who bothered to watch the video – like Whitlock did – can see that the cops were polite and unlike USA Today’s report, the officer did not approach Floyd’s car with his gun drawn. Only after repeated requests for Floyd to raise his hands did the officer briefly take his gun out, holstering it when Floyd finally complied.

The online headline for Whitlock’s column pretty much says it all:

“Leaked Video Exposes George Floyd’s Death as a Tragedy & Race Hoax Used to Divide Us” Continue reading →

Long time, no sports talk from former WHB powerhouse Kevin Kietzman…

Ah, but come September Kietzman will rise like a sports phoenix via a midday daily podcast covering not just sports but politics and life itself.

In the meantime, inquiring minds want to know, does Kietz think the Chiefs are going to have a full season?

“I believe so,” he says. “I can’t think of any reason not to. Did anybody notice the Kansas Shrine Bowl game – the annual Kansas high school seniors all-star game – was played last week in  Topeka and they had 5,000 people there? And you’re telling me we couldn’t have had 5,000 at the Kansas Speedway last night. It holds 100,000 people, they could have easily put 20,000 in there. But the crazy people on the left didn’t/t know there was a football game last week, so it didn’t get any coverage.

Put another way, Kietzman thinks there will be live fans at Arrowhead. Continue reading →

Seems like only yesterday when you could hop on a cheap thrill Iceland Air flight and head for Europe…

Remember?

On top oof which you could take an extended layoff and party in Iceland penalty free.

Those were the days.

The latest:

“Did you hear the latest on Iceland Air,” asks KCC travel dude Jack Poessiger. “They’ve had problems with their unions and they were going to get rid of their flight attendants and have the pilots do some of their duties.”

He speaks fluent German and has been a movie critic here since the earth cooled…

I’m talking about Jack Poessiger, of course, the author of Jack Goes Confidential and New Jack City here on KCC.

So has Man Jack unleashed his last Jack Goes to the Movies movie review?

“Well, we’ll see,” he says. “I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. It’s had a long run, but right now it’s on hiatus. But I’m not going to do Jack Goes Streaming or Jack Does Netflix. That’s not my bag.”

What about reviewing the new Tom Hanks war movie Greyhound?

“You mean, like Jack Goes to the Apple Mart,” Poessiger quips. “They sent me a link, but I’m not going to review it. I’ll leave that to Shawn Edwards.”

The high point of Jack’s movie reviewing career? Continue reading →

The above quote is the final paragraph of a recent column in the Kansas City Star.

Which is around the 4th or 5th story by the sinking newspaper that was just sold at a bargain basement price to bring them out of bankruptcy.

Seems to me the main one suggesting to change the name or branding elements of the Super Bowl Champ Chiefs is the Star. 

The suggestion of course, is part of the popular movement to change the names and acts of anything that can be interpreted as having the slightest hint of so-called racism.

First off, as most serious Chiefs fans know, the Chiefs name was selected to honor former KC mayor H  Roe Bartle, who helped convince the Dallas Texans to choose Kansas City as their new home.

And branding elements like the chop, Warpaint, the war drum and arrowhead seemed fitting to help solidify the Chiefs in the hearts and minds of Kansas City sports fans.

Speaking of Kansas City and the surrounding area, there are any number of other examples of honoring Native Americans in the area.

Let’s review a few.

Shawnee Mission: named after an Indian mission just west of the Plaza (FYI, there are some horrendous stories about the man who started the mission).

The Kaw River: Named after a local Indian tribe:

Kansas City: Named after the Kansa Indians (another name for the Kaw Indian tribe).

What about grade schools like  Cherokee, Apache, Indian Creek and Indian Valley?

Should we tear down the landmark Indian Scout statue that overlooks Penn Valley Park?

We have Tomahawk and Indian creeks and Indian Hills Country Club.

Had.enough?

The point being that much of Kansas City’s heritage is tied to Native American Indians.

Continue reading →

Jackson County Legislators are leaving the decision whether to remove the statues of Andrew Jackson to Jackson County voters…

Their decision was 6-2 in favor of putting it up for a vote – with both black county legislators against putting it up for a vote and the white legislators in favor of letting locals decide.

County Executive Frank White’s take: “The people elected us for these decisions”

That said, I think that the elected legislators should not make these kinds of decisions, as they tend to bow to social pressure.

It should be left up to the people to vote.

My argument is supported by the erroneous decision of the Kansas City Council last year to change the name of The Paseo to Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard. Continue reading →