Tag Archives: Hearne Christopher Jr.
Tonight: Jimmy C’s Money Talks, HC’s Dart Throw Walks
Just how fast can a skinny white boy from the burbs eat a scarcely-cooked crow?
This fast!
It’s still early. However word that the polls south the of the river were slow – even with kickass weather -, combined with an early 69-31 lead up north for Mike Burke over Sly James have experts like Tony Botello and Larry Sells giving me the distinct impression that James goose is cooked.
If Sly pulls it out – and the concensus seems to be that he needs 40 percent of the vote up north – he will have to be on the receiving end of some sort of landslide later in the southland. But with a light turnout – the old guard white folks who live off Ward Parkway like Jim "Jimmy C" Fitzpatrick – will likely get their way.
Tonight: End of an Era; Jim Nutter Sr. Loses Mayor’s Race for First Time
This just in from a political observer who declined to be identified…
"This is the first time Jim Nutter Sr.’s lost a Kansas City mayoral election since H. Roe Bartle was in office," says the source. "Until tonight, he’s won every mayor’s race since H. Roe Bartle – that’s your story."
In an interview earlier this week Nutter confirmed he was backing Mike Burke over eventual winner Sly James. Nutter noted that this was the fourth mayor’s race pitting a black candidate against a white one.
Nutter had backed the winners in the first three; Dick Berkley over Bruce Watkins, Emanuel Cleaver over Bob Lewellen and – to Nutter’s everlasting chagrine – current KC mayor Mark Funkhouser over Alvin Brooks.
This was to be Nutter’s fourth victory in the mayoral races of black versus white. Just one problem..
Today: Life After KC Confidential, The Tony Botello Story
What’s next for former KC Confidential hit man Tony Botello now that he’s parted ways with KCC?
Plenty. But first a few words about the year and a half-long journalistic honeymoon that ended two weeks ago. Early on in the brief two year history of KCC I met with Tony with the idea of writing a story for a local print publication measuring his six year odyssey to the top of the local blogosphere.
It was a story largely untold – until somewhat weakly two weeks back in the Pitch. One that warranted telling.
We met for coffee at Broadway Cafe in Westport and four hours later I departed with way more news and information about Tony than Pitch editor Joe Tone was able to amass two years later.
Just one problem…
The story was never written, I hired Tony instead.
Hearne: Riding With The King; Jim Nutter & The 2011 Elections
Some people call him
king maker…
I look at him as a nice, older gentleman with a penchant for politics. Some people live for the Chiefs or KU basketball. Others collect stamps. My take on Jim Nutter is that politics is his game. And that’s the way he plays it, like a game. Naturally people who play games generally like to win.
But Nutter’s intentions are largely benign in my opinion. He values things like honesty and right versus wrong. Oh, he’s’s thrown his fair share of rabbit punches, but he’s several levels above the sleezy local political operatives we know all too well.
So I ask Nutter who he’s for?
Hearne: The Rise & Fall of the KC Pitch, Part 1
First Pennylane, now the Pitch…
It’s been a rough year for aging, local pop culture icons. First the closing of Streetside Records (successor to Pennylane) and then the continuing long, slow demise and sale of KC’s first true alternative paper. For those inclined to take notice of such things, my ties to both the Pitch and the music store extend well beyond my 16 year run as a columnist at the Star .
The affiliation with the two began in the mid 1980s when, after trying in vain to buy an ad in the Pitch for a concert I was promoting, I pitched the owner to let me take over its advertising and promotion. And to a lesser extent contribute to its editorial content. There wasn’t a whole lot to the Pitch in those days, LeRoi‘s music reviews, Joe Bob’s Drive-In movies, record store staff contributuions, and every once in a while someone like Jack Cashill would step in and take a swing.
The Pitch was little more than a device Pennylane’s owner used to pocket co-op ad dollars from small music labels.
Today: How a Washington Post Reporter & Star Editor Purposely Dodged Correction Bullet
One of the comments on yesterday’s story about Plaza panhandler Jerry Mazer’s demise referred to my having blown him up…
As in that my writing about Mazer’s travails over the years elevated his profile and status in KC.
I won’t argue that, other than to note Mazer had already blown himself up.
By knocking Kansas City on its butt and getting a discriminatory, Plaza-backed, panhandler-ban booted off the books. Mazer was front page news before I laid a glove on him.
Back to Mazer’s victory.
Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman – then at the Star – screwed up and misspelled Mazer’s first name in a major news story.
Car: Trouble in Paradiso, Pissed Off Prima Owners in Fiat Funk
The honeymoon’s over for some of the Fiat faithful…
Those being the 500 enthusiasts who signed on to become owners of the first new Fiats sold in this country in 28 years. Like me, buyers plunked down $500 deposits last summer and fall – sight unseen, price and options unknown – for a special numbered edition Fiat 500 called the Prima Edizione.
At that tender stage, there were no Fiat dealers. They would be courted and signed 2 months later.
Fast forward to three weeks ago when the eight Prima Edizione Fiat 500s arrived at a local rail head for delivery to area buyers .
There they remain – in automotive limbo – delivery dates unknown.
"It’s a mess," grouses Prima buyer No. 446 buyer Jeff on a Fiat 500 blog site.
Hearne: Panhandler Jerry Mazer Off to Cheeseburger Heaven
Stop the complete presses…
Who said bad news comes in threes? Try four. To that lineup in the sky of recently departed local icons – DiPardo, Grigsby and Murphy – add the name, Jerry Mazer.
According to sources, Mazer, Kansas City’s most mercenary mendicant, is no more.
Loved, hated, arrested, bullied, spat on, feared, banned – but most of all – recognized and well known. Who among the habitues of downtown KC, Westport or the Plaza doesn’t recognize Mazer’s signature line, "Can I get a downpayment on a cheeseburger?"
The irascible Mazer was a fixture in Kansas City pop culture for the better part of the past five decades. In the mid 1990s Kansas City was forced to make a cash settlement with Mazer and agreed to repeal its anti-begging ordinance.
"Really, I hadn’t heard anything, I’m sad," says Tivoli Theater owner Jerry Harrington. "I mean, he wasn’t a friend of mine but he was a Kansas City character – there was nobody like Jerry. No matter how irritated he made me, I always laughed"
Today: Muted Local Media Trades Ad Bucks For Integrity, Views Royals Glass As Half Full
Does anytbody around these parts have the stones to take on David Glass?
Sure doesn’t look that way. With the Kansas City Royals locked into a neverending nosedive, you’d think the town’s top providers of news and sports would be all over the team’s owner to shape up or ship out. But funny thing, everybody’s too busy harvesting the team’s ad dollars to belly up to the tell-it-like-it-is bar.
Everybody who’s anybody, anyway.
Major media with the clout – but not the will – to begin the drum beat. of disatisfaction. The lack of that leadership at 18th and Grand, for example, renders the town largely voiceless and helps insure KC’s status quo as Mudville, USA. A state that will continue for years or until owner David Glass’s death or a financial reversal forcing him to sell the team.
Enter lifelong baseball and Royals fan Andy Lewellen.…
Today: Sandstone Back for 4th Year with Rock Star Passes, July Start
Don’t look now but the Dean of the Kansas City concert scene, Chris Fritz is back…
Despite trying economic times, cutthroat competition everywhere you turn, Fritz and cohort Josh Hunt are bringing back Capitol Federal Park@Sandstone for a fourth concert season.
Only this time, they’re dodging the rain bullet
“We’ve got a great schedule lined up,” Fritz says. “But we’re starting a little later this year – we’re not trying to do April or May shows anymore. We’re not starting until July 6th with the Warped Tour.”
Fritz declined to reveal this year’s lineup but three of the shows in the can are…
Today: Truck Wars; Basement Dryers Duke It Out In Court Over The Color Yellow
Don’t look now but there’s a foundation civil war brewing in the Cowtown…
One one side, stands a gentleman named Otto Fleck, the owner of a company called Dry Basement. On the other looks to be made up of about anybody else who wants to use the words "dry" and "basement" and/or the color yellow in their foundation repair biz.
Which brings us to a front page story last week in the Star that ran under the headline "Foundation repair companies scrap in court over trucks’ color."
Fleck’s Dry Basement sued Raytown-based competitor Pro Foundation Technology claiming it iinfringed on Dry Basement’s trademark color yellow by fielding a pair of used Penske rental trucks already painted yellow. And because for seven years Dry Basement has had a "fleet" of distinctive, yellow trucks.
Kinda like those bright red trucks Roger the Plumber drives…
Today: No Sale, Lew’s ‘Zack Grienke Land’ Alive & Well Despite Pitcher’s Departure
The days (and nights) of Zach Greinke packing The K are mostly behind him…
So, in all likeihood, are the ones of his pitching starts packing popular Waldo watreing hole Lew’s Grill & Bar. Raising the question of what will become of the Facebook blasts Lew’s has been sending out the past two years for everything from a Greinke game gatherings to Beer Pong tourneys.
And the answer is nothing – Zack Geinke Land is going nowhere.
Fast…
Today: Groupon versus The Kansas City Star, Old Ways Die Hard
Think of it as the difference between the Flintsones and the Jetsons…
The Kansas City Star’s trusty-but–rusty "Star Card" pitted against Groupon’s cutting edge deals-of-the-day email blasts. Once upon a time – like 40 years ago – buy-one get-one free coupon books for restaurant dining were cutting edge.
I remember getting one for Christmas from one of my sisters, heading down to a presigious Plaza restaurant and sheepishly handing the coupon to the server when the check came. It was downhill from the get-go – an excercise in awkwardness that put an immediate end to my usage of the coupons.
And while mercifully, with The Star Card, those coupon-tearing days are gone, the awkwardness remains.
Not so when diners, airbrush tan-wanters – even panty-of-the-month club types – get a half-off deal from Groupon.
Longtime Star Card participant Jardine‘s jazz club on the Plaza can attest to the differences…
Hearne: Happy Steak & BJ Day (And You Thought We Forgot)
Gentlemen, start your engines…
Monday is the big day, March 14th. The now fully official holiday known as Steak & BJ Day. Never heard of it? C’mon. Even my former editor in the FYI section of the Star, Mary Lou Nolan, stamped her blessings upon the holiday by allowing me to fully report on that day five long years ago!
That’s right, a "family newspaper" that routinely snuffs out commmonplace words like "sucks" and keeps a police state like watchful eye on double entendres that have anything whatsoever to do with s-e-x allowed me to lay one up for a holiday based around blowjobs.
Go figure…
So return with me now to that 2006 column and let’s relive the magic. Then go relive it yourself if you wish later at the Cowtown’s unofficial Steak & BJ Day headquarters, Raoul‘s in Overland Park..
Today: Makeshift Brian Euston Memorial in Westport Destroyed, Removed for Family
Just like that that makeshift memorial to Brian Euston in Westport is outta there…
For five months Westporters have wrestled with the desire to take down a gigantic, homemade, paper and plastic memorial of sorts to a 24 year-old man who died there last October. That after allegedly being punched, falling and hitting his head on the sidewalk, following a night of partying into the wee hours of the morning and drinking himself into an astonishingly high .387 blood-alcohol level.
Saturday night vandals ripped the memorial down.
Today: The Very Strange Departure of Mike Murphy
There’ll be no 71st St. Patrick’s Day celebration for Mike Murphy...
Not on this earth, anyway. No riding atop a garbage truck, waving to the crowd in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade he helped found. Quoth Edgar Allan Poe, nevermore. UFOs have spirited Kansas City’s quirky radio personality away. No more close encounters for us; they’ve got him now.
A few details are beginning to go viral in the wake of his passing Wednesday – starting with that his name was not Mike Murphy.
No blarney.
Car: Ford’s Mulally Cheap Shots Fiat; Lawrence
At first blush, it doesn’t make much sense…
Why would Ford CEO Alan Mulally – poised to break the auto industry compensation record of $73 million – diss the critically acclaimed new Fiat 500? Before it goes on sale no less.
Yet there the sandy-haired, former Lawrence resident is on AutoGuide.com bagging on the Italian micro stallion. Under a headline that reads, "Fiat 500 Will Fail, Says Ford CEO Alan Mulally."
Today: Time to Move On, But Westport Unable to Remove Makeshift Brian Euston Memorial
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It’s over, done, finished – the sorrowful lessons learned…
There’s little point in continuing to rub the public’s nose in the memory of deceased 24 year-old Kansas City man Brian Euston. Euston died five months ago after taking a single punch, falling, then hitting his head on a Westport sidewalk. And for three months a cloud of mystery and uncertainty hovered over his death.
Was foul play involved? Was he beaten by a gang of blacks as some speculated?
Answers to those questions lacking, Euston’s parents pressed Kansas City Police and media – KC Confidential included – to keep the story alive. To find out what went wrong that fateful night resulting in the death of their son.
To that end, a makeshift memorial sprang up in heart of the entertainment district, prominently placed along Westport Road.
Hearne: Win Steak Dinners at Raoul’s & Jardine’s Courtesy of New Craig Glazer Advice Column
There’s a new game in town…
An advice game. You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers. Let’s make a deal. And the deal is, email your queries about love, life, business, pleasure, cars, bars, politics, predicaments, media, entertainment, religion – you name it – and KCC‘s crack problem solvers will unravel it for you.
Simple, huh?
The man behind the Answers Plan is everybody’s favorite media punching bag, businessman/author/stud about town Craig Glazer. That’s right, if Craig can’t answer it, you probably forgot to ask
Are there any questions too tough for Glazer to tackle?
"No, as long as they’re not completely stupid," he says. "But I want to focus on other people’s problems, not me – I think I cover that in my other stories. But I’ll certainly use myaself as an example if need be."
Glazer will team with a grrrl to be named later who’s identity we’ll reveal next week after our Steak & BJ Day steak dinner for two giveaways at Raoul‘s in Overland Park and Jardine’s on the Plaza. More on that later.
Hearne: Kansas City Radio Giant Mike Murphy Suffers Stroke, Dies
This just in from Roger the Plumber …
Kansas City broadcasting legend Mike Murphy has suffered a stroke and is gravely ill, Roger reports.
"Mike Murphy had a stroke and he’s in a complete non responsive state," Roger says. He’s at his house and he had asked that he not be resuscitated. So he’s at his house waiting to die."
A sad eventuality that could go down at any minute, Roger says he was told.
The latest: Murphy died tonight shortly before 6:30 pm.
