By DAVID MARTIN
The 2008 Royals finished 13 games out of first place in the AL Central -- an improvement on the recent past with much work still be done.
The 12-game losing streak was out of the ordinary. Few saw the 13-2 finish coming. But at Jose Guillen's last angry glare, the club's record stood at 75-87 -- below average, not embarrassing and pretty much on par with spring-training predictions.
The hitting of Alex Gordon and Billy Butler didn't take the forward leaps that many foretold. At the same time, it was easy to imagine Brian Bannister, the brainy but hardly overpowering starting pitcher, struggling in his second full season, and that no good would come from journeyman Ross Gload getting 400 at-bats. Only the frequency and content of Guillen's outbursts were unknowns, his antisocial behavior being a fact as certain as his right-handedness.
By OWEN MORRIS
If I had one word to describe the class attitude last night, it would be "pissy." Everyone was in a sour mood the entire time. Despite the culture of the celebrity chef, there are no stars in a kitchen, just a team. When half the members of that team are in a bad mood then the other half feels it and pretty soon everyone is in a bad mood.
By ANDY VIHSTADT
Mercury Rev released its seventh studio LP today, but whether you decide to purchase Snowflake Midnight or not, you can download its companion album, Strange Attractor, for free at the band’s website. Join the mailing list here for the link.
Beck, with MGMT
September 29, 2008
The Uptown Theater
By RICHARD GINTOWT
Click to view our slideshow.
For the first five years of Beck's mainstream career, it seemed like each of his albums were paradigm shifts. Each invented an entirely different context with a unified body of material. That started changing about the time of Guero, and though all his subsequent releases have been worthwhile affairs, they no longer come with the requisite excitement of “what in the world will this guy do next?” At some point, Beck just started sounding like Beck. It's like what marriage feels like after a decade or so: not terribly exciting but pretty darn good. (Ok, actually I have no idea what marriage feels like after a decade.)
More after the jump.
By CHRIS PACKHAM
Emo Boehner is very sad. The Fed is furiously printing new money, since sad congressional Republicans' feelings got hurt by a MEAN STUPID LADY,
causing them to reject the Wall Street bailout plan and go listen to Death Cab while cutting on themselves because AT LEAST THEN THEY CAN FEEL SOMETHING! Specifically, the Fed is coughing up around $480 billion in emergency lending programs and injections of cash into foreign money markets. I'm no economist, but I am extraordinarily sexy. And I know that Venezuela's 1990s experiment in printing money resulted in runaway hyperinflation, and I am totally dreading paying upwards of $500 for a veggie burrito.After the jump, stuff from the news, plus a long boring story about the dream I had last night. Click here, or on the Empress of Drama, John McCain:
By OWEN MORRIS
In times of crisis, people revert to canned goods. Yesterday, only one stock on the S&P gained. Only one out of 500! That stock you ask? Campbell Soup. (Wonkette)
Speaking of values, food marketers are now shying away from pushing expensive new lines and reverting back to "cost-value" safe foods. That is, safe foods with a very healthy profit margin. (WSJ)
Something fishy's going on. Or at least something is 40 percent breaded minced fishy when it comes to these fish sticks. (Consumerist)
All right, I'll come out and say it. I subscribe to both and right now New York Magazine is kicking the New Yorker's butt, in story ideas, content, humor, lists, you name it. It's NY Mag's 40th Anniversary and it asked one of its writers to come up with a list of the most important restaurants of the past 40 years. (NY Mag)
By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI
Kansas City already has plenty of famous mob bosses. Add Babette Geer to that list.
As soon as the Brookside resident saw Brent Schulkin's video, she knew she had to recruit a "Carrotmob" of her own. "It just talked to me," the environmentalist says. "I thought, I've got to do this."
Unlike the notorious Pendergast family, Schulkin's -- and Geer's -- mob aims to battle global warming through coordinated consumer spending. Like any organized crime ring, though, the business benefactors need to earn the mob's patronage by promising to funnel some of their profits into green retrofits.
In the past six weeks, Geer and a small volunteer team have been working to make this cowtown just the fourth city in the world to mobilize an underground army of green consumers and direct their financial arsenal at one specific location at one specific time.
Click here for a new YouTube video the group posted this weekend explaining Carrotmob's roots and why it wants you to buy generous amounts of liquor on October 21.
By DAVID MARTIN
An investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys confirms the rumor that Missouri Sen. Kit Bond can't stomach Jeff Roe, the sharp-elbowed Republican operative.
I had heard that Bond and his people didn't like Roe (pictured) in 2004. I was reporting a story about Roe and the rough tactics he deployed against Republicans and Democrats alike. Congressman Sam Graves' longtime political adviser, Roe is famous for negative campaigning at Lee Atwater-Karl Rove altitudes. In an effort to beat back Kay Barnes' challenge this fall, Team Graves has resorted to homophobia, airing ads that decry the former Kansas City mayor's "San Francisco values."
Todd Graves, the congressman's brother, was among the nine U.S. attorneys who were told to resign in 2006 and 2007. An investigation of the firings released today found "significant evidence that political and partisan considerations were an important factor," as Bush administration critics have alleged.
Graves was the first attorney ordered down the plank. The Justice Department investigators who looked into the firings determined that complaints from Bond's office prompted Graves' removal.
By JUSTIN KENDALL
Supposedly, it's hard to get a date in Kansas City. Maybe it's just easy to get laid here. So says Mingle2, an online dating Web site, which ranks KC in the top 10 most promiscuous cities in the United States.
Mingle2's Dating Report says the average Kansas Citian has slept with 11 people. But we don't have shit on Mobile, Alabama, where the average is 16.
Not sure how accurate information is since the "study" is based on Mingle2's online survey.
Wrap it up, sluts.
Federation of Horsepower, Whiskey Boots and Buddy Lush
September 26, 2008
The Riot Room
Better than: Making every green light from the River Market to Midtown on Main in the middle of the day.
By BERRY ANDERSON
Troy Van Horn of Federation of Horsepower.
Last Friday night, even though entertainment options were as numerous as dancing baby boomers in the P&L, I had no trouble choosing my destination for the evening. At that point in the week, I was tired as fuck and if I had balls, they needed to be rocked off. The only solution was the Riot Room.
Parking my car a block away, I could already hear the thunderous drum beats of Buddy Lush. A previous spectator of many a Buddy Lush Phenomenon matinee show at the Brick, I quickly recognized that Duh-duhduh-duh-duh that ends most, if not all of their songs. This time however, it was on real drums and not that pickle bucket bullshit normally used for their early evening shows.
Seven dollars for the door dude and a stiff ass Smirnoff Watermelon and Roaring Lion later, I moved to the front of the sparse indoor crowd to hear frontman Jon Paul open a tune with something about “old folks” and “back before any of you can remember.” Buddy Lush can be described as a three-piece of highly seasoned, hard rockin’ older dudes that have been around these parts for a piece (heard any Sin City Disciples lately?). They pretty much don’t give a fuck either. That being said, they really didn’t have much patience for my questions, my camera and me.
Oklahoma Joe's ribs named the best in the country by The Daily Meal
KCPD will breathalyze patrons at Tanner's tonight
Don't mess with the Army, feds remind two local businesspeople
Parisi's Pete Licata is a World Barista Championship semifinalist
Soundgarden's sludgy sound, last night at the Midland (review)
Homer's Drive-In: the oldest drive-through in the metro
Yo La Tengo is at Grinders tonight
Voltaire - the saloon, not the philosopher - opens tonight