Reading or listening to an outsider's assessment of Kansas City can be excruciating. The Show-Me State showed me lot of a hot barbecue and cool jazz!
So credit Brian Lambert, a contributor to Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, for recognizing Kansas City as something more than a plate of burnt ends and a place where Charlie Parker developed a taste for narcotics. Describing ways to spend a weekend in our "legendary cow town," Lambert provides crisp takes on the World War I Museum, the Living Room at the Pearl (2010's Best New Theater, according to us) and the Broadway Café, said to concoct "the best lattes anywhere."
Clay Chastain called last week to talk about his latest light rail plan, which he'll kick off at Union Station on October 14 at "high noon."
"We're going to try to repeat the political miracle of 2006," Chastain told me.
Chastain said he'll pimp his latest plan on the 14th with a short speech, answer some questions from
the media and then hit the streets to start his
latest petition drive -- or as he put it, "gallop to a new green horizon."
Chastain sounded like he's been watching a lot of old westerns, talking about "drama on the plains." There will be plenty of drama if the public backs his latest plan. He says it'll "reconfigure the infrastructure and the political structure," taking away the City Council's power to override a vote of the people.
The meat of Chastain's plan is an upgrade of Kansas City's "pathetic transit
system" to a "world class transit system," he said. It's a $2.2 billion
cap improvement project, "a big plan taking on a big problem," he said.
Kevin Klinkenberg, an architect who is passionate about cities, received a Best Thinker award in last week's Best Of Kansas City issue.
One place that's been receptive to Klinkenberg's new urbanist ideas is Blue Springs. Klinkenberg's firm, 180º Design Studio, did a master plan for the suburb's downtown in 2006. A year later, Klinkenberg and his colleagues worked with city officials on a "form-based" code. Form-based codes focus on outcomes -- nice streets, happy people -- rather than soul-killing details, such as minimum parking requirements.
180º Design's efforts preceded the construction of new homes on the edge of downtown Blue Springs. In this short video (which was produced by Jennings Social Media), Klinkenberg takes a look at the fruits of conscientious planning.
Additional video of Klinkenberg is available at his firm's YouTube channel.
You guys picked the largest mayor in the land Mark Funkhouser as the the Best Anti-hero Of 2009 in The Pitch's Best Of 2009 edition.
A fair share of you also voted for the mayor's wife, Gloria Squitiro. Also getting votes, everyone from Fred Phelps to Larry Johnson to Larry Moore (Larry Moore?) to Spider-Man. We'll tell a little more about one of the vote getters later today, but one really struck me: "samurai guy in Westport."
I gotta believe that the votes for samurai guy were for Rand Al-Thor, whose wardrobe was profiled on here in August 2008. Here's what he told us then that his entire wardrobe is either found or given to him.
The black headdress was fashioned out of aAlways happy to hear about a Rand Al-Thor sighting.woman's shirt, and he sported a dog collar around his neck. He had all
sorts of random stuff hanging off of him, like a set of handcuffs from
his belt. "They're toys. Cops are always messing with me," he said.
Around his neck, maybe attached to the dog collar, he had a couple of
pencil-thin flashlights pointing forward. "It's so I can see," he said.
College football coaches and Pitch readers agree: There is some skill at the wide receiver position at area high schools.
Justin McCay of Bishop Miege and Keeston Terry of Blue Springs tied in the readers' vote for Best High-School Athlete. McCay, a 6-foot-3 senior, has committed to play at the University of Oklahoma. Terry is headed to the University of Kansas.
As a junior, McCay attracted the notice of college scouts by scoring touchdowns by a variety of means -- receiving, rushing, returning kicks. The scouting service Scouts Inc. says the tall and sturdy McCay is "one of the most physically imposing wide receiver prospects in this class." McCay's strength is such that he also plays linebacker for the fighting Grunhards.
Terry is the son of former Chiefs safety Doug Terry.
When he arrives in Lawrence next fall, the 6-foot-1 senior will follow in his father's footsteps. Doug Terry played at KU in the early '90s.
In July, 81-year-old Lee's Summit bowler Ollie Harbin became the oldest American woman to roll a perfect 300 in a sanctioned game. She also rolled her way into our Best Of Kansas City awards as Best Bowler.
Harbin has been a bowler off and on for 30 years, and when she's on, she's on. Harbin's 12-strike game in July was the second of her career, and the first after hip replacement surgery.
She rolls her 14-pound ball with a slight hook to it so it fades right and strikes the pocket, which is the space between the front pin and the one behind it and to the right. That's how you bowl strikes, and Harbin is pretty darn good at it.
Click the video to watch her in action.
Angie, Victoria, Laura and Thalia were regular performers on Saturday nights at Bar Azul, this year's Best Of Kansas City winner for Best Drag Shows.
Photographer Michael McClure caught their beauty ritual at a tiny salon in Kansas City, Kansas. These four ladies are now performing on Saturdays at Daddy's (1610 Main, Kansas City, Missouri), while Azul's drag show still spotlights talented gals including Christina, Miss Gay Latina 2009.
Click on this photo of Thalia for a slideshow:
We picked Jason Rosenbaum as Best Blogger in the Best Of Kansas City 2009. Rosenbaum's Capitol Calling is one of the foremost resources for political news from Jeff City.
Rosenbaum graciously accepted the award in this video (he also admits he likes the Milwaukee Bucks and Degrassi: The Next Generation; he's also apparently good at karaoke). But make sure you listen to his comments about new media. We couldn't agree more.
You're welcome, Jason. But we totally should have made you dress up.
And the winner is... Oh, we wait. We screwed up.
The print version of our Best Of Kansas City issue awards the best jingle to Shawnee Mission Kia. But the jingle we describe promotes Shawnee Mission Hyundai, a dealership under the same corporate umbrella as Shawnee Mission Kia.
Leawood-based BicMedia produced the Hyundai ad. Shawnee Mission Kia uses a jingle that was written by Carl Mazur, who operates a production studio in Branson.
After the jump, a 30-second version of Mazur's Kia spot.
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Fifty years ago this week, Continental Flight 11 fell out of the sky over Unionville
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Guy Fieri, Henry Ford and Johnny Trigg to be inducted into the National Barbecue Hall of Fame
The Pitch Questionnaire with Historic Kansas City Foundation executive director Amanda Crawley
Clemson, rumored to be interested in the Big 12, opens up its relationship with the ACC
New teen curfew goes into effect this weekend
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