Kansas City News Blog

Kansas City graffiti artist Scribe demonstrated his work outside of Creative Coldsnow last weekend with the camera rolling. Here's the time-lapse movie by Phil Koenig. Cool stuff.

Midtown Miscreant

​No one plays tour guide to the seedier sides of the city better than Midtown Miscreant. His blight tours were great, but his latest three-part series might just top them. Double M is visiting former murder sites, starting with the Paradise Motel on Prospect -- where a 56-year-old grandmother was killed two years ago. Here's a quick update on the Paradise. Can't wait for future installments.

KC Meesha has a thing for billboards, especially the strange ones like Houlihan's "WTF" billboards. WTF is right.

Finally, the Turner Report updates the latest in a former Kanakuk Kamp director accused of sexually abusing teenage boys. Pete Newman, 35, is due in court today. Turner quotes the investigative report, which explains the charges:

"Between 2005 and 2008, Pete Newman became a close friend of his by attending family dinners, sleepovers, bible studies, taking vacations together and writing letters. Pete would hold one-on-one sessions with (the boy) in Pete's hot tub (at Pete's residence) and would request they be naked. Pete would discuss life's struggles with (him) and talk about masturbation. Pete would explain that if (the boy) would masturbate with him in his hot tub then there would be no lust and therefore (the boy) would not be sinning."

There's more allegations against Newman, and the Turner Report's Randy Turner has done an amazing job following the story.

​Former Kansas City Kansan reporter Sam Hartle has started a blog: Strange Conversation. Looks like he'll focus on the future of media; the first post is about newspapers using social media to drive traffic to their Web sites but erecting pay walls in which readers would have to pay to view the content.

Hartle did a really good job covering the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities for the Kansan. But this just reminded me that there's no one regularly reporting on the BPU (Mark Wiebe left the Star earlier this year).

Best of luck to you, Sam.

Via Nick Sloan.

Robot Chicken on Wheels Tour Blog

Set Green and Robot Chicken invaded Riverside last week.

​
Robot Chicken's creators roller skated through Riverside last week -- hawking their latest Star Wars spoof DVD. Seth Green and company even met Riverside Mayor Kathleen Rose and commandeered a firetruck. Bizarre but that's expected with Green and friends.

There's more silliness from the RiverRoll stop on tour blog.

By the way, Peter Rugg is right. Robot Chicken is the third best show on Adult Swim. He's wrong on his top two: Venture Bros. (followed by Aqua Teen Hunger Force) is the best of Cartoon Network's late night block.

"Uncle" Ed Muscare

​Local blogger/watchdog Midtown Miscreant's "Uncle" Ed watch made Fox 4 last night. The Miscreant, also known as Mark Smith, has been keeping an eye on former children's show host and sex offender Ed Muscare's YouTube site. Muscare had been posting odd videos on the site -- scratching his back with a toilet brush and letting a dog suckle on his stomach, singing "Pretty Woman" and more -- and the videos were attracting the attention of a lot of kids. That didn't sit well with Smith, who reported Muscare to YouTube and the Orangeburg County Sheriff in South Carolina.

The LiveJournal of a guy claiming to be Muscare's biographer claims probation officers paid Muscare a visit but found nothing illegal on his computer. However, Fox 4's Tess Koppelman learned that the probation department in South Carolina is still investigating Muscare. So this might not be the last bit of creepiness we hear from "Uncle" Ed.

"Uncle" Ed Muscare

​"Uncle" Ed Muscare isn't getting any sympathy  from Midtown Miscreant.

In his latest post, double M rips the former children's show host and registered sex offender, who has returned to YouTube after at least a month-long hiatus. Seems the authorities in South Carolina didn't care for "Uncle" Ed's bizarre videos and confiscated his computer. This is from the LiveJournal of a guy who claims to be Muscare's biographer.

Here are a few snippets supposedly from "Uncle" Ed on his original offense and his most recent run-in with the law:

Back in 1986, when I was attending a birthday party in Orlando, Florida, I had fondled a 14 year-old family member. I was caught and arrested. I was sentenced to 18 months in prison and 10 years probation. ...

Now, here, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, 23 years later, 5 law enforment (sic) officers are in my house going thru my computer.
...

Midtown Miscreant

One of my favorite local bloggers, Midtown Miscreant, is back. The Miscreant writes that he was a little hasty when he decided to stop blogging last month. Double M missed writing ... and his trolls.

I miss putting in my slightly tarnished 2 cents. If all else fails I can use the old "I'm a criminal my word ain't worth dick" defense.

Look for him to post a couple of times a week. Welcome back, MM.

Arrowhead Pride snapped some cool-looking, washed out '70s-style photos of the construction at Arrowhead Stadium, which you should check out. Then take another look at this Webcam watching the stadium renovations (drag your cursor over the stadium to get a close up view) and video. And if you're not overloaded with the pride that comes with paying for all of these snazzy improvements, check out the Chiefs' cams watching the east end zone, south side, new offices and practice field. Talk about overkill.

One of Kansas City's best and crankiest bloggers, Midtown Miscreant Mark Smith, is calling it quits. Here's a snip from his farewell address:

I started doing this thing because I had some shit to say, I had some stories to tell. I feel like I've said everything worth saying, and I've run out of stories. So I'm done, at least in this format. I plan to continue writing, maybe try my hand at a book, maybe even post it on line. I may blog again, but it wont be anytime soon, and it will be on a new page, and it wont be as personal or in the same tone as Midtown Miscreant.

Damn. Sorry to see your mean ass go.

KC blogger Sponge Worthy is documenting the delivery of her baby on Twitter. It's pretty awesome stuff, like this screen grab (thanks, Erin in the Real World):

Here's a helluva find by Independence's newest and best blogger Midtown Miscreant: former children's show host "Uncle" Ed Muscare's bizarre YouTube page. Videos like this:



There are many more videos of "Uncle" Ed on YouTube, and he's looking a little lonely. Maybe it's because, as the Miscreant points out, "Uncle" Ed is a registered sex offender in Florida. He's a long way from joking around with Cloris Leachman.

Larry Johnson

This is really sweet. The San Diego Union-Tribune put together a searchable database of crimes by NFL players since 2000. The list isn't comprehensive but you can search by player or team name or position. A search of Kansas City returns 24 records, and, of course, woman slapper Larry "King Pink" Johnson leads the team with four incidents. Doesn't seeing the names of Tamarick Vanover, Eric Warfield, Andre Rison and Jared Allen bring back fond memories? Now we can find out just who had the worst indiscretions. My money is on the Cincinnati Bengals. Search and see.

Hat tip to Arrowhead Pride for sharing.

Midtown Miscreant

Midtown Miscreant (Mark Smith) is leaving midtown ... "for good." The Miscreant is moving about 15 minutes away, staying in the metro area. Midtown has changed a lot, and it's not the same for the guy. But he files a great post about what midtown used to be like when he was a kid.

Main Street jumped and crackled at night, it was a living breathing entity. From the Club Royale, where fake cowboys and cowgirls gathered, north to 31st Street where the drag queens hung out at the Jew Box, Main Street was like no other stretch of road in this city. ... I had a one room apartment on Warner Plaza, a street that no longer exists. ... On warm summer nights, I'd open the window and watch the nightly show unfold. It was always the same, and it was always a little different. Hookers milled about on their corner right below my window. So close that I could hear every word of their conversations.

Good luck with the move, Midtown Miscreant.

If you believe Gary Amble, you'll need one of these to get to Planet Comicon tomorrow.

This was actually shot in Goodland, Kansas. And there's more.

By Emily Henson

Midtown Miscreant

Midtown Miscreant just wanted to tell people's hard luck stories. The Miscreant, KC blogger Mark Smith's screen name, ended up hearing about a man's fight to keep custody of his two kids -- and wound up with trying to parse the truth from the bullshit. It's worth a read. Plus, he tells me he'll be doing more interviews -- next time with either a "street bum or a city mission dweller." Hey, how about more hot PETA protesters? 

By Raven

New blogger Kansas City Camera snapped this really cool photo while exploring an abandoned grain silo on Southwest Boulevard behind Strasser Hardware.

Reminded me of this message at 16th and Main that I walk past on my way to work.
My photography skills aren't near as good as Raven's. Check out Raven's blog; there's only one other post, but I'm looking forward to seeing more shots in the future.

We all know that The Kansas City Star will be going through a fourth round of layoffs soon (I've heard early March), but we don't know who or what they'll be cutting. Until maybe yesterday.

On his Bottom Line Communications blog, John Landsberg wrote that

Chris here. I told Justin I was going to interrupt his next blog post in mid-sentence with a whole Daily Briefs post, and he said, "No you're not," and I said, "Yes I am," and before he could say "No you're not" again, I was all, like, "copy-paste-publish-submit." Seriously, this guy? Always strutting around like he's the king of boners and Christmas presents. Well, this is the first of a new collectible series of Daily Briefs Miniatures, which are like little novelty replicas of actual Daily Briefs posts, by the fine people at The Franklin Mint. This one is about the Kansas City Star's Website.

Nick at willnotbetelevised points out that the poor old Kansas City Star's Website isn't among the top 30 online newspaper sites that have managed to increase the average time a reader stays on their site. Chris at Daily Briefs points out the Nate Silver-ish stats-geekery represented by compiling unbelievably esoteric lists like that, seriously, it's like baseball nuts who actually give a nacho-scented beer shit about the BQR number, which baseballprospectus.com defines as "bequeathed runs prevented from scoring," measuring "how many more or fewer of the bequeathed baserunners subsequent relievers allowed to score than would be expected from league average performance in those situations." (Ahem.) Excuse me for a moment.



But the point is well taken: The Kansas City Star Website is an unfun, ugly and unnavigable construct made out of the kinds of content you find in FYI and Mom2Mom. E. Thomas McClanahan is inside there, too, like a digital right-wing Lawnmower Man whose birth cry will be the sound of EVERY TELEPHONE IN RUSH LIMBAUGH'S MANSION RINGING AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!

Nick is also correct about the building at 18th and Grand, which I understand has been "shaken to its foundations" this week, being wuh-HAY too large for the offices of The Pitch, which are actually housed inside a shoebox, where we sleep in little match boxes and wash our little faces in sinks made out of nutshells. Back to you, Justin.

the "Star will likely eliminate its KCK, Northland and Eastern Jackson County bureaus" but not Johnson County (of course). Landsberg cited "an anonymous source close to the situation."

This would be really bad news for the metro's outlying areas and the overworked reporters covering them. The bureaus have already been cut to the bone, leaving good reporters struggling to cover large portions of the city. Coverage is already suffering. I can only imagine how bad it'll be if the bureaus close.

Another local blogger called it quits today. Farewell May's Machete. I'll especially miss her posts on exploring her sexual identity.

Last week, State of the Line announced they are calling it quits. They promised this week would be their last, but I noticed the guys haven't posted anything since this epic post. What else is there to say?

Good luck, May and SOTL.

Bill Houlehan stores millions of Atari games in a limestone cave in Independence. And he's selling them for $5 a pop.

I read a story about Bill Houlehan, who bought up Atari's inventory in the '90s in The Escapist yesterday. It brought back a lot of memories for me; my first video-gaming system was an Atari 7800. So I called the cave and spoke with Bill's son, Tom Houlehan.

Houlehan told me that in the early '90s, as Atari struggled financially, his father swooped in and bought the company's 3-million game inventory. Every last one.

"There was a bit of a bidding war for the games," Tom Houlehan said, "and we were able to get in there and snatch them all up."

Bill Houlehan and his closeout/liquidation company, O'Shea Limited, ended up with 40 to 50 titles. They stored the cartridges 150-feet underground in a 20,000 square foot warehouse. But they didn't buy the classic games to sit on them; they immediately started selling them to overseas buyers.

"They were still buying container loads of games," Tom Houlehan said. "There was still a thriving market over there for the games."

The best sellers are Dig Dug, Pole Position and Ms. Pac-Man.

"Those are the games that are in every order, practically," Houlehan said.

They still have about a million games left, although some titles have sold out. Collectors are also starting to grab titles in anticipation of a biopic of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell with Leonardo DiCaprio attached, Houlehan said.

Makes me want to bust out the 7800 and re-start my romance with Ms. Pac-Man.

The scene of the Union Station Massacre

I'd never heard NPR's "Kansas City's wholesome image belies mob past" piece, but yesterday "Day to Day" reran the September 2007 show. It's a quick, six-minute tour of KC's seedy mob past. Makes me want to take the tour.

Hat tip to TKC.

Photos by Justin Kendall

I'm pretty sure Justin Moss has never seen the Kansas City Public Library (pictured above) in person. Moss compiled a list of "The 15 Strangest Buildings of the World" and named KC's library the world's sixth strangest. Actually, the building he's thinking of is across the street.

  Uh, Justin. That's the parking garage.

KCTV-5's Ash-har Quraishi is about to do something no sane person has tried: Feed his computer paper. And it's going to eat it. Seriously.



Damn. My computer must be broken.

Hat tip to rpsmee.

Sad Friday. My friends at State of the Line are calling it quits after next week. It's always sad to see one of the best blogs in the city go. Best of luck to Pendergast, Benton and O'Neil in the future.

Photos by Midtown Miscreant

Midtown Miscreant, a must-read Kansas City blogger, sent along these photos from PETA's Plaza protest of Giorgio Armani.



The Miscreant writes a great recap -- and is apparently the only person in Kansas City who cared to check out the lonely "cavepeople's" protest.

Thanks for the pics, MM.

Christian Morgan

Kansas' Republican Party needs a new executive director. Spider-Man fan Christian Morgan is "stepping down to pursue other opportunities," according to a release. Kansas Dirt Diver had the scoop yesterday and claims Morgan is headed to the Republican National Committee.

"I look forward to pursuing new opportunities, and look forward to working towards getting Republicans elected in 2010," Morgan said in a statement.

The party says Morgan's last day is March 31.

Morgan was known for his sharp elbows and slicked back hair. No word on whether Morgan gets to take this big check with him.

Sean Tevis

Sean Tevis raised a whole lotta money in his run for the Kansas House of Representatives. A lot of his campaign donations were small. In fact, he specifically asked for $8.34 in an awesome comic strip. He got a lot of attention, like from the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal. He scared the shit out of his opponent. He was smart and funny and web savvy. But he lost the race. He's still scaring Kansas Republicans.

Last week, Rep. Scott Schwab introduced House Bill 2244, which would require candidates to report the names and addresses of contributors who give less than $50 to a political campaign. But there's a catch -- the candidate only has to report the info if he or she receives more than $1,000 in donations smaller than $50. The bill is being called the "Sean Tevis bill" because there was only one candidate who raised more than a grand in small donations: Sean Tevis.

Let's just say Tevis isn't a fan of the bill. In his latest blog entry, Tevis explains that "the $1,000 threshold creates an unequal protection of privacy."

If you donate $1 to a candidate, you can expect that your personal information will remain private. If that candidate, however, crosses the arbitrary $1,000 threshold, which is beyond your control, then suddenly your reasonable expectation of privacy that other small donors enjoy is stripped from you.

Tevis is right. So a candidate who raises $999.99 in small donations doesn't have to report the info but someone who raises a grand does? Not exactly fair. And the donor loses all consideration of privacy. Tevis doesn't want to kill the bill; he wants all candidates treated equally. So he's calling for the Legislature to dump the $1,000 threshold and require all candidates to report the same info. Sounds fair to me.

Just read a beautiful piece of writing by Resistance is Fruitful, a new local blogger who is impressing us with his thoughtful (if not yet especially prolific) work.

This February 6 post was an "Editor's Pick" on OpenSalon.com. In it, Resistance remembers his childhood in Colby, Kansas -- specifically, the parts of town built by the WPA during the Great Depression. His experience is a strong rebuke to the cranks who argue that a federal economic stimulus package is "socialist" and therefore bad.

Great work, Resistance: tying investments made in America back in the 1930s to the fierce urgency of now.

I do believe that Missouri state Rep. Bryan Stevenson just stuck up for the Confederacy while speaking in favor of a House resolution asking the U.S. Congress to stand against the federal Freedom of Choice Act -- a bill that hasn't been filed but would stop the government from interfering with abortion.



And then apologized.



That was quick. And strange.

Hat tip to Fired Up! Missouri and Jason Rosenbaum.

Paul Rudd, the pride of Shawnee Mission West and my favorite member of Judd Apatow's mafia, makes a pretty funny appearance in this spoof of New York Times commercials.

That isn't a humpback whale flying in the Wichita sky. It's supposedly a UFO. The Wichita Eagle interviewed a man who snapped a couple photos of the strange flying object and submitted them to UFO Digest. The man didn't want to give his name to the Eagle, but UFO Digest calls him "Daniel." Daniel told the Eagle he was hesitant to submit his photos. Why? "I didn't want people to think I'm nuts," he told the Eagle. Wha? Never.