Thursday, November 26, 2015

Here is why Kansans and Missourians hate Stan Kroenke, destroyer of Metcalf South: Organic hard boiled eggs at Costco, already peeled...

It's not just ISIS.  There are poor folk and millions of middle class folk in the US who are out of jobs but full of resentment.  The war in the US is the Haves v. the Have Nots.  And in Kansas and Missouri both, Enemy Number One might just be Stan Kroenke, the real owner of abandoned Metcalf South.


He is a double 1%'er.  So rich he is high up in the 1% of America's wealthy.  The source of that is was smart enough to marry Sam Walton's sister.  So Stan and Ann own 1% of all Walmart stock.

Hey, maybe we will see Stan tonight, at 6pm, as your local Walmart drags all their employees in from Thanksgiving dinner for a jump start on Black Friday.

Memo to Stan's employees: "No pie for YOU!  Clock in by 4pm or lose your job."

We probably won't see Stan at the store.  Stan Kroenke is not driving down Metcalf to survey what his unrelenting selfish greed has done.  He's also not driving around downtown St. Louis, where he is abandoning his team, the St. Louis Rams, to take an even BIGGER tax handout by moving his team to LA.

Nope, Stan is said to be enjoying some deviled eggs at his $21 million home in Aspen, Colorado.  He is the richest homeowner with the biggest damn house in Aspen.  That's what greed do.

Now let me tell you about Kroenke's deviled eggs.  It is way too much trouble to boil one's eggs.  Or have to practice your Spanish so you can tell your third-world chef how to do that.  The truly rich start halfway to the finish line--get your hard-boiled eggs at Costco--they're already peeled!

Just slice in half, remove the yolks, (perfectly centered?  Or are those yolks leaning far to the right???)  Being collosally wealthy has its travails.

Mash up the yolks in a $1000 blender, add mustard and some mayo--the good Hellman's kind, not that Berman's crap from Aldi, plop back in, or use a cake-decorator pipe to do it up right.  And for God's sake, sprinkle with paprika or caviar BEFORE you artfully arrange on some $200 designer platter.  Nothing says middle class like spillage on the platter.  And no cleaning the outlines around the deviled eggs by licking the spillage with your finger.

Here's Stan's tough dilemma this month: does he have his chef buy the organic hardboiled peeled eggs, for $8.79 or the regular eggs, which are just $5.99 at Costco?

We all know what Stan Kroenke did.  He bought the organic.  The motto of every 1%'er is this:
Why spend more when you can spend a great deal more???!

Because he and his loyal knave, Owen Donahue from Lane4, are just biding their time, waiting for the city of Overland Park to cave in, and give him tax abatements, and Sam Brownback and the state of Kansas, to give him STAR bonds.  For that, he'd be required to build some stupid qualifying special attraction, eg a "water feature" in the parking lot at the former Metcalf South.

The last drawing showed a fountain the size of an above ground pool in KCK.  woohoo!  Last one into the fountain is a rotten egg!

 

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Our town's little Sundance: KIFF starts Fri. Nov. 6: My picks for Film Festival include Curious Worlds, DreamKiller, and RightFooted.

On any given weekend, the same 12 studio films are playing in 80% of all theatres in every city in America.  Starring the same 36 actors and comedians interviewed at 10:30pm on every major network show.  It's group think for the masses.  That is why it stretches your mind when you carve out time to see some "indies"--movies too unique/controversial/artistic or sometimes subtitled to make it into general release.  YOU vote on the favorite documentary and narrative.  You make a huge difference in helping these small budget movies break out to earn nationwide distribution.

The 15th annual Kansas International Film Festival opens for one week only, this Fri, Nov. 6--with 80 independent films shown one time only!  Dozens of filmmakers and directors will be present for Q&A's.

KIFF president Brian Mossman and his screening board (the ones in blue shirts with bloodshot eyes!) have assembled a lineup this year with something for everyone: narratives, docs, shorts and animation.

The schedule, descriptions and all the trailers--all at kansasfilm.com.  Sort by your favorite genres.

Can't decide?  Just show up.  Ask a movie maven at the table to coach you. You will meet some great new friends over a snack in the KIFF Cafe.

My picks for the first night, Fri. Nov. 6: 
Curious Worlds/The Art & Imagination of David Beck at 5:40pm.    A weird obsessive artist.  Asked where he gets his ideas, he replies, "I have a book.  Ideas for Skinny Sculptors".

Watch the hilarious trailer for Curious Worlds here.

And then at 7:40pm, an Oscar nominee, "dream/killer", a true story about a young man in Columbia Mo convicted of murder --based on some witness's dream!  Spoiler alert--after 10 years, his Dad and lawyers got him out of prison.  The filmmakers will attend the screening.  This is the kind of excitement you witness at KIFF every fall.

 See the trailer for "dream/killer" here.

Yet another story featuring a resident from Columbia may be a huge hit Sat. night at 7:45pm: "RightFooted".  This unstoppable gal was born with no arms.  yet she flies a plane, pours milk on her cereal, dabs her mouth with a napkin--because she is "RightFooted".  AND a really happy person, a role model, and a wife.  So if you are sick of people who whine and complain, bring 'em to KIFF for an attitude adjustment.

Watch the trailer for "RightFooted" here.

KIFF happens at the new Glenwood Arts at Ranchmart, 95th & Mission.  The theatres and the film festival were forced to relocate from Metcalf South when Lane4 and greedy 1%er Stan Kroenke closed that venue last December--out of spite, to taunt the City of OP while begging for tax abatements, and build: NOTHING!  Maybe a filmmaker will make a doc about those greedsters some day.

The schedule, descriptions and all the trailers--are all at kansasfilm.com.  Sort by your favorite genres.

Can't decide?  Just show up.  Ask a movie mogul or maven at the table to coach you. You will meet some great new friends over a snack in the KIFF Cafe.

KIFF changed my life, maybe the same will happen to you.  This is where I became an activist, after seeing "Under Our Skin", the doc about Lyme Disease.  I started lobbying to support dozens of Kansas City victims of deer syphilus that the CDC and our two state governments refuse to diagnose or treat, whilst waiting for a new vaccine.

One year, I heard a Sex Offender Prison Choir.  From Leavenworth.  There's always a memorable moment at KIFF.  Come have yours.  Open your eyes--but please, turn off your cell phones.  See you Fri. Nov. 6 thru Thurs. the 12th--at the Glenwood Arts at Ranchmart.

Schedules and trailers, all the deets here!