Recent piece in the local rag written by a sportswriter who is leaving our fair city for the more temperate climes of Charlotte got me to thinking…what makes a home?
Not a home like a house. Or an apartment. Hell everyone has to have one or the other. Unless you’re a tent dweller, in which case, good luck to you. Really. Good luck.
But what makes a home as in a city?
Is it the people? Perhaps. While Kansas City has decent, nice people, I wonder if the people here are any nicer than in any other mid sized city. Are they more helpful? More apt to go out of their way to assist you in finding something or getting somewhere? Perhaps. I’d assume that the people in Kansas City are at least as nice as those in any other city, will help you find your lost puppy or your lost way or whatever it is that you need to find or get to.
Is it a willingness to help those less fortunate? Once again, I guess that Kansas City is equally as willing to help as any other town.
But does this make it home? Does it make it A home?
Yes it makes it A home. It happens to be where I live. Where my kids have grown up. So in that sense, it’s home. Whenever we travel and people ask where home is, it’s easy to say Kansas City. ”Oh” they inevitably reply, “Kansas is so..um..nice.” I no longer fight to say I live in Missouri because really, what’s the point? There isn’t one so I just nod my head. ”Yes. It’s quite lovely.”
People ask where I’m from and I still say Houston though honestly I’ve lived in Kansas City longer than I ever lived in Houston. When I go back to Houston it’s different. It’s foreign to me. Not really in a bad way, but in the way that any new city is foreign to a traveler. Because really, I don’t go home. I’m travelling.
It’s been said that home is where the heart is. In that case, I guess Blue Springs, Missouri is my home. Not a willing home, but a home nonetheless. My heart is here. My kids, my wife. All here.
Report of Kansas City being #9 on the list of cities with the most/least attractive people. #9 you say? Well, that’s not too bad. Right. I mean…hey it could be a lot worse.
It is worse.
We’re number 9 on the cities with the least attractive people.
Oh sure I get it. Honolulu is right up there, San Juan is right there. But seriously, fucking Salt Lake City?! You mean to tell me that a bunch of pasty faced mormons are more attactive than we are?
I beg to differ.
Just what are the qualifications to be a least/most attractive city? How in the hell does one determine the overall attractiveness of a given people of a city?
Look, I get it that some of us aren’t the most attractive people in the world. We do have our share of fat ass Wal-Mart rejects, but seriously, declare an entire city unattractive because of a few less than stellar representatives driving around in their pickups? Really?
While I think that maybe we’ re not amongst the most attractive because we don’t have a beach, and no you can’t count the beach at the little lake as a real beach, I still wouldn’t think we’re that damn ugly. Right?
Thank god Kansas City has something else besides some stupid, damn blues Division
Driving back from Themiddleofnowhere, Kansas today, I had the ipod on shuffle and was enjoying some loverly tunes. My goodness thought I (in an uncharacteristically chaste exclamation) perhaps I should share these songs with my adoring fan. So, yes by gawd I will. In the inaugural post of the F@#king Great Songs Of The Day, we might as well start out in Kansas City.
(as a side note, sure there are lots more bands in Kansas City but I don’t happen to own any of their music so, you’re welcome to send it to me.)
Blue Skies – Blackpool Lights
So there we were at a concert in a parking lot in the bar district. Generally not my first choice of venues, because really…a parking lot? Emo was the word of the day. I was thinking about slashing my wrists and lamenting my fate because, really, people just don’t understand me. You know what I’m talking about? No, you CAN’T know, because you’re not me man. You’re just not me. While we were standing around frowning and you know, lamenting, a voice rang from the sky. It wasn’t jesus or anything, it was Blackpool Lights. It was a like someone poured a 55 gallon drum of wake up on the crowd. Great, popish kind of tunes that make you smile and realize that you don’t have to cut yourself to find happiness and that the black clothing all the time gets a little old.
Recommended Volume: 8ish. Maybe 9 if you really need a pick me up. Recommened Drink: Something sunny like maybe a screwdriver or a Bartles and Jaymes (do they still make that?..whatev..you get my drift)
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Buildings and Moutains – Republic Tigers
Light, ethereal and accessible. No, I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about Republic Tigers. Christ, it’s not always about me. Okay? Listening to the Republic Tigers reminds one that all doesn’t have to be heavy and while it may be serious, just chill. Because really, you’re gonna have a heart attack or something.
Recommended Volume: 7. You don’t want to trash the speakers again. Right? Recommended Drink: Something sophisticated and light. Something you won’t puke up later.
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Freedom In The Underworld – The Belated
Remember that skit on Saturday Night Live when the guy would yell “drama!”? This is the band for that guy. Big sweeping curves, powerful …kind of like that girl that you sat behind in Statistics. You couldn’t have her and you both knew it. But you enjoyed her entrances and her mere presence because you knew that you were near something kind of awesome.
Recommended Volume: 9ish. You need it loud to feel the power and drama. Recommended Drink: Red Wine, Absinthe
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MK12 is a Kansas City based design shop. I am a Kansas City based fan. I love these guys. I wish I could be as good as they are. Dig this crazy new film from them. There’s a font you can download, if you’re into that kind of thing. MK12 here.
A few years ago I got a great disc from a program director at a radio station said disc was This Towns Disaster by Blackpool Lights. Saw them not too long after that when they opened for She Loves Revenge and Placebo (I think that was the show, I could be wrong. I was wrong once before in 1983 but let’s not talk too much about that mmmkay?). Great poppy kind of sound. Fun music to listen to. I’m sure they would take offense to the “poppy” tag but then again maybe I don’t have a clue about what I’m talking about. And maybe the guys in Blackpool Lights wouldn’t mind that.
Anyway, I’m wearing the mp3 files of the disc out. I’m going to have to rerecord the disc or something. (yes I’m kidding. It’s a joke. Get it? Ha. That’s funny.)
So…whatever happened to them? I’ve included a swell video from them that you’ll be sure to enjoy.
Saw an article recently on 10 ways blues bands can “keep it real”. Fuck you blues band guy.
Kansas City seems to think that because of a reputation gained in the early 1900′s for being a swingin’ blues town, that somehow it still is. You can’t swing a semi lucid cat around on the end of a jump rope anymore without smacking some middle aged, white, suburban goof in the head and hearing him explain how much he loves the blues.
Every week in the summer our wee burg has a concert in the park. It’s kind of fun to go out, enjoy the sunshine, a beverage and a band. That being said, nearly every week it’s some lame ass “blues” band.
Kansas City is no longer any kind of blues music nirvana. Every medium sized burg in the world seems to have a bunch of white guys who think that they’re the next Stevie Ray or whomever you’d like to plug in there. 99.93% of the time they’re no closer to being Stevie Ray than I am to being a 30 year old swingin housewife from Akron.
I know I’m bloviating and that the blues lovers are no different from the country lovers or the people who think that rock and roll died in 1977 and that there hasn’t been any good music since Clapton quit Cream.
I still think Blind Willie Melonhead Discophalis was an asshole.
I’ve decided that the redo of Kaufmann stadium is asstastic. It sucks. It’s become baseball for the ADD crowd.
Every break in the action during the game was filled with some stupid video of some stupid, inane thing meant to entertain. Entertain a nine year old kid who eats a pound of raw sugar a day apparently. Or maybe entertain a crack addict. Not sure.
The “Kiss Cam”, some idiot “interviewing” people between innings, another idiot once again roaming the stands enticing people to play some stupid game or another like a Price Is Right kind of mountain climber guess the price game. A Slugger this, a slugger that…
There was, unbenownst to us, a t-shirt giveaway last night. High quality tee’s featuring the hotdog race. People were very, very anxious to get these shirts. Really people? Really? Scrambling to get a t-shirt of the hot dog race video? What, is everyone suddenly mustard dog fans to the point of fighting over a stupid 97 cent shirt of the goddamned thing? Really?
Fireworks for when a player farts, signs advertising on every spare inch of space in the stadium. Everywhere signs. Everything from Big Daddy Weiners, to Stop ‘Em Up Tampons to Ol’ Rotgut Irish Whiskey.
It’s kind of like those flashing light displays that epileptics aren’t supposed to watch. I was afraid I was going to have a seizure at any moment. I didn’t but I did get kind of slobbery.
It’s “what the hell am I doing up” thirty o’clock in the morning. Up basically all night. Again. It’s okay, I’m sure I’ll survive these periodic bouts of sleeplessness(word?). Sometimes in the middle of the night whilst surfing sites, it’s possible for one to come across something new and interesting. Surfing the internet these days is like an easter egg hunt for adults, or those who profess to same. Might find something, somewhere the that primes the imagination or captures ones attention. Today/last night was and is one of those times.
I’m a big fan of design. Clothes, shoes, cars, household items various and sundry. Anything that is classic or well done I can appreciate. If I had the money, I’m quite sure that I’d appreciate these types of things in a more real way, but for now I can gaze and wish and admire.
To that end:
A Continuous Lean – I’ve grown quite fond of this site overnight. Nice articles on vintage, or not so vintage clothes, some interesting vintage photographs and the writing is pretty decent, so there’s that.
10 Engines – A Continuous Lean for the proletariat. Or at least that’s what I’ve gathered. May be totally wrong but I’m allowed as it’s my blog.
A Conversation On Cool – What is cool? This is chock full of examples of cool. Briget Bardot in the 60′s. Sophia Loren & Marcello Mastroianni. You know…cool…
There are more. Many more. Each of these sites is chock full of links to other sites of the same vein.
I’ve always thought that it would be great if I lived on the east coast or in the big city. Pretty much any big city. Kansas City sadly is not a big city. Kansas City is Akron, Ohio with a football team; albeit a losing football team but a football team none the less. In Kansas City, cool generally means a Chiefs hat, with huge ugly ass Chiefs jacket and a pair of tennis shoes freshly purchased from Wal-Mart. I think I’ve decided to fight this. Not sure what that means yet but as soon as I figure it out I’ll let all seven of you know.
I ‘m not a huge fan of Kansas City’s own Boulevard Beer. Seems that everywhere you go the only Boulevard option is the wheat beer and there’s not a wheat beer made that I think is worth drinking. I wouldn’t go across the street to drink one if they were being given away. So last night when we were shopping about at Costco, we noticed that they had a case on sale for..um…whatever it was. I forget. Point is that we bought it thinking that it couldn’t be that bad. Or so we hoped.
I tested the Boulevard Pilsner waters today with first a wee toe dip of a sip of my the beer my wife was enjoying and then jumped into the deep end and had an entire glass of beer for my own.
It wasn’t bad.
Color me suprised but it was actually drinkable. I’ve had a few other Boulevards that I was able to choke down. In fact back in 1998 they had a Cream Stout that absolutly rocked but apparently me and only one other guy thought so. It seems to have disappeared.
So my beer review of the day is four bottle caps for Boulevard Pilsner.
Have one for yourself and tell ‘em KJ sent you. They’ll probably give you money or free beer. Probably.
Recent piece in the local rag written by a sportswriter who is leaving our fair city for the more temperate climes of Charlotte got me to thinking…what makes a home?
