May 14, 2016 at 8:22 pm (culture, education, entertainment, environment, ethics, exploring interconnectedness, issues, life, living, Uncategorized, Writing)
Tags: books, city, City By City, education, food, Gessen, Kansas City, KKFI, life, Missouri, music, radio, red lining, Squibb, Writing
Hola fellow web travelers. As a follow-up to my return to the online world I thought I’d connect with my prior post by filling in a gap in the City By City Dispatches from the American Metropolis edited by Keith Gessen and Stephen Squibb with a snapshot of Kansas City, Missouri–with a few side notes regarding some areas PR people like to associate it with, and some it would rather forget exist too close for their comfortably red-lined zones. Please don’t take this missive as a criticism of City By City. Editors have to work with the material they’re given and I am certainly enjoying its varied dispatches from Detroit, Washington D.C. (a brothel, how deliciously appropriate), and Chicago’s Hyde Park. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Gessen and Squibb either received no dispatches from Kansas City or if they did they couldn’t figure out what to make of them. The latter would be very understandable as Kansas City, Missouri has multiple personalities. Which one you encounter depends entirely on where you are–literally–physically.
If you were to stand on the corner of midtown Kansas City at 39th and Main Street, ground zero for KKFI, a community radio station like none other, your view of Kansas City changes drastically depending on which direction you take from there. Go south and west for money, some of it old and resting very comfortably. North offers old ethnic neighborhoods like Little Italy, and the City Market area working at staying alive north of the infamous Independence Avenue line (former hunting grounds for serial killers). Go east towards the Troost line you’ll find neighborhoods locked in life and death struggles with poverty and crime while contending with everything from a tragically failed public school district to abandoned vacant houses, gangs, and violent crime.
Heading west on 39th Street will take you to what remains of the city’s midtown bohemian neighborhoods. The ghost of the New York style D’Bronx pizzeria haunts the south corner of 39th and Bell while Prospero’s Books holds down the fort directly opposite it on the northern corner. Behind the 39th Street mainly food business line-up is a crowd of densely packed homes of all makes and ages. It’s a cool crazy quilt of unpredictability. Continue westward and you’ll cross State Line and then you’re in the KU Med area–which is on the Kansas side of the street, not in Missouri. Though you might never guess it. PR people like to make the most of what’s good around them.
If you travel south down Main and 39th to Westport Road you’ll wind up in the increasingly yuppified Westport area which currently caters to people who enjoy imbibing copious amounts of the legal drug known as alcohol in their free time. Long gone is the classy independent bookstore, the unique clothing stores, the movie theater and many other business venues unconnected to providing watering holes for the young and senseless. To be fair, the heroic Broadway Cafe remains steadfast on Broadway. As far as I currently know it is the ONLY independent coffeehouse to drive out the invasive species known as Starbucks. Yep, that’s right. Corporate Starbucks came, saw and invaded–and departed without conquering the superior java product. Also, the incredible Tivoli Cinemas remains–after relocating to Pennsylvania Ave. There’s also a newer food gig in the area–a new version of The Corner Restaurant complete with goat cheese, kale and alligator. No bagels and lox there–no way. The area has completely lost the feel of a friendly and engaging one-stop contained neighborhood but it is still alive, though steadily losing the remains of its inviting personality. I still mourn the closing of its independent music store, Streetside Records, which was once a great place to explore an incredibly wide range of music. It’s where I purchased Joan Osborne’s Relish after listening and discovering it offered far more than “If God Was One of Us.” Unless you’re into the drunk and disorderly scene evade the area on the weekends after dark when the partying begins in earnest as there are multiple hardcore drinking establishments all within a minute’s walk of each other from the corner of Pennsylvania and Westport Road. If you’re into drunk and disorderly then by all means go wallow whole hog all night long.
If you continue further south on Broadway you will enter the alternate universe of The Plaza where the fountains flow and so does the money dough. It’s not called the Country Club Plaza for nothing. Years and years ago this was an upscale middle class yet still affordable area with all kinds of interesting independent shops and food venues. These days it caters to those with two hundred dollars to spend on jeans without batting an eye. Dinner can easily cost a hundred dollars a person at some eateries. Most of the affordable housing in this area has vanished, but there’s plenty to be had for the urban condo set. The Plaza offers Thanksgiving lights, fountains, a very uninspiring insipid Art Fair–art which will not offend, raise issues or stretch anyone’s mind–but it’ll work well with your color scheme. So ironic considering the fact that just a few blocks away rests the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art–well, maybe not so ironic other things considered. If you desire more engaging on the fringe art then go north from 39th and Main to the Crossroads area around Broadway and 18th Streets. But visit it fast because the high and mighty are digging in big time with developments with hopes to connect the dots to the Power and Light District (Remind me: urban revitalization for who? Yuppies? Again?) and the real people character is vanishing fast. You’ll know the former Crossroads has been entirely vanquished when YJ’s Snack Bar closes and the jamming ends. Yep, that will signal the end of an era.
Okay,so venturing southwest from The Plaza and you’ll find impressive homes on lots large enough for five or six of the houses east of Troost Ave. None of them will have their garbage or household discards left sitting at curb for weeks and weeks and weeks as happens in the neighborhoods east of Troost where, if you’re not squeamish, you can have your pick of couches, mattresses, and entertainment centers. Even the huge lovely Loose Park is very well maintained. There’s cool green space galore with huge old trees, a pond, picnic areas and rose garden. I wonder if anyone east of Troost ever enters the rose garden contest held at Loose Park? I’ve never seen roses blooming in the parks east of Troost. Seeing a bench to sit on is a find. This is part of the character of extreme contrasts that Kansas City offers. This can easily be missed by staying on the highways when driving in from Independence, Missouri–a former Meth Lab Capital of the World–though who knows what’s really going on in that American drug swamp. If you drive into Kansas City from Independence on any residential street like 23rd or 31st instead of I70 you’ll get a close up view of the multiple urban landscapes of Kansas City from the bottom of the economic ladder to the top from east to west/southwest. You might even be impressed by the bus-stop at the corner of 31st and Troost–it does look like something from this decade, sort of.
Heading south from The Plaza, or from 31st and Troost, you’ll find the University of Missouri which years ago ran into very deep shit with its very diverse residential neighbors when it embarked on a buy and destroy mission to enable expansion of the parking garage ilk–among other things. The good neighbors fought back hard, going so far as to threaten UMKC’s chancellor’s residence with a bulldozer. No joke, these people were pissed off and rightly so in my opinion. Along Rockhill Road were blocks of lawn signs screaming “UMKC Kills Homes.” So much for the Ivory Tower’s idealism when it comes to money matters. This is another area in which the small independent local business flavor has all but disappeared. Perhaps they just don’t make people the same anymore? Just a question. Rockhill Road leads to Brookside and Waldo areas where the older tree-lined streets are narrow and generally quiet and the grocery store offers delights you won’t find in Wild Woody’s store east of Troost on 31 Street. Lamb chops and Green Tea ice cream anyone? Hmm?
Troost Avenue is only one block east of Rockhill Road. Once you get past being impressed by Rockhurst University’s presence on the east side of the street it’s clear straight off that the residences are not on par with those to the west of UMKC. Things are a tad rougher and tougher looking on the east side of Troost for the hard-working poor and their attendant gangs. Just a tad. I don’t think I’ve ever been in another city with such an obvious social economic division designated by a single street running north/south where you can actually stand on the street’s yellow dividing line and see two contrasting worlds just by looking in opposite directions: urban blight versus urban de-light.
I haven’t said anything about barbecue. Yeah, there’s plenty of it in all directions.
Nor have I mentioned the Historic Jazz District at 18th and Vine which is one street featuring the wonderful Gem Theater, the Blue Room and the American Jazz Museum, The Call newspaper–and historic painted storefronts.
Then there’s the Northeast area of Kansas City with its incredible influx of immigrants whose language needs the Kansas City Public library tries to address with ESL courses.
I haven’t mentioned the former mayor who refused to discuss the state of education even when it was front page news.
I haven’t mentioned the ex-school superintendent who insisted that 36 students in a classroom was a good thing.
Nor have I said anything about the decline of a newspaper that first impressed me with its coverage of a suspected serial killer hunting prostitutes and other vulnerable women on Independence Ave.
I’ve only hinted at the vibrant art scene that serves as a huge street party every first Friday.
There are thousands of homeless people in Kansas City.
There’s extreme wealth in Kansas City–and that’s not counting Johnson County which is in KANSAS not Missouri–and there’s extreme poverty with every economic class in between. I wonder if the people working at the Channel 4 news station ever drove down the street right behind their building and saw the houses with plastic sheeting for windows? Yes, there were people living in those places.
I could write a great deal more. I’m trying to stop while I’m ahead. I suspect I might already be behind the eight ball here.
Perhaps the very best thing about Kansas City is the community radio station which is still going strong after more than twenty years of Jazz, Blues, World, Folk, Classical, Latino, Reggae, and Rock music. If anything is truly alive and well in Kansas City, Missouri, it is KKFI–the beating heart of a diverse population which can’t be red lined. If you want a taste of Kansas City then tune in–they’re streaming online world-wide from the corner of 39th and Main 365 days and nights a year.
September 3, 2015 at 7:15 pm (culture, entertainment, history, music, random)
Tags: Bill Evans, guest dj, jazz, Jazz artists, Jazz Geek, Jazz Insider, Jazz lovers, jazz programs, Kansas City, KKFI, music, piano, radio
I swear this is not a bait and switch stunt. Jazz lovers can indeed grab some great Jazz every Monday through Friday from 1-3 pm streaming online via KKFI http://www.kkfi.org/ . Go ahead and surf the link to a great independent community radio station without any corporate suits and ties. Wherever you are in the world, if you can read this blog then you can catch two full hours of jazz programs hosted by working Jazz artists and lovers like Jeff Harshbarger, KC, the Jazz Geek, the Jazz Insider, and the Jazz Disciple. For direct specs on program guides –>> http://www.kkfi.org/program-categories/music/jazz/ . This is not your standard radio listening experience. The programs change daily. You might hear Jazz at other hours. There are no paid promotion spots. These programs are labors of love for Jazz in its many forms from the past to the present. KKFI’s Jazz programs offer interviews with current working Jazz artists, historical information, a gig calendar of who is playing where and when around the Kansas City area, and incredible music all for free. Though for a donation they’ll even let you be a “Guest DJ” ~ for more info –> http://www.kkfi.org/support/guest-dj/ .
You can even sign up for information about forthcoming live recording performances at The Blue Room at 18th and Vine.
Now, if you’re not in a surfing link frame of mind–here’s some piano beauty from Bill Evans.
Bill Evans Trio ~ Blue in Green —
Thanks to Burningable for this and other great music on YouTube.
Album: Portrait in Jazz (1959) Bill Evans: piano, Scott LaFaro: bass, Paul Motian: drums; Composition: Bill Evans
Recorded on December 28, 1959, NYC
There’s more of Bill Evans posted on the sidebar to the left.
Enjoy.
If your ears are privy to other online streaming radio programs featuring Jazz, please share a link via the comments.
Jazz goes everywhere around the world via KKFI.
August 20, 2013 at 5:38 pm (art, culture, entertainment, exploring interconnectedness, food, humor, life, music, play, politics, random, Uncategorized, Writing)
Tags: Bail Jumpers, Benefit, blues, chicken wings, community, contest, Democracy Now, entertainment, festival, folk, fun, Grinders, humor, indie, jazz, journalism, Junebug, KCMO, KKFI, L.A.Theatre Works, Latino, music, Native Spirit, news, online, radio, Rhonda LeValdo, Rhythm Kings, rock, Wild Women, Your Morning Buzz
O there ares soooo many public service announcements one can make! But seldom do they involve a whole lot of music and FUN! Now I’m no chicken eater ever, but if I was, then this little chicken wing eating contest with Blues on the side would definitely be on my tummy’s menu agenda. Oh yeah, KKFI is fundraising again with major Community Support–because, in case you don’t know already, that’s how KKFI has managed to stay alive on the sound waves for over twenty years–people put money in the radio jukebox cash jar of their own free will. There’s no corporate backers, no media sponsors, just the music makers and the music lovers. This is truly homegrown radio like you’ve never heard it before folks. It streams on the world-wide web 24/7 –> http://www.kkfi.org/ . It’s got volunteer DJs out the wazoo. It’s got a concrete 100,000 watts radius. It’s got indie and local music makers on air and on stage and on the money need feed bag all the time. We got our Blues, smokin’ hot Jazz, Retro, Latino, Rock, Morning Buzzes M-F, Native Spirit on Sunday afternoon at 5pm with Rhonda LeValdo, Reggae and we even got damn fine L.A. Theatre Works. There’s even Chamber Music and Dr. Mike’s Old Timey Medicine Show. I’ve not even hinted at the Democracy Now! news, eco programs, Tell Somebody, local showcase, Mr. Bill, and Labor coverage. Swing thru the link and check out The Program Schedule for what you may have a tough time finding anywhere else on one radio station but everywhere on KKFI 90.1 fm. Fuel for your hungry ears. Now who among you has ever before heard of a Fustercluck Blues Festival featuring Wild Women, Junebugs, Bail Jumpers and Rhythm Kings and a chicken wing eating contest with two categories? Hmm? Come on, share and share alike amigas and amigos.
August 9, 2013 at 10:38 pm (culture, entertainment, ethics, exploring interconnectedness, life, music, poetry, random, Uncategorized)
Tags: 2013, album, Boston, culture, entertainment, Give Up, Jared McNett, July, KKFI, life, LIVE, lyrics, McNett, Midland, music, poetry, random, review, songs, songwriting, The Postal Service, video, Writing
The Postal Service–take your choice album quality and/or live performance. It’s all about the lyrics.
*
The Postal Service located at http://postalservicemusic.net/
For Jared McNett’s review of The Postal Service Live at The Midland visit
http://www.kkfi.org/the-postal-service-live-at-the-midland/
Consonance anyone? Come on, I dare you all to chain link as many consonants as you care to clink together.
July 8, 2013 at 9:47 pm (art, culture, drama, education, entertainment, environment, ethics, exploring interconnectedness, history, humor, journalism, life, music, play, poetry, politics, random, religion, satire, Uncategorized)
Tags: 90.1 fm, All Souls Forum, Ark to Microchip, band, Beale Street Caravan, bioneers, Book, community, drama, Ella Baker, environment, Everything Possible This Way Out LGBT, Freedom for the Thought that We Hate, Incarceratation Nation, KCMO, KKFI, L.A.Theatre Works, Labor Forum, Law and Disorder, Lewis, Loveless Cafe, Madisen Ward, Mike Murphy, Morning Buzz, music, news, play, radio, Radioactive Magazine, religion, Sierra Club, Solitary Confinement, Sprouts, Tab Benoit, The Barn Players, The Lucky, The Real Thing, theatre, Tom Stoppard, Underground Railroad
The heat is upon us, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not cool. We’ve got some way-cool programs this week, including:
November 29, 2012 at 4:06 pm (culture, entertainment, humor, journalism, life, music, play, random, Uncategorized)
Tags: 90.1 fm, alternative music, alternative news, auction, bioneers, blues, chamber, community, Democracy Now, entertainment, folk, fundraiser, indie, jazz, Kansas City, KKFI, L.A.Theatre Works, live music, Missouri, music, Native American, Native Spirit, news, party, radio, rockabilly, streaming online, The John McKenna Band, Two Headed Cow
Hey, whose up for some Two Headed Cow? That’s music not milk, folks. FYI, KKFI streams online at www.kkfi.org so you can listen to everything from Democracy Now! to JAZZ while surfing the cyberspace seas. If you’re a fan of jazz, blues, indie, folk, Latino, chamber –as in chamber music not chamber-pot, yes, that’s right, KKFI plays chamber music–rockabilly, Native Spirit, alternative news, Sprouts, L.A. Theatre Works, Bioneers, and just about anything else that it’s possible to shake a musical — or grass-roots–stick at, then there’s plenty to discover at 90.1 FM KKFI Community Radio Like You’ve Never Heard It Before. Yes, I’m willing to bet that this radio is not the usual airwaves ear fare. There’s no corporate influence yanking KKFI’s 100,000 watts and online streaming. This is radio that people support with their pennies, dimes and dollars. It’s not a fluke. It’s 20 something years young and still growing. If you’re already wired for sound then what’s stopping you from engaging? But to get the Live Two Headed Cow and The John McKenna party gig I think you need to haul azz to Kansas City today. Enjoy.
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KKFI 90.1 FM Community Radio | 3901 Main St. | Suite 203 | Kansas City | MO | 64111
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February 24, 2011 at 12:56 am (art, buddhism, culture, drama, education, exploring interconnectedness, journalism, life, politics, random, Uncategorized)
Tags: america, children, community radio, Economy, ethics, family, Homelessness, Issues, journalism, Kansas City, KKFI, Marathon, media, men, money, news, outreach, people, politics, radio, random, religion, social justice, talk radio, women
Click the banner to connect with KKFI streaming online.
Live from Kansas City, Missouri –tune in and catch the people on the streets speaking for themselves.
February 14, 2011 at 1:19 am (culture, education, entertainment, history, Indigenous People, life, music, Native Americans, random)
Tags: A Gathering of Nations, A Spirit's Dance, Awards, Bear Creek, Canyon Records, culture, dance, Dancing into Silence, entertainment, Grammy, history, KKFI, life, media, music, Native Americans, Native Spirit Radio, New Age, news, Northern Cree, people, Pow Wow, random, Rhonda LeValdo, Temptations, XI
Here are some of the Native American musical nominees for the Grammy Award for Native American Music–and New Age ~Dancing Into Silence. A Spirit’s Dance won in the Native American Album category. Clicking on the cover art will take you to clips of the music on each album. Canyon Records also has a very interesting audio clip regarding their own history of recording Native American music at
http://store.canyonrecords.com/index.php?app=cms&ns=display&ref=Grammy_Awards_2011
There is a wide variety of wonderful music clips on the Canyon Records site which makes it enjoyable to explore extensively.
KKFI’s Native Spirit Radio’s host Rhonda LeValdo commented today that she didn’t understand why there was still only one category for Native American music in which pow wow competes against traditional music and other various Native American genres. Yes, every style of Native American music is apparently lumped into one category.
Enjoy whatever you discover.
Click Cover Art to hear music clips.
Click Cover Art to hear music clips.
Click Cover Art to Listen to Music.
February 6, 2011 at 10:58 pm (culture, education, entertainment, environment, ethics, exploring interconnectedness, fiction, history, humor, Independent film, Indigenous People, journalism, Lakota, life, movies, music, Native Americans, Pine Ridge Indian reservation, play, politics, random, religion, satire, Uncategorized)
Tags: books, culture, Depp, education, entertainment, ethics, family, Harlan McKosato, history, humor, Indigenous, Issues, journalism, KKFI, life, media, movies, NAC, Native America Calling, Native Americans, Native Spirit Radio, news, opinion, people, politics, radio, Rhonda LeValdo, satire, talk radio, thoughts, Tonto
<<Click the banner above to visit Native America Calling.>>
Wondering what Native Americans think of Johnny Depp playing Tonto in a new film? Well, surf to Native America Calling’s online former broadcasts and find out. Heads up, make sure you’re wearing your satire hat for the “win Depp” show. There’s an online archive list and summary of several years of broadcasts covering everything from healthcare to water rights to “matchmaking.” Oh yes, there is more talk radio in America than the usual media attention beasts bellowing on the sound waves. The discussions on Native America Calling are lively, smart, informative and enjoyable. Harlan McKosato is the show’s host and producer. Listeners are invited to call in and participate in the conversations.
Native America Calling broadcasts live Monday through Friday, 1-2pm Eastern time. 10 am PST. You can listen online too.
On Monday, February 7, 2011 the topic will be the “State of Indian Education.” Having blogged my thoughts about the general state of education in America, I’m very interested in hearing this particular broadcast.
You can view the subjects of this upcoming week’s shows here– http://www.nativeamericacalling.com/
They’re serving everything from Casino Jack to Adapting to Climate Change. And it all gets archived for listening at later dates.
In the Kansas City Metro area there’s only ONE hour a week of radio programming featuring Native American music, news, issues, and people. Native Spirit Radio airs on www.kkfi.org hosted by Rhonda LeValdo (Acoma Pueblo), on Sundays, 5-6pm CST. NSR streams online.
Escape the radio boxes by expanding your listening horizons to Native America Calling. Sharing your discoveries here is very welcome.
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