i'm still not sure what's the matter with kansas city

january 30, 2005 @ 22:36

Last week I spent a few days in Kansas City on business and tonight while I was cleaning out my pants pockets for the laundry I found some notes I had taken. Better late than later.

  • I stayed in this part of town called 'The Country Club Plaza', which the locals proudly refer to as "the perennial end-all, be-all of the Kansas City shopping scene" and that I like to refer to as "what would happen if the Mall of America puked on a bunch of faux warehouse looking brick buildings". Gross. As a bonus, there was a huge Wal-Mart manager meeting at the convention center so the whole area was crawling with dorks. At least I was able to find [what appears to be] a small, independent coffee shop to recharge in.

  • There's a debate raging in Missouri about a proposal to levy a heavy handed sin tax on businesses that cater to the adult industry. The proposal would mandate a $5 entrance fee for every person entering a store/club/etc, and a 20% tax on all revenue generated by the business. Suddenly Minnesota's smoking ban doesn't feel as capricious as I thought it was.

  • PBS in Kansas City is brutal. I was working late in my hotel room one night and I thought I'd take a break and catch a Nova or something. Guess again. It's like frickin' CSPAN only instead of some wacko US senator yelling at Condi Rice it's the Missouri legislature standing around talking politely about how they all thought Kansas City was in Kansas. Who watches that stuff? Hint: not me.

  • A bunch of us went to "the bad part of town" in pursuit of the end-all, be-all of the Kansas City BBQ scene, a place called LC's. It was ridiculously good. Good as in I ate so much I broke out into a bad case of the meat sweats and I had to sit very still for a while. Sliced pork, sliced beef, and some of the best fries I've ever had. I am *so* going back to that place.

  • In the battle of uberfancy hotel beds, I've concluded that the Westin's 'heavenly bed' kicks all over the Sheraton's 'sweet sleeper bed'.

I also saw a car fire, which I thought was kinda neat.

That's it for that then.