Book recommendation: "Blue Monday"

I stumbled upon a little gem in the Half Price Books clearance section recently, a novel called "Blue Monday" by a Missouri author named Harper Barnes. Although Barnes is from St. Louis, "Blue Monday" is all about Kansas City, baby, when Kansas City was the place to be - the mid-1930s.

The novel gives a fictionalized account of a real historical event, the suspicious death of band leader Bennie Moten, who died on an operating table in KC during a simple tonsillectomy. The main character is a white reporter at a third-rate Kansas City newspaper who frequents in the African-American wonderland that was 18th and Vine, where Moten and other jazz legends, including Charlie Parker, Big Joe Turner, Count Basie and dozens more, cut their teeth. The book also takes place during the time of gangster Johnny Lazia, developer J.C. Nichols and Senator Harry Truman, who all contribute to the back story, and hanging above it all is the ever-looming presence of Tom Pendergast, who pulls the strings from City Hall to Ward Parkway to 18th and Vine and all points in between.

I've tried to read the Pendergast biography "Tom's Town," but I couldn't slog through it. (I bought it for nearly forty dollars to try to impress a girl. I guess it worked. We've been married almost nine years. That's a story for another time.) Maybe I'll pick up "Tom's Town" again down the road. But for now, "Blue Monday" is giving me a realistic and vivid insight into Kansas City history.

If you can find a copy of the short-print novel, published in 1991 by a local press, buy it. The link above is to the Amazon page for the book. Here's a good start to a soundtrack for your reading experience.

Another opinion on the "Awards Culture" at newspapers; plus, a Thelma Lou encounter

John has written two terrific posts (here and here) that referenced an "Awards Culture" at the Kansas City Star. As a former newspaper journalist myself, I have a few thoughts on the issue.

And a whole heap of mixed feelings.

There's no doubt that an Awards Culture exists at the Star and elsewhere. You can always tell when the Star is trying to win an award, and I'm positive the editors and reporters have conscious discussions about that very subject. The stories are always featured prominently, usually over several parts, and they may even include some sort of special logo to accompany each piece. These days the content continues online as well.

Here's my confession: I've done the same thing.

I wrote and assigned stories with the intention of using them to win journalism awards.

Here's the kicker, though, in my experience: writing to win awards can often produce high-quality, thoughtful journalism, but ironically, it rarely translates into actual awards.

I won several journalism awards over the course of my career, and not one of them was given to a story I wrote with the intention of winning an award.

There are a couple borderline cases, though. The most recent is a story I wrote in 2004 for the Wynne (Ark.) Progress. I was editor of that publication for about four months. During that time I met a woman named Leigh Smiley. Her son, Jeremiah, is autistic. Leigh and her husband Shannon were trying to raise $10,000 to buy a very special guide dog for Jeremiah.

After I interviewed the family, a very surreal feeling overcame me, the thought that if I wrote a good story, I was going to help this boy get his dog. But also, I thought I might win an award.

Both things happened. Jeremiah got his dog, and I won an award, honorable mention for feature writing from the Arkansas Press Association. To this day I consider the 1,300-word story the best thing I've ever written.

Another time at another newspaper, the Platte County (Mo.) Citizen, I met a historian who was chronicling the Interurban Railroad, which ran through the Kansas City area in the 1910s through the 1930s. I wrote a story about the railroad, and the historian's quest to save a historic interurban bridge. I researched the story for two months before I wrote a single word. During that process I got the feeling that I might win an award. We published the story over two parts, and afterwards we printed it up in a little booklet.

Again, I won an honorable mention for feature writing, this time from the Missouri Press Association.

That same year, something strange happened. The MPA gave out two honorable mentions in the feature writing category that year, both of them to me. The other award was for a story I wrote about a lady who built dollhouses. To me, the story was unremarkable, and certainly not written with any award intentions. I don't even remember submitting it for consideration.

And that's usually how it works. The awards are given to stories that exist organically, and not the ones created artificially just to win awards.

Every other award I've won in the business in three different states was for an "organic," not "artificial," story.

Still, though, I think there's a case to be made for writing to win awards. Let's take the Star's current feature about the Kansas City Mo. School District. Would that story have been written if the author and editors didn't hope to bag a trophy? Probably not.

If journalists are cranking out high-quality stories that engage readers and get people talking, does it really matter what their intentions are?

I don't know the answer. But the Star feature reminds me of one last incident to share.

I was once the editor of the Wednesday Magazine in south Kansas City. That job didn't last long either; I was fired for writing a column that angered an advertiser. But before that, I hatched a plan to write a year-long feature story about Southwest High School, which at the time had been converted into a charter school. I was going to chronicle the first-ever graduating class of Southwest by focusing on five extraordinary students. The five-part series would run at the beginning of each quarter and at the end of the school year. I also wanted to dive into the history of Southwest, which had produced some amazing graduates: director Robert Altman, actor Chris Cooper, authors Calvin Trillin and Evan S. Connell ("Mrs. Bridge"), and others.

The series allowed me to conduct my favorite interview of all time, a phone interview with a woman named Betty Lynn. That name probably doesn't mean anything to you. But Betty Lynn, a Southwest grad, played Thelma Lou on "The Andy Griffith Show."

That's right. I got to interview Thelma Lou.

I was canned after the second part of the series was published, and my successor didn't finish what I started.

As I stated before, I have mixed feelings about the "Award Culture." I think it can produce good quality journalism that wouldn't be done otherwise. But it's also a slippery slope, and can lead to situations like the Jason Whitlock ordeal at the Star.

This is just one man's opinion.

--Matt Kelsey

All Star Game, baby!

This comes as no real surprise, but Kauffman Stadium will be hosting the 2012 MLB All-Star Game.

I'm going to do my darnedest to get tickets, at least to the Home Run Derby, but I'm not going to hold my breath. However, this is pretty exciting for Kansas City, and great for the Royals - and hopefully by 2012 we'll have a team worthy of All-Star designation.

Of course, this won't be Kansas City's first All-Star game. We hosted in 1973, and if you've followed this All-Star story at all, you know that 17 - seventeen - players from that 1973 game are now in the Hall of Fame, including...

Hank Aaron

Tom Seaver

Johnny Bench

Nolan Ryan

Carl Yastrzemski

Catfish Hunter

Carlton Fisk

Brooks Robinson

...just to name a few. Pete Rose was also there. And another ballplayer you may have heard of: Willie Mays, in his final All-Star appearance.

Who will be the Hall of Famers from the 2012 game? I'm guessing the number will probably be less than 17.

Derek Jeter will probably be there. He's a lock for the Hall. Mariano Rivera, if he's still playing. Alex Rodriguez, if the steroid stigma will allow him entry into the Hall. And that's just from the Yankees.

But after that, the Hall of Fame prospects get a little thinner. JAlbert Pujols? Yeah, probably, if he can avoid the steroid speculation. Joe Mauer? Yeah, if he keeps hitting the way he's hitting. Ichiro? Maybe, but he might not have the career numbers to do it (although he already has over 2,000 hits in nine-plus years). Roy Halladay? Tim Lincecum? Zack Greinke? Any number of pitchers in the game today could string together five or six strong seasons and be considered for Cooperstown.

Then there are a lot of borderline position players who may or may not be Hall of Fame worthy. David Wright, Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia, Miguel Cabrera, guys like that.

Who knows? But it'll be a lot of fun to watch. Can't wait until 2012.

--Matt Kelsey

Trying to stay positive for the Chiefs, Royals

Rough night (what's new?) Saturday for Kansas City sports fans. The Chiefs and Royals both lost to teams from Seattle.

But even through what's become a sad, sad trend in Kansas City, I'm trying to stay positive.

First, the Chiefs. The bad news is they're terrible again. The worse news is Matt Cassel got hurt in Saturday's game and his return is questionable.

And there ain't much good news. But for me, personally, a ray of hope. Circumstances prohibited me from seeing the Chiefs' first two preseason games this year. Tonight, I was able to watch. And even though I said some nasty things about the Chiefs a couple weeks ago on this blog, I'll say this now: seeing the guys out there in those bright red uniforms on a beautiful Arrowhead night made me feel better. It's football season. So I'm going to embrace it. I'm going to cheer for my Chiefs.

Now, the Royals. Gil Meche got rocked tonight. And the Royals are just as bad as the Chiefs (although they'll probably have a significantly higher winning percentage this year). Normally I don't root for teams to lose. In the words of Herm Edwards, "You play to win the game!" But sorry Herm, I'm hoping the Royals only win every five games - when Zack Greinke is on the mound - and lose everything else. I hope they finish with the worst record in baseball this season.

Because if they do, in next year's draft we'll be able to get this guy. And then we got ourselves a ballgame.

-- Matt Kelsey

The taste of summer

You know summer is here when you can buy a decent watermelon.

My definition of a decent watermelon may be different from yours. To me, a good watermelon is a Black Diamond, and the really good ones aren't available until late July or early August.

Photo courtesy www.bbbseed.com

Black Diamonds have a dark green rind with no stripes, and the melon itself is a lighter pink color than most striped watermelons. But the taste is oh-so sweet.

In my childhood, my family would make frequent summer trips to the City Market to buy a watermelon. My mom and dad would pile my brother and I into Dad's 1980 Chevy truck (3-speed manual, no power steering, no power anything) on a Saturday morning and head south across the river to the Market. We'd fight the crowds and find a parking space, then venture in, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells the Market has to offer.

We would walk up and down every row, looking for the perfect watermelon, until my dad found just the right one. Then he'd toss it up on his shoulder like a sack of flour and carry it back to the truck. When my brother got a little older, it was his job to carry the melon, and then, eventually, my job. (That's also how the old red truck was handed down: first to my brother, then to me.)

When we got home, my dad would pull out a cutting board and a butcher knife. You knew it was a good melon when Dad would sink the knife into the skin and it would make that wonderful c-c-c-c-crack! sound.

The Kelseys didn't cut our watermelon into slices with the rind still attached; Dad would cut the melon away from the rind and throw square chunks into a big bowl (sampling along the way, and giving us kids a taste right from the middle). The melon bowl would go right into the fridge to make it nice and cold.

A good melon was always cause for celebration. Usually our old family friend Ralph Lynch would come over. He'd bring the corn on the cob, or the tomatoes, or the string beans, whatever veggies he found being sold on the side of the road. Dad would grill pork chops with a honey-mustard barbecue sauce; Mom would make fried potatoes.

After dinner, mom served us heaping bowls of cold, fresh, black diamond watermelon. We'd sit outside on the porch until after dark, Marty and I playing catch or catching fireflies, Mom laughing and watching us, Dad and Ralph drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon.

I can still taste that watermelon. And I'll never forget those summer nights when everything was perfect.

--Matt Kelsey

How well do you know your city?

A good friend of mine who lives in Chicago is visiting me and my wife this weekend. It’s his first trip to Kansas City, and I’ve promised to show him what this city has to offer.

And I’ve been thinking a lot about that over the last several days. I have an image in my head and in my heart of what Kansas City is to me. But do I really KNOW Kansas City?

When I visit my friend in Chicago, what I remember most is the great variety of truly fantastic deep-dish pizza he manages to put in front of me. And I’ve shamelessly touted this city’s great barbecue, so of course trips to Gates, Arthur Bryant’s and maybe a few other local barbecue joints will be on the list. My friend is only going to be here for four days (Saturday-Tuesday), and I figure one barbecue meal per day is a good ratio. So we have to find a few other places, unique to KC, to feed him.

(That part should be easy. There’s a load of great Italian and Mexican places in KC, not to mention a gaggle of top-notch steakhouses - most of which are out of my price range - and a billion burger houses.)

What I’m struggling with is, what else are we gonna do besides eat? We’ll probably drop by the World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial. And, of course, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is a can’t-miss. I’ll probably also take him on a driving tour of the Country Club Plaza and a few other unique KC places.

So that’s Saturday. What do we do Sunday, Monday and Tuesday?

We could take him to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which is one of my personal favorites, but does the Nelson REALLY reflect Kansas City? Maybe it does. Maybe not.

We could enjoy a night out at the Power and Light District. But do those generic bars and restaurants and the frat-boy crowd tell Kansas City’s story?

We could go to Crown Center. But again, we have the problem of generic stores in a mall venue.

So instead of the Nelson, we could take him to the Thomas Hart Benton Home, one of Kansas City’s best-kept secrets, where you can get a personal look at one of America’s great artists who called Kansas City home.

Instead of the P&L District, we could spend an evening at the Westport Flea Market and some of the other bars in Westport.

Instead of Crown center, we could go to Parkville or Weston or Lexington for the afternoon, to show him idyllic small-town living, KC-style.

Kansas City is no Chicago. But I’m pretty sure I can show my friend a great time right here in the city we call home.

--Matt Kelsey