Plaza Lighting Ceremony 2011 Kansas City

Whether you're ready for the holidays or not, they are upon us. Kansas City will be kicking off the festivities with the Plaza Lighting Ceremony 2011 on Thursday, November 24th at the Country Club Plaza.

Plaza Lighting 2015 Ceremony Info

The fun kicks off at 5:15pm with some pre-show entertainment from the same group of kids who performed last year. The lackluster "american idol / glee" style of performance was pretty lame and the only bright spot in the line up was the Dave Stephens Swing Orchestra who will unfortunately not be performing this year. The plaza lighting ceremony 2011 will be hosted by KSHB Chief Meteorologist Gary Lezak and his faithful dog Stormy. The actual switch to turn on the plaza lights will be thrown by Eric Stonestreet from the TV show "Modern Family" who is a Kansas City native who struck out to find fame in show business.

2011 marks the 82nd annual plaza lighting ceremony and the weather is supposed to cooperate, looking at a mild 45 degrees or so and dry. There will be over 300,000 people in attendance to watch the plaza lighting ceremony 2011 so you should try to get down to the plaza early enough to find a good place to park. We have provided a plaza lighting ceremony parking map below for your convenience:
There will be two fireworks displays this year. As usual, there will be a fireworks display on top of the Intercontinental Hotel and another fireworks display from behind the main stage in front of Halls. Have a good time welcoming in the holiday season at this year's plaza lighting ceremony 2011 and be safe driving!

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Tyler Palko to Start for Injured Matt Cassel

It was officially announced today that Tyler Palko will be the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs following last week's injury to starting quarterback Matt Cassel. Matt Cassel was tackled after a pass attempt and landed awkwardly on his right (throwing) hand, causing an injury which is possibly season ending.

In his career with the Kansas City Chiefs, Tyler Palko has played in 4 games and thrown for 82 yards on 13 attempts with 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Tyler Palko was drafted as an undrafted free agent in 2007 by the New Orleans Saints. Palko then signed with the Arizona Cardinals, and then the Pittsburgh Steelers before landing in Kansas City in 2010. Tyler Palko earned the position of 2nd string quarterback over rookie Ricky Stanzi during the 2011 preseason during which Palko proved to be the better man for the job. Palko was allowed to play the entire second half in the last game of the Chiefs preseason vs the Green Bay Packers. It is thought by many Chiefs fans that Palko earned the job of 2nd string quarterback through his knowledge of the playbook, as Ricky Stanzi is a rookie and has not mastered the system yet.

Palko will get his first NFL start on Monday Night Football vs the New England Patriots on November 21st, 2011. Although he is left handed, and thus more creative, he has yet to show this on the field. Many Chiefs fans agree that the change at quarterback from Matt Cassel to Tyler Palko is not going to impact the Chiefs performance as Cassel has been unsuccessful at leading the team thus far.

Community Gardens in Kansas City Prairie Village

Here's a refreshing new idea that a few people in the Kansas City area have come up with, Community Gardens. It reminds us older folks of the old Victory Gardens that Americans cultivated during World War I and again during World War II (I guess they skipped Korea and Vietnam for some reason). The new community gardens in Kansas City, Prairie Village, Overland Park, Leawood and other kc neighborhoods will inspire people who live in the same neighborhoods to meet and work together on a project that will serve the community as a whole. People from their own neighborhoods can get together and plant vegetables, fruits and even flowers if they like in an effort to bring a sense of togetherness and productivity to the neighborhood.

Community garden benefits are great indeed as they give neighborhood dwellers a sense of accomplishment, charity and good old fashioned hard work. The gardens will inspire those with sedentary lives to get out of the house and out from in front of the TV to go out and participate in something that will provide healthy produce, and develop good relationships with their neighbors. Community gardens have also proven to reduce the waste of fossil fuels in communities since it cuts down slightly on having to drive to the store. Several community gardens are erupting in the Kansas City area, Prairie Village, Leawood, Overland Park and other Kansas City neighborhoods. To find out where the nearest community garden is to you, contact your homes association president, or you can visit the Kansas City community garden Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kansas-City-Community-Gardens/104884273684

The fact that Kansas City and surrounding neighborhoods are beginning to embark on raising
community gardens is a wonderful sign that Kansas City is starting to come together as a
community and provide food for ourselves instead of relying on trucks and big corporations
to spoon feed us our food. These community gardens should get more people together as
friends and neighbors while providing a worthy cause to their immediate sectors. Food
grown in the gardens can be consumed by the community or they can be donated to charity
organizations like Harvesters, etc.

Community gardens are one of the best ideas that we here at Kansas City News have heard
of in a long time. Good on ya!

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Legends Shopping Center Defaults on Loan

The shopping center in "the hood" located in the heart of the ghetto neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas is having trouble keeping it's doors open. There wasn't much surprise that the Legends Shopping Center was having a hard time keeping up with other shopping centers located in more wealthy neighborhoods like Zona Rosa in the wealthy little nook of Briarcliff, Kansas City where they have tried very hard to recreate the lavish Leawood, Kansas and the Town Center Plaza Shopping Center located in Leawood. Although the Legends should get some help from the nearby Hollywood Casino that will be opening in February, it will still consist mostly of white trash people coming in from Cabella's (the store where they sell things to kill animals with), and of course the white trash mecca of the universe, Nebraska Furniture Mart. The Hollywood Casino will bring in a whole new group of rural country folk and the typical NASCAR fan, hillbilly types. In light of this, the chubby female staff at the Legends Shopping Center should consider catering towards the country folk, maybe a western wear store, a honky tonk bar with a mechanical bull, etc. Good stuff.

The company that holds the loan for The Legends shopping center said that they were going to "draw up a new loan plan for The Legends" in light of their recent loan default. Surely with the combined hillbilly draws of The Nebraska Furniture Mart, Cabella's, the NASCAR track, and finally the Hollywood Casino, The Legends Shopping Center should be able to get back on it's feet. Maybe that area should just go all the way and open up a large truck stop type motel and restaurant like Love's Truck Stop, that would put the icing on the white trash cake for that area.

We will keep you posted on The Legends Shopping Center in Kansas City and the state of their financial situation. As of now, since the center is being run by overweight women, it has been built to cater to overweight women, but if they can convert it to a rural hillbilly attraction I think that they will strike gold and get more business. Ooh! Maybe a new Silver Dollar City! Now that would be a great idea, it could be like the new Branson, Missouri out there - yeeeee-hawww!

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Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Open for Business

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is open for business and was alive and kicking in Kansas City! Recently we covered an event at the new event center that featured Kansas City's dueling pianos and was sponsored by Bank of Kansas City with entertainment by Bands for Hire Live!

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is an incredible feat of architecture, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota and theater consultant Richard Pilbrow. Kansas City construction fat cats J.E. Dunn Construction Group got the gig to build the center. The total cost of the center was $413 million with another $40 million lumped on the side to operate the center for a period of time until it may or may not support itself financially. The Kauffman Center is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, although I can guarantee that a lot of people are making plenty of money off of it's existence.

On the particular night that we were there, the Bank of Kansas City had rented out the Kauffman Center and were having their holiday party. The night was very special due to the immense vision of the Kauffman Center as the absolute center of attention. When you rent out the Kauffman Center for an event, you don't need to provide anything more than a bar and some passed hors d'oeuvres to make the evening magical. They went the extra mile at this event, however, with an incredible performance by Kansas City's dueling pianos, who got the entire crowd up on it's feet and singing along and dancing all the way up until the end of the event.

There are two separate theaters within the 7 story Kauffman Center. Both theater rooms were open for viewing on this night until the Kansas City Orchestra closed one of the rooms to have an extended rehearsal. The room that we did get to see was the red velvet seated Muriel Kauffman Theater, which is pictured here. The entire building is absolutely the most impressive building in Kansas City and we hope to visit again soon.

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