Aliens in Overland Park?

Area 51 it’s not…

Still, when Theater League main man Mark Edelman cruised down Interstate 435 in Overland Park near Roe Avenue recently it was as close as he’s come to having a “Close Encounters” moment. There, rising 83 feet into the sky, stood a futuristic-looking whatchamacallit.

“It’s certainly unique, no doubt about it,” says Phil Thomas, president of A.L. Huber general contractors. “I hope he liked it; we’re getting a lot of positive comments about it. This is the first phase of a demo project we’re doing at our headquarters, and this wind turbine is the first of its kind in the world. It was actually designed and manufactured in Korea and can generate up to 5,000 watts.”

Translation: enough to run five 2,600-square-foot Johnson County homes.

“In the next phase, we’re going to install 24 solar photovoltaic panels to our building – the most efficient on the market today – that will generate 230 watts per panel. What we’re doing is we’re using all the power we generate to run our office, and when we’re not using all the power, it will go back into KCP&L’s grid and we will sell it to them.”

Both KCP&L and Overland Park are on board with the company’s effort to showcase alternative energy technologies, Thomas says.

There’s more.

“We’re going to put up a sunscreen on the south face of our building that will shade it from direct sunlight and cut down on our heat load,” Thomas says. “And on the east side of our building we’re going to build a true green wall – made up of plants – to shade the building from morning sun and cut down on our cooling costs.”

And when all is said and done, it won’t look like an outpost on Mars?

“No, it’s going to look pretty cool, but the wind turbine is the most dramatic feature,” Thomas says. “The other enhancements won’t look out of place at all. And the other feature is we’re building an alternative energy center in our office so we can show everybody how the power comes in from the turbine and the solar panels. And we plan on having a public component – we’ve already had calls from school groups wanting to come by – but we’re waiting until the next two phases are done.”

Tres Wicked

Not only does former Kansas City actor Don Richard look like fictional supervillain Lex Luthor, he gets to sport that look in the touring musical of “Wicked” (now through Dec. 6 at the Music Hall). What’s more, he’s played the wicked witch’s father more than 1,000 times.

“Quite a bit more,” Richard says. “I may be getting close to 2,000; my fifth anniversary is in January.”

How children react to “Wicked’s” reimagining of “The Wizard of Oz’s” bad witch as more-or-less the good and the good witch as something of an airhead?

“I think the kids take it easier than the adults do,” Richard says.

The play recounts the childhood of Glinda the Good Witch and Wicked Witch Elphaba.

The adults that come “are really deep into ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and want to have a debate about the specifics of ‘Wicked’ and go back and watch the movie again,” Richard says. “They try to figure out all the things in ‘Wicked’ that could have happened, but even if you’re not there to figure out all the scenarios, it’s such an entertaining show.”

The $64 million question: Will “Wicked” be made into a movie and if so, as the musical or straight from the book, as was “The Wizard of Oz”?

“That was what they first were going to do, make the book into a movie,” Richard says. “So yeah, they’ll do it – they have to. And it’s so popular as a musical that I think they will do it as a musical, but maybe not as tongue-in-cheek as the musicalization of ‘Mamma Mia!’ It will be a big challenge, I’m sure, for Universal Pictures to figure out how to keep all of the music.”

Star Struck

What a difference a week makes. Sunday before last’s Kansas City Star front-page story cooed breathlessly about the “renaissance of Kansas State football,” conjuring metaphors like “the stuff of fairy tales” and “reconnecting with a spectacular past.”

Hey, if you’re going to slap something on the front page on by far your biggest revenue and readership day, go for it right?

Just one problem…

K-State’s dream season found the team but a single game over .500 and – were it not for a soft schedule, beating up a pair of patsies at home and the implosion of Kansas (and to a lesser extent Missouri) – far in arrears of its spectacular past.

Speaking of which…

You want spectacular past? Try K-State’s 2003 season where the team went 11-4 (6-2 in the Big 12) and stunned No. 1 Oklahoma to win the Big 12 Championship – the team’s first conference title since 1934.

Now let’s get back to the present, as in this past Sunday’s Star wrap-up of the team’s loss to Nebraska.

“…the Wildcats’ 6-6 record meant a mere one-game improvement over last season,” the Star writes. “…the Wildcats missed out on their goal of reaching a bowl game. Six victories is usually enough to qualify, but at least five of them have to be registered against Division 1A opponents and K-State had only four…”

Hearne on the street…

And the winner is? This year’s contest for celebrity supremacy between Friday’s Kansas City Mayor’s Christmas Tree lighting ceremony and the Plaza’s Thanksgiving blowout isn’t even close. The Plaza settled for former Kansas Citian Jason Sudeikis, a mere cast member of lightly watched “Saturday Night Live.” The mayor snagged Eric Stonestreet, the star of one of the hottest shows in television, “Modern Family.” The week of Nov. 1, for adults ages 18 to 49, ABC’s “Modern Family” ranked 13th while SNL didn’t even make the Top 25. There’s more. More recently “Modern Family” finished numero uno in its time slot.

As for Stonestreet, whose bio describes him as growing up raising pigs, “I talked to Eric today and he’s excited to get back to town,” organizer Will Gregory says. “He’s going to make the most of his coming here to flip the switch on the mayor’s tree on Friday and reconnect with friends while he’s in town.”

As for those pigs, “Apparently his grandparents’ farm in KCK is now one of the turns at the Kansas Speedway,” Gregory says.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment