Greetings from the Editor 

Urbanites unite.  I challenge the "Art at Heart" to throw suburbia to the wind, and let the dust settle it!  Urban life rules! 

Life is not only good downtown Kansas City; it's picked fresh daily!   Urban Underground was conceived in the Historic City Market on July 4th, 2002.  Webmasters Ben and Donna Raskin, also editor and journalist of and for Urban Underground recently moved to the Kansas City Market from...Johnson County!  

We decided to use the term Urban Underground to describe this unique magazine  and e-zine for several reasons.  Here was our thinking...

The Underground Railroad provided a safe haven to those on their way to freedom.   After giving it a lot of thought, we decided even though you could not begin to compare the Underground Railroad and this new zine as far as the meaning of "freedom", the concept is similar in that they both serve or served as guides and/or pathways out of oppression of some "human" kind.  The Urban Underground will be your guide to Kansas City's eclectic laid back life style and out of "Big Brother" if only for a few hours of Urban Delight!  

As with the Underground Railroad there were clues, obscure signs, and succulent smells that lead people through the path of oppression and denial of liberty and freedom.

Freedom today is defined in many ways.  In order to enjoy the sights, sounds, smell, texture, taste, and your sixth sense (if you will admit you have one!) is a gift you have to experience to truly appreciate your life or time spent in the Kansas City Metro area.  

Why?  Because there is a side of Kansas City that is not dry, conservative, or uptight by any stretch of the imagination.  (Yoga for the mind!)  Exercise your right to quality culture in an urban setting.

The genres covered in this zine will take you places that you see every day, but either choose to ignore it, think it's beneath you because of its location, or it is new,  and very few people know about it YET.  

Urban Underground will give you a sneak peak inside of these often well-disguised incredibly fascinating places.  The marvelous transition of opening up a new space in your mind once these scenes are explored by those brave enough to venture out of retailism is that; they can't live without these threads of realism once they've been experienced!

Prepare to be spoiled.  Envision yourself in  many of the coolest music venues, galleries, artist, photographers, boutiques, restaurants, and other sites and smells Kansas City has to offer; then go out and pamper your mind, body, and spirit.

Urban Underground will be a monthly zine on the newsstands November 1st and will be an ongoing living community on the web 365 days a year.  So kick back, grab a juice, cup of Joe, or H20, exhale, and see what's up, Underground....Whether its music, brush strokes or veggies Kansas City is picked fresh daily . 

Inspired by what surrounds me. Donna Dronet-Raskin 

Book reviews on-line by Donna K. Dronet-Raskin

We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives
by James Carville
 

33 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars Telling the truth...and the ammo to prove it!, March 19, 2000

  Reviewer: Donna Dronet-Raskin from Kansas City, Missouri

What happens when you mix a Rajin' Cajun with Politics... You get the truth. Touché' Mr. Carville. Your book has already proven to be true life-saver for me, a 24K Cajun, stuck right smack dab in the middle of Dole and Bushwhack, I mean Bush Country in a suburb of South of KC.

I enjoyed the book, but I love the rapid response and extended response part especially! It puts the mojo on the "good ole' boy network!"

This handbook will help to make your time spent at parties or at any event of one of your wonderful, yet, Republican friends and company not only more interesting, but you may also find that people will pay attention to you, whether they agree or not and it will either reply with anger or it might just scare the heck out the them.

What I like is the fact that he gives you the facts. Then, if you don't believe it, you can follow the trails and he will lead you right to it, the original quotes or what ever the issue, right their in your face, through his heavily researched and well-armed footnotes. I researched the footnotes that truly caught my interest, and was astounded to see where some of this "reliable information" comes from in the GOP. Where do the Republicans find some of these people?

This book is not only worth reading, it is worth reading again; or as a gift to a family member or friend who always has a lot to say about politics, and are really not aware of the real on goings in politics behind the scenes, and for really great Cajun recipes.

Don't take his word for it, check his sources; they speak for themselves!