The "whole bunch of things" is just the standard system-wide install for working with any Python package: python, pip (which comes with python), and virtualenv. Though I also recommend virtualenvwrapper for setup simplicity.
The install instructions are pretty much structured as: quick,
pip install kur
cleaner and quick, install with vituralenv in a quick script
best practice but more setup, install a whole environment and include virtualenvwrapper