Tuesday Toodles

Can you believe it's the last day of June? It seems like only yesterday I was shoveling snow. Actually, that's a lie. Since I live in an apartment, I don't shovel snow. I kind of like that. But, anyway, tomorrow's July, which means we're a little bit closer to my annual vacation that gets me out of the office for the bulk of August. I'm in need of a vacation.

Today is Wilco day. But more on that later.

Anyway, I haven't posted since Michael Jackson died. There's really not much to say that hasn't been relayed ad nauseam over the last few days. I mean, he's dead. Heart attack. Could be something more sinister. Probably not. He had issues. He may have liked children too much. He was, absolutely, a musical genius and inarguably one of the two biggest musical icons of my life. A significant portion of people my age, including myself, can call "Thriller" the first album they ever owned. That's something. One interesting thing you may want to check out, though? Lisa Marie Presley's blog entry about the whole shebang.

I always, naively, thought that the actors starring in Broadway shows had to be able to act. Not the case with this one, I guess.

I just got this in the mail last week, and let me say that I'm surely smitten. How could I have forgotten how awesome this show was? I mean, it's badly acted and everything, but, man, it makes me think of my childhood. Oh, OK, I admit it: I can't get through more than one episode at a time, but still ...

A movie about a "Real World" castmate? Who would have thunk it?

Here's a pretty good interview with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy (that's his pic above). Of course, "Wilco (The Album)" is out today. Look for my review in Friday's Weekend section.

This is an A-Z story about which TV shows are missing from DVD. I would like to add that, for some reason, "Ed" is missing. I loved that show.

And I guess that's all I got for today. In honor of the Wilco record, here's a performance of my favorite tune from the disc:

The Saddest Story Ever Told

I'm sitting at my desk crying. This is awful. I wish I could have been there to save some. Oh, the humanity!

The Tires Roll ... And More

Before I get into anything else, tonight at Cafe Nine will feature a surprise.

For the first time in about two years, alt-country locals The Tires will perform. The band, led by Calvin DeCutlass of The Nortons, basically broke up because most of its members moved away. With folks in town, a one-off gig had to happen.

The show is not posted on the Cafe Nine Web site, but The Tires go on around 7 p.m. You never know if you'll get a chance to see this again, so it's a good idea to make it out there.

What else? Well, I made it back from Montreal alive. I hadn't been there since college, but let me just say that it's a weird place. People really dress up there. Like Long Island or something. It's quite the scene.

I saw some sights. Went to some bars. Lost money at the casino and, generally, had a good ol' time. Just watch your stuff when you're there, otherwise you'll spend a long time at the police station trying to obtain a police report. I didn't lose anything, but ...

Who says TV rots the brains of the children? Well, not his kid's evidently.

I mean, anybody who writes a song called "You Light Up My Life" has to be a little creepy, right? This more than just a little, but ...

Guys and gals, if you're in the market for a not-so-attractive, unfaithful boyfriend or girlfriend who has eight kids, you might be in luck.

And here's some news about Marion Cottillard. I didn't actually read the story because I couldn't stop staring at the picture.

That's all I got, folks. Have a good day. I'll end with this: I can't stop listening to it, so ...

Um, Wow

So, just on Canada's MTV or something was this amazing video. It was a live-changing experience for me. Enjoy it:

Oh, Canada

So I'm in Montreal, just getting back to my hotel room. There's not much to say, except that within five minutes of being here, one of the five us had our stuff stolen from a bar. All gone. Happy Canada. Stuff gets stolen ...

Hilarious

OK, please read this story. I mean, when the headline says "Oregon woman obsessed with rabbits arrested again," you know you're in for a treat.

Hump Day Happiness

Let's start with the last song I listened to. Here's a video:



As we all wonder how it's possible that a football player driving at almost double the legal limit can kill a man and only spend 30 days in a jail, while another one can be involved in a dog-fighting scandal and spend almost two years in the pokey, it's time for a blog entry.

But, seriously, how sick is our world that this is the case? Look, I love dogs just as much as the next guy who's never had a pet in his life, but we get so fired up about anything to do with animals, that we look dumb when something like this happens. There's been no outcry about Donte Stallworth's crime. People are complaining about the sentence now, but where was all this back when it happened? Yet, Michael Vick's been thought of as the devil for a long time now. And anytime we publish anything about cruelty to animals in the paper, you should see the hateful, "give him the death penalty" comments we receive. Killing a person? Ho hum.

In other stupid news, I don't want to ever hear anything else about this dumb Letterman/Palin feud. Maybe it'd better if the joke was actually, you know, funny.

The future of Catholicism? Here it is. There's no way the church can continue to let priests marry and to hope they'll be enough to go round when all the old ones die off.

Well, speaking of god, thank god for this: I do not want to see that movie made.

On the other hand, I would very much like to see this movie made.

So now we know how Rebecca Gayheart keeps her skin looking so iconically good.

The new version of "Melrose Place," which is sure to bad, premieres on Sept. 8. My mom, who used to force me to watch it with her and my dad, will surely be happy.

Um, this is why I think tattoos should be illegal.

Dinosaur Jr. fans should click this link. Just do it, OK?

I caught Arts & Ideas' "Circus" last night, and, I have to say, I'd recommend it. I really enjoyed the odd little theatrical-dance piece.

And with that Arts & Ideas note, this blog entry is "over. Ovah. Ovah," to quote a wonderful song from Marillion.

New Dinosaur Jr.!

This is pretty damn awesome:

The Best Thing Jimmy Fallon Could Ever Do

I have to say, I had some low expectations for this after hearing something interesting was in store, but this bit from Mark-Paul Gosselaar on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" was hysterical. It's way better than I could have imagined. Give Gosselaar tons of credit for not being afraid to do this.

As a kid who grew up in the '80s and early '90s, I was, of course, a huge "Saved By The Bell" fan. I can remember watching on Saturday mornings and then, later in life, watching after school when it used to get rerun thousands of times a day. The sitcom was a clear "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" ripoff, but that's OK. It worked.

Anyway, enough with the buildup, here's the clip. It's a little long, but totally worth seeing through. There's quite the payoff at the end.

Summer Concerts On The Green

From the city ... I'll hold my comments until a later date ...

"This summer’s Music on the Green series will feature three consecutive Saturdays of free concerts beginning on July 11 with a special performance by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra; a concert engagement by Sister Hazel on July 18; Jeffrey Osborne takes the stage for the final concert on July 25. The 7 pm start time for each concert allows visitors the opportunity to experience a great evening of free music and then have time to enjoy the city’s array of fine restaurants, culture and vibrant nightlife. Summer heats up in New Haven, and we invite (everyone?) to experience all New Haven has to offer."

The Boss Coming Back

I was about to post this last week, then was told it wasn't official yet, but now it's a definite: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will return to Hartford Wednesday, August 19.

But here's the fun part: They're coming to the Comcast Theatre (the old Meadows). It's the first time The Boss has ever played the venue.

I, for one, am very excited about this show. Honestly. I love outdoor shows in the summer, but, sadly, don't plan on going to many this year. My planned trips to the Comcast this summer include Bruce, Poison & Cheap Trick, Phish and Weezer.

Anyway, tickets for Bruce's Hartford show go on sale at 9 a.m. Friday. They cost $98 for reserved seats and $35 for the lawn. You can get them by calling 877-598-8689 or by logging on to www.livenation.com.

Miley, Miley, Miley

Can you believe it? It's happening. All of our dreams are coming true!

Well, maybe not. But, whatever. All you kiddies out there, though, take note: Miley Cyrus plays at the XL Center in Hartford Nov. 12.

Tickets for the show go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. If you saved up your allowance money for a decade or so, you can buy them for $79.50, $59.50, $39.50, plus a $3.75 facility charge, which could have a whole lot of odd meanings.

There's a limit of four tickets per household, which, is clearly meant to thwart scalping. Does that mean I can buy four even if my "household" includes me and only me, though? I'm full of good questions today. Yep.

Oh, and also, tickets will only be "paperless." It's another way to try and crack down on scalping. If you don't remember, when the "Hannah Montana" tour came to Hartford a couple years ago, tickets were getting scalped for the price of a small house.

Wal-Mart is sponsoring the tour. That's a store that sells poop, so ...

Breaking News

Here you go.

Headlines, Headlines

Jay Leno's been on to something when he mocks headlines on the old "Tonight Show." But the ones he always chooses are puns or grammatically pathetic or something.

There's just something to be said for ones like the headline in the Register today: "Guilford martial artist accused of voyeurism — again." That's just awesome, isn't it? I literally laughed out loud for minutes after reading that. Simple, effective, touching, beautiful. OK, it may be just me because I think 43-year-old Italian men with martial arts studios are inherently creepy. It's just the way it is.

Going on the theme that I touched on yesterday, I am currently listening to my iPod and "Somerville" from The Pernice Brothers just came on. I love this song. And I love Somerville, so it makes sense. Here's a video for it:



Getting back to the news. I didn't watch because the basketball game was on, but I've been told by many this morning that The Tonys were actually really good last night. But not for Poison's Bret Michaels.

Heather Graham was great in "Boogie Nights." I guess she likes to play poker, too.

Evan Dando is trying to make GM more bankrupt.

And I'm going to leave you with this story, which is my new favorite tid bit of news. I can see the woman's point. I mean, I wish I thought of this lawsuit first. I'd be rich. Except I'm dumb. I always thought crunch berries did grow on the trees in my back yard.

And, I'm back

Wow. I haven't published anything since Memorial Day. That's kind of sad. It's also kind of pathetic. I have no real excuses either. It's just been laziness. Complete laziness.

Once school ended a couple weeks ago, and I finished teaching two classes during one semester for the first time, I think I just needed to do as little as possible for a bit.

So, sorry about that. I promise this summer is going to the Summer of the Blog. Or, more specifically, the Summer of Blog Like an Egyptian. That has a good ring to it, doesn't it? Let's get to an update then.

Not much has happened since my last post. Well, that's not entirely true. About a week ago, someone sent an e-mail to about 20 different Register higher-ups that called me a witch. Yep. It said I was a witch and would be fired when my bosses found out. Of course, this was in response to my blog post about the great Frank Masso. What really bothered me is why do I have to be a witch? Can't I be a warlock? I mean, something masculine, please?

What else is new? Well, according to this story, "All My Children's" Erica Kane is going to become a cougar this summer. Um, OK. Is this really a story? When I was a wee Pat, my grandmother used to watch Little Nicholas and I after school. She would always watch her "stories" each day. One of those was "All My Children." It's kind of crazy to think Susan Lucci's been playing this character for almost 40 years. That's amazing.

Pixar's simply amazing, too. Out of all the studio's flicks, I've only seen "Wall-E," but I've put the rest on my Netflix queue. This weekend, "Up" once again topped the box office, beating out big summer openings "The Hangover" and "Land of the Lost." The lesson to other movie studios? Don't open your movies the week of or week after a Pixar movie comes out, unless you're OK with second place.

"Lost" fans, I'm not one of you, but I'm here for you. This story may help with some stuff.

Don't know if you guys saw this yesterday, but this good story ran in the Register. Can you pick out the detail that I found absolutely hysterical? Send me an e-mail. The winner gets a prize.

Speaking of the newspaper I work for, here's Arts Editor Donna Doherty's International Festival of Arts & Ideas preview story. The next three weekends are going to be chock-full of A&I stuff. Get ready.

Here's my column from Friday. It's important to read so you know that you should be attending Wednesday's Maps and Atlases show at The Space.

I guess that's it for tonight. I have to figure what kind of food I want to enjoy while watching game 2 of the NBA Finals. Go Magic.

PS: The video at the top is Beulah's "Emma Blowgun's Last Stand," a song that popped up on my iPod this morning. It's from the record "When Your Heartstrings Break," a disc, that if I had to choose, would be a desert-island pick for me. Know that this is an edited version, sadly.