- The casting news just keeps rolling in as the summer gets going, with 24 and Greek, two of my personal faves, adding new troublemakers for their respective upcoming seasons. Even though it’s been gone so long that most fans will need to bust out their Season 6 DVDs to remember where we last saw Jack Bauer, 24 is heating up as the show prepares for its seventh season, which will kick off in November with a two-hour movie and then take a break before beginning the season in earnest in January. It would appear that Carlos Bernard, who has been cast as Jack Bauer’s next big nemesis, will merely be one more guy Jack has to blast right through on his way to the real bad guy, Oscar winner Jon Voight. Voight has been cast on 24 as the person behind Season 7's terrorist threat, according to tvguide.com, and his character will be introduced during the two-hour prequel movie airing Nov. 23. Meanwhile, Greek will also be adding a new problem-causer to the mix, with Michael Rady of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (also of the new CBS ‘70s-themed drama Swingtown as teacher Mr. Stephens) arriving on campus at Cyprus Rhodes as a new character who will stir up trouble for Casey Cartwright and her little brother Rusty. Oddly enough, S.O.T.P. is one of the more watchable chick-flick movies in recent years, so I actually do have an idea of who Rady is and he should be a good addition to the show. Combined with the return of the always-hot Charisma Carpenter, it should be an interesting semester for the Greek crew beginning in September.
- Bad news for parents of teen girls everywhere: R. Kelly is a free man. After a six-year ordeal in which the ever-creepy R&B singer was acquitted by a Chicago jury on all child pornography charges stemming from a video shot in 2002 that allegedly showed Kelly having sex with a girl who was then 17 years old. The identity of the man in the video was a point of emphasis for Kelly’s defense team and in the end, it looks like jurors agreed that it wasn’t really him. Of course, it’s tough to feel good about the prosecution’s chances when their star witness is a woman who claims to have taken part in a three-way with Kelly and the alleged victim. People of that, um, character generally don’t make the best witnesses. Despite the prosecution calling 22 witnesses and looking to put Kelly away on 14 counts, he skated on every single one of them and now is free to make bizarre, ambiguous, stalker-ish music videos of him watching women from closets. He can go back to having sex with underage girls….actually, you should probably scratch that one from the agenda, R. Maybe confine you sexual escapades to girls of legal age from now on. With the extra time you have from not hitting it with underage girls, you can look for the rest of your first name so you’re not stuck rocking a first initial only….
- If you want to see a great riot, track down some of the video footage from the clash between Argentine farmers and police in the town of Gualeguaychu that took place on Friday. For 95 days now, farmers all around Argentina have been wreaking havoc, rioting, blocking roads and demonstrating against President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s 44 percent commodities tax on exports that they feel is excessively cutting into their profits. The dispute took its most violent turn to date on Friday in Gualeguaychu, a town approximately 77 miles north of Buenos Aires. Protestors blocked a highway using their trucks and local police came in an attempt to break up the roadblock and restore the flow of traffic. As any good protestor or rioter would do, the men and women responsible for this demonstration fought back against The Man, rebuffing the attempts of the police to dislodge them. That resistance was met by baton-wielding military police in riot gear, intent on using force to resolve the situation. The protestors were ready for that, hurling large rocks at the advancing police and burning large truck tires right in the middle of the road to create even more havoc. Plumes of black smoke rose skyward and could be seen for miles as the rioting, resisting farmers clashed with police and were hauled away by those same police. When you feel passionately about an issue and your government refuses to listen to what you have to say, this is how you step your game up and make them listen. Disrupt traffic, set things on fire, throw rocks and the police and brawl with them….all-around great effort by you, Argentine farmers. I’m extremely proud of you, as are rioters and social dissidents all over the world. You are a credit to our fraternity and I hope that the instant you are out of prison, you’re right back out there, raising hell….
- Can't say as I agree with critics who are ripping Evil Urges, the new album by alt rockers My Morning Jacket. MMJ has rode a unique, artsy, rock sound rife with depth, texture and a different slant on the world to two extremely successful albums prior to Evil Urges, with Z and It Still Moves both favorites among rock fans (despite never being anything close to mainstream, thank God). The prevailing sentiment in regards to the new album seems to be that Jim James and his four MMJ band mates have strayed too far from the sound that made them successful in their previous two efforts, but I just don’t see it. James’ stellar high tenor voice is still as powerful as ever on rockin’ tracks like Aluminum Park and Remnants, songs that hit with as much punch as any song on Z or It Still Moves. There are the more artful, thoughtful tunes as well, with Librarian being an ode to an unusual hero and a true object of fantasy for a lot of guys - the sexy librarian. MMJ even manages to incorporate a slight punk vibe into Highly Suspicious, giving the album yet another dimension and showing off the band’s musical versatility in the process. I think that those who are hating on this album are doing so simply because it is different than the last two MMJ albums and are choosing to ignore the actual quality of the songs in order to focus simply on it being different. If you take the time to listen to it from start to finish, you’ll find that My Morning Jacket has extended themselves musically while still retaining most of what you loved about them in the first place.
- Without equivocation, I’m going to issue a proclamation that I think we can all agree with: If you change your name to In God We Trust, you are a tool. I’m not saying you can’t legally change your name if you don’t like the one your parents gave you, nor am I against the shout-out to the Almighty. I’m just saying that those two things should not be lumped together so you can rock the motto from our nation’s currency as your legal name. So sorry, Steve Kreuscher of Chicago, I reject your application to legally swap your perfectly good name for In God We Trust. Unless and until you become a piece of U.S. currency - either coin or paper - you cannot make that change. I don’t give a crap what the judge said, your application has been denied. Making this story even worse is the fact that this guy is some disillusioned school bus driver/aspiring artist. Because what parent doesn’t want In God We Trust driving their kid to school every day? What’s the over/under on number of days it takes some agnostic or atheist parent on Kreuscher’s route to object to his name change and file a lawsuit. I get that artists, even flaky, amateur ones who haven’t actually accomplished much of anything as an artist, tend to be out in left field and then some, but this is taking that too far. If it’s some stunt to try to get people interested in your art or get yourself some attention for your art career….no dice. The only attention you’re getting is from people who are observing what a moron you are. No one wants anything to do with your art; you’re here for mocking purposes only.
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