Ten Things to Know: Culture Club is Coming to Washington DC

1) Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, NY, will be staging the play "Steve Martin's The Underpants," which depicts a young man who literally drops his drawers and is dealt with public humiliation. The play will be the troupe's season opener and it will run from Oct. 21-Nov. 8. Bill Fennelly directs.

2) The Both: A Rock duet consisting of veteran performers Ted Leo and Aimee Mann performs at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC, on May 5th.

3) "While We're Young," a comedy directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts opens at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va., on May 2nd (there is a concert there on May 1st).

4) Pauline McKee, 90, was refused a $41.8 million jackpot for Miss Kitty at a casino in Iowa, according to the BBC.

5) Bayern Munich won its 25th German title; the team faces Barcelona FC with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

6) The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC, named the best bookstore in Raleigh/Durham by "Indy Weekly" will be one of many bookstores celebrating Independent Bookstore on May 2nd.

7) Culture Club will be performing at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., a Washington, DC-suburb on August 10th.

8) "The Toronto Star" is reporting that the Canadian province of Ontario will give $1 million to relief efforts for the devastating earthquake which struck Nepal this weekend.

9) According to What the F*** Facts, the top export in America is cars, the top import in America is also cars. You do tend to see lots of Kia, a South Korean car, on the roads these days.

10)  Today is the 39th birthday of British actress Sally Hawkins ("Blue Jasmine," pict. bottom)

http://syracusestage.org/

http://www.catscradle.com/

http://www.thelyric.com/

http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/

http://www.wolftrap.org

http://www.culture-club.co.uk/

Top Ten Favorite Comic Strips from Sunday, Nov. 10th "Roanoke Times"_ Brutus Buckeye Wins the Day

Greeting to our friends in Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Dubai. For those of you live in places like Turku, Finland, or Perth, South Africa, you may be unaware that Sunday is the day when large color comi strips roll out across America.

While smaller newspapers like "The Roanoke Times" or "The Akron Beacon" (in Akron, Ohio) may not have as many comic strips as "The Denver Post" or "The Baltimore Sun," one never knows what gems might be found in any Sunday comic strips section.

This week, "Pearls Before Swine" had a hilarious take on Brutus Buckeye (pictured top) who is the mascot for Ohio State University, "Funky Winkerbean" featured a hilarious fake comic book character named Starbuck Jones (yeah, that's the reason for the image in the middle) and "Doonesbury" tarred and feathered the tea party, a fringe right-wing political movement in America which wants to turn America into what it once was: An Artic region covered with ice (we borrowed that from Steve Martin).

Here is our list of the top 10 comic strips from this week's Sunday "Roanoke Times":

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Funky Winkerbean

3) Doonesbury

4) Zits

5) Speed Bump

6) Get Fuzzy

7) Agnes

8) Dilbert

9) Hi and Lois

10) Blondie

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-footbl/

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/#

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.dilbert.com

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: The Stars of "Three Amigos"

Wow! We were actually experiencing Blogger's Block, something we seldom get stuck in here. In fact, if anything we have too many ideas, and we've worried that blogging was keeping us from doing the important things in life like grooming our pet Yorkie Terrier Mandy (this is a joke...btw).

But, we were listening to the Queen record "The Game," and the track "Another One Bites the Dust" made us realize that our faithful readers in Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria (yes, we do get regular hits from these places!) had to have a new entry for today.

So, we came up with a look at what is now a bit of a retro web site, since it became popular way, way back in the late 1990s: It is The Oracle of Bacon; the site refers to actor Kevin Bacon and it was devised by a former University of Virginia student.

For this entry, we initially thought we'd check out some very obscure actors, by American standards, including the late Turkish comic actor Kemal Sunal, who is three degrees removed from Kevin Bacon, but we thought that might just cause too much confusion.

Hence, we came up with the three stars of the kinda cult film "Three Amigos" (1986) which was a comedic homage of sorts to "The Wild Bunch."

Those three actors are Steve Martin (pictured top), Chevy Chase (pictured bottom) and Martin Short.

Steve Martin and Martin Short have both actually been in films with Bacon. Steve Martin was in "Novocaine" (2001) with the original "Footloose" star while Martin Short teamed together with him in "The Big Picture" (1989).

But, Chase is two degrees removed from Bacon. He starred in the film "Vegas Vacation" (1997) which also featured Jeffrey Donovan who was with Bacon in "Sleepers"(1996).

Steve Martin is also a highly regarded banjo player (in addition to being a writer), and he will perform with the Steep Canyon Rangers in Waterbury, Conn., on June 21.

So, there you go Blogger's Block is over, now we have to take care of insomnia!

http://www.oracleofbacon.com

http://www.stevemartin.com

Quote of the Day- Stephen King

As is the case with every July, we will be quoting both famous Americans in honor of the Fourth of July and famous people from France for Bastille Day, which will be on July 14th.

Initially, we were going to start the series with quotes from famous Americans tomorrow, but we have some great Fourth of July kitsch lined up for the occasion. This year, we are going to focus on quips from famous people from the six New England states.

We start with Stephen King from Bangor, Maine. The horror novelist known for dozens of award-winners and best-sellers ranging from his early novels like "Salem's Lot" and "Carrie" to "It," "Insomnia," "The Shinning" and "Night Shift" since the 1970s also owns the rock n roll station 100.3-FM/Bangor, which goes by the nickname The Zone, perhaps in homage to King's novel "The Dead Zone."

Recently, King wrote an exceptional short story for "The Atlantic" called "Herman wouk is Still Alive," which should fit into your schedule better his full-length works. I must profess that I have seen Coke machines the same way since one killed a person by hurling Coke cans at the victim in King's novel "The Tommyknockers."

Here is his quote, which people who have tried to do remarkable things for the world, such as Barack Obama, can perhaps relate to all too well:

"It's better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost."

UPDATE (6:00 p.m., Sunday): While we are at it, I thought I would mention two Fourth of July performances happening tomorrow. My good friend and Greensboro, NC, folk-singer Bruce Piephoff will be performing at Center City Park in downtown Greensboro with a 12-year-old prodigy named Ranford Almond starting at circa 3:45 p.m.

And, comedian/actor/musician Steve Martin, who has recorded bluegrass music at a studio in Asheville, NC, tweeted just now that he will performing as part of the annual Fourth of July gala in front of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, tomorrow.

Silly Picture to Fill Space- A Certain Purple Dinosaur

When I saw a promo for the new NBC series "Parenthood" (based on the 1989 Steve Martin film), which airs tonight at 10 pm here on the east coast, I was actually thinking of making a list of ten reasons why I'm happy that I do NOT have children, but then I thought it might anguish some high school friends of mine who have their proverbial hands full!

But, the fact that I don't have to put up with Barney would have certainly made that list.

Interestingly enough, a regular Barney stuffed animal goes for $25 on the internet, but a life-size man-eating Barney will cost you $249.99!