Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Like many Americans, Caroll Spinney remembers watching the tragic Challenger shuttle mission in 1986. Had it not been for Big Bird, it could’ve been him on the mission instead of school teacher Christa McAuliffe.
Threading is so old school it’s trendy. The ancient Middle Eastern practice of hair removal is tops with trendsetters such as Jennifer Aniston and Salma Hayek. Even Grammy winner Michelle Branch sings the praises of threading.
Cheap Trick has been rocking for over a quarter-century, more or less with the original lineup. None of the band members–guitarist Rick Nielsen, singer-rhythm guitarist Robin Zander, bassist Tom Petersson and drummer Bun E. Carlos–has changed much over the years: two are hot; two, well, are not. And, Zander’s vocals have only gotten stronger. The ubiquitous Nielsen–a co-owner of the Wicker Park eatery Piece–took time to chat about boy bands, living in Rockford and Billy Corgan.
“No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself,” Morpheus says in “The Matrix” (1999). Four years later, the world is ready to feast its collective eyes on “The Matrix Reloaded”–the first of two sequels that have already been filmed.
Once you get past the exotic costumers and Kabuki-inspired makeup in “Onmyoji,” you realize that the subtitled Japanese film really is a dark, supernatural fairy tale not unlike “The Lord of the Rings.” OK, there are no dwarves, elves or sorcerers in “Onmyoji,” but the film is peppered with magicians, demons and, well, the undead.
Rob Thomas is more than you think he is. Touring to promote Matchbox Twenty’s latest album, “More Than You Think You Are” (Atlantic), the band’s singer took a break to talk about Santana, Enrique Iglesias and his never-ending quest to meet Kurt Vonnegut.
Beyonce Knowles is doing it. So are Richard Gere, Brendan Fraser, Dustin Hoffman and Howard Stern. They’re all taking pictures with Polaroid’s latest instant camera–the Polaroid One ($49.99).
To print or not to print. That is the question for a lot of digital camera users who’ve stashed hundreds of images and aren’t sure what to do with them. If you’re like many Americans, you may store them on your computer or a CD. You may even e-mail a few images to your friends and family. But print them out? What a hassle, right? Not really.
“The Baby Ceiling,” a three-part series describing the quest for children for professional women and written by Debra Pickett, Lisa Lenoir, Sara Fiedelholtz, Jae-Ha Kim, Jim Ritter, Chris Ledbetter and Deborah Douglas won the features award for daily newspapers of more than 300,000.
Reality not only bites in “The Real Cancun.” It smells. Watching this film, I thought about a recent Onion Headline: “Girl Gone Wild Actually Just Regular Girl, Only More Insecure and Drunk.” Add the male gender into that headline and you’ve pretty much got the plot for what’s being touted as the first reality feature film, courtesy of the producers of MTV’s “The Real World.”