Keaton Simons will play at 9 p.m. that night and is a fantastic singer/songwriter
who is great on record and better live. His genre of music is blues
for the most part, and his voice and guitar-playing certainly match
that. His songs are sometimes acoustic, sometimes blues-pop and
sometimes just rockin — but they are always great.

He released his full-length debut CD called "Can You Hear Me" in June 2008 on CBS Records and he has been touring around the country in support of it ever since - playing in Los Angeles sparingly among those stops. The album is a brilliant mix of blues, pop with some rockin' thrown in, with some of the standout tunes that include the very radio-friendly 'Good Things Get Better;' the mellow 'Without Your Skin;' and the blues-rippin' 'Mama Song' and 'Burch Mog.' Another track on the record is perfect for today's weather - add some rain, some wine, some cold, maybe a fireplace along with your significant other and then play the song 'Currently.' Perfect combination.

You probably have already heard his songs and didn't realize it. One
of his tunes is featured in several trailers for the Starz Network
television series "Crash," and several of his tunes have been in the
television shows "Men in Trees" and "Numbers" and the movie "Sky High."

Since his last show in Los Angeles in the summer, he has made a video for 'Without Your Skin' which is here on his youtube channel. He is all over the place online with Facebook fan pages here and here; a myspace page and his own website . He is also on twitter and has created a weekly conversation called Twitterviews where on Mondays, he and another artist interview each other on twitter. That happens at 1pm PST each week.

On Friday, he goes on at 9pm, right after The Makepeace Brothers. Look for new album from Simons soon too, but check out his show first. You're guaranteed to love it.

Copeland's book is mainly about the explosive chemistry among the three members of the group, which disbanded after 1983's album Synchronicity and reformed for a very successful tour two years ago. Copeland (drums), Sting (bass and vocals) and Andy Summers (guitar) constantly conflicted about the style of music that band did - with it fluctuating among new wave, punk, reggae, experimental and then eventually pop.

In the early years, the band played punk and reggae-infused pop and had several hits, including "Roxanne" and "Don't Stand So Close to Me" Their last album was mainly pop with the mega hits 'Every Breath You Take," "King of Pain," "Synchronicity II" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger." and they won three Grammys - two for "Every Breath You Take."

Copeland has never hidden the fact that the three fought and neither has Sting. The band broke up after the Synchronicity tour in 1984 and each member pursued solo careers. Sting has released many solo albums since, has won 10 Grammys and has been nominated for three Oscars. Copeland composed many movie soundtracks as well as the theme for the television show The Equalizer in the 80's, then recorded several solo albums, many of which were of percussion-heavy instrumentals. Summers - the oldest and most experimental of the three - also recorded several solo records and made a record with Robert Fripp (of King Crimson).

In 2007, the group reformed for a new tour (after several attempts and/or reunion shows in the 90's and early 2000's) which was the highest grossing tour of those two years.

Other parts of Copeland's book include his family's participation in his musical career. including his brother Miles, who founded I.R.S. Records and was the manager of The Police and another brother Ian, who was the band's booking agent. Copeland's father Miles Sr. had little to do with the band, but worked for the C.I.A - which added another element of mystery to Copeland, as did his being raised in the Middle East for much of his early life.

Backspacer is good, not as fantastic as their first two records Ten and Vs. in the early 1990's, but good. It's the first Pearl Jam album to be at #1 in sales since No Code (1996) and, coupled with 2006's self-titled Pearl Jam, reestablishes their place in music.

Since their explosive entry into music with Ten (1991) and Vs. (1993), Pearl Jam has always been around, but after a fight with Ticketmaster; generating heat with their political stances; their refusal to make videos and the change in the musical landscape, the band veered off course until the mid-2000's. No Code sold well, but Pearl Jam the album brought them back into the consciousness. Backspacer continues the resuscitation.

The first single from Backspacer is 'The Fixer' which is certainly radio-friendly, but personally, 'Amongst the Waves,' with it's fantastic hook and chorus, seems to be the better single (it might be the second). Singer Eddie Vedder's love of surfing certainly permeates the latter song and that same activity inspired him to write the lyrics for a few of most powerful songs on Ten such as 'Alive' and 'Black.'

Other song highlights on Backspacer include "Gonna See My Friend," which is a rocker that sounds like Chris Cornell (formerly of Soundgarden) could easily sing it and "Just Breathe," which is reminiscent of the Into the Wild Soundtrack (on which Vedder composed and sang all of the songs) as well as the Vs. track 'Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town."

Guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready continue to blend guitar sounds perfectly without overpowering the songs and Jeff Ament uses several different bass guitars and sounds that are always appropriate for the styles of each song.

Unlike several of their albums, Backspacer has 11 straight forward songs with none of them being unorthodox instrumentals or experiments like "Aye Davinita," "Bugs" and "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me, " among others. (All three of those tracks appear on the same album - Vitalogy.

These guys have certainly mellowed and gotten more clean-cut, but they've also far outlasted their Seattle peers and made another good record.

The show stars Patricia Arquette as wife and mother Allison DuBois, who struggles with a hectic job, a family with three young children and her psychic ability to see clues from dead people while she sleeps. She helps solves the crimes against the victims by using her abilities to aid the authorities.

NBC dropped it from it's lineup last year, so the series went to CBS - without a hitch. it's a pretty cool show and it'll continue every Friday night at 9pm. Arquette is great as the conflicted lead character. So much so that she won an Emmy in 2005 for her performance.

So, when is it? Friday at 9pm on CBS.

Schuyler Fisk - October 1 (tomorrow)
George Stanford - October 2nd (Friday)
Lelia Broussard - October 6th (Tuesday)
Andy Clockwise - October 9th (Friday)
Keaton Simons - October 16th (Friday)
(Simons has a song featured in several trailers for the Starz Network television series Crash.)
Brian Wright - Every Friday all month, except for the 16th
Sweet Talk Radio - October 20th and 27 (both Tuesday nights)
The Mornings - October 23rd (Friday)

Also, in early November
Curt Smith (of Tears for Fears) - November 2nd (Monday)
Will Hoge - November 5th - (Thursday)

for more on the lineups at The Hotel Cafe, go here

Stanford is from Philadelphia and has been in Los Angeles playing for several years. When I saw him the first time several years ago, he was playing with The Denim Family Band, who split up when two of the guys left - Stanford being one. Stanford then went solo and recorded his debut CD "Big Drop," which was released in June of 2008. He's been playing and touring in support of the album ever since, playing the Hotel Cafe and Crane's Hollywood Tavern several times over the past several months.

Several of the times I've seen him play recently, he was on the same bill as Truth & Salvage Co - which consists of many members of the no defunct Denim Family Band. Like Stanford, Truth & Salvage also got signed and they are now touring with The Black Crowes. They'll be playing Los Angeles with the Crowes in November. More on that later.

If you can, see Stanford play or get his album Big Drop. It's really good - particularly the title song, "30,000 Feet," "Downriver," "My Own Worst Enemy" and one song that's not on the album but still great, "Meet Me in Los Angeles."

He is also playing at Crane's on Wednesday October 14th

Hotel Cafe is 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd in Hollywood.
Crane's is at 1611 El Centro Blvd, in Hollywood/Los Angeles.

You can find the album on iTunes and Stanford's music page on Facebook and here.

Also tonight on CBS, How I Met Your Mother Episode 2 this season. I liked the premiere last week, but it wasn't a very strong start. I imagine it'll get better.

more later

He's not hurting for work though. He is the founder of Ra'mon Lawrence Designs and has three collections at the store Kohl's and he also designed actor James Francis Ginty's tuxedo and tie that he wore at the premiere of the film Surrogates last night in Hollywood.

Surrogates opens today.

After acting with Ford at age 21, Ginty now stars with Willis as well as Radha Mitchell, Boris Kodjoe and Ving Rhames in the sci-fi movie Surrogates, which opens today. The film is based on a graphic novel by Robert Vendetti and Brett Weldele and is directed by Jonathan Mostow, who has helmed Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines and U-571, among others.

The film is about a society of people who never leave their homes and live vicariously through sexier and better versions of themselves - called surrogates. After an extremely rare murder of a host and subsequent surrogate, Willis's character has to go into the real world as himself to investigate the crime and he eventually confronts a large population of robots.

Willis plays two versions of the FBI agent 'Greer,' with the surrogate wearing a comb over of blonde hair and is clean-shaven, while the 'real' version is the haggard-looking, unshaven, aged agent. While most surrogates look generally like their hosts and are approximately the same age, Ginty's character of 'Canter' is unlike most of the others - with Ginty playing a younger version and James Cromwell portraying him older.

For the part of the younger Canter, director Mostow cast Ginty obviously on his acting talent, but also on his varied arts background.

Ginty studied and performed ballet for seven years at The American Ballet Company, The Royal Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada. For his acting training, he studied at The American Drama Academy, The Royal Academy, Interlochen in northern Michigan and Julliard. All of that experience helped Ginty prepare for working on Surrogates.

"Mostow will pull whatever he can out of you," said Ginty, hours before the world premiere of the film in Los Angeles. "Doing this movie was an extraordinary experience."

As a filmmaker, Mostow tries to incorporate as many physical and practical action sequences into his films as he can, as does Willis as an action star/actor. Both of them encouraged Ginty to do the same throughout his performance, including doing some stunt work.

"There was a ton of practical stuff (real stunts) in the movie and there was certainly CGI also," said Ginty. "Bruce was a real mentor to me. He had a mentor playfulness about him. The whole cast was family through and through."

For the premiere of Surrogates at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Ginty teamed up with designer Ra'mon Lawrence Coleman of 'Ra'mon-Lawrence Designs,' who currently has three collections at Kohl's and appears on the Bravo series Project Runway.

Ra'mon - concidentally, a major sci-fi fan and an admitted 'Trekkie'- made Ginty a blue/black tuxedo with a combination sci-fi and an vintage-film look and both collaborated on the silver bow tie.

"I wanted a re-invented Old Hollywood in the tuxedo that was appropriate for him (Ginty), said Ra'mon. "The look has to represent the person as well as the designer."

Surrogates is produced by Max Handelman, David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It was written by Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato.

In the spirit of Godzilla vs. Monster Zero and Gamera, The Asylum Home Entertainment has released Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus onto the world. And the world appreciates it.

Former teenage pop star-turned-Broadway star Deborah 'Debbie' Gibson stars in this monster movie as a scientist who originally wants to save the two giant creatures and Lorenzo Lamas as a (I think) military (or government?) guy who wants to kill them both. After the two enormous beings destroy a dozen or so military and non-military sea vessels and installations in between Japan and California, everyone wants to trap and kill the two.

Gibson plays 'Emma MacNeil' who 'borrows' an underwater sea vessel to investigate whale migrations in frigid waters, then she accidentally crashes it into a giant ice block and breaks it - unknowingly releasing the two massive sea creatures.

She then gets fired for stealing the sub and then buddies up to her former college professor 'Lamar Sanders' (played by Sean Lawlor) after they discover a Megalodon is loose in the Pacific. (They don't say actually how big it is, but I would guess 200 to 300 feet long - judging from its size compared to other things in the movie)

A Japanese scientist who also knows Sanders - named "Seiji Shimada" (played by Vic Chao) then shares with Emma and Lamar his discovery of a giant octupus off the coast of Japan that completely destroyed an oil rig and then the race is on to find both creatures.

Obviously, you have to watch this tongue-in-cheek to enjoy it - which is not hard to do. This is pure low-budget entertainment at its best. Sure there are some cheesy visual effects (oddly, some of the effects are great, then some are not so much). If you can ignore any logic and watch it for what it is, it's a fantastic 90 minutes. Really fun. The best scenes - of course - are when the shark and the octopus fight each other, but it is fantastic to see the badass shark bite a huge chunk out of the Golden Gate bridge (best sequence in the movie) and jump out of the water and knock an airliner of the sky (second best scene).

Funniest bits. Guy in the plane sees the shark flying up from the water to the airplane window and he says 'holy (stuff)!' and Lamas' acting - particularly after the shark bites through the bridge. Also, the way Lamas looks. Dressed in black mostly, sports jacket, PONYTAIL. Not sure if he's military or secret government - he was kind of doing things that could be considered both. It would have been cooler if he had his hair from Renegade, but I digress.

Again, this is a cheesy B-movie that happens to have recognizable people in it. Watch it with a grain of salt, then you'll love it. If you want realism, watch Shark Week on Discovery.

But, for what it is...its' great fun.

There is also a "Making of" section and a blooper reel, where apparently the shark bites through the wrong bridge and they had to do another take. Also, the octopus grabs Gibson right out of the blue.

You can buy it here or rent it at Blockbuster.

(Couldn't find the movie in order watch it...)

more to come..........

Case in point:

non-winners Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry and William Hung (in a way)
"winners": Taylor Hicks, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia

Sure, there are also winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson, but still.

American Idol should be this. Winner and winner only gets the contract. Everyone else gets nothing of the kind for like a year. Therefore, if you win...only you get the chicken dinner.

Watch the trailer here. Review coming later this week.

It's singer Debbie (now Deborah) Gibson and Lorenzo Lamas. It's a shark so large that it bites a Golden Gate-sized bridge in half (as well as a ship) against an octopus so big that one of its tentacles knocks a fighter plane out of the sky.

Brilliant.

An example.

The show was about a white NBA player - Howard - who had to retire due to injuries and was asked to coach a (fictional) high school in Los Angeles called Carver. The team was terrible and all of the students were problem kids - from the almost expelled pyromaniacs, to the criminals to the anti-establishment. But Howard's character of Ken Reeves, pulled these kids together and got them going in the right direction. Most of them.

The series was monumental in several ways. One is the it depicted high school life in Los Angeles with a raw intensity not seen up to this point. The real-life issues kids then (and still now) faced, including one of the players on the team being an innocent bystander at a robbery and getting shot.
Another reason why it was monumental is because of how it propelled MTM Enterprises to new heights. It started the production company on a path of greatness with the producers, directors and writers (as well as some of the actors) moving on to many other great shows. Other series the company producerd included St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues and those shows' producers spawned other shows Homincide: Life on the Street, Miami Vice, The Sopranos, LA Law, NYPD Blue Not the mention the comedy series they were also doing The Mary Tyler Moore Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, The Bob Newhart Show (and later, Newhart), with those produces moving on after that to do The Simpsons, Taxi and Cheers, among others. One of the main producers of the series was Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth's dad.

The third big contribution from The White Shadow was that three of the actors who played high school basketball players became accomplished television writers and directors after the series was over. Timothy Van Patten went on the direct Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, Ed, Homicide: Life on the Street, and a Deadwood episode and was nominated for six Emmys for writing and directing. Kevin Hooks also became a director, working on St. Elsewhere, Doogie Howser, Homicide: Life on the Street, ER, Lost, 24 and a score of other television series. Thomas Carter is yet another director spawned from The White Shadow, with directing credits that include Hill Street Blues, Equal Justice and Damages and a large list of other credits like the films Coach Carter and the now Untitled Jackie Robinson Movie, due out in 2010 that Robert Redford is attached to.

The White Shadow was not just a basketball show, but it was a series about kids growing up and learning how to be responsible adults - with basketball at the foreground.

The series is available to watch on Hulu.com as well as on DVD. It originally aired from 1978-1981 and is fun to watch - albeit a little dated - but it would be a good companion piece to view while watching the last part of the NBA season.

This season's batch of episodes have been particularly strong with consistently funny performances by castmembers Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig who are excelling and Seth Meyers is great anchoring Weekend Update. Armisen, Samberg, Wiig and Meyers are exceptional this season so far and Hader - who has come out of nowhere - is just as great. Will Forte as the parody of MacGyver called 'McGruber' is also very funny. Hader and Wiig are in the new movie Adventureland and Samberg is in I Love You, Man, by the way.

Some of the recent guests have been hilarious too with The Rock, Tracy Morgan, John Malkovich, Seth Rogan (last week), Alec Baldwin - again - Neil Patrick Harris, Rosario Dawson and Hugh Laurie being brilliant.
To view any clips from those particular guests go here and find some video.

Some of the highlights are:
Bill Hader as Vinny Vedecci - the Italian talk show host who interviews American actors Seth Rogan and John Malkovich (separately) in half Italian and half English. Check out the appearance of Bobby Moynihan as Vinny's man-child-son in both sketches.

Tracey Morgan's revisiting of his Brian Fellow character in 'Brian Fellow's Safari Planet' is hysterical.

'La Policia Mexicana' with Hader and guest Rosario Dawson is hysterical. As is the 'Gitmo Fire Sale Ad' with Jason Sudekis as a fast-talking agent trying to sell off parts and pieces from Guantanamo Bay.
La Policia Mexicana is here and Gitmo Fire Sale is here.

The entire show with Neil Patrick Harris as the host was fantastic and the parody of the movie Frost/Nixon called 'Frost/Other People' was exceptional.

The Wiig character of 'Virgania Horsen' who does these weird and awkward commercials for her own businesses, with one being her delivering your mail wherever you want it to go - by horse - but you have to mail it to her first. Then she'll deliver it by hand for you. Go here for that one.

Some of the raunchier elements of the show come in the form of the digital shorts segments - which are usually co-written, directed and co-starring Samberg and SNL writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone - who are collectively known as 'The Lonely Island.' The comedy group were already formed and doing things when Samberg was hired as a performer for SNL and he brought in Schaffer and Taccone to write (they're the ones responsible for the McGruber segments, among others). The three of them have made a CD of music called 'Incredibad' and have shot videos for the songs - which are the digital shorts on SNL. The incredibly raunchy songs have found a cult following on youtube and iTunes. The songs 'D*ick in a Box,' 'J**Z in My Pants,' 'I'm the Boss,' 'We Like Sportz' and 'Space Olympics' have all been featured as videos on the show as has their first segment, which is the gangsta rap song/video by Natalie Portman, which appeared in the show first in 2006. That was them too - not many people know that. 'I'm the Boss' just aired for the first time last week. Oh, also 'Ras Trent' as also appeared in the show, where Samberg plays a dorky, blond college kid with dreadlocks who has converted to Rastafarianism.

Try to catch the videos on NBC.com. Some of the featured ones are fantastically funny. Oh, and check out Fred Armisen as Boy George during Weekend Update. Classic.

Guaranteed funny SNL that should happen very soon. JASON SEGEL. Someone make that happen please.