Entertainment Blog

If anybody’s been complaining about the lack of things to do in East Lansing over the summer, they’ve been walking around with their eyes shut.

This is the first summer I’ve stayed in East Lansing, and I’ve been really surprised by the amount of things the city has to offer its residents — there was the Art Festival in May, the Summer Solstice Jazz Festival in June and this weekend is the Great Lakes Folk Festival, which I personally am the most excited about.

Walking leisurely through the city, listening to folk music playing on different stages for three full days sounds like my idea of a relaxing way to spend the weekend.

And apparently, not only will there be music, but there will be art and workshops available, as well.

In my hometown of Rochester, Mich., we have about two festivals — one for Labor Day weekend and one for Memorial Day weekend. Neither of them involve music.

It proves that this city is more than just a college town in that there are such large events during the summer when the majority of students aren’t around.

For most of my three years here, I’ve spent my time so wrapped up in things around campus that it’s taken me until this summer to realize — this city is pretty cool.

Paris Hilton as president of the United States — as if.

The “that’s hot” heiress was dragged into the presidential race by a John McCain campaign ad that attacked Barack Obama for his celebrity status and responded by creating a campaign ad for herself.

The Hilton ad was posted on Funny or Die and is a brilliantly hilarious, political-ad satire with a wonderfully ridiculous pop culture twist.

The ad opens with the melodramatic voice-over: “He is the oldest celebrity in the world, like super old. Old enough to remember when dancing was a sin and beer was served in a bucket. But is he ready to lead?”

A picture of the Golden Girls fades into images of Larry King, Yoda and the KFC Colonel. Relevant? Not at all. Hilarious? Totally.

Sitting on a lounge chair in a classy leopard-print bathing suit, Hilton said: “Hey, America. I am Paris Hilton, and I am a celebrity, too. Only I am not from the olden days, and I am not promising change like that other guy. I’m just hot.”

That wrinkly white-haired guy either got himself in a world of a mess or made a brilliant political move by putting Hilton and Britney Spears in his ad. On one hand, the ad shows at least he is young enough to be down with current popular culture, negating some of the oldest man in the world jokes. Yet, he also brought Hilton, who is dreaming of painting the White House pink, into the mix. She was able to rattle out a McCain-Obama hybrid energy plan that would wow many a cynical Hilton-haters.

On second thought, McCain should be worried about the effect of the ad, because when Hilton shows you up with her own talk of an energy plan, you have got problems.

Loves it.

I remember thinking TV dramas were for lame adults not too long ago. Then again, “when I was a kid,” nobody ever put on “Weeds.”

The premise is relatively simple: Upscale suburban “MILF” sells pot to maintain family and lifestyle after her husband dies. However, it’s the little things that make this series as memorable as it is thought-provoking.

Said MILF, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) has eyes so arresting, I don’t see how the actress can go anywhere without freezing men like deer in headlights. And in realistic fashion, the woman does some truly dumb things in her desperate bid to succeed as both a mother and a drug dealer. But she looks damn cute doing them.

Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon), is the most lovable dude ever. Every single thing he says or does elicits a dimpled grin at the very least. From chucking staplers to pulling one over on whomever he wants, he sticks it to every evil concept or character in the show. If anyone I know (fictional or otherwise) has the cahones to steal a 50-foot cross off of a church, it’s Councilman Doug. This role just makes me say “God, I love Kevin Nealon,” like six times per episode.

Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk), Nancy’s brother-in-law, can deliver a mean monologue. Check the introductory masturbation talk he delivers to Shane Botwin (Alexander Gould) in Season Two and tell me if you’ve heard a better put-together, more hilarious single-speaker scenario. The idiotic antics he puts out are second to none, and he gets some very nice, uh, tail, like all the time.

And, of course, the world’s most self-righteous bitty, Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins) will keep viewers squirming.

“Weeds’” general what-lies-beneath theme, which pervades each episode to some extent, applies principles of love and laughter to the general population that it commentaries on. It translucifies boundaries we all think exist in life applying to relationships, attitudes, and taboos — not to mention sex.

Its at-first seemingly static characters develop as they make stupid decisions and learn. Its gravity is offset by well-timed (sometimes surprise) humor, and its characters relate to anyone who has been through the public school system, let alone heard of drugs.

If only a few more shows made you feel like the writers and actors had actually been through the things they do on screen…

The end of summer is a lot different in college than it was in high school.

I remember in high school, as soon as August hit, a slight feeling of dread would fill my stomach. While I’d still be spending my days lazing around with my friends or up north with my family, there would always be the thought in the back of my mind that everything was coming to an end.

As soon as school started again, we’d all have a countdown to the next summer.

But in college, it seems like everybody can’t wait for school to start again — for very valid reasons. You get to be around all of your friends you haven’t seen in months. You get the excitement of being around 40,000 people your own age. You get to get away from your hometown, and that terrible summer job.

It’s kind of funny how in the last month of summer, it sort of seems like everybody just tries to make the days rush by.
But, if you are still looking to get in as many fun-filled days spent in the sun as possible, I would suggest going to the East Lansing Family Aquatic Center, 6400 Abbot Road.

My friends and I sort of stumbled upon the center the other day when we were looking for something to take up our Saturday. At first we were sort of dubious about how fun a water center could be, but we ended up leaving about five hours after we arrived, burnt, worn out and laughing about how great the day was.

I mean, really. A pool. Waterslides. Plenty of chairs to lay out on. What’s not to like? It kind of reminded me of being young again and how I would spend my summers in middle school and high school.

And besides that, it’s always fun to go somewhere new with friends. If the price is only $6 a day, what’s the risk?

Whether you’re an ABBA fan or someone who simply enjoys light, feel-good movie- musicals, “Mamma Mia!” is worth checking out.

I saw “Mamma Mia!,” starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski and Julie Walters, this weekend with a few friends, and based on the rows of people behind us that could be heard singing along, I’m pretty sure nearly everyone in the theater enjoyed the experience.

Having never seen the musical, which is based mostly on some of the popular ABBA songs of the 70s and early 80s, I went in with only a vague idea of the story line, and although it was fairly predictable, it was entertaining.

Set on a Greek island, the romantic comedy tells the story of a 20-year-old girl who’s soon to be married and searching for her father, who she’s never met. The movie is aesthetically appealing, the characters are funny, and the costumes are flashy and elaborate — especially at the end.

The singing is intentionally poor — to the extent that when Brosnan began his first solo song, one of my friends covered her ears and gasped in disbelief at the sound — but it’s all in good humor.

“Mamma Mia!” seems to appeal to a predominantly female audience, but anyone who appreciates musicals or lighthearted movies is sure to enjoy it.

Despite my job as entertainment reporter requiring that I moonlight as an expert on what’s cool in the East Lansing area, I still enjoy being a video game geek in my spare time.

Although the post-graduation realities of the real world put quite a damper on my “go into the local mall and leave with at least two games” days, I’m quite happy with the few games I do play on my XBox 360.

That said, whenever my ex-roommate brings his Nintendo Wii along for the occasional visit to East Lansing, I can spend a good hour or two — or three — playing “Super Smash Bros. Brawl.”

It reminds me of how popular the concept always was — match up your favorite video game superheroes (and villains) and argue with your friends about who’d take who if given a chance.

The crossover genre is nothing new, as we’ve had the Smash Bros. series, “Marvel vs. Capcom,” and the latest attempt — “Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.”

I’m not too fond of the direction in which MK vs. DCU seems to be headed based on the screenshots, trailers, and E3 coverage I’ve seen of it so far. Once again though, the true intrigue comes from the fantasy showdowns.

The promotional poster features Sub-Zero and Batman, who by my account pose the most believable matchup for video game pundits to argue over. The way Midway Games Inc. positions Sub-Zero as a world class warrior puts him on level plane with the most mortal superhero DC has to offer. I’m not implying that makes Batman weak, but it seems much more feasible in the video game realm.

In most other instances, I don’t believe you can put characters from Mortal Kombat on the same plane as DC — you couldn’t make me believe a character like Sonya Blade could hang with Superman unless the battlefield is entirely Kryptonite.

Then again, the geek present in me is simply overthinking and not taking the game for what it is — an obvious attempt to cash in on the popularity of the franchises and offer multiplayer “you lose you pass the controller” opportunities.

After all, it is an opportunity to bully around Aquaman — possibly the worst superhero any comic has to offer.

Driving around East Lansing on a daily basis, I constantly find all my favorite radio stations are filled with annoying commercials or boring morning talk shows.

Many in my position have the luxury of resolving such a problem by popping in a CD or hooking up an iPod.

But for me, the owner of a broken iPod and a car without a CD player, when this problem occurs, I’m forced to either ride in silence or listen to the annoying voices being broadcast through my speakers.

This is a predicament I’d been dealing with all summer until recently, when I rediscovered the power of cassette tapes.

I know that compared to CDs, the sound quality of a tape may be a little worse and the inconvenience of having to fast-forward through songs instead of simply skipping tracks can be tedious, but having the opportunity to jam in my car makes me feel alive once again.

It’s amazing how much shorter a long trip can seem when you have your favorite songs playing through your stereo instead of driving in silence or having to listen to the sound of other motorists around you.

However, taking the time to make the tapes is well worth the hassle, even if I do feel a little embarrassed to be the only person I know that still has a collection of cassette tapes sitting in their car.

I have at least five mosquito bites on my right foot alone from an excursion I took with a friend Friday night. They itch so horribly, I can’t wear socks and shoes, but anyone reading this knows how a mosquito bite feels: They’re part of the human experience nearly everyone has shared.

Which brings me to another thing nearly everyone has experience with: playgrounds. It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that the structures — particularly big wooden ones with monkey bars and little rope courses and slides — are more fun than they probably should be. For adults.

Here in East Lansing, there’s such an elaborate construction in John M. Patriarche Park, which I swear was lifted straight from my hometown of Livonia, rearranged and dropped into the place it stands at Alton Road and E. Saginaw Street, complete with woodchips and oversized tractor tires.

Except this one is better. And not just because we ran into other college kids there and proceeded to explore the wooden jungle in the dark.

It came up in conversation that night that this town seems to be fantastic until you hit the five-year mark of residency, at which point you’ll hate life, I’m told, and become seized by the overwhelming desire to escape even if you have to claw your way out.

The element that gives me faith in this city over others lies in its mirror imagery.

East Lansing has things that exist everywhere else: malls, parks, streets that don’t get plowed, curmudgeonly neighbors, and the like. We manufacture and redistribute everything — even the cut of the wood in Patriarche Park is identical to Beverly Park back home — but this place has more like-minded people than a crappy suburb like the place I grew up.

In an absolutely duplication-prone world, it’s nice to think I can still play lava tag with some random girls at 4 a.m. without feeling outright sketchy.

Katy Perry performed her hit single “I Kissed A Girl” on “The View” this morning, and in return, Whoopi Goldberg kissed the singer on the lips. This pop-rock song is a juggernaut that will get stuck in your head and make you question your boundaries.

The song “I Kissed A Girl” has been No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the last five weeks, which is a complete shock, because who is this girl?

The California-based, 23-year-old singer/songwriter just released her debut album, “One of the Boys,” this past June, and now she is the girl of the summer with the song of the summer.

No one even knew Perry’s name until April when Madonna praised Perry’s single “Ur So Gay” on an Arizona morning radio show. Since then, Perry released her now infamous song, and she’s everywhere.

The first time I heard the single, I was pleasantly surprised by the singer’s raspy rock voice, but I was not impressed by the song. I thought this girl was pushed by a label to cash in on the bisexual draw like Tila Tequila, but now I can’t get the song out of my head.

I have grown to like the woman empowering pop-rock song because it has a good beat to dance to and a very catchy chorus that is fun to sing to.

Although Perry’s two hit singles are getting some flack for being homophobic, I think it’s harmless, and if anything, very reminiscent of Madonna.

After more consideration of Perry’s work, I have found her to be a pretty genuine artist, and I think we will be seeing her on the pop charts for a long time to come.

Call me a nerd, but I’m pretty excited for Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 333 E. Grand River Ave., to have another party.

On Aug. 1, the bookstore is celebrating the midnight release of “Breaking Dawn,” the last book in Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” series.

I haven’t actually read the books — a vampire series just didn’t sound very appealing to me. But then again, a wizarding series didn’t sound very good either and I ended up one of the world’s biggest Harry Potter fans.

But, walking through the store the other day, I saw the flier advertising the party, featuring snacks, crafts and encouraging people to dress up.

There’s just something I love about being around people all together with the same interest, excitedly waiting to find out what happens next in their favorite saga. For a little while, everyone’s completely connected.

It’s just really cool to see that a book can be that powerful.

Maybe I’ll pick up the first book in the series today on my way back from work — I’m kind of curious to see what all the fuss is about.