Curled up on my chaise-flippin’ freezing…catching up on some work.  Looking forward to the Grammy’s tonight.  Can’t wait to see Mary J. Blige and Andrea Boccelli  perform ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters.’  Year of women as far as nominations go.  Beyonce leads the pack with 10.  Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga should walk out with an award or two.  Not crazy about Beyonce-kinda overexposed if you ask me.  I love Lady Gaga! 

Last night me, my husband and a neighborhood couple went to Salvatore’s new steak house.  WOW!  We went early to have some drinks in the lounge,  exellent ‘wines by the glass’  beautiful decor…The whole foyer, lounge and restaurant is breathtaking…The food was out of this world.  Tuna Carpaccio and Artichokes to start, then a salad with a pistaschio crusted goat cheese wedge…followed by lobster macaroni and goat cheest encrusted filet mignon.  Everything was incredible.  A little pricey, but very good. I guess if I ranked my favorite restaurants it would go something like this:  Hutch’s, San Marco, Chop House, Tempo, Salvatores, Bacchus.  God I’m making myself hungry.

Flashmobs have suddenly been popping up all over the place.

This one isn’t as big as the Christmas flashmob at the Carousel Mall, but it’s still a good one. It happened a couple weeks ago at the Opry Mills Mall in Nashville…

   LOST returns Tuesday night on ABC, but many in Hawaii have    already seen the first hour.  Check out this article from the Honolulu Advertiser about the “on the beach” premiere party, attended by many of the cast.  Very cool.

Solitary 4.0 will air Saturday nights at 10pm Eastern on the Fox Reality Channel starting this Saturday.

And hopefully, the episodes will be available to watch free starting the day after their original airings on hulu.com.

Licensing is such a pain. Why can’t everything be available to buy on the US iTunes store?

The first song not available in the US is a very retro sounding song by a group called The Baseballs – it’s now making it’s way up the charts overseas.

Then it’s a song that’s already on the Canadian charts by The Stereos…

While flipping around the Sundance On Demand cable channels a few weeks ago , I came across Elvis Costello’s “Spectacle,”  a show in which he interviews and plays with other major artists.  What a great program!  The success of a show like this is all dependant on the host, and in the few episodes I’ve seen, Elvis does a great job bringing the best out of his guests.  

They recently taped the final installment of “Spectacle,” in which Elvis’ guest was Bruce Springsteen.  The normal 2 1/2 hour recording turned into a 5 hour Bruce fest!  Check out the details in this NY Daily News article.  Can’t wait to see it!

Some of the best new songs are never released in the US.

Here’s two perfect examples from last year – Nexx with Synchronize Lips and Donkeyboy with Ambitions.

I’ve been waiting and waiting for these songs to show up on iTunes, amazon.com mp3 downloads, or even in a local store – but it’s just not happening.

Rod’s “ONCE IN ABLUE MOON” is out and it’s one he recorded back in 1992. Pieces have been released in different forms around the world, but 6 tracks have never been released in North America. Rod’s versions of the Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday,” Bob Dylan’s “The Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar,” and Stevie Nicks’ “Stand Back” are all on it, and maybe because Rod recorded “Unplugged…And Seated” back in 1993 (which sold over 3 Million copies) is the reason he didn’t release “Once In A Blue Moon?” Look for it in a retro CD long box at your favorite store.

This morning, our newscasts included the story of a Marine from my hometown of Hornell being killed in Afghanistan.  I did not know Zachary Smith, but graduated with and hung around in school with his Uncle Matt.  Zachary’s dad Chris was a little older than me, but growing up I knew him pretty well too.  They lived just two streets away from me.  My two brothers and mom were, and are much closer to the Smith family and are hit hard by this loss, as is the whole town of Hornell. 

Please take a few minutes to check out the fine stories that the Hornell Evening Tribune published in tribute to Zachary.   Do not miss clicking on the photo gallery.  From prom pictures to high school football pics, it truly tells the story of what my hometown is all about, and what growing up in the USA should be all about.  

Thoughts and prayers to the Smith Family.

But don’t look for it in stores. It’s only available at shoutfactory.com.

Season 4 is when the show really started getting funny and I consider it the highpoint of the series. Season 5 is equally as good.

Season 6 I can’t really comment much on since most of those episodes didn’t air in syndication or during their original run in Rochester. But Shout! Factory is hinting that the season 5 & 6 DVDs will probably be out soon.

Here are the pics that go with my “Stupid Rob Story” of backing our rental car into a Palm Tree while on vacation on Longboat Key, Florida.  The damage isn’t as bad as it looks.  First the damage, then the offending palm tree.  I went straight back, when I should have cut it to the right a little more.  Much more.

First time using our new software to post my blog.  Lets see how this goes…Weekend was awesome!  Friday I hosted the Star 102.5 Happy Hour at Rane party bar in West Seneca.  It went great.  Joe, David and the whole crew were awesome!  We had drinks, some fun contests qand they laid out a spread of food, that shot down any chance of dinner…Can’t wait for this Friday!  Join me won’t you?

Hubby and Idid end up going out for a little food.  Drinks and a cheese flight at the Wine Thief on Elmwood Ave.  Perfect…the next night was dinner with friends at Trattoria Aroma!  I’m exhausted. 

Day 25 of Pilates.  starting to feel a little firmer and feel a lot stronger.  No weight loss though….But with all these dinners out….

Looking forward to the work week, even if its five days long this time..

The whole Conan/Leno Tonight Show fiasco makes the David Letterman escape to CBS back in ‘92 seem tame – and they made an HBO movie out of that whole story! One would think the once mighty NBC would have learned something from that experience, since most of the same players are still calling the shots at 30 Rock.

Nope.

Check out a truly bizarre animated cartoon explaining the so-called “Late Night Wars,” direct from Taiwan’s Apple Action News here.

Making them into Super Heroes was a nice touch, Apple Action News animators!

So Conan gets 7 months before being called an “astounding failure” by NBC exec Dick Ebersol. Seven months, which believe it or not isn’t the shortest tenure as host of the Tonight Show. (There were two hosts in 6 months between Steve Allen and Jack Paar back in the late 50s.)

Given Conan’s gargantuan #1 ratings in his final week, can you still honestly make that assessment Mr. Ebersol?

I was thinking about all this until the news from Haiti started to roll in last week. With 150,000 people dead, suddenly who hosts The Tonight Show ceases to even be interesting anymore.

And watching tonight’s Extreme Home Makeover, while I was choked up to see all the good that happened on Buffalo’s west side (Thanks ABC!), what was more amazing to me was how much that shipment of shoes meant to the children of Jamaica, in Delores Powell’s former home town.

$45 million dollars was what Conan O’Brien got just to walk away from NBC. That would buy a lot of shoes. It would pay for a lot of construction in Haiti, and New Orleans, and Mississippi.

Priorities.

–Brian

Who knew that Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty is actually from West Seneca?! Well, sort of.

Carly Donowick can be seen skating as Priness Aurora in Disney On Ice Presents Princess Classics at the HSBC Arena through Sunday.

I talked with her earlier about who else she portays in the show, how she got started skating, whether she’s interested in becoming an Olympic skater, and what skating jumps we can see in Disney On Ice.

Hear the full interview (including parts that didn’t air on Star 102.5) here.

And buy your tickets to see Disney On Ice at the HSBC Arena website.

If I get to that point I will let you know!