Archive for April 15th, 2009
April 15th, 2009
KISS might return to the MetroCentre in Rockford for a fifth time soon if the costumed glam hard-rockers get enough votes online.
KISS is pitting cities against each other to help the band route its next tour. You can vote once by going to metrocentre.com. You also can post the voting link to your MySpace page or Web site to encourage others to vote.
Matt Mohr, MetroCentre spokesman, said he is unsure when the tour might take place or even if KISS might play in Rockford. But if Rockford is among the top vote-getters, it could make it easier to book the band for a show, he said.
Led by frontman Gene Simmons, KISS is known more for its theatrics than its first Top 10 hit, the ballad, “Beth” in 1976. KISS played at the MetroCentre in 1982, 1986, 1998 and 2000.
April 15th, 2009
Tinted Windows, the new pop/rock supergroup that includes Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos of the Rockford area, will play next week on two national night talk shows:
Tuesday, April 21, the day its debut, self-titled album is released, on CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman,” WIFR-23 (Comcast 5);
Thursday, April 23, on NBC’s “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” WREX-13 (Comcast 3).
Other members of the group are former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, Hanson’s Taylor Hanson on vocals and Fountains Of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger. The group’s April 30 show at the Double Door in Chicago is sold out.
Carlos said today that the Rockford-based power pop group Cheap Trick, with whom he continues to play, expects to release a new album this summer, maybe in June.
April 15th, 2009
The resurging and government-supported physical and emotional abuse of women in Afghanistan by men was center stage (Wednesday) in Kabul.
According to this Associated Press story: “A group of some 1,000 Afghans swarmed a demonstration of 300 women protesting against a new conservative marriage law on Wednesday. The women were pelted with small stones as police struggled to keep the two groups apart. The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse — a clause that critics say legalizes marital rape. It also regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.”
The image of stones being thrown at the protesters evoked images for me of “The Stoning of Soroya M.” I reviewed the movie at its U.S. premiere in February at the Beloit International Film Festival. While the film focuses on a brutal practice in Iran, and actor and director of the film who spoke after the premiere said stoning takes place in other countries as well, such as Afghanistan. And while the movie was set in 1986, they said it still continues today.
It’s easy to see how what the Afghan women are protesting about today could set the stage for greater acceptance of stoning women to death for alleged marital problems. The film will be released nationally on June 26 and is partly funded by Diane Hendricks of ABC Supply Co. in Beloit, Wis.
April 15th, 2009
Climate change: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin acknowledges global warming is affecting her state
But the former GOP vice presidential candidate contends gas drilling will help curb rising temperatures, according to this Chicago Tribune story.
