Jada stopped by to visit...

You'll be hearing a lot about Jada over the next year. Imagine the Spice Girls without all the goofy nicknames and other gimmicks. Just pure singing talent here.

Their new single "American Cowboy" will be released February 17th, with the full album coming out in June.

They stopped by the station today and performed acapella for us. Wow - I was amazed. And even better - in addition to being incredible singers, they're so nice. I wish I had a camera phone as I would have loved for you to see this too. I'm now thinking maybe I should get one.

But for now, see a performance they did on "The Ultimate Prom", then visit their MySpace page to learn more about Jada.

Solitary 3.0

If Amazing Race should ever go away, this will become my favorite reality show.

I found out about it after the first season had aired. I became instantly obsessed and watched the entire season over a weekend. Same with the second season.

I won't do that with season 3 though as it's airing now on both the Fox Reality Channel and online for free at Hulu.com! (You can also watch seasons 1 & 2 free on Hulu.)

Go see the only reality show where a virtual host (VAL) is the player's only companion and the players are pretty much playing against themselves, as it's all just mind games on Solitary!

Survivor: Tocantins - Season 18

A big twist this season has been all over the promos for the show. Someone from each tribe will be voted off almost immediately. First impressions is all that'll be based on.

What's your first impressions of the contestants? There's a middle school principal, a soccer coach, a hairstylist, a cattle rancher, a former pop star (from SWV), two models, and nine others. Meet them all here.

And get ready for the 18th season of Survivor starting Thursday, February 12th on CBS.

The Amazing Race - Season 14

I can't wait until the return of my favorite reality show on-air!

Teams this season include former NFL cheerleaders, stuntmen brothers, flight attendants, a mom and her deaf son, sibling lawyers, and six other teams.

After seeing the video clips of each team, you'll be all set for the 14th running of The Amazing Race, starting Sunday, February 15th at 8pm on CBS.

Celebrity Apprentice - Season 2

Piers Morgan was the first Celebrity Apprentice last season. Who will be the second?

Maybe Andrew Dice Clay (although I really doubt that). Possibly Joan or Melissa Rivers (if they can manage to not offend one or all of the Trump clan). Dennis Rodman I'm thinking might have a good shot at winning the whole thing. We'll see soon.

Meet all the celebrities for the upcoming season here and then get set for Celebrity Apprentice 2, coming Sunday, March 1st at 9pm on NBC!

Biggest 80's Party...

The Biggest 80's Party was last night at Club Infinity. And if you were scared to go out in the cold and ended up missing it, well too bad for you. We had a great time!

Roar 84 was incredible. The outfits were totally bodacious and the music was awesome! My personal favorite last night - I Want Candy. Wow! Check out their video.

Excuria Salon & Spa was also there to help turn everyone's hair into 80's hair and they offered up some cool prizes for the outfit and big hair contests.

Bill Parker, a dyno photographer from Buffalo.com's Spotted, was also there and took over 200 pictures! See one of them below (that's me with the totally 80's Excuria Salon & Spa experts as we figure out who's winning the big hair contest). Click on the picture to see all the rest of Bill's excellent pictures...

80's game shows...

Back in July, I posted about some of my favorite game shows from the 80's (Pitfall, All Star Blitz, and Press Your Luck). Here's a few more that I miss. Click on the name of the show to see an episode on YouTube. And e-mail me if you think of any I missed...

Scrabble: Ran on NBC from 1984 - 1990 and then again briefly in 1993. I liked Merv Griffin's Crosswords last year, but Scrabble was far better. And a lot funnier thanks to its host Chuck Woolery and some of the crazy contestants (like Sang in this clip).

Yahtzee: It was kind of a rip off of Hollywood Squares complete with Peter Marshall as the host. The show didn't do well though and disappeared quickly, lasting about 8 months in 1988. The rules for certain situations were unbelievably confusing and in the beginning, the host and the celebrities had no idea what to do at times! And there's rumors that some contestants never received their winnings thanks to some financial troubles. But it sure was fun to watch during its short run.

Truth Or Consequences: I loved every single one of the 60 episodes. It ran in syndication during the 1987 season and featured contestants who had practical jokes played on them. Many had no idea the real reason they were even on the show, playing one game while another went on behind them. The host's goofy sidekick was The Unknown Comic unmasked, making the show that much funnier!

Classic Concentration: The game show based on rebus puzzles with Alex Trebek as the host. Original episodes ran on NBC from 1987 - 1991. Even though all the episodes of the show still exist, it's never seen in reruns. For some reason, NBC hasn't made them available yet. Hopefully, they'll sell them soon so a cable network can pick it up. In the meantime, below is one of the Classic Concentration rebus puzzles. If you can't figure it out, click on the picture and the answer will be revealed.

Broadway stops!

I'm not a big Broadway fan. But I think it would have been fun to see this show.

Patti LuPone went nuclear the other night during her Broadway production of "Gypsy". An audience member was taking pictures during the show. Patti noticed and stopped the show to let them have it.

Unknown to her, someone else was recording the audio of all this on their cell phone. Which of course is also wrong. But that's far better than a camera flash.

Here's the audio of the whole thing. The volume's low, but it's better than nothing.

Now I hate to make fun of this, because Patti LuPone was so right calling that audience member out and then getting them thrown out of the theatre. But here's another video on YouTube that's so clever, I had to share it with you. It's a "remix" of the incident called "LuPWNed!".

Telemarketers!!!

I do not EVER want to be bothered when I'm at home by annoying sales pitches on the phone. Especially since I'm on the Do Not Call list.

Like I would ever buy or get anything from someone that randomly calls me at home anyways (only scammers sell things that way). And when they call, it's usually someone who can't pronounce even my first name (John apparently being a name that's very hard to say).

Here's a website you might appreciate if you've been getting those annoying telemarketing calls and you're wondering exactly who's calling you.

It's WhoCallsMe. If you've got caller ID and the number actually shows up, go to this website and you'll see who else has been getting called by them and what the call is about (if anyone has been able to figure that out).

Here's one telemarketing call I got not too long ago. I never got to talk to them though - they just kept calling and calling and leaving messages on my machine.

Remakes...

There's a few incredible remakes that have come out recently. I always list what I consider to be the best of the new releases on the right side of my blog. These are definitely included...

Something About You - Lucas Prata: This stays true to the original from Level 42 (at least the version available on iTunes does - not so much for the version on Lucas' MySpace page). You couldn't ask for a better remake than the iTunes version. Lucas Prata has been on the verge of hitting it big for quite a while now. If this officially gets released to stations as a single, maybe this'll do it for him.

Reach Out - Hilary Duff: It's a partial remake of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus. I didn't think I'd like this when I first heard about it because remaking a Depeche Mode classic can never be even remotely as good as the original. But this manages to come close I think. She's definitely moved away from the Disney image now.

To Be With You (Single Edit) - Andrew Spencer: I know you remember the original power balled from the early 90's by Mr. Big. Well now it's been turned into a dance song and I like it even better than Mr. Big's version!

All of these mentioned above can be purchased on iTunes.

Cruise with New Kids On The Block...

Go on a concert cruise with the New Kids On The Block to the Bahamas!

It's roundtrip from Miami, FL May 15 - 18 and the tickets went on sale today.

It'll include live shows, meet & greets, and a trip to the Bahamas. Make your reservation through the New Kids On The Block website.

American Idol 8!

So who's going to make it to Hollywood? Someone who must have a lot of spare time on their hands has scoured the internet searching for clues on MySpace and FaceBook. Here's their results (warning: there ARE spoilers). It's a mix of contestant websites for those who made it to Hollywood and some of the insane who never even had a chance.

One of the MySpace pages mentioned on that site is for Joanna Pacitti, who's already causing controversy for the show. A lot of people seem to think that she's a plant. She's just too good. And she's already had quite a bit of recording experience, having had songs on the Legally Blonde and Bratz soundtracks. Hmmmm.

One of last season's controversies is releasing a five-song EP AND a memoir! I don't think this is what the world needs right now, but we're going to get it anyways. Preview Sanjaya Malakar's songs and if you really want to punish yourself, order his book at Amazon.com.

My Grandmother...

This is a really rotten week for me. My Grandma Grace passed away on Monday.

Monday night, I had to rush to Rochester for a final goodbye. She's been in and out of consciousness the past few weeks, so I was fortunate to have the chance to see her just once more while she was able to respond.

She's had problems with her stomach all her life. The surgery on it went great. It was the recovery that didn't. She tried her best though (and so did all the doctors and nurses).

Here's a picture from her 85th birthday party last March. That's my cousins in the background and I'm holding my niece, who "helped" Grandma blow out the candles.

I tried to find a picture of my Grandma drenching us all with a Super-Soaker at a picnic not too long ago or a shot of her watching my brother's band in Rochester. But I didn't have the time today to be digging through all the family albums.

I sure wish she was still here - she had a lot of life left in her. And she's definitely missed already.