Be one "Degree of Kevin Bacon"

So everyone in Hollywood can be linked to Kevin Bacon by no more than six steps.

Seriously ... name someone. Anyone!

Jeanine Garofalo? She was in "Reality Bites" with Winona Rider, who was in "Heathers" with Christian Slater, who was in "Interview with the Vampire" with Tom Cruise, who was in "A Few Good Men" with ... Kevin Bacon!!!

See? Easy, right? Hence the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon."

Well, Sunday, you can be your own degree if you head to the Columbia County Fair in Chatham.

Kevin and his brother, Michael, will bring their Bacon Brothers band to the main stage for concerts at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

OK, follow me on this one:

If you go to the show on Sunday, you can tell your friends and neighbors that you saw the Bacons. This way, next week, they can tell their co-workers, "You work with me, who lives next to (your name here), who saw a concert starring Kevin Bacon!" Fun, huh?

For more information on the fair, click here.

I thought it was kinda to go from Poughkeepsie to Chatham, but it's only 56 miles.

Free concert at the mall Saturday

Doing any back-to-school shopping at Poughkeepsie Galleria tomorrow?

Stop by center court at 2 p.m. Saturday as local radio station Star 93 (that's 93.3 on your FM dial) presents a live, acoustic concert from Josh Thompson.

Admittedly, I've never heard of him, but he's got his own Web site, where I learned these little tidbits I thought I'd share with you if you're headed to the mall...

* He's 18 years old, and just finished his last year of high school;

* In the past year, he's performed more than 200 times in the southeast, sharing the stage with such acts as Brian Litrell (he of Backstreet Boys fame) and Teddy Geiger;

* His big single is "Sunshine," a cover of the song Johnathan Edwards (no, not the "Crossing Over" guy!) made famous in the '70s. Edwards even appears on Thompson's cover of "Sunshine."

I just listened to a sample of Thompson's "Sunshine" on iTunes, and I think I've heard his version before on Radio Disney. (Did I share too much there?! Seriously, who's surprised I listen to Radio Disney from time to time?)

So there ya go. Take a break from buying all those No. 2 pencils, scientific calculators and spiral notebooks and catch a free concert at the Poughkeepsie Galleria tomorrow.

Remember, even *NSync and Hanson played malls before they blew up.

Put on your "Dancing" shoes, Jennie

Following fellow "Beverly Hills, 90210" alum Ian Ziering, Jennie Garth will join the competition on "Dancing with the Stars" next season, which begins in the fall.

Jennie (seen at right) played the awesomely hot (that's totally an early '90s term!) Kelly Taylor on "90210," the ex-GF of Ian's Steve Sanders.

Ian made it to the semifinals of Season 4 of "Dancing with the Stars," only to fall to eventual champ Apolo Anton Ohno last spring.

Along with Jennie, here are the other contestants for Season 5:

√ Sabrina Bryan (She of Cheetah Girls fame)
√ Melanie Brown ("Scary Spice"/Eddie Murphy's baby mama)
√ Mark Cuban (Owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, talks a lot)
√ Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Punches guys with boxing gloves on)
√ Helio Castroneves (Drives cars in circles really, really fast)
√ Marie Osmond (Prettiest of all the Osmonds)
√ Wayne Newton (Mr. Las Vegas, but he's no Barry Manilow)
√ Cameron Mathison (Soap star? Anyone heard of him?)
√ Jane Seymour (Former medicine woman)
√ Albert Reed (They say he's a model)
√ Josie Maran (They say she's a model)

Getting back to "90210," I actually met Ian Ziering at the South Hills when Bob's Stores opened up there. I was a freshman in college (so we're talking either fall of '92 or spring of '93) and the "90210" hoopla was in full effect.

Ian was there signing autographs, and about 2,000 teeny-boppers and I waited a few hours to meet him. It was all good, though, 'cause I was taller than all the 12-year-old girls there, so I got to see it all and finally met Ian.

For someone who played a jerk on the show, he was actually very friendly at the signing — it turned out better than my Ricky Schroeder autograph signing saga — and look ... 15 years later, I'm still telling this story!

"Big Brother" is still on???

Flipping channels last week, I came across something on CBS that blew my mind:

"Big Brother" is still on the air! Who knew?!

I remember investing waaaaay too much time to the first season of the reality show, watching both on TV (it seemed like that first season was on every night) and even online from the office (that was before my current job, of course!) and coming away from that first season emotionally drained.

Once they started this whole Head of Household thing, I totally stopped watching.

I did, though, try to make my way through that all-star season, but I just couldn't do it. "Chicken George," though, drove me nuts.

Then, as my curiosity was piqued, I checked the Associated Press files and found these pics of cast members from this, the eighth season of "Big Brother." Again, this is the eighth season of the show!

BTW ... who are these people?!

Yeah, back in the day I was totally into shows like "Survivor" and "American Idol," though I've since voted the former "off the island" and haven't watched the latter consistently the past few seasons.

(I will, though, have to pick up my "AI" viewing, watching for the next Taylor Hicks or Bo Bice.)

So, what have I missed the past seven seasons???

TELL ME you saw this!!!

Lauren Caitlin Upton, Miss South Carolina (seen here at right), was totally confused last Friday night, when answering a question posed by a judge at the Miss Teen USA pageant.


One of the judges asked Lauren why 1/5 of Americans can't point out the U.S. on a map of the world.

Talking about "U.S. Americans" and mentioning "the Iraq" in her answer, Lauren made for hilarious television when she gave her answer. She also mentions that some U.S. Americans don't have maps! Makes sense, right?!

Unfortunately, The Man won't let me actually show you the video, so head over here to watch the YouTube video that's gotten more than 4.5 million hits!

And yes, that is "Saved By The Bell" alum Mario Lopez (you might know him as A.C. Slater) and look ... unlike Slater, he's actually wearing sleeves!

Stand still, look pretty ... take the picture!

Well, not only did Michelle Branch and fellow Wrecker Jessica Harp put on a great show at the Dutchess County Fair in Rhinebeck last night, she was also gracious enough to snap a pic with me after the concert...

I know, I know: I looked surprised I'm getting my picture taken! Oh, and nice red-eye, right?! I just don't photograph well. I think Michelle does this more than me.

The title of this entry is an obvious play on words, taken from The Wreckers' "Stand Still, Look Pretty" CD.

Michelle was also nice enough to take a pic with my GF, but if you remember the Liev Schreiber meeting, she's a lil' shy.

After singing "Leave the Pieces" and then an encore, Jessica left for her tour bus (they'd said earlier they have a 20-hour drive to Kansas City ahead of them), but Michelle signed autographs for fans for about 15 minutes.

Still, Michelle was gracious enough to stop for a minute and really make our day 'cause the concert was honestly the only reason we even went to the fair.

Oh! Making the night even more fun for my fav U2 fan, Michelle sang "Pride (In the Name of Love)" as a solo, saying she'd done the song in sound checks recently, but this was the first time she'd done it for an audience.

And if that wasn't enough fun, I won a stuffed Stewie Griffin at the fair! (I'm so proud.) Thank you, Whack-A-Mole!

No, really ... I'm sure that's an officially licensed "Family Guy" product. No, seriously ... it's gotta be, right?

Bo Bice or Taylor Hicks? You decide...

So, high off last week’s Taylor Hicks show here in town, someone in the office asked me:

“Which concert was better, Bo Bice or Taylor Hicks?” he pondered, knowing I’d seen both this summer.

And it got me thinking: Which one was better?

I mean, they both were on "American Idol" — Bo was the runner-up on Season Four and Taylor actually won the whole thing the next year! — but they put on totally different shows when they came to Poughkeepsie.

Bo's concert was totally acoustic — just him and a guitar — in the cozy, intimate setting of The Chance, where everyone from The Police to Bob Dylan have played.

Taylor, though, brought his band to our Mid-Hudson Civic Center, the (relatively) larger arena with a more conventional concert — at least compared to Bo's acoustic set — where everyone from Barry Manilow and Chicago has come through and set up stage.

They both got amazing fan reactions (although at times, I felt like I was the only guy in the crowd ... then I'd look around just for re-assurance!) and personally, my GF and I left each concert pleasantly surprised, having not known much about either singer before we went.

Both shows were actually refreshingly relaxed, nothing like the glitzy stage shows you often see in the big city, accompanied by a high ticket price needed to pay for those lasers and smoke machines and back-up singers. They both just highlighted the singer and his music. No frills.

So for those who you who have seen Bo in concert or a Taylor show — or, ideally, both — what do you think? Who puts on a better show? If you only had $35 in your pocket and had to pick one, which would you see why?

Bo fans ... Taylor fans ... let's discuss!