Goodbye to Dan Fogelberg, the Leader of the Band

I've been trying to figure out why the passing of Dan Fogelberg has left me so sad. The singer/songwriter died last week of prostate cancer. I liked Fogelberg in the late 1970s. I grew up listening to his album "Phoenix," "Netherlands," and I owned  his compilation with Tim Weisberg, "Twin Sons of Different Mothers."

But to be honest, I hadn't thought about him much in recent years. I moved on to other music. OK, so I did have his song "As the Raven Flies" downloaded on my computer. And every year around Christmas time, I'd hear "Same Old Lang Syne" enough times to jog the memories. But when he died last week it really left me bummed. Bummed enough to go to iTunes and download five or six more of his songs. And, after memorizing the lyrics to Fogelberg's cover of Judy Collins' song "Since You've Asked," I informed my husband that THAT is our new "song." ( He begged to differ.)

Fogelberg was a great songwriter with a beautiful voice. He was really underrated. And I'm really sorry for the years I forgot about him, because now it's too late...

Understanding The Webkinz Craze

Toys have always been a part of pop culture. Who doesn't think fondly of the Velvet and Chrissy dolls from the 1970s? Or The Cabbage Patch Dolls from the '80s? Or the Tickle Me Elmo from the  '90s? (OK, so maybe not that one!)

These days, the pop culture toy phenomenon is Webkinz. If you haven't heard of Webkinz by now then I can only guess you don't spend a lot of time around kids. Webkinz, created by a company called Ganz, is the latest online toy craze. First, you buy a plush pet that has a code attached to it. Hop online and do a quickie registration, enter the code, and voila! --- you've just "adopted" your Webkinz pet. You get to enjoy a full year in Webkinz world. (yYur year starts over again every time you add a new Webkinz to your account).

But it doesn't end there. You're given a virtual room and 2000 points (called Kinzcash). You get to decorate your pet's house, do jobs to earn more cash, play arcade games and visit your friends' Webkinz houses. There are daily activities that can earn you cash each day and you can visit the "Employment office" every 8 hours. Plus there's exclusive and rare items that can only be purchased once in a while. Avid Webkinz fans know the tricks to finding the rare items.

And there are a few other fun things to do in Webkinz World as well. If you purchase a stove (and doesn't every kitchen need one?), you can buy ingredients and create recipes. You can buy extra rooms and outdoor yards for your pets (some Webkinz live in mansions). You can create and maintain a garden. You can send mail and gifts to your Webkinz friends. And you can play against other Webkinz owners in the online Tournament arenas.

Most importantly, Webkinz is extremely safe -- even the chat rooms feature pre-typed sentence so kids aren't talking directly to strangers.

Is Evel Dick the New Puck?

You have to wonder what is going through his mind. Big Brother 8's Evel Dick is a gnarly fellow. He's rude, crude and obnoxious to all of the other house guests (except his daughter Daniele, of course).

A recent episode showed him spouting off the F-word at fellow housemate Jen, then pouring a cup of tea on her head. At least that's what CBS showed. Viewers of the live feeds have reported that it was a much nastier fight than that. Dick said some horrendous things to Jen, things that I won't even repeat here. Now, I am not a Jen fan by any means -- I've been rooting for her to go since Week 1-- but even I have to say the girl is thick-skinned. Dick would have had me running out of the house in tears by now. He is one seriously evil dude.

But the guy is 44. A little old to be acting like this. He's like the school bully, only meaner and much more calculated. Which got me to thinking: is Evel Dick playing a part?

Longtime fans of reality TV no doubt remember Puck Rainey, the uber nasty guy from MTV's Real World San Franscisco. Puck was a major jerk. He berated everyone in the house, had nasty grooming habits, and was all around a very unpleasant person to live with. (Remember the snot rockets and his dirty fingers in the communal peanut butter jar?). Rainey made reality TV history with his antics and his season of The Real World really put that show on the map. Oh, and years before reality show evictions were popular, his roomies voted him out of the house.

Evel Dick reminds me very much of Puck. He's been placed in the house to wreak havoc and he's doing just that. Dick has made no secret of his many many famous friends in L.A. He hangs out with lots of rock stars. He took Cher out to dinner once (so he says). Is he a sometime actor too? I'm starting to think so.

It seems as though Evel is definitely playing the part of Puck. A much older Puck, but actually that's not even so. Puck was on MTV in 1992, so even the ol' Puckster is in his 40's now. I've seen Puck on TV here and there since then (he's married now and the father of 2), and he seems to have grown up a bit since his MTV days. Now I just wonder if Evel Dick will ever grow up, too?

photo credit: CBS

Big Brother 8: Will Evel Prevail?

I admit, I didn't have high hopes for this season's Big Brother. But I'm happy to report it's turning out to be quite entertaining. The "twist,"  which involved three houseguests coming face to face with their worst enemies, is fizzling. The first two houseguests voted out were Carol and Joe, leaving their mortal "enemies" still in the house. So most of the friction is gone. But the remaining "enemies," a father and daughter named Dick and Danielle Donato, are still in there.

Dick (or Evel Dick, E.D. etc. ) is quickly turning into one of the most entertaining players ever on Big Brother. He's loud and obnoxious. He calls everyone out on their game play. He lets the power of being HOH go to his head, barking orders out at everyone. He smokes like a fiend. He uses the F-word every other sentence. He breaks wind in the middle of important veto meetings. Still, watching him try to rekindle a relationship with his estranged daughter has given the show a heart that I have never seen before.

Meanwhile Danielle, Dick's super skinny daughter, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Anna Nicole Smith, is fending off feelings for hunky housemate Nick, who flirts shamelessly with her even though he knows she has a live-in boyfriend. Who knows if Nick's affections for Danielle are for real or if he is just doing it as part of his strategy? It's causing enough conflict for Danielle that she went crying to her daddy Dick over it.

The Evel Dick and Danielle storyline is by far the most interesting ever on Big Brother. CBS should be praying that neither of them get voted out.

Tommy Lee, Bret Michaels and Scott Baio have two things in commons: Pam Anderson and...?

Why is it that all of Pamela Anderson's exes go out and sign up for a reality TV series? I find it to be interesting. Maybe it's therapy!

First there was her ex-husband, rocker Tommy Lee. He starred in not one but two reality shows. First was the somewhat unforgettable Tommy Lee Goes to College. Kind of a silly premise and fairly unreal as far as reality TV goes. For this show, Lee went through the motions and supposedly really took some classes at the University of Nebraska. He also joined the school's marching band. I don't think college was for him though. The series was only a few episodes long and I don't think he had much of a GPA.

And then last summer Lee co-starred in Rock Star: Supenova, an American Idol type show for the heavy metal set. I kind of found him charming on that show; he was the Paula Abdul of the judges, never really criticizing the contestants and not really giving any feedback either.

Another Anderson ex, Poison frontman Bret Michaels, is currently starring on a very different kind of reality show. On VH1's Rock of Love, Michaels plays The Bachelor so to speak, albeit a leather-clad one with a headband. But there are no roses at this ceremony. Just plenty of siliconed strippers, drunken trash talk and tattoos. I guess Michaels likes the tough type of woman -- these are some hard looking chicks. Not sure I can watch any more of this after the drawn-out 90 minute premiere episode.

Also on VH1 is another Anderson ex, former teen star Scott Baio. His show has the worst title of the bunch: Scott Baio is 45 and Single. That unfortunate title, coupled with the silly opening credits featuring a cartooned Baio, had me with my remote in hand, completely ready to change the channel. But I got sucked in. And after watching the entire first episode, I came to find that this was the most real reality show I had seen in a quite some time.

Baio seems sincere- he wants to get to the root of why he always screws up his relationships (in addition to Anderson, he's dated Heather Locklear, Nicolette Sheridan, and Baywatch babe Nicole Eggert, just to name a few). He seems to be regretful of how he treated women on the past and truly wants to fix things, settle down, and marry his current girlfriend, Renee.

Sure, some of the stuff on this show seems really staged, like his lunch date reunion with Happy Days co-star Erin Moran. And the voice-overs that accompany the show are certainly scripted. But I don't know, I kind of like the feel of this show. It's the best reality show that one of Pam Anderson's exes have done, anyway.

Which gets me to thinking... will we be seeing a Kid Rock reality show any time soon? I sure hope not!