The group we featured on school of Rock tonight was formed in London in 1979 initially being called THE PORTRAITS...After signing to a big label changed thier name to THE FIXX They are one of the few such bands to have enjoyed significant success outside their country in the US and Canada, while remaining almost unknown in their home land.

Thier most successful album was Reach the Beach in 1983 wihich featured the song Saved By Zero, and One Thing Leads to Another, but we are going back to thier debut album from 1982 tonight. called Shuttered Room...It had the hits Red Skies(at night), along with tonights song....which reached #7 on the Billboard chart in 1982…Stand or Fall.

This is the official CSI:Miami game for the iPhone and it brings the TV Show right to your fingertips with yet another case to be solved. This one involves a young woman found dead on South Beach (and no it wasn’t based off anything with our boys at 101 ESPN and the Superbowl coverage from down there!) You and the regular cast of Horatio, Calleigh, Delko, and Dr. Alexx Woods are in charge of uncovering the truth and solving this mystery. The game is a point and click adventure with a good group of mini-games that add to the fun. Here is the bad, the game only plays through this one crime and I wish there were more because it’s a truly unique and fun game. Oh and yes I know who killed her…but you have to play the game yourself to find out!

3.5 out of 5

[attachment:6346]

The Moolah Shrine Circus is this weekend at the Family Arena. Multiple perfomance thru Sunday. ((Find out more-call-636-896-4242 or visit http://www.familyarena.com)

Its a classic. The Fantastiks is now playing at the Loretto Hilton Center. The Repertory Theatre presentation has performances Friday night at 8-Saturday at 5-and Sunday at 2 and 7. ((For more information-call 314-968-4925 or visit http://www.repstl.org)

The Blues host the Nashville Predators on Sunday. Its a 5 o'clock face-off at Scottrade--and its a Free Food Game. All fans will receive one complimentary meal. ((For more info-call 314-622-5435 or visit www.stlblues.com

Its Roller Derby action with the Arch Rival Roller Girls. They're in action Saturday night at 7 at the All American Sports Mall at I-55 and Lindbergh. The St Louis Gatekeepers-a men's team-will also be in action. ((For more info-visit http://www.archrivalrollergirls.com)

The Arch Street Team will be at the Fish Fry at Holy Trinity Church on St Luke Lane in St Ann Friday night from 5:30 til 8. They will have prizes to give away to Arch listeners.

One more thing... LET'S GO BLUES!

Greg seeks popularity with the same single-minded intensity with which Ralphie once sought his Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle with a Compass in the Stock. He bounces from activity to activity (wrestling, safety patrol, theater, etc.) all in an effort to cement his place in the pantheon of popularity. However, each extracurricular excursion ends with disaster and results in the exact opposite effect. Ironically, it's Rowley's complete and udder lack of concern for social convention which inadvertently leads to a sudden surge in his status; a turn of events which Greg cannot abide.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is an unusual kids film in that its main character spends a good portion of the film being fairly unsympathetic. Greg repeatedly puts his friendship with Rowley second to his quest for acceptance. For fans of the book(s), the film is remarkably faithful even if it is somewhat miscast. While the characters in the book are represented in almost stick-figure like fashion, their real life counterparts bear little if any resemblance. But the film makes good use of mixed-media by deftly toggling between live-action and animated sequences more reminiscent of its source material. Gordon (as Greg) is affable enough but he has a somewhat difficult time maintaining his likability while doing unlikable things. Granted, that's something of the point of the film but the audience grows weary of his antics long before his friends do.

Though at times it plays like Superbad: The Early Years, the movie engenders much good will by taking childhood phobias seriously. Greg's desire for approval is a perfectly reasonable inclination even if his means for acquiring it are not. It's his actions not his motivation that the movie is mocking. And in the end, all the appropriate lessons are taught/learned. Though the humor at times veers into the scatological (and, for that matter, the urological) it does have a sweetness that belies its more jaded exterior.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being Holes and 1 being Shorts, Diary of a Wimpy Kid gets a 7.

Become a fan of Roger Qbert on Facebook.

[attachment:6334]

You can read more here.

Picture from wikipedia.org.

Set in the ambiguous not-too-distant-future, Repo Men stars Jude Law and Forest Whitaker as Remy and Jake, our eponymous repo men.  However, they’ve been tasked not with repossessing cars but human organs.  They work for an ominous company called “The Union” which specializes in selling extraordinarily expensive bio-tech organs to a clientele in desperate need of transplants.  From kidneys to corneas, pancreases to prostates - The Union does it all.  And, as if costing upwards of $600,000 weren’t bad enough, they also offer financing at an “affordable” 19.4% APR.  By my calculations (I’ll save you the trouble) that would make your monthly payment, if amortized over 30 years, a crippling $9,730 per month.  Fall more than three months behind in your payments and The Union will reclaim their property wherever they might find you…regardless of the health consequences.  As menacing dystopian futures go, it’s an interesting conceit.  Unfortunately, if you give it more than a sideways glance it quickly begins to crumble.  [morelink]

The biggest problem with the premise is pricing.  The Union’s business model seems to be based entirely on selling people something they can’t afford and then repossessing it three months later.  No reference is ever made to health insurance (private or public).  The burden of cost is borne solely by the consumer.  If their goal was to siphon off a person’s life-savings before discarding them, wouldn’t it make more sense to set the price just barely out of reach?  Instead the amount is so astronomically high, and the penalty for default so draconian, that it strains credulity that anyone other than the preposterously prosperous would even consider such a Faustian arrangement. 

As Remy and Jake go about collecting human organs the movie attempts to have its cake and eat it too.  In an effort to preserve our repo men’s likeability, we see them collecting from deadbeats and street gangs that appear to be using the technology to increase their strength.  However, when we see people purchasing these last-ditch lifesaving measures, they are frightened, innocent victims of circumstance forced into agreements that they know they can’t fulfill.  Remy begins to have a crisis of conscience when he’s forced to accept a replacement heart after being injured while repo-ing with faulty equipment.  Apparently in the future not only will we all lose our health insurance, we won’t have worker’s comp either.  The poor guy doesn’t even get an employee discount.  Once it becomes obvious that Remy has lost the taste for repo, and therefore is unable to pay for his heart transplant, the movie becomes nothing more than an extended chase scene. 

Somewhere in all this mess is one hell of a drinking game.  Take a shot every time the movie rips off another (better) film: Blade Runner, Fight Club, Total Recall, Minority Report, Children of Men.  And that’s just off the top of my head.  As the film lumbers towards its conclusion it takes a surprising, though enjoyable, turn for the hyper-violent.  It’s a slickly stylized sequence that makes you wish they had thought of it earlier.  However, the moment is quickly lost as the film immediately follows with an oddly sexualized scene of sadistic brutality masquerading itself as heroics.  And just in case you were willing to overlook all of its flaws, the movie pulls one final head-fake that’ll make you want to punch it in the pancreas. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being Blade Runner and 1 being RoboCop 3, Repo Men gets a 5.

Become a fan of Roger Qbert on Facebook.

[attachment:6340]

Star Gazing

Lady Gaga fell victim to a grueling schedule and what we're guessing was a bad bean burrito at a recent concert in New Zealand. The pop star appeared to nearly faint during a live version of Bad Romance.

Well-known Scientologist Kirstie Alley kept the person operating the dump button on the Today Show busy with her recent appearance. The actress showed up to promote her new show Big Life, but a few naughty words left her mouth after a story aired that accused her of funneling money to the Church of Scientology.

Tube Talk

'Twas Rolling Stones week on American Idol, as the final twelve took turns slaughtering Mick Jagger and company's classic rock tunes. In the end, Lacey went home, Crystal rocked, and Ke$ha dropped by.

Jake Pavelka continues to own the headlines. The season 14 Bachelor is making news after his ex-girlfriend Tanya Douglas told Inside Edition he's kept in contact with her, professing his love even after proposing to Vienna Girardi. Add to that rumors Jake's getting cozy with his Dancing with the Stars partner Chelsie Hightower, and you've got a fella with some 'splainin to do.

Reel World

Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler bring their chemistry to the big screen with Bounty Hunter. Mr. Butler plays a man tracking down his ex wife after she hops bail. The two spend most of the film dodging each other and the mobsters out to take Jen down before the law gets there first.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid hits theaters as well. Some guy named Thor directs it, so anyone who shares a name with a German God must at least be able to crank out a watchable movie, right?

That, and plenty more awaits. Just peep the video and pass it to the left when you're finished.

Keith Richards says he was amazed that the Rolling Stones were initially more known for their heavy ballads in America.  He thought they’d be clamoring for straight rock n roll, but every song that did well was a slow Soul ballad.  The singles, Time Is On My Side, Tell Me, Heart of Stone is what caught on.

This was originally recorded by Soul singer Irma Thomas.  The Stones released their version in 1964 and it made it to #6 on the Pop charts giving them their first top 19 hit.

James says a "vast majority" of the allegations made against him are "untrue and unfounded," but says, "It's because of my poor judgment that I deserve everything bad that is coming my way."

Jesse goes on to say, "This has caused my wife and kids pain and embarrassment beyond comprehension and I am extremely saddened to have brought this on them. I am truly very sorry for the grief I have caused them. I hope one day they can find it in their hearts to forgive me."

In an interview with Playboy set to hit newsstands tomorrow, comedian Sarah Silverman responds to questions about her provocative brand of humor by telling a story about how “the onetime lead singer of a very popular band from the 1980s” came up to her after a show and said, “You’re my favorite comedian. You have the best nigger jokes.” Silverman didn’t outright name Journey’s Steve Perry, but she added, “I’ll just say this: After that, I stopped believin’,” a poke at the band’s classic “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Was she joking? In an interview with Rolling Stone yesterday, Perry took Silverman’s accusation very seriously, adamantly denying he ever used “the n-word” after meeting her backstage at a comedy show. “I’m really shocked. She was so friendly and so nice,” Perry tells RS. “I don’t understand why she would go there, it’s so bizarre. I don’t use that word, are you kidding? That’s so derogatory.” Perry admits he met Silverman on a pair of occasions “a long time ago” after being “amazed at her ability to make people actually laugh at every racial slur and every ethnic group she could possibly come up with,” but insists Silverman’s recollection of their meeting is just another episode concocted by the controversial TV star for comedic effect.

Perry tells RS, “I walked up to her after the show and I said, ‘I can’t believe that somehow you seem to be getting away with all these slurs and the n-word, I just can’t believe how you’re doing this,’ and I looked at my friend and I said, ‘I can’t believe how she’s getting away with this,’ and she looked at me and kind of smiled. It wasn’t like I was condemning her or condoning her, it was just that I can’t believe how somehow creatively she was making everybody in that club of all colors and all ethnic backgrounds laugh. That’s what it was.”

Despite the accusation, Perry still marvels at Silverman’s ability to walk the dangerous line of political correctness with her comedy. “You’ve gotta see her show because she uses every ethnic slur known to man that historically has been very unforgivable,” Perry says. “I’m Portuguese, that’s the only ethnic background she left out, but maybe after this article she’ll come after me now.”

This week-join host Rick Wallace and his guest-Marshall Cohen-the Executive Director of Lift for Life Gym and Lift for Life Academy. Find out about these great organizations and their big benefit event--Microfest--now in its 15th year ! Its coming up April 30th-May 1st-and May 2nd at the Upper Muny Parking Lot.

 Talk of the Town-Sunday morning at 6:30-on 106-5 The Arch.

www.liftforlife.org

Some are worth repeating. Most of them dealt with threats made by our parents--like--if you don't behave-I'm gonna slap you baldheaded.

Another one we got was--If you don't settle down--I'm gonna take you out--and I don't mean to Hardee's.

We got the 2 that moms everywhere always used. The classic-I brought you into this world--I can take you out. And the one that always filled you with the dread of impending doom---What til your father gets home.

But the one we heard this morning--on Forgive Mom and Dad Day--that was both Van and I's favorite-was from a guy who said his dad would tell him if he didn't stop misbehaving he would bury him in the backyard next to his older brother. Yikes.

And I thought my dad's threat of--I'm gonna knock you into the middle of next week was bad.