My Top 5 TV Series this past summer were:
- FX’s Rescue Me
- BBC America’s Life On Mars
- TNT’s The Closer
- FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- The Food Network’s Feasting on Asphalt
My Top 5 Summer ’06 TV Series
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Category Archives: Entertainment
In One Town, Its Live Free and Ride ATVs
Residents of northern New Hampshire are staking their economic future on a new kind of tourist. Faced with the decline of the paper industry, Berlin, N.H., hopes to capitalize on the increasing popularity of All Terrain Vehicles. ATVs can tear up the ground as they roar through the woods, leaving exhaust in their trail.
Some communities have tried to ban them. But theyre welcome in Berlin, which is creating one of the nations largest ATV parks in hopes of attracting riders — and their money — from all over.
[Read and Listen](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5738244 “Read the Story”) (NPR)
Plan 9 Music Store is Coming To Roanoke
Plan 9 Music has purchased five of the former Record Exchange stores, including one in Roanoke at Towers Shopping Center. This will be Plan 9’s first store in the Roanoke Valley.
Read (Roanoke Times)
When I was in Charlottesville, Plan 9 was the only store where I shopped for CD’s. I’ve also sold numerous CD’s at the store in Charlottesville, too. Hopefully, we’ll get a concert or two like the store in Richmond recently had when the Drive-By Truckers performed in the store.
Nature Tourism Matures on Maryland’s Eastern Shore
No longer is tourism on the Eastern Shore just a matter of
beachgoers in the summer. Cycling, kayaking, bird watching and other
outdoor pursuits have become an important slice of the industry in the
last decade. Across the shore, local officials are seeing potential
moneymakers in the rural countryside and waterways that a generation
ago were typically seen from car windows by visitors on their way to Ocean City.
Read (AP via WTOP)
Hiking Mill Mountain’s Star Trail
I took B., A., and her friend E. hiking Saturday. We hiked the Star Trail, which runs from Riverland Drive across from the Roanoke River to the Star on the Top of Mill Mountain. The hike was uphill the whole way up, but the kids made it without any complaints.
[Photoset of our Hike](http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevejenkins/sets/72157594236973885/ “Flickr”) (Flickr)
WVPT Looking For Home Movies
[WVPT](http://www.wvpt.net “WVPT’s Website”), the Harrisonburg-based Virginia Public Television station, is seeking 25-minute video productions from the public to air on their new fall series, “Local Lens.”
The series, which premieres in October, will showcase one local resident’s movie every month on WVPT. The station will also air multiple repeats of the show throughout the month.
[Read](http://www.dailynews-record.com/news_details.php?AID=5178&CHID=1) (Harrisonburg Daily News Record)
What a great idea! Hopefully, the local Roanoke PBS station, [WBRA](http://www.wbra.org “WBRA’s website”), will pick up the program and show it here, and hopefully, WBRA will start its own “Local Lens” program for its viewers.
Which File Extension Are You? Take the Test and Find Out.
I apparently equal a .rpm extension.
Good Gourds on ‘Heavy Ornamentals’
[The Gourds](http://www.thegourds.com/) have been called the best band in Austin, Texas, and NPR interviewed two of the band members during last weekend’s Weekend Edition. NPR also lists 3 songs from the new album that you can listen to.
I’m planning to see The Gourds at [The Cat’s Cradle](http://www.catscradle.com/) in Carrboro, NC Saturday night.
[Listen](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5492860) (NPR)
Wildlife Management area hides treasures
Virginia’s Wildlife Management Areas are diamonds in the rough. These large tracts of land, set aside for hunting, fishing and wildlife observation, are also great places to hike, ride bicycles or go horseback riding.
The article has a good description of the 10,300 acre Rapidan Wildlife Management Area, which is located on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Madison and Greene counties.
Wildlife Management area hides treasures
The News Leader – Staunton, Va.
Author: Nancy Sorrells
Date: May 25, 2006
Virginia’s Wildlife Management Areas are diamonds in the rough. These large tracts of land, set aside for hunting, fishing and wildlife observation, are also great places to hike, ride bicycles or go horseback riding.
The Rapidan WMA is one of those jewels. Just over 10,300 acres of land in Madison and Greene counties are located along the eastern flank of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The area is divided into eight parcels, several of which border the Shenandoah National Park.
To find the Middle River entrance to the Rapidan WMA, which is the entrance I visited recently, take I-81 to U.S. 33 East. You will cross over Swift Run Gap and continue east through the village of Stanardsville. Make sure you take the old U.S. 33 (business) downtown into the village. In the middle of Stanardsville, turn left on Va. 230. Continue for eight or nine miles until you see a gas station and country store (and also a Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries sign) and make a left turn onto Graves Mill Road. Continue on Graves Mill for just over 6 miles. Graves Mill turns to the right just before a little 19th century chapel. Continue straight for another mile and a half on Bluff Mountain Road until you reach the wildlife management area parking lot.
Immediately upon entering the area the road narrows and becomes gravel. Follow that winding path upward and you will soon find yourself in a lush deciduous forest. The bright, late-spring green comes on in a rush. Ferns sparkle a light green under the filtering sunlight along the slopes on either side of the road. As you travel deeper into the forest, a mountain stream follows the road, sometimes crossing over it and at other times spooning next to it, matching the road’s curves meander for meander.
The most amazing plant that I saw while traveling into the heart of the forest was the umbrella magnolia. I have never seen so many of these trees in one space before, all drooping their fans of leaves and big flowers over the road. This magnolia (Magnolia tripetala), unlike many of its better known relatives, is deciduous, which means it loses its leaves in the winter. It is a Virginia native, but I have always thought that this tree, with its wide leaves that reach 2 feet in length and its giant, showy flowers, would seem more at home in a tropical rain forest.
The roads and the rougher trails in the Rapidan are open to cyclists and horseback riders unless otherwise posted. Planted areas (for wildlife food) and eroded areas are also off limits. Caution should be used during hunting season.
A visitor could spend a few hours or a few days exploring this area. If you have a lot of time and are really into some cycling, I would suggest you park back at the gas station/country store and cycle in from there. Graves Mill Road is generally flat and passes through some amazing beef cattle country. If you watch closely you might even see a few buffalo in one field their eartags a sure giveaway of their domesticity.
At the intersection of Graves Mill and Bluff Mountain Road, sits Grace Episcopal Chapel built in 1855. The small white frame church has two picnic tables in front for a welcome rest stop before tackling the climb up into the wildlife management area.
One more suggestion if you have several days for playing is to stay at the Old Mill House Bed and Breakfast, located just behind the chapel. The B&B offers sumptuous breakfasts and massages for tired cyclists. If you choose to stay there, you could bring your mountain bike for the WMA and your road bike for touring the countryside.
To learn more about the WMA, go to http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/wma/rapidan.html. For the B&B, visit http://www.virginiaoldmillhouse.com/.
Read (Staunton News Leader)
Philips device could force TV viewers to watch ads
An invention from Philips prevents TV viewers from switching the channel during commercials or fast-forwarding past commercials when watching DVR content.
[Read](http://news.com.com/Philips+device+could+force+TV+viewers+to+watch+ads/2100-1041_3-6062861.html?tag=nefd.top) (Cnet)
They keep trying to make us watch the commercials. If it prevents you from switching channels during commercials, it would make it hard to channel surf, because every time you landed on a channel showing commercials, you would have to wait for the commercials to finish before moving on to the next channel. If DirecTV or Tivo implement this, it will be time to give up TV in my house.
TV enters a new universe
In a major shift, the Web is surpassing television as the destination for original programming. Original shows are debuting on the Web, while existing ones find new life in video games and even blogs.
[Read](http://rss.csmonitor.com/feeds/scitech?m=29) (Christian Science Monitor)
Tanks for the memory
Saturday night Coors convoy-watching has become a bizarre spectator sport for many Fredericksburg-area residents.
[Read](http://fredericksburg.com//News/FLS/2006/042006/04032006/180444) (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
Admission Fee Idea Floated For Smithsonian
A [Smithsonian](http://www.si.edu/) official said the complex is crumbling, and the museums and [National Zoo](http://nationalzoo.si.edu/default.cfm) need major repairs. The museum and zoo have been free for 160 years, but [Congressman Jim Moran](http://moran.house.gov/) has proposed charging a $1 admission fee to raise money to make some of the repairs.
[Read](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/29/AR2006032902544.html?nav=rss_artsandliving) (Washington Post)
Pirate radio interferes with Miami pilots
Airline pilots departing from Miami International Airport are getting an earful of something unexpected: Hip-hop tunes from a pirate radio station that sometimes interfere with their communications with the control tower.
[Read](http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/03/19/pirate.radio.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest) (AP via CNN)
It sounds like he needs to move his station to a different frequency.
On Satellite Radio, Bob Edwards’s Orbit Keeps Expanding
Bob Edwards’ audience is no longer measured in the millions, but even if only some mysterious number of thousands listen to “The Bob Edwards Show” these days, the gentle baritone of morning radio is taking them into some unusual territory.
Read (Washington Post)
I’ve been listening to Morning Edition and the Bob Edwards’ show each weekday morning, and I prefer the format of the Bob Edwards’ show – extended, insightful inverviews. The article mentions that PRI is distributing a 2-hour best-of Edwards’ XM show each weekend to terrestrial stations, but the public radios stations here in Roanoke don’t currently carry it.