Shades of Grey

As we all know, Isaiah Washington’s contract with ABC for the popular medical dramedy "Grey’s Anatomy" was terminated in early June, after his character Preston Burke left his fiancé Cristina Yang at the altar in the Season 3 finale.

But Washington’s career is getting a second chance with rival network NBC. Washington will guest star on "Bionic Woman" – a re-imagining of the 1970s sci-fi series of the same name. The series is said by critics to be a strong contender for one of the greatest new shows of the TV season.

Washington has also signed a developmental deal to star in an action-drama he pitched to NBC for the 2008-09 TV season.

Lights and Sounds

New York-based indie band the XYZ Affair released their music video for the song "All My Friends" on July 9. The video already has more than 16,000 hits on YouTube and the number is growing. The video features four early-90s Nickelodeon stars that might have been long forgotten by many but are remembered fondly by a few: Marc Summers, host of "Double Dare" and "What Would You Do?"; Ferguson from "Clarissa Explains It All;" Pete the elder from "Pete and Pete;" and Budnick from "Salute Your Shorts." The video brings back many nostalgic memories for me personally since I am sure I saw every episode of these shows multiple times during my youth. The song itself makes me think back to high school to Motion City Soundtrack's glory days. And this has to be the coolest cameo vid I’ve seen since Henry Winkler’s appearance in Say Anything’s "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too."

"We find ourselves flabbergasted by some of the places this video has turned up, as well as what everyone has had to say about it," the XYZ Affair said in a statement on their Web site. "God bless YouTube. God bless you. God bless America. But most importantly...God bless Marc Summers."

Check out the XYZ Affair on their official Web site or on MySpace.

Election 2008

I've always been a little too late to jump on the bandwagon, so I guess I am the last one to see the infamous "Obama Girl" video on YouTube. The video pokes fun at the way America's youth has responded to Obama's charisma and political appeal. It's actually kind of catchy, and I think it's a glimpse into the future of election hardball. It's certainly a good way to attract more youth to vote. Obama and his campaign claim to have no ties to the video. But the video has yielded 3,393,766 hits as of last Wednesday.

Check out Obama Girl’s official site.

First Day

This is the first day of my life, or rather just the first post of my life. My editors at the Star-News inform me that the journalism world is changing and that the time of the print publication is coming to an end. Reporters will not only be required to put together daily stories but also to maintain a blog on their beat. So I figured I should see what it's all about. I plan to post as often as I can throughout the year about anything that I find interesting or controversial.