september 27

Debbie Barnhouse is a actress/director/legend in the Cape Girardeau, MO arts scene. 2009 marks a decade with the local River City Players, where her talents have shone brightest, on either side of the curtain. Last week finished the run of Sam Bobrick's "Getting Sara Married," her latest directorial effort.
Usually, I have a video clip for you readers, to illustrate a reason that our birthday subject deserves some attention. But I don't have one for Debbie, and I kind of feel responsible. In 2003, she was cast and served as costumer in a film based on one of my scripts, Dark Garden. She let our makeup team turn her beautiful face into a murder victim's, only to have all of herself off-camera except her legs (oh, those legs...) She got the same deal Kevin Costner did in "The Big Chill," but she helped plant a seed that's still growing in the Cape. So I owe her a better movie....

In a TV interview, Meat Loaf said that he never considered himself a good singer, but he learned how to act like one after being cast to play a rock star. Man, do I wish it was that simple. The man's voice has its highs (Bat Out of Hell) and lows (his American Idol appearance) but it's still one of the best in the buisness. He's got plenty of signature roles, too; his five minutes in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" take the movie to a whole other level.

If you want to understand what the big deal is about Lil Wayne, start at Vibe Magazine's "The 77 Best Lil' Wayne Songs of 2007." That's 77 songs that he spit flow on before his juggernaut "Tha Carter III" album came out. Once III came out, then he was all over the place. Enjoy it now, because he may be jumping the shark next year; that's when his rock album comes out.

Avril Lavigne tried a different type of media saturation, with her last big single, "Girlfriend." You remember this song, right? Inescapable! Did you know its the 2nd most watched video on Youtube - of all time? OF ALL TIME?!? (Take that, Beyonce!) She re-recorded the song in seven different languages (even tried in Hindi,) and did a remix with a hip-hop artist. All that work, just so she can have a number 1 hit in the US...

And it's the only song anybody knows from the album (and she received too much flak about plaguarism...) News like this makes me wonder if she's running out of steam; she's working on her album for next year, and her publicity is proud to announce that's she using at least four songs she wrote before she was famous - songs that are almost ten years old. Hopefully, she's got enough going on in the here and now to write something besides the 'look at how rich I am' album...