I hope to see a bunch of local baseball fans at Game On! tonight (Thursday, April 26) when our Atlantic City Surf host their annual “Meet the Manager” event. The shindig starts at 7pm and the ultra cool sports bar on the Pier at Caesars is the perfect locale to get the season started. The Surf has a lot of new stuff on tap, from a new manager, Cris Carminucci, to a new general manager, Brendan Fairfield. Of course the team has also switched leagues going from the Atlantic League to the Canadian-American Association (Can-Am) League. Former manager Jeff Ball has been kicked upstairs as assistant GM. Surf marketing director and AC Weekly columnist Chuck Betson will be announcing the special events the Surf have planned for the 2007 season at Bernie Robbins Stadium which will be the club’s 10th anniversary in Atlantic City.
The Surf opens its 10th season on May 24 at home, 7:05pm, vs. the Grays, the Can-Am League’s road team. Tickets can be obtained by calling 609-344-7873.

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Bob Dylan's record company site reports that the 66-year-old (on May 24th) troubadour will return to the Borgata to kick-off his U.S. 2007 summer tour. He'll be in Atlantic City two nights - June 22 & 23 - and tickets go on sale through the Borgata Web site on May 5. A May 1 pre-sale is available via the Dylan site. Other city's scheduled on the tour include Herhsey, Pa.; Uncasville, Conn.; and Paso Robles, Calif.
Dylan's latest album, Modern Times, released last August on Columbia Records, is among the best of his 46-year recording career. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, marking the first time that a Dylan album hit the top spot since his 1976 release, Desire.

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Sanjaya Malakar might be off American Idol but that doesn’t mean he’s going away anytime soon. Right after he was voted off, the offers began with an invitation from People Magazine for Sanjaya to attend the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington, DC on Saturday, April 21. President Bush is also expected to attend. Malakar will share a table with Valerie Bertinelli, Zac Efron of High School Musical, comedian Eddie Izzard and Robert Kennedy Jr. Some of the other guests include Jane Fonda, Henry Kissinger, John Cusack and Sheryl Crow.
On Monday, he will be appearing on Live with Regis and Kelly, The Ellen Show and The Late Show with David Letterman.

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Do you have what it takes to be a member of the living dead?
Pat & Dan Productions are casting for their zombie film that they are shooting in May of this year. They are holding an open casting call Saturday and Sunday, April 21–22, 1–6pm at My Film Café, 32 Marmora Rd. (32 Tuckahoe Rd.), Wayside Village Shopping Center, Marmora. The production company is looking for 50 people to play zombies as extras. Pictured are the zombies from the very funny 2004 film Shaun of the Dead.

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You know how sometimes little things just make you go nuts? I’ve been feeling the culmination of those little things and I need to vent. Venting about the small stuff will keep me from crying about the big picture that has come into focus this week once again. But first the small stuff:

Northeaster vs. Nor’easter
I grew up at the South Jersey shore. When we had a storm from the Northeast, we called it a Northeaster. The famous March Storm of 1962 was a Northeaster. However, sometime in the mid-1990s, weathermen in the Philly region started calling the storms Nor’easters, a term that has since made its way into the Associated Press stylebook.

To me it sounds like somebody trying to pretend they are from New England. There is some thought that it comes from an old English tradition. Fine, but if we stuck with all things English we would spell favorite “favourite,” and pajamas, “pyjamas.” As for that AP thing, no matter how often I find northeaster spelled correctly, including this week in an AP story, my editor says that as long as the AP stylebook says “Nor’easter” that’s what our style is.
I’m sorry I never met the late Edgar Comee of Brunswick, Maine, who felt even stronger than I do about the term. He would send out postcards whenever he heard this offensive word was used, according to a 2005 article in The New Yorker:

“The use of nor’easter to describe a northeast storm is a pretentious and altogether lamentable affectation, the odious, even loathsome, practice of landlubbers who would be seen as salty as the sea itself.”

Sanjaya vs. Bonnie Raitt
Sanjaya might have finally shot himself in the foot when he decided to do a Bonnie Raitt song, “Something to Talk About” on American Idol’s country night. Beyond the fact that calling the song “country” is a stretch to begin with, his comment that “I hope to do Bonnie Raitt justice” was just plain wrong. His only hope is that Kiki’s screaming rendition of “Jesus Take The Wheel” gives Sanjaya haters a reasonable alternative. Otherwise, I thought Martina McBride was a terrific coach, who was giving the idols excellent advice. At least Phil appeared to listen to that advice with his best performance in weeks. As McBride suggested, he didn’t wait to the end to put some fire and emotion into his vocal. Of course Melinda ruled once again with a brilliant performance, looking more like her own age and confident. A close second was provided by Jordan who is gaining poise and polish every week. However Chris was weak again; country is just not his thing. My favorite Idols chatter is on EW.

Gov. Corzine vs. “Click It or Ticket”
No wonder the state of New Jersey is not looking to give the kid driving the red pickup a ticket in the Corzine crash. If you were looking in your rear view and saw an SUV with lights flashing bearing down on you at 91 miles an hour, wouldn’t your first instinct be to pull over to the shoulder? According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Kenneth Potts Jr., a 20-year-old casino worker from Little Egg Harbor pulled onto the shoulder to get out of the way. He swerved back into traffic to avoid a mile-marker post. A white pickup in the right lane behind Potts swerved left to avoid his truck and ended up ramming the right front of Corzine's SUV,” state police said.
Corzine was running late because his helicopter transportation had to be grounded. While I’m not thrilled about the speed being used (as the article noted, this was not in pursuit of a criminal), I’m mostly annoyed that out state leader was not wearing his seat belt. He is lucky his state trooper driver was able to slow down to 30 before the crash. I’m looking forward to Corzine’s upcoming statements on the need for wearing seat belts; he better be starring in the next “Click it or ticket” commercials.

Phillies vs. Expectations
People in other towns wonder why we boo? They must know by now. Whenever expectations are the highest, our sports teams seem to let us down. I was expecting a lot from this team, although my expectations were dialed down when their spring training losses piled up, Lieber was still here and no bullpen help arrived for the start of the season. However, I am not going to blame the 3-9 start on the ’pen. Except for J-Roll and Pat Burrell, the Phillies are not hitting consistently enough. They are also not getting enough extra base hits. They aren’t getting on base, so we haven’t seen the increase in steals we were promised with the hiring of Davey Lopes. The defense has been inconsistent. The starting pitching has been pretty solid, but as we are finding out, without clutch hits, solid defense and confident relief pitchers, good starting pitching gets wasted. I am not going to blame Charlie Manuel for this start. He has been making the right movies, making the late inning defensive switches. If he has erred in leaving his starters in too long, we understand his reluctance. Finding bullpen help now will be a problem unless somebody in the minors raises some eyebrows. Although I was cautiously optimistic about my Phils, yet another below-500 April is sticking in my craw. The season is under three weeks old and we have the second worst record in all of baseball. Only the 3-11 Kansas City Royals are worse. We are in last place in the NL East, 5.5 games behind Atlanta. It’s déjà vu all over again.

Now, what we wish we weren’t thinking about today. The tragedy at Virginia Tech has both the right and left lining up about the gun issue once again. At this point I’m not so sure it is the guns, as much as out attitude about violence in general. When Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine came out in 2002, it really made me think about our love of violence. Violence is acceptable in our entertainment for all ages, from TV to movies to video games to music. That acceptance is one big reason while the citizens in countries around the globe think of Americans as gun-loving cowboys, ready to rumble at a moment’s notice.
They are right. We do love violence despite how often we preach love and understanding. When we preach the mantra of “Standing up for what is right,” that too often means a violent response. Our culture does reflect our attitudes. And, as Moore’s film pointed out we have the most violent crime of any industrialized nation. Compare our murder statistics to Canada or England and tell me our acceptance of violence as “normal” isn’t part of the problem.

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Things are beginning to heat up for the summer music line-up in Atlantic City. Recently announced casino concerts include the return of favorites like Earth, Wind and Fire (Borgata, June 1 & 2), the Spinners (Hilton, May 11 & 12) and Vince Neil (House of Blues, Aug. 31 w/ Quiet Riot and Slaughter). Look out for Tool to hit Boardwalk Hall on June 9, UK pop-rock legends Squeeze to play Borgata, Aug. 4 and Beyonce to turn up somewhere that same month. The White Stripes -- who's new album Icky Thump - sounds like it's going to be great (it's due out in June) may also be coming to town not too long after the summer's over. For a weekly update of announced shows at all of the casinos in town, check here.

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Antonio Tarver's last trip to a boxing ring in AC didn't end well when he lost his light heavyweight crown to Bernard Hopkins at Boardwalk Hall on June 10, 2006. His scheduled return to the ring April 22 in Boardwalk Hall vs. Elvir Muriqi was announced as postponed today (April 13). Use any Friday the 13th jokes you feel is appropriate.
Here is the announcement from Star Boxing: “We regret that the anticipated fight on April 22, between Tarver and Muriqi, has been postponed. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the boxers, Boardwalk Hall, ABC, ESPN, and the Hilton and Resorts Hotels for their understanding and cooperation. We hope to announce the rescheduled date in the near future after we have an opportunity to evaluate the boxers’ conditioning and available dates. In spite of the false rumor, Antonio Tarver was on weight and in shape for the bout.”
All righty then.
Tarver is pictured (above right) with some Borgata Babes during his last trip to town.

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With the recent announcement of the Briggs-Ibragimov WBO heavyweight bout at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City (in June), as well as the upcoming Holt-Arnaoutis fight (April 20, Bally's) and the Tarver-Muriqi fight (April 22, Boardwalk Hall), the latter of which is to be the first time in several years that ABC will broadcast a live boxing match, one could say that Atlantic City is really stepping back into the ring as far as bringing in big-time boxing events.
Speaking of big-time boxing events - Arturo "Thunder" Gatti will fight somebody July 14 at Boardwalk Hall.
In the meantime, here's one of many classic A.C. matches that can be found on YouTube. A first-round KO by 'Marvelous' Marvin Hagler against Philly native William 'Caveman' Lee 25 years ago at Bally's Park Place.

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I’m not usually the one to say “off with their heads” when someone says something in public that is stupid. Do we really think Sen. Joseph Biden is a racist because he said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, is the “first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Insensitive and thoughtless yes, but racist?
That said, this whole Don Imus mess involving his stupid, crass and ugly comment about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, that they were “nappy-headed ho’s” is in a different category. He was not making fun of a politician or a professional athlete, fair game in my book. He was talking about 19- and 20-year-old students, who were only on Imus’ radar because they made it to the NCAA National Championship game. Such an accomplishment should not make you the butt of an old white man’s jokes on the national airwaves.

Plus, please tell me, what was supposed to be funny about that comment?
It has been nearly twenty years since Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder lost his job for saying blacks have a genetic advantage over whites athletically. Around that same time, Al Campanis, an L.A. Dodgers executive, suggested that blacks don't have the "necessities" to make good managers.
Those guys lost their jobs. When they passed away, listed in their obits were the controversial remarks that came to define their final years on earth.
In 2007 shouldn’t we be more diligent — not less — about punishing racist remarks?
If Don Imus is left standing after this controversy, perhaps with his hair a little mussed (like you can tell with that mane of his) aren’t we stepping backwards?
Toss him off the airwaves. Send a message that even if you are famous, rich and white, you can’t say something that hurtful and stupid over the national airwaves and get away with it.

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Fans of Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark and the other female stars of the sixties British Invasion will enjoy the trip down memory lane provided by SHOUT! The Mod Musical at Harrah's. Five talented female singers — Holly Burton, Toni Carrington, Lauren Fijol, Georgia Hair and Brooke Reams — dressed in the smashing fashions of the era, sing and discothèque dance their way through a decade’s worth of groovy songs as they confront the rapid social changes that marked that decade in London and the world.

The paper-thin story premise is five female friends who use the magazine Shout as the blueprint for how they should dress and act, including writing amusing letters to a not-very-informative advice columnist.
Former Vineland native and co-producer of the show, Robert Dragotta, admitted that much of the dialogue that puts a more poignant spin on the songs had to be eliminated to keep the off-Broadway hit within a casino-friendly 75 minute running time. Instead the songs themselves express the changing attitudes of the swinging sixties and do a bang-up job of it. There are a few comic quips in between songs that pay tribute to a landmark TV series of the era, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Musical highlights include Brooke Reams’ “To Sir With Love” and the song that sums up the show, “Those Were the Days.” Holly Burton does a nice version of “Son of A Preacher Man,” Georgia Hair lets it fly for “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me,” and all five ladies do an amusing song and dance to “Goldfinger,” with a few lyrical changes. Other songs that are included in the zippy show are “Don’t Sleep in the Subway,” “Georgie Girl,” “Windy,” “How Can I Be Sure,” “Alfie,” “Downtown,” “Color My World,” “Wishin’” and Hopin’,” “Sign of the Times” and “Shout.”
Shout! The Mod Musical runs Now–April 22, at Harrah’s Concert Venue; Showtimes: Sun.–Thurs., 8pm; Fri., Sat. 9pm. Tickets are $25. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster, 1-800-736-1420.

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My buddy and Atlantic City Weekly colleague Chuck Betson is going to be insufferable for another week or so since he’s a Florida grad who naturally picked the Gators to win. Well, Chuck your team deserves all the attention and accolades. They proved they were the best team as another wacky and wonderful edition of March Madness came to a close.

Speaking of hoops, my brother Rocky Hoffman, a Rutgers grad (whose college housemates included chef Mario Batali), had to watch the Lady Scarlett Knights get their dream of a national championship shoved down their throats by the Orange Crush, aka Pat Summitt’s Tennessee Volunteers. The Knights had been playing over their heads, but reality hit them when the Vols dominated the boards, forced them into a bad shooting night and generally made their lives miserable. There is good news however: coach Vivian Stringer’s squad is young and should be back next year with more experience and determination.

I visited the House of Blues last Saturday night to see Lonestar perform. They put on a nice show with a solid blend of ballads, country rock and good ‘ol boy fun. Opening the evening was the excellent, locally based singer-songwriter Patty Blee. I wish I had known about that in time to mention it in my preview of the show. To find out more about the talented Ms. Blee, check this out, and her Myspace listing.

It has been a long time since I gave a movie a four star review. Just such a movie is the Academy Award winning best foreign language film, The Lives of Others. Frankly, this film is much better than best picture winner The Departed. The story of a Stasi policeman in East Germany, who becomes disillusioned about his job and his belief in the socialist state, it brilliantly delineates the complex nature of a police state, and the desire to hold on to one’s freedom and beliefs when “Big Brother” is always watching. Visit the Atlantic City Weekly website for my review.

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With rumors flying about potential buyers for Donald Trump's three Atlantic City casinos — will Steve Wynn purchase the Trump Plaza? — this rumor, regarding the possible sale of Trump Marina to one of the biggest rock groups in the world, has to be the most interesting we've heard yet. [It's been revealed that this rumor was an April Fool's joke.]

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