kimblr.com

There’s no place like home. This weekend, whether you’re planning on remodeling your current abode or you’re in search of a new one, you’ll have a couple of opportunities to explore your options.
You can nail down some ideas at the Greater Rochester Home Show. Events run from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Riverside Convention Center, 123 E. Main St. It offers hundreds of displays and information booths of home-improvement products, as well as hands-on exhibits, how-to clinics and demonstrations. Guests include Shane Tallant, a host of HGTV’s show Designed to Sell and local home repair guru Brenna Hartmann. Admission is $8; $2 for ages 6 to 12; and free to ages 5 years and younger. Tickets are available at Wegmans. For details, go to www.homeshowrochester.com.
The city of Rochester’s City Living Sundays will kick off with a tour of homes on the city’s south side. The free event runs from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Wilson Foundation Academy, 200 Genesee St. Tours for the city’s northeast area will be held on April 5 at East High School, 1801 E. Main St; and the northwest neighborhoods on April 13 at Aquinas Institute, 1127 Dewey Ave. Call (585) 428-2489 or go to www.citylivingsundays.com.

democratandchronicle.com

If you’re the parent of a budding child star, who do you call to learn how not to screw up your kid? Someone whose parents pulled a doozy on him. Enter Danny Bonaduce, host of I Know My Kid’s a Star (Thursdays at 10 pm/ET), VH1’s new reality competition featuring 10 parent-child pairs fighting for $50,000, a management contract and their ticket to stardom. We caught up with Bonaduce for the inside scoop.
TVGuide.com: You once said, “Being a child star is great. It’s being a former child star that sucks.” Why host a show that helps usher kids into that field?
Danny Bonaduce: Being an ex-child star is not a given. It’s not an automatic that you go from teen star to rehab. Just because Todd Bridges and I are idiots does not condemn an entire industry.
TVGuide.com: As host and judge, what exactly are you looking for?
Bonaduce: The most talented child. But if I think that the most talented child happens to be the daughter of [someone like] Lindsay Lohan’s mom, then I’m going to pick the second most talented child. I’m also looking for the best parent — someone with their own financial portfolio and a plan for the child’s future.
TVGuide.com: Tell the truth: As an industry insider, do you think $50,000 and a year’s management contract is that great a prize?
Bonaduce: It depends. The $50,000 they win would probably be enough to carry them over long enough to find out if they’re the real deal and if the business is for them. And if [the head of the management company] really believes in them, he could do a great deal for them.
TVGuide.com: What have been some of your favorite moments in making this show?
Bonaduce: My favorite moment is actually in the commercials. I say hello to a little girl and she vomits on me. For real. I said hello, and she just puked. I couldn’t believe it.

seattlepi.nwsource.com

BEIJING - Beijing will meet its pledge to have clean air for the Summer Olympics, an environmental official said Tuesday, playing down worries that the city’s notorious smog will overshadow the Games.
Pollution-cutting measures in Beijing and surrounding areas were being intensified to make sure the air meets required standards, said State Environmental Protection Administration Vice Minister Zhang Lijun.
“After we have implemented all the measures, there is no problem for Beijing to meet the standards. We can deliver on our commitment,” Zhang said at a news conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature.
Zhang’s claim came a day after world marathon record-holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia said he might skip the long-distance running event in Beijing because of the city’s poor air quality.
Considered the world’s best distance runner, the 34-year-old Gebrselassie - who has asthma - fears his health could be damaged by running through the streets of the Chinese capital.
He said he would make a final decision in May after he finds out whether he qualifies for the 10,000-meter race. He would be a gold medal favourite if he did take part in either event.
A murky haze blankets Beijing on most days. With the Olympics around the corner, China has constantly been on the defensive over the pollution level.

read_more

You know, I spent two weeks trying to figure out how to justify writing an entire column about the series finale of “The Wire” on this site. You won’t believe this, but I try my best to keep my topics appropriate for the venue.
So I thought about comparing and contrasting Wire creator David Simon to Sopranos inventor David Chase. It’s the equivalent of debating Kobe vs. LeBron. Like Kobe, there’s no hole in Simon’s game. And like LeBron, if you catch Chase on a night when his jumper isn’t falling, you’ll wonder why, with his body, he never developed a low-post game and go-to move.
Ah, everybody is writing Kobe-LeBron. The subject matter is just too trite.
By Wednesday afternoon, I’d come up with an angle more substantial, more consistent with the gritty, serious tone of The Wire. When I informed my bosses, they broke the news to me that The Sports Guy had already beaten me to it.
He’d penned a terrific piece that at the end connected “The Wire” to the tragic death of Jamiel Shaw, the 17-year-old prep football star gunned down just a few blocks from his Los Angeles home.
You know what? No problem. It ties into the point I wanted to make.

read_more