Estrada gets his star.

On Tuesday, April 19, Erik Estrada got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. CHiPs is the most mocktastic '70s cop show of all time. I am still waiting for the day that the entire series comes out in a deluxe DVD box set.

(I tried to link the theme song and the first TV promo from the series to this blog, but YouTube wouldn't cooperate. You all can do the searches yourselves. The TV promo is definitely worth seeing, so go find it!)



In other, more pertinent TV news, Estrada is starring in a police reality show called "Armed &Famous." It supposedly began on Jan. 10, but I haven't seen one promo for it, nor have I had the pleasure of seeing the show yet. The regular time slot is Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. on CBS. The show follows this cast of characters as they go through police academy in Muncie, Indiana. Other notable stars of this program include LaToya Jackson and Jack Osbourne. I'm so glad that "celebreality" (thanks, VH1, for coining that term) is giving new careers to these formerly famous people.

Photos courtesy of www.erikestrada.com.

Chicken Noodle Soup?

The cosmos united this week to provide me with not only two lectures on rap and hip-hop music (via my History of Rock class), but also an entire Oprah audience trying to keep up with an Alvin Ailey hip-hop instructor.

It was pretty much the funniest thing I've seen all week (except for Tuesday's episode of the Daily Show and oh yeah, yesterday's Oprah episode on "How to be Happy". WTF was that all about? Seriously, people need a life lesson telling them that they have to find happiness within themselves? Seriously??)

But back to the hip-hop thang. Apparently the hottest moves are steps called "Chicken Noodle Soup" and "The Old Man." Now thanks to Oprah, we can all pretend to be just a little hipper. And people (my friend Nick, specifically) say that I dance like a white boy...

(Photo courtesy of Harpo Productions.)

Gunshots at CNN Center?!

Wow. CNN was never this exciting when I worked there.

(Oh wait, there was the incident where an armed gunman ran through the CNN parking deck after shooting a bunch of people in federal court, but before stealing a car and taking off to grab a hostage in a nearby suburb. The hostage eventually got the killer to "see" God, and the divine power blessed her with a million-dollar book deal to cover her suffering.)

Seriously, I am so relieved that none of my friends or acquaintances were hurt. I'm sure everyone at CNN must be really shaken up. It's a dreadful thing that happened there this morning. My heart goes out to the victim's family and friends, and I am thinking of you guys in the Atlanta newsroom.