The First Echo

After this week's slightly jolting event I realized that I would probably be one of those schmucks who dies first in a disaster movie. Shortly before lunchtime on Tuesday, while trying to manage my inbox which had been flooded with Hot in Hollywood emails and blog requests, my chair started to move on its rollers, and then it was my desk. Last time I checked, I hadn't had a shot of tequila since breakfast, so either I was still drunk or...ah yes, I live in California. My coworker, a SoCal native, immediately dropped her phone and ducked under her desk. Our bosses ran to the doorways of their respective offices as if they were being choreographed in some unsettling musical number. Our cement floors were frickin' moving . Major whoa. And me? I stayed in my seat watching it all unfold, a huge bullseye painted on my skull for any falling slab of concrete or splintery wooden beam. For a few seconds I was unintentionally playing with fate. My mom would have been proud.

Frak me, it's another Comic-Con. Last year , as some of you may remember, I attended Comic-Con in San Diego with no idea what to expect. This year: I was prepped and ready to take it all in. Armed with my own personalized press pass (that's right, The First Echo was on assignment for HOT IN HOLLYWOOD ...booyah!), I was set to face the chaos. Bring on the Battlestars, Boba Fetts and Boy Wonders. If you'd like to check out my 2nd annual experience, please, TAKE THE TRIP .

You'll need more than SPF and So You Think You Can Dance to help you make summer last. Download these babies, and you'll be guaranteed to have a ball that'll keep you screaming like Mary Murphy 'til Labor Day: 1. "Stamp Your Feet" by Donna Summer 2. "What You Got" by Colby O'Donis 3. "Magic" by Robin Thicke - Love the brassy horns. Love the groove. The attempt at choreography however ... 4. "Sweet About Me" by Gabriella Cilmi 5. "Too Many Questions" by Sam Sparro 6. "Green Light" John Legend feat. Andre 3000 - The male Alicia Keys kicks it up a notch with this up-tempo ditty co-starring Outkast's crazy cat . 7. "The World Should Revolve Around Me" by Little Jackie 8. "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" by Mariah Carey 9. "Ten Thousand Nights" by Alphabeat 10. "You Know What" by N.E.R.D. 11. "Cobrastyle" by Robyn 12. "Best Best" by

*Note: Unfortunately, Oprah does not make a cameo in this blog . All of my life I have only known the East Coast and the West Coast. Never have I had the opportunity to experience the Middle. Growing up in New York, and growing up again in Los Angeles, I've only known the Middle to be the Land of the Cornfield and Culture-Deprived. And Chicago? All I knew about the Windy City I learned from John Hughes. And Adventures in Babysitting . And Perfect Strangers . Crash a parade and dance on a float while lip syncing to "Twist and Shout"? Check . Pose as Abe Frohman to get a table at a swanky establishment? Check . Break into a skyscraper to find Thor? "Thor's my hero." Check . My long Chicago weekend started with two hours of sleep, something I obviously wouldn't recommend. My layover in Minneapolis was a blur of magazine racks, souvenir stands, coffee ads and flight-status monitors. Flying in, I caught fields of green, houses with angled roofs, thr

Gotta promote literacy somehow! Like any other 14-year-old boy growing up on the East Coast, J.J. Salem aspired to be...the next Jackie Collins? And he succeeds admirably with TAN LINES , an unabashedly trashy, guilt-full novel about three women and the secrets, sex and murder that accent their already scandalous lives. Allow me to give you a sample of the opening: " There are eight thousand nerve endings in the clitoris, and this son of a bitch couldn't find any of them ." Danielle Steele, this ain't. Make sure to pack this next to your SPF as you head out to Malibu or the Hamptons this weekend. You can thank me later. *Thanks to my new friends at St. Martin's Press for the summery goods.

Happy Birthday, America. We celebrate our country's independence from Britain (and Hollywood extraterrestrials) by firing up the grill, stuffing our faces with red, white and blue-frosted cupcakes and burning ourselves with illegal yet pretty explosives. America and I have had many different celebrations over the years. From 1996 to 1998 I fried my skin under the sun at the parking gates and ticket booths at Playland Park in Rye, New York, my first summer job I grew to dread by the time I was a senior in high school. It was mandatory to work on the summer holidays, and I had missed out on the family barbecues and beach blanket time with friends. The worst 4th of July was my second summer at the amusement park. I worked a late shift and came home in a shit mood, starving, sunburned and staring at the Macy's holiday broadcast through a black-and-white TV set in the kitchen while scarfing down leftover chicken and potato salad. I continued working for Westchester County Park

In a recent Empire magazine interview, Daniel Radcliffe says the new movie, HP and the Half-Blood Prince , has "a fair amount of sexual energy and drug parallels." SWEEEEEEET. Finally, the term "magic wand" can be used as the dirty euphemism it's meant to be. November 21 cannot come any sooner.

Ah, there ain't nothing like a Brooklyn-flavored summertime jam to get you pining for the 90s all over again. Meet Little Jackie , formerly known as Imani Coppola (Remember her? The chick behind "Legend of a Cowgirl" in the late 90s? Yeah, didn't think so ). The "Lawn Guyland" native is now older, wiser and apparently has new management along with a funky-fresh producer at her side (Boston-bred whiteboy Adam Pallin). The single's called "The World Should Revolve Around Me," a neo-Motown groove that may just be my new theme song. www.myspace.com/littlejackiemusic