The First Echo

*Updated on 5/11/12

A seemingly happy wife and mother named Mary Alice puts a gun to her head and pulls the trigger...and an idyllic neighborhood is never the same.

Not since Knots Landing have television viewers been so enraptured by the weekly dramas of a bunch of cul-de-sac-dwelling suburbanites. For the past seven years, Wisteria Lane on ABC's Desperate Housewives became a ground zero for soapy fun. It quickly became a place where secrets - along with several criminals - were harbored, where wealthy former models slept with their gardeners, where neglected wives went off their rockers and shot up supermarkets, where accident-prone single moms got kidnapped by vengeful ex-cons, where on-the-lam families hid from eco-terrorists, where shady politicians got skewered by picket fences during tornados, where airplanes crashed into holiday parties, where serial killers held pregnant women hostage, where bitchy real estate agents got electrocuted by telephone poles, where...

You get th…

Despite my star-studded Thursday night at the pre-Emmy nominee party for writers at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (hello Matt LeBlanc, Julie Bowen, Elisabeth Moss, and cast of Downton Abbey), last week's brush with fame would have sent my mother's heart racing, so I declare Richard Chamberlain as my Celeb Sighting of the Week.

The star of such TV classics as The Thorn Birds and Shogun had passed me on the sidewalk, heading to the Starbucks in West Hollywood (the one across the street from 24 Hour Fitness) as I was walking back to my car after a cardio session at said gym.

For those of you who still have no clue who I'm talking about, he played Uncle Saul's old flame on Brothers & Sisters last season and assumed the role of Allan Quartermaine in that remake of King Solomon's Mines with Sharon Stone in the 80s.

Still don't know? Whatever. My mom will get a kick out of it.

The song that changed my 11-year-old life back in 1991 was the first #1 hit for Christian pop star Amy Grant. Who knew she'd have four more Top 40 singles ("Every Heartbeat," "That's What Love Is For," "Good For Me," "I Will Remember You") break out from the Grammy-nominated Heart in Motion? I didn't, but for the next two years, I became a fanatic. Actually, you can read all about it...HERE.

Happy Anniversary, Amy. You were my early 90s.

There are countless stories that begin like mine, particularly those coming from the East Coast. And they usually all start out the same way: It was such a beautiful day...

I was asleep on that Tuesday morning. It may have been well past 9 because my first class of the day wasn't until after noon. Like many a senior at Boston University, I had stayed up late the night before during which I had attended a free screening of Mark Wahlberg's Rock Star down at the new multiplex by Boston Common. I could've sworn I heard the phone ring in my half-awake state. Moments later, a knock at my door startled me. It was my roommate, Steve.

"It's for you," he said from behind the closed door. I got up, took the cordless receiver, and watched him trudge back across the cramped living room to his side of our small Buswell Street apartment.

"Hello?"

It was my mother. I wasn't surprised since Tuesday is one of her days off from work, but it was relatively early, and s…

1. I feel like I've been stabbed in the soul whenever I stumble upon a Facebook profile that boasts a person's date of birth from the year 1991.

2. If we're Facebook friends, and you sit down next to me at a coffeeshop without recognizing me, then I guess I should follow Greyson Chance's advice and unfriend you.

You conquered those Back-to-School sales, survived that Labor Day barbeque, dug out your favorite cardigan, and now it's time to brainstorm Halloween costumes. In other words, where the f**k did summer go?

While you chew on that, I have found 25 tracks to keep you warm and toasty when the autumn chill sets in and you save up for a couple of grande caramel apple ciders at Starbucks. Listen carefully...

1. "You & I" by Lady Gaga
2. "Shield and Sword" by Clare Maguire - The video for this stunner of a single makes the British songstress out to be the love child of Adele and Gaga. And while there's some truth to that, the rest of her album, Light After Dark, is begging to be heard:



3. "Night of Your Life" by David Guetta feat. Jennifer Hudson
4. "Disaster" by JoJo - Because it wouldn't be fall without a pop piece from this sassy little tartlet. Previously seen as one my Theme Songs for the month of September.
5. "Radioactive" by…

For the first half of the 1990s, not only did I have my nose stuck in the pages of paperback horror novels, I spent a good amount of time being infatuated with a particular genre of film. The Psychological Thriller was alive and kicking back then, and it seemed like anyone could turn into an obsessive loon. Perhaps Glenn Close reignited the trend when she boiled a rabbit and chased Michael Douglas around with a knife in 1987. Since then, Hollywood went to work, turning ordinary folk into menacing monsters that wreaked havoc on pretty unsuspecting white people. Psycho mailmen. Deranged lawyers. Murderous doctors. No profession was safe, and no one could be trusted.

For me, it all started with 1991's Deceived, the film that sparked my interest in the genre. Funny girl Goldie Hawn turned in a rare dramatic performance as a woman caught in a web of danger and betrayal when her husband (teddy bear John Heard) is killed in a mysterious car accident. The words "Goldie Hawn" and…

It's been seven years since this pop tartlet came on the scene with the precocious "Leave (Get Out)".

Now, at the wise and ancient age of 20, JoJo is sticking to the same catchy formulas, albeit with a more mature tone, and delivering the quite-fantastic "Disaster," which isn't one (thank God).

A definite addition to my upcoming soundtrack to September:


And tying for this month's honorary title is Sia's noteworthy vocals on David Guetta's empowering "Titanium" (sure, the Mary J. Blige version is cool too, but let's stick with this original):