Beyond the Boulevard

Albums

Ludacris—Chicken & Beer—Grammy nominee Ludacris returns with his customary explicit content and a variety of guest stars. (Oct 7)
Clay Aiken—Clay Aiken—The winner of the second American Idol competition is releasing his debut album.  Will Simon approve?  (Oct 14)
Travis—12 Memories—12 Memories will undoubtedly feature thoughtful lyrics and mellow melodies similar to Travis' hit song "Side."  (Oct 14)
The Strokes—Room on Fire—Sometimes referred to as the rock antidote to the pop music craze, The Strokes are a welcome relief from Britney.  (Oct 21)

Movies

Intolerable Cruelty (PG-13)—The Coen brothers, known for their idiosyncratic touches, return with an eccentric romantic comedy starring an unusually mainstream cast, including Catherine Zeta-Jones and George Clooney, who won a Golden Globe for another Coen film, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?  (Oct 10)
Girls Will Be Girls (unrated)—Director and screenwriter Richard Day debuts with a more risky venture than you'll usually see from a newbie.  This movie follows three female roommates who are all actresses at varying levels of notice in Hollywood. The catch: the girls are all played by men in drag.  (Oct 10)
Runaway Jury (PG-13)—If you can overlook the silly title that harkens back to bad Richard Gere movies, Runaway Jury boasts a cast that, with the right script and direction, can't fail.  John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman star in this drama about bribery and corruption in a landmark gun control case.  (Oct 17)
Elephant (R)—Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Psycho) directs this film about high school violence.  The story is told from the perspectives of various students with different emotional connections to their school. (Oct 24)

Websites

www.homestarrunner.com—This site is a collection of hysterical cartoons starring Homestar Runner, a pants-less, walking, talking marshmallow, and his pals, including Strong Bad, who answers fan mail to much mirth, Marzipan, Homestar's hippie girlfriend, and the Cheat, who just hangs around and makes trouble.
www.selfmadecritic.com—The Self-Made Critic is a man with a mission: to prevent innocent moviegoers from wandering into such mind-numbing time-wasters as Godzilla and Daredevil.  This is the site for humorous film reviews and brutally honest judgments on Hollywood.
www.emotioneric.com—Viewers e-mail Eric emotion requests, and he takes pictures of himself enacting the emotions. The amusing photos on this site range from your everyday feelings (anger, sadness and angst) to the more complex ones (sarcastic respect for authority figures, computer is frozen and you have to restart it, and did I leave the oven on?).
www.rathergood.com—Singing, dancing kittens karaoke along to off-kelter songs to hilarious effect at this site. It features cartoons created by people with limited attention spans and deranged senses of humor. Nowhere else will you find Mark Llama, Gerbil Farmer.

Concerts

Cher at MCI Center, $34.75-$79.75 (Oct 10)
The Strokes at UMBC Fieldhouse, $30 (Oct 12)
India.arie at State Theatre, $30 (Oct 13)
Sebastian Bach at Recher Theatre, $22 (Oct 17)
Hanson at Birchmere, $20 (Oct 17)
Anthrax at Jaxx Nightclub, $20 (Oct 20)
Insane Clown Posse at Nation, $28 (Oct 21)