DaytonDailyNews.com

MUSIC

By Carol Simmons

Staff Writer

It's time to come in, everybody.

As the weather grows nippy, and the outdoor concert season draws to a close, we all, regardless of age, have to come inside for our popular music entertainment.

And there are plenty of concert offerings, regardless of one's age, on the horizon this new season.

Some highlights, by age demographic:

For the young ones: Disney's Cheetah Girls go on tour this fall, with stops Nov. 23 at US Bank Arena in Cincinnati and Nov. 28 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

For the teens: Industrial metal fans will be thrilled by the Nine Inch Nails concert, Nov. 17, at the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus, while hip-hoppers will be interested in Bow Wow's Oct. 26 show at Lifestyle Communities Pavilion, also in Columbus.

For college students: Keller Williams, Sept. 17, at Seven Timbers Live on Webster Street.

For boomers: Carole King, Sept. 22, at the Schuster Center in downtown Dayton; or the Steve Miller Band, Nov. 15, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

For the hip of all ages: Michael Buble, Oct. 7, at Wright State University's Nutter Center.

TELEVISION

By Maureen Ryan

Chicago Tribune

Weird.

That's the only word to describe the fall TV season, which is the biggest casualty of the 100-day writers strike.

TV executives often talk about wanting to shake up the way they do business. And TV critics and viewers often wish networks wouldn't load each fall season with more new programs than any sane person can absorb.

This year, both wishes were granted. Thanks to the strike, which began in November, fewer new shows were made for fall.

We're getting remakes of foreign shows ("Eleventh Hour," "Kath & Kim," "Life on Mars"), remakes of old shows ("90210," "Knight Rider") and remakes of classic literature ("Crusoe" and "My Own Worst Enemy," a Jekyll and Hyde tale). Even the most high-profile offering, J.J. Abrams' "Fringe," seems, at first glance, to be an amalgamation of ideas from shows such as "X-Files" and "Twilight Zone."

Is it time for the broadcast networks, which have given us this buzz-free fall, to exit stage left? Should they cede the tube to more adventurous cable networks? That's what Mark Harris argues in a provocative recent piece in Portfolio (tinyurl.com/portfolioharris).

By surrendering to the relentless niche-ification that the digital age has brought, cable networks, which identify and pursue specific slices of the TV audience, are operating at an advantage, Harris argues.

"Broadcast networks want everyone," Harris writes. "And the business of wanting everyone has never been worse."

Before we plan the memorial service for the broadcast networks, I have three words for Harris: The "Lost" pilot. What cable network would have spent more than $10 million on that, as ABC did. Perhaps "Lost's" success is an anomaly, but that was one attempt to woo "everyone" that worked out OK.

Much as it pains me (the memory of "Viva Laughlin" lingers), I come not to bury the broadcast networks, but to praise them. Cable is indeed having a well-deserved moment in the sun — the returns of "The Shield" on FX and "Dexter" on Showtime are the most anticipated September events in my house. But the game is more fun when all teams are giving their best.

As long as the broadcast networks are around, they're going to be giving people money to make TV shows. Many resulting programs will be bad, but every year there are gems.

So is there a treasure to be found in this year's muddled mixture? That remains to be seen. Stay tuned.

MOVIES

By Robert W. Butler

McClatchy Newspapers

When it comes to commercial Hollywood movies, autumn is a no-man's land.

Fine with us. Fall is a great season for foreign, independent and documentary films.

It's a welcome time for moviegoers who've had their fill of comic book flicks, teen comedies and nonthrilling thrillers.

Here are a few of the more intriguing titles expected to spice up this fall's art house scene. In most cases there's no opening date set yet ... the operators of art house theaters hate to be pinned down when they might want to hang on to a film that's doing good business.

"Milk": Gus Van Sant ("Drugstore Cowboy," "Good Will Hunting") directs Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, California's first openly gay elected official. Milk became a city supervisor in San Francisco and a cultural touchstone before being assassinated (along with Mayor George Moscone) by an emotionally unhinged (or was it just homophobic?) colleague. With Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Diego Luna and Victor Garber.

"Girls Rock!": Already this year we've seen "Young Heart," the sleeper doc about octogenarians singing rock 'n' roll. "Girls Rock!" focuses on a group of real-life 7-year-olds participating in the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Ore. The advance buzz says it's less about music than about girls exploring an environment in which it's OK to be yourself, to be loud and to make mistakes.

"Blindness": "Constant Gardener" director Fernando Meirelles delivers an allegory about one woman (Julianne Moore) who keeps her sight when the rest of the world goes blind. With Mark Ruffalo, Gael Garcia Bernal.

"Flow: For Love of Water": The next big battle won't be over oil. It'll be about water, according to Irena Salina's documentary about the world's water supply. Around the globe good old H2O is being privatized; this film reveals corporate water piracy, the complicity of governments, the burden put on the poor and the scam of bottled water.

"A Christmas Tale": Mortality, madness, buried sexual secrets and maybe a ghost ... sounds like a holiday treat to us! The latest from director Arnaud Desplechin (he's considered the next big thing in French cinema) stars Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Chiara Mastroianni and Hippolyte Girardot as members of a dysfunctional family gathered for a yuletide reunion.

"Synecdoche, New York": "Adaptation" scribe Charlie Kaufman makes the leap to directing with this weird (what else could it be?) comedy about a stage director (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who hopes to win back his estranged wife (Catherine Keener) by re-creating New York City in a warehouse and populating it with thousands of actors.

"Filth and Wisdom": Madonna (yes, that Madonna) makes her directing debut in this yarn about the inhabitants of a rundown London apartment building. It's cast mostly with unknowns but offers at least one familiar face: that of Richard E. Grant.

"Trumbo": Blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo — who ran afoul of Congress' search for Hollywood communists in the early '50s — is the subject of Peter Askin's documentary, featuring readings from Trumbo's extensive correspondence. Providing voices or their own recollections are Joan Allen, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Kirk Douglas, Danny Glover, David Strathairn and Donald Sutherland.

TECHNOLOGY

By Laura Dempsey

Staff Writer

We're all still talking about the latest salvo launched in the browser wars, that being Google's Chrome, released in beta format a few weeks ago. Count on tweaks and tightening as the Google-folk perfect the browser they're convinced will take down Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Also on our radar is Dell's itty-bitty laptop release, a 2.3-pound computer that starts at $350 and will fit in a big purse. Still, we're always waiting for news on what Apple's been up to, and it looks as if they're still perfecting the already-perfect iPod, with MacBook updates to come later this year.

All will be forgotten, however, when "Guitar Hero: World Tour" and "Rock Band 2" enter our homes, taking over our brains and free time, unless we've already given it over to "Spore," the long-anticipated game by "Sims" creator Will Wright, which carries with it what appears to be a daunting learning curve (players control life ranging from primordial gloop to space exploration).

We're going to be busy inside, using up electricity. Let's hope the weather's bad.

BOOKS

By Hillel Italie

Associated Press

Election years are supposedly off years for books, when we're all too busy following the news. Author-filmmaker-activist Michael Moore thinks we should even take a break from reading any of the fall releases, including his own, and get out there and work for our favorite (progressive) candidates.

But publishers and booksellers are betting — and praying — that a combination of topical works, escapist tales and a very long look at the business of being a billionaire will lure us from the screen, TV or computer, and back to the printed page.

Moore's new book, "Mike's Election Guide 2008," is already a best-seller on Amazon.com.

A look at five major releases for fall:

"The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008," Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster): The fourth of Woodward's chronicles of the Bush administration has been billed as the hottest inside Washington document since the Pentagon Papers. It should certainly be the political book of the fall, even if it isn't about presidential nominees Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain.

"Hot, Flat and Crowded," Thomas Friedman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux): The influential New York Times columnist and author of the million-selling "The World Is Flat" calls for the United States to lead a "Code Green" environmental revolution. "America's problem is that it has lost its way in recent years," he writes.

"Brisingr," Christopher Paolini (Alfred A. Knopf): The third of Paolini's million-selling "Inheritance" fantasy series will get a Harry Potter-style midnight launch, although it's doubtful the book will have Harry Potter-style sales.

"The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," Alice Schroeder (Bantam): Nearly 1,000 pages, Schroeder's authorized biography promises a deep and unprecedented look into the world of the press-shy billionaire investor.

"The Hour I First Believed," Wally Lamb (HarperCollins): Booksellers are excited about the first novel in a decade from the author of "She's Come Undone." Lamb's new novel, more than 700 pages, is centered on two teachers at Columbine High School, in suburban Colorado, during the 1999 shootings.