I missed getting my Year in Review write-up done for last week’s paper, and don’t was to fill up this week’s column with a full recap of my favorite stories of the past year, but there are a few items that I’ve noted over the course of the past 12 months that have really tickled me. What follows are my favorites:

J.J. Who? In August, MTV celebrated its 25th birthday. Missed the celebration? There wasn’t one. With a viewership whose average age is reportedly 20, the channel that wants to stay young forever didn’t want to remind people of its birth a quarter of a century earlier. Sadly, today’s viewers have never enjoyed the joy of watching VJs J.J. Jackson, Nina Blackwood, Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter and Mark Goodman.

That’s a boatload of nuts! Almond farmer Scott Phippen had two truckloads of almonds stolen over the July 4 weekend. That’s more than 88,000 pounds, with a street value of about $260,000. Mr Phippen, a third-generation farmer based in Ripon, Calif., believes the almonds were shipped overseas, where they can draw a higher price.

Sadly, Mr Phippen’s theft was not the first or last for the region. In October came word of a similar theft, when one truck containing more than 40,000 pounds of almonds was stolen from a shipping yard in Fresno.

How are kids going to remember the names and learn the proper order of all the planets if Pluto is no longer considered a proper planet? I don’t care what any dumb ol’ astronomers say, My Very Educated Mother is still showing me NINE Planets. And the last one is still called Pluto.

Those non-vegetable-eating kids were right all along! In September, there was a national scare when bags of spinach in 19 (and counting) states were found to be carrying the deadly E. coli virus.

Now that’s irony! Also in September – in fact, during the early morning hours following the state’s largest annual volunteer fire department conference – a fire in Wallingford affected up to a half-dozen businesses including a fire equipment supply store.

Now back to the music.

*CHARISMA will return to Molly Darcy Pub next weekend. The band’s next show at the Danbury restaurant and pub is scheduled for Friday, January 12. For the time being, this is the last public show on the band’s calendar… everything else published on the band’s website as of this week is for private parties.

Molly Darcy is on Lake Avenue, about two miles from Exit 4 at 39-A Mill Plain Road. Easy.

*This weekend’s VINCE GILL show (January 7) and next weekend’s BRYAN ADAMS show (January 12)  at Foxwoods Casino’s Fox Theatre are both sold out.

Even worse, the Firefighters Calendar Tryouts that had been scheduled for January 18 at Foxwoods have been cancelled. I can’t imagine why – certainly not for lack of interest. Hell, I’d even host these things at my house if Foxwoods didn’t want to give up the room for the evening.

The tryouts were to select 15 firefighters for a calendar, with partial proceeds of the door charge ($25) and all sales of the calendars to be donated to Habitat For Humanity. There were even plans for the participating firefighters to build a Habitat house somewhere in the state in the spring.

Don’t worry, music girls. I’m working on this one. (Contact Allison or Kristen at The Bee if you are a firefighter. They’re working on their own firefighters calendar…)

*Later this month, THE KNACK will play a pair of free shows at Club BB at Foxwoods, as will DAVE MASON as the same location. The former will be performing in Ledyard on January 23-24, and the latter will be there January 30-31.

*Plenty of tickets are still available for CHRISTINA AGUILERA’s show at Hartford Civic Center in April. The Pussycat Dolls and Danity Kane will offer opening sets for the April 27 concert. Tickets are $57 and $87 each, and as of this week there were seats as close as Section 123. Visit any TicketMaster vendor or the civic center’s box office for tickets.

Until next week I’ll be seeing you... on the road.

Questions and comments should be sent to Shannon Hicks c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown CT 06470, or shannon@thebee.com, or call the office at 426-3141. Shows listed at club locations are for ages 21 and over unless specified.

 

UPCOMING SHOWS

JANUARY 5 — Jeff Pitchell & Texas Flood at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den, Uncasville; Call It Arson at Café Nine, New Haven, The Quiet Life opening;

January 6 — Gregg Allman & Friends at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den; Big Mistake at Toad’s Place, New Haven, Boiling Man, Fine Line, Old Yorke and No Image opening (all ages); Kalte Sterne at Café Nine, Groovski and Smooth Medusa opening;

January 7 — Blues jam hosted by Mitch Mitchell Quartet at Café Nine;

January 10 — Senses Fail at The Webster Theater, Hartford (all ages);

January 11 — Veloray at Café Nine, Eric Royer opening;

January 12 — The Wailers at The Webster Theater (all ages); Charisma at Molly Darcy Pub, Danbury; Opus’ Birthday Bash at Toad’s Place, 100 Demons, DBW, Since The Flood, Deadwait and No Less Than Everything opening (all ages);

January 13 — Mates of State at Toad’s Place, Oxford Collapse and Diamond J & The Rough opening (all ages);

January 14 — MLK Funkfest at Toad’s Place, Rearview opening;

January 18 — Seth Adams at Toad’s Place, Mean Carlene opening (all ages);

January 19 — Jamie Foxx and Fantasia at Mohegan Sun Arena; Unforgettable Fire at Toad’s Place, Ink and The Jaws opening;

January 20 — Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band at Mohegan Sun Arena; Johnny Winter at Toad’s Place, Remember September and The Bonesmen opening.

January 25 — Overkill at The Webster Theater, Metal Church opening (all ages).

January 26 — Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den (also January 27);

January 27 — Brooks & Dunn at Mohegan Sun Arena; Rock Star Supernova with The Panic Channel at The Chevrolet Theatre, Wallingford; Roomful of Blues at The Webster Theater (all ages); Hat City Blues Band at Redding Roadhouse; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den.