Entertainment

They don't really call him "the Seeker" – to borrow a line from the Who – but he has been searching low and high. With far less struggle, Jason Labrosse trafficked in vintage rock T-shirts before vintage rock T-shirts were cool.

"Comedy equals tragedy plus time," argues a character in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors." In other words, it's acceptable to joke about nearly any terrible event after enough years have passed – or enough decades, in the most horrific cases. So while delivering the one-liner "Other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?" would have been a bad idea in the late 1860s, the joke elicits chuckles today. Here's a new corollary to that famous humor equation: Comedy plus tragedy equals (a bad) time. The formulation occurred to me last Tuesday after I tuned in to the 10:30 p.m. "Seinfeld" episode on KSKN-TV Ch. 22. It was "The Contest," in which Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer compete to see who can keep from pleasuring themselves – and thus remain "master of their domain" – the longest. The Emmy-winning episode features a Kramer bit TV Guide heralded as the third-funniest moment in television history. But it offered more yuck than yucks last week.

There are promotional films, and there are documentaries. And then there's the blurry realm in between. In between is where "3 on 3" belongs. Made by Spokane's North By Northwest Entertainment, "3 on 3" – which opens today at River Park Square Cinemas – follows three teams as they play their way through Hoopfest 2003.

It is common belief that there isn't enough to do in the Spokane area, especially if you are trying to impress a date. Forget that. My thought is that people just aren't trying hard enough to find something to do. I have found something to do every couple of weeks in Spokane and Moscow with my girlfriend, and we are on limited budgets. Concerts are happening all the time in all genres. One of my favorite spots for an inexpensive and comfortable atmosphere is the Spike Coffee House at 122 S. Monroe in Spokane.

As journalists, muckrakers have never been widely embraced. Just consider the term itself: muckraker – raker of muck.

Lollapalooza WHATceled? Music lovers across America are donning black arm bands and bowing their heads in silence.

Way back in 2002, the music industry promised to give U.S. libraries and public schools about 5.5 million CDs to help settle an antitrust lawsuit alleging retail price gouging. The major labels agreed to furnish fresh tunes, not stacks of remaindered albums. But when the shipments finally showed up this month, librarians discovered lots of duds and duplicates. Only 283 of 1,325 CDs dumped on the Spokane Public Library will be added to the multimedia collection, for instance. The rest are multiple copies, remainders or titles deemed "not desirable to our customers," says spokeswoman Eva Silverstone. In other words, many of the discs are dreck that didn't sell.

Librarians everywhere should celebrate the release of "The Notebook." The film may seem a routine tale of star-crossed sweethearts, but more than anything else it's an ode to literacy. Much like an awkward but well-intentioned suitor, the movie inspires affection despite its overwrought script and occasionally clunky staging. It centers on a turbulent summer tryst, circa 1940, between a moneyed Southern belle (Rachel McAdams) and a worker (Ryan Gosling). Serving as present-day narrator is an aged romantic (James Garner), who reads the love story to a woman battling dementia (Gena Rowlands).

Originally planned as an outdoor event, the Big Easy's Spokane Street Scene Concerts this weekend have been moved back in the main showroom. The concert series feature on Friday 1980s rockers Tesla along with Papa Roach and local bands Lucid with 10 Minutes Down, and on Saturday night, the Big Easy hosts 1990s alternative rock outfit Collective Soul with Young Dubliners, Roger Cline & The Peacemakers, and local pop-rock band Vertigo Bliss.

Are we all ready for another round of "The Simple Life 2" (Wednesdays, Fox)? Take a deep, cleansing breath everyone. The show debuted last week with a much smaller amount of fanfare than the first installment, which was timed perfectly with the release of Paris Hilton's "Rich Girl Gone Wild" tape. However, as anticipated, the two celebutantes illustrated that no matter what the situation or the city, the word "normal" is not in their vocabularies. The show opened with Paris and Nicole Richie on a $100K shopping spree before departing on their voyage across the South, where they'll be penniless and without the safety net of their American Express Gold Cards. I, too, would have gone shopping and bought necessary items for an extended road trip, but, I'm not sure if miniskirts, stilettos and fur-lined bras would be on my list. Will they be helpful in a manual labor/farmlike setting? Don't think so. Perhaps they were expecting to attend a late night rave in a barn along the way.

"Reno 911: The Complete First Season" “““

Q: How can you say all men are dogs? Your reader's three previous boyfriends cheated on her because she allowed it to happen. Is her screening process flawed? Possibly! Bashing men is the easy way out, and it only satisfies your pent-up relationship anger; it doesn't help your reader in any constructive way.