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The week's releases
Metro staff reviews the latest CDs, DVDs and books for your reading pleasure.
 
The Word
Stern: I’d do ‘Idol’ for $100M
Howard Stern took to his radio show yesterday to address the rumors that he’s a possible replacement for Simon Cowell for the next season of “American Idol.” To sum it up? He’s not going for it.
 
New York Arts
Dancing while the skinny lady sings
You’ve heard of the jukebox musical? David Parsons and singers AnnMarie Milazzo and Tyley Ross of the East Village Opera Co. offer a jukebox opera, playing nightly at the Joyce. Eleven Parsons dancers share the stage with Milazzo and Ross, who clutch microphones cranked to 11 and stroll through the action. On the recorded soundtrack, three drummers create a wall of sound so loud you — well, I — want to hide under the seat. Digital video of abstract patterns, natural landscapes and stunning architecture change for each song.
 
My Books
The facets of Anne Frank and her diary
Generations of schoolchildren have read and recognized their own experiences in the words of Anne Frank, finding surprising commonalities with this young girl despite the passage of generations and the unique horror of  her situation. But according to Francine Prose’s fascinating new account of the writing of Frank’s diary, our veneration of her outpourings has eclipsed a proper assessment of Anne Frank — conscientious author.

 
Movies
Channing Tatum on love and war
Channing Tatum has worked in his fair share of genres, from indie films (“A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints”) to dance flicks (“Step Up”) to blockbusters (“G.I. Joe”). In his latest, “Dear John,” the Alabama native takes on a heavy Nicholas Sparks love story about a soldier in love while at war. He talks with us about true love and blowing stuff up.
 
Updated 22:06, September the 17th, 2007
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The Lashes in their Weathered Underground appearance. The Lashes in their Weathered Underground appearance. 
 

New Web addiction goes Underground

Movie/game wants you to skip work and check out a band

PROFILE. It’s just an average day in the life of an indie rocker living in L.A.

The kind of day where you need to go to your mundane job delivering pizza to pay for your band’s gear and beer. The kind of day where your peer-pressuring bud calls, coercing you to blow off work and head to a dodgy club instead. The kind of day where you accidentally drop your cell phone in the toilet. The kind of day where... Well, what happens next is up to you.

“The Weathered Underground” comes from new media company Choose Interactive, which will soon be known as chUser. It’s part Choose Your Own Adventure book, part online game, part movie, and part music video, featuring several bands from the Pacific Northwest, including glam emo rockers The Lashes, which co-opted the film as its video for “There Goes The Neighborhood” (which has nothing to do with the Sheryl Crow or Body Count songs of the same name).

Mind you, to see a band perform you have to “choose” to send the character, Eric, to the club, not to work. Several more choice buttons pop up throughout the film allowing you, the player, to choose how the story develops.

The permutations are almost endless. Its not surprising that “The Weathered Underground” debuted at the SXSW film festival last winter.

It was made with the twentysomething slacker in mind, says Greg Strom, co-founder of LA-based TV, film, and advertising production company, Strom Magallon Entertainment.
“We took the YouTube model and turned it into an interactive experience,” says Strom from his office in Los Angles.

“At SXSW we saw that people were completely invested in what happened to the characters, because they could control the film’s direction. We knew we were onto something.”

The interactive content comes via Strom Magal-lon’s Interplayer, a technology that will eventually be available for people to incorporate to make their own interactive videos. Choose Interactive will soon spread into advertising, which will undoubtedly strengthen Web marketing.
For now, Choose Interactive is a simple, fun game. An adult game, that is.

“The Weathered Underground” contains scenes of drug use and casual sex, and its characters use colorful language, peppered with expletives. If you’ve ever found yourself perplexed at the stupid choices that characters make in real life, then welcome to your new Web addiction.

After all, it’s all about life’s little choices.

For more info, check out www.chooseinteractive.com