Welcome to 2007! We are halfway through the first month of the new year, and our writers are already rising to the challenge of making this year even better than last. Stick with us throughout as we continue to bring you the most interesting and varied collection of news, reviews, and opinions you're likely to read anywhere.

MUSIC

DJRadiohead kicked off a new column honoring those who are nominated for 2007 Blues Music Awards. In this first installment he looks at Watermelon Slim & The Workers, giving readers an entertaining history lesson.

Joan Hunt also launched a blues-related column. In Diggin' The Blues: Bo Carter she uncovers and shines a light on this little known artist.

In Music Review: Chris Bell - I Am the Cosmos, Bryan Price takes an expansive look at both the artist and the album, sharing a wealth of knowledge in an engaging way.

BOOKS

How to get boys to read? That's a puzzle exercising many parents and teachers, but Mel Odom has an answer: great books. He writes entertainingly, but with passion, about Wiley And Grampa #4 Super Soccer Freak Show, which obviously fits that description.

By contrast, Richard Marcus's interview with Christopher Moore, author of You Suck, is definitely for adults, as are the books. Richard responds to his subject's light touch with some playful thoughts of his own, and the whole comes together beautifully.

From Asst. Books Editor Gordon Hauptfleisch:

Though not without its merits, C. Michael Bailey says, the bland Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron falls short of conveying the Enron story as the "Everyman morality play" it essentially is, with "larger-than-life characters, lust, greed, gluttony, and all of the requisite waste and conspicuous consumption." C. Michael not only deftly articulates this deficiency , but he also puts the book in context with other books about Enron, providing a useful overview and more comprehensive picture.

It’s an idjication, I tells ya! Bill Sherman’s entertaining review of Popeye Vol. 1 - "I Yam What I Yam" is not only an enjoyable slice of Popeyeiana (if you will), it also gives us an idea of the bit-player origins of our spinach-scarfing seafarer in his comic-strip incarnation, and describes a scene in which “the dainty Miz Oyl hauls off on some uppity skirt who also has her eye on Popeye.” How romantical!

TV/FILM

From TV Editor TV and Film Guy:

From the truly ridiculous notion of TV in a taxicab (Eric Friesen), to super-awesome helicopters in the desert (Matt Paprocki), Blogcritics TV section has it all. We have an argument against Disney's uber-popular High School Musical (Dante A. Ciampaglia). Take that, you dancing prom queens.

From Film Editor Lisa McKay:

"Why is a film about the most horrendous, terrifying, tragic situation a man might imagine so exhilarating, so stirring, so life-affirming?" he asks.  Why indeed? Part personal memoir, part critical analysis, Duke de Mondo's review of United 93 is not to be missed.