Some call it "the winter blues." I call it ENTERTAINMENT CATCHUP TIME!

Now that it's finally dropped below 60 degrees this week, we can be reminded that it's January and we're being slowly drug into the harsh biting belly of winter. And you know what that means? It means I stop going to the gym. I cut all social ties. Instead, I bask in the warmth of my bedroom watching DVDs and playing video games while forgetting what it means to interract with others, but make up for it by living the lives of countless others in their much more exciting stories. Don't fight it! Embrace it! Then when spring comes, you can chit chat with your friends about all these neato movies and books and they'll wonder where you get the time to take in all this stuff.

So for this week, here's the top 5 things we'll be scening and hearding here at Scene And Heard HQ quite frequently throughout the rest of winter's frosty days.

5. Rolling Stone, Cover To Cover
It's the digital archive library of Rolling Stone, from the first issue up through last May. Ever'body must get Stoned! This will, no doubt, keep me busy, as I look up random artists and then read up on everything about them that was ever printed in the Stone.

4. Elliott Smith catalog
Other than Mr. Smith, is there a voice out there in the music ether as frost-bitten as it is warm and comforting? No sir! It's beauty that hurts! And if you ask me, that's what winter is all about. So, I'll spend countless hours listening to Figure 8, Either/Or, and last year's New Moon, not being totally sure whether he's melting my ice or freezing my bones, and being totally cool with that.

3. Little Miss Sunshine
You can choose from millions of movies to watch this winter. But are there are any comedies as warm and loveable as this one? Naw, doubt it.

2. Kevin Smith-a-thon
While View Askew is currently filming a new flick starring Seth Rogen called "Zach and Miri Make A Porno" and planning for ANOTHER FILM later this year, things are shaping up quite well for us Smith fans. So what better way to prepare than by brushing up on our Jay And Silent Bob Quotes by running through the View Askew Universe in chronological order? Started watching Clerks last night as matter fact. Jersey Girl not included.

1. Holy Heroes, Batman!-a-thon
It can't be a coincidence that heroes have come roaring back in a big way this decade. We need to be saved in a lot of ways. Music, politics, writers strikes, wars, terror attacks, illegal downloading, school shootings, etc. And as far as comic book nerds go, it seems their entire nerdiverse is being adapted into movies and games. So to prepare for hot anticipations like Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and The Hulk...you can bet I'll be perusing it all. From watching season one of Heroes, to slashing through all the Xmen games as Wolverine on Playstation, to watching all the movies...good and bad. I'll even put myself through Batman & Robin, because what's chillier than The Schwartzenattor as Mr. Freeze?

"Allow me to break the ice. My name is Freeze. Learn it well. For it's the chilling sound of your doom."

I'm a bit of a music magazine junky. No secret there if you've by some odd chance seen my cramped living quarters.

But I've spent the past few weeks pouring--and repouring--through the pages of Rolling Stone 1039, which is the third of 3 commemorative 40th anniversary issues this year, and also one of the greatest volumes of anything I've ever read to do with anything. Frankly cause it has to do with everything I care about, which is more than just music and the entertainment world.

There are in depth interviews with everyone from Al Gore to Jon Stewart to Kanye West to Dave Eggers, right on down to the fella most responsible for the internet (I'm not talking about Gore). And they all discuss where we--as a people, as a country, as a world, as a community--are all going, in terms of politics, technology, music, and more. I have literally re-read some of these pages over and over again, to throrougly instill the hope beaming from between the words crammed into this massive issue. It's a very warm read that molds a wonderful sense of future and purpose out of a present that gives us little reason to. It makes optimism of pessimism. Silver out of dust. Rock out of air.

But the one quote I'd like to lift comes from the man who reached from out of a set of headphones when I was 16, grabbed me by the spine and shook my head into the colorful whir of rock and roll--Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. The quote is nothing spectacular, but it's one that reached from off a magazine page and said, "Yeah dude, I know."

"We need music, and we need it good. I took it very seriously. There's a side of me where music will always send chills up my spine, make me cry, make me want to get up and do Pete Townshend windmills. In a lot of ways, I was in a minority when I was young. There are people who go, "Oh, that's a snappy tune." I listen to it and go, "That's the greatest f cking song ever. That is the song I want played at my funeral."

Amen.