I'm planning a longer post this weekend about Chrissie Hynde's great journey into Akron. I was lucky enough to be at her 11-song-plus-banter acoustic performance Friday night for a small crowd, and it was definitely one of those "this is a cool job" moment.

But that show, as well as tonight's big concert at the Akron Civic, has me asking this question: Why do people go to concerts and then talk through the performances? It happened Friday night, and again Saturday. Granted that Saturday's show had more of a festival atmosphere, with lots of socializing in the lobbies. Still, why would you sit — like the people behind us — and gab through act after act?

Don't people play music to be heard?

Little things can feel like big worries. Nice to see Molly Shannon on a good "30 Rock" on Thursday, but she looked alarmingly thin. Then there's the way Newsweek's Joshua Alston wrote about Amy Winehouse …

For those of you who are not following Winehouse's career, she is famous for, among other things, bouts of substance abuse. Here's a recent note from a British Web site:

Amy Winehouse cancelled a concert on Thursday night, hours after being spotted stocking up on booze at a local supermarket.

The hell-raising star was snapped in the alcohol section of a north London supermarket at 11am, just hours before pulling the plug on her gig.

Winehouse's own Web site didn't even bother to come up with a bland excuse for her gig-dumping (you know, something like "exhaustion.") It just keeps leaning on "unforeseen circumstances."

That's cause for concern, especially with the continuing line of celebrities going into rehab. (I think the most recent is Eddie Van Halen.) But not a worry to Alston, who ended a profile of Winehouse in Newsweek's March 12 issue this way:

"I'm just very insecure," she says, "and when you're so insecure, alcohol brings your demons out. I can be very nice." But what fun would that be?

Fun?

You can read the rest of the piece here but it's laced with a sense that there is indeed something fun, or at the very least amusing, about Winehouse's boozing and pot-smoking. And her behavior suggests just the opposite. What sort of "unforeseen circumstances" will be required for Newsweek to decide she's not really all that fun?

"NewsNight Akron" has picked its local newsmaker of the year. Here's the announcement:

Melinda Elkins, the woman whose remarkable efforts in support of her jailed husband, Clarence, led to his release in mid-December, was named 2005 Akron Newsmaker of the Year by panelists of the PBS 45 & 49 program NewsNight Akron.  The award recognizes the greater Akron individual whose work has had the most positive effect on the area over the past year.
The panel made the unanimous decision after a lively debate about seven nominees during the show’s Thursday, Jan. 5 taping at Northside restaurant in downtown Akron.  The show airs tonight at 9 p.m. and repeats on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 5 a.m.
Panelists for the show were Vincent Duffy, director of programming and operations at WKSU/89.7; Jody Miller, owner and publisher of Bath Country Journal; Steve Hoffman, editorial writer at the Akron Beacon Journal; and Ed Esposito, news director at WAKR/WONE/WQMX. They cited Melinda Elkins’ nearly eight-year battle to prove her husband’s innocence in the rape of Melinda’s mother and niece and the murder of her mother.  “Here is a woman who waged the ultimate battle on behalf of truth and justice and the American way and really made a change that does impact every citizen in the long term,” said Esposito.
Other 2005 nominees were LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers player and Akron native; Robert Keegan, chairman and chief executive officer of Goodyear; Carol Cartwright, retiring president of Kent State University; the Akron City School board; Luis Proenza, president of The University of Akron; and Rev. Samuel Ciccolini, executive director and founder of Interval Brotherhood Home. …  This is the fourth year that the show has presented the Akron Newsmaker of the Year Award.  Past recipients are Dan Dahl, Rev. Curtis Thomas, Mayor Donald Plusquellic and Connie Humble.

I find that "positive effect" note in the selection criteria interesting. If not for that, they probably would have had to pick Cynthia George…