They look like a Hot Topic ad -- fishnets, knee socks, short skirts and tattoos.

CASEY PHILLIPS: Director Roland Emmerich must have been the bane of plastic Army men and ant hills as a child, because he’s clearly fascinated by wanton destruction.

Family’s coming for Thanksgiving, kids are screaming, Uncle Joe hates Aunt Liz, and you don’t know a stock pot from a sauce pan?

Rita Lamb loves the sense of character antiques can add to a space.

Carmike's Majestic 12 theater officially opens today, providing downtown filmgoers with screens at least 40 feet wide and a special 21-and-up screening room called the Ovation Club.

CASEY PHILLIPS: Considering she's the source of one of the world's great unsolved mysteries, Hollywood's avoidance of Amelia Earhart as a film-worthy subject for the last 70 years is as almost baffling as her real-life disappearance.

For Larry Swetman, art has been a saving grace.

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Television characters play an intimate role in our lives. They're in our bedrooms, our kitchens, sometimes even our bathrooms.

Casey: The release of a documentary after Michael Jackson's death on June 25 was inevitable since fans were ravenous for a glimpse of Jackson's final days before his sold-out, final tour. Based on "This Is It," which is culled from 80 hours of footage shot during his preparations for the tour, it would have been a doozy.

Rhonda Westfield remembers seeing Michael Jackson on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Turnout for the midnight showing of Michael Jackson's "This Is It" was no thriller in downtown Chattanooga Tuesday night.

HOLLY LEBER: The appeal of "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" does not lie in the title character. It's an odd little underdog story -- a bored teenager trapped in a high school where, for some reason, everyone wears pastels. He sneaks out one night to a freak show, steals a spider, becomes a half-vampire, makes friends with a snake boy, falls for a monkey girl -- you know, ordinary stuff. All this is embellished with freaky visual effects.

In Chattanooga, children comprise 25 percent of the city's homeless population, according to the Interfaith Homeless Network of Greater Chattanooga.

Sure, they say the clothes make the man (or woman), but without the right canvas, you might as well go naked. OK, not really. This is not advocating using a bad hair day as an excuse to go streaking down Market Street. Frizz happens; it's not worth getting arrested over.

CASEY PHILLIPS: Just like its premise, “Couples Retreat” is basically a rainy day at the beach. All the right ingredients are there — the ocean, the palm trees, the rum drinks — but extenuating circumstances have dampened the fun.

CASEY PHILLIPS: Just like its premise, “Couples Retreat” is basically a rainy day at the beach. All the right ingredients are there — the ocean, the palm trees, the rum drinks — but extenuating circumstances have dampened the fun.

For anyone visiting the Chattanooga area's myriad haunted attractions during October, it may be wise to keep some spare pants on hand.

CASEY PHILLIPS: As a philosophical premise, “The Invention of Lying” is interesting. As a movie, it’s hit or miss.

ANNE BRALY: Taco Mamacita is one of the coolest restaurants in town. I love what they’ve done with the place — quite a transformation since its days as an Irish pub.

When Calynn Kissner started crawling, the pediatrician told her parents it was time to start baby-proofing.

Downtown Chicago smells like chocolate.

“In the Loop” is a whip-smart, razor-sharp political satire, shot documentary style, hilariously nasty, complete with characters who utter things like, “You sound like a (expletive deleted) Nazi Julie Andrews,” with a perfectly straight face.

Jamiecia Love knows what she wants.

Academics say vampires represent death, sexuality and cultural uncertainty, but Bess Helton just thinks they're cool.

CASEY PHILLIPS: Like "Erin Brockovich" and "Michael Clayton," Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!" succeeds by pushing the small type and legalese of a lusterless plot to the background and directing attention to a magnetically powerful performance by its lead actor.

CASEY PHILLIPS: Considering it doesn't feature a single musical performance from the festival for which it's named, "Taking Woodstock" had an uphill battle to prove it could capture the spirit of Woodstock.

The trouble with financial planning is sometimes it just takes too much, well, planning.

ANNE BRALY: Terminal BrewHouse is one of the coolest restaurants in the Main Street district. I think it's amazing what architects and designers are doing to old buildings in the area.

No one is broken.

Norman Rockwell is dead.

Tennessee may be growing as a film-making state -- Moviemaker magazine ranked Memphis no. 8 on its 2009 list of best spots for filmmakers -- but seeing Chattanooga on the big screen is still novel enough to be exciting.

Plaid. It's not just for Highland flings, lumberjacks and Catholic schoolgirls.

Let's go to the movies.

Like all of director Quentin Tarantino’s films, “Inglourious Basterds” carries his signature sprawled across every frame.

Dylan Kussman doesn't think "Leatherheads" was very impressive.

Nathan Earl was panting. But the 6-foot 2-inch, 212-pound 32-year-old wasn't lifting 200-pound weights or running suicide drills. He was standing, knees bent, on a BOSU ball, a gelatinous half sphere that demands core strength, balance and a good center of gravity if you don't want to end up sprawled on the floor.

The son of a Baptist preacher from a farm in Elizabethton, Tenn., Mike Jaynes might not have seemed destined to be a feminist and animal activist.

Computers Plus on Gunbarrel Road is projecting a significant sales increase this weekend over Tennessee's 2008 back-to-school sales tax holiday.

Some parents took time out from shopping at Hamilton Place mall Tuesday to have their children fingerprinted.

CASEY PHILLIPS: "Funny People" is Judd Apatow's third outing as a director, and it bears his signature like a war medal.

ANNE: I will be the first to admit I'm a creature of habit. It's nothing that's creeped up on me in my dotage.

Nearly 800,000 children are reported missing in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Marriage is a great institution," Mae West has been quoted as saying, "but I'm not ready for an institution."

Who says TV is bad for you?

Howard Gropper was a traveling salesman from Brooklyn, making his way through Galveston, Texas, when he met a young lady called Yetta. They've now been married 61 years.

On a sunny Friday in July, seven families greeted one another in Coolidge Park.

CASEY PHILLIPS: There are those who still consider "Harry Potter" a children's series, but this sixth entry defies that categorization. "Half-blood Prince" is easily the darkest and most mature film so far.

Let's just throw it out there.