The Weekender is back with another semester of bringing you, the reader, the finest in the way of entertainment in and beyond DeKalb.

Much like in past Weekenders, we will keep you up-to-date on the latest music and movies by having one of our trained (or not so trained) writers tear the item in question apart or praise it in a critical review. Past readers may have noticed that we don’t usually review brand new albums like Lindsay Lohan or any new teeny bopper “flavor of the week” bands. If you want that type of garbage, just turn on some MTV to get that. We try to focus more on the bands and artists you may not have heard of or we think you might enjoy and what we wouldn’t use as make-shift frisbees.

Movies are a tad bit different. We will review mainstream movies, but only because DeKalb doesn’t have an indie movie circuit. Trust us, we would rather review a sweet movie, Kevin Smith “Clerks” style, than a “Crossroads” with Britney Spears. But since the box-office has been giving us Daisy Dukes and not a “Requiem,” we’ll have to review some mindless entertainment for awhile.

We did bring back the infamous humor columns that many of you have had a love/hate relationship with in the past. This year will feature the return of Struppendous Advice, DeKalb’s answer to Dear Abby and the Sunday Night Sex Show woman. And no we didn’t get rid of the Touchy Feely Circus, we just renamed it to the Spaghetti Dinner Bear Presents. Why? Because Brayton is a very intimidating guy in person.

New to the Weekender:

Each week we are running a rotating monthly column with a name that will most likely change each week. It will be two staff members in a point-counter-point debate. It will be just like CNN’s Crossfire, only without the cute bow-tie and the series cancellation. They will argue on four subject matters: comic books, television, video games and books. Hopefully they can bring some insightful thoughts to the section because if they don’t, we will bring it down like Mario Lopez’s (A.C. Slater) career.

Instead of running three movie reviews each week, we are going to let the reader write a short one for us in place of the third. We will let you write whatever your little heart wants to write on. If you just watched “The Dukes of Hazzard” or “Ernest Goes to Camp,” tell us about it. I’m sure someone will want to read it. However, I may not. Go to the Northern Star’s homepage and fill out the form on the Weekender page.

The Weekender staff is comprised of the following bums off the street:

Brayton Cameron/Humor Columnist – We pay him to be funny. So in short, he never gets paid.

Kelly Johnson/Music Critic – He just legally changed his name to Keltronic Van Bumblebiscuits and only speaks in a robotic tone.

Adrian Finiak/Music Critic – He is our little Rivers Cuomo who won’t leave our office.

Richard Pulfer/Movie Critic – This guy never wears pants. Seriously. Luckily for us, he does wear underwear.

Genevieve Diesing/Movie Critic – The only female on our staff. She is teaching us how to be proper gentlemen.

David Rauch/Theater and Arts -The only proper gentlemen on our staff.

Collin Quick/Assistant editor/Music Critic – Collin once outran a cheetah. Actually that’s not true, but man, what an athlete.

Chris Strupp/Editor/Humor Columnist – He knows a guy, who knows a guy, who has a mom that makes good mashed potatoes.