Donna Summer

Reunions on CBS, revelations on ABC and a remarkable film on Showtime: an eclectic mix for a Friday night."Family Matters" (8 p.m.-8: 30 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Disco diva Donna Summer plays Aunt Oona, a wonderful singer who's convinced she's too heavy. So it's Urkel to the rescue? Doesn't take a genius to figure Aunt Oona's in trouble. ABC."The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- Sorry guys, no more short shorts for Daisy. But everything else is pretty much the same, as the Dukes, the General Lee and almost all the other fun folks of Hazzard return.

There was something warm and real about the sound of vinyl: the pops and hisses. Placing the needle down on the groove made you feel as if you were part of the music. But some of us wouldn't know anything about that, because the compact disc has been around for more than two decades. For those of us who remember LPs and how versatile the cover could be (a wall decoration, a fan, a dust pan), we experience something new and exciting when we hear our old records digitally remastered. (Was that guitar line always so resonant?

Her sound was inviting, passion-soaked, beautifully soulful. But where did it fit exactly? It was 1978 and disco was king, ruling the R&B charts, where Angela Bofill, an ebony-eyed, full-lipped Latina from the West Bronx, found an immediate home. Alongside beat-driven albums by Instant Funk, Donna Summer, Chic and Sister Sledge, Bofill's debut, Angie, stood out on the listings for its eclecticism: a classy, intelligent mix of African chants, smooth jazz and uptown soul. Angel of the Night, her sophomore effort, appeared nine months after Angie and was a bigger smash, featuring the Quiet Storm, self-penned classic "I Try."

Once upon a time, there was a pop goddess named Madonna who ruled the radio airwaves and Billboard charts with her beyond-the-curve music. She often thrilled and sometimes shocked millions with a sound and image that drastically morphed with each album release. But the inevitable happened: Madonna grew older. She became a mother, got married, acquired a British accent and wrote children's books. Meanwhile, younger, edgier pop tarts (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Beyonce) rose triumphant in Madonna's wake.

LET'S SAY you're planning to get hitched and want something a little different for immediately after the ceremony, instead of everyone standing on the church steps firing up Marlboro Lights and snapping unflattering pictures of you with their disposable cameras and thinking: How long before we get some food here? If this is the case, you may want to call the Birdman. The Birdman is Daniel Vitilio, a 39-year-old Kingsville man who started a business nine years ago called "Wedding Doves for Love."

Get ready for a bang-up weekend as Fourth of July celebrations crowd the calendar. Some of the biggest and the best celebrations of the summer are scheduled over the holiday weekend. Three of them are in Pennsylvania. The Kutztown Folk Festival opens July 1 at festival grounds in Kutztown for nine days of family activities and fabulous food.Through its many stage programs, the festival provides opportunities to discover the culture and lifestyles of the Pennsylvania Dutch. There will be presentations about the Mennonite religion and its many different sects; one on Pennsylvania Dutch humor; and one on snake lore.

Given its status as a popular art, you'd think the most important and influential rock and roll also would be among the most commercially successful.And to a degree, you'd be right. After all, there's no disputing either the sales base or stylistic impact of acts like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, James Brown, Michael Jackson or Madonna.Even so, there are still some bands that have been enormously important to the sound and shape of rock despite the fact that their albums didn't sell squat.

It was time to flip the groove, strip it down and build it up again. In 1979 and 1980, black music, which has always dictated what's next in pop, broke free of disco's velvety excess and polyester pretensions. The melodramatic strings and relentless 4/4 beats of the music had grown tired as Afros across the country shrunk into tight, greasy Jheri Curls. And blacks and Latinos in the South Bronx - folks who couldn't afford the admission into the posh discos of Manhattan - planted the seeds of hip-hop, a movement that would eventually flower into a billion-dollar industry.

AS A BOY growing up in the Dirty South (Arkansas, to be exact), I didn't hear a wide variety of music. Soul. Blues. Gospel. A little funk. That was about it. (Fusion, jazz, hip-hop, folk, alternative rock -- all that stuff came later in high school and college.) The music that enlivened the house was like the food in Mama's kitchen: greasy and flavorful, Southern style. She loved Aretha and Gladys Knight, the Temptations. And if a Johnnie Taylor cut or a Bobby Womack ballad came on, Mama would close her eyes, shake her thick curls and wave her hand in the air -- the same moves she did in church occasionally.

My playlist this week is typically eclectic, as I check out CDs old and new. From spirited jazz to progressive disco, these albums have been among my favorites in the past two weeks. BRIAN BLADE & THE FELLOWSHIP BAND Season of Change A few readers lately have e-mailed me wanting to know what's happening on the jazz scene. "Do you even like jazz?" one guy wanted to know. Yeah, I do. I have about three or four shelves at home heavy with jazz CDs -- classic Miles, Monk, Coltrane, Betty Carter and many others.