Everyday People

Meshelle Foreman is right where she wants to be, on stage, making people laugh with a story from her life. This one involves an uncle who's just out of "the system" after 20 years.Uncle Skippy thinks it's 1976, Foreman says, as her sound man cues up the O'Jays' "Money." He still wears double-knit pants. Uncle Skippy doesn't walk down the street, he does one of those arm-swinging pimp rolls last seen in "Super Fly." Laughter ripples through the audience.Foreman, 28, sprinkles her story with knowing glances and asides.

When the sun sets on North Avenue, a golden light rolls from east to west, illuminating the faces of children at play, street vendors, church women and teens resting on stoops.The light reveals their transcendent beauty; it exalts their skin of many colors: brown, black, tan, cocoa, freckly orange and gilds the street's faded facades.This is the time of day when Linda Day Clark grabs her camera and walks up and down North Avenue, searching for faces that tell a truth about her community most people don't see. What they see is a forbidding boulevard of abandoned storefronts, suspicious characters, and neglected rowhouses.

When we first met him, years ago, he was the stereotypical computer geek: His glasses were thick, his suits rumpled, his personality shy. And every day was a bad hair day.Today, his suits are sleek and obviously high-priced. His hair has been tamed, and so has his intense shyness. Now he is a household name, and as his recognition soared, so did his bank account.Few people have the financial resources of Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, the subject of this transformation. He was helped by a small army of speechwriters, public-relations experts and personal assistants.

Michael Waddell didn't plan on being famous, at least among the hunters who now watch his weekly "Bone Collector" television show on the Outdoor Channel. He never thought about people buying his camouflage hats, T-shirts and other merchandise. He still can't believe that he has his own trademark muzzleloader with his now-recognizable logo engraved on it. "I never even really had a dream of being a television personality," Waddell said last week in Frederick, where he was one of the main attractions at the National Rifle Association's Great American Hunting and Outdoor Show.

Joel Selvin's "Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral Biography" (Avon) may not be the rock book most readers would expect.Sure, it follows Sly Stone from his early days as a San Francisco DJ, through "Dance to the Music," "Everyday People" and the success at Woodstock, to the drug-fueled craziness that eventually brought the band down. But it does so without a conventional narrative, and without talking to Sly Stone himself.Instead, Selvin's approach lets the band's members and associates tell the tale in their own words, as they remember it. Though their accounts can be contradictory and self-serving, they paint a vivid portrait of what it was like to be in one of the most freaky, innovative and successful bands of the late '60s and early '70s.

In conjunction with its screening of "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies," TCM has put together a slate of 19 films, including three of Scorsese's own works: 1974's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (3: 30 a.m. tonight), 1977's "New York, New York" (3 a.m. tomorrow night) and 1978's "The Last Waltz" (4 a.m. Wednesday night). Other highlights: Vincente Minnelli's "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1953), a tempestuous look at the art vs. commerce tug-of-war in Hollywood, with Kirk Douglas as a perfectly corruptible film producer (9: 30 p.m. tonight)

Public television will launch a new weekly newsmagazine next fall, and it will be produced in part by ABC News' "Nightline," PBS announced yesterday. The working title for the magazine is "Life in Bold," and it will spotlight everyday people, according to Pat Mitchell, who has been promising more partnerships with commercial broadcasters and filmmakers since taking over as president at PBS earlier this year. "In a television environment that often confuses celebrities with heroes, `Life in Bold' will spotlight compelling stories of extraordinary achievement by ordinary people," Mitchell said.

Where: The Atlantic City Outlets, The Walk When: Saturday What: Auditions for model/talk-show host Tyra Banks' hit reality TV series, "America's Next Top Model," take place between noon and 2 p.m. in the Old Navy plaza on Michigan Avenue, in the heart of the midtown outlet shopping district. Everyday people will have the opportunity to compete for a grand prize that includes a modeling contract with a top agency or management company. How much: Auditions are free.

Has Bob Head come up with a way to tap the sleeping altruism in our communities?Maybe. He's borrowed a concept the pizza-delivery guys have been using to their advantage for some time: Go to the customers.And boy, are they responding.Two weeks ago, Head made the rounds of his Broadview neighborhood in Abingdon, leaving fliers at eachhouse announcing a "challenge."He asked each household to donatecanned goods for the Harford Food Bank, which provides low-cost foodto area organizations and churches assisting the needy.

Belle Patri means “beautiful home” and that's just what owner Jennifer Lane intended to market when she opened her Jarrettsville store of the same name in 2007. From French Country and Primitive to Shabby Chic, Vintage, and Traditional, Belle Patri has an eclectic mix of new, consigned, estate and antique home furnishings and accessories. “We have a very affordable pricing, and we have a lot of space to bring in a lot of pieces. We update our website everyday, so people can see what is actually in our store.” Lane, mother of two children, 10 and 8, and married to native Harford County resident Erik Lane, is known for refinishing and painting furniture.