is it time for a parade yet?

So we’ve got Holy Week out of the way, and now it’s time to start thinking about the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Stroudsburg on Sunday.

Sharp will be out at Front Row Sports Bar in Stroudsburg — right in front of the judging stand — to hear some of our favorite singers with an all-day lineup of Steve McDaniel, Tom Graham and more. We’ll be there with giveaways, and we’re working on getting a pretty big prize that will be available if you sign up there for Sharp’s email list.

And I just got word today from KC’s Pub at 1946 West Main Street about its post-parade party. Kat, the owner over there, emailed me today to let me know about what they have going on. There will be food and drink specials, plus live Irish entertainment with the Pocono Region Pipe and Drum Band and the Black Diamonds Pipe and Drums out of the Scranton. Am I the only one who thinks Rowdy Roddy Piper is about to come down the aisle when I hear bag pipes? Really? I’m the only one?

I’m sure we’ll be hearing about plenty more in the coming week. Check this week’s Sharp for a full guide to who’s doing what on Sunday for the parade.

On to the rest of the pop culture world:

I’m loving Dexter. I don’t have Showtime — I don’t know who would, their movies stink — but I’m catching up with them now in the edited version on CBS. Frankly, I don’t see much difference, except for a few “mother lovers” and what I am sure is some more graphic torture scenes. And it wouldn’t kill me to get a chance to see Julie Benz naked, I haven’t checked on Mr. Skin to find out if she ever did get naked on the show. But Michael C. Hall as the serial killer with a heart-of-gold Dexter is a real find and a superb choice. It’s tough to see anyone else playing that role. Luckily, I’ve avoided spoilers for the first two years of the show (for the most part) that could have really ruined it, so even though it’s now more than two years old, it’s still fresh to me. That makes the tension scenes — what Dexter does best — even more tense.

But that’s not to say I’ve totally avoided reading anything about the show. When you try to stay in touch with TV as much as I do, it’s pretty impossible. And in that time, I haven’t heard one comment — not one — about how gawd-awful an actress Jennifer Carpenter is as Dexter’s sister Debra is. She’s an unavoidable train wreck that clouds my vision of how good the show really is. It’s like looking at the Mona Lisa with a mustache and glasses drawn in with a Sharpie. It’s still a classic, but it’s tainted forever. Maybe I missed it. Maybe I just didn’t look hard enough. But she’s just so horribly bad it makes me want to throw up in my mouth more each week.

Not much bad acting going on over at The Riches though in its first week back. I’ll admit — it’s already headed down the normal FX series road of mainly unthinkable things happening at all times to all characters in a fashion that becomes so impossible to believe it clouds your judgement of the show. Nip/tuck blazed that trail years ago and Rescue Me is headed that way now. And now, The Riches, to have people being killed and hidden, to involve neighbors in diabolical schemes when a true “traveler” would never bring too much cargo, it’s all a little much. But it’s a fun ride so far. I don’t blame them for trying to pack as much as possible into the strike-shortened, seven-episode season. And I love the prospect of Dale working at Wayne’s office, mainly because I simultaneously love and feel creeped out at every scene Dale is in. But let’s just tug on that harness a little before we have to deal with another incest plotline, OK?

Another big weekend for Horton Hears a Who, which is no different than what anyone should have thought. What a perfect opening date, one week before Easter to get a big opening weekend, then capitalize on kids being off for Easter the next one. Say what you want about Hollywood — and I have — but those guys are smart.

Actually, never mind about that smart thing. Nothing in Hollywood epitomizes its stupidity than not jumping on the Tyler Perry bandwagon. He hit again with his latest, Meet the Browns, and no one in Hollywood is getting rich of him — except for Perry himself. Hollywood should be ashamed of itself for continually labeling his movies a “fluke” instead of signing him to a 10-picture deal the second the Medea franchise kept hitting at the box office. The fact that everything he’s done has been without a Hollywood helping hand makes it all the sweeter for him, I’m sure.