There's a familiar tint of anticipation and dread surrounding the beginning of Roman Polanski's new thriller, "The Ghost Writer." It's rather like opening an old favorite book or some other familiar act. It's all there: darkness, a subtle but increasingly disconcerting score building the tension, rain, an empty SUV in a ferry loading dock. A body washed up on a Martha's Vineyard beach.

b The blond little Alice America knows and loves, as seen in Disney’s 1951 cartoon version, is definitely gone. In place of the Disney version is Tim Burton’s newest creation: A loud, garish, busy film that is generally underwhelming.

The Lone Pine Cones is one of the newest bands on the Northeastern music scene. Jon Lesh, a freshman business major, and Matt Rhodes, a freshman music industry major, swap between the guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals. Ben Hughes, a math major, plays the drums. Mike Kofron, a freshman at Penn University plays guitar, but did not join the rest of the band when they sat down to speak with The News for NU Band Spotlight.

“Say Ahh,” because Trey Songz is in Boston tonight at TD Garden with rappers Jay-Z and Young Jeezy for the 2010 Blueprint 3 Tour. He is traveling coast to coast as Jay-Z’s special guest commemorating the success of his own album READY.

Event of the Week: Ah, Boston in the time of St. Patrick. Mark well the week of the 17th (We here at The News most certainly do, next week’s issue will be out that day rather than Thursday), not to mention the parade on Sunday March 14 in Southie. Not sure how to celebrate? Taking a page from the book of hometown Irish punk heroes the Dropkick Murphys couldn’t hurt; the band is playing a whole slew of shows this week (From March 12 to 17) to celebrate the holiday, as well as the release of their new album “Live on Lansdowne.” They will, of course, be rocking the House of Blues on Lansdown St. across from Fenway Park. Doesn’t get much more Boston than that.

I met one of the most intriguing people this weekend and I never even got her name. But her daughter’s name is Jennifer, they hiked a glacier together in Alaska and are huge Bon Jovi fans. Her husband died this past year, she loves Snickers and she works as an aid for a bunch of young kids in juvie. She also recently overcame her fear of airplanes, lucky for me.

The 2010 Academy Awards show was hardly full of surprises, but it certainly had comedy and drama. Hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin provided the comedy, playing off each other brilliantly, while the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stirred up the drama by leaving Farrah Fawcett out of the memorial tribute portion of the show. Probably the most notable moment of the evening was Kathryn Bigelow's win for Best Director, making her the first woman to earn a Best Director Oscar. Besides that, it was a rather predictable show.