Ali Hoffman: ‘This Side Of Morning’
4 stars
The rock world has enough pop divas and sensitive singer-songwriting women. So it’s nice to hear an artist like Ali Hoffman come along, bringing a little more grit to the stylistic party.
The difference is immediately apparent with the opening song, “Roses,” which swaggers out with some stinging slide guitar riding over soul-ish keyboards as Hoffman introduces herself with a sassy vocal. Most of the rest of “This Side Of Morning” meets the impressive standard set by the opening song. Hoffman doesn’t write these songs, and she was actually “discovered” by Joe Rosenthal, a former writer for “Rolling Stone” magazine who owns Wing Court Records, produced the CD and gathered the songs for “This Side Of Morning.” But the singing talent is all Hoffman’s, and she makes the material sound like her own. That’s a talent that’s sometimes far too underrated. — Alan Sculley
If you like this, try Anne McCue, Susan Tedeschi.

Everything you know about “Life on Mars” is wrong. Or, to put it another way, if all you know about “Life on Mars” is that it was a recently canceled ABC-TV series starring Jason O’Mara and Harvey Keitel, you’re in for a treat.
The original “Life on Mars” was a two-time International Emmy-award winning series from the BBC that aired in Great Britain during 2006 and 2007. It also aired in this country on BBC-America, but not many of us Yanks watch that cable channel.

DOVER — Portsmouth Regional Hospital is hosting a Teddy Bear Clinic from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Aug. 12, followed by a Tea Party from noon to 12:30 p.m. at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire in Dover.
Children are invited to bring their favorite stuffed-friend to Teddy Bear Clinic, an annual event.

Ratings based on four-star system.
‘The Cove’
Rated PG-13
3 stars
First comes the noise: a systematic banging of metal poles underwater, a wall of sound that frightens the dolphins. Then comes the capture: Japanese fisherman drive these dolphins into a hidden cove, ensnaring them in their nets before deciding which should be sold to marine parks and which should be slaughtered for their meat. Last comes the kill: They spear the creatures, leaving behind what looks like a punchbowl of death. This process is depicted in gruesome detail in “The Cove.”