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Neil Diamond video during Red Sox opener

He's playing Fenway Park Aug. 23. Sorry for any typos but I just gouged my eyes out. What has become of us, people? What does it mean if we win two World Series but lose our souls?

Steve Winwood To Sing For Berklee

A Steve Winwood concert in the intimate confines of the Berklee Performance Center highlights the school's as-always celebrity-studded graduation plans for this spring. Winwood - star of Blind Faith, Traffic and a long solo career, including the forthcoming "Nine Lives" album - will play a public show at the 1,200-seat hall on May 8. Tickets, available at the BPC box office and ticketmaster.com, are $35, $50, and $70. Pricey for BPC, but far less than what scalpers were getting for his recent Blind Faith reunion shows at Madison Square Garden with Eric Clapton. Call 617-747-2261 for more information.

Winwood is performing to celebrate receiving an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee; other recipients this year are Philip Bailey and Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire, composer and Berklee alumnus Howard Shore, and Brazilian artist Rosa Passos. Bailey will be Berklee's commencement speaker on May 10 at BU's Agganis Arena, and Berklee students will play a tribute show to the honorees on May 9 at BPC, but those two events are only open to the Berklee community.

Red Sox rings...tacky, tacky

Too bad there wasn't more baseball to talk about this morning because the Red Sox news is depressing. I can't begrudge management and players whatever insane bling they want to award themselves for winning the World Series, but should we all care about the details? Is heaping on a few more diamonds one way or the other really going to make any difference? Can anyone look at those godawful knucklewraps and say one year's is more tasteful than another? Don't they look like something out of Flavor Flav's jewelry box? Isn't this awfully Yankee-esque?

Maybe if they win again this year, Papi and Manny could take John Henry aside and say, Here's the thing, bro, we don't need any more frickin' bling, and if we did, we got enough cash to buy our own. Why don't you take the money and spend it on a medical clinic in the Dominican or something like that, ey?

And while we're at it, is spending $100,000-plus of taxpayer money to burn up a shitload of precious fuel for an ear-splitting flyby over Fenway Park on Opening Day, or any other sporting event for that matter, really a good idea? Oh yeah, it's recruiting. Uh huh. Maybe we could use all that money to pay for some more flak vests or better-armored Humvees for the troops in Iraq - I hear they still don't have everything they need. How about it?

(Above, the 2004 ring.)

Congratulations are due

The Globe's Mark Feeney was just announced as the winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for a package of 10 stories including his piece on the Edward Hopper retrospective - with so many North Shore scenes - at the MFA.

"A South African, more political version of Eddie Izzard"

I haven't gotten over to see Pieter-Dirk Uys at the Zero Arrow Theatre, but Bunko Squad did, and there's a decent short review here.

Making CultureCount

The color scheme - washed-out Howard Johnson's - takes some getting used to. But CultureCount, which calls itself new England's Cultural Database, could end up being a valuable tool for arts managers, funders, fund-seekers and journalists. Mind you, the account-creation process is not without its baffling moments. "Are you an individual artist or a humanist?" is a yes-or-no question to CultureCount. But the web site, a project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, offers the beginnings of a treasure trove of "financial, demographic, geographic, and other related information about businesses, cultural organizations and individual artists" in the six-state region.

Oil your chain for Somerville Open Studios

If you grew up nearby, nothing highlights the changes in Somerville in recent decades more than the fact that the city's official web site brags on its arts community: "Somerville is Arts Central: only New York has more artists per capita than the City of Somerville; the local artists make the City one of the most vibrant and exciting arts centers in the country." I suspect there are a few places that might want to contest that claim, which would be fine as long as they do it over a couple of pints at the Burren. In any case, here's the lowdown on Somerville Open Studios 2008...

NKOTB: Apocalypse arrives May 16

Ok, all you hyperventilating New Kids on the Block fans out there, just kidding. Tomorrow's announcement of a reunion tour is probably not the final harbinger of the End Times. But some folks who've been reporting an expected  summer tour missed what sounds like a kickoff date in the actual NBC press release about tomorrow's "Today Show" appearance. Note the sentence in boldface:

In their first public appearance together in 15 years, the New Kids on the Block will appear live on the Plaza on NBC's "Today," Friday, April 4. All five members of the famed 90s boy band, that sold more than 80 million albums and sparked a worldwide phenomenon; Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood and Jordan and Jonathan Knight, will make a special announcement only on "Today." Additionally, the band will join "Today's" summer concert line-up on Friday, May 16, and perform live on the Plaza in their first concert since splitting in 1994.

Unforseen consequences of labor unrest on the Pacific Rim

Because of the settlement of the writers strike, Audra McDonald has canceled her May 16 Celebrity Series appearance. She has to be back in L.A. filming "Private Practice," the so-far-unbeloved "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff. Ticketholders are being notified by mail and can exchange their ducats for another series program or obtain a refund. For more information, call 617.482.2595, extension 213 or 222.