#WhatsHappening for January 16, 2016

Hey, hey- Saturday. I'm so happy you're here. And don't forget to join us for Saturday Night Karaoke, live and loud tonight at The Iron Horse Tavern from 10pm-1am. It's going to be Bowie Night, in honor of the late singer.

David Bowie has gotten his own constellation, honored to him by Belgian radio station Studio Brussel and MIRA Public Observatory.

The constellation is constructed by seven stars in the direction of Mars that appear to be shaped like the lightning bolt that cover's Bowie's face on the cover of his Aladdin Sane.

“It was not easy to determine the appropriate stars,” Philippe Mollet from MIRA told DDB Brussels. “Studio Brussels asked us to give Bowie a unique place in the galaxy. Referring to his various albums, we chose seven stars -- Sigma Librae, Spica, Alpha Virginis, Zeta Centauri, SAA 204 132, and the Beta Sigma Octantis Trianguli Australis -- in the vicinity of Mars. The constellation is a copy of the iconic Bowie lightning and was recorded at the exact time of his death.”

You can check out the stars listed at Google Sky.

I guess I'm one of the only people in the country who's actually happy that Walmart is shutting down stores.

My mental image of a typical Walmart executive.

The company announced this week that all of its Walmart Express locations would be shut down, as well as 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers, and four Sam’s Clubs. The list includes seven Georgia locations.

Of course, they announced a bunch of new store openings, too- so I'm not that excited.

I haven't set foot inside a Walmart since I was 25 (long story), and- if I can manage it- I'll stay out of them for the rest of my life, too. It's too bad people don't understand just how bad the company actually is for local economies, ecologies, and human dignity. #FuckWalmart.

Fox's Grease: Live! has added some of the 1978 movie's cast to its roster, as Didi Conn and Barry Pearl (who played Frenchy and Doody) have joined the ensemble.

“It was important for us to A. pay respect to this thing that moved us, many of us, to end up doing this so we had a chance to reach out and have some of these members from the original cast who also were in some of the stage versions of it,” director Thomas Kail told reporters.

This time around, Conn will play Vi, the waitress at the local malt shop who interacts with Frenchy, now played by pop singer Carly Ray Jepsen.

“We do have a moment where we have the generations staring at each other and having this really wonderful scene and that was pretty thrilling to watch to say the last and incredibly moving for all of us,” Kail said.

In other cameo news- Tim Curry will do the time warp again.

The original Dr. Frank-n-Furter has signed on to appear in Fox's production of The Rocky Horror Show. Deadline says Curry will take the role of the criminologist narrator.

Bowie’s death this week has spiked demand for his music across pretty much every platform. His new album, Blackstar, currently tops the charts and his four of his previous offerings have crept back into the top 20, and video service Vevo says Bowie’s music videos were watched more than 51 million times on January 11- more views than any other artist ever got on Vevo on a single day- a 5198 percent spike in views over the average during the prior week.

Birthdays today include: Nick Valensi of The Strokes; Jill Sobule; Maxine Jones of En Vogue; Paul Webb of Talk Talk; Sade; Ronnie Milsap; Barbara Lynn; William Francis of Dr. Hook; and Bob Bogle of the Ventures. #MusicalBirthdays