Midnight Madness 3/16 edition

I hope the Sabretooth Tiger wins

Hey, it's 316 which is my favorite number! What's happened in the past week? Lots!

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was on this week. I wasn't as excited about this years inductees though of course they are mostly respectable. Johnny John Cougar Mellencamp Emerson Lake and Palmer or whatever his name ended up being was a solid pick, he's been remarkably consistent for over 20 years now. The only questionable one to me was Madonna because 1) she is not Rock and 2) she was more about the power of self marketing than anything else. Growing up in the 80's, I naturally have memories of Mads and have liked a song or two (and have hated a song or two too) so I don't question her cultural impact. But no one is going to convince me that "Dress You Up" or "Causing a Commotion" is rock. But the Hall of Fame deal is encouraging me to check out Leonard Cohen. I like when people cover his songs (I really like "Everybody Knows") so maybe the original is good too.

To follow up on something my wife posted once, you know what really Grinds My Gears? That movie 10,000 Years BC , I've hated every second of bombardment from their advertisements. It looks like a bunch of models running from a green screen where they had no idea what would be inserted through CGI later. I keep looking in the advertisements for a prehistoric Bowflex and hair stylist to justify the cave people's six pack abs and perfectly coiffed dreadlocks but no luck. The first wave of media hype is over, though we still have to make it through the advertising rounds for when it goes to DVD. You know what was a good caveman movie? Quest for Fire. Rae freakin Dawn Chong. Now that was a movie worth going to the stone age for.

R.E.M. seems to have entered a time machine because their new song sounds like it came from the Life's Rich Pageant album circa 1985. I'm not complaining, I like the song. Finally, they seem to have healded the criticism "I liked you more when you were jangly and the lyrics made no sense."

Some new Journey songs have surfaced on You Tube all of which sound promising. The quality isn't that great and in one of the videos it was obvious the person was trying to hide their recording device because the visual consists of watching a guy in the audience staring at the lights ahead of him. The early word is that their new disc will be available only Wal-Mart (like the Eagles) in June.

In American Idol, David Hernandez was eliminated just in time because I was running out of bad stripper jokes. This coming week will be a second round of Lennon/McCartney songs which can be murder on the people who didn't get the songs the first time around (study up David Archuleta!). My wife noted during the elimination round that there were fewer votes than before (29 Million) which could indicate people getting bored already. At least my fave, Amanda Overmeyer, is still there to rock the house!

To close, much has been made about "ringers" in this year's Idol so I thought I would post some of them. Here's Carly Smithson and Kristi Lee Cook in their previous incarnations as...themselves.

Carly Hennessy "I Blew Your Mind or something like that"

Kristy Lee Cook "Devoted"