Midnight Madness 3/3/08 edition

Help! Amanda Overmeyer is possessed by the soul of late 80's Starship era Grace Slick!! Nothing's gonna stop her now-except bad performances, scary skyscraper high hair and drunk driving. Nurse, this patient's career is dying stat!!!

Time for another round of Midnight Madness. There's a lot of stuff floating out there to take a look at, so here we go!

American Idol recap as we prep for this weeks round: My fave Amanda Overmeyer surprised everyone by surviving last week despite a ridiculous rendition of Kansas "Carry On Wayward Son". It wasn't just bad, but EPIC which has made me a bigger fan because she refuses to ballad-out of her troubles. And the Grace Slick style wall of hair? Priceless. Now she's had a DUI from her past come up which should seal her fate this week.

Another favorite, Ramiele Mulaby, has had some "scandalous" pics come up from her past but they're nothing truly harmful to her reputation despite the hype. A stunned Alaina Whitaker was given the boot along with some guy who did a bad version of Foreigner's "Hot Blooded". Though David Hernandez got fans pumped up with "Papa was a Rolling Stone" but it was David Archuleta's week with a great version of John Lennon's "Imagine". Now if he can survive decapitation and voodoo as described by Paula Abdul's praise of him (she wanted to squeeze him until his head popped off and hang him from her rearview mirror) is another story. Straight Up!

I watched Kickin' It Old School (2007) starring Jamie Kennedy and as far as no brainer comedies go it wasn't bad. The humor was obvious when you have a story about a break dancer who goes into a coma in the 80's and comes out in the modern day, yet it was a pleasant diversion. And the best use of a DeBarge song in a movie ever! (Yes, that includes "Rhythm Of The Night" in The Last Dragon. Whatever happened to the guy who played the lead in that movie anyway?).

Unhitched premiered after a lot of hype on Fox last Sunday and was OK, not fantastic but not bad either. Having a likeable cast that includes Craig Bierko and Rashida Jones helps and a cameo by Johnny Knoxville went a long way. It's like the Farelly Brothers version of Seinfeld with some lowbrow humor mixed with a 3 guys and 1 girl dynamic. So instead of the Soup Nazi or Yada Yada Yada there will be a lot of ass and nut jokes.

Eddie Van Halen has some medical issues which have forced the Van Halen tour to postpone some dates. Am I glad I saw them when I could!

Carl Palmer of Asia has had heart surgery as well, I just got tickets to see them so get well soon Carl! His drum solo in the Asia in Asia concert was one of the greatest I've ever seen. I couldn't find it out there in internet land but if you can view it, I recommend it.

Janet Jackson is all over MTV with amusing snippets taking shots at popular programming like Making the Band. While these brief ads bring Ms. Jackson back into the spotlight in a positive way, her age is showing and she really should be chasing VH1 at this point. C'mon Janet, what have you done for us lately? Oh yeah, flashed the Superbowl...nevermind.

To close, Jeff Healey passed away due to cancer. He's probably known to most people as the band leader from the movie Road House (He says "That, ladies and gentlemen, is Dalton" referring to Patrick Swayze). I didn't get into his music much but liked his guitar playing, I thought he had real talent. The one song of his I do know is great, that's "Angel Eyes", a fantastic blues rock ballad. So in tribute, here it is.

Jeff Healey - "Angel Eyes"

This Summer The Man With The Hat is Back!

It's not the years, it's the mileage

"The Man with the Hat is Back" was actually the tag line to the last Indiana Jones movie about The Last Crusade which was supposed to be the final Raiders movie back in 1989. Now, nearly 20 years later the franchise is being revived for one last run of archaeology at the expense of the Third Reich in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (that's a mouthful!). The original Raiders of the Lost Ark was a mindblowing film on par with the original Star Wars when I saw it in 1980, one of those filmgoing experiences where you didn't know a movie could be this good. I don't know anything about the plot of the new movie, hopefully it still isn't set in the 1940s or it will be tough to explain why Indy aged so fast.

As soon as the theme music kicks in, it's hard not to feel the type of hyperactive excitement I felt for the original films. All those great film memories of being dragged behind a Nazi truck, "I hate snakes!", "No Mr Jones I expect you to die!!!"...wait, that last one was Goldfinger, I mean "They're digging in the wrong place!"...you get the idea. The Raiders series solidified my appreciation for the great Harrison Ford and all of the boring Random Hearts and Regarding Henrys can't take that away. Can Speilberg and Lucas get it together one last time? I think they have a shot based on this trailer. Between this and Iron Man, it's shaping up to be a great Summer Movie year. Indyyyyyy!!!

Indiana Jones 4 trailer

George Carlin gets Old School in Santa Rosa

Last night I went to see Comedian George Carlin in Santa Rosa performing for his HBO special "And it's Bad For Ya". It's the first time I've seen Carlin live and the first time in a while I've seen him in general. In the 70's, I was a fan of his "dirty words you can't say on TV" bit (which I think you can say all but one of now) and in the 80's he often played the aging hippie in TV and Movies (such as Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure). I hadn't seen his name around in a while so it was cool to go see him perform.

Now 70, Carlin had aged considerably since the last time I saw him on TV. Dressed in all black, Carlin hit a stage dressed up like an old clutered study with pictures of Richard Pryor and random art to represent the amount of time that has passed during his career. Opening with a rant against popular celebrities he launched into a long stretch about Death. It seemed natural at this stage in his life that Death would be on his mind, yet it was great to hear Carlin tackle the subject matter with his intellectually confrontational sarcasm.

Carlin was in good form throughout his set as he railed against modern child rearing, nationalisitic pride and organized religion with fervor. He went on for a little over an hour and kept his energy up throughout. His humor is as sharp and irreverent as ever, a fine return for a comedy legend. An' it's not bad for ya.