Midnight Madness - Alison Iraheta Edition

Rock rock til you drop: 16 year old Alison Iraheta has shown potential on American Idol but will probably get kicked off the show soon.

It's been a few weeks since I've felt like a Midnight Madness, tonight I think I have enough to post about. This week's post goes to Alison Iraheta, American Idol is continuing it's tradition of raspy voiced rocker girls who have no shot of winning but are fun to watch. She's sort of like a coherent version of Amanda Overmeyer from last year. Iraheta's been in the bottom three twice already, so enjoy watching her while it lasts. On with the Madness!

American Idol Update - Country and Motown weeks went over well, the singers picked up their game and delivered solid to outstanding performances. Then this week the whole group suddenly sucked big time when they got the chance to select whatever song they wanted. Really not sure what happened, but here's what we've got so far: Adam Lambert is schooling the other contestants, particularly with his soft take on "Tracks Of My Tears". Meanwhile, my favorite Alison Iraheta has been underperforming except for a strong rendition of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone". Pixie soul belter Alexis Grace was surprisingly booted a few weeks back followed by roughneck Michael Sarver and bird cawing Megan Joy. Can the singer's rebound this week?

This Is Not A Test - A few weeks ago former WWE wrestler Test died. Pretty shocking because he was a young guy. Test was a featured player and occasionally got big pushes, having on screen relationships with the McMahons as well as the tag team T&A. Sad to see another grappler go.

...And Justice For All - Metallica officially was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cool! Run D.M.C. was inducted too. Why? For one half of a rock song?

Gone Gone Gone - Bad Company is reuniting for a few shows on the Eastern side of the U.S. so they can keep their band name. C'mon, no love for the West Coast? What's up with that?

You Are Gold - Spandau Ballet is reuniting for a tour. Their four remaining American fans get excited, busting out the hair gel and trenchcoats for all to see. You know this much is true.

Pumpkin Patch - Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain has quit the Smashing Pumpkins leaving Billy Corgan the sole Pumpkin left in the group. Now we'll have to see if Corgan's antics causes enough pressure to make himself quit. Then he'll probably bad mouth himself in the press and file lawsuits against himself too.

It's not Cameltoe, it's...- Chickenfoot, the supergroup featuring Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith are getting a lot of attention for their upcoming CD. Can it live up to the hype? Sounds promising so far.

Rorschach Test - Jackie Earle Haley will star as Freddy Kruger in a Nightmare On Elm Street reboot. You know, they really should try to get enough money together for a Johnny Depp cameo if they're gonna do this thing right. Or put him up against Jodie Foster for a Bad News Bears On Elm Street combo reboot.

Chicago's Last Hope - The long running TV series ER wrapped things up this week, I've recorded the finale so I'll get to see all those old faces return. For many years a quality program worth watching in reruns (that's how I saw the show anyway), we can finally declare ER the winner of the hospital show wars once and for all (when ER debuted it was up against Chicago Hope, another hospital show drama set in Chicago. Many wondered who would win out of two similar programs. That's how old this show is, I have to explain my bad jokes with trivia).

The Fast and the Superfluous - Does anyone care about the latest reunion movie sequel in the Fast & the Furious franchise? It's the #1 movie this weekend, so I guess the answer is yes. He's the beast from the east he's the best from the west he's the Vin man. Bonus points if anyone can name the 80's movie that's from.

Web Slinging Insanity - When reading a recent issue of Rolling Stone, I read that Bono and Edge of U2 have written music for a stage musical about Spider Man. Now I've read online that they're starting to have casting calls for this thing so I guess it's not a joke. I shouldn't judge it without hearing anything first, but it's so hard when you read about something this bad.

Natasha Richardson - I realize it happened a few weeks ago, still it was sad to see talented actress Natasha Richarson pass away. I remembered her best from the film The Handmaid's Tale way back when.

Mini Movie Reviews:

• The Visitor - A slow moving film about a closed off College prof who encounters and befriends illegal immigrants living in his New York Apartment. Well acted and relatively realistic. It tries to show the human side of the immigration experience post 9/11 but is only modestly affecting to me. It's not bad but skippable.


• Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Decent comedy about a TV music writer who gets dumped by his TV star girlfriend and ends up in Hawaii at the same time as her. Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother) wrote and stars as the dorky guy crushed by the rejection and is ably assisted by Mila Kunis (That 70's Show) and Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) as the women in his life. It's not non stop fun but it does create likeable characters and has a good sense of humor. I guess this is the film that made British comedian Russell Brand a name here, he's amusing but overrated in my opinion.


• Kung Fu Panda - Jack Black's animated animal martial arts comedy is zippy fun from start to finish. Panda pulls every cliched martial arts movie storytelling device in the book which should make it dull. Instead the Panda team use hyperkinetic direction, celebrity voices and Jack Black's ritalin resistant jokes to keep things moving. A great ride for all ages.

I couldn't embed the video so I got an audio version of the song that my wife and I have been stuck on since seeing it on VH1's One Hit Wonders of the 80's. Oran Juice Jones. The Rain!

Oran "Juice" Jones - The Rain