OOPS!!!!!!!

CNN anchorwoman Kyra Philips left her mic on during the President’s speech yesterday ... and several YouTube viewers were there to catch her blabbing away while GW talked about the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. What’s really interesting is her opinion of her brother’s wife at the one-minute mark.
Check it out!

What is your favorite "bad movie"?

After writing my critique of the gawd-awful Dead Easy, I started thinking about bad movies. Not bad movies you walk out of searching for the young punk who sold you your ticket with ambitions to demand your money back (which I have only done once ... unsuccessfully), but bad movies that are so bad they rock.
For me, my favorite “bad movie” is the 1985 cult classic, The Toxic Avenger.
Directed by Lloyd Kaufman (under the alias Sam Weil), president of Troma Studios, the film centers on a geeky health club janitor, Melvin, who falls into a barrel of toxic waste and mutates into a superhuman crime-fighter.
On the basic principles of filmmaking, Toxic Avenger shouldn’t work as well as it does. Stuntmen and their safety equipment can be seen in almost every stunt, the special effects are low, low-budget, the acting is over-the-top and it’s so gory the film had to be severely cut to receive an ‘R’ rating.
Still this film works on every level. You actually identify with the rags-to-mutant Toxie, and after that — once you’ve suspended your disbelief (or locked it in the dark root cellar of your mind) — everything becomes believable.
It’s B-movie magic, and even after 20 years it is still one of my favorite films.
I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Lloyd Kaufman on three occasions, once in the New York offices of Troma Studios, and I remember him saying the allure of The Toxic Avenger is the story. People will overlook bad acting, bad effects, bad stunts, everything if the story is good.
He proved it again in 1996’s amazing Tromeo and Juliet, a B-movie version of the William Shakespeare classic — with all the gore and rock ‘n’ roll missing from the original tale. Again, one of my favorites (not just because it stars Jane Jensen - a truly super sonic cheeka!).
The Toxic Avenger spawned three sequels (the latest, Citizen Toxie, was released in 2000), a cartoon series, a comic book and a musical, and Toxie is the very symbol of Troma - the longest running independent film studio. Troma is currently working on Poultrygiest: Night of the Chicken Dead, which will be released in December. I for one am looking forward to seeing that.

So, what’s your favorite “bad” movie? Tell me in the comment section.

Worst Movie Ever!

I throw this phrase around an awful lot, but I really think I’ve found it this time.
Dead Easy, a South African “thriller” starring Richard Grieco as a hard-drinking, hard-loving, hard-smoking ad executive, is about as bad as they come.
Simon Storm (Grieco) decides it would be a good idea to cheat on his wife Theresa (played by Polish actress Joanna Pacula) with a sultry co-worker (Thandi Puren), because Theresa is also out there playing the field (with a male art model at that).
Of course, Storm gets caught ... on videotape. D’oh! So in a drunken rage, he hires a hit man to kill his wife. Then she disappears and he regrets it, gets the police involved, they find her, kill the kidnapper and the wife comes home like nothing’s wrong, and then they lay down the worst twist I’ve ever seen in a movie.
I’m leaving some things out, but you just don’t need to get too deep into this movie.
Dead Easy is one of those films that you end up talking to. Storm’s girlfriend tells him he should ‘get rid of his wife so they can be together’ leading to the “yeah, a guy would have no problem trusting woman after that” comment from yours truly. The kidnapper has a scene where he is putting on makeup in the mirror. “Holy crap man! Really? You’re going to pull that one? No dolls lying around with burnt faces? You’re going with the makeup? OK, but I have to warn you, you’re probably going to be dead in five minutes.”
When Storm gets his wife back, and he’s saying how much he loves here, I’m sitting there like “What? Even though your girlfriend stayed over last night? Even though you tried to have her killed? That’s the card you’re going to play? Not going to say something more appropriate like, ‘I’M SORRY?’”
And — get this — at the end of the movie, after everyone is dead, do you know who orchestrated the whole thing? The wife and the girlfriend! They were in charge the whole time. When the wife was tied up with the kidnapper putting on his makeup, she was in charge? Oh, OK. And the girlfriend too? They were in on it together? Wow.
To life a phrase from The Simpsons, I didn’t think it was possible, but this both sucks and blows.
The dialogue is as clunky as car falling off of a cliff. There are numerous factual errors (including the use of an American telephone number) and Richard Grieco (while more talented than Tom Cruise) couldn’t act his way out of a grade school performance on talent night.
But do you know what the worst thing about this movie was? I watched it. I have Dish, and there was nothing better on. This was it.
Out of four stars this movie gets a “give me my 90 minutes back.”

Mad Mad Media Podcast # 8 (I think)

Mad Mad Media Podcast
(click to listen/right-click to save)

Hello Everybody!
As you see, we have another new Mad Mad Media Podcast uploaded for your approval. This week’s show was particularly difficult, after my hard drive fell off of the face of the Earth, I was left to work on it here at work. But the silver lining of that black cloud is that we have Garageband 3 here at the Press, and I have been able to upgrade the podcasts for those of you regular subscribers through iTunes (subscribe through iTunes by clicking the link to the right).
Then something else happened.
I usually contact musicians through MySpace to get permission to use their songs. For those of you out there who may be interested in creating your own podcast, you HAVE to get permission to use copyrighted material on your show.
Two weeks ago there was a ripple in the matrix, and all of a sudden I can’t access sites like MySpace because the paper’s Internet Explorer is suffering from some debilitating condition that makes it freeze up whenever you try and access a site that has complicated text.
So, I had only gotten permission from two artists. Not nearly enough for a show. But the Podsafe Network came to my rescue. They have done all of the work for me, and hooked the show up with some awesome music.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

So here are the groups from this weeks show!

Carbonfour
From The Start
These guys have an awesome hypnotic sound and they’re from right around the way...Chicago. I’m going to have a review of their whole CD later this week, but if you’re fiending to here more, check them out online by clicking HERE.





Taylor Hollingsworth
Duct Taped Heart
I missed this guy’s show a couple of months ago because I had to work and I’m still regretting it. Hollingworth has a great Replacements-esque sound that is a refreshing shot in rock ‘n’ roll’s arm. Want more? Check him out online by clicking HERE.

Pippa Rogers
Happy
I have to be honest, I picked this artist from Podsafe because it reminded me of Kelly Ripa (Regis always calls Ripa Pippa. I’m glad I picked it — not because of the name — the song is solid. This UK artist has permission to stay! Want more? Check her out online by clicking HERE.







Karmella’s Game
One Phone Call
Baltimore, I’ve never thought of you as being on the indie rock map...I was wrong. I’m sorry. Karmella’s Game is off the hook! Interesting lyrics, rockin’ sound...you just can’t go wrong with this one. You like? Check they out by clicking HERE.








Panic! @ The Disco
I Write Sins Not Tragedies
Finding these guys on Podsafe was like finding the one missing CD from your collection at a garage sale. I never thought I’d get permission to play this, one of the hottest bands of the summer, and here they go and give everybody permission to use it. Kings among men I tell you. Want to find out more? Check them out online by clicking HERE.

Pod this!

Mad Mad Media Podcast

(Click to listen/Right-click to download)

Hey Everybody. I'm tired, I'm cranky, and I need some juice. Here's the latest Mad Mad Media podcast. I will upload info about the artists on Sunday night. Sign up on iTunes to get the enhanced experience!

Saw III

Oh Yes, there will be blood.
Saw III will hit theaters this Halloween.
Check out this trailer for what will probably be the biggest scary movie this year at Yahoo! Movies by clicking HERE.

The (fake) horror!

IMDb is reporting an internet report that live rattlesnakes were let loose in a Arizona Movie Theatre during a showing of Snakes On A Plane is not true.
The site reported that local news reports on Tuesday said cinema-goers were terrified the two live poisonous snakes were released at a Friday showing.
Police said there was a shred of truth to the story, a 10-inch rattlesnake was found a theater hallway, but police believe the snake waltzed in on its own and it was caught by a theater security guard and taken outside before any panic ensued.
Seems a little fishy to me. Maybe this is New Line's plan to get people interested in a sequel, "Snakes In The Theater: Terror In An Aisle Seat."

Hey, wanna feel old?

For those who are entering college this year, this is what their lives have always been like. Tell me when you start feeling old.

2006 Beloit College Mindset List
Members of the class of 2010, entering college this fall, were mostly born in 1988. For them: Billy Carter, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Billy Martin, Andy Gibb, and Secretariat have always been dead.
. The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.
. They have known only two presidents.
. For most of their lives, major U.S. airlines have been bankrupt.
. Manuel Noriega has always been in jail in the U.S.
. They have grown up getting lost in “big boxes”.
. There has always been only one Germany.
. They have never heard anyone actually “ring it up” on a cash register.
. They are wireless, yet always connected.
. A stained blue dress is as famous to their generation as a third-rate burglary was to their parents’.
. Thanks to pervasive head phones in the back seat, parents have always been able to speak freely in the front.
. A coffee has always taken longer to make than a milkshake.
. Smoking has never been permitted on U.S. airlines.
. Faux fur has always been a necessary element of style.
. The Moral Majority has never needed an organization
. They have never had to distinguish between the St. Louis Cardinals baseball and football teams.
. DNA fingerprinting has always been admissible evidence in court.
. They grew up pushing their own miniature shopping carts in the supermarket.
. They grew up with and have outgrown faxing as a means of communication.
. “Google” has always been a verb.
. Text messaging is their email.
. Milli Vanilli has never had anything to say.
. Mr. Rogers, not Walter Cronkite, has always been the most trusted man in America.
. Bar codes have always been on everything, from library cards and snail mail to retail items.
. Madden has always been a game, not a Superbowl-winning coach.
. Phantom of the Opera has always been on Broadway.
. “Boogers” candy has always been a favorite for grossing out parents.
. There has never been a “skyhook” in the NBA.
. Carbon copies are oddities found in their grandparents’ attics.
. Computerized player pianos have always been tinkling in the lobby.
. Non-denominational mega-churches have always been the fastest growing. religious organizations in the U.S.
. They grew up in minivans.
. Reality shows have always been on television.
. They have no idea why we needed to ask “... can we all get along?”
. They have always known that “In the criminal justice system the people have been represented by two separate yet equally important groups.”
. Young women’s fashions have never been concerned with where the waist is.
. They have rarely mailed anything using a stamp.
. Brides have always worn white for a first, second, or third wedding.
. Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.
. So” as in “Sooooo New York,” has always been a drawn-out adjective modifying a proper noun, which in turn modifies something else.
. Affluent troubled teens in Southern California have always been the subjects of television series.
. They have always been able to watch wars and revolutions live on television.
. Ken Burns has always been producing very long documentaries on PBS.
. They are not aware that “flock of seagulls hair” has nothing to do with birds flying into it.
. Retin-A has always made America look less wrinkled.
. Green tea has always been marketed for health purposes.
. Public school officials have always had the right to censor school newspapers.
. Small white holiday lights have always been in style.
. Most of them have never had the chance to eat bad airline food .
. They have always been searching for “Waldo”.
. The really rich have regularly expressed exuberance with outlandish birthday parties.
. Michael Moore has always been showing up uninvited.
. They never played the game of state license plates in the car.
. They have always preferred going out in groups as opposed to dating.
. There have always been live organ donors.
. They have always had access to their own credit cards.
. They have never put their money in a “Savings & Loan”.
. Sara Lee has always made underwear.
. Bad behavior has always been getting captured on amateur videos.
. Disneyland has always been in Europe and Asia.
. They never saw Bernard Shaw on CNN.
. Beach volleyball has always been a recognized sport.
. Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti have always been luxury cars of choice.
. Television stations have never concluded the broadcast day with the national anthem.
. LoJack transmitters have always been finding lost cars.
. Diane Sawyer has always been live in Prime Time.
. Dolphin-free canned tuna has always been on sale.
. Disposable contact lenses have always been available.
. “Outing” has always been a threat.
. Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss has always been the perfect graduation gift.
. They have always “dissed” what they don’t like.
. The U.S. has always been studying global warming to confirm its existence.
. Richard M. Daley has always been the Mayor of Chicago.
. They grew up with virtual pets to feed, water, and play games with, lest they die.
. Ringo Starr has always been clean and sober.
. Professional athletes have always competed in the Olympics.

Cruise right on out of here

I was pretty ticked at Paramount Pictures about a decade ago when they ended their agreement with Full Moon Pictures, the low-budget horror film company behind the cheezily awesome films Puppetmaster, Dollman, Trancers, Demonic Toys and other.
But now that Paramount has canned Tom Cruise, I have one thing to say.
Paramount—we’re all good.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Tom Cruise is a nut.
Not only should he no longer be allowed to make anymore movies, all of his roles should go to Billy Zane. Now there’s a guy that can act (better than Tom Cruise).
Tom, if I may quote a long-deceased television gameshow, you are the weakest link. Goodbye!

(Look out Tom Cruise! Paramount executives are trying to get ya! Picture courtesy of Paramount Pictures and MI:3)

Kelly Clarkson on YouTube

You all have probably heard about this one. Kelly Clarkson was on stage with Metalskool, and it was all captured and uploaded on YouTube.
I had it on the site for about five minutes, until I watched it and realized how much dirty language the video had in it (Hey, I do write this for The Sheboygan Press, so I have to keep it relatively clean).
For those of you who have to see squeaky clean Kelly Clarkson rocking out with the bad boys of Metalskool, check it out by clicking HERE.
But you have been warned. The video does contain a lot of bad language. But Clarkson holds here own.

Paris Hilton: Singer

Several people have asked me what I think of Paris Hilton’s new CD, which is being released today by Warner Bros. I guess when it comes right down to it; I don’t think much of it at all.
There is nothing attractive about Paris Hilton. She is a talentless rich girl. She proved she couldn’t act in House of Wax, not even to the low, low standards of the horror genre. She has shown time and time again that she has no personality on her “reality show,” The Simple Life — where Nicole Ritchie is the real star.
Now she’s showing the world she can’t sing. A trifecta.
Listening to the CD online, there are moments where Paris’ disc doesn’t sound bad, but that can only be expected. When you have a limitless budget anything is possible.
If you, and I mean anyone, had $100 million at your fingertips, you could make a movie — probably a pretty good movie too. You could hire the best cinematographer, the best set dressers, some competent actors and buy a great script.
Hilton’s CD feels exactly the same. The production values are pretty good. The music is vacuous but fun, and if the songs had been sung by someone with a little more musical integrity (like Cascada or Ashlee Simpson) they would almost be tolerable.
But then you get to the lyrics. Absolutely thought provoking! Take this snipped from Turn It Up, a loving ode to hooking up in a club.
“Can you make me hot? Make me touch the ceiling?”
Wow. Shivers. That’s what’s being sent down my spine right now. Then there’s her first track, “Stars Are Blind.”
The title just makes me want to say “Yeah, to their lack of talent.”
The songs just get worse from there, from I Want You which features a sample of the Bee Gees Grease to the awful slow jam “Heartbeat” and a rancid cover of Do Ya Think I’m Sexy (a song that was better suited to RevCo).
To quote Simon Cowell, this is bad karaoke.
Here’s how bad the disc is. I wouldn’t steal it off of the Internet. I wouldn’t take a copy for free. And if someone paid me to listen to this hunk of crap again, I wouldn’t take the money.


And you shouldn't have to either. In fact, it you want to hear how bad this disc is, you can stream the entire disc for free on the Artist Direct site. Check it out by clicking HERE.

And here's the video for Stars Are Blind, courtesy of YouTube.

 

Snakes On A Plane: The Review

Ah, the action movie. A dying art if you ask me. Fifteen years ago a new action movie was coming out every couple of weeks, with Jean-Claude Van Damme or Dolph Lundgren battling aliens, renegade cops, mobsters or each other.
None of these movies were any good, but they were usually fun to watch.
I was reminded of those cinematic achievements last night as I sat through the 7 p.m. showing of Snakes On A Plane, a movie about a doomed red-eye flight from Hawaii to LAX carrying a witness to a mob killing, 50 people who under any normal circumstance wouldn’t commingle with each other, and a baggage compartment filled with poisonous snakes.
The film followed very closely to the rules of the action genre.
First Rule: Introduce your heroes and victims. The heroes in an action movie are introduced with a memorable one-liner. In this case, Sean (an extreme sports junkie played by Nathan Phillips) is sitting in his apartment hours after he witnessed a mob hit. He hears someone at the door and runs to the porch where special agent Nelville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) grabs him and says ‘Do as I say and you live.’ The hero is introduced.
The victims are introduced as they come on the plane (which is filled with poisonous snakes waiting to pounce). There’s the pompous jerk who’s ticked he has to sit between a woman with a dog and a woman with a screaming baby. He’s gonna die.
There’s the guy who hates to fly, with his wife who chose to go to Hawaii for their honeymoon. Oh, yeah. They’re gonna die.
There’s the stewardess who passed up early retirement. Dead.
There’s the pilot and co-pilot who have to fly the plane. Dead.
There’s the promiscuous couple that head off to the bathroom to smoke some dope and join the mile high club. Drugs and sex? They’re gonna be the first to die!
The plane takes off, the snakes are released, and all hell breaks loose.
Second Rule: The villain has to be virtually infallible and improbable. In Universal Soldier, the Unisols (who where genetically altered dead soldiers from the Vietnam War) were unstoppable. In I Come In Peace, the alien from another planet that shot compact discs from a gun could not be beat. In this case they had snakes that were riled up from pheromones sprayed on the leis.
Third Rule: Everybody has to be put in an inescapable situation that will take sacrifice and impromptu teamwork to overcome. With there being a plane full of snakes, that pretty much takes care of rule #3.
Fourth Rule: There has to be one catch phrase that will be screamed out by everyone in the theater after the movie ends. That phrase is: “I’ve had it with these mother (something) snakes on my mother (something) plane).” Check.
For the most part, Snakes On A Plane is an enjoyable ride. The snakes are scary, the action scenes qualify as being nail biting, there is some great comic relief (much of which is provided by SNL’s Kennan Thompson) and, of course, Samuel L. Jackson says “I’ve had it with these mother (something) snakes on my mother (something) plane).
And the group of people I saw it with really liked to scream when they saw the snakes. That was sooooo cool.
But after the sugar high of SOAP wore off this morning, I do have some complaints. The dialogue was extremely clunky, filmmakers didn’t take full advantage of a large snake, none of the characters were developed to a point where you gave a damn about anyone and Samuel L. Jackson’s catchphrase seemed tacked on.
In fact, if Samuel L. Jackson wasn’t attached to this film, it probably would have been direct to DVD, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and every single person in the video store would have picked it up, read the description and thought to themselves (boy, this sounds good but I’ll wait until it’s a dollar rental).
I’m glad I got caught up in the late summer frenzy of Snakes On A Plane, I’m glad I saw it opening weekend with friends, and I’m glad someone has the guts to make an action movie at a time when gross-out comedies have worn out their welcome and Jerry Bruckheimer seems to be controlling the action genre with high-budget, high-concept, low-payoff films.
Snakes On A Plane is a refreshing alternative to the norm. Now, let’s work on bringing Jean-Claude Van Damme back to the big screen. 

Today is the day

At 10 p.m. tonight, the awesome power of Snakes On A Plane will be unleashed to a begging public.
I, unfortunately, have to wait until Sunday to see it. So please, don't write me, e-mail me, call me or stop me on the street and tell me anything about Snakes On A Plane. If you do, I will run down the street with my fingers in my ears screaming "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!"
It's going to be a hard couple of days, but I'm ready for it.

In celebration of Samuel L Jackson kicking some snake tail, here's the official Whacking Day Anthem. (CLICK HERE)

Snakes on the Internet

Not since The Blair Witch Project has there been so much early Internet buzz about a movie. Snakes on a Plane has been everywhere. It is already a part of popular culture, and no one has seen this thing yet!

I have been scouring the net looking for the best Snakes on a Plane related sites. Here are a couple I've found.

Snakes on a Blog: One of the first and possibly the best, this site features fan art, fan videos, fan songs, video clips and more more more! Check it out by clicking HERE.

Rewriteable Content: Not only does RC feature the video for Snakes on a Plane (Bring It) by Cobra Starship, they have songs from all four groups who make up Cobra Starship. Check it out by clicking HERE.

Movies For Guys: Not really about Snakes on a Plane, but they have been mentioning it. Plus plenty of stuff about The Office webisodes. Check it out by clicking HERE.

GOP Vixen: This site features a list of dream SOAP quotes. Check it out by clicking HERE.

Newgrounds: This site features a playable Snakes on a Plane flash game. Check it out by clicking HERE.


More are coming. Keep checking back!!!

Samuel L. Jackson has had it up to here with these snakes

For those of you who are as excited as I am about Snakes on a Plane, you will be happy to know that the movie will be released one day early. Showings are already scheduled for 10 p.m. on Thursday night. Better hurry up. I guarantee this show will sell out.For those of you who missed it last night, here’s Mr. L. Jackson on The Daily Show talking about some movie he’s in.

Snakes on a Plane? Send in Homer Simpson!

Take that you stupid snakes!

More Mad Mad Media Podcast Information

Mad Mad Media Podcast

Click to listen-right click to download

For those of you who downloaded the first enhanced Mad Mad Media podcast through iTunes, you already have this information. In fact, those of you who use iTunes now know if you like a song, there's a hot link through iTunes to check out the band's Web site. Or, if you've taken the Mad Mad Media Podcast with you on your iPod, you can now click through songs, or dialogue, if you don't like what you hear.
The Mad Mad Media Podcast is fully functional!!!! But for those of you who have to do things the old fashioned way, downloading an MP3 on your desktop and listening to it with you Windows Media Player, you will need the following information.

Bands featured on the latest Mad Mad Media Podcast:

The Sounds
Tony the Beat
Dying To Say This To You

This band hails from the small southern Swedish city of Helsingborg and packs a wallop, with a sound that combines all of the good elements of The Cars with an hint of agression and sensuality.

Check them out by clicking HERE.



The Academy Is...
Checkmarks
Almost Here

This five-piece melodic rock band from Chicago has a great sound, and had made a big name for themselves touring with the Warped Tour. They recently put out an acoustic iTunes exclusive release that is a must have.

Check them out by clicking HERE.





Gym Class Heroes
Papercuts
The Papercut Chronicles

GCH blends hip hop with rock and indie, creating a sound that is all their own. They are an amazing part of the Fueled By Ramen line-up, and just released the follow-up to The Papercut Chronicles, As Cruel and Shool Children. I have to say, there's really nothing bad that I can say about them.

Check them out by clicking HERE.


Midtown
Until it Kills
Forget What You Know

This New Jersey five piece rocks, and their release on Columbia Records is proof of that. Lead Singer Gabe Saporta heads up Cobra Starship for the song Snakes on a Plane (Bring It).

Check them out by clicking HERE.


Cobra Starship
Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)
Snakes on a Plane: The Album

This is the greatest single of the summer. The group features members of The Sounds, Gym Class Heroes, The Academy Is and Midtown (hence this show's lineup.)

Check out more about the soundtrack by clicking HERE.

Snakes on the Podcast

Mad Mad Media Podcast: Snakes on the Podcast

Click to listen, right click to download

OK. I’m about an hour late....well several hours late. But it’s here. This is just the audio version of the Podcast. There’s more? You bet there is, but only if you subscribe through iTunes to get the enhanced podcast. I haven’t checked to see if it works yet, but I have high hopes.
Enjoy and well see you next week.
PS. If you want Samuel L. Jackson to call you on the phone, click HERE. It’s an awesome service offered by Varitalk, New Line and Snakes on a Plane. Check it out!!!

Next week is all about Snakes on a Plane! Come on back now ya hear!

New Evanescence Video

I was talking with Dave Eggar yesterday, he's a New York musician in town for the Building the Band music camp at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Eggar has been playing with Evanescence, who will be releasing their new CD in fall. Coincidently, the latest Evanescence video surfaced this week, and wouldn't you know it, someone put it on YouTube.
Check it out below!

iPod clogs California toilet

iPod + toilet=problems.
You just can't make this stuff up people. A student at Santa Clara University accidently flushed her pink iPod mini down the toilet, and the school spent thousands to get it out. According to news footage, the school had to shut down an entire wing of restrooms because of it.

Don't believe me? Click HERE and see the footage for yourself. Funny funny stuff!


Picture: "Have you seen me?" courtesy of NBC11 in San Francisco.

New Ani Difranco CD

Ani Difranco's new CD, Reprieve, was released yesterday. For those of you who listen to the Mad Mad Media Podcast, you know how much I like Ani's music. (pst. Check out Podcast #3 if you want to hear one of Ani's earlier songs.)

For a sampling of Reprieve, you can go to Ani's Web site by clicking HERE.

Or to hear the live version of Hypnotized off of the new CD, recorded live in Rome in 2004, and posted by Righteous Babe Records, click HERE.

American Idol auditions begin

Na ne na ne na ne na ne barrrrooooom. American Idol is scouring the country for the talented (and untalented) again. Auditions for the show, a favorite Mad Mad Media discussion topic, began in Pasadena Tuesday and 10,000 people auditioned.
According to an Associated Press article, auditions will also be held in Alamodome, San Antonio, Friday; Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, N.J., Aug. 14; Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 21; FedExForum, Memphis, Tenn., Sept. 3; Target Center, Minneapolis, Sept. 8; Key Arena, Seattle, Sept. 19.
The new season of American Idol will begin airing in January.
Woo Hoo!!!!

(Hey! Where are the pictures? Blogger ain't working right today! Sorry it's so plain.)

Next Mad Mad Media Podcast will be awesome!!!

The next Mad Mad Media podcast, set to launch late on Friday, will be one for the history books. For the first time I will have a co-host. Sam Castro, a Press photographer, will sit in as we discuss "Snakes on a Plane." Also, we will have music from the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack and artists affiliated with Snakes on a Plane.
But wait. There's more. Samuel L. Jackson will make an apperance on the show as well. Well, sort of. I really can't go into great detail about how we're going to do it, but it is going to be off the hook. (do the kids still say off the hook?).
Tune in Friday to find out more.
And, next week is all about the most exciting movie this summer. That's right. Snakes on a Plane.

Movie industry? What movie industry?

I really haven't heard anyone metioning this, but this slew of summer movies seem to be tanking pretty hard.
Some of these "highly anticipated" films aren't even coming close to breaking even. Lady in the Water fell out of the top 10 this week, earning only $2.7 mil. and bringing its grand total to $38.6 mil.
Miami Vice, the Big Screen remake of the hit 80s TV show, earned $9.6 mil bringing its two-week total to $45.7 mil. Not bad for a movie that cost $135 mil. to make plus marketing. Crockett, Tubbs has been shot.
Animated movies aren't playing any better. Both Barnyard and The Ant Bully opened to so-so reviews and nuthin'-but-blah at the box office. Barnyard at least has a small enough budget (approx. $50 mil.) to make its first week box office total of $16 mil. seem relative to its production costs.
The Ant Bully's had a budget of $50 mil as well, and has raked in $19 mil in two weeks. Monster House, with a budget over $100 mil, is tanking - earing only $57 mil. in three weeks.
So far, only a handful of summer movies have passed the $100 mark, the biggest hits being Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars and X-Men 3, and there isn't much on the horizon (with the exception of Snakes on a Plane).
This summer will more than likely go down as one of the worst in recent history. Oh. And Ricky Bobby somehow came in number one at the box office this week earning $47 mil. Go figure. I'll tell you one thing Talladega Nights don't have...snakes on a plane.

Brat eating fans..check this out

Nhia Yang from The Sheboygan Press shot this at yesterday's brat eating contest.

Oh My God! 58 brats in 10 minutes wins it for Kobayashi!

I'm taking a break from Brat Days in Sheboygan to tell you Kobayashi won the 2006 Johnsonville Brat Eating Championship this morning and set a new world record eating 58 brats in 10 minutes. I witnessed it along with several thousand people. It was one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life!!
Going back tonight to see the Violent Femmes at 8:45! Have a great weekend

The funniest interview ever!

Not to give Brat Days any more press, but Troy Laack here at the paper had an inteview with Fritz and Helga Boygan, characters of the Johnsonville Brat Days who host the amateur brat eating contest (11:15 a.m. Saturday) . It is one of the funniest things I ever heard.
Listen to it by clicking HERE.
Read Troy's article by clicking HERE.

Don't forget the 2006 World Brat-Eating Championship will be at noon Saturday at the festival, at Kiwanis Park in Sheboygan for those of you finding it by accident. I'm going to be there...are you. The Violent Femmes will also play Saturday night at 8:45 p.m. on the main stage. It's free.

Go to the Brat Days Web site by clicking

The Jessica Simpson Conspiracy

In the last week, Jessica Simpson released her latest single and video, “A Public Affair.” The video is a portrait of a girls’ night out at a roller rink featuring Christina Applegate and Ava Longoria. The song is a bubbly pop diddy, with an all too familiar hook. Way too familiar. In fact, I know I’ve heard this song before — several times.




Going back chronologically, the song borrows liberally from Madonna’s “Sorry” from her 2005 Confessions of a Dance Floor.
Not only does it borrow heavily from the song, it comes dangerously close to cloning Madonna’s video for the same song.



But that’s not all. Madonna’s song borrowed heavily from Kylie Minogue’s “Love At First Sight” off of her 2002 comeback “Fever.”



“Love At First Sight” was the culmination of numerous dance hits, including “I Don’t Want To Fall In Love” by Jane Child (1989), “All Night Long (Touch Me)” by Cathy Dennis (1990) and “Touch Me” by Samantha Fox (1986).



Wait! It doesn’t end there.
All of those songs would not have existed without Madonna’s “Dress You Up” and “Into The Groove” from her 1984 mega-hit Like A Virgin. So Jessica Simpson and her producers ripped off Madonna, TWICE! Three times if you count the goofy roller skating theme.
And what’s with revisiting the ‘80s? I was there. It wasn’t that great. In fifty years no one is going to be talking about the musical significance of Kajagoogoo, spend days debating who was better - Duran Duran or the Thompson Twins, have a need to wear Izod shirts with the collar up, and no one will care that “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles was the first song ever played on MTV (by the way, happy birthday MTV, thanks for still playing videos at 3 a.m. It’s keeping all of us current. And Sway is dripping with journalistic integrity).
Back to Jessica Simpson. Jessica...I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you’re the less talented of the Simpson sisters, your “reality” show wasn’t interesting and ended exactly how everyone thought it would and you can’t act. You’re a trifecta of bad. The clock on my VCR is flashing 00:00 and it’s still more interesting than you.
And now you’ve reduced yourself to stealing from tired old retreads of bad ‘80s music? Speaking of clocks, your fame stopwatch is at 00:15:01. It’s time for you to end this charade and leave.

Videos courtesy of YouTube.

Brat Days....oh yeah

As many of you have read in The Sheboygan Press this morning, Brat Days is kicking off tomorrow.
I am actually pretty excited. Not only do I get to watch cometitive eaters like Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas and Kobayashi compete in the IFOCE sanctioned 2006 Johnsonville Brat Eating Contest, but I also get to see the Violent Femmes.
And admission is free. You can't beat that with a stick!
A few years ago, I went to the Hamburger Festival in Seymour, Wis., home of the hamburger (well, one of the homes of the hamburger) and I ate a piece of a 40 pound hamburger. I thought that was pretty fun. But for entertainment they had squat.
I am really looking forward to Brat Days. I've never gone, and I am curious as to what it's all about.

For more info on Brat Days, including directions and entertainment lineups, check out the festival's website HERE.


PS. To hear my podcast on the festival, click below!