by Mike Orren

Local gal Zayra Alvarez' performance was, in my opinion, the best she's given yet. That's faint praise, but it also reinforces the revelation that I and others had last week -- the problem isn't Zayra, it's the environment.

Reality TV Magazine

Zayra Alvarez

Maybe I'm just in a better mood this week, but I found tonight's episode of Rock Star: Supernova to be less annoying, if not marginally entertaining. And local gal Zayra Alvarez' performance was, in my opinion, the best she's given yet. That's faint praise, but it also reinforces the revelation that I and others had last week -- the problem isn't Zayra, it's the environment.

First, a side note on Patrice Pike, whom other local reviewers have insisted on calling a Dallasite. She was at one time, but now she lives in Austin. So she's an Austinite. A talented one, whom I can't understand demeaning herself to howl in front of Tommy Lee's drum kit as she did tonight as a song that was billed as a cover of Red Hot Chili Pepper's cover of "Higher Ground." (I wish I was kidding.)

Zayra drew Tommy Tutone's "867-5309 Jenny" and strutted her stuff in her usual lithebody-accentuating getup. She performed the number in a style that I couldn't rightly call a thick accent, but that underlined that English was not her native language. It was the "99 Luftballons" of Tommy Tutone covers, and between the wild costume; the gender-confused lyric; and the accent, it felt like a Saturday Night Live sketch -- but one that almost worked.

Said it before and I'll say it again. Go listen to the songs on her MySpace and this will all make much more sense. She's having to go over the top because this isn't her milieu.

The judges were overwhelmed, and even had to take an early commercial break to collect themselves. Jason Newsted was covering his face as the break began, but when they regained themselves, the judges had high praise for Zayra for bringing a different look and attitude each week.

I wasn't buying it -- I have a conspiracy theory that some network bean counter has decided that Zayra drives ratings. Apparently I'm not alone -- as the show concluded, Zayra was in the bottom three in the voting.

I've given up on wishing for Zayra's traffic-inducing time on the show to end. There's no predicting what this lot will do, and I *may* be starting to admire her spunk in pushing back at Supern-over week after week. So I'll just let go and let Tommy.

By the way, Houstonite Dilanna's coronation continued tonight. And she is the best fit for the band.

Elimination show is tomorrow.