My Issue(s) With SYTYCD 4

Well. It's been more than a while since I last wrote (mostly because my wireless sucks, and I don't really enjoy writing blogs on my Sidekick 3). However, I feel the need to get this out there, especially since it'd be nice to know if anybody else feels the same (although no one ever reads this, so I don't know).

I have been overall underwhelmed by a lot of Season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance. And it's weird, because while I feel more empathy for the dancers this year than I have any other year, my only favorites were Mark and Gev, and it's not even really to the extent that I've had favorites in other years (Travis, Ivan, Martha, Dmitry & Allison is season 2; DANNY, Sara, Neil, Lauren, Pasha, Sabra & Anya in season 3). I acknowledge that the dancers are very talented - they have to be to get this far. I just don't really feel as connected to the dancers, and I haven't been moved by nearly as many routines as I have in the past.

First things first: last night's show. Are you kidding me? I seriously believe Mark & Comfort were given the short end of the stick this week. Their hip hop was my favorite routine in a while, and their foxtrot was better than Will & Jess' quickstep and nowhere near as bad as the judges painted it to be. Comfort looked the best she's looked in a non-hip hop routine in a while. And considering she's only been dancing 2 years, the fact that she's been keeping up (maybe not as well as the others, but keeping up nonetheless) says quite a bit. I felt that everyone had a weaker routine of the night (and thinking about it, I wasn't really moved by either of Twitch/Katee's or Will/Courtney's), but everyone else got screams & escaped any real scathing remarks except for Mark & Comfort. If they are the two going home tonight, I won't be able to help but think the judges influenced that decision.

And can we talk about Comfort for a second? This girl, as well as Jessica to a lesser extent, is amazing when it comes to bearing the brunt of the judges. Not once do I recall either of them get an acid-tongued response from the judges (because really, which ones WEREN'T?) and not meet them with a smile or a nod. Not once did they talk back or show anything other than humility - which cannot be said for some of the other dancers *coughKheringtoncough*. "The judges hate me." No, heifer - the judges loved you (I DON'T know why), and the fact that that was your first real criticism in like Week 6 says so.

The whole favorites game has been bugging me too. I get that the judges are entitled to a favorite - the show is looking for America's favorite dancer after all. I haven't felt the level of distaste for some of the dancers this year as I have in others - last year's treatment of Cedric is the only thing that comes close, and that wasn't half as bad. The things Mia has said this year made me want to reach out and hug the dancers - she's come across like a bitter hard ass to the MAX this go around. And the fact that regardless of what some of the dancers do, the judges STILL tear into them (Comfort especially, Jessica, Chris, and just recently Mark) says nothing to me other than who they do or don't want to stay on the show.

As far as the individual dancers go, Katee has grown on me much like Sabra did last year, but to the point where if she won I wouldn't mind; not to the point where I want to sit here and vote for her. Chelsie is excellent at ballroom and a very good partner, but I liked her better with Mark; the same can be said for Courtney to a lesser extent, because I felt she was stronger with Gev and hasn't been as strong since breaking away from him. I didn't care for Comfort at first, but she's turned into the Little Engine That Could for me (and probably Can't past tonight) and I have an overwhelming amount of respect for her. I acknowledge that Joshua and Will are good dancers, but I am just ok with Joshua and can NOT. Stand. Will. I feel so much more of an arrogance off of him than I ever did with Danny, and probably dislike him more because everything he touches turns to gold in the judges eyes (last night was the first time I heard them saying anything remotely critical about HIM - all his other critiques were Jessica's "fault" - and even then it was like an afterthought and then swung back over to the praise.)

And then there's Twitch. I'm sorry, but I don't like him. His shtick wore out for me early on, and the fact that he's basically the "male Comfort" in that he's the least trained and yet is still praised by the judges sickens me. He is not versatile at all - and you haven't noticed because the choreographers have worked around his weaknesses. What did he really have to do in the matador number with Kherington? And seriously Mia? Two routines from you that are heavily prop based and all Twitch has to do is stand or sit and use the prop while the female does all the work? A poster on another site mentioned that she often does routines where one person does all the work, but not ALL of her routines are like that (Joshua & Katee's contemporary the same week as that god-awful bed routine; Mark & Chelsie's Tim Burton-esque wedding routine). Twitch has yet to get something ridiculously hard out of his element to grasp thanks to the choreographers and the judges' blatant pimping - a luxury the other dancers (again, Comfort, Jessica, Mark, to a lesser extent Gev) have not been shown. And it's hypocritical to try the argument that these dancers should be able to adapt and haven't, because the same can be said for Twitch.

Will and Katee should have been handed tickets to the finale instead of to Vegas, that much is obvious. While the other two spots are up for grabs, I can't help but think Joshua & Chelsie (who, along with Katee, are currently the only dancers yet to be in danger) will be claiming them. I'd much rather Mark be the second male, but I'm starting to feel less and less that that's possible. And I'd LOVE for Comfort to make the Top 4 - that would amuse me to no end, even if just to infuriate the judges and the haters.

We'll see what happens tonight. Should Mark and Comfort be taking their leave together tonight, I doubt I'll be tuning into the remaining two weeks of the season.

And bring back Wade already.

Reta[rd]il Therapy.

I'm seriously going to need therapy after working through my first holidays in retail. I kid you not, over 90% of the population is fucking STUPID. I'm so going to be able to write a book on this when (IF) I get the free time to sit and recall them, but for now I'll leave you with this thought:

As I'm looking up a book for this lady on the computer (I work at the info desk at a bookstore, if I haven't mentioned that already), she asks if it'd be okay if she came and looked over my shoulder. Thinking this wouldn't really be a problem, I said yes, she could come and look over my shoulder.

And then she did.

Literally.

She rested her fucking head on my shoulder as she read the screen.




Only two weeks until the holiday tards are finally done shopping (you know damn well they'll be in all week after Christmas trying to get clearance shit).

P.S. Oh yeah. Got a mohawk in August. Been letting it grow. Finally dyed it. Huzzah!

That Smells Hot.

I kid you not:







Yes, kiddies. Paris has a fragrance. (Apparently, she has four.)

I was spending the afternoon with Hector (who's going to Philly this week - BOO!) and as if we were middle aged suburban mothers in Iowa, we wound up in TJ Maxx (do they spell it with two "x"'s for shock value?). Hector found what he wanted (an article of clothing for his boyfriend that I will not disclose - if you can even call it an article of clothing, lol) so we got in the line from Hell. While we were waiting, I noticed the fragrance section was right next to the cashier. I was just mentioning to Hector how I desperately wanted cologne earlier in the day, so I decided to go take a look.

There were quite a few choices at my disposal. Kenneth Cole Signature and one of the variants of Hugo Boss were both there and are both brands I've worn before, but were in the $30+ price range (I only brought $20 with me). Some of the fragrances were unfortunately automatic rule-outs, like Curve's 3rd fragrance whose name I cannot remember. (Everybody and their mom wears Curve.) After a few moments, I had it narrowed down to three: Cumbia and Blue something or other, both by United Colors of Benetton, and Just Me For Men by Paris Hilton. I picked up all three to show to Hector, and included the Paris one as a joke, but then he told me I should get it and he was being serious.

I contemplated the pros and cons: I really only picked up the Cumbia one to say I was wearing Cumbia (the kind of irritating tch-tch-TCH, tch-tch-TCH beat music my sister and I associate with the Mexicans in our neighborhood), and the Blue one because it was blue. However, Cumbia had a lemon looking ingredient in it (a PLUS - I'm a huge citrus nut). Just Me did too, but it also had essence of treemoss, which sounded creepy to me. And each of the UCoB ones were $10, whereas Just Me was $13. In the end, though, I decided to trust Hector's judgement and go with the Just Me.

And I opened it after I bought it - and it. is. ORGASMIC.

Paris once again manages to stun me, a feat she first started doing with her music (it's actually GOOD). And some might argue that I'm giving her more money, but she probably only makes like $1 from every bottle she sells. And then probably donates that money to charity!

...Ha ha, no, I couldn't keep a straight face that long either. Whatever. The point is, I have an awesome cologne, Paris has $13 more, and I am going to smell absolutely rapeable for the forseeable future. :)

Dora Tha X-Plora, Muthaf**kaz!

Understand this first: I don't really like Dora. I tend to dislike the kids shows that seem geared at talking to the kids like they're slow. Sesame Street doesn't do that, which is what I grew up on mostly, which is why...well, I was never an idiot.

Secondly, the song (Down aka Kilo's "Like A Cholo") is pretty bad. Definitely in the "so bad it's good" category for me, with other pop culture masterpieces like Fashion House and Showgirls. I mean, the guy can't even figure out which name he wants to go by as a "rapper". The actual music video is just as bad, but luckilly whoever put THIS video together realized that and turned out...

Well, see for yourself.



The yellow thing is scary as shit. The hen, star and moon are pretty much my favorite parts.

So? What do y'all think?

All's Well That's Tidwell

Chris Richardson has some competition.







Danny Tidwell is my husband.







Well, one of four. (The other three being Bobby Cannavale, Jay Hernandez, and as stated before, Chris Richardson.)

Yes, I know I'm a month behind in terms of SYTYCD 3. It's kind of taken me that long to recover. (Actually, I'm joking. While I wasn't ecstatic that Danny came in second, if there was anyone left that I wanted him to lose to, I'm glad it was Sabra. I am, however, ecstatic that Lacey was the FIRST ONE ELIMINATED in the finale. You have no idea how I felt when Cat said that one of the two was done between Danny and Lacey - then revealed that is was Lacey! And then that feeling was equaled when Cat asked Danny to join Neil and Sabra - to eliminate him, I was sure - THEN GOT RID OF NEIL! I don't think I've been that happy in a long, loooong time.)

But I digress.

Considering the despicable state of other reality tv competitions today (don't EVEN get me started on Big Brother 8...I doubt I'll be watching the finale considering who's left, and hope that both the winner and the runner-up both realize they can't buy dignity or a soul with their prize money), I'm glad I got so invested in SYTYCD this summer. Maybe since I pretty much watched it from the start this season, I got more invested and will probably find this year's cast tough to beat in terms of my likability, but I look forward to next season nonetheless.

And Danny Tidwell.







Are you kidding me?



















I'm NOT one of those fans who switched over halfway through the season - he's been my pick from the start, and as his brother did last year, he didn't let me down all season. Did they both come in second? Yes. But as the dumb kids in my old elementary school used to say, "First is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the hairy chest."

Let's face it: second really is the best in this case.







Rest assured, you can be sure that many and any possible future posts are subject to feature Mr. Tidwell.

So I Think I Can Predict!

I promise I'll stop with the lame play on the title soon. But before the results are revealed tomorrow, I'm going to take a stab at who the Top 10 will be - provided their partners don't get in their way. I'm just going down the line in the order they performed tonight, it doesn't really reflect what I think of them.

Hok, Danny, Anya, Sara, Jesus, Pasha, Jessi, Lauren, Kameron, Lacey

It's a toss-up for me between Kameron/Neil and Lacey/Faina...I'm going to go with Kameron and Lacey. I like Neil and Faina a lot, but after tonight Faina may have some trouble down the road and I bet Benji's fanbase will carry over onto Lacey, and if Neil ends up in the bottom the judges may give him some flack about his somewhat upper-stiffness.

What do you guys think?

So I Think I Can Watch!

Yes, it's been exactly two months since I've posted, yadda yadda ya. So just in case you missed it:

-It's Raz-B, aka DeMario Thornton, aka one of my husband's, birthday today. He's 22. :)
-Chris Richardson did not win American Idol. :'(
-Neither did Melinda Doolittle. :(
-Jordin Sparks did. >:O

In light of these revelations, I'm seriously contemplating moving to Canada based on these facts.

In the mean time, there's So You Think You Can Dance. Which is quickly becoming my favorite reality tv show. So much so that I took NOTES tonight. Here's my mini recap and grades (score of 0-10 in chemistry, performance, likability and synchronization), based on tonight's 2 hour show (the one where America starts voting! Yay democracy!)

1. Jamie & Hok
Now unfortunately I missed about the first 15 minutes of the show, so their performance was the only one I missed entirely. However, from the recap of the dancing at the end, it appears I didn't miss much. From what I saw in the auditioning stages, Jamie (i before m?) and Hok can each dance - they obviously wouldn't be here if they couldn't. I just felt like something was lacking with them - in their chemistry, in their performances...we'll see how they do next week, seeing as how I don't think they're going home.
Chemistry: 9, Performance: 8, Likability: 9, Synchronization: 8
Total: 34 (out of 40)

2. Danny & Anya
If my memory serves me correctly (which maybe it doesn't), I got this cocky vibe off of Danny that made me think I was going to hate him. After seeing tonight's performance, I've done a complete 180. These two were AMAZING! And they were really extremely humble/gracious after getting all the praise they got, and I'm pretty sure it was genuine. I would've given them all 10s had I seen the entire performance - besides, I can't start them out too high, right?
Chemistry: 10, Performance: 10, Likability: 9 (I'm still not sure if he's cocky!), Synchronization: 9
Total: 38

3. Kameron & Lacey
Oy. Contemporary always throws me off, because I'm not sure if it's "supposed to be" as awkward as it usually comes across. And Kameron & Lacey's performance didn't really make me love the style - I don't think anyone can outdo Travis and Alison's contemporary towards the end of last season (the one with the bench? I STILL get chills thinking about it! TRAVIS AND ALISON WERE ROBBED!) I want to give them slightly higher marks, but I won't due to my confusion. They get the highest mark in chemistry, because it's quite obvious they work well together.
Chemistry: 10, Performance: 9, Likability: 9, Synchronization: 8 (something about those leaps and drags felt off, right?)
Total: 36

4. Dominic & Sabre
I love "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", the Donna Summer song these two disco'd to, and probably for all the wrong reasons. It's such a gay song. Like...really gay. It makes me happy. :) And I think that's partially why I enjoyed their performance - it was kinda gay. But gay in a good way, and it made me happy. I don't agree with Dan (is that his name?) entirely, but I do think something about it kept it more in the "OK" realm than the "awesome" realm.
FYI - Dominic's ass? AMAZING. Enough is not enough in that department. :)
Chemistry: 9, Performance: 9, Likability: 8 (I brought it down a notch because Dominic was really hamming it up at the end of the show, which I guess is what they're told to do but still - it was offputting. And could he have BEEN any bitchier in answering Nigel about how long he's dance with a partner?), Synchronization: 9
Total: 35

5. Ricky & Ashlee
I feel bad for Ricky & Ashlee. The choreographer was all "this is a very sexy dance style" but the dance didn't scream that to me at all. And it wasn't because of them, or at least not entirely. It was such an upbeat song, but the moves didn't seem to go with it. That being said, they still seemed a little out of their element and Ashlee being taller than Ricky didn't really help them out. I hope they don't go tomorrow, because I like them.
Chemistry: 8 (Ricky seems to be a little more invested than Ashlee), Performance: 8, Likability: 9, Synchronization: 7
Total: 32

6. Sara & Jesus
To further add to Ricky & Ashlee's pain (but an added bonus for Sara & Jesus), the following act was the best one of the night. Hands down (Well...almost. Danny & Anya are a RIDICULOUSLYCLOSE second). And it wasn't just the choreography - Wade Robson is insanely talented, blah blah blah - but they just definitely gave it their all, and did so while seemingly out of their element. Anyway, it was one of those performances that sticks with you even after you're watching other people dance, so that's also good. On a weird side note however: maybe it's because I'm still getting used to them, but I could NOT remember their names for the rest of the broadcast until the recap at the end. I kept calling him Jose and thinking Sara's name started with an A. Does that mean they're somewhat forgettable?
Chemistry: 10 (they seem to have a lot of fun together), Performance: 10 (!), Likability: 10, Synchronization: 9 (a liiiiittle off)
Total: 39

7. Pasha & Jessi
Pasha might be my new husband. Something about the Russian ballroom dancers (Dmitri, anyone?!) must work for me on a subliminal level. I will agree with Dan (?) on this one though: I thought I'd be bored out of my mind watching this, and I was actually very engaged. They didn't have much to do it seems though, in showing off their talent, so either they lucked out tonight or they're just THAT good. (I'm hoping it's the latter.)
Chemistry: 10 (who WOULDN'T love Pasha?!), Performance: 9, Likability: 10, Synchronization: 10
Total: 39

8. Faina & Cedric
Faina annoyed the shit out of me in auditions. I felt for her tonight though, because, as the judges kinda hinted at in the auditions, Cedric is GOING to kinda mess up his partner. They both seemed to hit the choreography in sync, but of course, Cedric being able to perform in his strong style, outshone Faina. I didn't like Nigel's "by the numbers" comment on Faina's dancing - hip-hop IS kinda by the numbers, and if Cedric wasn't so "fluid" I'm sure they would've said the same thing. I commend Faina for holding it down out of her element, but I wouldn't be too bothered if these two went home tomorrow.
Chemistry: 8, Performance: 9, Likability: 7, Synchronization: 9
Total: 33

9. Lauren & Neil
Based on their rehearsal footage alone, I think I love Lauren & Neil. They seem to be hilarious, which can be extremely refreshing in a competition like this. Their performance was cute, but kinda read to me as "we SO obviously don't dance salsa!" I think their chemistry is fine - if my background knowledge is correct, Neil has a girlfriend, so I wouldn't be too caught up on him not really paying attention to Lauren. And if you're watching this show to see how much it looks like the dancers want to sex each other down, then you probably need a life. Or some help.
Chemistry: 9, Performance: 10 (I thought it was one of the better ones of the night), Likability: 10, Synchronization: 9
Total: 38

10. Shauna & Jimmy
Before the commercial break I was a little worried that this would be a terrible pairing. Watching them dance though, it's obvious I was wrong. This was a great number to end the show on - upbeat, fun, great song and great dancing! Anyone who knows me in terms of theatre will tell you that The Wiz is the most fun musical I've done EVER. So maybe I'm a little biased, but I thought it was really good. I think the style may have helped them out this week though, because I still get a kind of odd couple vibe from them. Can you see these two doing a convincing Argentinian waltz together?
And I disagree with Nigel about Shauna's dress.
Chemistry: 10 (this could very easily change next week), Performance: 10, Likability: 9, Synchronization: 10
Total: 39

So let's look at my end of the show scoring!
1st (3-way tie): Sara/Jesus, Pasha/Jessi, Shauna/Jimmy [39]
4th (tie): Danny/Anya, Lauren/Neil [38]
6th: Kameron & Lacey [36]
7th: Dominic & Sabre [35]
8th: Jamie & Hok [34]
9th: Faina & Cedric [33]
10th: Ricky & Ashlee [32]

That's just going by numbers though. If I had to rank them based on performances alone, I'd go with this.
1st: Sara & Jesus
2nd: Danny & Anya
3rd: Pasha & Jessi
4th: Shauna & Jimmy
5th: Lauren & Neil
6th: Kameron & Lacey
7th: Dominic & Sabre
8th: Faina & Cedric
9th: Jamie & Hok
10th: Ricky & Ashlee

Ricky and Ashlee are still in last, but again, I don't think that's their fault. I do however think it's pretty safe to say they'll be in the bottom tomorrow, but hopefully not going home. I also think that Faina & Cedric and/or Dominic & Sabre could be joining them. The third will be a toss-up, but I'm going to stick with 2 of the 3 I just mentioned being in the bottom tomorrow. We'll have to see how it turns out! I'll post pictures next time.

See you tomorrow night!