SYTYCD Recap - Top 20

I've decided I'm going to jump in this year on the So You Think You Can Dance redux postings.  And I'm committing to posting my opinions before I read Holly's...I think it will be fun to see how similar or different we really are!

Tonight I'm thoroughly annoyed.  A little thing called a tornado interrupted my life tonight - ruined the first hour of SYTYCD with "Storm Tracker" coverage!  So I am jumping in halfway through the evening. I joined in right after a waltz I believe.  Just as Mary admitted that she couldn't show expression tonight because of botox!!!  And it's definitely true...she is a little plastic...but I can't believe she just said that!!

Onto the dancers (that I get to see...)

Ashley & Kupono

Ashley - just cute as a button.  Auditioned four times and kept persevering.  I really like her.  Kupono - he's a little...interesting.  But he's not terribly annoying.  He's got some work to do to really win me over, but I don't dislike him.  THIS JUST IN!!! WADE ROBSON IS IN DA HOUSE!!!!!  After being out last season, he's back!  And he has his "muse" in the audience with him!  After being gone for a year he is back.  And seriously, how can you not like a dancer when they do a Wade Robson Routine?  I thought it was great.  I really didn't get the 'old dummy...new dummy' thing from the dance, but I still loved it.  Judges loved it too. 

Melissa & Ade

SYTYCD is bringing out the big guns tonight!  Wade Robson and now Mandy Moore for choreography!!  If I find out I missed a Mia or TabNap dance for the storm, I'm going to be FURIOUS!  Melissa is our "naughty ballerina".  I"m a little skeptical...ballerina's typically don't do very well here - they tend to lack personality.  Ade - He's wearing a pick in his hair for his interview.  Strike one.  He'd better dance the heck out of this to win me over.  And they both did.  Mandy created a routine that literally gave me chills.  Not sure why - it wasn't the most amazing routine I've ever seen - but it did.  It played to his contemporary strengths and her ballet skills but still maintained to be...interesting.  My skepticism is still slightly there....let's get them into some hip hop and see if they can survive...but I'm excited to see where these two go.

Kayla & Max

This is definitely the sob story couple.  She was raised by her grandparents...he has a dead brother.   I appreciate what people have gone through, but its not going to make me like you if you can't dance.  BuBallroom guy and contemporary girl draw samba.  Lucky them!   And their choreographer, Louis, is GORGEOUS!! Double lucky them!  Haha. We all knew he was going to be great so the wild card was Kayla.  I give her an "huh, pretty dang good!"  There were a couple of spots that were a little sloppy to me, but I think I like them.  Adam Shankman LOVES it, Mary is screaming like a drunk freak for the hot tamale train (the bane of my existence)...Nigel likes it too...AND BRINGS UP THAT THERE WERE SPOTS THAT WEREN"T AS SHARP AS HE WOULD HAVE LIKED!! WHAT UP?? I CAUGHT IT TOO!  Sorry...I get really excited when I see something small that a judge brings up too.  Haha.  

So that's all I saw.  On the recap I notice: two hip hop routines that I wish I would have seen.  Doesn't look Shane Sparks but could be a TabNap.  Broadway that's probably a Tyce which I usually am 50/50 on liking.  Latin dance of some sort, eh.  Of course...they couldn't wait to get further into the season before jumping in on the "Slumdog" bandwagon with a dance to "Jai Ho"!  I'm sure it was probably disappointing, but I would have liked to see it.  This is when I wish Fox wasn't so stingy with YouTube so I could see what I missed!! 

My prediction: the three couples that I saw are safe.  The rest of my predictions are solely on the 2 second recap - I think bottom three will be Waltz couple (sorry...bad draw.  Waltz is boring), Latin dance couple to Poker Face (if that clip is the best you had...), and maybe Broadway couple.  If its one of my three, I'd guess Melissa and Ade.  I liked it, but it may not be compelling enough to pick up the phone for.

The Bachelorette

When I was in college, I used to watch The Bachelor faithfully with 5 of my friends in the dorms.  I haven't really watched it since, but I decided to jump back on the bandwagon this summer.  Mostly because its the summer and there's not much on TV so I needed something to fill my DVR, but also partly because it is The Bachelorette.  It is so much more fun to watch guys fighting over the same girl (they tend to take out their jealousy through pranks and hilarity) than to watch girls fighting over the same guy (bring on the cattiness!!).  

Normally I would keep this slightly embarrassing guilty pleasure to myself, but tonight I'm conflicted.  Meet my favorite guy on the show: Jake

Jake is absolutely awesome.  He is totally laid back, seems like a genuinely nice guy, has a little bit of nerd in him, is a pilot (hello?  airline industry!), lives in Lantana, TX (hello?  Like 15 minutes from me!), knows how to country dance (which I love doing!)...and did I mention he's kind of hot?

So I'm conflicted, because I really want the "nice guy to finish first" for once and for Jillian to pick him.  But even more than that, I want her to dump him so that I can meet him.  Cause you know, that's totally what would happen if he gets kicked of the show, right?

Jillian - you'd better make the right decision!!  And if you make the wrong one, go ahead and give Jake my number, okay? :)

The Hills: By The Numbers

Recap, intro, and "next time": 3 minutes
Commercials: 13 minutes
Actual show: 16 minutes

Really? A 32 minute show and only half of it was the actual show?

I just find it amusing that I watch a "hit show" for the first time and all I can pay attention to is the fact that there is very little actual show to it.

Out of evil (the writer's strike) comes some good....

Thanks to Holly, I now have something to majorly look forward to! You MUST click on this banner. Watch the preview, then read the master plan (there is a button underneath the preview if you scroll down a bit.) And yes, that is Neil Patrick Harris.

For Jonathan

The slow-mo shot of Charlie swimming in the window from the Lost Season Premiere.










Edited to add pictures of the eye in the cabin window...definitely not Locke (he has blue eyes) and definitely Jacob (notice the lack of nose)

Why would you do that, MTV? Why?

I feel like I'm Cindy Lou Who walking in on the Grinch stealing her Christmas tree. I was flipping through channels to day and MTV was showing "So You Think You Can Dance." I turned to it and it was the Vegas Week episode from my favorite season....the Year of Allison!!

I got really excited and was ready to set my Tivo to record all of them so I could see my favorite dances again. I went hour by hour looking at the next two weeks, and this is the ONLY episode they're showing of it! They're not showing the rest of the season! The mean MTV Grinch gave me a little taste of a fantastic Christmas cookie and then he snatched it way. Why would you tease me like that, MTV?

Instead I'll just have to reflect on my great time at the SYTYCD tour in November. Lindsey and I surprised our friends by renting a mini-van and decorating it for the tour. We are such dorks, but I'm okay with that. :)

The Office

Every Thursday night before the strike, I would get together with a group of friends to watch The Office. We would watch and laugh hysterically at the crazy things that Michael would do....his wacky meetings, fun runs, random parties, etc. Every now and then, people who don't work in Corporate America ask me if The Office is real. Most of the time I say no...until yesterday.

Yesterday we had our Quarterly DFW Employee Meeting. As I looked around at what was going on, I realized that very little of The Office is an exaggeration. The meeting was in a ballroom at the Solana Marriott. It started out with a rock band made of Sabre employees playing a few songs. They are called "The Gross Margins" and even have a logo that is the strings/frets of a guitar acting as a graph like a stock graph. Then they started playing a video of a lit fireplace (for ambiance, ya know!) and a guy in a smoking jacket a la Hugh Hefner was sitting in a chair acting as the MC in the style of Masterpiece Theater. There proceeded to be skits to give us important lessons about our company and strategy....a VP acted as Scrooge falling asleep and "dreaming" via video of the Ghost of Sabre Past, the Ghost of Sabre Present, and the Ghost of Sabre Future. Another VP and a sales guy were the Spartan Cheerleaders cheering on the SVP as he talked about our 2008 strategy (complete with "The Perfect Cheer.") The Gross Margins entertained a little more playing songs like I'm Gonna Be (I Would Walk 500 miles) and Come Together (Beatles). Then we had a dinner and an open bar. And as I was watching these skits, I could TOTALLY see Michael Scott in every one!

But yesterday's meeting (and every quarterly meeting for that matter) isn't the only thing that reminds me of The Office. Remember the "Fun Run" episode? Well we had a "Give Together" month where all of the employees donated time to service projects and money to charities. There were a bunch of events during the week to raise money. One day we had a "County Fair" with wacky relay races, a 1 Mile Fun Run, a Chili/Curry Cookoff, and pig races. Not kidding...pig races. Oh yeah, they also had a mechanical bull that all of the VPs and SVPs rode. At the end of the week there was a company talent show complete with prizes for the top 3 acts. (Yes I was in the talent show....no I didn't win. But people still tell me I should have which makes me feel good. :) )

It just really hit me yesterday how funny this all was because it never seemed that crazy to me but yet we think that The Office is so far out there! Really the only difference between my company and the things that happen at Dunder Mifflin is that our leadership is all VERY competent and not complete idiots like Michael Scott....but other than that, its all pretty much dead on. I dont' have any pictures of The Gross Margins or this week's skits, but here are a couple of pictures from a quarterly meeting last year...this one was themed The Incredibles and all of the skits were about "The Incredibles" (Relia Girl, Value Boy, Collabor Mom, Mr. S.T. (Straight talk....kept saying "I Pity The Fool"), and Captain Undisputed defeating the Dot Commissar's evil plots to take down Sabre Airline Solutions. And remember...these aren't interns being hazed and forced to do these skits. These are the President of Airline Solutions, a VP, a couple of product managers....it's really amusing. As silly as it may seem though, I think I get more out of these meetings than I do from all of the other traditional PowerPoint presentations that I sit through and/or give each week. :)

Happy Slapsgiving Everyone!!

Maybe in a couple of days I'll finish one of the three posts I've started this week...

Suit Up!

If you don't watch How I Met Your Mother...first of all, shame on you. Second of all, you really won't understand or truly appreciate the awesomeness of this post. So start watching it and come back again once you have seen it. I have Seasons 1 and 2 if you need to borrow them.

Now that I live closer to most of my friends, I decided to invite a few people over for dinner and HIMYM on Monday night. I sent out an email talking about how I was about to "open a can of awesome" and it was going to be "legen....wait for it......dary"......all the good stuff. Lindsey asked me to remind her via text message that day, so I did and get the response "I'm suiting up" (to which I responded "Hypothetical high five....Nice.")

So 7:00 rolls around and my doorbell rings. I was really confused because neither Lindsey nor our friend Jason who was on his way ever ring doorbells at friends houses, but I went and opened the door and found this:

They had actually suited up! I was laughing so hard. And of course, the first words out of their mouths were "I told you to SUIT UP!." It was great. We had good food and a lot of fun watching some episodes from season 2 because my DVR screwed up and didn't record the actual show. It was sad. But every time I should be sad, I just turn it around and be awesome instead. :)

Now to people who don't watch the show....don't you want to go and watch the best show on television now so you can get all the jokes? Definitely the best comedy since Friends and if you know how much I love Friends, you know thats saying a lot!

WATCH HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER!!!

I've Got My Ticket!!!

On November 11th, I will be in the Nokia Theater in Section 403 Row L Seats 10-15 with some of my friends! I can't wait!

How deep do pet peeves run?

I was reading old posts of mine yesterday and found a post about some of my pet peeves. Today I realized just how strong one of them is:

#3. People filing their fingernails around me. It sends chills up my spine and drives me NUTS!

Tonight I was watching Big Brother and in one scene, a girl named Danielle was filing her fingernails. Even over the TELEVISION, that sound made me cringe and I had to fast forward to another scene because it was making me sick. That is one strong sound!

Charla and Mirna....UGH!!

I have GOT to stop watching Amazing Race. At least as long as Charla and Mirna are on it. They drive me absolutely nuts!!! My blood pressure seriously raises every time they are on screen.

• They drive me crazy with the fact that when they talk to people who aren't American, they speak with a foreign accent, like THAT is going to help someone understand you!
• They are 100% self-righteous, acting like they NEVER do anything less than perfect
  
• They whine when people outsmart them saying that the other teams are rude or play a dirty game or whatever but then have no problem getting in peoples faces and completely screwing over other teams when it works to their advantage.
• When other people are trying to get stuff done, they always jump in on their conversations with the airline reps and act like total jerks and basically just yell and act rude until the poor counter workers have no choice but to give in to get them out of their faces.
• They have this ridiculous vendetta against the blondes...in my opinion just because the blondes are both prettier AND smarter than them, so they can't say "Well they're pretty but stupid."
  

And speaking of Dustin and Kandice, here are few reasons why they are my favorites:

• C and M keep saying that they are fake....of all people in this game I think that D and K are the LEAST fake of everyone! They have never pretended to have loyalty to anyone but themselves, and don't try to act like they are going to be loyal to people when they will turn on them at the first chance they get (*cough cough Charla and Mirna*)
• They play the game smart. Yields are not cheating or playing dirty - they are strategic tools to be used wisely and Dustin and Kandice aren't so caught up in being liked by other teams that they become afraid to use them
• They know when to partner with other teams - when it will help both teams equally - but also know when to keep their secrets to themselves
• They have every other team out to get them (and I'm sure thats going to come to a head next week!) but they don't complain about it or let it stop them. I think they realize that its just jealousy that makes the other teams want to try and knock them out. ;)

And finally...I had a dream last night that I was on the Amazing Race. I TOTALLY want to get on that show!! Unfortunately, I don't see myself being able to commit to quitting my job for something like that, so I'll just have to judge people from my couch like I have for the past few seasons. Sad...

I Watch Too Much Scrubs

Today, I spent the first half of my day in the emergency room because of some side effects from the medicines they have me on - mainly insanely high doses of Prednisone (don't focus on the ER part...this is supposed to be a fun post!)

I think the people probably thought that I was insane because everything that we did, I was trying not to laugh because I kept picturing scenes from Scrubs in my head! The absolute worst was when a doctor was wheeling me down a hall to get a chest x-ray...I could seriously see the end of the "Everything Comes Down to Poo" song being performed in the hallway. It really made me realize how good the directors are at getting the perfect camera angles on that show and how great the set designers are!

I've put the video of the song below if you haven't seen it...its around 1:51 (or :25 if its counting backwards) when it hits that perfect angle that had me laughing even though there weren't really people in front of me. What do you think, is Scrubs really that great...or is it just the fact that one of the side effects tends to be hallucinations? I think its the power that is Scrubs! :)

Now THATS a finale!

Last year I was really disappointed with the season finale of several of my favorite shows, including Lost, Alias, Grey's Anatomy, and (half of) Gilmore Girls. This year, I was still disappointed by Gilmore Girls, disappointed with the series finale of Alias, and pacified with Greys. The problem with a lot of finales is they feel like they need a huge cliffhanger and do something really drastic that is totally contrived just to make one.

But Lost on the other hand - every show on television needs to take notes. THAT is the way to do a finale! The big twist of explaining how the plane crashed was just wild enough to be awesome but real enough to be plausible. The way they set things up for next season puts people in enough of a predicament to allow for a lot of future material but not so bad that it makes me mad for the entire off season (cough..Gilmore Girls....cough cough). And the very final scene introducing a new character.....I am pumped. It was just perfect. Way to go Lost! For a show that has annoyed me more than once, you really pulled it together with a season finale that truly lived up to the hype.

The 5 W's of American Idol

Who: the heck does Ryan Seacrest think he is? He is getting really annoying with his incredibly rude behavior towards Simon. It really bugs me that someone can perform horribly, but when Simon says as much, Seacrest attacks him like Simon is the antichrist! Ryan Seacrest - you have no talent whatsoever and need to get over yourself. Bring back that Dunkleman guy!!

What: is the deal with Paula and the puns? I think that she has completely stopped listening to the songs and spends the full 2 minutes trying to figure out what clever phrase to say when its her turn to talk. Heard back to back last night for those of you who missed it: "A new religion has been formed tonight with 40,000 converts and that is the Church of Mandisa." (after Mandisa sang a gospel song) and "Forgive me if I stutter, but what if, what if, what if I'm your biggest fan?" (after Chris sang "What If?")

Where: do the families of the contestants stay? Do they have jobs and just fly in once a week for the show, or are they taking time off too? That wouldn't make sense, because even if their family member wins, they won't be able to just quit their day jobs. Random question I know, but something I've always wondered because the same family members are always there every week.

When: are people going to realize how freaking awesome Katherine McPhee is? Okay, I know most people already do, but I couldn't think of anything for "when".

Why: is it that Randy can say that he thinks a performance was bad, but as soon as Simon says the exact same thing 30 seconds later, all of a sudden Randy disagrees? It really is okay to agree with Simon every now and then - he really doesn't have that bad of an ear.

Grizzly Man is Coming!!

In case you haven't seen it...Grizzly Man is premiering on Television tomorrow on the Discovery Channel. It is quite possibly the funniest thing you will ever seen and made even more hilarious by the fact that there are people out there who actually take it seriously and think it is sooo insightful and touching. It is about a crazy man who went to go live with bears every summer for years until he finally got eaten by one. He always took his camera with him and he seriously thought these bears were his friends and that he was protecting them. But yet, when he would get close to the bears, there was no sign of friendship in their eyes and they never "accepted him as one of their own" like the monkeys did with Jane Goodall. He was just nuts. So you have to watch it and think about the fact that there is a whole group of people who think this guy was a misunderstood genius and actually gave this documentary an award. It is seriously reminiscent of a "Best in Show" or "Waiting for Guffman" mockumentary, but it is real.

Observations from a Reality TV Junkie

Most of you know that my not-so-guilty pleasure is reality tv. If I don't want to watch a reality show, I can't let myself watch even 1 episode of it because I will be hooked, even if i hate the show (case in point...My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance'...hated it yet watched every episode.) Here are some of my thoughts tonight about the goings on of a few of my reality shows.

The Bachelor: I haven't watched this one in a few seasons, but tonight at the very end they showed a shot of some of the girls doing that thing where one person lays down and is the legs of another person sitting on top, most often used with a "fitness guru" skit. And the girls who weren't a part of it were hysterically laughing. Why do people still think that this is funny? I understand the 3rd graders at Iron Springs thinking it is hilarious because they've never seen it before, but seriously! Past the age of 8, its just kinda dumb, but yet there are always at least two people who feel the need to do it. I have been guilty of it at some points in my life and have the pictures to prove it, but the girls on here are my age and should know better by now.

Real World/Road Rules Challenge: As much as i have always wanted to go on reality tv, the thought of postponing my life for a couple of months is just out of the question for me unless it would fall on a summer break. These people have been reality tv people FOREVER! Seriously, they have a whole team of "veterans," people who have done more than 2 RW/RR challenges! Add in the actual season of real world or road rules that they were on, and some of these people have been doing nothing with their lives but these challenges for several years. How do you explain that gap in work experience when you finally realize you have to get a real job? "I spent 6 years as a contestant on Real World/Road Rules challenge, wasting any skill that I might have had at one point."

Survivor: I'm sad. I saw my first commercial for the new season that starts in February tonight. They are now having 4 tribes and the voted outs go to some exile island? You know a show is running out of steam when they start trying to throw in more and more twists to keep it fresh. Case in point: Amazing Race Family Edition. The great thing about reality tv is, the new people make it fresh - that is why The Real World hasn't ever really had to make any major changes to stay popular. The more complications you add, the less you get to see of interpersonal relationships and the more boring the show becomes (I'd also like to give kudos to the Bachelor...only minor changes to the format in 5 years).

Any and all reality shows: Why is there always one person who goes on reality tv shows hoping to further their acting careers? It is just so ridiculous! Like anyone would want to work with someone who they've seen acting like a total idiot (because everyone looks like an idiot at some point)? Colby is the only one i can think of that has gone on to have a "career" if you can call guest star on Joey a career....learn from other people's mistakes and just give up acting if you have to go on reality tv as a last resort.

And those are my thoughts for today. Let the "reality" roll!

Emily's Reasons Why Not

Has anyone seen this show? I have to admit, I only decided to watch the first episode because the main character and the title have my name....I didn't even know what it was about. The show is actually rather corny and the acting a little over the top sometimes in my opinion, but the premise was eerily close to my heart. It's about a single girl named Emily (similarity #1) who is frustrated with the dating world (sorta similarity #2), always falls for the wrong guys (eh, I guess I haven't found the right one yet, so similarity #3). Now for the part that was freaky because I actually do this in my head and didn't realize it until this show - with each new guy that she likes, she has decided that after she discovers 5 reasons "why not," she has to let him go. I've never set a limit for myself, but while I was watching it, I started thinking about the guys that have been in my life recently and how I have thought of reasons why not. I have talked to a few of you about a particular person that is "All wrong for me on paper" - translation: He actually has 6 reasons why not and I didn't realize that I was truly making that list until I watched the show.

Some of my reasons why not for various people I have encountered are very valid reasons that need careful consideration (not a Christian, has cheated on past girlfriends, etc.) while some of them are admittedly a bit superficial (not tall enough for me to wear heels with, a democrat, etc.) Sometimes my reasons why not serve well to help me get over someone who is all wrong for me or who nothing will ever happen with so there is no purpose in continuing to think about him, but in other cases I realize that I have been talking myself out of something that could be really good because I was still hung up on someone I shouldn't be. I honestly don't know where I'm going with this post now...I just thought it was interesting that a show with my name could be so closely related to the actual me. Is anyone else out there neurotic enough to think of reasons why not? Or has anyone gotten past the superficial reasons and turned it into something good? Okay, I'm really done talking now. Have a great day.

Call 911! My Tivo broke!!!

Wednesday night, I was sitting in my apartment, working on some research, with my TV on in the background. I was "watching" (more like listening to) one of the shows that was recorded on my DVR. All of a sudden, there was a loud pop, the screen on my TV started going crazy, and then it went into the fuzzy screen. My first reaction was a little freaked out - it looked straight out of a scene from The Ring. That lasted about 1/2 sec until I realized that this is reality, bringing me to my 2nd reaction - panic! I was so worried that it would erase the shows that I hadn't watched yet or not work again until a repairman came out or something. As a busy student, I have very little in my life right now and no Tivo might just push me over the edge! (I'm not being overly-dramatic, am I?...) After a few minutes, it came back on and I quickly checked the recorded list - everything was still there. My problems were over - or so I thought.

The next day, I get back to my apartment for the first time at 9:30pm after a VERY long day of classes and meetings, looking forward to watching one or two of the shows on my favorite night of television. I couldn't wait to choose between Survivor, Alias, and The Apprentice. I go to the recorded list - and none of them are there! I checked the memory to see if it was full, and it wasn't, nothing recorded! So then I went to the scheduled recordings list and it was completely wiped out. It had not a single item on it. I was annoyed that I didn't get the Thursday shows, but then just went to the task of re-setting up my weekly recordings, thinking that it was kinda nice, I could finally get around to stopping the weekly recordings of shows that I tried out and didn't like. But when I tried to set up a recording, it didn't work! It would take me through the series of menus, but when it finished, it wouldn't add anything to scheduled recordings! I even tried just pushing record on a show that was on right now and it wouldn't record. If you don't have Tivo already, I'm not even going to try to describe how dependent you become on it, so now I am speaking to those of you who's hearts are starting to beat a little faster thinking "Oh my goodness, I'm glad thats not me!" The thought of not having this fabulous little device terrified me to my very core.

So I did what any good DVR customer would - got on Charter's 24 hour live support chat. And the story gets very anticlimactic from there, we spent an hour or so trying different things until he told me to unplug it and replug it in to reboot it, which worked. So now I'm back in business. But what I really wanted to talk about today is this...does anyone have this week's Survivor, Apprentice, and/or Alias that I could borrow??

New Show Reviews

So I have begun the arduous task of clearing my DVR of all the shows that I have recorded over the past couple of days, so if you are wondering what new shows are good and which are bad, here you go. And if you aren't wondering....well, I just don't know what to tell you.

How I Met Your Mother: Excellent! It is really funny and has great characters. The premise of this show is a man in the year 2030 is telling his kids about how he met their mother in 2005. It is kind of in the style of The Wonder Years only a lot funnier and about twenty-somethings instead of kids.

Kitchen Confidential: May become my new favorite comedy show. It has Bradley Cooper (Will Tippin on Alias) and a lot of funny characters running a restaurant. I don't know what else to say, but you should watch it.

Barely Legal: Turned it off halfway through.

The War At Home: I gave this one 2 episodes to impress me and was sadly disappointed both times. They spend too much time with witty sayings in between action and so the plot development is VERY scarce. You don't really get to know the characters and the show so far is going nowhere. I predict 2 seasons max.

Two and a Half Men: After the Emmy's, I felt bad for ol' Charlie, so I tried to watch his show again....and was reminded why I only watched 1 episode the first time around. Dud.

Supernatural: Surprisingly good. I didn't think I would like this one, but I loved Jared Padalecki on Gilmore Girls so I decided to try it. It really has potential.

Well, class is over, so I've gotta go. More show reviews later.