sytycd top 16

After a promising start in the first week’s eliminations, I thought last week was a little bit of a letdown (although I did predict 2 out of the bottom 3 again). I didn’t think Ashley or Max should have gone home — I would have sent home Caitlin (her technique isn’t any different than Kayla’s, imo) and Kupono (based on his lackluster hip hop performance and solo).

On to this week! Toni Basil is the guest judge. Her comments about “street” make me want to throw something at the TV so I fast-forwarded every time she opened her mouth. It’s too bad — I admire her dance and choreography career but she goes on and on and on during her critiques and doesn’t even really say anything constructive or helpful.

LOVED
Melissa and Ade – They’ve been OMGSOGOOD these past 3 weeks. And this rumba was fantastic. They got the hip movements and emotions down… their angles were gorgeous, lifts steady… I think they’ve just become my favorite couple.
Janette and Brandon – I haven’t been overly impressed with them so far but they totally killed this hip hop routine. Especially Brandon. I was not expecting him to be so good! It was energetic and fun — definitely my favorite of the night. WOW.

LIKED
Kayla and Kupono – A solid Viennese waltz. Very “dreamy” and ethereal feeling. But is it just me or was that routine really short? It felt like there were more tricks and lifts than actual waltzing.
Randi and Evan – The concept of this contemporary routine is pretty ridiculous but it worked. They were cute and performed it well. No complaints here.
Jeanine and Philip – Jeanine really shined in this Broadway performance. Philip’s lucky that the routine relied heavily on personality because he definitely lacks technique. Overall, though, they sold it.

EHHH
Karla and Jonathan – This Dave Scott hip hop was SO. DISAPPOINTING. First. Jonathan was waaaayyy out of his league. He couldn’t get the steps, he wasn’t in sync with Karla, and he had absolutely no personality. He seems like such a nice guy but SERIOUSLY, he is dragging her down. Poor Karla. I think she’s an amazing dancer but she’s saddled with a below average partner. Second. I really like Dave Scott but I think part of the problem was the choreography. It’s like he put all the effort into Janette and Brandon’s routine and slapped this one together.
Asuka and Vitolio – I didn’t like this jazz routine at all. I normally like Mandy’s choreography but this one didn’t do anything for me at all. A lot of it didn’t seem to flow very well from one step to the other… or maybe it was the dancers, I’m not sure. I actually stopped watching in the middle because Vitolio was so obviously out-dancing Asuka that it made me feel uncomfortable for her. Just like Jonathan, I think she’s out of her element — she’s not a very versatile dancer (yet) and it’s definitely starting to show.
Caitlin and Jason – Even with the dramatic music, I was bored out of my mind with this paso doble. They lacked the power and chemistry needed to pull this off. And it didn’t help that I could see the effort and concentration in their faces.

Predictions for the Bottom 3: Definitely Karla/Jonathan (insert sad face here) and Asuka/Vitolio. I’m wavering back and forth on Caitlin/Jason and Kayla/Kupono for the third spot but I’ll guess Caitlin/Jason. Ideally, I’d like Jonathan and Asuka to go so that would make way for a new couple in Karla/Vitolio…

sytycd top 18

The So You Think You Can Dance judges totally got it right last week and sent Paris and Tony home. Wow! I was very surprised. And pleased. They were definitely the weakest performance of the Top 20.

Tonight’s episode was a little underwhelming compared to last week. BUT. Shane Sparks is back (darn ABDC for keeping him away) and he choreographed 2 awesome routines! Too bad the dancers who got hip hop were disappointing. UGH, what a waste. I think I got spoiled last season with all the great hip hop dancers (Joshua, Twitch, Comfort, Gev).

I have to wake up really early tomorrow so I’ll try to write up some quick comments…

LOVED
Melissa and Ade – I haven’t been a fan of Sonya’s jazz choreography in the past but I *really* loved this. And these two were so great. Everything looked so effortless and they were totally in character. I have to agree with the judges that in watching this routine you wouldn’t know Melissa is a ballerina. Ballet requires “lifted” posture and elegant port de bras (arms), which is pretty much the complete opposite of what this jazz piece required.
Karla and Jonathan – This contemporary routine was my favorite of the night. All the lifts and partner work! So beautiful. But Karla really carried the performance — Jonathan is good (not great) and I’m worried he’s going to hold her back.
Kayla and Max – Yay, Brian Friedman’s back! I’ve loved him since he choreographed for Britney and NSync back in the day. I have to admit that I watched Kayla for most of this pop jazz routine. Max just isn’t as charismatic on stage. Kayla is a beautiful dancer with fantastic technique and I thought she really pulled off this dance.

LIKED
Janette and Brandon – This disco routine was HARD. Damn, Doriana. But I thought they did really, really well. And that spread eagle lift! WHOA. They did have a couple of slip ups so that’s why it’s not in the “love” column for me.
Asuka and Vitolio – Beautiful waltz but for me, kinda forgettable. Which is too bad because I really like Vitolio.

OK
Randi and Evan – I had high hopes for them but their technique just wasn’t there. Their leg flicks made me sad. But their personalities and high energy saved this jive for me.

EHHH
Caitlin and Jason – This routine reminded me of Shane’s hip hop routine in s3 for Dominic and Sabra, which I LOVED. I can’t even think about this one because Caitlin and Jason didn’t do it justice. They weren’t even synchronized most of the time.
Jeanine and Philip – I cringed through most of this tango. Jeanine was FAR better than Philip but the whole thing was really sloppy.
Ashley and Kupono – There were parts of this hip hop that were promising but overall it was disappointing. Kupono didn’t have any flair at all and poor Ashley being the “shadow” couldn’t carry the routine on her own. This routine should have been so good.

Predictions for the Bottom 3: Caitlin/Jason, Jeanine/Philip, and Ashley/Kupono. I got 2 out of 3 last week… tomorrow will be interesting!

sytycd s5

I know one of the girls in the Top 20 of So You Think You Can Dance — Melissa Sandvig (well, when I knew her she was Melissa Watson). We used to dance together at Long Beach Ballet and were in the same class from when we were about 5 or 6 all the way until high school when I stopped serious training. I must have seen her at least 3 times a week for years — even more during times when we were touring and performing. It’s really such a small world. CRAZY.

SO. It’s finally Top 20 time!!! WOOT. Tonight was the first performance show and it was probably the best of all 5 seasons so far. I don’t think I’ve loved this many routines ever.

LOVED
Jeanine and Phillip – I have to admit that I really enjoy Tabitha and Napoleon’s (lyrical) hip hop routines. And Jeanine and Phillip danced the heck out of this one.
Randi and Evan – I’m not a huge fan of Tyce’s choreography (plus he has serious bitchface all the time) but GUH. This jazz routine was smoking. I didn’t realize how technically gifted Evan is until this performance.
Karla and Jonathan – Solid cha cha routine. Plus, Karla’s pinay!
Melissa and Ade – I adored this. The LIFTS! Their LINES! GORGEOUS.
Kayla and Max – Fun fun fun samba routine. I can’t believe Kayla has never danced ballroom before. WOW.

OK
Janette and Brandon – Their foxtrot was good but there was no “oomph.”
Caitlin and Jason – Damn, that Bollywood routine was HARD… all those plies and intricate hand movements. But I’m not sure why the judges were gushing. They weren’t quite in sync in a few parts and as cute as they are, I just didn’t think it was that spectacular.
Ashley and Kupono – I didn’t like the whole crash test dummies storyline (sorry Wade) and honestly, I just couldn’t get past that to care about their dancing.

YAWN
Asuka and Vitolio – Disappointing. This was sooo boring. Tyce’s choreography wasn’t particularly memorable but they made it worse by phoning it in. No spark, nothing.
Paris and Tony – UGH. This hip hop was the worst of the night for me. The routine itself was ok but they failed to BRING IT. Not to mention I kind of have irrational dislike for Paris. I can’t help it.

I can never predict the couples in the bottom but I’m going to guess Asuka/Vitolio (really, the routine was terrible), Karla/Jonathan, or Melissa/Ade (the last two couples because they haven’t been “featured” enough so far and that’s going to hurt them). I definitely think Paris/Tony should be in the bottom but his teen girl fanbase will totally save him. GRRR.

final tv upfronts

I love 3-day weekends! Plus, I had a half day today so now I’m sitting here watching Bride Wars and surfing the net. Yay for multi-tasking.

So my last few comments on the upfronts…

CBS
I just realized that I don’t watch anything on CBS but CSI and CSI: Miami. They don’t have any interesting new shows either. Hmm… one day I’ll check out How I Met Your Mother. I always hear such good things about the show.

The CW
I am definitely more in the CW’s target demographic, which I guess is the reason why so many of their shows appeal to me. Ok, not really. I’m just a sucker for cheesy teen dramas.

Most of my shows made it to next season…
- Gossip Girl. I need to catch up. I’m behind by 5 episodes. Yikes.
- One Tree Hill. I haven’t watched since January but caught the final 2 episodes and thought that would have been a great series finale. I love Lucas and Peyton and the show just won’t be the same without them next season. Mia/Chase and Milly/Mouth can’t even come close.
- Supernatural. Yay for the Brothers Winchester!
- Smallville. But WHOA to it getting a new Friday time slot. It’ll probably do well, though. It made it 8 seasons already, which is FAR longer than I ever thought it would last.

The only show that I wish would have made the cut is Privileged. Such a cute show! JoAnna Garcia was amazing (even though I didn’t love Megan that much) and was really looking forward to seeing how her relationship with Will and the twins progressed. Plus, Rina Mimoun! I’m such a fan of her work. She penned many of my very favorite episodes of Everwood and I wanted this show to do well for her.

As far as new shows, I’ll probably check out…
- Melrose Place. I’m not sure I like this “trend” of reviving old shows so we’ll see. I was really looking forward to the new 90210 and I managed to keep up for awhile but really, I realized that I just don’t care about any of the characters.
- Vampire Diaries. I bet this show only got picked up because the CW wants to capitalize on the Twilight craze. I, however, will watch it for IAN SOMERHALDER. Mmm. I’m still sad he got killed off on Lost. Too bad the sneak peeks I found on YouTube look terrible. Hopefully it’ll get better?
- The Beautiful Life. The sneak peeks for this show aren’t so great either but it’s about models. Like a fictionalized America’s Next Top Model!

I really wish they had picked up Body Politic with Jason Dohring (I miss him on TV!), Minka Kelly, and Gabrielle Union. It’s about young congressional staffers! Set on Capitol Hill! I’m hoping they’ll pick it up as a midseason replacement cause I’m almost positive one of the above shows will get axed.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

glee

I watched the series premiere of Glee and just as I suspected in my last entry… I LOVED IT. I’m so watching it next season!

What I loved:
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tv upfronts again

It’s TV upfronts time again!

I’m a dork and love the anticipation of show renewals and cancellations and the excitement for new series to come. So far, FOX, ABC, and NBC have announced their fall schedules. Nothing terribly exciting…

FOX
I don’t like So You Think You Can Dance moving to the fall. It’s my summer show! Humph. For the past few seasons, I’ve been looking forward to it as a “break” from the rest of my shows. Oh well.

Glad to see Fringe is back (which reminds me, I need to watch the season finale). But they moved it to Thursday at 9. THANKS A LOT. I watch 3 other shows in the same time slot.

Dollhouse was renewed. I don’t watch the show but maybe I will now. I read that the show got off to a slow start but built up to a solid season ending episode. Plus, I’ve always loved Joss Whedon’s shows. Hmmm.

The only new show I’m going to check out is Glee. I haven’t watched the pilot yet (it aired tonight after American Idol) but based on opinions from friends who saw it early, I think I’m going to like it. I mean, come on. It’s a show about a high school musical choir. Tell me that’s not TOTALLY UP MY ALLEY.

ABC
I don’t really watch much on ABC anymore besides Lost and Grey’s Anatomy and of course, those were easy renewals. I’ve long since given up on Private Practice, Ugly Betty, and Brothers and Sisters but I’m not surprised to see them on the fall schedule again.

As for their new shows, I’ve never been a huge sitcom fan so their Wednesday night comedy block doesn’t interest me at all. Eastwick looks promising though (based on the movie Witches of Eastwick) and it stars Rebecca Romijn and Lindsay Price. Love both of them.

NBC
PHEW. SO happy Chuck is back on NBC’s midseason schedule. Even if it’s only for 13 episodes. It’s such a good show! I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Heroes for the past few seasons but the finale definitely picked up so I have to admit I’m (cautiously) looking forward to season 4. I watched the premiere of Southland a few weeks ago but I guess Ben McKenzie isn’t as big of a draw as I thought because I never remember to watch this show. Too much going on Thursdays. Maybe Friday will be a better night for it? Although Friday seems to be the day where networks put shows TO DIE a slow death (recent example: Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles).

Are new medical dramas like Trauma and Mercy really necessary?

Also, it is VERY WEIRD to see The Jay Leno Show on the schedule EVERY NIGHT at 10pm. I like Jay Leno but he is taking away too many precious PRIMETIME slots. Couldn’t he have just conceded the Tonight Show to Conan and left it at that? Grrr.

chuck + heroes finales

I can’t believe it’s already season finale time… Wowzers.

Chuck and Heroes ended their second and third seasons respectively so I wanted to write up some quick thoughts before I forget…

Let’s start with Heroes, shall we? (beware spoilers!)
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april update

Wrote this last night…

Yup, I’ve been neglecting the blog again. Sooo lazy. I went to Santa Barbara over the weekend to visit my cousin and I brought back a cold and sore throat (no, it is not the swine flu). We had a good weekend eating tons of food (yummy gumbo at Cajun Kitchen and amazing Crab Cakes Benedict at Sambo’s), walking up and down State Street, and running around the Santa Barbara Fair (no rides for me but I had funnel cake!!!). I took Amtrak, which was so easy! It’s been over 10 years since I’ve taken the train anywhere and I was seriously surprised at how CROWDED they are. On the way back to Orange County, there were no more seats so people were standing. Crazy! The trip was roughly 4 hours each way and the time passed really quickly. I brought my trusty MacBook and a few books and the ride was over before I knew it. I’ll definitely make the trip again.

Tonight is the Chuck season finale (haven’t watched it yet because I’m waiting for the Lakers to win the game against the Jazz). I am really, really hoping it’s not the series finale. So much so that Rob went to Subway today to buy a footlong sandwich in support of the Finale and Footlong campaign to SAVE Chuck. NBC, you better not cancel this show!!!

I finally downloaded some pics from the past few weeks — hopefully you don’t mind if I share? Click for bigger…

Let’s start with some pics of Diesel…

We bought Diesel this cute little “house” and put it in our “office” so that he could sleep in there during the day. What a cutie.

Rob was bored and thought it would be funny to put my Mickey ears on Diesel’s head. Diesel was obviously not pleased.

Back on Easter, we went to a barbecue at my cousin’s house and were in charge of making dessert. We decided on cupcakes! We used regular Betty Crocker cupcake mix (both chocolate and yellow cake) and then made this strawberry frosting (mostly because it gave us an opportunity to use the awesome Kitchenaid mixer we received as a wedding gift). The frosting was A-MA-ZING. I changed the frosting ingredients to only include 1 stick of butter (2 sticks seemed waaayyy too much) and I used 4.5 tbsps of strawberry puree. The recipe says it’s enough for a dozen cupcakes but I used it for 2. Yummy.

And of course, a few weekends ago we went to Disneyland. Again.

We got to the park just shortly after the 8am opening and headed straight to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters!

I beat Rob!

Rob went to Fantasia Gardens (the smoking area) and I wandered around the castle to find Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Awww.

Then we headed over to the Plaza Inn to have (all you can eat) breakfast with Minnie and her friends. I had a traditional breakfast of eggs, bacon/sausage, and potatoes along with some Mickey waffles and a variety of fruit. Also available were biscuits and gravy, tons of pastries, a huge assortment of cereal, and other items I’m sure I’m forgetting. SO GOOD. Plus, we got to meet…

Captain Hook just walked right up to our table, grabbed our camera and started taking random pictures… like this self-portrait of himself. What a character.

Minnie dropped by…

… and Tigger too! We also met/saw Eeyore, Max, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Alice and Rafiki. Definitely lots of fun.

When we finished up with breakfast, it was HOT HOT HOT. The weather had been pretty chilly the days prior and then the day we go to DL, it got up to 96 degrees. CRAZY. Anyway, CA Adventure opened at 10am so we made a beeline over there to ride Toy Story Mania. We arrived shortly after opening and the line was already at a 30 min wait. We figured this was the best it would get so we wait in line… only for the ride to BREAK DOWN about 10 mins before we got to the front. We decided to wait it out but after awhile, we were all instructed to get out of line. ARGH. It wasn’t meant to be on this trip again.

We decided to get out of the heat and hang out at the Animation Academy. This ended up being an AWESOME decision because…

… I met Sorceror Mickey! I’m upset the picture quality is crap, though. I will meet him again! And take a better picture.

It was almost time for the Laker game so we went over to the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney to watch the first game of the series and also to wait for my best friend Robyn to join us. YAYAYAY.

The Lakers were up by 20 points at half time so when Robyn arrived, we headed over to Animation Academy again since she’s never been there before (!!!). We drew Minnie and mine was terrible as usual (Rob’s holding mine on top).

We headed over to Toy Story Mania to see if it was open again and found that the wait was 60+ mins. INSANE. Instead, we went back over to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot to ride Tower of Terror. The three of us are at the bottom right of the picture. I’m in the middle scared out of my mind (the constant drops feel never-ending), Robyn has her hands at her face to hold on to her glasses, and Rob’s egging on my screaming.

Back at Disneyland, we go on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters twice in a row. The second time I think we found a Hidden Mickey on one of the maps visible in line.

Robyn beat Rob! And Rob was not pleased. Hehehe.

And finally, for our last ride of the day, we hit It’s a Small World. I haven’t been on this ride in YEARS. They recently made some changes and sprinkled Disney characters throughout the ride. I saw Alice, Aladdin, Jasmine, Pinocchio, Nemo, Ariel, Flounder, Woody, Jesse, Lilo, and Stitch. SO CUTE.

That’s it! We’ll have to schedule another trip before the summer heat sets in for good… YAY.

april tv update

I am so happy I have a 3-day weekend. Yesterday was exhausting. I had to go up to LA for work stuff… since I still don’t drive (I can hear your sighing, Jason ), I convinced my best friend Carmen to let me stay with her the night before. She dropped me off in Westwood Thursday morning (armed with a yummers chocolate croissant from Breadbar) where I had to visit my local IT support to have my work laptop updated. I love working from home but not having on-site support is the biggest pain. A few hours later, I took a cab over to Hollywood for lunch with a vendor at Katsuya. YUMMY. I’ve only heard of it from The Hills (hehehe) so I didn’t quite know what to expect but I really, really enjoyed it. Big thumbs up to the spicy tuna over crispy rice, the rock shrimp tempura, and some yellowtail dish I can’t remember the name of. After lunch, they showed me the new W Hotel & Residences construction at Hollywood and Vine — I even got to see a model floor plan! It had the most amazing kitchen with granite countertops and rich chocolate brown cabinetry. And the walk-in closet? TO DIE FOR. Too bad I don’t have a few million dollars laying around. HEH. Finally I hopped on a Metrolink train and headed back to good old Orange County. And so ended my adventure in the city.

So I realized that I haven’t been blogging about TV much lately. HORROR. Mostly because nothing’s happened that’s been overwhelmingly awesome or shocking… in other words, I kinda feel like TV this season has been… well, boring. But since we’re heading into the last month or so of TV, I figured it’s time for a quick TV RUNDOWN (possible spoilers, maybe)! GO!

Monday
Chuck
LOVE this show. The ONLY thing I would change is to have LESS of the Nerd Herd crew. I get so annoyed with them and their antics. Grr. Argh. Monday night’s episode was so awesome because there was very little Nerd Herd and lots of storyline payoff! Chuck’s dad. Orion. Intersect 2.0. This show better get renewed. OR ELSE.

Gossip Girl
Too much partner swapping (Blair/Nate and Dan/Serena again?!) and lame storylines that only last 2 episodes (Elle, Rachel, etc). But for whatever reason, I still adore B & S and the rest of the GG crew.

One Tree Hill
Stopped watching. Will catch up on DVD. Too many Monday shows.

Heroes
Ehhh… still watching but only because Rob does. I don’t really know what’s going on with the storyline because there is waaaayyyy too much Claire (ALL THE TIME) and she gets exponentially more annoying each episode. She was my favorite character in season 1 and she is seriously killing the show for me. F.

24
This season is awesome. There’s a good amount of action/suspense (where are the canisters? air strike or no?!?) and kerrrazy happenings (anything that Hodges does, Olivia’s whole storyline). I’m even coming around on Renee. I like her more and more each episode. They better leave Tony alone, though. I have reached my death quota with Buchanan (I’m still in mourning). Oh, and I guess we’ve discovered how Kim is going to return this season. We’ll see how that goes.

CSI Miami
I’m not really invested in this show (mostly watch when I remember it’s on) but I gotta say YAY to Delko and Calleigh. Awww. I’m a total shipper at heart.

Tuesday
Fringe
Tuned in for Josh Jackson but stayed because the storylines are building and getting very, very interesting. There’s just a tad too much squickiness but I can deal. Anxiously waiting to watch the new episode this week!

90210
Honestly, there’s not much else on Tuesdays so I continue to watch. Annie still bugs (ok ok, the character’s not so bad, it’s all Shenae Grimes and her acting), Naomi is ehhh (much preferred Ozzy to Liam), and Emily Valentine (oh I’m sorry, SILVER) scares me. Adrianna and Navid are totally saving the show for me though. More of them, please!

Reaper
Stopped watching. I think the strike last season really did a disservice to this show. Rob and I tuned in until it went on its loooooong hiatus. I think it came back for a few episodes to finish off its first season but by that time we had forgotten all about it. On top of that, the CW doesn’t really market it very well. I would never have known it was returning midseason if I didn’t read about on ew.com.

Wednesday
Lost
I’m not sure if I really understand what the heck is going on or what year each of the characters are in at the moment but who cares?! This show keeps me engaged and always guessing.

Can you believe Lost is the only show I watch on Wednesdays? Wowzers.

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eclipse + breaking dawn

First things first — have to congratulate my friends Leah and Ricardo! They welcomed their baby girl to the world on Sunday. It’s like baby season! Aww.

Second. I’m finally caught up with Gossip Girl. WTF is up with all the partner-swapping?!? GRRR.

Third. Another WTF to tonight’s episode of 90210. Silver is a whole new brand of kerrrazy.

Fourth. I just LOVE the tagline for the new Fast and Furious movie. NEW MODEL. ORIGINAL PARTS. Hehe, that is awesome.

Now. I started this part of the entry waaaaayyyyy back in November and never finished it. Oopsie. I had already written half of it so I figure better late than never.

So I finally finished the last 2 books in the Twilight series. Some thoughts (possible spoilers)…
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