Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance Revolution

I've seen hours and hours and hours and hours of dance in the past few days. I watched 4Th "TiVo hours" of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. I watched 2Th of STEP IT UP AND DANCE. I watched 2 1/2Th of RANDY JACKSON PRESENTS AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW BROUGHT TO YOU BY RANDY JACKSON AND RANDY JACKSON, DOG. And I watched 6 live and in-person hours of the Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) at beautiful McCaw Hall at Seattle Center on Sunday. There's nothing better than a good ballet live. The men in tights! The ladies who are lighter than air! And, after 8 1/2Th (which is about 5 hours and 20 minutes; 1Th = 40 mins - except PBS and Disney Channel) of dance (much of it hip-hop) I was so pleased to be immersed in spectacular live ballet and modern dance. The matinee ballet was a trio of Jerome Robbins pieces which were powerful and beautiful and funny. I love dance that really makes me laugh and cry. "Fancy Free" was funny and breezy and very masculine. "In the Night" was so beautiful and classic. It had the most astounding lift work I've ever seen. And "The Concert" capped off the show with a hilarious and touching story featuring my favorite costumes of the day. The evening ballet was, EIGHT ENCORES, the final show of the PNB season which featured 8 of the season's best numbers and a few extra special encores thrown in. It was a delightful mix of classic ballet, modern ballet, and modern cutting edge dance. The sold out show was a who's who of Seattle dance. As PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal said, "I'm told there are 1500 people here tonight... and almost half of you paid for your ticket." The last piece on the program was "Caught" which uses strobe lights to make the dancer appear as if he or she is frozen in mid air almost floating as a still images across the stage. It must be seen to be believed, and even then... So, it would appear that dance is making a comeback. Get out there and support your local dancers, dance crews, and ballets.

Post Dated Post

Sorry SECTIONAL potatoes, but the weather has been too nice here and I've been out in the yard planting and killing plants and almost spraining my ankle. I'm a regular Martha Stewart! Plus, there really hasn't been anything on TV worth talking about. Denise Richards' show is --in a single word-- horrible. No one wants to watch her be "normal." The only reason to watch is to see her wing a laptop at some old lady in a wheelchair and then make out with Näive Campbell in a swimming pool. I have 4 episodes of THE VIEW on my TiVo waiting to be watched, but I'm just not sure I can watch that f#cking show any more. It's like being slapped in the face. After the emotional high of a really good envigorating LIVE WITH _____ & KELLY, it just sucks to have to listen to Elizabitch mouth off about topic after topic which she has NO business mouthing off about. I'm looking forward to watching TPIR repeats this summer when THE VIEW is in repeats, but I just can't delete THE VIEW from my To Do queue. Maybe I should start a "Get Elizabitch Pregant Again" campaign so she'll be off the show again for a few months. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA has lost its damn mind! I hate that the pace of the episodes is so uneven. The episode two weeks ago was a rip-roaring adventure-fest of non-stop action (and --apparently-- a great deal of hyphenation), and the episode last night was a glacially paced introspective mess that put Lee Nader in "charge" of nothing as Presidentemp of the Flying Colonies and the ONLY dude with ANY sense on the whole show leaves things in the hands of a cylon and is taking a chill with a good book. Respectfully, I have to say WTF!?!?! And speaking of WTF, Oscar was invited back on and then immediately voted off of STEP IT UP & DANCE last week, so I barely care what happens now. Nick is still cute, but he's no Oscar. I think we're still stuck in the summer TV doldrums. Here's hoping the next few weeks bring some exciting TV.

Oh, P.S. - The Gayken got some 50 year old lady (yes, lady) preggers AND 50 Cent's baby mama says he tried to kill her.

American Idol Withdrawl

Aaaaaaaugh! Despite an adorable interview with the adorable David Cook this morning on LIVE WITH REGIS & KELLY, I'm having serious AMERICAN IDOL withdrawal. What the bloody hell am I supposed to do on Tuesdays now?!

And do NOT even get me started on the fact that the extra-adorable Oscar from STEP IT UP & DANCE was voted off AGAIN by the stupid judges. If they had ONE ballet challenge, Oscar would have won and Janelle would be sitting at home on her couch. I'm inconsolable!

More dribs. Later, some drabs.

Oscar is BACK, bitches! Perhaps you will remember that I was inconsolable after my sweet luscious Oscar (top photo) was wrongly sent home early from STEP IT UP & DANCE during Broadway week. You may also remember that Oscar has appeared in a couple of (big name) Broadway shows. This week, the show offered an opportunity for ONE eliminated contestant to return to the show. Oscar and the adorable Mochi made a GREAT team in a salsa number. Oscar served up some Italian/Latin sabor and returned to the show with the same grace and good-sportsmanship that he left with. In other news, permanent-disaster Jessica also returned to the show to compete for the "return" spot, but she mysteriously and suddenly got an "ear inflamation" which gave her another excuse to bail on the show leaving her toxicly gay partner Miguel in the lurch again. He tried to partner with (the adorable) Mochi but dropped her on the floor hard. Not cool. He's pictured in the "bottom" picture in his best Gloria Gaynor circa 1978 outfit.

Another Hottie Goes Home

Once again a reality show has lost its damn mind and sent home a hottie early. My biggest problem with STEP IT UP & DANCE --the Bravo dance/reality show starring the first person everyone thinks of when they think of stripping, I mean dancing, Elizabeth Berkeley-- was always that it started off with 3 or 4 shows featuring the outer fringes of dance which sent a few of the stronger dancers home in favor of people with dance training whose super-charged reality-show persona's pushed them past elimination for a week too many. Then, they finally get around to doing straight-forward (ha ha) Broadway musical theatre, which was Oscar's forté. He's done a number of Broadway shows, so clearly he's "good enough" for Broadway. And, at least 3 of the remaining contestants would have been literally laughed out of a Broadway audition --laughed at by everyone. And, yet, Oscar was sent packing for reasons I still don't understand. He was "peessed" (see photo right) to be put in the elimination group in the first place and rightfully so! Then, he clearly wiped the floor with Michael in BOTH performances (Michael was SO bad the first time, they had to do their number again) and he got sent home. Oh, sweet beautiful Oscar! I'll miss your aDORable accent, and your elegance. You've got so much poise it's flying out of your ass. You were robbed! I hope you enjoy a long and successful career. Stay cute!