Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Dancing With the Stars -- Performances & The Boot 5

Len was particularly sour again. Perhaps he needs to have a pre-show nap to keep his energy and attention levels up for judging. Sometimes he just comes out with these comments that make you think, he couldn't be watching the same performance. He was purposely holding back scores on Derek and Nicole. Seriously guy, ease up before you get a brain hemorrhage.
Needless to say Derek and Nicole had another super successful week along with Erin and Maks. It's hard to say who's closer behind Derek and Nicole -- whether it's Erin and Maks or Evan and Anna. Evan definitely has the glide across the floor down, but so does Erin. It'll be interesting to see who takes it home this year.
As far as the lower end goes, I'd have to say that Niecy's flare and personality definitely helps her in her performance levels, even if she doesn't come through technically. Her bubbly attitude and comedic sense, I believe, also helps Niecy stay out of the red light.
As far as who got the boot on Tuesday night, it was Jake's turn to get back under the red light and then take the exit. At least there wasn't any crying or anything super pathetic like the person who left the week before.
As far as the next few weeks go, I suspect that Chad will be in danger again and possibly Pamela. Even though Pamela is quite good, it's just a suspicion that she'll end up in exit zone fairly soon.
Until next week folks.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Dancing With the Stars -- Performances & the Boot 4

Oh happy night, oh happy night. First, we'll do a quick recap of performance night. A lot of bad dancing happened on the floor with a few really good performances. Which one of the producers was high enough to pick a song from The Jungle Book movie? I mean really? It was pathetic! Just really pathetic and horrible. No wonder Chad and Cheryl ended up in the bottom. You just can't dance to that nonsense. Alternatively, it was still better than watching Tony clench his teeth to drag megamom across the floor once again. She shouldn't have been on the show to begin with. I believe Kate is some kind of Stepford wife robot gone awry. She says things to make people feel pity for her, but it's just so insincere and robotic that it's annoying.

The highlights of performance night went to Nicole and Derek for an amazing tango. Surprisingly, I have to say Pamela and Damian for entertainment value. She's a single mom, she doesn't really have any fancy dancing background of any kind, but she's got talent. I find myself rooting for her. One thing I also found is that from the clips of rehearsals, she doesn't give her partner a hard time or insult him. Hey Kate, maybe you could actually learn something from her.

As far as results night went, it was brilliant! Dmitry danced and Kate was not only in the bottom two, but she's outta there! Woohooo!! Oh happy, happy times. Now we can watch some proper dancing. I guess the bitter divorcée crowd got tired of having a bad dancer represent and came to their senses. I'm thinking Tony must've gone home and had a proper drink to celebrate his freedom of the queen B.
Let's see what next week has in store for us.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Dancing With the Stars -- Performances & The Boot 3

For the most part, performance night was not an inspiring or aspiring night. The preliminary videos just went on and on sometimes. The first 10 minutes of the show was all blah, blah, blah and yadda, yadda, wha'ever. Come on people, it's a dancing show, get to it already.
As for the scoring? I know it may be a bit more realistic, but what with all the preliminary video, it was a bit exhaustive in the end.
Even though Evan and Anna did a good tango, I hated the song the producers picked for them. Sure it was modern, but not for a tango. They might as well have been dancing to cows mooing; it was just distracting and not conducive to tango moves.
Aiden & Edyta. Oh the judges butchered them. I should have seen it coming. The more skin Edyta shows, the worse her partner does. She showed a lot of skin. At least Aiden has a good attitude about the whole thing even if he isn't a good dancer. If you look at Kate, oh good lohd! She sucks AND has a crappy attitude. She just moans and groans. I suspect she's appealing to the bitter divorcee crowd and the pity voters. She sucks people. STOP voting for her already.
To make a painful night more painful, I even saw a really bad commercial for some back pain specialists.
There were some positives of the performance night though:
1) Nicole and Derek -- even though Nicole wasn't at her best, she still did really
good.
2) Dmitry and Kim -- their "here's how a rumba should look" made me think can I have one of those please? That was hot and beautiful all rolled up into one.

The results night. Travis Wahl choreographed an amazing piece. If I'm not mistaken, I believe his brother Danny was part of it too. Now that was some wicked, inspiring and aspiring dancing going on there. Apart from that, Sade (say: shaw-day) sang twice. She's still got it. Sadly, Aiden went home and a certain talentless woman has yet to end up in the bottom. Poor Tony.

(I just couldn't make myself get to posting any sooner. Left shaking my head no and wondering why oh why is she still on the show.)
Until next week folks.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Norton and Diggory visit Murmurgrouse

Once upon a time, there was a magical place called Murmurgrouse. One day, a chancellor’s son, Diggory, came to visit. It wasn’t really his plan to visit Murmurgrouse, but while his carriage was travelling through the village to get somewhere else, the back tire on the carriage came loose from a big pothole in the village’s main street.

“Dammit!” said the driver up front. “Diggory, we’re going to have to make a pit stop here.”



“Where’s here, Norton?” Diggory called out from inside the carriage.
“We’re in Murmurgrouse. I believe there’s a place up ahead that can help with the tire.”

“Don’t we have a spare?” Diggory called out.

Norton murmured something under his breath in front and gave his head a mild scratch. “No, Diggory. We don’t have a spare. We had to leave that back home, remember?”

“Oh yeah, I remember. I wanted to see out the back window and we didn’t have room for it anywhere else.” Diggory let out a goofy chortle and shrugged his shoulders as he chortled. Diggory looked out at Norton and noticed the driver pinching the bridge of his nose slightly with his eyes closed. “Are you getting a headache again, Norton? You should get that looked into.”

Norton took a deep breath in and raised his head up. “Not really.” His mouth moved again like he was saying something, but Diggory couldn’t hear what he said. Then Norton spoke up louder so Diggory could hear him. “Come on and help me get this carriage to the yard over there. If we stay in this spot, we’re bound to cause a jam.”

Diggory jumped out of the carriage. “What do you need me to do, Norton?”
“Help me hold up the wheel post, so it doesn’t drag on the ground. There’s a spare pair of gloves in the compartment of the door there so you don’t get any splinters.”

Once Norton and Diggory set the carriage down at the edge of a nearby yard, they ventured into the village to see if they could find a place to get their carriage up and running again. Norton was used to driving Diggory around ever since Diggory was a young boy. Norton knew the real reason he was assigned as Diggory’s driver was not so much that Diggory was a chancellor’s son, but that it was usually in everybody’s interest, including Diggory’s, that he have someone nearby at all times. Sometimes, even though people do well in school, when it comes to everyday social matters, well that’s another story.

As the two got closer to the buildings in the centre of the village, Diggory noticed that some people passing in the opposite direction would mutter something under their breath as they passed.

“Hey Norton.”

“Yes, Diggory?”

“You ever been to this place before?”

“Yes, Diggory ... on a few occasions. Why do you ask?”

“I noticed people muttering when they walk by us and there’s something familiar about it.”

“C’mon Diggory, keep up. Well, not every place runs smoothly, you see...“ As Norton was about to explain more to Diggory, he saw that a parade was suddenly forming from the big government building in the core of the village. “You’re about to see one reason why. Look up there.”

On a balcony of the main government building, a man with gray hair and a paunch called out to the people below. “A parade is about to begin people. It’s very exciting and has lots of music, and colour. You should all enjoy it.”

It was interesting to Norton and Diggory that even though the man spoke of excitement and fun, they couldn’t help but notice that the man did not express those things with his voice and body language. In fact, the two of them found the man on the balcony didn’t appear to have much of a personality at all and had somewhat of a flat, expressionless tone to his speech. They found it completely bizarre.

Meanwhile, at the base of the government building, there was a bit of a scuffle as someone with a big sign was pulled off to the side.

Diggory turned to Norton. “What happened to the guy with the sign? I didn’t even get a chance to read what it said.”

Just then, a stream of balloons, musicians, and people in costumes started to march down the street. While their faces were all painted with bright colours and happy faces, Norton could see that some of them were muttering under their breath as the parade began to proceed around the government block.



“That’s just it, Diggory.”

“That’s just what, Norton?”

“That’s what I was telling you about. When someone tries to question the government about something that happened in the village, or ...” Norton lowered his voice to a whisper, “related to the village, but not necessarily in the village, the head of government puts on a big show of some sort or tells everyone to go on holiday to distract from answering questions. Have you ever heard the word ‘prorogue’, Diggory?”

“Prorogue? No. What’s that?” Diggory’s face lit up due to all the excitement with the parade.

“Focus, Diggory. Prorogue. It’s from the French word, proroger...”

Before Norton could finish the explanation, Diggory interrupted. “Sounds like a song.” With that, Diggory broke into song and clapped like a simple child as the parade continued going around the village centre. “Frere Zackuh, Frere Zackuh, proroger, proroger, semeh la Batina, semeh la Batina, ding ding dong, ding ding dong.”

When Diggory finished his song, he looked around to see Norton putting his head down again, pinching the bridge of his nose ever so slightly. Norton then looked directly at Diggory. “That doesn’t even make any sense, Diggory. Stop it.”

“But it’s a fun song. Try it, Norton. Frere Zackuh ... Frere ...”

Norton crossed his arms and stared unimpressively at Diggory. “Stop. It.”

Diggory looked down at his feet briefly as the two continued to walk closer to the government building. As quickly as the parade began, it seemed to subside as the parade members made their way back into the large door they had started from.
As one of the villagers passed Norton on the street, Norton tried to get her attention, but she just mumbled something and kept going. Norton experienced this a few times. It wasn’t until he started to mumble something under his own breath that another villager stopped to look at Norton.

“Can I help you with something?” the stranger asked Norton.

“Oh yes, please! I’m looking for someone who can help us with our carriage tire.”

“You’re actually looking to get something done? Hmmm. Yes, I think I know of a place. Fortunately, it’s not run by the government, or you’d be (incoherent mumbling).”

Diggory looked sideways at the stranger for a moment and then at Norton, “You fit right in, Norton.”

Norton looked quizzically at Diggory. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at Diggory (incoherent mumbling).”

Diggory looked at both the stranger and Norton again. “You just did it again. You’re doing what everyone around here seems to do. How is that?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the stranger and Norton said simultaneously. They looked at each other and smiled shyly.

“The garage is right around here. You should keep it quiet though. It’s not a lot of places around here that get things done in a timely manner anymore.”

“How is that?” Diggory asked, trying to keep his voice down.

“People try to ask questions about strange occurrences all the time, but as you might have seen the parade just a little while ago, when someone tries to ask the government something about almost anything these days, they try to distract us with some kind of show. Depending on the question, or if anyone tries to remember the original question, the distraction goes on for a longer period of time. You just missed a great sports show that went on for three weeks. It’s surprising that anything runs in this town. The only thing they can’t prevent is time.“

“I just came up with a song about proroguing. Do you ...”

“No. She does not want to hear it.” Norton interrupted, looking sternly at Diggory with his index finger wagging ‘no’ at Diggory, and then turned to smile back at the stranger, “I’m sorry, you never told us your name. My name is Norton and this is Diggory.”

“Maybe I should hear the song and then I’ll tell you my name?” the stranger asked.

“Trust me. You don’t want to hear it.” Norton responded as Diggory opened his mouth to start singing and got in one clap.

“Come now. Let’s hear it,” The stranger prompted.

Diggory looked over to Norton, and then put his hands down to his side. “He’s right. It’s better that I don’t sing it.”

The stranger looked back over at Norton who smiled back at her, shrugged his shoulders, and made a face as if to say I guess he changed his mind.

“Alright then. Maybe later,” the stranger replied.

“You never told us your name.” Diggory and Norton said.

“Oh look, we’re here. Jeremy will take care of you.”

The stranger introduced Jeremy to Diggory and Norton, who then explained the problem with their carriage. As the stranger was about to exit, Jeremy called out, “thanks for the business Delores!”

Delores stopped in her tracks, put her head down briefly, turned around and waved back.

“Thanks for the help Delores!” called out Diggory and Norton.

Jeremy suggested that the visitors walk around for a little while longer while he worked on the carriage tire. Before another parade ended, Jeremy found the visitors and had them set up in the fixed carriage.

“Thanks for the fix Jeremy. We really appreciate it.” Norton shook Jeremy’s hand and paid the bill.

“Glad to have the business.” Jeremy said and sent them on their way.

“Is there anything we can do for you?” Norton asked from the carriage.

“Nah. The government will always find a way to distract us from anything they have cooking over there. Strange though, because they set these rules out for companies to run properly and quite frankly, we couldn’t afford to ‘work’ like they do. Someone’s got to do the work around here, right?”

As they set off, Norton soon found he was humming the song Diggory sang to him earlier on and finding it annoyingly catchy. Some ways down the road, Norton soon figured out why he couldn’t get the song out of his head; Diggory had been belting out the tune in the carriage. “Diggory!!”

Crick crack crow, the wire bend, and that’s the way the story end.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Dancing With the Stars -- Performances & The Boot 2

Here we go again. This time, I'll provide a bit more detail on the performances from Monday night, but not too much more ... Not until it gets down to the better dancers. I'll start off with a positive. It was nice to see Dmitry on the dance floor. Aaaahh.

Oh the dreaded quickstep. It just looks like an accident waiting to happen. All I can think of is that fans of cocaine developed that dance in the 1920's. Evan and Anna pulled it off nicely. I guess we should all be thankful that Kate didn't get that one because she really does suck. That would've been a complete nightmare as opposed to just hard to watch. Her being kept on is like when they kept that chicken-little geeky guy on American Idol for far too long some seasons back. Painful!!

As far as other things went, Jake acted like a complete ponce. I'm glad Chelsea keeps him in check though. He should remember that she managed to take a rhythm-less cowboy a long ways. Even though his dancing is miles better than Kate's, a little part of me was glad to see him in the bottom two.

So, Buzz got the boot on results night. Is anyone else relieved? Whew! Maybe now that he's gone Kate will finally land in the bottom two and hey, maybe just maybe go home. Isn't it bad enough that George Dubbleyah was in the White House for two terms? Haven't people learned their lesson yet? Why the senseless suffering?

Until next week ...