A little mini rant - Merry Christmas to all...

• Cheesy ads for tired and old celebrity fragrances: Why is it that every holiday season the powers that be drag out the horrible White Diamonds advertisement to torture us? Seriously, who the hell still wears "White Diamonds"?! It smells like cat piss and baby powder and it was first on the market in 1985! The Britney Spears fragrance collection isn't any better; they drag out the old pre-baby Spears ad for Curious or "Inquisitive" or whatever the fuck it's called. Seeing these ads wouldn't irk me so much if they played on a regular rotation throughout the year; but they only play during Christmas/Hannukah. Almost assuredly geared towards hapless men who haven't figured out what to get their wives/girlfriends. Hey guys? Women don't want cheap perfume!
• I hate when UPS/USPS/FedEx etc. promise that a package will be delivered by Christmas Eve and then they don't deliver on that promise.
• If I hear any of the following holiday songs again in the next 12 months I will punch someone: Silent Night, Wonderful Christmastime, Step into Christmas, Feliz Navidad, anything sung by Johnny Mathis.
• I hate being sick at Christmas time. It sucks balls. I have no patience, and no energy to do anything and I have a lot to do. Uggh, is it 2010 yet?

Oh Taylor Lautner...

I'm really trying to resist you since I'm old enough to be your mom, but you keep on being so freakin' adorable. While you weren't the most engaging host SNL ever had, I did really enjoy a few of the skits you were featured in like the "Team Jacob vs Team Edward" one.

Your monologue was awesome where you poked fun at yourself and your relationship with "the other Taylor" and won me over with your love of "Reba".

But my favorite skit was the middle school show choir called "The Sparklers" doing their Jingle Jangle Jam. Ha! As a member of the world famous Sparkling Choir of Love, I got a kick out of it.

[Note: I tried to load the video of the sketch from Hulu here but wasn't able to. I'll hopefully add it later. It's not to be missed]

You guys?

Dexter's season finale? So MESSED UP! I'm sure it's in poor taste for me to use the above picture considering the season ender.
John Lithgow deserves an Emmy for his terrifying performance as Arthur Mitchell. Gawdamm! I'm going to have nightmares for months!

Catching up

I've been so damn busy this week practicing and preparing for our Christmas show this Saturday that I really haven't had a chance to breath, much less watch television or read. Basically I've been getting home close to midnight and trying to fit in a little Tivo or reading before collapsing into a deep sleep each night this week.

So although I know that most of the items in this post have already been discussed or dissected, I'm still going to share my opinion with y'all. Here's what's on my mind this week.

Movie news:

You know I love anything Jane Austen, even shitty movie adaptions or poorly written Austen sequels/adaptations. And now there's news that Natalie Portman will star in the upcoming film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's mash-up of Austen's Pride & Prejudice and Zombies. I'm okay with this choice, actually even sort of excited about it.

I'm not excited about Avatar; and you can't make me be.

TV:

SYTYCD eliminating down to the 6 in the finale - Although Ashleigh totally deserved to go (hey America, remember we talked about this shit?!), I was okay with Mollee leaving us this week. What I wasn't okay with? The fact that Legacy went home before Ryan or even Russell totally bugs me. Sigh...well I'll see him on tour at least.

This week in reality television competition finales - I was truly happy with the Amazing Race and Top Chef finalists. And ultimately satisfied with Meghan and Cheyne winning the 15th season of TAR, although I was hoping for Bryan and Ericka to eek out 2nd place ahead of the gay brothers.

On Top Chef however, I think the wrong Voltaggio brother won. Bryan clearly won 2 out of the 4 courses and split the judges on the other two. But Michael still won?! Was it because he takes more "risk"? **eyeroll** Who cares? I hope Bryan at least is consoled that he's the nicer, more competent brother.

On the RW/RR Challenge I was happy to see the Champions win only because it meant that Susie got the most money which she totally deserved for having to put up with Johnny Bananas dumb ass. My former boyfriend Kenny and Evan didn't deserve shit though. It still totally pisses me off that neither of those douches ever went into the Ruins and pretty much controlled everything from the get-go. At least Derrick was able to take some money home to feed his kid, because God knows he's too dumb to earn money any other damn way. And as much as I hate Kellyanne's crazy ass, or Sarah's crying desperate one, they really did awesome in the final challenge and nearly snatched the win right out of the Champs hands. Oh how I would've loved to have seen Kenny and Bananas faces if that had happen, but Susie would've been ripped apart which wouldn't have been good. But seriously this show is my crack. And where else would you be able to see grown "straight" men throwing golf balls at each other's bare assess and pouring hot wax on their bodies? For no apparent reason, other than to pump each other up for the competition? Excellent.

Glee autumn finale - I'm still in denial about this gem not being back on the air until fucking April but at least I have the latest volume of music to comfort me a little.
And the knowledge that the first part of this season will be on DVD the end of this month. I'll definitely be rewatching these episodes over the winter.
I really liked that they revealed Terri's fake pregnancy and the fact that Finn isn't the baby-daddy before the end of this mini-season. I'm looking forward to seeing how the "Road to Regionals" goes come April. Especially since Jonathan Groff will be joining the cast as the leader of rival group Vocal Adrenaline. Yay!

5 Things I Know Are True - SYTYCD top 8 edition

1. Asleigh better be going home tomorrow. I'm sorry she dislocated her shoulder or whatever, but seriously America if you vote her into the top 6 (the finale?) without her having to dance or do anything this week I'm going to be really fucking angry. She's made it on the tour which us better than I thought (and I bet she thought) she would, so she should be good with that. Oh and how unlucky is Russell that he's had 2 partners that have injured themselves leaving him to dance solo. Very unfair for him.
2. I LOVE Ellenore. Love love love. Oh okay, I love Legacy too. But I totally don't understand the judges criticism of the NappyTabs hip-hop routine. It was great. Am I high? What did I see that the judges didn't?
3. Jakob is just perfect; I love him too and he can do no wrong in my book. And he makes any of his partners look good. He even made me like Mollee a little.
4. Ryan and Kathryn's cha cha was one of the best that was ever done on this show. AWESOME.
5. The Music was so Weird. "Din Da Da" by Kevin Aviance?! On nationally televised show? Used by Ryan in his ballroom solo?! WTF? But taking away from this brilliance was the fact that randomly two Samantha Ronson remixes (one of an Annie song?) were used in routines. Plus hip-hop to the Doors, which was totally unacceptable.

AMC's "Prisoner" remake

Okay, I'm an intelligent and fairly cultured person, but I have to admit, the 2009 remake of the 60s tv series The Prisoner is kind of tough for me to wrap my head around.

Ian McKellen kicks ass as per usual. And the writing seems top notch. But seriously I've watched 4 hours of the mini-series and I'm not any less confused than I was at the beginning.

The Patrick McGoohan original tv show wasn't this confusing was it?

Jamie Campbell Bower, and Jim Caviezel sure are pretty though.

DILF Alert! - Taking a stroll through NYC with Hugh

Will you look at the adoration on little Ava's face in the photo below left?
Then again if my dad was Hugh Jackman? Well, no. I'm not going to go there. Let's just say I'm really glad that Jackman isn't my father, so I can feel no guilt in having the dirtiest thoughts possible about him!
So happy Friday folks!

Today I'd rather be walking through the West Village holding Hugh Jackman's hand or riding on his shoulders. (yes, I said his shoulders you dirty minded people).

SYTYCD Season 6 Top 10

Season 6's top 10 dancers performed last night in their new "random pairing out of a hat" couples, performing two routines and a solo. The fate of the competitors for the rest of the season is in our hands, as the girl and guy with the least amount of votes will leave tonight.

So the first thing that was different about last night's show was that there really wasn't a lot of "filler". There wasn't really time because of the 10 different routines (20 if you count the solos) that needed to happen within the 2 hour period. I've watched every season of this show but I totally don't recall the top 10 performing two dances before this season. I believe that was reserved for top 8 and beyond?

At any rate, one of the unexpected things last night was that the couple routines did not have intro segments. No interview with the choreographer(s), no banter about the new partnerships, no clips showing the dancers working with their instructors - just Cat Deely going straight into introducing the couples, them already on stage dancing right away. It was VERY JARRING and denied me face time with my beloved Pasha(!) and Spencer Liff among others. I mean seriously, the only possible time that Spencer may be topless would be during rehearsals - why are you fucking with me show?!

Noelle & Ryan: started off the show with a NappyTabs "hip-hop" routine performed to a song I love - "Give It To Me Right" by Melanie Fiona. I think I would've classified this as jazz almost. Even calling it lyrical hip-hop is pushing it but I really liked the choreography about basically sexual harrassment in the work place. It took me a minute to get into the routine because of the aforementioned lack of intros but I thought Ryan and Noelle did well and had good chemistry. Nigel said that he thought Ryan could've been "funkier" and I guess I agree with this. That didn't take away from the dance for me though.

Legacy & Ashleigh - Contemporary choreographed by Gary Stewart to "Poison" by The Prodigy: I thought this routine was really cool. It was insane too. And a little disjointed; at times it seemed like Legacy was waiting for Ashleigh? Their chemistry wasn't really there for me. The ending of the dance with Legs in a head stand was absolutely phenomenal though. And I love Adam Shankman and his wink.
They did do segments with the dancers about how they started dancing before each solo. I won't be talking about the solos a lot in this post except for some notables. Like Russell's parents who they show watching him on the show from their living room in Roxbury. Love them!

Kathryn & Nathan - Broadway choreographed by Spencer Liff (get naked now!) to "Choreography" from White Christmas sung by Danny Kaye:
Okay, we're going to have Spencer Liff do all of the Broadway choreography on this show from now on right? I LOVED this routine. Fun, lively, energetic, reminiscent and an homage to the great stage work from the 40s and 50s; loved, loved, loved.

Ellenore & Jakob - Quickstep done by Melanie LaPatin and Tony Meredith: Like Adam Shankman gushed, these two together are my ultimate partnership, so I was a little disappointed that they got the quickstep because I felt their talent was sort of wasted on it. But still, it was one of the best quicksteps that has ever been done on this show.

Ryan's stepdad looks like he's my age. Ryan's 27 right? Hmmm... me thinks his mom may be a cougar.

Mollee & Russell - Lyrical Jazz from Mandy Moore danced to "It Must've Been Love" (hee!) by Roxette:
Mandy's love for the 80s continues which her choice of song, but whatever, I love her for it anyway. And I enjoyed the choreography for this piece but didn't connect with Russell or Mollee dancing it. I thought the judges overpraised their performance. But I will agree that it was good for all to break the Nathan/Mollee partnership up. They both danced more mature and better than they have all season together.

Nathan's solo was freakin' amazing performed to one of my favorite songs - "Golden Train" by Justin Nozuka. A lot of people have commented that they thought Nathan getting choked up at the end was fake; but I think the emotion was very real. Those tears weren't fake.

Ryan & Noelle #2 - Smooth Waltz created by Jaytee and Tomas:
Pretty darn beautiful although Noelle was the weak link for me. Agreed with Nigel that she needed to relax more.

Wait. Ellenore's parents moved from Santa Cruz to NYC for her dancing?! Wow, those are some supportive and accomodating people. Ellenore's mom is soooooo pretty.

Ashleigh & Legacy 2 Electric Boogaloo - Hip hop from Dave Scott done to "Slow Down" by Bobby Valentino:
I personally thought it was one of the best hip-hop routines of the season but the judges panned it and I didn't get their criticism really. I also felt bad for Dave Scott whose choreography got trashed on national television. It wasn't as bad as when the Russian folk dance people got trounced but still, damn.

Commerical aside > Not at all excited about the Carrie Underwood holiday variety special.

Nathan & Kat II - Tony and Melanie Rhumba to "Walk on By" by Aretha Franklin:
Not sexy enough for me. My mind immediately compared it to the superior rhumba done by Ade and Melissa last season and the Dominic/Sabra one from S3. Nate and Kat had potential though, so I hope this routine which was probably the weakest of the night doesn't sink them.

Wow, Legacy's clip package. I can't believe he and his cute friend Flea came to L.A. from Miami with "nuthin' but a dream" after watching You Got Served to try and make a living b-boying. Nuts! I love Legacy's dad!

Ellenore & Jakob take 2 - Sonya Tayeh contemporary piece done to "Tore My Heart" by OONA & Paul Tweedie:
Dream partnership! AMAZING! Huzzah! My top 2 did a truly fantastic job.

Ashleigh's mom's hair/head is scary. That is all.

Mollee & Russell finished with a Jive choreographed by my boyfriend, and former S3 contestant Pasha and Anya: This routine had great choreography and lots of energy but still fell flat for me.

Jakob's solo = brilliance defined

Overall no one was awful. I don't really want any of the guys to go, but could lose Noelle or Mollee without shedding a tear. I think Ryan, Nathan and possibly Legacy could be in danger. And I think Noelle, Kathryn, and Mollee (crossing fingers) could be in the bottom for the girls. All I know is if Ellenore is in the bottom or heaven forbid goes home - I'm opening a can of whoop-ass on you America!