Disco fever, an awkward wedding, and Skippy needs to go home

AKA, my SYTYCD recap of the week. Overall, I still wasn't super impressed this week...as Nava the Dance Expert stated so accurately in our weekly group recap email, I think the disappointment has been in the routines this season, not necessarily in the dancers. So many of the dances just don't have the conceptual meat to carry the story combined with the WOW factor that so many from past dances have had...there's just an oomph factor that's missing.

Sooo, we'll start with the best:

Brandon and Kayla - I think these are the two best dancers left on the show, hands down. The contemporary routine was pretty and extremely well danced, and the choreography was pretty great, but I just couldn't feel connected to the whole mistress-of-a-married-man storyline. Drug addiction, breast cancer, AND extra-marital affairs? Come on people, this is a dance show, not a Lifetime Original Movie marathon! But they did a great job with what they were given. Their disco was pretty great (even though those death drops or whatever they look like looked quite painful), and they kept the energy up and nailed all of those crazy lifts, which most couples can't do without the audience thinking AHH SHE'S GONNA FALL ON HER FACE WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. The synchronized arm shimmies or whatever you want to call them when she was on top of his shoulders was great...but I still couldn't help but compare it to the disco that Brandon and Janette did, because that was just completely awesome. I miss Janette.

Ade and Jeanine - I agreed with the judges on their samba, something just looked OFF. But the routine wasn't that great either. I did enjoy the Nap/Tab hip hop routine...and I think Jeanine definitely has the best solos of the girls (but Kayla is stronger overall). Ade is really good, but sometimes I feel like there's a disconnect between him and his dances. I don't know. Maybe he's not eating the music or feeling the music or sitting on the music with his ears or whatever Lil C kept rambling on about.

Evan and Melissa - To me, it couldn't be clearer that these two need to go home. I'm sorry and I feel bad for saying it, but Evan is just BLAH. I'm sooo over him. All he does is make cartoony facial expressions, shrug his shoulders, hop around a lot, and do several bell kicks. Every. Single. Time. Their Broadway routine was gimmicky and not challenging at all, and it just felt awkward (could it be their weird half-dressed garter costumes?). And clearly the quickstep fell short. Melissa's a great ballerina, but the other two girls are wayyy more versatile.

However, in all of this mediocrity, there was this:



This is the reason I watch this show. Um, no, not to watch extremely muscled men dance and flail and crawl in boxer briefs...but seriously, this is an art form. It's official, I'm on Team Brandon. And no, I did NOT vote for him over 20 times last night after he danced this. Absolutely not.

I Like...San Antonio

So lately I've been feeling some unexplained nostalgia for Texas, particularly San Antonio and the hill country. It all started about a month ago when I was driving down to Dallas to meet Scott and hang out with my family for a few days, and I felt the urge to blast "Southbound 35" for old time's sake. Since then, I've been quite out of my normal (i.e. indie/hippie/songwriterpotsmoker) music zone and have been on a pretty hard core Pat Green kick. There's just something about his music that transports me in a second back to the carefree days of college when our biggest thing on the agenda was planning the next float trip or theme party. Jen and I were reminsicing about breakfast tacos at Taco Riendo, the somewhat sketchy, completely delicious taco place where we were almost always sure to be the only non-Spanish-speakers in the place. So, here is my ode to San Antonio:

There are so many great memories of that town, such as everything that took place here:

Retreats in the hill country:

Amaaaazing BBQ:

Fiesta and NIOSA, San Antonio's Mexican [and much tamer] version of Mardi Gras:

BREAKFAST TACOOOOOS:


$2 Margs at Panchito's:

Of course, tubing on the Comal in New Braunfels:

And eating at the amazing Grist Mill afterwards:

And who could forget college night at Far West (aka Cowboys) Dance Hall:

I'm no country girl, but I sure do miss San Antonio sometimes. In honor of that, here is some good ol' Texas country for your listening pleasure:

Wave on Wave - Pat Green

Crazy - Pat Green

Carry On - Pat Green

We Need Healthcare REFORM? Nooo...

This is reality for way too many people:



But really, they should just get a better job. Yup. We don't need no "Obama-care" up in hurr.

Rant over.

I Like...Learning

Here are some interesting tid-bits I learned this weekend:

1) The Harry Potter game for Wii is not as cool as one would think (at least not the Order of the Phoenix one). Yes, you get to do spells, but we played for 20 minutes and all that went on was moving some clothes into a trunk and walking around the castle aimlessly. Not fun. Where's the Quidditch?!? And YES, I realize I'm a huge nerd.

2) Somehow, when one makes gin and tonics at home, they are much more potent than at the bar.

3) Sitting around with friends making drinks and making fun of each other playing Wii is SO much fun. Okay, I knew that already

4) Non-scheduled Saturdays are extremely important.

5) Just because I am awesome (and I mean AWESOME) at Wii bowling does not mean I am awesome at actual bowling. In fact, I'm terrible. Like 78 terrible.

6) I forgot how competitive I am and how I really reeeally dislike losing! As Lisa put it, it's a miracle we all play games together and we're all still friends. Lots of Type A med students + me and Hannah and James = yikes!

7) Piano bars and Colorado Bulldogs are a fantastic cure for post-losing-funk. Especially when they play Don't Stop Believing and the whole bar sounds and you dance a lot.

8) That song NEVER gets old.

9) Blaring the show choir version of that song from Glee while driving around eating ice cream never gets old either.

10) Enjoying a lazy Sunday morning for the first time in a while is more important than writing papers. Yup.

That's it for now. Oh, and p.s., if you couldn't tell, I loved this weekend.

I Like...Weddings

As I posted about yesterday, we had a blast last weekend celebrating our friends' wedding, and lots of fun was had. Here's what took place:

Some rehearsing and eating downtown

An adorable bride and groom celebrating

More awesome dancing

A "fresh-faced" picture before Journey sing-a-longs to the iPod because the COVER BAND did not know "Don't Stop Believing!!"

Some intense disco-ing

Some...of this

Happy friends after dance-a-thons

Self-picture taking, always a necessity whilst dancing

Old friends :)

All in all a great night, and I must say that Scott did a great job sticking his hand in the air and taking random shots. This was the first wedding since ours that we have both been really involved in and gotten to witness up close through the whole process, and it definitely brought back some wonderful memories of our own (and of course made some great new ones). Yay marriage, yay weddings.

I Like...Dancing

This past weekend, Scott's BFF-partner-in-crime-roommate-best-man-all-around-crazyperson Rob married his longtime girlfriend (and good friend of ours) Jen. Seriously, these boys have been friends since the fifth grade when Rob invited Scott to stay for dinner after working on a school project, and they have pretty much been through everything in life attached at the hip ever since. They are COMPLETE opposites and yell at each other a lot, but their friendship is pretty adorable. So the weekend was full of toasts and parties and food...and dancing! We had a fantastic group of dancing fiends on the floor at the wedding, and it was a BLAST. I love dancing, and I really really really wish I could do it with any inkling of talent, but this is what I look like when I do it:

Apparently me dancing = awkward facial expressions and lots of pointing?

Oh well. We can't all be professionals.......like these people:

(SMOOTH TRANSITION, eh?!?)

Last night's episode was pretty blah until the final three routines. I will say that while I appreciate the sentiment and while the intent of Tyce's piece about breast cancer was touching, it didn't grip me or move me like Mia's Addiction piece did. I think a huge part of it was the song, but it felt more contrived and "Beaches"-ish than raw and heartwrenching like it could have been...But it was still a beautiful dance. Here are my two favorites:

Kayla and Jason dancing a Shane Sparks hip hop routine (loved the Thriller references)



Brandon & Jeanine dancing a routine by Laurie Ann Gibson (yes, the crazy choreographer from Diddy's Making the Band awesomeness).

I think Brandon and Jeanine are my favorites at this point, with Janette coming in a close second. I'm calling Evan or Jason and Melissa or Kayla for elimination this week. If Melissa stays it will be because she happened to draw the tearjerker of the week. Also - I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty intrigued to see if Katie Holmes can actually sing and dance tonight. Innnnteresting.

And this is where I shall end the post of endless rambling.

Song Obsession of the Week

So I've heard some of the Ting Tings' other songs in random places and on SYTCYD, but I heard this for the first time last week while driving to work...and I was definitely that crazy person you saw pointing at passing cars and yelling "THAT'S NOT MY NAME!!!!!!" on the highway at 7:45a.m.

I mean, what?

You really can't help at least bopping to this...or full on head banging dancing in the bar when it comes on the juke box. Just sayin.