TV: What are you watching tonight?

[Blarg]

For kind ones, very very possible. Being too solicitous of your kids, which is dirt common these days, is one of the main things that can make them narcissistic.

For responsible ones to raise a little narcissistic jerk? Fairly tough, but then again, as noted above, people have extremely loose definitions of what being responsible means these days.

No parent is assured everything will turn out perfectly with every kid, but there are flaws, and then there are flaws. I'd feel a lot worse if my kid grew up to be an unbearable egotist than, say, lower middle class. You can have a lot of shortcomings and missteps in your life without ever crossing certain behavioral lines or letting go of certain moral standards. Raising a kid who didn't give a damn about anybody but himself would be a huge failure to me; to other parents, not so much at all. I'd be willing to bet the parent with the latter type of attitude would be far more likely to raise an oblivious egotist. Their value system inherently is more supportive of such things.

But this is probably the wrong thread for all this. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[katyseagull]

Ok Wookie. I watched So You Think You Can Dance and I have to tell you that I really liked 3 of the dances. The others were sort of meh.

My favorites were:

1. The last dance (Jazz) with Neil and Lauren - Very cool!

2. West Coast Swing - Pasha and his new partner (Oh man! Pasha brought it [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Such a wonderful attitude and his smile lights up the stage)

3. The Hustle - Lacy and Kameron (That Lacy is incredible! She perfects every move and never has a misstep. Beautiful beautiful dancer. Also, I think Kameron is really good too but I think the choreography really favored Lacy.)


btw, is their host the best or what? She seems so nice and encouraging [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[MrWookie]

I won't watch until tonight. However, I will say that I like Tom Burgeron better than this Aussie (I think) chick. Both are encouraging, but SYTYCD's host only has a cute accent and her, uh, assets. Tom was surprisingly witty with his one-liners, so I find him more entertaining.

[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]
I won't watch until tonight. However, I will say that I like Tom Burgeron better than this Aussie (I think) chick. Both are encouraging, but SYTYCD's host only has a cute accent and her, uh, assets. Tom was surprisingly witty with his one-liners, so I find him more entertaining.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree. I totally forgot about Tom. He is so funny.

I hope you like tonight's show. At this point there are a lot of really strong contenders. Unfortunately for some of them the dance styles picked out of the hat weren't as lively and energetic as others. I think America favors fast and lively over slow and melodramatic. Not their fault.

[Fishmonger]

For any Brits, Mock the Week returns tonight, 9pm on BBC2 IIRC.

It's like a cross between Have I Got News for You and Whose Line is it Anyway. Hilarious and well worth watching.

[MrWookie]

I'm not convinced that America prefers fast to slow, actually. Look:

Week 1's bottom 3: Disco, Argentine Tango, Hip hop. Two high-energy routines and one slower one. They lost out to a slow waltz and a slow, dramatic modern number.

Week 2's bottom 3: Well, the bias might actually show here.

Week 3's bottom 3: Krumping, hip hop, and tango. Again two fast routines and one slower. They lost out to rumba (!!) and a jazz routine that wasn't all that upbeat.

I didn't see week 4. You'd have to catch me up.

There might be a bias against slow dances, but I think it might be less that we think.

[MrWookie]

Does Wookie Think You Can Dance, 7/11-7/12 2007

First up are Lacey and the Last of the Mohicans doing hustle. Not THE hustle, but hustle. It's a partner dance done to disco and club music. Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed. I actually don't like a lot of the spins and things they did, but that's just me. They're proper hustle spins, but it's just not a look I care for. LotM could stand to be a little more creative with what he does with his non-leading hand, too. Mostly he was just sticking it straight out. They did a great job, but the standard on this show is so high that I just can't get too excited about this.

Right now, I'm going to take the time to pause and say that the guest judge is going to be nigh unbearable.

Next are Cedric and STCSTDC. They're dancing Mambo, and I'm continually impressed with the amount of ballroom in this competition. Again, this was a good routine, but it's not outstanding by the standards here. Cedric's partnering was improved, but his performance was weak when he was partnering. He looked much better on his own. Cedric is almost certain to stay out of bottom 3 with this, but I liked the hustle just a hair better.

Anya and the Bro of the Champ are third with contemporary. I'm realizing that I have absolutely no bases to evaluate the technique of contemporary dancing, so I just go w/ how much I like choreography. This routine reminded me of LotM and Lacey's routine in week 1, and I liked their's better. They had more emotion in their movement. I also can't say I'm a huge fan of the bit where they were lying on top of each other. It strikes me as not only too suggestive, but uncreative. The choreographer wants to communicate a sexual relationship between the dancers, so rather than getting them to dance the relationship, he has them dance the sex. Lacey and LotM got a stronger feeling across without having to be as base.

Fourth is the beloved Pasha with his new partner Sara. Pasha's been really lucky in his dance draws. He's gotten ballroom-esque dances 3/4 times. Katy was right. This routine was huge. The performances were great, and the choreography was ridiculous. It was hugely creative, it fit the music beautifully, and the partnering was awesome. The cartwheel bit was amazing. This is easily the best routine so far, and it'll be extremely hard to top. The camera dropping to show Sara's extra hot outfit was gravy [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[MrWookie]

Dom and Fro Girl got to go fifth, and Fro Girl's hair is in an even more insane style tonight. They got hip hop, which is exactly what they wanted. They lived up to it, too. They're synchrony was great (if not quite perfect, but perfect synchrony in hip hop is really, really hard), and I liked most of the story telling. They fell victim to the same thing that Anya and Danny did in their slow spinning lift. It was so clearly suggestive that it didn't really catch me as much as, say, the opening, which I thought was a really creative back and forth that communicated something similar, but with dance rather than sex. Nigel said he loved it, but I definitely disagree. Still, I liked this 2nd best so far.

Sixth are Jamie and Hok with a waltz in the American smooth style. Pasha did his waltz in the International style. The difference is that in the American style, the couples can break the ballroom frame and go it alone. They got a great song, and Jamie got a great dress. I agree with the judges on this one 100%. The lines were fantastic, but Hok really screwed the pooch when it came to the (few) actual waltz steps. They were too far apart, and Hok didn't have a firm frame. And yet, I'm not sure the voters will care. It still had a nice beauty to it on the whole. We'll see.

And we finally wrap things up with Blonde Commodus and Lauren to jazz. In the two jazz routines we've done so far, we've seen zero authentic jazz steps. I'm hoping here. Yesssss! Triple steps! Jazz! The performance here was awesome, but I was underwhelmed with the dancing. They did a fair bit of just running around, and a lot of the steps they did just didn't look all that hard. The judges seemed to love it, but it didn't grip me as much.

Before I watch the results show then, I guess my picks for the bottom three will be Lacey and LotM, Hok and Jamie, and hmmm. I'd put Blonde Commodus and Lauren down there, but it might be Anya and Danny instead.

[MrWookie]

Wow, I'm surprised to see Cedric in the bottom three. I picked LotM and Lacey to be down there over him because I figured the voters would be more likely to maintain their love affair with him. I guess they're more fickle than I thought. I was right about picking Jamie and Hok and Anya and Danny. I liked A&D's routine better than Lauren and Blonde Commodus, but I figured the voters would go with the judges.

Some brief notes on the solos. I thought Anya was ridiculously hot. I didn't like how Danny substituted doing a lot of spins for doing more dancing. I guess doing a lot of spins is tough, but it doesn't really do anything for me. STCSTDC looked sharp. Cedric was doing his thing, but he did look ridiculously good doing it. I liked STCSTDC better than Jamie. Hok's choice of song was non-traditional for a hip hop routine, but it worked extremely well. I thought he was outstandingly fun to watch.

I'm not sure who I'll pick to go. Jamie, and then the guys are tough. It'll be either Cedric or Danny. I think Danny's dance was the weakest, but Cedric is the weakest in the competition. If Hok didn't dance well enough to save himself there, I'll be disgusted.

[MrWookie]

Well, I guess they didn't Save the Cheerleader (TM). Looking across the relative partner dances between her and Jamie, I understand the decision. Mine was skewed towards the last solo dance. With it clear that the judges weren't just looking at the past dance, it was clear that Cedric was getting the ax.