Okay, so I do a lousy Austin Powers impression. But, yay, dancers, in Vegas! That means we’re closer to the real, actual, live show and I’m all for that.

Over 200 dancers arrive in Vegas for the most grueling week of their lives. Goody! Let’s watch! Hi Cat Deeley!

Okay, who are Tabitha and Napoleon? This is what I missed during the storm, I guess. (You Tube…not so good on filling in the gaps, so I missed all of Milwaukee. Only got a written recap. Boo, Fox, for not putting this on your online episodes list!)

So, apparently they are hip hop choreographers who get their hip hop hooks in first day dancer meat. Straight off we lose Rubber Band Man, who, despite all the judges dramatic angst I applaud for knowing after a day spent in choreo how far over his head he was and respectfully bowed out. I do hope that he doesn’t shit on his gift as Mia so lovingly warns him, by showing up next year more prepared for what will be aked of him. He did try. No shame in admitting he wasnt ready yet. In fact, I daresay that was the more respectful response to the siuation and the caliber the show demands. Your mileage may vary.

62 out of the first 150 are cut. Wow harsh. End of day, 123 out of 209 are left. Yikes. Rough Day One, y’all.

Day Two…Morning: they get Tyce D’Orio with a Broadway routine. Possibly my least favorite thing they do on this show with my least fave choreographer. Ah well. We’re down to 94 after this round.

Day Two after lunch…Jean Marc and his wife are back to take the dancers through the fox trot. Well, this should be….entertaining. Glad they kept the hip hop pair. Gad to see how humble they were, too. Good job, show! By the end of Day Two, wha? Not over yet. So far, all my favorite folks are still sticking around. What’s up? Yeah. Okay, so the remaining dancers, and it’s hard to tell, but it looks like we still have 50-60 or so, are - after two rounds in one day, in two different disciplines - at 8pm, are split into smaller groups of 5 or 6, given random music, and told they have to have a fully choreographed routine by morning.

Wow. That’s just…evil. I am SO loving this season so far. Dance, dancers, dance!

Day Three: early morning. Dancers are back on stage, seriously cranky and sleep deprived. Several groups up, all groups suck. Then it started looking up. I wish we’d gotten to see more of those instead of all of the sucky ones. Only 4 were cut, but one of them was single blondie mom. Awww. She might be relieved, because the afternoon round is a Mia routine. Yikes. We’re down to 68, so I was close. Still working on no sleep and they get Mia. Serious evil. At the end of the carnage, 22 more go home.

Three days, and we went from over 200 to 47. Wow. 9 of them are on the cusp. Twitch, who I really love, is one of them. 1 goes down to injury. Twitch and four others remain. One more round, this one a personal showcase, will get them to the final Top 20 and on the live show. From the montage, it’s clear they’re all really impressive. Glad I’m not the one making the final decisions.

A lot of the fun folks are still around and it looks like we could have a great cast. Aaaaaaand, okay, some I like stayed, some…not so much. But yay! Twitch is in! Joshua and Comfort are in. William is in. Natalie should be in, but we get Katee instead. And a whole bunch of complete strangers. So, it looks like it’s going to be a really interesting season. Overall, just going in, I’m way more interested in the guys draw (where has Jamie been? Cutie patootie!) but who knows….

Now, a little bit of Top Chef Finale Part One MAC. It will be brief. Lisa? Really, judges? You send Antonia home and keep Lisa?
Lisa? Remember how much I didn’t like Richard in the beginning? This is how relative that is to my dislike of Lisa. I’d be so happy if he won rather than her. I want Stephanie to win, but a Blais win would be deserved. Lisa? Lisa? You think she has a bitchface (and boy, does she or what? Do you wonder what she thinks looking at her own nasty mug during all those judges panels? All those judges panels where she was in the bottom three, but is somehow in the final three?) Really, show? She wins, and you want bitchface? Someone take a picture of me. Just sayin. I need some comfort ice cream now.

Now on to the good stuff….who is the winner in this week’s SHaQ Attack? It’s Blog Babe Susan S!! Woo hoo!!

I hope everyone enjoys their first weekend in June. We’re apparently going to go from tornados to 100 degree heat. How fun! Not! I’ll be inside teaching, so at least there is that. See everyone Monday for more MAC and another SHaQ Attack contest. Stay cool, stay safe!

Tags: Writing by Donna
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You know, like there’s not enough drama, we had tornados yesterday. In Virginia. Not exactly a common problem here. So, I thought I could watch dance, but….hard to do with no power as it turns out. I did get through the first part where we got to see a couple of previous audtions not already shown. And I must say, thank you SYTYCD producers for spending more time on the good than the bad, even in the audition rounds. I hate it when there is all this time spent and we get to the semi finals and finals, etc before the actual show begins and half the people we’ve never even had a glimpse of before. I could deal with, like, one special ACK! night of bad auditions, then all the rest focusing on the journey of the ones we’re going to come to know and vote and care about.

Aaaaaaand, that’s all I got. I’ll have to go find Top Chef online and SYTYCD on You Tube now that I have power restored and let you know the rest of my MAC on the morrow. I think there is more dance tonight, so weather holding, it’ll be a Mondo MAC Friday!

Don’t forget to enter this week’s SHaQ Contest. See Monday’s blog post for details. Also - I am finally able to package up a stack of books to send out to previous SHaQ Winners…so, they are coming, Blog Babes! Promise!

Winner of this week’s contest announced tomorrow!

Tags: Writing by Donna
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Yay!

We begin the new season in the beautiful country of Chile. With.an.announcer.who.has.the.most.modulated.voice.ever. Somewhere, Ryan Seacrest breathes easier. Wow, this guys makes Samantha Harris sound like a rocket scientist. It actually detracts in a big way from the opening and makes it sound really cheesy. Old school cable tv cheesy.

Where is Phil when you need him? Or Probst, even. Hell, Kathy Griffin would do a better job. I miss you Anderson Cooper!!

So, I’m totally not listing everyone this early on, but it’s nice to see a pretty decent cross section in age, origin, race, occupation. Amazing Race and Survivor should take notes.

Okay our contestants show up in the middle of the night in nowhere Chile and greet our host, who is some dude name Jon Kelly, who I greatly fear is the same guy doing the voice over. Oh, show. What, was Ahmad Rashad busy?

First up? Take a raft to the edge of a waterfall, then jump off the raft over the edge of the waterfall. At night. Yeah. I don’t care how many bags of money you dangle. I’m already so not signing up for this show.

11 go over, only 6 grab the money bags, but unfortunately only 2 had real money in them. 20K for the first mission out of a possible 60. Jon hands out the Mole Journals so players can start taking notes. It’s way too early on to have any real guess who the mole is, but I am starting to decide who I hope goes home first. Soccer coach guy. Although Ms. Circumvent The Rules is running a close second. Very close. Tied, even.

Second mission was a total trainwreck. If you want to go by who might be sabotaging the game…uh, all of them? Do they understand the rules? Do they know that there is only one mole, and if no one already told them it was them, um…..it’s not them? 15K out of a possible 25 on job two.

I’m really missing the celebrity seasons right about now. Yes, even Dennis Rodman. Which is saying something.

I did love Dr Whiner getting left behind on the island. Hope the good doc and Karman were nice and cozy together. I have a feeling she knows her well. Also? I would so be changing doctors right now if I was one of her patients. “What? I can’t be smart AND beautiful?”

Please.

Okay, crying soccer coach dad? Wuh. Wuh. Wuh. I know it’s supposd to be all heartstrings time, but he’s just not buying me off with the tears for wife and mom. Sor-ry. (tm Simon.) The person I feel sorry for? Is wife/mom. Yikes. Squared.

At the end of episode one I have no real clue who the mole is. Who goes home? Aw, Marci. The person most suspected by the team. Ha! What a bunch we have here. A shame she goes though. I liked her. Next week? Ooh goodie, new people to intensely dislike. Um, yay.

What did you think? I’m kinda underwhelmed thus far. Dangit.

Aaaaaaaaand? DISH!

Tags: Writing by Donna
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Which means it’s time for another SHaQ Attack contest! Woo hoo!

I finally got around to watching the Grey’s Anatomy finale and I think Shonda is finally get her groove back. Such an improved ending over last season! But then, what wouldn’t have been.

Anyway, in celebration of a spending a whole hour where I didn’t want to throw anything at the television, this week’s contest will be an easy one. Just send an email to donna@donnakauffman.com with “Pick me. Choose me.” in the subject line. If Meredith can finally get McDreamy (although it’s a toss up on just how big a prize that might be) then who knows, you could actually win a free book. One winner will be chosen from the pile of entries and announced right here on Friday.

In the meantime…what are you reading? I just finished James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet’s Sunday at Tiffany’s. Cute book, cute premise, would make a great movie. Am currently digging into Just Desserts by Barbara Bretton. Very enjoyable cast of characters. Waiting on Janet Evanovich’s next one, which comes out soon! Yay!

Tags: Writing by Donna
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