SYTYCD Season 5 ep17

OK, so another results show, two more dancers are gone. For those that didn't see the show last night and still want to watch it (DVR, torrents etc) don't read onwards.

So the show started with a Wade Robson routine which was a good one.



Also they announced that the show got 4 Emmy nominations this year. Chelsea Hightower was in two of those so I am happy. She is one of the best they have had a such a personality - really good. So i hope any of the 2 she is in of the nominated wins.
BTW what a bummer - NO nomination for Cat in the reality host category?!? i mean...come one...there is no one better at this gig than her! but lets not get carried away with the Emmy snubs as there are others that I am pissed about.

So in the bottom two there were Randi and Mellisa, for the girls - as predicted, and Kupono and Ade for the guys. For some reason they decided to do their solos from the previous night - maybe they should have done something extra special since it would be their last dance on the show.
Nevermind....Kupono was voted off from the guys and Randi from the girls. Completely expected. Also for next week, unless Melissa picks something really in her style and doesn't have to do a solo I don't see her progressing. Especially if she picks hip-hop..

So what do you think? Who would be gone next week? Are you psyched about next week shows? Ellen Degeneres will be part of judging panel and on the result show we will see some of the best routines from the previous seasons like the Bench and Ramalama

As before I go. Here are the nominated routine with Chelsea from last year. Enjoy

SYTYCD Season 5 ep16

So. another week goes by and we inevitably come to another So You Think You Can Dance episode. And this time - it was a good one (with 1 exception).
Before I go one, again, Cat looked great - please give her the Emmy already!

It all started with a group girls number - Bollywood. And did great. Not that I can judge whether it was technically great but it looked good on TV For those that missed it last night. here it is one more time



After that opening number, we moved to the new couples and of course everyone had to do their Solos.
First couple out were Evan and Kayla. Not a bad dance - by far not the best. For some reason every time Evan dances he always puts that Broadway face, which is really off putting from the dance. Kayla was good and those lifts that they did were really looked good an effortless.
Score: B

Next couple - Janette and Ade. strong couple and a strong dance. though for a Hip-Hop/RnB dance it lacked a little sharpness but understandable for dancer that are trained in this style
Score: A-

Couple number 3 was - Jason and Jeannine. And this was the best number of the night! The number was choreographed by Travis Wall, who was finalist on Season 2, and is probably the best all around contemporary dancer that has been on the show all seasons.
Score: A+




Couple number 4 was - Kupono and Randi. And what a mess that was. The beginning of the routine started bad and from then on it all fell apart. No chemistry or anything. Those two are a definite bottom 3 tonight.
Score: D

Last but not least - Brandon and Melissa. number was solid and it didn't suck as usual when Tyce Diorio choreographs. Don't know whats up with that guy's work but his numbers are always lacking something. Brandon was solid and Melissa's ballet training came handing with the lifts and jumps.
Score B++

Before going into the final number - the guys group number - lets do a quick scan of the Solos that were performed tonight. Brandon was probably the most solid one from the guys, followed closely by Evan. Jason and Ade so so. Kupono as usual showed very little (great music though for him). As for the gearls - Jeannine, for me was the strongest one. Melissa again, with her style, was very poor. Janette did what she could in her style which is not very creative when it comes to solos - needing a partner every time you dance it. Randy was ok for me and Kayla started good but towards the end it lost something from its energy and she just started doing jumps.


Now, to close the show, we saw the African dance group number by the guys. Which again was a really good one, and something we haven't seen before on the show. Again for those that missed it last need, go no further but take a look below if you missed it.



So what do you think of last night's episode? If you ask me Kupono and Melissa are goners. Kupono consistently underperformes his solos and apart from last week and the Wade Robson's first week Crash Test dummies routine, has been really poor. Melissa - no solo whatsoever, few strong performances when it comes to the couples, but still not someone who many people that vote will go behind. If its not here than its the end of the road for Randi. Don't see Jeannine or Janette going anywhere and Kayla is a judge favourite.
So, who would be your two dancers that you think will bite the bullet? And how good is it to see old alumni choreographing on the show? Now if we only could have a segment where they danced on the results show......

Iphone firmware upgrade

So yesterday was an interesting day for me in regards to my phone. I have an iphone - 1G bought it like 2 years ago. Not being in the US actually has prevented me from getting the new 3GS but who cares for a better camera faster OS and stuff...Anywayz...I was stuck on the 1.1.3 firmware - had the the unfortunate experience of a previous upgrade where I forgot to back up all the contacts and lost them, so was a little reluctant to go through that process despite the advantage of the new firmware version of the phone.
For those that are not technically savy, the firmware is the software on the phone that gives you all the hoopla that you use everyday - and on the iPhone thats everythings.
So I had to go through this because my phone started to freeze every so often in the last couple of weeks. However yesterday it started freezing every 30sec so it made it impossible to use the phone as I have to reboot it everytime in order to do anything on it.
So backed up all my contacts - didn't look hard enough on how to back up the text messages, notes and other saves from the different applications - so just wiped those from the phone.

In any case here is a quick how to for anyone that is stuck with older than the 3.0 firmware for the iphone. Hope this helps

Step 1: Download redsn0w. At the moment the latest version of this is 0.7.2. that is a zero in redsn0w. To download just use google as often download links get removed.
Step 2: download two bootloader versions - bl-39 and bl-46
bl-39
bl-46
Step 3: you need to download the latest firmware
Step 4: You need to have iTune 8.2 and to use it to update your firmware on the phone through iTunes. To sellect the file that you want to use for the restore, press shift and than click on upgrade or restore.
Step 5: open redsn0w and through Browse point the program to where the firmware file that you used to upgrade previously on the phone is stored. VERY IMPORTANT - it needs to be the same file. the software modifies the exact version of the firmware in order to hack your phone and unlock it for future use
Step 6: follow the instructions that you get from the program. it does everything you need to complete the process
Step 7: Enjoy your upgrade iPhone

tv over the weekend.

So...Lets review some of the stuff that was the previous day on tv.

First up - the BET 09 Awards. To start of it was less than 60min of actual tv - minus the commercials. And for the awards that were supposed to show most respect for Michael Jackson, if you ask me they did a pretty bad job with the tribute. The show started with a number of guys - most of which I haven't heard/seen before - and they just didn't do justice to the Jackson 5's classic ABC. Later in the show Ciara did Heal the World!?! Again - if you have Beyonce on the show why not have her do that instead of Ciara. No offence but there is no comparison between the two. And to top it all off, Jamie Fox also doing a MJ cover - the guy is a decent actor, and he may have a good one or two RNB songs, but he can't hold a candle to MJ. Again - if you have NeYo why not have him do it....poor. The awards were nothing special, and can't say i will remember a single thing from those awards.... oh yeah...and Lil Wayne won an award - again.

Second, we go to Dogg after Dark. The new show by Snoop Dogg. Again, complete let down. Starting with something like an interview with Paris Hilton. then doing something really strange with the Speidy couple in an elevator. Afterwards moving to interviews with guys like Kurupt. Show finished with a semi interview with Pharrell and they closed the show with Drop it like its hot. The whole show was really tacky, no chemistry whatsoever, and the live performances sucked - big time. No idea why Snoop still tries to do those kind of shows, but he should stop. Right away!. not recommending this to anyone to watch

Third, new show on the Lifetime network I think? Its called Drop Dead Diva. The first episode didn't really grab me at all, so I was doing power watching. You know fast forwarding through the whole ep to see if there is going to be something that will grab my attention. Unfortunately there wasn't anything. Show lacked suspence or anything remotely interesting to make me want to tune in for the next episode.

And forth and last for now - In Plain Sight. For those of you that are not familiar with the show, which is currently in its second season, 11th ep - its about couple of US Marshalls, and their everyday job of looking after people that are put in the witness protection program. The show regularly has its ups and downs. This week was a down. Not a very entertaining ep. The story line was about a mexican/latin crime cartel, killing of the wife of one of the cartel lieutenants , and than he rats on the boss to save himself from going to prison. And of course to avenge his wife. Acting wasn't very involving and again forced me to power watch this ep. I hope next week it will be better.

So thats all for now TV fans. Will report tomorrow on the new stuff from today. Hope its better than the previous day. Have you seen anything good over the weekend? Did you think any of those 4 shows was any good, or are you with me on this? Smell you later....

The Proposal

Just got back from the movie theater. Saw the Proposal and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't suck. At parts was too predictable but still a nice way to spend 90min.

It was actually a coin toss between this movie and seeing Ghost of Girlfriends Past. Guess I will see that one next.

So, guys and gals, seen any good comedies lately? any recommendations on what is good this summer? I am a big movie buff so open to suggestions if you have any. Now I'm gonna watch a new (for me) TV show that I got hooked up on last night. Will post something about it really soon. So I guess, I will catch you on the other side of this commercial break......

better with time?

You know how sometimes when you do stuff that you haven't done for many years you always say - nah, this is not as good as I remember it. We often do that about some food that we tried many years ago, a tv show that we have seen etc. Well sometimes there are things which are just as good as you remember them if not better.

Tonight they we showing Hero on TV. Its a movie with Dustin Hoffman, Gina Davis and Andy Garcia from 1992 . And the movie is really good. I hadn't seen it for years and was a really pleasant surprise. I guess the saying - they don' make them as good as they used to - lately is really applying to the movie business. So many movies are crap that I wonder who goes to see them - more so that they are breaking all kind of records for ticket sales and revenue.





Here is a trailer to the movie. Maybe someone else would like to see it if you haven't done so already:

Hero - Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

And to quote one for the main characters at the movie:
Bernie LaPlante: You remember when I said how I was gonna explain about life, buddy? Well the thing about life is, it gets weird. People are always talking ya about truth. Everybody always knows what the truth is, like it was toilet paper or somethin', and they got a supply in the closet. But what you learn, as you get older, is there ain't no truth. All there is is bullshit, pardon my vulgarity here. Layers of it. One layer of bullshit on top of another. And what you do in life like when you get older is, you pick the layer of bullshit that you prefer and that's your bullshit, so to speak.