TV Review: So You Think You Can Dance – Top 8

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The night was kicked started by an out of this world group number choreographed by second season Alum, Travis Wall.

Janette & Evan – Jazz
For the first half of the dance I was simply stunned by Janette’s cat-like grace. Then I realized that everything I was in awe of was really prompted by Evan – his partnering skills were spot on.

Kayla – Solo
Kayla has a queenly grace that is beautiful to watch.

Jeanine & Brandon – Waltz
This left my feeling oddly lacking. There was enough power, enough connection, enough… something.

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So You Think You Can Dance – Top 12

This week the fluff is gone to be replaced with a LOT of hard work. Each couple danced twice and danced to win, because only the top 10 couples go on to dance on the tour.

Melissa & Ade – Disco
This was just exceptional. Fun, fast, flirty, everything the disco is about.

Kayla & Kupono – Contemporary
This numbers gave me chills and left me speechless. The intensity coming off of these two dancers was just mind blowing.

Caitlin & Jason – Foxtrot
This dance just oozed sophistication and class, the basic rise and fall was beautiful and the lifts were lovely.

Jeanine & Philip – Russian Folk
I was disappointed by this number. Folk dancing is a very simple style of dance, but even so there really wasn’t a lot of content to this dance.

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Free Music: The Great Luke Ski Pens a Tribute to The Wisconsin Dells

wisconsin_dells_9862The Dells, that area of Wisconsin known as the “Waterpark Capital of The World”, now has its own novelty song. On July 7th the artist known as The Great Luke Ski released We’re Goin’ To The Dells (The Wisconsin Dells). The song serves as both a tribute to and promotion for The Dells.

Luke “the great Luke Ski” Sienkowski is a dementia artist- a musician who writes funny songs- who has become one of the most popular artists on the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento Show . He writes pop and rap songs about various pop culture and nerdy topics such as Star Trek, Babylon 5, and Family Guy. Recently he turned his songwriting muse to a place where he spent a lot of time growing up.

“I’ve been in love with the place since childhood,” says Luke “and this song is my love letter to it.”

Luke also hopes the song will help promote The Dells which were hurt last year by flooding. The floods caused Lake Delton to breach its shoreline which emptied the Wisconsin River in just four hours. Many homes were literally washed away and local businesses that relied on the lake couldn’t operate because the lake had mostly emptied.

The song pays tribute to the entire area, often mentioning some of the more popular attractions by name even though Luke is not formally associated with any of them.

At Big Sky Drive-In your ceiling is starry.
Pirate’s Cove Mini Golf, where the staff is all “ARR!-y.”
I used visit reptiles at Serpent Safari,
Now I’m a Flowrider at the Kalahari.

We’re Goin’ To The Dells (The Wisconsin Dells) by The Great Luke Ski is currently available as a free download from The Funny Music Project at www.TheFuMP.com.

So You Think You Can Dance – Top 14

This weeks fluff was a recap of the Highs and Lows of the last month. Janette told us about how much she loved her rocker girl costume, Kayla and Kupono talked about the challenge of getting a new partner, Evan mentioned how much he liked working with all the different choreographers, Caitlin shared how much pressure there is being in the bottom three two weeks in a row, Philip explained that he knew the moment his paint ripped, Melissa talked about how much she loved the first live show and Karla teared up over losing her partner last week.

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So You Think You Can Dance Partners with the Dizzy Feet Foundation

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Nigel Lythgoe announced today that he is teaming up with director Adam Shankman, “Dancing with the Stars” judge Carrie Ann Inaba and actress Katie Holmes to launch the Dizzy Feet Foundation, a foundation for the dance community that will provide scholarships and assistance to talented underserved youth to help them realize their dreams of becoming professional dancers and will also help elevate and standardize dance instruction nationwide.

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Episode Review: Star Trek:TOS – 1×02 – Charlie X

Captain’s Log, star date 1533.6. Now maneuvering to come alongside cargo vessel Antares. Its Captain and First officer are beaming over to us with an unusual passenger.

So much is made of Cap. Picard’s dislike of children, but in this episode we get to see that Kirk’s seems to have the same opinion; in the first scene Kirk’s tells the kid he’s being rude, then after that he tries to avoid the boy as much as possible.

Unfortunately, Charlie’s got a crush on Yeoman Rand, and some freaky mind power, which means Kirk gets sucked into playing Dad.

Things That Stood Out:
Uhura’s song about how seductive Spock is, and Spock’s sly little grin while she’s singing.
Kirk’s red workout tights.

So You Think You Can Dance – Top 16

This episodes fluff bit was “If you weren’t a dancer…”. We had dreams of being a jewelry maker, pilates instructor, set and lighting designer, banker, model, costume designer, teacher, newscaster, soccer star, inventor and actress.

Karla & Jonathan – Hip Hop
This was a rather bland program. True, there were some cool partnered moves, but over all there was nothing to pull me in.

Asuka & Vitolio – Jazz
Mandy Moore created an amazing routine, but it was lacking the almost frantic energy needed to match the song.

Melissa & Ade – Rumba
What a stunning dance! The emotional connection was just smoldering, the technique was wonderful and Malissa’s costume was beautiful.

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Episode Review: Star Trek:TOS – 1×01 – “The Man Trap”

Captain’s log, Stardate 1513.1. Our position, orbiting planet M-113. On board the Enterprise, Mister Spock temporarily in command. On the planet the ruins of an ancient and long-dead civilization. Ship’s surgeon McCoy and myself are now beaming down to the planet’s surface. Our mission, routine medical examination of archaeologist Robert Crater and his wife Nancy. Routine but for the fact that Nancy Crater is that one woman in Doctor McCoy’s past.

The episode really does pack a punch – lost loves, alien life forms and an ethical struggle.  The alien costume seemed kind of corny now, but the effects, like Nancey’s transformations, still hold up.

Things That Stood Out:
Uhura’s silver nail polish and Jance’s woven hair-do. They’re both just too cool.

“He’s Dead” count: 2

Episode Review – Star Trek:TOS – The Cage (Unaired Pilot)

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The copy I found aired after the first movie came out. It had an introduction by The Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, in which Gene talked about the process that brought about the pilot, the reasons way it was rejected and how parts of it managed to make into the show.

The special effects really got my attention. While today we can have a computer make a life-like rendering of a ship moving through space, back then a lot of thought went into how to do things – the credit shot with the backdrop, moving stars, scale modal combo is effective in conveying motion.

Also, I need to mention the fact that Jeffery Hunter was hot!

Moments That Really Stood Out:
1. The character of Spock – in this episode he isn’t the Vulcan we know, but just some alien who is fine smiling when he comes upon a humming plant.
2. The line said by Vina – “They rebuilt me, everything works, but they had never seen a human. they had no guide for putting me back together.” This stood out because of it similarity too a line from the Doctor Who episode Empty Child/Doctor Dances.