I find it interesting that they included her, but I have to wonder if she's in because they couldn't reject her out of hand. Yesterday's episode showed her with someonw who acts as her eyes - guides her around and, at one point, helped her find the olive oil she'd put on the counter. They emphasized that the guide won't have anything to do with the cooking. We'll see.

And Bubba went back to his swamp (his word, not mine).

SYTYCD: Oh, yay. I was really afraid the praying mantis guy would be too queer for them. He still may be, of course, but I expected them to send him to choreo for bullshit reasons.

And did that "big Italian family" blonde girl not do EVERY SINGLE THING Mary said not to, at the start? Come on, now.

I watched the latest two master chef episodes. In the mystery basket and Risotto challenge it seemed lile the hwlper couldn't teller her anything.

I don't know how Helene could think her rice was done. I remeber from a Top Chef. Tom saying Risotto is often served wrong. So I wasnt surprised to see people had it to dry.

SYTYCD: Has Shankman been crying tonight? He looks all ... pink or something.

What exactly does "bad feet" mean? What are good dance feet? Doesn't it depend on the style?

Yeah, Shankman's eyes look teary.

What exactly does "bad feet" mean? What are good dance feet? Doesn't it depend on the style?

They don't point enough? I am making this up.

Oh, listening harder to Shankman's voice, I think he has a cold.

Yeah, I think he's probably sick.

They don't point enough? I am making this up.

Heh. I love you.

Help me, I am confused by "reality" tv, but I want recaps of America's Got Talent because of the adorable opera-singing gothboy. Where should I look for good recaps?

try these:

[link]

[link]

SYTYCD

I figured Salt Lake would be good for bringing out the ballroom kids. Sadly, none of them were really spectacular. In order of fabulosity:

Whitney Carson (6.5 on the fabulosity scale) - She is an adorable cutie and she has presence and personality. I think that her dancing is not quite up to her persona. She was good but not great. And Nigel needs to leave that crack alone if he thinks she is anywhere near Anya's league. Her partner, though, was a little slice of heaven. I hope to see him back 2 years from now when he hits 18. Still, a solid little dancer and as Nigel noted, lovely feet.

Johnny Ahn and Whitney Helum(?) (5 on the fabulosity scale) - They are terrible partners. Let's just get that out of the way up front. They had actual anti-chemistry. I think they both could do much better with a different partner. His technique was much better than hers, but as Mary pointed out, he did not pay attention to his partner at all and the male part in ballroom is really all about framing the woman well. If he can't learn to do that, he'll never be a really good ballroom dancer. She was kind of underwhelming to me. She might do better with a stronger partner, but she's not a star. I wouldn't have put either of them through to choreo and I was extremely unsurprised that neither of them made it to Vegas.

Lindsey Arnold (3 on the fabulosity scale) - She is not a ballroom dancer. She's a contempo kid that has trained ballroom and decided to audition with it because she thought it would make her stand out from the other dancers. And it worked, so brava, Lindsey. Old School SYTYCD heads think James' "I just felt like doing a little paso" dance for your life solo way back in season 1. It's not unusual for studio kids to train a little bit in everything, but her latin ballroom was seriously, seriously lacking. The costuming and the attitude did 90% of the work.

I also thought Salt Lake would just bring us better dancers in general, but I found it to be really lacking. When you have that much time to waste on the weirdo story (alien girl) or the feel good story (Big Poppa Peacemakers) then that must mean that you just didn't have that many quality dancers, right? Anyway, the best of the rest in order of fabulosity:

Adrian Lee (8 on the scale of fabulosity) - I remember this kid from S7. I thought then that the only reason he didn't make the show is that he's kind of goofy looking and I still think that's true. He needs to do something with the hair ASAP. That would help tremendously. Kenickie hair will not get it done. That said, he's a lovely dancer. I agree with the judges that the choreography on display was jank, but that's not Kenickie's fault. He is a strong dancer. I'm sure he can pick up choreo quickly. He's tall and well built, so I'm guessing he'll be a more than adequate partner. Seems like hip hop will be a stretch for him, but overall a solid contempo boy.

Derion Kijawa (?) (7.5 on the fabulosity scale) - In addition to the feet (which were bad y'all), I was wanting a little bit more openness in the upper body - really stretch out from the center of chest and open through the back and shoulder blades. If he can do that, he'll have a little something something because his musicality was joyous and his movements were nice and grounded, precise . . . really lovely technique. Hawaii does deliver on teh boy dancers.

Dee Thomasetta (7 on the fabulosity scale) - Underneath the hair flinging (and lordy was there a LOT of hair flinging)lies the bones of a really lovely dancer. Again, good musicality in this one, and clearly she has great technique. Good extension. Great turn out. Decent center (some nice control on a couple of those turns). She has some rough edges to smooth, but I overall quite enjoyed her.

Mariah (Also 7 on the fabulosity scale) - So this was another gimmick audition in that I highly doubt that this little girl's principal training has been in krumping. This was a way for her to stand out to (continued...)