I am watching the audition round, and it's interesting, but painful. And I have to watch on TiVo because I hate the painful ones.

I really enjoyed the guy who did kinda the performance piece with the spoken word about guns and drugs and stuff, but didn't really dance. I loved his performance, though it wasn't really an audition, as they said. I would love to watch him in other stuff...but I don't know how he'd do on this program, really, if they cast him.

Top Chef:

You can't make sticky rice without the sticky rice part!

This! And seriously, there is a huge difference between sticky rice rice and the rice you use to make rice pudding rice, which is what Dale said at the WF.

And that's right about rinsing the shellfish. That one's always a killer, and Richard definitely would have been hurting for that.

SYTYCD: Not watching...at a friend's house now, and going to be teeveefree all summer. Grump.

Liese, I have a DVD-burning TiVo, do you want me to save it and burn to DVD for you? You could watch late, I could batch and send every few weeks...

The other thing that intrigues me is the connection that the judges seem to make with a lot of the contestants. I guess in part because so many of the judges choreograph dances with the contestants, which is a kind of professional and personal interaction you don't necessarily get on other shows. And one reason I like this show.

And that's right about rinsing the shellfish. That one's always a killer, and Richard definitely would have been hurting for that.

Richard seems to have issues with cleaning seafood - remember the salmon?

Lesson: never be executive chef -- they ALWAYS get the boot. or, if you are exec chef, make sure your dish is TIGHT. Tre got kicked off last year over bread pudding!

And that nasty salmon thing (I just watched the season last week).

About the executive chef thing, I looked it up, and Miguel was booted off of Season 1 Restaurant Wars and Mikey was booted off of Season 2's... they weren't Exec Chef, but the Tre template definitely applied to Dale's situation.

I was bummed, though- I thought Dale was really talented.

I also wanted to see more of the beer thing, and I kept seeing wine being poured over there at the gastropub, which bugged.

I also wanted to see more of the beer thing, and I kept seeing wine being poured over there at the gastropub, which bugged.

They probably had a hard time keeping up with Padma's consumption.

SYTYCD - Wheeeeeeee!!

That was fun. So first off, love, love the guy from the Russian ballroom couple. I thought the girl was good, but he was phenomenal! I watched him the whole time. Also love the crazy good popper who made it to Vegas last year but didn't make it on the show. I'm glad that he seems to have gotten his butt to class (Hey, Cedric!). I was scared for the weird contortionist/popper from Santa Monica, but once he started dancing he tore it up. He was amazing, amazing. And his dance off with Nigel was comedy gold! Don't know how he'll do in Vegas with all the partnering and whatnot, but he was one of my faves last night.

There were a lot of awww moments last night, too. Victor Kim was dynamite and gave one of the best auditions I've ever seen on the show. And then the little snippet of him in the choreo round was, "Aww. Poor baby. But you really tried." The Asian ballroom couple was adorable, but they really weren't all that special. In particular, the guy was not knocking me out. But poor Asokuh(?) looked like a wrung out dish rag and she still managed to make it through the choreography round. Awwww. Twitch also got a big awwww. I do hope he makes it on the show this year, but I was somewhat underwhelmed by his performance.

And then there were the WTF moments. Pretty much all the contemporary/lyrical dancers last night where unimpressive. The girls were a festival of hair flinging and falling out of even simple double pirouettes. And the first girl who just stood there while the wrong music played and just decided not to say anything? Unfortunate man face, and she seems to be slow on the uptake. The rest were a blur of blonde and cute and not much actual dancing in their dance auditions. And I was also annoyed by the dude who thought his audition should be a piece of performance art. As Nigel and Mia said best, it certainly was an affecting piece but where was the dance in that dance? He seemed to be sailing through the choreography round, so I'm betting that he actually can turn it out. But he also seems like he is going to annoy me. A lot.

The most surprising thing of the night for me was how much I enjoyed Nigel (and how much he seemed to be enjoying himself) and all the rest of the judges. Nigel kept his lecherous tendencies mostly in check (or as much in check as he can). Mia and the Arrogant Italian was hi-larious. Although why they put him through to the choreography round, I'll never know (and Cat's face after his interview? Priceless!) Mary was Mary. Honestly, I've got Mary fatigue from her being a permanent judge. They need to give her a rest.

Overall, a satisfying start to the show. Although seeing all of those golden ticket montages with kids whose auditions we didn't even get to see a second of because we just had to see David (stripped of the "Sex" last night) or frikkin' Golden Inferno just one more time was frustrating. And more Travis Wall!!

see David (stripped of the "Sex" last night) or frikkin' Golden Inferno just one more time was frustrating

Yeah, I was kinda peeved about that. It made me not want to watch a lot of the auditions, so I missed out on some that sounded like they were pretty good. I did catch the Russians, though, and they were phenomenal!

Grubb Street talking Top Chef:

Ozersky: Maybe not. Look how Bourdain gave Spike a free pass this week.

Platt: Bourdain was his usual cool, louche self, but he lacked Don Colicchio's gravitas. The Don wouldn't have been afraid to send the Gorgon off to the glue factory.

Ozersky: Yes, he would have. No man can face the wrath of the Gorgon.