Prosaic Paradise

Campaign for the Mundane

Successes & Failures (and SYTYCD behind the cut!)

Filed under School,TV by at 8:22 am on Jul 10 2009

I seem to be getting both in equal measure, but that still means I’m having success.

This week I signed myself up for a photography workshop led by Me Ra Koh. I knew as soon as I saw the announcement on her web site that she was coming to DC, that I was going to make it work. I immediately became anxious about it but! That is tempered by total excitement and knowing that it will be fun and is the right thing to do for myself right now. Plus the name of the workshop is “confidence” so, that is probably a good sign.

So I haven’t written much about school. This summer semester is going so fast and sucking up such a portion of my brain that I don’t have much left to blog. The thing right now is that I have a really good grade. So, you know, that’s good. Unfortunately, I still get such bad test anxiety that I think I might need a prescription. Not so good. What makes a lady have crippling test anxiety when she consistently knocks out the test like it’s a punching bag filled with air? When I find out I’ll let you know.

Oh and people were speculating about microbiology being the most squicky and frightening of the classes I have had to take so far. I will say, the swine flu had already upped my hand-washing quotient, and other than that, I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything more than I already knew that was squicky about microscopic organisms.

I got my wait list letter for the nights/weekends non-accelerated nursing school at HCC. My number is 25. I am not disappointed in being wait listed, since that was a foregone conclusion being out of county. I just wanted to be on the list for next year. It’s good to have the insurance, and the timing is important – if I applied next year and got wait listed I’d have to wait even longer.

Lately my fashion sense has been a bunch of “meh” with a side of “whatever” and “screw it”. I’m busy, so that’s fine. Then I find out that Tim Gunn is supposed to be at BlogHer. I had a second of panic, but then I reminded myself and my BlogHer cohorts that I want to be comfortable and myself. I am not a little black dress kind of girl. My primary fashion concern can continue to be “will my fashion sneakers be comfortable enough or do I need to invest in more Dr. Scholls” and I will continue to dress like a 30-something curvy woman trying to be a skater kid.

I’ll put my weekly SYTYCD thoughts behind this-here cut tag.

For the record, I have decided that my favorite choreography on this show is the disco choreography. That was amazing. That was the best routine of this week, and yes, that includes Mia Michaels’. The addiction routine was thrilling and I do kind of watch this show to be punched in my figurative gut, but the athleticism and sheer fun of the disco wins for me.

I was not at all surprised to see Kayla and Kupono get their pass to the top ten – as soon as I saw Kupono crying, I said, “man crying = votes”. Not to trivialize his feelings, but for the purposes of the show mechanics, that’s the end of the story right there. And that’s why the second best couple on the show wound up in the bottom three.

This is what I wrote Wednesday night: I was sooooo grateful to have even 5 seconds of Pasha
tonight I’m going to kiss my pillow and pretend it’s him.

Also I have been working on my Mary Murphy impression, and practicing it on Jack:

YOU ARE GOING TO EAT THAT SLICE OF PIZZA!
OH YES YOU ARE!!!
AND IT IS HOT HOT HOT!!! I THINK I HEAR A TRAIN!

I don’t think it’s helping my case of taking up three hours every week watching a show he loathes.

I am totally failing to understand all the hating on the Russian folk dance number. I felt like I was starting to feel some xenophobia leaking out in some of Nigel’s comments on it. I feel for those choreographers who clearly wanted to demonstrate something very traditional only to have it trashed. I am angry on their behalf. As for the dancers, don’t try to tell me that wasn’t a challenge for them and that they didn’t give it every ounce of their energy and care! Hrmph.

I added the Onion AV Club recapper to my reading list this week. Boy, was that a mistake! What a hater! Taking jibes at Kupono by using the word “hysterics”? Oh, that’s nice. All I ask from someone who is trying to write snark is that they try to make it witty if it’s going to be out and out mean. Sheesh. Though I do agree with two of their words: “Shutup, Tyce.”

So in the end to me the right folks were eliminated. The “top 12 on tour” business was a good compromise since I feel like they knew that having Philip on tour was a moneymaker but they couldn’t in good conscience promote him through the competition, seeing as how his actual dancing skills need work.

10 Responses to “Successes & Failures (and SYTYCD behind the cut!)”

  1. 1 paleotheiston 10 Jul 2009 at 9:37 am

    I think the thing with the Russian routine is that it doesn’t really go over that well with the audience and they likely suffered in votes because of it. I forget which judge said it, but one of them commented that while the dance was difficult to latch onto in an entertainment sense, it was extremely well executed. Trouble is, can the audience see that given that few of us have every witnessed alot of traditional Russian dancing? I think if the producers started throwing in more traditional style dances like that, the audience would develop a better eye for what is danced well and what is not and might take that into consideration when voting.

    Or not. I don’t know. I do agree that the right people left the show this week. Both Philip and Kaitlin were great in their own styles, but weren’t really excelling at other styles to the same level as the other dancers. It’s a great group of talent this season though and I’m really enjoying it!

    [Reply]

    Kim Reply:

    I totally have this irrational thinking process that I am part of the audience so certainly there are other audience members like me out there! But then I remember that maybe not the rest of the audience is like me. It should be pretty easy to remember when so many recappers and bloggers totally disagree with me.

    I think after this week, though, they are not going to be throwing in more traditional dances. :(

    [Reply]

  2. 2 Jeanneon 10 Jul 2009 at 11:25 am

    That workshop looks amazing! Do you have first hand knowledge of her workshops?? I am very tempted!

    [Reply]

    Kim Reply:

    I know from my friend Genie that she did a presentation at BlogHer a few years back, and that it was really amazing. Past that I just know what I have learned from reading about them as they happen on her blog. You should come!! That would be awesome.

    [Reply]

    Jeanne Reply:

    Very tempted. Of course when your son says “but mommy, the weekends are our time together!” it is hard to follow through.

    [Reply]

    Kim Reply:

    Well, I can’t speak for mother-son relations, but I will say that I got a 2-queen-bed room for Saturday night just in case! (I think I probably won’t come home between the days because it will be nice to have a drink with the participants.)

  3. 3 Meganon 10 Jul 2009 at 11:51 am

    I just want someone explain the appeal of Jason to me. I start to doze the minute he walks on the stage. Any Jason fan want to clue me in?

    [Reply]

    Kim Reply:

    Being a Jason non-fan myself, I cannot explain it to you at all. Zzzzz.

    [Reply]

  4. 4 Musings from Meon 13 Jul 2009 at 8:32 am

    Hi there!

    I enjoyed meeting you at the #preblogherdc meetup. What is your twitter name? I’m @musingsfromme

    Talk to you on twitter!

    [Reply]

    Kim Reply:

    Heya! Thanks for stopping by! I’m @snidegrrl on twitter, and feel free to follow, I will do the same. It was lovely to meet you!

    [Reply]

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