majormama

Didn't Maks ream someone out as a guest judge for a Viennese Waltz that wasn't really a VW because it didn't have proper hold? And then he does a VW without proper hold? Just went back and watched, it was Kim and Keo during Switch Up Week last season. They did a modified hold due to their height difference.

Ah, maybe they were trying to emphasize that they had made up and were Friends again, and I wasn't buying it. It's been too long ago, I don't remember.

Jake strikes me as the absolute worst type of child star: the one who both grew up too quickly and not at all. I totally thought he was 15, and not just because he looks young, and was surprised when he said he was the same age as Jenna. Which, yes, 22 is still pretty young but not 15. He came off as having an arrogant and entitled attitude. It also made me uncomfortable that he kissed Jenna on the lips and then tried to play it off as an accident, and kissing her hand and talking about their chemistry. That just has rape culture and entitled frat boy all over it.

Brandy and Maks danced a quickstep to the Friends theme in season 11 week 5. IIRC, that was the week Maks appeared as the most asshole-ish to her, though I could be wrong. I just remember the irony that he made her cry rehearsing a dance/song about friendship.

Speaking as a former home school student and current home school teacher, there's no reason the school year has to be September to May. She can do December to July just as easily. Flexibility is exactly why families in Laurie's situation home school so often.

Brent was 10th out of the 15 to qualify from his city (Oklahoma City). No, he didn't finish, but almost no one finished. Like three people total. Okay, I'm exaggerating, it was 11. One city had no finishers (Philly), and another had just one (LA). OK had two. A few of the qualifiers from OK failed on the Salmon Ladder, barely past the Warped Wall. Brent making it to Bungee Road was certainly far enough fast enough. Man, looking all that up makes me realize what a weird season this has been. Either the courses have gotten way harder, the people aren't as well trained as they appear, or a lot of people got really unlucky.

Well, my three daughters know what they want to be for Halloween: Jessie Graff in red, Jessie Graff in blue, and Jessie Graff in green. And my son wants to be Kevin Bull, or possibly Captain NBC (dyeing his hair green vs shaving it off).

I'm not a fan of having politicians on the show (rumors of Rick Perry, ugh). But if we had to have a politician, you know who I'd want to see? Aaron Schock, the young Congressman from IL who posed open-shirt for Men's Fitness, then resigned in disgrace after a spending scandal. He's been out of the spotlight long enough, it would be a jump-start for a redemption tour if he wants to get back into politics.

Just as long as it's not Michael Phelps. I've been over him since Beijing, when a woman (I think Rebecca Soni, but could have been Natalie Coughlin) won gold and the ONLY question the reporter asked her was what she thought of Michael Phelps. Seriously, *she* just won a medal, let's talk about *her*! I know it's completely unfair of me, since he doesn't dictate what reporters say, but still. I dreaded London becoming the Phelps show, and was disappointed he changed his mind about Rio. I'm objectively happy for his success, and subjectively glad he's finally (I hope) off my TV.

They were wiping down the quintuple steps between runs, too, at the qualifier. Lots of people who didn't make the TV cut slipped right off the first step or two in the constant drizzle.

I was at the Indy qualifying round. The Rolling Log looks bad on TV; it was worse in person. It's not just the dizziness. They get slammed into the mat at the end and the breath knocked out of them. If you watch the clock, you'll see they often edit out anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes between when they hit the mat and move on to the next obstacle, because it takes so long to recover.

Len Goodman is leaving Strictly after the next series. No word on if he's also leaving DWTS.

Is that why? Yeah, totally didn't pick up on that.

I hate contemporary, even well done, professional contemporary (I can appreciate it was well done, still don't enjoy it), so I was really disappointed that all three couples did one. My vote and hopes for a winner are based on the season as a whole, not from anything that wowed me last night, because not much did. I expect Nyle to win, but I voted for Paige. Either one would be acceptable to me. I find Ginger a technically good, beautiful, but boring dancer. Last week, I completely forgot she had even done a quickstep and could remember nothing of it when it came up in the recap and discussions. Nyle and Paige have both been much more memorable throughout the season. Donald Driver always gets thrown out there as an undeserving winner. He wasn't the most technically proficient of his season, but he wasn't terrible either (terrible being relative and subjective, of course), and he performed the heck out of every dance. Dance is more than technique; performance and connection with partner and audience count for a lot. His country freestyle is one of the few dances I continue to go back and watch. And I was born and raised in Bear country, so it's not because I'm some crazy Packer fan. I view Nyle the same way. Not perfect, not terrible, but connecting with the audience and Peta in an interesting and captivating way. Yeah, son of a bitch and Fireball (baby, get your booty naked, take off all your clothes) in the first 20 minutes of a 7:00c show with my kids watching. Yay!

Bruno in his tighty whiteys! Cannot look away, cannot unsee. Don't even know what else went on in that scene.

Poor Wanya. I always get nervous when there are props on the floor. It looked like the bandana didn't get in the right place, so when Lindsay reached down to pick it up and toss it, she couldn't reach it. A split second choice between looking awkward to reach it or risk slipping, and it didn't turn out well. But as others have said, there were problems even before that. I think Wanya, at least in this dance, has the opposite problem of what I saw in Von--Von was a tall man taking too small steps, Wanya is a short man taking too big steps. Antonio bugs me, and has from day one. I laughed when Erin mocked his smile. It seems so fake and pasted on, and he never lets it slip during the judging and interviews. It doesn't always reach his eyes, though, which is what creeps me out. He's always "on", though in a different way from how others are "on". He does have raw talent. Too bad he didn't take it seriously earlier. I hated the lighting in Ginger's dance. On re-watch, I only looked at her legs, and she was very good. But due to the weird lighting, it's almost impossible to see both her legs and her face/upper body at the same time. You have to focus on one or the other, which makes for a disjointed dance. I loved Jodie's jive. I don't think I've seen a rolling-in-the-aisles church themed dance before, and it was fun. I wish she could have stayed another round. Nyle's dance did seem very frantic at the beginning (a common complaint on Peta's choreo). And I didn't think the men were as in sync in the silent portion as they should have been. I still enjoyed it, and I still think he'll make the finals, but it didn't quite live up to the hype. As soon as I saw Paige's chalk-white make up, I knew we were in for Mark's biannual leap into over the top theme. His dances can be fabulous or terrible, but they're always interesting. I loved it. It wasn't a smooth, flowy traditional VW, but as a performance it was awesome. Now for the judges dances. I liked Bruno's the best. Interesting concept well performed. I like how he chooses classical music. Len's was the most fun. Loved the Easter Island Len head and Wanya's fake abs. Maybe it was just the way it was edited, but he didn't seem quite as involved in the total production as the other two. The only thing I saw him do was ask to be included in the dance itself, and *Lindsay* said they'd added the wiggly finger move for his part they thought he'd enjoy. I got what Carrie Ann was going for with the power and athleticism. It didn't quite seem to come together for me somehow, but I can't put my finger on what was off.

I wasn't surprised to see Kim go, though I liked her and wouldn't have minded her staying longer. So far, my initial predictions after the first episode have held pretty true until Von. I initially thought he'd place higher, but he hasn't seemed to improve much from the first week. For such a big guy, he danced small and couldn't seem to extend his movements very far. I think Witney got lucky in being paired with Alfonso, who likely would have won with any pro, and I haven't been very impressed with her choreo for anyone else. Plus, while Von initially seemed cute and adorkable, his personality didn't really show much these last few weeks. I remember more about Witney whining in their packages than anything Von said or did. I had higher expectations for the women's group dance. I liked the men's better, but I'm not sure if the women were really so much worse or just worse than I had expected. I need to watch it again. I would like to see Antonio go next, but now that he's the last footballer left he'll probably stay another round or two. Ginger would be my second choice, but she's the ABC darling. It's probably time for a "shocking" elimination of either Jodie (wasted potential with Keo's choreo/teaching) or Paige (smaller inherent fanbase). I still expect Nyle and Wanya to make the finals, and predict Nyle for the win. As for paddle-gate, the two nines looked like the same handwriting to me with the underlines, so it may well be that Len is writing down Bruno's misheard score. In which case, Bruno needs to double check!

I think Doug should be the next to go, but I'm not convinced he will be. He has the least amount of natural talent, and the NFL vote is split three ways this year. BUT the NFL voters tend to support the retired heroes more than the active players, possibly due to fear of injury ruining someone's season. It wouldn't surprise me if he's pulling the most votes among the three. He had the same score as Kim and higher score than Antonio this week, though they both had much higher scores last week. I'm afraid for Kim. I think she's a decent middle-pack dancer and I love her partnership with Sasha, but that won't keep her here long. And her dance with Keo this week will hurt her.

Forgot to mention, I did not like Jodie's dress. The top was not flattering.

As Doug was talking about his memory problems, I had two thoughts: 1) Peta probably is a good fit for him after working with Tommy Chong, and 2) NFL concussion scandal. I hope Paige saw Mark lift Ginger and realizes he's capable. Why is Antonio on the show if he's so busy? Complaining about having to rehearse while raising kids and doing his day job. Two words: Ginger Zee. Love her or hate her, she is putting in the work along with an other-coast job and breast feeding an infant. So shut it. Sharna should fine him for lateness like Witney does with Von. Von still needs to dance bigger. Nyle was beautiful. Still my pick to win. Jodie was so much better. Yes, it should be clear by now that Keo is the problem. Wish he had gotten Mischa and Jodie had been with Artem or Val.

:28-:31 is another part of Jodie's dance where Keo kind of grabs her and twists her into position, which may have been choreographed or may have been a mistake, but either way looked awkward to me. The section I mentioned above, you can see Jodie say, "Oh!" and then get right back into smiling, but her steps are still off for a few seconds.

If you watch on the video in the recap, :43-:49 is the part that looked awkward to me, like she might have turned in the wrong direction or forgotten something and then had to rush to catch back up to where she should be. There may have been other mistakes the judges saw in those ridiculously wide shots where the home audience can barely see the dancing.

I loved seeing Val on the violin during the opener. Antonio showed improvement, a little more refined and good swagger, but he just isn't quite clicking for me. He's coming off to me as arrogant, too good for the show. Someone above said he doesn't practice as much as others? Maybe that's the issue. He has potential, but isn't quite tapping into it. Marla was very graceful, sweet, nice, and forgettable as usual. Side note: Tiffany looks like she could be sisters with Hillary and Haley Duff. Nyle: SO FUN! His timing did seem to suffer a tiny bit when out of hold and turned away from Peta, but still better than many hearing contestants. Plus they did a samba roll, which I always look for. Doug's temper tantrum did not look good on TV. It doesn't surprise me that a football star would have more fan support than Trump's ex, but hopefully with the football vote being split three ways he'll go soon. I love watching Kim and Sasha together. They look like they're having a blast! Fun dance, maybe needed a little more bounce, but good for such a high energy dance. I did notice Jodie's mistakes, but I think the bigger problem, at least for the home viewing audience, was that so much of the dance was shown in a super-wide shot to include the animation. They were so small on the screen, I could barely see what they were doing. Even when they dropped the animation, much of it was still a wide shot with very few close ups. I threw her several votes. She has such potential, and I definitely want to see how she does in the switch up. Von showed improvement as well. I think he does better in the more elegant ballroom styles. Witney couldn't throw in her usual hip hop. Ginger: I don't have a lot to say. As a whole performance, it was nice. As a dance featuring Ginger and Val, not sure it was worth the praise. Wanya was very entertaining. It was very fierce and fitting to the Lion King. Another samba roll! I really liked the music arrangement. I liked Paige's dance as well. I want to see more of her, Jodie, Kim, Nyle, and Wanya. This cast (those left anyway) doesn't have any horrible stinkers. I don't have any I'm rooting against, though I do think Doug should be next. Any of the others could go or stay in any order and I'd be about as happy.

I love Disney week. It's a little less special since they've turned every week into major productions, but it's still one of my favorite themes. As a former contestant, Zendaya is no less qualified than Donny Osmond or Alfonso Rebeiro, and more so than Redfoo (who judged before his one-and-done season) or Robin Roberts. And she's certainly less offensive than the Dance Moms lady. The real question is why do we need guest judges at all, but if we have to have one I have no objection to Zendaya.

I love Len, but I wish he'd stop overreacting to the booing every. single. time. The first boo was so half-hearted, and he stopped and waited until they booed more. "If you're going to boo, do it properly!" It just cuts into the flow of the already-too-much judging, and it's starting to seem like an attention hog from the one judge that's "supposed" to be above all that. I don't remember him doing that more than once or twice per show before.