simplyme

Gotcha. I went back and reread the OP. I see now that they were responding to an earlier post about how awesome Mark's choreography was, particularly that triple cartwheel, by pointing out that he wasn't the first to do it in dance. They specifically mentioned that they didn't know if Benji Schwimmer had invented it. By the time I read through more posts about Schwimmers and cartwheels, I'd forgotten what the OP said and got a bit sarcastic. Oops. That was my definitely my bad, and thank you for catching it and correcting my mistake. Cheers! :)

Amen. Had Maria been at all capable of sounding like a team player when she tried to point this out (or had she ever said anything that didn't come across as witchy, whining, selfserving, or bragging), it might have been better received. As it was, we never saw her actually articulate this very well, and at this point I think even if she had most of her team would still have been thinking, "STFU, Maria." Heck, I'm glad she's gone and I only had to watch her a few minutes every week, not work with her.

I hope The Machine watched that episode from home. It was nice to see Ivette kick ass on the obstacle course he labored through. I would have been surprised if he could have lasted as long as any of the women on the posts. That setup generally favors small feet, less weight and height, and a background in yoga. Ivette's long legs looked awkward, but she endured. Part of me wondered if wrapping her legs around the post and using her leg muscles to hold on might have been easier. I agreed with Maria (and Mario) that Jim's idea of psychological warfare against Team Noah was a bad plan. Focus on building team unity and stop worrying about them. Now if you choose to build team unity by working together with your own team to prank Team Noah, I could see that. But anything else will probably backfire. I just don't know if Maria disagreed because she thought it was really a bad idea or if she just constantly nitpicks everyone. If she honestly disagreed, she did a poor job expressing that. I was impressed with Team Noah and Team Tee again. Team Nick is a mess, and as far as I'm concerned they can all go home except for KJoy. Team Rorke doesn't seem to be gelling either, but I can't say I've been shown enough of any of them to find them annoying or great. It's not a good sign when your teammates and mentor are happy to see you go. But hey, at least Maria will get back to those kids she loves soooo much.

The good: Adam is now gone forever (I will hate them forever if this is not true), Brittany is back minus Ky the albatross, Jasmine and Wes legitimately won a challenge on their own, the tower is a nailbiter, and the orange team is pretty classy all around The bad: Todd is back, and he speaks mostly in cliches and very long-winded "mottos." *eyeroll* The obvious focus on the hitherto practically invisible orange team foreshadows the ending. Sarah wears garish fuchsia lipstick with her red outfit. Gabrielle Reece still has no personality. Other comments: Brittany is a tough cookie. I'm so glad she's back. How the heck she fell, got back up, and then they racked up a difference of something like 6 points over the purple team in the final 40 seconds of that challenge is beyond me. If we're down to one challenge only, I'm a bit worried what crap is going to be filling the rest of the episode time.

I don't think TPTB would be featuring Mark so heavily if her story ended with "and then we ate her." I'm pretty sure by this time in filming they'd figured out that chicken was a damn star and to make sure she got a happy ending they could show in the reunion show, because fewer things tick people off like coming to care about an animal only to have it die needlessly. Good ending for Mark? Great publicity. Bad ending for Mark? Serious risk of public stonings and pitchforks and torches. Do I know any of this? No. But they'd have to be idiots not to ride the chicken-powered positive PR train.

Maria certainly has come across as very grating. I wouldn't mind her leaving. I've found I'm now trying not to watch the "next week on" parts that they run at the end of each episode because I think they spoil too much for me. If you look closely, you can usually tell which team will win the challenge, and sometimes who is going into the Circus. In one case they even spoiled the person going home. There's a line between building up tension and showing too much and they apparently don't know what it is. I know a few of us watch both Strong and American Grit. If you have time sometime later to sneak in Strong as DVR or Internet viewing, I think it's an amusing comparison to this show. Other people would recommend it for other reasons, I'm sure. If nothing else, Strong's less-than-subtle product placements should make you laugh. I blame Kendall for the Subway one. ;)

I just want to thank you all, because I usually unabashedly skip the results show and come here to find out what happened. So thank you to our lovely recapper and you diehard fans willing to suffer through all the schmaltz and filler to give your weaker-stomached brethren the scoop. Hells no was I going to watch a results show with a Jonas brother on it.

I don't think TPTB are all powerful. Kellie Pickler has a charming, genuine personality that resonated with many viewers. She was a hard worker and Derek turned her into a beautiful dancer. Viewers liked her back story. They didn't consider her cheerleading background to be previous dancing experience. (I disagree based on what I've seen of cheerleading routines for the past 25 years. Many involve a lot of dance and are at least as applicable as a background in hiphop.) Zendaya had the double curse of being a teenage contestant, which many viewers dislike and simply will not vote for, and also having a background in dance (primarily hiphop). Trust me, I had to hear about both those horrible Sins of Zendaya from multiple people during that season. Many viewers simply overlooked any of her accomplishments on the show because "Of course she can dance. She's 16 and she's danced before."

I can't believe it's taken this long for Len to go deaf on that side given Bruno's extremely hyper style.

I remember two kids doing a triple cartwheel in my brother's elementary school talent show in the early 80s. They should totally be credited! ;) (For those of us that remember the 80s, before children were banned from moving in any way in school for fear they might get injured and the school would get sued...)

I think their point was that people don't realize how many problems and last minute changes there are, not just in choreography but in music and even costume. It can be difficult to overwhelming at times for the usual celebrity. Adding in Nyle's deafness makes communicating those changes in a timely fashion so that things don't get horribly flubbed up even harder. That was my takeaway, at least. I don't think it was whining so much as a statement of fact, and something some people don't think about.

Yes, it was. When they announced that Val and Ginger would be dancing to an iconic Whitney Houston song, I groaned. When they added "from The Bodyguard," SimplyMom said, "If it's "I Will Always Love You" we're turning it off. I'm sick of that song and especially don't want to hear their generic house singer slaughter it." Since it wasn't, we simply grimaced through it.

Argh. I'm stuck in this double box. Anyways. Paige was fantastic, and many of my friends had a stupid number of years of dance lessons as children and couldn't do what she is doing. (Also, I doubt she started dance lessons before she could walk.) Had Von dropped Witney, I figure 50/50 chance it would have made her smarter. She just phoned it in this season. And finally, THANK YOU for commenting on Kim being surprised about going home. I get being disappointed, but there is incredible competition this season.

I'm not cheering for Nyle, but I don't think his comment was anything to get worked up about. He said the other celebrities weren't any better than him, not that he was the best. Taking into consideration that he is deaf and many people in the general population may (wrongly) assume him to be less capable in many areas, that seems like a legit thing to say to me. Essentially he said he's just as good as all the non-pros. How is that offensive? The more problematic statement would be his comment about Val, but without knowing what that was in reference to and knowing how manipulated and edited things are, I'm not horribly cheesed by that either. I'm pretty sure most of us have said things that could be interpreted by the right person at the wrong time as boastful without it ever occuring to us that what we were saying would sound that way. We just didn't have cameras, producers, and a judging public to help us along. Now if he kicks a kitten or something, I'll join the pitchfork and torch brigade. But this seems like an overreaction.

I don't mind Shalyah believing in God or singing gospel songs. I did think that was a cutesy, pandering answer. If she had said God helped give her the strength and clarity to prioritize or even just to get through, or He made sure to put people in her life to help her with everything on her plate, or something that made sense I would have bought it. But her answer was essentially, "Yay, God!" Hence the snarkiness in the Simply household, as we don't really think God is giving her extra hours per day or anything. Then again, she is 16 and was thinking on her feet, so I may be being overly critical of her answer. It's not like I thought any of those questions and answers were worth the time it took to show them. Maybe it's God voting for Nick?

If we go by his social skills, much of the time it's up his *cough*.

Yeah, they don't seem to show much of Noah's team. I don't even remember the lumberjack's name. I just know he seems very competent and calm and has said a few things I found humorous. Of course if he does get featured, it could be a sign he's going home. Tony hasn't performed horribly well, but he hasn't done that poorly either. (They ALL had big clown feet. They were big guys! KJoy the yogi would have clobbered them in that challenge.) Whether or not you can swim is often determined by your childhood circumstances. I hope he does learn after this. I like how he handled The Machine when The Machine got rude to Ivette about her father's death. That was exactly the way to play it so it got dropped.

I was pretty sure who was going this third week from the edit. As someone said above, don't talk trash. It seems like if you get shown talking trash, you're going home. Tony has grown on me from the first episode. If I ever get stuck out in the woods doing military exercise-like things, I want a lumberjack of my own. (Apparently he's originally from a little over an hour away from me, which was interesting. It gave me someone to cheer for.)

I was happy for Jasmine that she was saved from the tower, but I kind of saw that coming since purple really wanted a blue versus white match up. Good thing Mat was smart enough to think of how to throw it or Nicole would have knocked Jasmine out in the third round to save her more pain. Part of me wonders if Adam and Dan were told to be the unlikeable trainers so we'd have villains to root against. I kind of cared a little bit more about CC (white team) than Jill (blue team), but Adam vs Bennie completely negated that. Go, blue team. Now hopefully Adam won't manage to worm his way back on. Oh, hey. Orange team exists. Was that Subway product placement super awkward or what? I started laughing out loud and SimplyMom asked, "Is this a joke?"

Mark is either a very photogenic chicken or that was some great camera work for his intro shots. He or she definitely belonged on the Beauty tribe. His (her?) eyes looked gorgeous. Yeah, I can't believe I just said that about a chicken either. I'll be interested to see who F3 ends up being. I'd be shocked if it were three females because anyone who doesn't take Joe is a moron. Jason might not have been completely wrong about Cydney being bottom 2 in that alliance. Power- and influence-wise, she's number one or two currently, but that may not translate to "I want to go up against you in the finals." (See Yau Man as an example of what I mean.) Same with Aubry. I'd certainly take Joe and either Tai or Jason, but then again I'm not playing and don't know wtf is going on behind the scenes. From Aubry's point of view, Cydney might actually get fewer votes than Tai or Jason (one or the other of whom could presumably get votes from Scot, Julia, or Debbie) and Jason and Tai on the jury may be more willing to vote for Aubry than for Cydney. In no case would I take Michelle if I could avoid it. Or Aubry if I were someone else.

On technique or performance, it's difficult for me to argue for Owen over Daniel. Owen forgot words and hit a bad note and he knew it. Daniel has a clear, trained voice. That said, Owen actually feels every song he sings, and I feel like I can hear that in his voice. For once in my life I actually get what Adam is going on about and agree with him. (Yes, I'll see a therapist soon.) I've loved Owen's voice even with all his flaws from the beginning with the exception of that god awful 7 Years song. Ah, well. I'll just have to try to follow him online. I just can't figure out how Dad Jeans Josh went so far (darned if I remember his last name) when everything he sang sounded like an inferior cover to me (omg, Fields of Gold gave me an eye tic) but Owen goes home so early. Owen: Get a hot wife and cute kid, maybe? Peppermonkey, totally agree with your entire post. The new forums are driving me nuts, but I'm sure we'll adapt. You guys are worth it. I need to whine to someone about Nick! SimplyMom is too nauseated by him to risk the topic anymore. I made the mistake of saying, "Live and Let Die? I love this song!" before the, um, performance. That'll learn me.

I don't mind Paxton performing one gospel song. I like seeing contestants do a range of styles, and given his background this was a natural one for him. Now if he were to suddenly switch to doing gospel every week, that would be a blatant vote grab. Made me laugh out loud. Completely agree.

I struggled with the right word choice to describe the Voice results show last night. Was it more painful or more disheartening? Finally I decided to go with painfully disheartening. The song T-shirt is a great example of the overly repetitive crap too much of country (and other genres, to be fair) is churning out. If you can't be bothered to write at least two full verses, singing the chorus over and over doesn't actually hide that fact. The band was too loud (as usual, or maybe it's my tv) but that may have been a plus on the group numbers. My first thought when watching "Live and Let Die" was Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies. I think that means they were trying too hard. Pharrell is still pimping the Cactus Plant Flea Market streetwear brand with his hats. And to top it off, I get Love Boat Daniel for another week at least. One positive: I'm pretty sure we won't have to hear "Jealous" again until next season. Got that over with. Random snark tossed out from the Simply Household during The Voice this week: SimplyMom: "If they save Nick again, I'm going to barf." Carson: "Nick!" SimplyMe: "Don't barf! Don't barf!! Let me get the trash can first!" Shalyah: "If God is in your life, you can do anything." SimplyMe: "God does my homework for me." SimplyMom: "I don't have to go to school cuz he gets all the answers right!"

I fully expect it is the "crap twist," although I wouldn't be surprised if one of the rules for HII passing to create the Stuper Idol is that the recipient must already be in possession of an HII. If you have to waste two idols AND guess correctly who needs to be holding both idols before the vote (or TC or whenever, but primarily pre-vote), then most of the time you will be able to dodge more with the two individual HIIs. Most of the time it would be stupid to trade two shots at immunity for one. If it requires someone to give up their HII to keep someone else in the game... well, historically relying on someone to do that for you gets you sent home. So IMO while there may be certain limited situations where the SI would be more useful, most of the time using the HIIs singularly probably ends up being more powerful. I guess how you view the power of the SI is subjective. My gut reaction the first time I heard about it was, "Like hell would I give up my immunity to someone else or waste two possible immunities to get one." But for fishcakes and others, the foreknowledge and not losing the HIIs on a guess make it much more powerful. TPTB are probably hoping for players somewhere in the middle. :)

I think you misread that. :) The post was referencing former Voice contestant Christina Grimmie rather than judge Xtina (who has done lots of stuff live). Apologies if I misinterpreted your post, wings, and you already knew that. I've certainly done that before!