sleepyjean

I really think there are still some girls who think it's a waste of time to spend a year (or however long) preparing for the audition. They look at some of the girls who do that and get cut anyway, and decide it's not worth the effort. No point investing so much time, money, and energy in doing they job if they haven't actually got the job yet, right? Instead, they'll show up at auditions, just oozing POTENTIAL and Kelli, Charlotte, and Judy will recognize that talent and put them through to training camp. I think those girls figure once they get to training camp, THEN they'll really bust their butts to make the team. I also think a lot of the "fails" we see are women auditioning as a bucket-list thing. They have no intention of actually being on the team, but want to give it a shot so they can say they did. And maybe get on tv for two seconds.

Wow...the difference between those two videos. Just wow. Granted, the Eagles team is much larger, and it's hard to synchronize more bodies, but the college team is really on point.

Ever since the beginning of this show, I have rolled my eyes about how "elite" the DCC believe themselves to be, and how everyone buys into it. It's just cheerleading, for heaven's sake, and their choreography is repetitive and uninspiring. But I just saw this video of the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders and holy cow, are they messy. They are all over the place. I've never seen them before, but I spotted a number of mistakes in just the first minute. And it's not one girl constantly screwing up, it's a whole bunch of them.I don't think it's 100% the cheerleaders. The choreography is all wrong - way too many small fast moves that look like a muddle from far away. If this is the competition, I guess the DCC are onto something with their summer-long training camp and 5-night a week rehearsals. Sheesh.

I like this show a lot, although I also support the idea of graduated clues. I think the clues are too lengthy sometimes with going though too many convoluted steps to get to the code. (see the alabama license plates, turn up the thermostat, see the black light, get the poster, read the message, kick the drum, read the message, follow the instructions, and on and on.) I wish they'd trial run some of this because after a while it gets boring watching the people spin their wheels. I wish they'd start out with more money. $25,000 split three ways isn't much of a prize, and they don't even get that much.

If I recall correctly, she didn't say she was upper middle class, she said that's how she is often perceived, but that is an incorrect perception.

It's not the prettiest move, but when done well, demonstrates superior flexibility, balance, and control. Not every girl can do it. Which is why all of those who can, do.

And she was the one who said skirts above the knee are tacky! Regarding Merline, it felt like she was getting the "annoying dimwit" edit, but she produced something really interesting in a very risky color, and it worked. As a result, I find it very difficult - and yet also very easy - to believe that she thought it more important to bring her hat collection than her sewing kit. After road to the runway, I thought I would really hate Swampy. That whole "women tell me when they wear my clothes men want to have sex with them" comment was such a turn off. But he came across as a decent, nice guy. Not mine. I know they're going for the whole redemption angle. But after seeing both dresses he made, I understood why he'd been rejected so many times. That was not a top-three design. (Well, obviously it was, but it shouldn't have been.) I agree with this. I like Lindsay. So far. That bold pattern mixing (although not uli-worthy), and the plus size designer angle are why she'll be around for a while, It will be interesting to see how she handles the "real woman" challenge, because if I recall correctly, the plus size designs they showed in road to the runway were all - save for fabric choice - essentially the same. Round neck short sleeve shirts, collared button downs, and full pleated skirts. The minute she puts a paper-bag waist on a big girl, she's done. I don't know about that. He was right about Edmund, Blake, Meow-Meow, and I don't know how many others. The most distressing thing about this entire episode was Heidi's purple eyeshadow at the very beginning. The next most distressing thing was the revelation that Project Runway kids table is coming back for another season. Nobody was clamoring for that. And after listening to the host speak, I immediately resolved never to watch a single episode of it.

I agree with this. She was a bit dressier for auditions this year, and I think last year too. The casual dress in the studio is more comfortable and perfectly fine for that environment. It also helps emphasize the difference between Melissa's role and Kelli/Judy's role. Melissa needs to be relatable, more of a big sister type, younger and more relaxed than Kelli and Judy. She wants the girls to feel comfortable with her and confide in her about how they are feeling through this process. That's easier to do when she looks more like one of them. There would be a very different dynamic if she strolled into the studio cinched up in a Belk dress and 4" platform heels. I also don't subscribe to the belief that because someone is a celebrity, they have to be dressed to the nines every time they're on camera. I like that Melissa doesn't feel obligated present a perfect facade.

That would be Auto Amy ;-)

I think her build is fairly typical for flyers in all-star and collegiate-style cheer. It's interesting that she seemed to know she would be featured on the show. Or did she? (Insert conspiracy theory music.) Lots of girls screw up completely, and others did just as badly as Cami. But she seemed rather certain (way ahead of time) that her mess up would be shown. Or is that due to her "celebrity" (which I put in quotes because as far as I know, she's only well known in her industry. The vast majority of viewers would have no idea who she is, so why would CMT feel the need to highlight her especially?) I don't think they gave many names in the show. I think most people who know the names have been hanging out in the spoilers thread and are already familiar with photos of the girls. Best hair makeover (and best nickname) ever! And helpful too, since there are two Amys and a Simone. Having an Amy Simone on top of that is just extra confusion I do not need.

I couldn't agree with this more. Everyone is pretty, but there is a sameness. Which is done intentionally, I believe. After all, as we've been told, the uniform is the celebrity, not the person in it. I get the feeling they don't want the girls to be too distinct from one another. I can't figure out what they do to make them all look alike. I looked at a few other teams to see if I could figure it out. The Redskins team is beautifully diverse. I'm not talking racially/ethnically, although they are certainly more diverse in that way too, but all of the woman look different. It's not a case where all the blondes look alike, all the brunettes look alike, etc. Getting back to the DCC, I was surprised how pretty Holly with the short brown hair is. Having seen a photo previously, I thought she'd be quite plain. Her skin is gorgeous.

Robin's voice surprised me. I can't put my finger on why. But I heard her speak and then looked up and saw it was her and the way she looks and the way she sounds don't quite go together in my mind. Amy T also seemed to have something going on with her voice. I can't tell if she has a raging case of vocal fry or if she's just raspy. Speaking of Amy Trader, they kept coming back to her again and again, with comments about how great she was. Yet every time the showed her dancing, she was just doing some little movement anyone could do. If you're going to try to convince me that someone is an amazing dancer, please show her doing something sort of amazing. Or at least something difficult. A leap. A kick. Something. I also thought the whole thing about her inventing a cartilage implant could have done without the shot of her intensely studying a plastic replica of the human spine. I was impressed by the patent. Then they cut to her staring at that spine as if she'd never seen one before. For some reason, this season more than others, it really struck me how ridiculous it is how life-and-death everyone is about being a DCC. Yes it's fun, yes it is competitive and difficult and a lot of exposure and celebrity. But it isn't what I'd call an important job. It's doing mediocre choreography in an extremely skimpy and overtly sexy outfit on the sidelines during a sporting event. That they consider themselves the highest level of class and "americas' sweethearts" is actually kind of laughable to me. When I think of the women I find classy, then try to imagine them in a DCC uniform...no. Not even when they were younger. It's great that the DCC are well-groomed, well-mannered, and well-spoken. Doesn't negate they fact that they're dancing around with all their cleavage out and booty shorts that are tiny even for booty shorts. Also, Kelli was walking so stiffly - like her heels were way too high for her and she was spanx-ed within an inch of her life.

I agree with both of these points. Kayla has been a big fish in a small pond for a long time, made an even bigger fish by the exposure on the show. (Well as big as you can get from being on Oxygen. Or is it Lifetime? I can never remember which channel this show is on.) But throughout the course of the show we've seen that she lacks versatility in her dance, the self-discipline to keep her body in shape, and the wisdom to understand why those two things will prevent her from branching out and reaching higher. In addition to that, like almost every girl on the team, she lacks control and technique. If I recall correctly, Dianna has very little formal training herself, so it would not surprise me if she was passing on her bad habits to all of these girls. I've tried so hard to watch this show without the bias that comes from having had formal training in the usual - ballet, tap, and jazz. But I've found it impossible. While I appreciate that a lot of what the DD are about is showmanship, energy, and swagger, I can't get over how messy their dancing is. It's all a bunch of showy tricks that - while difficult - aren't executed particularly well. They're in unison, but not synchronized. That's why when that team from Miami comes around, they generally wipe the floor with the DD. Even when they lose, their performance looks so much more polished than the DD.

Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time until "Circus of the Stars" made it back on network tv. Or is this "battle of the network stars" redux? I've only seen one episode, but was pleasantly surprised. Will definitely check it out next week, although I didn't really care about the scoring, so I turned it off after the performances. For me, the only negative is the host. Whichever Wayans he is, he is not so hot as this show's Nick Cannon. He's just...awkward. Not terribly amusing, doesn't seem to connect with the rest of the cast. And I was disproportionately annoyed by the fact that he kept mispronouncing Nicole's last name. The celebs are doing all sorts of difficult challenges. All Wayans has to do is say "Sherzinger" correctly, and apparently that's too strenuous.

I think that's wishful thinking. I saw Ragini say that Veeral was upset with Christian, but I didn't see Veeral comment at all. I also didn't see any anger whatsoever from Josh. I saw a rather mild-mannered guy say something like "If Christian disrespects Maria in front of me, I'd have to say something." And he said something else like "that made me mad" we referring to Christian and Maria. But I didn't see anything even close to anger in his face, in his manner or in his body language. He could've been talking about the weather. It came across to me as him being prompted by the interviewer ie: "what do you think about how Christian behaves toward Maria?" and Josh giving the expected answer. I expect we'll see Josh and Veeral express some mild displeasure, probably with some humor mixed in. I'm sure Christian's mother has coached him on what to say. It remains to be seen whether he absorbed any of it. I expect he'll say sorry, and then repeat a few times how she doesn't talk and they didn't know each other well, but now everything is hunky dory. And he'll think he's doing an incredible job of answering those questions.

She comes across a big smug about hawaii, as if she assumes that everyone is envious of her for living there. I expect she'll mention Hawaii at least once in every episode. His arrogance is so deliberate and forced. As if it isn't who he really is, and he is playing a role (and not very well) for strategic reasons. He's decided he's going to be "that guy" so he'll stay until the end of the competition, get the most attention of the castmates and try to parlay it into something after the show. Except so far, he's not getting much of a reaction. So he amps it up...dancing like michael jackson (again, not very well), posing with the crown and scepter, pronouncing himself King Nello, and so forth. He's trying to get something going, and I really hope Kyle doesn't give him the satisfaction of stepping into the role of his nemesis. I'm kind of hoping the other contestants will ignore Fernello. I am interested to see how committed he his to his strategy. ETA: I loved that Rio incorporated Rachel jumping out of the castle into his painting. That was a good one! Very interested to see if he will incorporate that same sense of humor into the other challenges.

I really do not understand Nettie's anger about the naming tradition. Why would you expect someone who has flouted tradition at every turn (partying, public drunkenness, stripping, getting knocked up out of wedlock by a gorger, seeing one guy while pregnant by another guy) as Mellie has, to all of a sudden be concerned with gypsy tradition? Ugh. These women wear me out. They are so busy concerning themselves with everyone else's business and going online to see what's being said about them. I wish they'd all grow up.

It's funny, when I saw the first episode of this show I thought now maybe we'll see a different view of gypsy culture in America. I thought maybe this was attempt to be the exact opposite of the My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding/Gypsy Sisters train wreck. Maybe they were trying to show us that gypsies have fine old respectable traditions and class and maturity and common sense. After all, the guests at the wedding for this show wore proper attire and behaved like adults. This turned out to be a train wreck as well, just a different flavor of it. I get the feeling in that culture, they KNOW they children are incredibly young and immature, but they believe that marriage and parenthood is what makes a a child into an adult. Since there's no escape from the relationship, they have no choice but to put on their big girl pants and muddle through. It's very obvious that they do the arranged thing to tie the kids down before they can grow old enough to develop any notions about independence and choosing their own path. Does Christian have a job?

I was flipping through the channels yesterday, when I saw Aubrey O'Day, The Situation, and Tami whats-her-name from the Real World sitting on a coach together. This was my introduction to this show. I stayed on the channel. Aubrey, bless her heart. I remember her from "making the band." She was so young then, and I thought she had so much potential. I really thought she was talented and might go somewhere in the entertainment industry. But for whatever reason, it did not happen. I know she had some other reality show a few years back, and she did playboy, and then her group Danity Kane got together and then broke up again. I think she was on the apprentice too, no? She wants so badly to be a celebrity, but now she's done at least four reality shows that I know of and her career is beginning to reek of desperation. She not a dumb chick. I hope she finds something else to do before it gets really pathetic. I remember Tami from The Real World - the "it wasn't not funny", the wired jaw, the failed girl group, and let us not forget the abortion. So I guess she's kind of doing the same thing as Aubrey, now that I think about it. But back to this show specifically. I have no idea who any of the other people are on the show. Oh, except for Kendra. She left Hef for Hank, right? As far as I can tell, they are one of the only married couples on the show. Which is weird, because isn't marriage the name of the show? I thought the idea was to save a marriage. They should call this show "Imploding F-List Hookups" But I guess that doesn't have much of a ring to it. Can anyone tell me - has this show actually saved any of these relationships? Are any of the couples from past seasons still together?

I just saw a commercial for this. Is anyone else extremely surprised that this show is back? I like Stacy London, but I did not like this show. After the first two episodes last season, I stopped watching, but continued to DVR so I could watch the first segment and then fast forward to the reveal. I deleted the last couple of episodes without ever watching them. There were so many turnoffs - the women preening in their "before" attire, the public opinion poll, the amateur psychiatry where Stacy tells the women they're beautiful just the way they are, the cheesy computer segment where they "try on" different hair and makeup colors, ugh ugh ugh. From what I saw on the commercial, it looks like more of the same this season. I will give ONE episode a try. If it's the same nonsense, I'm out. Love ya, Stacey, but you're better than this.

Is it a cultural thing that nobody in that family smiles in photos? I'd be surprised if Maria isn't pregnant already, since it's basically her job to follow everyone else's instructions. That couple makes me sad on so many levels.

Whitney Thompson, winner of the plus size season (I assume there was only one plus size season, but I haven't watched ANTM in years, so I could be wrong about that) was on TLC's "Curvy Brides" last night. Curvy brides is about two heavyset ladies who run a bridal salon for other heavyset ladies. Whitney came in with her mom's raggedy, stained wedding dress, saying she hadn't bothered to try it on yet, but she wanted to alter it to fit her, and if that couldn't be done, she needed a new dress to wear in a month. In Scotland. There was no explanation of why, given that this was last minute, Whitney had traveled from her home in Tennessee to a bridal salon in Washington DC. The dress was too small, they found a new dress for her, and fell all over themselves about her being a "supermodel" and an inspiration. Then they mentioned that they were about to do a fashion show in the store, and wouldn't it be a amazing if Whitney could be in it? And of course she said yes. It was all a bit ridiculous and overly contrived. Supermodel? Come ON. I don't know how successful Whitney's modeling career has been since ANTM, but those days have come and gone. These days she runs a restaurant with her husband somewhere in Tennessee. She is still very pretty. Still blonde. I have a vague recollection that she was a brunette until Tyra got her hands on her.

Yes, she was part of the 2013 fan vote. Her video is here.

I saw this one last night. I thought it was great that Kim pulled Hannah off the stage. Welcome to the world of consequences, Hannah! But I also thought it was interesting that Kim didn't call it what it was - straight up cheating. It was really sad that Deb is one of those people who not only saw nothing wrong with it, but actually helped her daughter break the rules. Actually that wasn't the sad part. The sad part was her excuse that it was because Hannah is competitive. So Hannah's not a cheat, right? She's not a bad person, she just wants to win! That makes it ok? It was exasperating, watching Hannah and Deb play victim, and bemoaning the fact that Kim was trying to force her to wear a "doo-doo brown" dress (completely overlooking the fact that Hannah chose that dress herself.) Way to teach your kid integrity, Deb. Hannah broke the rules, she tried to manipulate Kim, and she tried to give herself an unfair advantage over everyone else in the competition. If she suffered a little public humiliation as a result, it was well deserved and a lesson well learned. As Dr. Phil says "when you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences." I also question both Deb and Hannah's intelligence if they thought they would get away with it. They've known Kim for years. They had to know she would be pissed off and that she'd do something about it. I thought it was very strange logic for Mason's mom to put her kid in pageants to make friends and feel pretty and confident. It's a situation where girls compete with each other, where beauty has more to do with what you adorn yourself with, not what you actually look like, and where she was bound to fail the first time out of the gate. It seems like some other group activity where the kids work together to achieve a mutual goal that's based on talent/skill/hard work would be more useful. A sport or a theater group, or something like that. Having said that, at least the other girls were nice to her, although I do wonder how much of that was for the cameras. I also wondered, not for the first time, how many children Kim is working with. She must have quite a business if that's her full time job, and she has that nice facility. I'm so curious about how all of this works. Do the parents pay some kind of monthly fee, that covers coaching as well as makeup, dresses, and all that? It seemed like money was not a concern when they were choosing dresses.

She tried out for the Chiefs again this year and got cut.