The Voice is SO, SO much better....

Move over American Idol, NBC's The Voice is where it is at! A.I. was good the first 2-3 seasons and I was a devoted fan. Then the show started airing the "auditions" of truly bad singers and it just became painful to watch - it began to feel like a form of bullying as news magazines and entertainment shows would replay the most bizarrely dressed, or the truly dreadful singer. I began to wait until there were 6-8 contestants to start watching and then I just stopped. As a child I too was a victim of bullying - don't need to participate as an adult...especially given a choice to watch or turn the program OFF.

If you haven't seen or heard of it, The Voice is surprisingly well done!

Part 1...Blind Audition selections completed in the first 2 weeks of the show.

The singers are PRE-SCREENED prior to your ever having to listen to them. So there is no out of tune, off pitch, terrible audition that we as viewers must endure. Carson Daly is the host, with  Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera, the "coaches" who will select  a singer to join their team of 8 from blind audition - solely on their voices - for they are sitting with their backs to the performer. Should more than one coach turn around for a singer - the singer decides whose team they want to join.

Part 2 - Battle Competition Phase -

Coaches selects 2 members of his/her team, selects a song and helps to fine tune the performance. Then the contestants vie for advancement by singing the same song together, in a faux boxing ring. Comments from the other coaches about the performance are offered but it is up to the contestants coach to choose who stays for the live performance, cutting the teams to 4 each. One more week of phase 2 is left before the live performances.

Part 3 - Live Performances - whittling teams down to one member each to then compete for the $100K and a recording contract should begin the first week of June. I only watched the first 2 selection shows and due to DWTS (competing nights/time slots) finales I haven't seen any of the "battles" so I can now look forward to another hour of entertainment based on talent not crime.
Looking for a new show now that DWTS and American Idol are over? Check out The Voice, Tuesday evenings, NBC, 10pm. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Ciao~

dancing, dancing, dancing....what's not to love

it's the morning after and i am arm-chair quarter-backing DWTS! (also known as a rant :-D) If you have just emerged from under a rock I have included a 'about' link (above). I am an unabashed fan of the show. I use my votes.



that's me!

 Yep, love the dancing shows. As a child, "back-in-the-day", I took tap, ballet (including toe) dancing. And I watched the Championship Ballroom Dance Competition on PBS, hosted by Juliet Prowse, during the 80's and 90's. (Tragically, Ms. Prowse died from pancreatic cancer at 59.) Loved watching the professionals compete.
 
Now that I have qualified my love of dancing...
 
The first 3-4 weeks of DWTS is always interesting, hilarious and a great "train-wreck" to watch. Remember "Master P's" appearance and his flat-footed stomp around the floor, or Cloris Leachman - who I adore and admire for her gumption - made us laugh and clap during her romps around the floor. This season's "I do NOT have rhythm and walk like a robot" award went to Wendy Williams. True she wasn't the first causality, that honor went to Mike Catherwood, although in my opine - she should have been the first to go, as it was just painful to watch. Yes she had personality - but she could NOT dance. (this is a dance competition, not a personality contest)
 
So my rant today is about the 'dumb blonde' act of Kendra...she needs to 'G.O. AWAY".

Watching her attempt to dance makes me want to scream "my eyes, my eyes", to hear her complain during the judges' remarks and then make excuses is akin to 'nails on a chalkboard'. The fact that she is paid to have a reality show is astonishing to me. Really America? There is so little passably good  programming to watch that you sink to watching an ex-Playboy bunnie at home? Even old sit-coms on TVLand would be a step up. "Oh, Kendra, sweetie..." ballroom dancing is both elegant and sexy and can be accomplished with grace, laughter and practice, practice, practice. If you had spent more time with the latter and less about whining about what you 'aren't' you might have discovered that. Everyone on the show has the same number of days to perfect their dance, or wait - they actually used the time to learn it without whining!  Even Kirstie, who had a painful hip, managed to score higher than you and she lost a shoe!

And lets not forget the music last night was wonderful! A full 46 member orchestra...playing the classical themes to Swan Lake, the Harry Potter franchise, etc...delightful and classy.

Hopefully America feels the same way and votes her off tonight...

True I don't watch the usual reality TV shows. This includes the Bachelor (gag), The Amazing Race, Survivor and that train wreck - Kate show with the kids (not sure what the current name is). And I don't put this show into that category, although I am sure that some would disagree. (Isn't America great that way.)

Now I'll take myself off to watch PBS's Masterpiece Theatre from Sunday night and later to watch the DWTS results show. My love affair continues.

Ciao~

R.I.P. Ms Taylor

Got out of the shower today to the GMA news announcing Elizabeth Taylor's passing earlier this morning. My immediate thought was one of disbelief, truly I was just stunned to hear this. No one gets out of this gig alive, however,my nutty brain has pigeon-holed ideas and expectations. And my expectation is that some people never grow old or die. Ms. Taylor fell into both categories. I don't know why, other than she was possibly the first 'movie star' that grabbed my attention and while I would see a photos of her over the years and it was clear that she was in fact getting older ~ I was apparently in denial - if she was getting older than so was I. Clearly this is just wrong.




My first memory of her was the big news story that she and Richard Burton made during the filming of Cleopatra...she and Burton's love affair was scandalous. It was on the TV and in the Seattle Times newspaper! It was "sinful"... Both were married to other people and they carried it out in public, relatively unheard of in the 1960's. Loads of tongue-wagging for sure...even today their love affair/relationship is considered over-the-top, which is saying a lot given the Brad & Anjolie coverage, Lindsay Lohan's quarterly front page headlines and the daily rantings of one Charlie Sheen.

I admire her creation and work on behalf of the American Aids Foundation, and it never occurred to me that she was politically on the right until she married (and helped get a Senate seat ) John Warner. Truthfully, I did not see that coming.

I do remember some of the Barbara Walter interviews that have, over the years, given us a window into who she really was off the silver screen, brawdy humor and all. Having been married more than once myself I understand that path all too well ~ however, she never seemed to have gotten that role down - I rather like that about her. She too was imperfect in ordinary, common ways. And yet she was extraordinarily beautiful...

Thank you Ms. Taylor for leaving us with memories of glamor, style and class...I have not seen all of her films - think I will see what is now available at the library. Heaven awaits your arrival, may you not be disappointed in who is or isn't there. You really were a 'Dame' in every sense of the word.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor rest in peace.

Ciao~