SYTYCD - I don't know what Mary's on, but I'd like some.

From Lee Anne's blog:

Here’s a run-down of the protein selection each chef had. Eric Ripert’s list consisted of: caviar, clams, sea urchin, lobster, hamachi, snapper, poussins (baby chickens) quail, quail eggs, chorizo, bacon, veal tenderloin, and rack of lamb. Dan Barber’s table had abalone, calamari, scallops, tuna, halibut, guinea hen, duck, duck fat, foie gras, prosciutto, pork belly, rabbit, and venison. April Bloomfield’s table had oysters, octopus, head on prawns, jumbo lump crab, mahi mahi, organic chicken, squab, pancetta, sweetbreads, oxtails, beef tongue, wagyu strip, and ostrich steaks.

From a culinary producer’s point of view, it’s a little frustrating to see our chefs go for the same old proteins again and again, even with such a selection. (Scallops: Official Sponsor of Top Chef.) And Lisa and the damn prawns. Leave the shrimp alone already and show me that you can cook something else. It drove me bonkers because getting all of those beautiful proteins to the island of Puerto Rico almost shaved ten years off my life in stress alone. (My fish arrived two hours before we began the final challenge.) Obviously there was quite a bit of repetition, especially from Richard, so I was puzzled by some of their protein choices.

behind the scenes at SYTYCD -

cute read:

[link]

I like Cat because she really does root for the dancers and I've seen her make comments on the show about, ooh I can't remember the phrase, but she called the dancers "my little ones" or somehting. This was last year towards the end of the show and I really believe she cares about them and wants them all to succeed.

Plus she handled whathisname's constant remarks with grace when I would have gotten fed up with him

The thing is there's a feeling of niceness and respect on the SYTYCD I don't get from American Idol. Okay Nygel is a letch and Mary needs to turn it down a bunch, but there's not the bickering and meanness that goes on with the judges and Ryan on American Idol and there's not a feeling of one judge being really dismissive towards Top 20 contestnants.

Also even the results show of SYTYCD is better, there's only 2 nights of this, since there are 10 performances and the results show has actual stuff and not just filler. Plus by the time SYTYCD is over, I'm kind of sad.This year I gave up on AI, it just seemed to drag on forever.

SYTYCD - during the auditions, they can get kind of mean, but often it seems to be in response to an unskilled/ untrained/ untalented person who has delusions about their abilities. Once they make it to this stage, the judges are more respectful.

Yes, and the judges like and respect each other, even when they disagree. I mean, it's clear that Simon has no respect for Paula.

Well, sometimes on SYTYCD it seems that Mary's taken a happy pill, but Paula seems to be, um, detached from reality.

Trib's chat with Stephanie - hey she knows the season 3 Dale too.

Ok, so i've been watching SYTYCD and blame it all entirely on Meara! I don't know what their lighting designer is on, but a lot of last night was terrible. The lighting was literally fighting with the choreography so many times that i could barely watch the dancers. It wa s a constant barrage of "what?" "now?" "that was so not with the music, choreography, OR Dancers!." Distracting is hardly the word, i was astonished at how poorly conceptualized the cuing was. Maybe there was some timing error with the cameras, or stage manager, or maybe the lighting designer and choreographer just didn' get enough time to collaborate but i kinda wanted to kill someone!

ION, the dancing was REALLY GOOD! I was astonished. Even the bad dancing was pretty good. OK, sure, it was obvious that someone of them were waaaaay out of their comfort level with ballroom, but still very watchable. I'm getting hooked ;)

Despite it looking easy, ballroom seems to be one of the hardest to learn. I think it's because in good ballroom dancing you have to do more synchronous moves with a partner who is being held much closer than you're used to. Much easier to trip each other up or blow a move, they tend to err on the side of caution and it shows.