this is my december sytycd :)

Of course I'll be on break from blogging next week cuz I'll be traveling (Budapest-Vienna-Prague, yay!)... Anyway, night 2 of Sing Off!

I love the 8 group performance of "Use Somebody," by the way.
I also enjoy that they brought back Nota -- the winner last year! We had been wondering what happened to them since they won last year.

On the Rocks - Love their song choice two episodes in a row -- "Live Your Life." Not only were they singing a rap song, which cannot be easy a cappella -- but they were singing Rihanna's part! I love how complete that song sounded, when it's a song that has so much going on in it. "Bad Romance" was fun, but this was great!
Street Corner Symphony - Such a good fit for them, especially cuz watching their lead singer in "Use Somebody," I was saying he's the kind of guy who with that voice should be the frontman for a Train-type of band. :) My only complaint is the lead vocals for this performance was a little tinny sounding rather than full... I love the switch up in the middle of the song; I love changed interpretations!! :)
Eleventh Hour - Sigh, this didn't really work for me. It just felt a little flat in a lot of ways and got a little too busy...
Talk of the Town - They really made "Mercy" their kind of music, not popular America's Top 50's kind of music. :)
Backbeats - They just remind me so much of the SoCals or whatever that group from USC was called last year. And I didn't really like that group that much throughout the competition last year; I was surprised how far they made it. But "Breakeven" was pretty good. Definitely better than the high schoolers...
Committed - I'm so excited about everything they will do in this competition. We have now heard solos from 3 out of their 6 members. And omg, everything they do is amazing.
Groove for Thought - I managed to miss the fact that they were a group of music teachers. That is pretty cool. I think all I liked about this was the bass and the lead vocal, which was a perfect voice for this song. Everything else was just kind of annoying for me.
Whiffenpoofs - I don't know how I felt about that. The last performance was really fun for me, but this one was so... busy for me. But sometimes it was so loud at the audience.

I feel like it would be fun if they made the two bottom teams actually do a sing off to see who leaves. :) It was a lot less obvious to me who would be leaving in the second group of 4. Wonder how they decide who goes in the first group of 4 and the second group of 4?

My favorites: Committed, On the Rocks, Street Corner Symphony.

why i love sing-off!

1) I love Glee.
2) I love a cappella (which Glee goes away from often)
3) Three legitimate judges!

In any case, Season 2!!!
Eleventh Hour - Loved that the high school group did Justin Bieber and they did it so well. And it's funny that they're identity is truly being a "real life Glee." The "homecoming queen" girl really is very talented.
On the Rocks - The University of Oregon group performing "Bad Romance" was really awesome. It was a little cluttered to my ear and the transitions went pitchy, but the performance and dance was so entertaining! Plus it is a great a cappella song.
Groove for Thought - They have an interesting sound but I'm not sure how it can translate to the rest of the competition. I'll have to see more of their stuff.
Pitch Slapped - Love the group name! Cobra Starship, "Good Girls Gone Bad" -- nuts! That is not an easy song to sing, not a cappella!!! I thought they were kinda awesome. But oh well, gone!
Talk of the Town - So cute! Man, another reason why I enjoyed this show so much last season -- the different types of a cappella represented on the show. I really hope they do well and show a unique twist to everything later.
Whiffenpoofs - This season's Beelzebubs? :) Of course they were the "first a cappella" group and all. Okay I was prepared to hate them for being pretentious and I was expecting that all I would like of them would be the white gloves. But somehow they won me over. They took something that was... seemingly boring, and made it fun! [I love that Shawn called the guy out for being beyond pretentious about the Whiffenpoof history.]
Men of Note - I like them. They're adorable and dorky. :) Ben Folds agrees with me! I said it was rushed, Ben felt it was rushed.
Street Corner Symphony - Southern a cappella! Love the idea! I was hoping they'd sing "Ring of Fire" but I really like what they did with "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."
The Backbeats - Haha, I knew I recognized people in this group! I am really enjoying the song choices for this first episode. It was good, but I feel like this group is like the group that the blonde girl was on last year, the one that did the Journey medley. They were good but not standout for me.
Committed - I had such high expectations of this group (from commercials). And they were totally met! I love when a group can take a song you know and make it completely theirs! This is a lot more common in the later rounds where they're given challenges. This was definitely one of my favorite performances of this premier.

Some notes --
I was hoping to see Berklee at least once more. I'd like to see how they do when given a challenge because their arrangements surely would be sick.
No all female groups this year but A LOT of all male groups.
I wish they would stop calling the goodbye song the "Swan Song," or at least not make such a big deal about calling it that.

Thursday Talk: Time Travel

J: Time travel as a plot device can be really fun or it can be really bad. What are your favorite movies, books or TV shows involving time travel? And which ones were just stupid?

Jennifer: As a sci-fi/fantasy fan, there are just so many good options! In movies, I have to go with the classic Back to the Future. It's so hilarious when Marty's mom starts hitting on him! My book pick is A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle. It's incredibly imaginative with a fascinating made-up history and just lots of great characters. Oh and of course Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, both the book and the movie (because we apparently HP is an appropriate answer for almost every Thursday Talk question). For TV series, I'll plug Being Erica again and of course Doctor Who. I'm generally more a fan of the episodes where they go into the past (like the classic "The Girl in the Fireplace") but the future/alien worlds can be really great too. As for the bad, I really cannot let go of the terrible, terrible last half season of Felicity...

Mira: Well... Favorite blog entries on time travel was definitely this: pooryoricksadventure. ;-) Favorite book for me was Time Traveler's Wife, though I haven't reread it in a while and apparently barely remember the tragedy that hits Henry. Nor have I watched the movie yet (though I love Rachel McAdams!). Jasper Fford's Eyre series does a very interesting thing with time traveling/space traveling. Favorite movie was: 13 Going on 30. It sorta counts as time traveling, right? Least favorite of all time traveling things: I agree, Felicity SUCKED.

Top Chef All Stars

Just a few weeks ago I mused on why I haven't been blogging about Top Chef. It's still an excellent show (and I'm really happy it finally won the Emmy) but it was getting to be too much of the same. Apparently the producers felt this too because they did exactly the right thing: an All-Star season!

They did a really phenomenal job casting the cheftestants from seasons past who either barely missed out on the title or were cut cruelly early or were just popular personalities. There are a lot of contenders. I'll do a rundown later in the post but let's talk about the first episode challenges first.

I liked the concept of the Quickfire, making a dish that represents the city their season took place in, though I thought it was possibly unfair that some seasons had only 2 people while others had 4. I didn't really form many opinions here, although, it's so strange knowing everyone already. Usually the first few weeks of a season I don't know who anyone is and I'm just kind of waiting for the cream to rise to the top. Here, I want to absorb what every single person is doing!

The Elimination challenge, though, was ridiculously brilliant and also a little evil: the chefs all had to recreate the dishes that sent them home. They all looked pissed when they saw what they had to do. And then there's more: they're split into two groups and each will get to eat the others' dishes. And then there's more: they get to watch the critiques. Oh, and by the way, Anthony Bourdain is a regular judge!

It was so interesting to see how different the challenge was for everyone. A lot of the chefs who were booted earlier in their seasons had truly terrible dishes to salvage: Spike's frozen scallops, Dale T.'s butterscotch scallops, Mike's vegetarian dish, Jamie's salty celery. Since they had a lot to improve on, I actually think they fared better than the chefs that made it to their finale. More often than not, the finalists had great dishes conceptually that they just failed in the execution of so I think the difference was probably less noticeable. The exceptions were Angelo, who went on to win, and Richard Blais, who might have won had he not bizarrely continued to garnish his plates after time was up. I did feel bad for Stephen, who was kicked off during Restaurant Wars for being front of house and had three dishes he didn't even really make the first time around.

And the first one out is Elia. I was surprised that she didn't do more with her dish, but she was definitely being a little too proud, thinking that it shouldn't have eliminated her in the first place. I wasn't a huge fan of hers originally but she's obviously talented and being out first really really sucks.

Here's my breakdown of the rest of the chefs:
Stephen (S1) - I remember hating him during the season but at the reunion and various specials he somehow redeemed himself. I see him as more of a sommelier and plating guy though, so not sure how far that will take him.
Tiffani (S1) - I rooted for Harold to win over her because of her sometimes unpleasant personality but I wouldn't mind seeing her do well. I'm curious to see how she matches up against people from later seasons where the talent was seemingly increased.
Marcel (S2) - Still hate him.
Casey (S3) and Dale L. (S3) - I like them both but don't really have an opinion beyond that.
Tre (S3) - He placed 8th in his season, the lowest of all the All-Stars, so we didn't get to see very much of him at all. Definitely looking forward to him proving himself.
Richard (S4) - My first instinct was that he's going to win this. Hopefully his mistake in the first episode was a fluke. All-Star seasons of reality shows can be strange though with top contenders falling early (see Survivor and The Amazing Race).
Antonia (S4) - Meh. The only chef that I don't really remember anything about...
Spike (S4) - I've been to his burger place in DC and it's pretty damn good. I don't know how exactly that translates to the fine dining type stuff of Top Chef though.
Dale T. (S4) - I was a fan of his for some reason despite his anger issues. Hopefully he can keep it together this time (though I'm sure it'll be entertaining if he doesn't).
Carla (S5) - She was the underdog in her season and she's still that now. I imagine her dessert skills will come in handy again.
Jamie (S5) - Don't make scallops every week again! She definitely went home too early the first time around.
Fabio (S5) - I imagine he's kind of just there for the soundbites.
Mike (S6) - I've been to his former restaurant in DC, Zaytinya, and I loved it. Hopefully he'll keep the misogynistic comments to a minimum.
Jennifer (S6) - There's only been one female Top Chef so far. I think a dream top 3 for me would be Tiffani, Jamie, and Jen.
Angelo (S7) - He grew on me throughout his season and being sick during the finale was really sucky, so I guess I'm glad he's getting another chance. It's too soon for me to really be happy to see him again though.
Tiffany (S7) - I got the impression that her season was relatively weak in general, so another case where I wonder how she stacks up against everyone else.

Oh, and I have to say, the season preview looks pretty awesome. Especially....going head to head with Tom Colicchio! Finally putting where your money mouth is, Tom!

Thursday Talk: 'tis the Season!

M: Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday season for me. What are your favorite holiday season indulgences (movie/book/tv/music)?

Mira: Little Women is one of my favorite holiday movies of all time. And I've always thought it was weird that I associate it as being a holiday season movie because the core of the movie is not about the holidays at all but a group of sisters and Jo's quest to be a grand writer. But I love it. And I love it most during the holiday season. Two other more obvious favorites are Love Actually, which takes place entirely in the holiday season from Thanksgiving to New Year's and a new add to my list: The Holiday, which I just find really cute and enjoyable for whatever reason.

Jennifer: I really enjoyed all the The OC's Chrismukkah episodes, especially the one from season 2 with since-forgotten Lindsay and her "yamaclaus." In movies, I actually watched White Christmas for the first time last year and I was surprised how much I loved it. All I had known about was the song and cheesy poster with the people in those Santa outfits, but that's a very small part of the movie...the rest of it is really funny and smart and the singing and dancing is superb. Vera-Ellen (with the shockingly small waist) is so fantastic in all the dance numbers. I think I'm going to start making it my own holiday tradition! Mira, I also associate Little Women with the holidays even though it's not really a Christmas movie. I sometimes do the same thing with Harry Potter because there are so many memorable Christmas scenes...Hogwarts certainly knows how to decorate!

Skating with the Stars: First Impressions

Well, I'm sure Jenn will have much more to add, especially given that she has been following the Canadian versions on the internet to some extent (and what sounds like a much better potential version in Canada called Battle of the Blades)... but here are some of my first impressions on Skating with the Stars...

- The host, Vernon Kay -- he keeps widening his eyes when he talks. It's kinda scary!! You can see whites all around his pupils and he does it A LOT!
- I think I've heard of ONE of the stars, and that's a barely knowing who she is. Bethany Frankel? Is she one of the real housewives of some city? Oh, it's spelled Bethenny. That's still sad that the only star I heard of is a reality tv star and not really a star... Sigh.
- I know zero of the pros...
- I've heard of all the JUDGES, though. I'd rather they be the stars or pros! But I do like the mix and it makes me happy that they have Dick Button. :)
- I've even heard of the commentator!!! (Well I followed the last winter Olympics pretty closely on the figure skating/ice skating side.)
- The rink is so tiny that it looks like jumps won't be possible ever. Admittedly I wasn't expecting jumps from any of the stars, but when the 6 pros were dancing together... Well it's too small for 6 pros to do anything really cool other than spin around and really just do dance moves... Just kidding -- Johnny Weir did do a jump. :)
- I like that each episode looks to have required elements and they sound reasonable...
- Johnny Weir kind of looks like Jennifer Connelly. And of course he would skate to Lady Gaga in a Lady Gaga-esque costume.
- I really commend the stars for attempting this; I cannot even regular ice skate. But I dunno if even my love for figure skating/ice skating will keep me tuning in every week. Only when I remember.
- This stuff looks ridiculously easy and boring for the pros. At least Dancing with the Stars, the pros get to look like pros...
- Best line of the night: "The fact that you're not gay may be kind of alarming to my husband so we'll just have to pretend that you are." (Bethenny, who's freaky skinny.)

Thursday Talk: Sports, Part 2

J: Earlier this year, Mira asked about favorite sporting events. This time around, what are your favorite sports-themed movies, TV shows, books, etc?

Jennifer: I'm definitely not a sports person but I enjoy my fair share of sports-themed fictional entertainment. Of course there's The Cutting Edge...I've watched that movie countless times and can probably quote most of it. I also like various other girly sports movies like Bend it like Beckham, Stick it, A League of their Own, Bring it On, etc. On TV, obviously Friday Night Lights (I actually finally learned the rules of football because of this show) and Make it or Break it (although it got really bad at the end of last season). I can't think of any books...unless you count Quidditch through the Ages?

Mira: Ooh, I like this question and it's funny because Burkie and I were just talking about this the other day. I love most football movies -- Remember the Titans, Little Giants, Varsity Blue, Jerry Maguire, The Blind Side, and I remember enjoying Friday Night Lights (movie version; but tv show is great, too!)... Um, I also loved other sports movies in general: Rookie of the Year, Angels in the Outfield, The Sandlot, Cool Runnings, Cutting Edge, MIGHTY DUCKS!!! Um, okay, so I like movies about sports. But yes, I pick Mighty Ducks (1, 2, 3) as my pick for this week's Thursday Talk. And ahem, Jenn, I think that I'd like to take credit for teaching you the rules of football!!! The TV show just reinforced what I told you. :P

Thursday Talk: Fairy Tales

M: What's your favorite fairy tale? (Original or reloaded.)

Mira: I think I'd have to go with Enchanted and Beauty and the Beast. I think the latter counts as a fairytale, right? I like the first because it takes a typical fairytale story of a princess, prince, evil stepmom/future mother-in-law, talking animals... Well it was kinda Snow White with Cinderella's animals or something... Anyway it takes all that and throws the story into modern day New York. Fun! Perfect! And now I want to rewatch. Haha. And Beauty and the Beast us simply my favorite Disney movie, period. :)

Jennifer: Hm, interesting question. I remember I had a book of fairy tales when I was younger that I read over and over but I don't know if I had a favorite back then. So I'll just pick one now: The Ugly Duckling. In general I think I prefer Hans Christian Andersen to the Brothers Grimm. I do also really like Ever After...

Being Erica: Time travel therapy

I've actually been watching Being Erica, a Canadian show, since it first started early in 2009 but apparently I've never blogged about it, possibly because it's just so completely off the radar. In the US it airs on SOAPnet and I mean, nobody knows that they air anything besides the daytime soaps and reruns of the original 90210 and the OC. Even worse, the entire network is actually going to be taken off the air completely in 2012 (they have already committed to airing season 3 of Being Erica, which just started this fall in Canada).

And you know, that's a shame, because I think it's actually a really great show. It's kind of chick-flick-y (probably not for the guys out there) but with this time travel element. I know, it sounds weird, right? The Erica of the title is Erica Strange (played by Erin Karpluk who I now love), a thirty-something woman who at the beginning of the series feels like her life is a mess. She's still single and has no real career despite a master's degree in English and thinks it's all because she's made bad choices throughout her life. She meets a mysterious therapist, Dr. Tom, who invites her to become his patient and she soon finds out that his method of therapy is sending her back in time to relive, and, to a certain extent, redo her regrets. 

Wonky, right? But really fun! Just the fashions alone are great, and the cast does an amazing job playing different ages. In the first season, each episode has Erica returning to a certain regret and generally she learns that the things that happened were inevitable and there's some lesson to take back to her present life, which starts to improve as she gains success in a publishing job and embarks on a relationship with Ethan, her long time best friend. The second season changes things up a little bit, introducing Kai, a character that turns out to be going through the same kind of therapy as Erica with a different doctor. Now in the third season, Erica finds herself almost "reset," having been fired from her job and broken up with Ethan, but is informed that she's now in "phase two" of the therapy: group. (Phase three is apparently becoming a doctor herself?)

The reason I really like this show is that Erica is such a relatable and honest character. Her relationships with her family and friends are complicated and she messes up all the time but she doesn't give up. She wants to help people but doesn't always know the best ways, and she does things she's afraid of, even if they make her look stupid.  It's odd, even with the crazy time traveling and bursting through doors that lead to the past or the present or Dr. Tom's office, this show is actually very...real. It can be funny and sad and dramatic and moving, and I think a lot of that has to do with Erin Karpluk, who's basically in every scene and does a fantastic job carrying the show. 

I just discovered that all of seasons 1 and 2 are on Hulu! If you're at all interested in a fun relationship drama with a little light sci-fi thrown in, definitely check it out! 

Thursday Talk: Spies!

J: Hollywood (and American culture in general it seems) has a pretty big fascination with spies. Who are some of your favorite fictional spies?

Jennifer: I think I have to go with Sydney Bristow from Alias. Probably everyone knows how disappointed I was with the later seasons but she was such a great and instantly memorable character. Obviously kick-ass but also just a really good person who cared deeply for her family and friends. I also really like Chuck, but more the character than the actual show, which has become more of a catch-up-when-I'm-bored show than required weekly viewing. They do use the word "spy" on that show probably more than in anything else I've ever seen...

Mira: Sydney was one of the best, I have to agree. Actually, I still wanna grow up to be her: she was so good! Haha, actually the skill I'd really like to learn is running down the stairs silently with HEELS on. :) Two more I'll name are James Bond, because well he's James Bond, and Jack Bauer from 24 because he's pretty badass.