"So You Think You Can DANCE, dance, dance..."

As I sit here to write this post it is absolutely pouring rain outside. I mean, why wouldn't it be? It is the middle of May, after all. That being said, I know that summer is around the corner and the sun is up there somewhere just waiting to peak through and make me happy. And, with that delightful summer sun comes my favorite summer program..."So You Think You Can Dance."

For many years, being a dancer has been one of my secret desires. I've taken random dance classes  throughout college (Ballet. Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop, again). But I never pursued dance seriously, and I sometimes wish I had. I admire the strength, poise, and talent that dancers possess. Something about their ability to tell a story through movement is beautiful to me.

Now, of course, this being a competition-based reality show, the process starts out just like "American Idol." Lines and lines of enthusiastic hopefuls wait for hours, and sometimes days, just for the chance to show the judges what they got. I cringe when watching the poor souls that actually do think they can dance, but really just skip around the stage wearing a crap-tastic outfit, and fight to the death claiming that they're awesome when judge, Nigel Lythgoe serves up a shot of brutal honesty. Hey, they gotta hear it sometime, right?

But it's those with rhythm, technical training, and a splash of spunk that I like to watch. And what I love most is the diversity in dance styles that are showcased. Once the Top 20 make their way through the entire audition process, they are given a partner whose dance style is usually very opposite from their own, and are thrown into a whirlwind of Latin, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, Bollywood, Krump, and several others styles. Somehow, they make it look easy. Most of the time, anyway.

I could do without judge Mary Murphy and her not-so-pleasant screeching, but simply put, this show just makes me happy. And I can't lie...I've definitely spent a few hours with my best friend trying to learn and replicate our favorite pieces from the show using the handy-dandy 'pause' and 'rewind' buttons on her TiVo remote.

Tune in with me on May 26th, as FOX premieres the 8th season of "So You Think You Can DANCE, dance, dance..."    

"Paula's Home Cooking": Butter, Butter, and More Butter

I really dislike cooking, but for some reason I tend to watch the Food Network quite frequently. Among the various cooking shows that air on this channel, we can learn how to make "30 Minute Meals," something "Semi-Homemade," Italian dishes and even Indian cuisine. And then...there's Paula Deen. The Queen of fried food and a southern woman that never fails to whip up a heart attack on a plate by the end of the half hour segment. She is an expert in comfort food, using ingredients like butter, cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, and more butter in every meal.

In one episode of "Paula's Home Cooking," I actually witnessed her covering her hands in butter, spreading it around the freshly made cinnamon roll dough and licking her fingers after, too be sure that no butter was wasted, of course. Not only is her cooking far from low cal, but she is also quite the character, always crackin' jokes in that thick southern accent with her big southern hair. It's easy to make fun of Ms. Deen, but the great thing is, she is able to laugh at herself. Literally. Check out the video below, it's hilarious.   

I Realize It's Over, But I Still Love It

So, I was feeling a bit nostalgic and decided to take a look back at the one show that never fails to make me smile. Of course I'm talking about FRIENDS. The show ended in 2004, but I own every season, so, for me, it continues to live on (not to mention the fact that it still airs weekly on Fox and TBS). I've seen every episode so many times, that I can quote a good chunk of the series by memory. Some may call that pathetic, but I like to think of it as passionate :). I don't know what it is about FRIENDS, but no matter how I'm feeling, it always puts me in a good mood, and after so many years, it still makes me laugh. Watching with your own friends is the perfect pastime on lazy day. 

I'm aware that the lives of these six characters are completely unrealistic. For example, they spend far too much time at the cleverly named Central Perk Coffee House and not enough time at, say, work, but I can't help but wish that these were my friends. To live across the hall from each other, get into comical shenanigans and spend the majority of your twenties growing up with your five favorite people just sounds delightful. The relationships that they all have with each other is what I really love about the show. Not to mention, their individual quirks and personalities. 

Although I love them all, Chandler Bing, otherwise known as Ms. Chanandler Bong, is probably my favorite character of the bunch. He is a sarcastic SOB who can turn anything into a joke. The relationship he ventures into with Monica, the overly particular, mother hen of the group, is one of my favorite story lines of the series. Keeping it a secret from everyone led to my all time favorite episode and Phoebe delivering the line of "They don't know we know they know we know." It still makes me giggle. Phoebe's random jingles and funky style makes her the oddball of the group. She and Joey have a funny connection because they are both a little less intellectual than the rest of the friends. Joey is the aspiring actor who isn't very good and always ends up mooching off of Chandler. But, Joey is so lovable that he Chandler just doesn't care. And finally, the on again, off again, romance between Ross and Rachel. This is definitely one of the major aspects of the show that made it such a success. Ross is the nerdy paleontologist that has had a thing for Rachel since high school. She was popular and he...wasn't. But eventually, years later, she ditched the spoiled daddy's girl persona and made something of herself in the fashion world. They started dating, then took a break, then got back together, then broke up. You get the idea. But I think everyone knew they would end up together in the final episode. How could they not? They're Ross and Rachel.   

I've probably listened to the opening song by REM hundreds of times, but as soon as they say, "So no one told you life was gonna be this way," I instinctively sing along. And I probably won't ever stop.       

"Jersey" is Making its Way to Italy

"GTL," "DTF," and "the shirt before the shirt" are now common phrases that have finagled their way into popular culture. And, we have MTV's "Jersey Shore" to thank (or to hate) for that. Having watched an episode of this mega hit in my Senior Seminar class yesterday for the sake of analyzing its widespread appeal, I figured now is as good a time as any to write about it.

I'm willing to venture a guess and say that if you haven't seen the show, then you've at least heard about it, and you probably know that it is essentially the Italian "Guido" version of "The Real World." Eight housemates live together for the summer and over 50 cameras are used to capture their every move. For one reason or another, we enjoy watching the drama unfold making "Jersey Shore" the highest rated show in MTV's history, pulling in over seven million viewers during its season three finale just a week ago.

I can't even lie, I was one of those seven million viewers. I realize that it's crap t.v., but that doesn't stop me from giggling whenever one of the cast members does something ridiculous or off the wall. The show isn't meant to be serious, and I don't take as such. For me, it's simply comical. I mean, how many times can Sammi and Ronnie break up and get back together in one episode? You'd be surprised.

Season four of this ratings buster will no longer be filmed on the classy shore of Seaside Heights. These "Guidettes" and "Gorilla Juice-heads" are making their way to Italy. I guess a change in scenery was necessary for their partying lifestyle. Honestly, I don't know how I feel about this. The cast has managed to perpetuate many stereotypes that people believe to be true about Italian Americans, and I know that many people have been offended by the show and the cast members' behavior. I wonder how the natives of Italy are going to respond to them being there.

These eight fist-pumping, spray tanning party animals are still riding the wave of their 15 minutes of fame, and it doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. And while we laugh at Snooki for getting stuck in a cardboard box and drunkenly stumbling around on the beach, she and the rest of the cast are making millions, so maybe the joke is on us.  

"Skins" Should Put Some Clothes On

"Skins" is the newest show on MTV and arguably the weirdest. Premiering in January of this year, it is the Americanized version of a very successful show that originated in the U.K. Having seen the ads leading up to its debut, I thought, "Meh." Just not my thing. So when I saw that it was on (which is all the time, because MTV replays episodes to the point of exhaustion), I would change the channel. That is, until last weekend when I was at a friends house and wasn't in control of the remote.

We watched two episodes and I came to the conclusion that "Skins" is a racier adaptation of the Canadian show "Degrassi," depicting teenage angst in all its glory. Sex, drugs, alcohol, peer pressure, identity, and self-image all make their way into the plot lines. And, not surprisingly, these high schoolers show a lot of 'skin' throughout the hour long episode.

I can understand why people are drawn to it. These troubled teens really do act their age, and they go through the highs and lows, the good and the miserable, that many teenagers face in real life. That could be because teenagers help write the show, giving it that raw feeling of emotion. Who better to write about the pressures of high school than those living it? However, when watching, some of the dialogue felt very forced, not the natural way that high schoolers speak. And some scenes were just plain awkward and I was left feeling uncomfortable.

Having never seen the British version of the show I can't compare the two. Though there was a great deal of skepticism from critics and fans that bringing "Skins" to America would ruin its authenticity because American television is much more prudish than it is in the U.K. Americans are OK with showing violence on t.v., but sex and drugs are more of a no-no on basic cable. From what I saw, however, it didn't look like they were holding back. I was very surprised by the amount of sexual content that was displayed.

"Skins" is not a show that I plan to keep watching. I was right in my assumption that is wasn't for me. But if you don't feel awkward watching a 15-year-old masturbate without realizing that her grandmother with alzheimer's has just walked in the room and crawled in bed with her, be my guest.  

 

"Hoarding" is Horrifying

Have you ever been flipping through channels, stop on one of the many random TLC programs and stay there for a while, not realizing until the next commercial break that you've been making a face of confusion/disgust/shock for the past ten minutes? That's happened to me more times than I'd like to admit, but when TLC airs shows about a "Tree Man" (a man who literally has massive tree-like growths all over his body), 700 pound people, a family with 19 KIDS AND COUNTING, and a man with THREE WIVES, it's hard to keep a normal expression while watching.

My most recent discovery on TLC is a disturbingly fascinating show called, "Hoarding: Buried Alive." Hoarding is an obsessive compulsive disorder in which people acquire items of no real value, but are unable to to let them go, severely cluttering their home to the point of it no longer being a functional living space. I think these photos say it all.

The first episode I happened to see involved a couple that had been hoarding something like 15 rabbits (among all of the other unnecessary crap around them). They were literally living in a layer of rabbit feces covering their floor. I was HORRIFIED, and I felt bad for the rabbits living in that environment with no choice in the matter. Of course, I'm incapable of understanding the kind of anxiety these people feel when the thought of throwing away their stuff goes through their mind. But I will never be able to wrap my head around the fact that these people are more comfortable and at ease with this clutter around them than with it not. When they are confronted about the problem many of them become belligerent and have a meltdown. To me, the way they are living is absurd, but it's a behavior they are unable to stop.

I have seen a couple of episodes since and what's interesting is that in their regular day-to-day lives, you would never guess that some of these people are hoarders. They seem perfectly "normal" in every other way, and then a friend comes over to visit for the first time and they can't believe what they're seeing.

I am a neat freak. I can't handle things being out of place, and I absolutely can't stand clutter. If I was growing up in a house full of hoarders and I was unable to find a clear walkway through my living room, I just might have a heart attack. Watching people live this way made me anxious enough. I wouldn't say that this is a show I "like," however, it is interesting to say the least. Hoarders live in a whole different world, a world I really knew nothing about until I saw it with my own two eyes. And what I saw was not cute.

"Modern Family" is a Laugh-Out-Loud Mockumentary

Over winter break I spent one very lazy afternoon with a friend of mine. She had downloaded the entire first season of ABC's "Modern Family" on her computer and was in the middle of watching it. I joined in and we ended up watching probably ten back to back episodes all in one day. I'm very glad that she introduced me to this family sitcom because it's the best one they've created in years.

Not only does it depict the modern day struggles of parenting, but it also portrays a gay couple with an adopted Asian daughter, and today's frequently seen older rich man married to a much younger vixen. They are all part of one family, and the best part? It's hilarious. Each character brings something different to the show.

We have the overly controlling mother, Claire Dunphy, and her lovable screw-up of a husband, Phil, who says things like, "I'm the cool dad, that's my thang." The two of them have three kids, Haley, Alex, and Luke, each of which couldn't be more different from each other. Claire's brother, Mitchell Pritchett, has a personality similar to hers. He is in a relationship with Cameron Tucker, a very fun-loving, and flamboyant gay man, and the two of them fawn over their adopted baby, Lily, the most docile child in the world. As long as I have been watching the show, she has never made a peep. Jay Pritchett is the father of Claire and Mitchell and is married to his second "trophy" wife, Gloria, a very beautiful, loud Colombian woman with a rich accent. Gloria brings her son Manny, a very self-assured and mature young boy into the marriage, and into this very dysfunctional, yet adorable family.

In terms of the way the show is filmed, it has a similar feel to "The Office." It is as if we are watching their lives unfold in a home movie. The characters also take turns giving mock interviews into the camera, a style of television that has become quite popular.

Each of the three subsequent families represent a different aspect of today's conventional lifestyles. Hence the show title. The storyline is fresh, the writing is comical, and the acting is fantastic. Overall, this is definitely a half-hour sitcom worth watching. In fact, in 2010, "Modern Family" won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. If you haven't already, I suggest tuning in.