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sidwich

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Everything posted by sidwich

  1. I saw Ms. Garrett as Mr./Ms. Majyx in a local revival of My One and Only only a few years ago. She must have been well into her eighties by then and she was as bright and charismatic a performer as ever. It's really a shame that her career never had the chance to fully blossom as it should have. She will be missed.
  2. I know! Whenever I hear rumblings of "boot problems" for anyone, I just start feeling total dread and shadows of the Kwan-Riedell debacle.
  3. Arcadia-Palm Springs is not that bad actually; the commute is probably on par with the commute they're already doing since that one requires driving through almost all of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Arcadia (where the Nagasus live) is way on one side of Metro LA and El Segundo (where Carroll is currently coaching) is way on the other side. The Nagasus and Carroll could make it work if they wanted to, since they've already made Arcadia-El Segundo work. I just doubt they want to make it work for whatever reason now. I'm concerned because I actually think option #3 is a real possibility. Bradley will be going in as U.S. #1, and I think it's a very big question mark how he will react to his new designation. Dornbush and Miner have had very good results as juniors, but Miner's senior results this year have been so-so (9th in Japan and 7th in China) and Dornbush doesn't have any. I think they are both very talented, but it's unclear how they will stack up against the rest of the world. I'll admit that I'm perhaps biased because I'm not a fan of Bradley's long program. I know Bradley was injured, but it's the same program that landed in 18th place at Worlds last year. I think the only things going for it internationally are the two quads. If Bradley misses on the two quads as he did at nationals, I can very much see him being well out of the top ten and leaving the U.S. depending on Dornbush and/or Miner.
  4. Denise Bielman is a freak of nature who does not age. I'm convinced she will be feeding herself muesli from the Bielman position well into her eighties. I am still trying to process everything that happened in at the USFSA championships this year. Coughlin and Yankowskas finally delivered the performance that many expected them to do last year, and will be going with Evora and Ladwig as the pairs contingent. It's the first halfway decent U.S. pairs group in recent memory. Defending pairs champions Denney and Barrett were edged out for a spot on the World team. They've made improvements, but I think their "upside" is limited. Two-time pairs champion Rockne Brubacker finished just off the podium with his new partner of 5 months Mary Beth Marley. (Yes, the U.S. pairs field is that shallow). Davis and White won their third dance title as expected. I'm one of the few that actually really likes their tango program, but I'm an even bigger fan on their short dance which is fast, deep and strong. The brother-sister Shibutanis had an extremely promising seniors debut, and will also be going on to Worlds. Now, on to the drama. Three former U.S. Ladies champions vying for two spots on the World team. Alissa Czisny, one of the best spinners in the world along with new European champion Sarah Meier, delivered an excellent performance, and Rachael Flatt fought it out, leaving Mirai Nagasu behind. Considering her coach Frank Carroll's comments to the press afterwards, I fear the Carroll-Nagasu relationship is not long for this world. The men's event...well, the U.S. men have been a slam dunk for three slots at Worlds for almost a decade now, and I'm very concerned that they're only going to have one slot in 2012. Jeremy Abbott and Adam Rippon had terrible skates leaving the door open for journeyman Ryan Bradley to win his first U.S. title at the age of 27, followed by Richard Dornbush and Ross Miner. Bear in mind, Ryan Bradley finished 18th at the Worlds last year (his best finish is 15th), Ross Miner just competed at his first senior U.S. Nationals and Richard Dornbush has never competed as an international senior at all. Two need to have combined placements of 28 to secure two spots for worlds in 2012, and I'm very concerned about this inexperienced group, however talented. I'm actually most sad that Jeremy Abbott will probably never give the great performance of his long program which it's worthy of. It's really so stunning when he performs it well, but perhaps it's just not meant to be this year.
  5. Probably not surprising. The King's Speech also has the advantage of being a European-history based, English-accented period piece which seems to be a type particularly beloved by Academy members which tend to skew older and may not be as familiar with the Facebook phenomenon.
  6. Please keep us updated, Pamela. USFSA senior events began this afternoon, but I will not able to see most of the skates until this weekend when the networks televise the major competitors. Dance and the men's event look fairly strong, the junior girls have looked promising, and 11-year old Nathan Chen dominated the novice boys for the second year in a row, crushing his nearest competition by 35 points.
  7. For something to be defamation, it actually must be defamatory, and I don't think there's anything in the film that actually defames Ben Stevenson. The film is actually very sympathetic to Stevenson. It's extremely difficult for a public figure to win any kind of defamation case in the U.S. (Americans love their First Amendment so! Even when they have no idea what it actually says!), but I would be very surprised if the filmmakers did not receive permission from Stevenson to use his name in the film. Actually, I was actually quite shocked at how much of a narcissist Li was portrayed as in the film. For a son to abandon his family to fate very likely to include execution, hard labor and/or prison, especially coming off of the heels of the Cultural Revolution, is something that I can only consider the height of selfishness and disloyalty to the family.
  8. I agree with dirac. I don't think that the solution is as simple as bumping Huckleberry Finn to college courses. Yes, it's a problematic piece in many way, but it's also one of the integral texts in American literature, and much of post 19th Century American literature makes much more sense after reading it. I'm actually quite sad that I didn't read it in high school. (It wasn't because of any controvery; my high school's English department rotated the books that were taught every year and Huckleberry Finn just wasn't in the mix that fell for my class.)
  9. Considering Miss Portman is very, very visibly pregnant at this point (in case anyone missed the press release which was carried by all the major news outlets), I think it's pretty obvious. Actually, although not the most decorous thing to do, it may have actually been a smart move on her part. I've always thought she had a fairly remote screen personality (probably not helped by the fact that she was buried under pounds and pounds of costuming and make-up for the Star Wars prequels). She has a new movie coming out with Ashton Kutcher which features their characters have lots and lots of sex, so I think the outburst actually has made her much more approachable and perhaps much more believable in the context of her new sex comedy rather than her persona of "Natalie Portman who went to Harvard and who is so much better than you."
  10. Keanu Reeves is near the top of my "worst actor/actress" list, but either he or someone on his management team has very good taste in projects. Like everyone, he's had his duds, but his "hit rate" is much better than most. (Cameron Diaz is another actor who I think is mediocre at best, but tends to make very good choices in projects.) I don't think bad acting is limited to the U.S. Some of the other actors on my worst list are Orlando Bloom (British), Aishwarya Rai (Indian) and Diane Kruger (German). I think Keira Knightley is an okay actress, but more importantly, she's filling the tall, blonde and white, model-thin space occupied by Gwyneth Paltrow ten years ago. She should watch her back, though, because Blake Lively is jockeying like crazy to supplant her in the next year or so.
  11. For the person who asked about Judi Dench as Sally. Dench as London's first Sally in 1968.
  12. Well, it depends on who you consider the shows "creators," and Cabaret is a funny case in that there's really not a clear-cut answer. Traditionally in musical theatre, the "creators" were considered the composer and lyricist, in this case, Kander and Ebb, who were definitely against casting Miss Haworth as Sally. Hence, "Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific," "Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady," "Frank Loessor's Guys and Dolls. Although important, the director in each of those cases (Josh Logan, Moss Hart, George Kauffman) generally was not and is not considered the "creator" of the show. Cabaret is interesting in that it's one of the early stage "concept musicals," musicals which are built around a "concept" rather than a storyline. So, instead of moving the story along, much of the music in Cabaret generally comments on events and themes in the piece. Eight years further down the concept musical road, Bob Fosse actually took the 1973 film version to its logical conclusion by excising almost all of the non-cabaret music from the piece (I think the only song not in the cabaret in the film is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me"). And historically, the movement towards concept musicals was accompanied by the centering of the creative vision on the director instead of the writer. So for example, the late 1960s and 1970s became the heyday of directors like Bob Fosse, Hal Prince and Jerome Robbins, and much of the creative vision of shows like "Pippin" and "Evita" is usually credited to them. Some might say that that's because the inherent source material is actually pretty weak and the directorial vision in those cases is the only thing that has made them viable shows, but there's no question that Pippin is almost always considered Bob Fosse's show rather than Stephen Schwartz's. So to say that Miss Haworth did what the "creators" wanted her to do, I think, is still a stretch. She may have accomplished what the director Hal Prince had in mind, but I don't think she accomplished what all the creators envisioned. I think of Miss Minnelli as a very "needy" performer, and for Sally Bowles, it totally works.
  13. I think this underscores the collaborative nature of theatre, because from what I recall Kander and Ebb did not want Miss Haworth to play Sally on Broadway at all. They had written much of Sally's music with their friend and collaborator Liza Minnelli in mind for the role, but as young writers were overruled by Hal Prince in the casting. I don't think they even allowed "Maybe This Time" to be used in the original Broadway production and did not allow it to be used for Cabaret until Liza Minnelli played the role in the film. (I think it's been in each revival since then). It does seem to be the eternal question with Sally: whether to cast the role of a mediocre singer with an excellent singer (like Miss Minnelli) or with someone who is an excellent actress but mediocre singer (like Natasha Richardson). I think when the Donmar Warehouse revival of Cabaret was running, Sam Mendes explained his vision of the Sally question probably along the same lines as Hal Prince did in the original production: why would someone as talented as Liza Minnelli ever be singing in a seedy dive like the cabaret? But in any case, condolences to Miss Haworth's family and friends. She created one of the iconic roles in musical theatre and will always be remembered for it.
  14. Actually, this is an interesting point. There's no question that Bristol lacks stretch, articulation, and most of all attack. But even though her upper-body and torso aren't aesthetically pleasing, the fundamental positioning is actually quite sound for a beginner-intermediate dancer. Her torso moves as one and she is mostly able to maintain it squarely to Mark which allows them maximal maneuverability and good leg swing. Their movement across the floor as a couple and frame is relatively stable, which is a good sign at this point. If she were actually to continue dancing, her coach would probably send her to ballet and jazz class to develop those aspects of her dancing, but the basics of good technique are there. Jennifer is stretched, but her positioning is not sound and I'm actually surprised that Derek lets her get away with it given her medical history. She's arches over her lower back which looks pretty, but is not stable (for obvious reasons) and is fundamentally bad technique because it doesn't let the couple move together from their cores, as well as being potentially dangerous for her back. If you actually watch Derek and Jennifer dance together, Jennifer is moving all over the place. In some ways, her flexibiltiy is a liability because she doesn't have the corresponding strength and positioning to control it. They're not able to maintain stable movement together, and actually, I highly doubt that Jennifer could maintain that position for a full 5 dances even if she were completely healthy. Of course, what you really want is a combination of both: layering Jennifer's stretch and flexibility over the top of Bristol's stable positioning, but really Bristol's technique is much more sound in this area. If Jennifer were to keep dancing, Derek would have to fundamentally re-work what she is doing.
  15. DWTS has always been very B-list, and often C or D-list. Like for all reality shows, casting is something of a crapshoot of who the producers want and who is begging to get onto the show (for various reasons). I think the tabloidy aspect of it is part of its appeal for a lot of people. I'm sure I was not the only one with a lurid fascination of how Heather Mills McCartney ("Charity Campaigner" which for me will always be up there with "Teen Abstinence Advocate") was going to dance on one leg. I used to work on a reality tv show, so believe me, I am well, well aware that this show isn't an artistic competition. Even if DWTS were a contest (which it isn't for FCC purposes), there really is nothing wrong with telling people to vote for Bristol. Every celebrity interested in staying on the show since Season 1 has done that, and most are doing it via Facebook and Twitter as well. As it happens, Sarah Palin's base is bigger than most, so it seems like it's very, very effective for Bristol. But it's really part of the show for all of the celebs. Robo-calling is actually a much bigger issue, and I actually haven't heard much on that front from Mrs. Palin's supporters (which is not to say that they're not doing it). That's actually come up as an issue on DWTS before, but I haven't heard much about that this season. However, this does bring up a point that I should have mentioned earlier, since DWTS doesn't qualify as a contest, it really doesn't matter how the judges vote or how viewers vote. The producers can pretty much do anything they please since they are not required to follow any rules. Even if Bristol "wins" by a huge margin of votes, if the producers choose to do so, they could disqualify a large proportion of Bristol's votes and declare someone else (Jennifer, Kyle) the winner. In fact, they could declare Winnie-The-Pooh the winner because, again, it's not a contest. From what I can tell from both the B-reel and how their students perform season after season, how much actual dance training the pros give varies widely from pro to pro. Some pros seem to try to convey actual concepts of technique as they work with their celebrities, and their celebs tend perform pretty well season after seaon (Derek, Mark, Cheryl, Louis, etc.) Others of the pros either are not very effective teachers and their celeb results are much more inconsistent (Edyta, Anna, Tony, etc.) I find the amount of energy Maks puts into his celebrities varies a lot from season to season, perhaps depending on the celebrity's aptitude and attitude. You do have to remember that the quality of the pros on the show in real dance world terms varies from World Class coach and competitor who has coached many of the other pros (Louis van Amstel) to neighborhood dance instructor (not going to name names) and everything in-between. The quality of instruction reflects that. And that is not to say that there aren't some excellent neighborhood dance instructors, as well as some excellent dancers who are really mediocre teachers which is also definitely reflected on the show. If you mean by "straight dance class" you mean sending a celebrity to ballet or jazz class, I don't think there's anything against the "rules" about that, and I think there has been B-reel of celebrities in other dance classes in the past. There have been issues with pros bringing in other choreographers, and I believe that they are not allowed to do that anymore, probably because that begins to involve intellectual property issues. (Cheryl Burke brought in another choreographer for "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy," and said choreographer was not pleased when only Cheryl's name was listed on the choreography for Emmy consideration, and so the producers have cracked down on that since then). As an aside, from a purely reality producer perspective, I don't think that the producers could have ever imagined that Bristol's casting could have ever been as wildly successful as this. I don't remember this much energy and interest in the show in several seasons. It has become an amazing cultural flashpoint.
  16. I can't fault her for the "I'm real" thing, mainly because I don't think we can realistically expect anyone to say, "I'm a terrible dancer and I'm only here because people keep voting me in." Unfortunately, I don't think the judges are going to give her terrible scores on Monday because a) the producers are not going to risk antagonizing a large bloc of viewers and giving her 1s and 2s would be a huge slap in the face to people who are voting for her, and b) with a vote as large as Bristol's must be, it's actually not a slamdunk that bad scores will get someone off the show. Kelly Monaco's initial scores on the first season of DWTS were quite low and she still never got voted off (and in fact, she won even though she may have my vote for worst dancer ever on the show). Having worked in reality television in the past, I can tell you producers don't really like the idea of negating the viewer vote. It distances the viewership from the show instead of getting them fully invested in the show. DWTS is already unusual in having a judges vote at all, and the producers tend the lessen the impact of it over the course of the season by having the scores converge over time. I really don't see them pulling their punches on the finale. For me, Laila Ali had the worst feet ever on the show. No point and push at all. It was really obvious as the show went on.
  17. Astaire always publicly demurred on the question of who his favorite partner was, but he always spokely highly and fondly of Rita Hayworth. The Cansinos major influences and idols to the young Astaires in their vaudeville days (along with the Kalmars and the Castles). And yes, Rita Hayworth did seem to have a tragic knack for terrible relationships with men. Still, her colleagues always seemed to have great affection for her. I can't remember who said it, but I remember one of them saying that other stars might be happy to go through the motions and pick up a paycheck but Hayworth managed to believe every dumb line she ever had to say in a movie.
  18. I doubt it. This show has never been about the best dancer, and it's been quite obvious since the beginning when Kelly Monaco won on the back of a huge General Hospital fanbase. Actually, I think the "best" dancer has won a few times, but mediocre dancers have won just as often, and more than a few downright poor dancers have made it to the finals. What I find interesting about Bristol is that as much as she is getting significant support for reasons other than her dancing, she seems to inspire a hostile reactions for non-dancing reasons as well. Bristol's not a very good dancer, but I think she's nowhere near the worst dancer ever on the show. Even if she won, I don't think she'd be the worst ever winner. Kelly Monaco really was very, very bad. DWTS is actually quite studious about avoiding being characterized as a game-show. If you'll notice, the only thing the winners receive is the (worthless) mirrorball trophy; there is never anything that can be characterized as a prize of any real value. By staying on the "reality show," side of the FCC's dotted line, the producers are able to play fast and loose with the rules of the show (what are they?) and the judges don't have to maintain any consistency (my commentary on this is long and involved). This also gives them a lot of leeway on the issue of robo-calling and vote manipulation which has come up more than once on this show, and I'll be interested in seeing how this comes out if really is as big of an issue as some have alleged this year.
  19. Rick really got sunk with the show's gimmick of the week. The quickstep was always going to be difficult for him with the closed hold and the extreme height difference, but having to use Julianne and Helio's choreography really made it an almost impossible task. The choreography was really put together for relatively short, but well-matched dancers with uber-perky personalities and Rick and Cheryl are really the complete opposite. Without Cheryl being able to put something together more suited to Rick's strengths and weaknesses (and really her own strengths and weaknesses since Cheryl's not even close to as good a Standard dancer as Julianne), I thought there was a good possibility he might be going home. As an aside, I was really amused by the apple boxes the producers must have been putting Cheryl on for the backstage interviews. It was fascinating seeing how Cheryl grew to be the same height as Derek Hough! I can't remember if there is any judges vote in the final, but even if there is, the votes will be so close that the public vote will determine the winner. The judges are always pretty generous to whoever is in the final no matter how terrible they are. Actually, you can pretty much tell who is getting major public support because no matter how bad they are and how little they are improving, their judges comments become much more positive about halfway through the season. The producers don't like to come across as telling America that their favorites are not very good.
  20. Kurt's not better than Audrina, and suffers from a lot of the same problems (see my notes on Anna's problems as a teacher). He does benefit from being a great athlete, but he's had his share of injuries during his career, so I suspect he has some physical limitations. I still think he's going to win, but that's mainly because he is such a beloved figure in the heartland. Bristol and Rick have much cleaner beginner technique than Audrina, and I'm a purist... to me, that means a lot. They both maintain better position relative to their partners, their basic movement from foot to foot is much more secure, and Cheryl and Mark both choreograph more substantive routines for their celebs (more balanced routines with combinations of movement in all directions, partnering, side-by-side work, etc.) Both Bristol and Rick do have problems, but their basic technical foundation is more solid, so on my armchair scorecard, I would have them ahead of Audrina. Don't get me wrong. Audrina's a gorgeous woman and there is definitely a not-insignificant school of thought that a woman's main job in ballroom/latin is to look beautiful and be where the man puts her which Audrina succeeds at beautifully. I just don't subscribe to it.
  21. Audrina is physically stunning, but her technique is poor. The only one of that group that I'd say is a consistently weaker dancer is actually Kurt. Leaving aside her vacant performance quality, Audrina has the same technical problems that all of Tony's celebrities have. Leaving aside Sara Evans and Kate Gosselin who were just poor dancers all around, none of Tony's celebs including Stacey Kiebler, Jane Seymour, Audrina, etc. really use their feet, ankles and knees when they dance. They're dancing "on top of the floor" rather than really using it. It makes their dancing "brittle," and it's part of why Audrina's paso has this strange stomping quality to it. Tony's also a poor teacher of partnering; Audrina's frame is weak and floppy, which is why Audrina goes flying a few times during the paso (and not in a good way). Unlike most of the rest of Tony's celebrities, Audrina is fairly inconsistent in keeping time with the music. She loses it more than a few times in the paso. Kyle and Rick are benefitting from a combination of innate talent and Lacey and Cheryl who are actually both pretty good teachers. Bristol's not as physically blessed as Audrina, but Mark's a pretty good teacher and her technique is actually quite clean for a beginner. Kyle, Rick and Bristol are actually generally improving week to week. Kurt's physically talented but he has Anna T. for a partner, so I doubt we'll see him improve any more than we saw Audrina do. Anna and Tony are both excellent dancers, but as far as I can tell, they both suffer from "blessed with natural talent syndrome." The re-creation of movement seems to come easily to them; I think it's hard for them to articulate it in teaching others, and their students suffer for it.
  22. I don't think my professor thought that Postman was holy writ, but she was interested in questions of how Cain's novel had been adapted in different forms, hence the repeated viewings of Postman and Ossessione. (Actually, I don't think anyone thinks of Garnett's Postman as holy writ. I think the de facto holy writ of noir is probably something more like Double Indemnity). The movie that seemed to be holy writ in my film studies was Battleship Potemkin which seemed to pop up in every single film class. My brother has this theory that film professors turn to Potemkin out of laziness. Since Eisenstein was such a prolific author and wrote so exhaustively about his filmmaking technique, it's just easy to use as an example of so many aspects of filmmaking and theory.
  23. Ossessione was caught up in a lot of legal wrangling due to what James M. Cain and his publishers (probably quite rightly) saw as copyright infringement. For a long time, it was notoriously difficult to get a copy of it in the U.S. Now of course with the wonders of youtube... I can't be objective on the Garnett's Postman or Ossessione, having watched each multiple times in the course of a couple of weeks for a film class in college. Although the story is superb, I don't think Postman stands up well against other American noirs of the period, though. Ossessione is excellent, though, and I saw that as someone who has struggled to stay away through pretty much every other Italian neo-realist film I've ever seen.
  24. My money is one Kurt and Anna to win. Kurt is incredibly beloved and Anna has a fanbase of her own. Between that and that cutesy shots of him with his wife and kids, I'm betting on them going the whole way.
  25. I don't think anyone thought a short, C-list boybander and a former WWE model were any casting coup, either, but they made for some very memorable television. It's really impossible to say who is going to make an impression before seeing them on the show. It really depends on how much the "celeb" embraces learning to dance and the relationship they build with their partner. Rick Fox is much, much more than a foot taller than Cheryl. I've stood next to Cheryl in flats, and she is no taller than I am (5'2), and Rick Fox is listed at 6'7. I know that anyone over 6'3 is challenging for me. She is going to have a tough time.
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