Before I get on with my SYTYCD blog...finally...I wanted to share a storm pic with you. The east coast has been having a bit of a heat wave in case you don't live here and didn't know. This afternoon, all hell broke loose. I'd hate to be the owner of this car.
Luckily, he was parked in front of an insurance office! This was about a block and a half away from where I work. I heard there were bigger trees down around town. South Dakota storms are worse but this was still exciting.

I tried to watch American Gladiators last night. I used to love that show back in the day. I still love watching the events and the eliminator is awesome. What I can't stand now is the HORRIBLE dialog! Hulk Hogan and Layla Ali interview the contestants and ask awful questions and get even worse (rehearsed) answers. Last night, this tiny woman was saying how people always count her out before anything starts and she said something along the lines of "I maybe short but I'm tall with determination." YUCK! The entire show is like that. I had to switch the channel. I ended up watching Antiques Roadshow. It was MUCH better.

Last night also marked the beginning of this season of Nashville Star, which has moved to network TV. MJ, from MJ's Big Blog, is expanding her blogging this year to include Nashville Star (she's also doing So You Think You Can Dance and Canadian Idol) so I thought I'd check that out. Well, that's two hours of my life I'm never going to get back. The host is Billy Ray Cyrus which should have been my first clue to stay away. I know he's suppose to be a really down to earth guy but how can you take a guy seriously when he has hair like this.

Or this.


The show started off with clips from auditions and when the judges decided on who the top 12 would be. After that, there was a big group sing which was pretty good for the most part. They ended it with big fireworks that were pointed towards the middle of the stage. For a second there, I thought they were trying to take out a few contestants! The first person to sing was Taylor Swift. I guess she's famous. It was during her performance that I noticed something was wrong the the sound mix. For her there was too much music and not enough singer. But, the rest of the evening, it was the other way around. Needless to say, I started doing other things and was glad that I hadn't already set TiVo to record this show. I did pay attention to the last chick. She was really good. I'm not expecting her to go far since she's a plus sized gal but I can hope!! MJ had a really good recap that you can read here.

Now, on to a good show!!!

This week the competition begins on So You Think You Can Dance and I can't wait!! The top 10 girls will be paired with the top ten guys and the dancing will commence! But that's tomorrow and this is today. I thought I'd better recap Las Vegas week and get all the names down before the big show tomorrow.

They stayed at Planet Hollywood in Vegas. I haven't been to that casino yet. Maybe this is the year...then again, maybe not. Basically, Vegas week is like Hollywood week on Idol. It has the kids doing different dances and getting kicked off or kept. On the judges panel is Debbie Allen of Debbie Allen's School of Dance. If you watched last year when she was a guest judge, you'll remember that she plugged her dance school EVERY chance she got. She even gave one of the kids free tuition. I wonder how many times she'll plug it this year.

The kids start the first day with a hip hop routine. Robert (the guy in the last video from this post) is not having a good time. I didn't think he was going to do well. If you're going to be on this show, you really need at least some training and he didn't have any. He is awesome at what he does but I still think they should have had him do choreography during the audition phase. Anyway, Nigel heard the rumblings that Robert wanted to give up. He calls him on stage and makes him do his solo. Robert is not as good as in his audition but is still impressive. The judges praise him and ask him to stay but he decides to go home anyway. Oh well.

By 3pm of the first day, 62 people were sent packing and the ones that weren't went to the pool. The chick that got hurt during Vegas week in season two, was told to come back for season three but had a baby instead, was cut the first day as well. Out of 203 dancers that made it to Vegas, only 129 made it past the first day.

The morning of day two is Broadway with Tyce Diorio and included a tiny cat fight between Mia and Debbie Allen. We lost 35 people that morning, including one of the twins and Yessy's boy. The afternoon brings the Fox Trot with Jean Marc Geaurex (sp) and lots of tears. We lost pageant girl today...YES! She would have been way too annoying every week. Besides, she has issues. At the end of the day, we don't find out how many dancers remain. What we do find out is that day two is turning into an all-nighter ... with groups! The remaining dancers are split up into groups and given a song to choreograph for day three. This is always fun.

The first group is up and they sucked. They had a tap dancers in the group and, at the end of their number, she came out and tapped around everyone for like a full minute. The judges HATED it. This group included Twitch who also made it last year.

They blow through a few groups that were also bad and stopped to spot light a group that didn't get along. Turns out, they were the best of the day so far. I really liked it! They blow through the rest of the groups and say that they were good. I would have liked to have seen them all. Bummer. Only 4 people were cut after the group numbers.

The afternoon of day three is Contemporary with Mia Michaels and there are 68 dancers left. All the kids are in pain and sleep deprived. One of the dancers talks her way right out of the competition which is too bad because she did pretty well with it. Another one of the dancers messes up really bad, walks off stage, throws a temper tantrum and is cut. A lot of people don't make it past this stage.

It's down to the last round before we find out who the top 20 are. The dancers will be performing their solos and then the judges will decide. After the judges decide, they cal the remaining dancers one by one and tell them if they made it or not. There are a lot of tears both of sadness and joy. There is almost a change of votes with the last two girls but just almost.

Here are the top 20 and what I think about them...if anything.

Gev - I liked him in his audition. He's worked hard to get here and I'll be pulling for him.

Kountni - She's okay. She was the one who graduated from high school at 16 then moved away from home to dance.

Joshua - Love Him!!! I'm really going to be routing for him. He was great in his audition and seems like a really nice guy.

Rayven - I know NOTHING about her.

Matt - didn't get a good look at his face during his "Snuggle Happy Dance" so I don't know if we've seen him before or not.

Courtney - she brought her grandparents to her audition. I like her. I hope she does well.

William Wingfield - Not thrilled about his last name but other than that I have no opinion.

Katee - she was one of the girls in the "controversy" at the end of the top 20 decisions. I think I like her friend that got cut instead. Too bad.

Twitch - I liked him last season so he's one of my early faves

Kherington - First off, why do people name their kids such stupid things? I don't get it. I will also so that I'm not a real big fan of hers. She seems a little too apple pie for me.

Jamie - No clue who he is

Chelsie - this is the girl who's family lost everything and who's brother got a part time job to pay for her dance lessons. I like her.

Chris - his face looks familiar but I don't have anything else but that to say about him.

Jessica - she was in the group that had a blow up. She won 'cause I haven't seen the other guy yet.

Mark - This guy's solo was hysterical!!! I loved it! I hope he get a fun dance the first time out.

Susie - the slutty looking school teacher. Can you guess that I don't like her?

Marquis - who?

Chelsea - she looks kind of like Martha from season 2

Thayne - he looks a little familiar but that's it

Comfort - she's wonderful and has a great personality from what I've seen.

Well, there you have it! Tomorrow is the big night! Are you ready to vote? (At least I hope DialIdol is working.)