Tag Archives: So You Think You Can Dance

Reflection: NBC’s The Sing-Off Season 4

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So I totally mis-understood the televised schedule for this little gem and decided that since it is already a few weeks after the “finale”, I am probably better off just posting my thoughts about NBC’s The Sing-Off on my personal blog as opposed as on the PureTVNet.com blog… at least until I get my life back to relative normal instead of burned-out.

In case you don’t know, NBC’s The Sing-Off:

[…] showcases the country’s top a cappella groups performing popular songs in ways that viewers have never heard before. “The Sing-Off” has no lip-syching, backup bands or safety net.

Granted even though the series has been on hiatus for over a year, it was nice to see this back on the airwaves. However, one cannot help but wonder if this was because of the slowly growing success of Season Three’s winner Pentatonix?

And if you have been living under a rock for the past year… here is Pentatonix’s Evolution of Beyonce:

The fourth season of “The Sing-Off” showcased ten a cappella groups over seven weeks of singing, competing for a recording contract and $100,000…

So who won?

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Reflections: Participating in Cattle Call Auditions

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This past weekend was the cattle call auditions for NBC’s The Voice… Season 4. Now technically I did this back in Season 2 as a favor for a friend that wanted to go for her own personal reasons and at that time I didn’t really prepare anything worth while. This time around I did, kind of… well not really considering I didn’t really decide to go until the Friday before the weekend.

So why do I do it? For the experience primarily, because even though I audition for community theatre productions the one arena that has always tripped me up was singing, I get so nervous that I don’t sing anywhere near my best. So I end up screwing myself over.

What I find with cattle call auditions is that they give me the chance to work through my nerves on a grander scale and really just bring me back down to reality. This is in the sense that an audition is just that “an audition” and it is not the end of the world if you don’t move forward.
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Fleeting: Reality Television in Việt Nam

So I have this little obsession, not really obsession but something that I haven’t really voice all that much before. I have an addiction for reality television… but not necessarily in the states… in Việt Nam. Quaint isn’t it?

It all started with my love of reality television (Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Got Talent and The Voice) and blogging about them. Which is bad enough as it is… then I learned a long time ago (aka a couple of years ago) that there is a version of Dancing with the Stars already on the airwaves in Việt Nam. Well needless to say I tried to figure out a way to watch it… but to no avail. Ah well.

The same goes for the other reality tv competition shows… no way for those Vietnamese-Americans on state side to watch if we wanted to, so off to YouTube we go.

Anyway what drove me to write this post? The following clip that I saw while at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport (aka Saigon International Airport):

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Review: Fanaticly Website and App for SYTYCD

About a month and a half ago I was approached to review a website and corresponding app for iPhone. Interesting proposition to be sure, but something I don’t usually do… I can be harsh with my reviews, blunt and to the point. I have no qualms in exposing what I do not like about something, but at the same time I will acknowledge when something is done right.

This is no different, there are some aspects of either the website or the app that I dislike, but there are also some aspects of the website or app that I truly liked…

So beyond the break I will provide my impressions in regards to the app and the website. After my impressions there will be a quick line or two for the positives, negatives and the bottom line for both the app and the website. At the end of this post will be my final thoughts and what I would love to see down the road… preferably sooner than later.
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UPDATES: New Pages Added at PureDWTS and PureSYTYCD

Over the past few weeks I have been beefing up various reference pages over at PureDWTS (Pure Dancing with the Stars) and PureSYTYCD (Pure So You Think You Can Dance) blog sites. More will come over time, but the below is what has been completed thus far, original they were posted on my personal blog, but some have been transferred over to the blogs mentioned above.

Pure So You Think You Can Dance Reference Pages
“All Star” Choreographers
Before the “All Stars” came into being, past contestants of So You Think You Can Dance have been asked to come back and choreograph routines for a pair of dancers. Here you can find who has been asked to come back to choreograph a piece for the dancers on the show

“All Star” Dancers
When the “All Star” Dancers were first announced in Season 7 there was rampant speculation as to who would be chosen as the “All Star” Dancers. What was originally a pool of ten dancers grew to move due to availability for the show in Season 8. Here you could find out who was brought back as an “All Star” and when they were on the show as an “All Star” Dancer

Audition Cities
This is a table of all the cities that So You Think You Can Dance has visited before “Vegas Callbacks” (originally called “Hollywood Weekend” in Season One). This table is broken down by season.

Crossover with Dancing with the Stars
Several ballroom dancers that have been on SYTYCD have crossed over to the other major television dancing show: Dancing with the Stars. How those dancers have fared on the other major dance show are found here along with whom they were partnered with.

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Fleeting: 2012 Tonys (Once and Newsies)

The 2012 Tony Awards aired… I was excited this time around because two of the shows with a lot of buzz were coming in with quite a few nominations: Once and Newsies, both of which I saw on my last trip to NYC. The only major similarity is that both are based off of movies of the same name, both are special in different ways.

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Reflections: 25 Things…

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This was posted as a note on my Facebook page probably a few years ago. I’m thinking about 2009-ish. So a lot of people haven’t really seen this from what I can recall.

The “25 Things” is suppose to represent twenty-five things about you that most people wouldn’t know about right off the bat and that you wouldn’t mind letting people know about. So the first time I did it, the list turned out to be very depressing so I deleted it and decided not to do it. Then I tried again and was a little bit happier with what I came up with… so I took it off of my Facebook page and brought here instead.

Ironically, looking at this now, there were some things that were meant for the year of 2009, but in the end also works for 2012. So for those of you that have seen this already, I apologize, but for those that haven’t, well enjoy!

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Review: Disney’s the Newsies, the Musical – Original Broadway Production

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When The Newsies first came out to movie theaters in 1992, it was well known as a massive financial and commercial flop. The star of the movie, Christian Bale, was said to have hated the movie so much that he reportedly wouldn’t talk or even acknowledge its existence in his acting career (but between you and me Christian should thank his lucky stars that the Newsies was a flop otherwise it wouldn’t have given him the drive to improve himself as an actor and therefore be an Oscar winner today – but that’s a different story).

Fast forward a couple of decades and the Newsies became a massive cult classic… what started as a flop in movie theaters across the country became a cult classic when put on VHS and DVD (I know I’m guilty of that). So when it came out that Disney Theatrical was working on a musical version of the beloved movie, the general consensus was cautiously positive and with just cause because the movie did not do well how would a stage production fare?

So Disney got smart, they tested the show out of town to positive reviews, reworked a few things here and there and brought it to Broadway on a limited but open ended engagement. Next thing you know it has been a packed house ever since.

Being a Newsies fan I was intrigued with the concept of the stage production and so far liked what I saw. However, knowing that some pieces of the storytelling got changed or rearranged, songs got cut others got added in, I was reasonably apprehensive. Was Disney selling out the integrity of the story in favor of catering to a larger audience? I didn’t quite know what to think, so originally I decided to wait until the soundtrack came out to make my decision of whether to see the show live or not… originally.

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Reflection: Since my original top ten “bucket list” is done… Now what?

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This has been bothering me for a few years, a few as in the past three or four years… why? Well, let me explain:

While I was in college, I created a “Top Ten” bucket list that I felt was semi-realistic and would be something that would keep me busy for decades to come… right… “decades”. More like “decade”… as in one, as in less than a decade. Granted anyone that knows me well, know what I really want out of life… but in the meantime a bucket of things to do in the meantime would always help… right? Right… little did I know.

I have always believed in the willingness of trying anything at least once, possibly twice just to make sure the first wasn’t a fluke. Then, if it turns out to be something I truly enjoy, then I’ll pursue the activity further in the future, possibly bring more people into coming with me. If in the end it just wasn’t my cup of tea, then at least I could say that I gave it a shot. I mean think about it… If everyone did as much as they could just once in their lives they would find hundreds, if not thousands of things they could be interested in and pursue… Instead of just staying in a small little circle.

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Blogging: DWTS Season 14 – Pre-Cast Announcement

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Tomorrow’s the cast announcement for Dancing with the Stars Season 14 and I’m excited. Why? Because I get to bring my writing background and combine it with my love of ballroom dancing and crunch numbers up the wazoo… I swear I should have been a statistician or actuary at this point, but I digress.

In previous seasons of Dancing with the Stars at the PureDWTS.com weblog I would post my pre-season predictions of who the numbers say would be eliminated in what order. For more information go to my post DWTS Season 11’s Who has the Edge?: Part 1 and Part 2. If you’re curious here were my pre-season elimination predictions for Season 12 and Season 13.

Now if you’re wondering how did I get myself into this… let me tell you.

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Video: Allison Holker & Derek Hough on DWTS Season 13

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I am not worthy! I am not going to even comment on the following routine because it is just THAT good. This routine was performed on Dancing with the Stars Season 13, Tuesday 1st of November and it rocked. Primarily an Argentine Tango, there were moments of contemporary, hip hop and flamenco thrown in there for good measure.

Coupled with fantastic music (in this case it is Gypsy by Black Violin)… argh, I can’t comment. Just watch!