About Tonight - DWTS Week 1

Here are a few West Coast spoilers worth noting from the Dancing With The Stars show that airs tonight...


Kim Fields dances early in the show, and does a good job, but makes a mistake at the end of her routine. She seemed happy with her scores, however.

Jodie gets some support from at least one of her Fuller House cast mates.

Geraldo doesn't do very well, but wishes to inspire people to get off the couch and dance. He says we will all have time to be still when we are done with our lives.

Antonio dances a Rumba but rumor has it that he doesn't practice seriously enough. He just shows up on his own schedule. Still, he gets great scores.

Lyle dances a Rhumba and gets his score lowered because they do a lift in their routine. The audience boos the lowered scores.

Paige may dance with Maks because Mark B. hurt his back during practice. He may have a slipped disk.

Mischa doesn't get very high scores dancing the Cha Cha.

Doug may do a Heisman pose in his Paso Doble

Von dances a Cha Cha with a good mix of both traditional moves and his own style with a score of 20.



Someone goes home tonight. Who will it be?


Geraldo - as I predicted in my last blog entry.

Nyle Dimarco Wows on Dancing With The Stars

Last night I watched DWTS for a second time. Confession, I enjoy watching twice - not for the judges comments, nor for the packages, but for the dancing. I like to watch and judge for myself without any of the distractions, because let's face it, there are a lot of them. A new one for me is their Twitter feed that airs simultaneously during the live taping of the show (which translates to an earlier time than the show airs on television). I followed that for the first time last week, and I loved it. I got a head's up about what was to come during the show. For example, I learned that Nyle and Peta were going to be good - very, very good, and that my prediction about Geraldo Rivera was way off.

I don't vote after the first show, or for many weeks that follow because I have an ethical dilemma, which I will discuss later. I do vote in the last few shows because it's important. I've seen at least one or two major league contenders get ousted before their time, and I've learned that I don't like the feeling when I didn't do anything to stop one of my faves from going home. If I did vote, I would have divided them equally between my top three who were: Wanya/Lindsay, Paige/Mark, and Nyle/Peta - in that order. I expect to be voting for these three, when I do finally get into that aspect of the show because I expect they will be in the running until the finals. Barring any strange injuries or outside career responsibilities, those three are the ones who will go the distance.

On the first show, there are inevitably stars who improve over time, and/or don't get scored as well as I believe they should have. This is what happened to Kim Fields. I thought she danced surprisingly well, but didn't get a score that represented it. Doug Flutie was also in this category. I was pleasantly surprised by his grace. The stars I thought earned an appropriate score, but will continue improve over time (and become threatening to the leaders) are: Jody Sweetin, Antonio Brown, and Von Miller. These three clearly have moves that have yet to be seen. I expect some sort of conflict with Antonio, however; he needs to tone down his ego and stop fooling around if he's going to get to his A game.

Like me, I believe the judges are distracted by the hype too (or perhaps there's a bit of producer influence on them), whatever the case, there are dancers who give a great performance, but got scores that I felt were too high. Yes. I said too high. This was the case for Marla Maples and Ginger Zee. Both of these ladies seem committed and can dance, but I felt their scores weren't that accurate. They should have been lower by about a point.

Which brings me to the bottom two, and why I wish we could vote people off in the beginning - not vote for the ones we want to continue. It is my ethical dilemma, and why I don't vote at all, or why I vote for someone who may not deserve it, by using all of my votes for the one person who I believe is going home and shouldn't. Why the dilemma? Because it just wouldn't be healthy to vote someone off  DTWS. It's like giving the thumbs down to someone who is trying to perform their best public dance. It's like giving someone the "you suck" vote. It's just not right, and that's ultimately why I just watch and wait.

BUT if I could have voted anyone off the show, it would have been Mischa Barton, not that it would matter. She will go home soon, and it will be agony watching her dance (kinda like how I felt about Paula Dean). I doubt she will be the one going home though. It will be Geraldo Rivera, who is, unfortunately, the one that I believe shouldn't go home yet. Granted, neither of these two were very good, but I felt Geraldo brought more charisma and charm than Mischa, who at best looked like an awkward, ugly duckling, and at worst, looked like she didn't even want to be there. Geraldo on the other hand, seemed happy to be there, and brought better moves than Mischa.

Season 22 - Dancing with the Stars

I can't remember the last time I've been so excited to see DWTS. In case you've been living under a rock, the line up is as follows...

Jodie Sweetin & Keo Motsepe

Antonio Brown & Sharna Burgess

Paige Vanzant & Mark Ballas

Wanya Morris & Lindsay Arnold

Marla Maples & Tony Dovolani

Doug Flutie & Karina Smirnoff

Mischa Barton & Artem Chigvintsev 

Von Miller & Witney Carson

Kim Fields & Sasha Farber

Geraldo Rivera & Edyta Sliwinska

Nyle Dimarco & Peta Murgatroyd 

Ginger Zee & Val Chmerkovskiy 

When I look at this list of mirrorball hopefuls, what jumps out first are the 3 NFL players who were a major force on the football field. This pleases me because it helps quell my longing for the next football season. After that, I notice the mix of television personalities who are likely there to promote their latest project. Of these, I am most interested in watching Ginger Zee, weather forecaster for GMA, but Jodie Sweetin is a close second because I want Keo to have a partner who can actually bring it - for a change. I believe Marla Maples is there just to remind us that Mr. Trump owns the television ratings, but like just about everything else we see about the Republican primary candidate, it doesn't make him look very presidential. 

Wanya Morris probably has moves from his experience on stage with Boys II Men, but is he popular enough to go far?  Not likely, but he will be around long enough to dance the rhumba to "I Swear."  Male model, Nyle Dimarco will get enough of the women's vote to keep him on the show for awhile too, simply because he is so easy on the eyes. We are going to have wait and see about his dancing, because his deafness will certainly make competing for the win a challenge. All that being said, I think the surprise contestant will be Geraldo Rivera. He is going to have better moves than we think, a little like Donny Osmond but without the trophy. Paige VanZant, the Ultimate Fighter, is my sight unseen pick for the win. She is paired with Mark Ballas - and he never gets a lousy partner. I plan to weigh in next week after I watch tomorrow night's show, to recap and make a more educated choice. 

Loretta Lynch, FIFA Slayer

Did you happen to catch Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, on The Late Show With Steven Colbert? On some rainy day, when lazily lounging around with time to spare, I recommend watching - if only to observe someone who passionately believes in justice. She calls herself, The FIFA Slayer. Hearing her talk about justice, however, was inspiring and filled me with hope, especially in terms of Law Enforcement relationships with Americans.

She also discussed iDevice Privacy, and said the Justice Department is asking the powers that be to disable the password erase function. This is the function that erases all data from an iDevice when the password gets entered incorrectly on the tenth try. It is there to protect our privacy, but in the case of National Security, she believes there should be a loophole in the policy. She was referring to the terrorists from the San Bernardino crisis.

A member of the Obama Administration cabinet, she seeks to maintain the Justice Department's integrity - her motivation: to keep the American people safe, while restoring our faith in the justice system. With eloquence and poise, she spiked my curiousity.  Not knowing much about FIFA, I decided to do a little research about the organization and Her role in its slaying. What I discovered was fascinating and I found myself searching for more than just the Wikipedia article, ending a day later by viewing a watch later video I had discovered on YouTube titled, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (which I also highly recommend). 

I have relatives, who I like to believe are quite brilliant. Because they are avid soccer fans (they call it football), their family unit takes an annual trip to wherever the World Cup is held. I still have a little bit of paper money and a postcard from their trip to Buenos Aires. They came home with their knowledge of Spanish stronger than ever, which I envied. But I have to ask... How can they love a sport that is so corrupt. Or should I say, was?

There's Fungus Among Us

About 3 years ago one rainy morning, I awoke to discover my doggie, Roxie, vomiting profusely. After only a few hours she was vomiting blood, and I was watching her fade. Fast. After a panic stricken drive to the vet, she was admitted and directly put on an IV. Several hours later, she was fine, and I was told that my quick action could have saved her life. They said she had likely been poisoned. The first culprit, a poisonous mushroom - which I believed was highly unlikely.

Fast forward, and I learn that a corner patch in my yard, the very same place where I discovered her losing it, is full of the little beasts pictured below. I'm not sure if they are what caused her illness, but it sure looks like convincing evidence - after the fact. Even the mushroom looks kind of sickly. 

'Tis the season for volunteer mushrooms, so pet lovers, take action. Please take the time to check your yard and remove these little devils, even if they look harmless. Remember, we don't get to know when our precaution has saved a life - but if we become painfully aware when we've missed that opportunity. By that time, it's usually too late.