So You Think You Can Dance and the Dizzyfeet organization put together a National Dance Day on Saturday with events in different cities. If you’ve been watching the show, you know about it–Napoleon and Tabitha choreographed a hip hop routine for everyday people to learn.

I went down to the LA event on Saturday to take pictures–I go downtown a lot just to take pictures anyway, so when I realized it was going on, I knew where I’d be heading! Napoleon and Tabitha were there to walk the crowd through the routine a couple times, then they put on the music and everybody DANCED!

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Subtitle: What hath we wrought?

Yesterday, I attended my niece’s graduation. Her North Texas high school is disproportionately loaded up with wealthy, high-achieving types, where the top ten students all had GPAs well above 100 percent on a 100-point scale. This must be the new math.** I believe the valedictorian has something like a 107.5 point g.p.a. (Unlike early American Idol contestants being praised by Kara and Randy, there were no one-million-percent-ers.)

The event was held at a convention center, with the 600-plus students seated on the floor of the arena. The principal made it a huge point of emphasis—and, in fact, said that this was the Most Important Thing—to put an end to an the subversive tradition of batting inflatable objects into the air. To accomplish this purpose, there was, flanking each row of graduates, a faculty member on either end. Three times, inflatables emerged, and three times they were quickly confiscated and removed. I can kind of see the principal’s point: Teaching these young kids the important lesson that hopes and dreams can quickly be ended and deflated by those in authority was probably was the Most Important Thing. Well done, sir.
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Have you seen If I Can Dream? It’s sort of like The Real World meets American Idol crossed with Big Brother and America’s Next Top Model. The concept is that five young artists (an aspiring musician, model and three actors) live in a house together and are on camera 24/7 (the house has 60 cameras covering practically every corner of the place) while they pursue their dreams to make it in Hollywood. The cameras are fed live onto the web where viewers can both watch and comment directly into the house (or onto the cast members’ laptops) via twitter. (more…)

Sorry to tear you hopeless geeks away from Lost, but it’s time for something manly!  No not the Oscars.  It’s Superbowl time!  Time to answer those age-old questions that speak to the essence of manhood:  Which team has better uniforms?  Whose tight end is better looking?  Which ETrade baby is more articulate?  What scandal will occur during the half-time show?  And of course, most importantly: Which commercial has the hottest babes?

Feel free to comment here before, during and after the big game on all things related to the cultural phenomenon that is The Superbowl.

In honor of the now past Christmas and just so we could have one more holiday post before next year. What are your favorite presents ever?

Mine, that I still remember well, was my Six Million Dollar Man action figure along with is backpack which was an actual radio (although it had an alligator clip you had to attach to metal for an antenna). I still have fond memories of falling asleep that Christmas listening to the radio with that backpack. And Steve Austin’s arm. You could roll up the skin and see the electronics and actually fix his bionic arm!

Wow. What a great Christmas that was. Nothing ever came as close in my memory.

 
Let’s pretend it’s still possible to speak rationally about this movie.

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I’m a sucker for mashups. In fact, almost any rearrangement of a song makes me happy if it is cleverly done. I found one recently that had me thinking of rearrangements of rock/pop songs into country. We’re more used to this going in the other direction, thanks to Taylor Swift, Faith Hill, and Shania Twain. Country is seen as a fringier market, I suppose, so it makes sense to make country songs sound poppier. However, I was cruising youtube looking for songs by one of my favorite “bluegrass” bands, Nickel Creek, and I found the following:

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but THIS is going way too far!

(Ahh the never-ending awesomeness of the interwebs)

First there was She and Him.

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A couple in each category.
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It seems cake making has developed into a pop-culture trend. At least, that’s what I learned channel surfing of the Food Network. When not hosting celebrity chefs, reality shows, or travel programs featuring massive amounts of heart-unhealthy restaurant fare, the subject de jour seems to be cakes (see, e.g., Ace of Cakes). And the whole internet seems to enjoy looking at Cake Wrecks.

But really, this post is just using an excuse to show off a cake that Allison (erstwhile Kulturblogger and commenter) and I created for our three-year-old son. Behold, the robot cake:
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Comic shops all over the country are celebrating Free Comic Book Day, and many of the publishers are releasing free issues of their comics. (Click through the link to find a comic book in your area.) Store policy varies by shop. Many shops allow for one free comic per customer, but some shops are reportedly more generous.

This year there are 40 free comics being offered. Here’s are some recommendations of what’s worth picking up:

Pop Candy
MTV’s Splash Page
Bureau 42
Comics Worth Reading

Anyone have recommendations of their own?

Now that everyone with an internet connection has seen her performance on Britain’s Got Talent at least once, and Susan Boyle has begun her stateside media tour, there’s an emerging meme that maybe she’s not all that she seemed. Reports are flooding in: she lied about never being kissed! She was caught wearing a leather jacket! She’s started trimming her eyebrows!

The subtext—and, in some cases, the text—of these reports is that there may be a backlash coming if her fans feel they’ve been snookered. I’d like to go on the record now that if it turns out Susan Boyle knew what she was doing all along, my admiration for her will increase exponentially: she goes from being a dowdy-looking English Scottish** villager with a good singing voice to a dowdy-looking English Scottish villager with a good singing voice and an amazing ability to exploit pop-culture media expectations. The latter is much more interesting and, yes, even admirable.

Go back and watch that clip again and see Simon Cowell’s reaction. If you look into his cold, dark eyes, you can see him figuring it out. There are very few people more media savvy than Simon, and he knows something’s up. That doesn’t stop him, of course, from giving Boyle a standing ovation—maybe that’s why he gave her one.

**Edited to account for my typical American ignorance of British sensitivities.

This edition of “Name These Tunes” has songs that contain the word “baby” in their lyrics or their song titles. There are 14 13 songs. Have fun.

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I got stuck home watching seven kids while my significant other and her sisters are on a girls’ night out. My kids are watching the Kids’ Choice Awards, so I am too.

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Will Fitz prove his superiority? Will Hines’ injury be a factor? Which Superbowl-ring-wearing QB will prove mightier? Or will they cancel each other out? Will the Boss rule? Or have a wardrobe malfunction? Will the commercials be worth watching? Or will the response to them be a flush heard round the world? These and other fascinating questions will be answered today! Comment here during the action.

Season 4.5 is almost here.  Here’s some news to tide you over.  Potential spoilers below the fold:

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I wanted to make this a Link of the Day, but I can’t figure out how to do that.

Instead – feast your eyes and ears upon:

Stan Lee reads “The Raven.”

Two great tastes that go great together.

Speaking of the 80s, you will all remember a certain filmmaker from that time period who made mostly teen movies and was very successful in representing teens and their lives in what was considered at the time to be a new, more realistic way.   (more…)

Ok, this is basically impossible because there’s very little difference between them (and though I like Mark, I think this would be an even harder decision if Will were still around) but here’s my ranking of the top six:

Guys:                            Girls:

1. Joshua                      1. Chelsie

2. Twitch                      2. Courtney

3. Mark                         3. Katee

I think Katee may be technically slightly better than Courtney, but I like watching Courtney more, so I went with my gut.  The reality is that I will be happy with any of these dancers being in the final four. 

Here’s my ranking of the top 8 dancers after last night:

Guys:                                         Girls:

1. Will                                        1. Chelsie                                              

2. Joshua                                    2. Katee

3. Twitch                                    3. Courtney

4. Mark                                       4. Comfort

Unless there’s some grave injustice in the voting, Mark and Comfort will be leaving tonight.  Not because they aren’t great at what they do, just because the others are so strong.  Comfort has to be the girl to go.  She is a great hip hop dancer but it’s well established now that she is not great at much else.  After this week though, the voting gets very tough.  I don’t know how you pick among the top six, they are all so good.

In many ways there is little to say about this film that hasn’t already been said. It is as good as you’re all hoping. (more…)

Dr. Horrible has a PhD in horribleness and an evil plan to rule the world.  He has vowed to join the evil league of evil and combine forces with “the thoroughbred of sin,” Bad Horse.  Fortunately, he’s got a sing-a-long blog so we can have a front row seat to all of this awsomeness.

This whole thing presents several pertinent questions….but I can’t for the life of me think what they are.  Your thoughts?

Have you been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon? If not you are missing some superb television.

Tomorrow a new episode will air, followed by another new episode Friday and then Saturday is the big four-episode series finale. If you haven’t been watching the series go get caught up on the wikis here and here then watch the last few episodes.

This is good drama and good times folks. The story arc through the three seasons has been consistently coherent and compelling. The character development is outstanding. And the build up to the finale has been riveting. Unlike some shows on TV (I’m looking at you BSG!) one never gets the feeling that the writers were making things up as they went with this series. There has been a clear beginning, middle and end. I trust the grand finale coming up will satisfy as well. 8:00 PM on Nick.

The 30th Anniversary was actually last year, but a new box set of the album is coming out this month.  The year was 1977: Reggie Jackson, Son of Sam, Elvis died.  This album took the world by storm.  What was it?

For the answer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SwrklEY2ZM&feature=user