Digital Analogue: "No it *wasn't* a proper tango, it was *Blondie*, for God's sakes!"

February 17, 2006

"No it wasn't a proper tango, it was Blondie, for God's sakes!"

Well it's about damn time somebody said it. It has seemed completely incredible to me that with all of the high-powered ballroom types on live TV at DwtS, nobody ever pointed out that a lot of the music they play is not even remotely close to the right sort of music for the dance. We saw it especially with paso doble, but also with many other styles, tonight including Blondie's "One way or another" as a tango of all things. I've even wondered if they're deliberately sabotaging couples by giving them music that makes it virtually impossible that they could convey the "feel of the dance", something the judges often harp on and sometimes is legitimately not the dancers' faults.

So tonight when Len called Jerry on something not looking like a "proper tango", pro dancer Anna (who afaict is not supposed to talk while the judges are reviewing), interjects with, "No it wasn't a proper tango. It was Blondie, for God's sakes!" And I just started cheering, because, jeez, it's about damn time.

PS: Drew looked pretty good, but the dances of the evening were definitely Lisa's. She was the only one with hip action in the Latin, and Stacy was just downright wooden in face, hips, and legs in both dances. While I don't begrudge Jerry this trip to the semis, he's so clearly in a different league from the other three; I certainly hope that the mis-ranking of Lisa at 3rd doesn't cause her to get bumped out.

"'Temptation Island' ... 'frat boy' ... 'business major' ... 'sorority girl' These are the important keywords involved in this little bourgeois puzzle." --Matt Stanislawski

Posted by blahedo at 12:56am on 17 Feb 2006

Comments

Actually, I'm pretty sure it was, "No, it *wasn't* a proper tango, it was *Blondie*, for God's sakes!" And I, too, start cheering when I saw that. It was clear that Jerry was set up for failure, not that he needed the help. Still, I would have preferred to see it played on an even field. (P.S. Anna is the cutest thing ever. She should be on cuteoverload.com.) Posted by Greg at 3:57pm on 17 Feb 2006

Yes, I think you're right. I was trying to figure out how to transcribe what she said and her attitude, and "well" fit that better than "oh", but "oh" definitely appeared to be the word she uttered. I'm still not sure which one she said, but "no" is quite plausible and it holds the sense of her outburst much better (so I'm changing it in the post). Posted by blahedo at 1:07am on 18 Feb 2006

...and the misranking of Lisa has nothing to do with her being bumped out. Instead, Jerry's huge (Superbowl MVP, ferchrisake!) fanbase rockets him to the top two in combined scores and votes, leaving Lisa up against Stacy in the bottom two. No matter how good Lisa was on Thursday, and even taking into account Stacy's woodenness, most improved hardly ever beats consistently good. Once Jerry was announced to be in the top two, Lisa didn't have a prayer. Posted by Greg at 1:03pm on 20 Feb 2006

Not true. Based on tonight's events, we can definitively state that the fanbase ranking went Drew-Jerry-Stacy; and even if Lisa were in last place on the fanbase ranking, had she gotten the 1st place she deserved she would've beaten Jerry. If Lisa were ahead of Stacy in fanbase (as I suspect), then even a 2nd would've kept her in and knocked Jerry out. Posted by blahedo at 1:00am on 27 Feb 2006