Congratulaitons to Josh and Cam writes.
Hello! Yes, there has been some lack of updates but getting online hasn’t really been an option, lately.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday I spent with Meghan at Manifest, Melbourne’ anime convention. Thank god we didn’t go to Amaranth (The ball/ formal held on the Thursday) I would have been exhausted. Then on Monday we took Jess to the Zoo and I saw so many awesome animals. (I’ve decided my favourites are all the big cats.)
So there will be recap-age of that as well as photos. As well as a review of my birthday when I saw Wicked…should I ever get around to finishing it.
Right now though I’m going to post my thoughts on the So you think you can dance finale and maybe a few other things, TV film and book related. Lastly shall be talk of my writing/ My changing of my Pyrelani series and some new stuff I’m really exited about.
So you think you can dance is over for another season (U.S of course being the only series really worth mentioning, although, aussie SYTYCD will be starting up again soon. *fingers crossed* they‘ve gained some sense and fired Bonnie Lithgoe.... and Nat Bat.)
My thoughts about season 4 are a tad mixed. First off, Joshua won. Hell yes! And thank the gods it wasn’t Twitch. His popularity was so insane over there, and okay yes he was great at freestyle but there were so many other dancers that deserved it more.
My favourite couple during the season (if I had to pick one) would be Courtney and Gev. Perfect partnership straight up. Chemistry, plus there just so gosh darn cute together. Courtney (fourth runner up) deserved it, she was consistently great in ever genre she dipped her toes in. And her solos were always done with power and emotion. Gev, my beanie wearing-russian-b-boy/ ice skater was awesome. He had the best solos of the season.
Chelsea and Mark were also a brilliant partnership. Miss Chelsea High-Tower was left to represent the ballroom dancers from early on. (Seriously guys, I love contemporary dance…but there were like 8, you let into the top 20. So much for variety, huh?) Her hips and legs were absolutely mesmerising, she ripped up that floor every time, it was a shame she didn’t make top four. Mark was such a great addition to the competition. He’s style was so different/ unique and he was so funny, I need icons of him (and Chelsea H-T) pulling crazy faces.
Katee and Joshua were indeed brilliant. For eg, ‘No Air’ number and Bollywood. I was so pleased all the numbers that were my favourites appeared in the finale. And OMFG Mary Murphy AND Nigel Lithgoe danced. Woot! That was all kinds of awesome…and weird, but mostly awesome. One thing I didn’t like was the lack of coreographers. Why was Debbie Allen on the panel? She had zero involvement this year...cept for at the auditions process. Tyce Diorio, who is now my second favourite choreographer after Mia, was nowhere to be seen. Also, Tony Meredith and Melanie and Jean Marc Generaux and Franc, nowhere. I hope they’ll bring back Wade Robson, Dan Karaty and Shane Sparks for season 5. We had some good new coreographers this year. (Sonya and to some extent…Napolean and Crapatha. <-I don‘t have to like them to like their routines.)
Cough, cough, not obsessed with the show or anything.
In amongst the orgy of dancing that took place was a video package of dancers from prior series telling us what they’ve been up to since and congratulations/ advice for the top four. Although we’d never seen season one, (see Cameron and Lauren not recognising any of those lot) we did see a lot of our faves. There was Dimitri, Donyelle, Benji, Lauren, Lacey, Neil, Dom, Hok, Cedric etc but there was only one person me and my sister waited for, holding our breath. And then he came on, Travis Wall, the greatest dancer the show has ever had. The guy that got me into dance in the first place, was there speaking…and….dancing?
O.O
Dude!
Travis is spinning…and jumping…and I don’t care about the other dancers anymore…Please fuck off top 20, you are all getting in the way. My only gripe was that the song everyone danced to was Rhianna, 'Please don’t stop the music'. HATE. But I pretty much ignored it…The man is that good, that my eyes couldn't leave him. (Oh and Lacey Schwimmer's on dancing with the stars now? Damn I'd might have to watch it. But they don't show U.S one here. Youtube.)
All in all it wasn’t as good as season 3, or the finale show of 3. What was missing was the music, this years was way more skankier, Pussy Cat dolls, Fergie, Lady Gaga, LL Cool J, Jonas bros, I understand it’s gonna make the teenagers tune in but it brings down the quality of the show. And it is quality.
Also, I would have liked to have gotten the comments from the partners of the top four, after they finished they’re dances. Dominic's, ‘I love you Sabra,’ Danny’s ‘I’m proud to be standing here with Sabra’ it added to the comeradery and the personal feeling to the show. Cat Deeley can do no wrong in my eyes though. She is a stunning host and an absolute Goddess. Her personality radiates when she speaks and I cannot imagine a season without her hosting.
Um, less Napoleon and Tabitha. I’ll allow their being on the show as long as they resign themselves to creating hip-hop routines only. Neither should be allowed anywhere near the judges table. Ugh. Why do most of the choreographers insist on crawling up Nigels arse? I think it's because they're new, they want to make a good impression. You can't exactly come right off the bat and slam a routine on your first show.
Meghan finished The Demon Child Trilogy...pretty much loved it, even if she was a bit harder on it than I. She mainly loved all the things I did about the series. *potential spoiler alert* That being the pairing of Damin and Adrina and the authors system of Gods. (Dacendaren and Kalianah are love...in Kali's case, quite literally.) Hopefully we'll get her started on The Hythrun Chronicles soon. I'm going to have to order in JF's next series, 'The second sons trilogy,' because of my idiot library....those bastards. Until then I have lots of books to satisfy me.The rest of the Belgariad series, and Eldest. (I'm reading book 2 of Inheritance just so I know what happens. My God, the size of this thing is ridiculous! Eragon was terrible but I always say it serves as an anti guide to anyone writing their first fantasy novel. In that regard I find it extremely useful. Still avoiding Twilight like the plague.)
So I wrote half a chapter of Pyrelani and it's really messy. I'm actually considering condensing the plot, at least the nautical parts to it. I'm having touble with coming up with a plausible way the Captain of the Queens Nave feels compelled to drown the members of the cruise ship to get out of trouble. Dead people usually create more problems than get rid of them. (What was I thinking?) Of course we need to keep in mind this plan I have for the whole story was planned out I think, three years ago. There are already so many things I have added, abandoned and changed. Here are some of the more recent ones.
Recent changes/ additions to Pyrelani
-A god that keeps getting members of the different races confused with their ancestors.
-Changed the dragons. The big beast-like European monoliths now cannot breathe fire, only spit acidic fluid that needs to be ignited by flint by their rider.
-Total redo of chapters one and two, adding a couple of flashbacks, that tell you more about the characters and the general events occurring in Pyrelani. Sets up the story well without being too expeditionary.
-Given Kas a family besides his mum and dad. He now has grandparents, an aunt, uncle and several cousins.
-Changed the festival at the start. Originally the people celebrated for the sake of celebrating, which is stupid. It’s a toss up now for a day celebrating Gardres alliance with their neighbours by sea, or the supposed eradication of the Daemusk race.
-Killed off a family member, that was originally intended to just be missing.
-Making Dextris less adaptable to life away from the palace…Also making her slightly (selective) more racist, which makes total sense to me as she's grown up in that kind of environment.
-Reducing the Kingdom of Axhalius population dramatically, as most of their subjects have abandoned the woods North…or South/ suffered sickness etc.
-Changed one of the five members of Tanisirs council from a Warlord to a Priest.
-Completely changed the structure of the book/s so that the plot focuses almost solely on one (mayber two characters.) There are way too many people popping up to control. All these different perspectives are getting mighty confusing and, again, messy.
In other Pyrelani news, I've retold the history of the world/ Gods in the form of a short story. It’s basically a mother telling the story to her child. Also, 4 pages detailing the history of Sidelphire. I am quite proud of that. I'm unsure as to whether to continue with my Narnia fic....although the last one turned out pretty damn well. I also dabbled in Jennifer Fallon fan-fiction in the form of a really short story about two Gods arguing in the middle of the street/ market place, whilst countless people go about there business.
I've got a few more short stories in the works. My most recent about a fallen angel, I felt inspired from a deviation at DA that has now, unfortunately, been taken off before I could save it. It's taking shape pretty well so far. I've always been interested in that demon/ angel side of Christianity...but I fear I'm not as well versed in the subject as I should be if I'm going to attempt this. Despite the heavy religious themes it'll be more focused on the relationship aspect.
Or maybe it's just me giving in to my love of wings pron? I don't know. In any event I'm working on a much smaller scale than the above mentioned epic fantasy series. *sigh* I'm crazy. There's a fairly good chance some of those will be popping up here in the near future. So keep your eyes out for that.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday I spent with Meghan at Manifest, Melbourne’ anime convention. Thank god we didn’t go to Amaranth (The ball/ formal held on the Thursday) I would have been exhausted. Then on Monday we took Jess to the Zoo and I saw so many awesome animals. (I’ve decided my favourites are all the big cats.)
So there will be recap-age of that as well as photos. As well as a review of my birthday when I saw Wicked…should I ever get around to finishing it.
Right now though I’m going to post my thoughts on the So you think you can dance finale and maybe a few other things, TV film and book related. Lastly shall be talk of my writing/ My changing of my Pyrelani series and some new stuff I’m really exited about.
So you think you can dance is over for another season (U.S of course being the only series really worth mentioning, although, aussie SYTYCD will be starting up again soon. *fingers crossed* they‘ve gained some sense and fired Bonnie Lithgoe.... and Nat Bat.)
My thoughts about season 4 are a tad mixed. First off, Joshua won. Hell yes! And thank the gods it wasn’t Twitch. His popularity was so insane over there, and okay yes he was great at freestyle but there were so many other dancers that deserved it more.
My favourite couple during the season (if I had to pick one) would be Courtney and Gev. Perfect partnership straight up. Chemistry, plus there just so gosh darn cute together. Courtney (fourth runner up) deserved it, she was consistently great in ever genre she dipped her toes in. And her solos were always done with power and emotion. Gev, my beanie wearing-russian-b-boy/ ice skater was awesome. He had the best solos of the season.
Chelsea and Mark were also a brilliant partnership. Miss Chelsea High-Tower was left to represent the ballroom dancers from early on. (Seriously guys, I love contemporary dance…but there were like 8, you let into the top 20. So much for variety, huh?) Her hips and legs were absolutely mesmerising, she ripped up that floor every time, it was a shame she didn’t make top four. Mark was such a great addition to the competition. He’s style was so different/ unique and he was so funny, I need icons of him (and Chelsea H-T) pulling crazy faces.
Katee and Joshua were indeed brilliant. For eg, ‘No Air’ number and Bollywood. I was so pleased all the numbers that were my favourites appeared in the finale. And OMFG Mary Murphy AND Nigel Lithgoe danced. Woot! That was all kinds of awesome…and weird, but mostly awesome. One thing I didn’t like was the lack of coreographers. Why was Debbie Allen on the panel? She had zero involvement this year...cept for at the auditions process. Tyce Diorio, who is now my second favourite choreographer after Mia, was nowhere to be seen. Also, Tony Meredith and Melanie and Jean Marc Generaux and Franc, nowhere. I hope they’ll bring back Wade Robson, Dan Karaty and Shane Sparks for season 5. We had some good new coreographers this year. (Sonya and to some extent…Napolean and Crapatha. <-I don‘t have to like them to like their routines.)
Cough, cough, not obsessed with the show or anything.
In amongst the orgy of dancing that took place was a video package of dancers from prior series telling us what they’ve been up to since and congratulations/ advice for the top four. Although we’d never seen season one, (see Cameron and Lauren not recognising any of those lot) we did see a lot of our faves. There was Dimitri, Donyelle, Benji, Lauren, Lacey, Neil, Dom, Hok, Cedric etc but there was only one person me and my sister waited for, holding our breath. And then he came on, Travis Wall, the greatest dancer the show has ever had. The guy that got me into dance in the first place, was there speaking…and….dancing?
O.O
Dude!
Travis is spinning…and jumping…and I don’t care about the other dancers anymore…Please fuck off top 20, you are all getting in the way. My only gripe was that the song everyone danced to was Rhianna, 'Please don’t stop the music'. HATE. But I pretty much ignored it…The man is that good, that my eyes couldn't leave him. (Oh and Lacey Schwimmer's on dancing with the stars now? Damn I'd might have to watch it. But they don't show U.S one here. Youtube.)
All in all it wasn’t as good as season 3, or the finale show of 3. What was missing was the music, this years was way more skankier, Pussy Cat dolls, Fergie, Lady Gaga, LL Cool J, Jonas bros, I understand it’s gonna make the teenagers tune in but it brings down the quality of the show. And it is quality.
Also, I would have liked to have gotten the comments from the partners of the top four, after they finished they’re dances. Dominic's, ‘I love you Sabra,’ Danny’s ‘I’m proud to be standing here with Sabra’ it added to the comeradery and the personal feeling to the show. Cat Deeley can do no wrong in my eyes though. She is a stunning host and an absolute Goddess. Her personality radiates when she speaks and I cannot imagine a season without her hosting.
Um, less Napoleon and Tabitha. I’ll allow their being on the show as long as they resign themselves to creating hip-hop routines only. Neither should be allowed anywhere near the judges table. Ugh. Why do most of the choreographers insist on crawling up Nigels arse? I think it's because they're new, they want to make a good impression. You can't exactly come right off the bat and slam a routine on your first show.
Meghan finished The Demon Child Trilogy...pretty much loved it, even if she was a bit harder on it than I. She mainly loved all the things I did about the series. *potential spoiler alert* That being the pairing of Damin and Adrina and the authors system of Gods. (Dacendaren and Kalianah are love...in Kali's case, quite literally.) Hopefully we'll get her started on The Hythrun Chronicles soon. I'm going to have to order in JF's next series, 'The second sons trilogy,' because of my idiot library....those bastards. Until then I have lots of books to satisfy me.The rest of the Belgariad series, and Eldest. (I'm reading book 2 of Inheritance just so I know what happens. My God, the size of this thing is ridiculous! Eragon was terrible but I always say it serves as an anti guide to anyone writing their first fantasy novel. In that regard I find it extremely useful. Still avoiding Twilight like the plague.)
So I wrote half a chapter of Pyrelani and it's really messy. I'm actually considering condensing the plot, at least the nautical parts to it. I'm having touble with coming up with a plausible way the Captain of the Queens Nave feels compelled to drown the members of the cruise ship to get out of trouble. Dead people usually create more problems than get rid of them. (What was I thinking?) Of course we need to keep in mind this plan I have for the whole story was planned out I think, three years ago. There are already so many things I have added, abandoned and changed. Here are some of the more recent ones.
Recent changes/ additions to Pyrelani
-A god that keeps getting members of the different races confused with their ancestors.
-Changed the dragons. The big beast-like European monoliths now cannot breathe fire, only spit acidic fluid that needs to be ignited by flint by their rider.
-Total redo of chapters one and two, adding a couple of flashbacks, that tell you more about the characters and the general events occurring in Pyrelani. Sets up the story well without being too expeditionary.
-Given Kas a family besides his mum and dad. He now has grandparents, an aunt, uncle and several cousins.
-Changed the festival at the start. Originally the people celebrated for the sake of celebrating, which is stupid. It’s a toss up now for a day celebrating Gardres alliance with their neighbours by sea, or the supposed eradication of the Daemusk race.
-Killed off a family member, that was originally intended to just be missing.
-Making Dextris less adaptable to life away from the palace…Also making her slightly (selective) more racist, which makes total sense to me as she's grown up in that kind of environment.
-Reducing the Kingdom of Axhalius population dramatically, as most of their subjects have abandoned the woods North…or South/ suffered sickness etc.
-Changed one of the five members of Tanisirs council from a Warlord to a Priest.
-Completely changed the structure of the book/s so that the plot focuses almost solely on one (mayber two characters.) There are way too many people popping up to control. All these different perspectives are getting mighty confusing and, again, messy.
In other Pyrelani news, I've retold the history of the world/ Gods in the form of a short story. It’s basically a mother telling the story to her child. Also, 4 pages detailing the history of Sidelphire. I am quite proud of that. I'm unsure as to whether to continue with my Narnia fic....although the last one turned out pretty damn well. I also dabbled in Jennifer Fallon fan-fiction in the form of a really short story about two Gods arguing in the middle of the street/ market place, whilst countless people go about there business.
I've got a few more short stories in the works. My most recent about a fallen angel, I felt inspired from a deviation at DA that has now, unfortunately, been taken off before I could save it. It's taking shape pretty well so far. I've always been interested in that demon/ angel side of Christianity...but I fear I'm not as well versed in the subject as I should be if I'm going to attempt this. Despite the heavy religious themes it'll be more focused on the relationship aspect.
Or maybe it's just me giving in to my love of wings pron? I don't know. In any event I'm working on a much smaller scale than the above mentioned epic fantasy series. *sigh* I'm crazy. There's a fairly good chance some of those will be popping up here in the near future. So keep your eyes out for that.