Totally on Team Sasha

From Season 1 of So You Think You Can Dance, I've been in love with the show. In my little opinion, that's what reality TV should be. It's not so much a competition as a celebration of a common love. The dancers are a tight-knit group who cheer for each other, and nearly everyone walks away with a career in the industry, based not only on the exposure they received, but on the merit of thousands upon thousands of dedicated dancing they've put in over the years.

In nearly every case, each dancer on this show has every reason to have a career in dance.

It's awesome.

Even better? Each year the dancers seem to be a step up from the year before. It's kind of freaky, really.

I've had made favorite this year, as she's made it thus far in the competition. She may not be the most technically superior dancer, but she moves as if she can't help but dance and I LOVE watching her. She just can't help but dance, and it makes some part of me very, very happy to watch.

So here's me sending my vote into the universe for Sasha. And if you don't watch So You Think You Can Dance, I totally, totally recommend it.

Feel free to check out some of Sasha's performances below as a sampler, and watch other performances on Fox.com or youtube. SO worth it!

Harry Potter 7, Part 2. Quick Review

To a true Harry Potter fan, no review really means much. We will see the movies anyway, give them every benefit of the doubt, and count down the days to J.K. Rowling's new web site.

But since I'm being asked/texted, I'll put some quick thoughts here on the final movie.

I give it 3 stars out of 4... 3 1/2 if you infuse the movie with all you know from the books.

The reason for the loss of star (I totally give part 1 4 stars)? There's a return to stilted, non-acting. Everything feels rushed, but not in a get-your-heart-beating way. In an include-it-all way. The emotions and characters are very flat. Harry portrays intensity by mouth breathing, he and Ginny seem more distant than ever, the only way you know Ron and Hermione are in love is from the books. (You need a little more than obligatory hand holding and one abrupt kiss. There should be chemistry! You know, like there was in Part 1?)

The adult cast delivers, but no one really gets much screen time. I actually wonder if people who haven't read the books leave the theater confused on several levels. Several details are included without being explained. I would think they would leave people without the back story saying, "Huh?"--which, by the way, I'm totally fine with (because everyone seeing these movies should read these books). I'm glad the details are included, but it all seems quite obligatory.

Passionless. The movie really is that on most levels. The chemistry between characters is passionless, and even 99% of the death eaters seem somewhat blase about taking over the world.

But really what hurts this film (for me) is that the director is over his head in the action scenes. He doesn't know what to film and what not to film. Knock Michael Bay all you like, but when you compare the HP magical fighting to Michael Bay's muggles fighting in the recent Transformers movie, the gaping chasm of quality is a bit sad. I'd explain, but that seems spoilery. Needless to say, you're never really worried that Hogwarts will fall before Harry gets what he needs, and the loss of key characters is not something we're part of or are made to feel. We have to lean on the books for that.

So yeah. Those are my quick thoughts. And I probably would have forgiven it all if Rupert Grint and Emma Watson could have pulled some chemistry, or even some eye contact, out of their hats and made me believe they wanted to live through it all to be together. And I would give it 4+ stars if Daniel Radcliffe would stop mouth breathing to try to raise the intensity of a scene and learn how to do a reaction shot that actually moves through a thought process, not just the sustained single expression someone told him to do.

"Stand here. Look there. Try to smile like you're happy."

"Stand here. Look there. Look serious."

"Stand here. Look there. Be awkward."

Etc.

Fix those two things and I'd forgive the emotionless action scenes as a bonus and decree this movie epic.

The books are epic. One of the movies was on par. This one fell a bit behind.

There you have it. My brief thoughts on HP Part 2.

See it. It's worth it. And let me know what you thought! I'm going to a total nerd party on Saturday where I'm sure we'll talk about it for hours. I'm sure I will meet many who would have me burn for these thoughts, but they are what they are. I wanted more from the movie. More heart. But hopefully by telling you all this and lowering expectations, you'll go in and absolutely LOVE it.

Because chances are, you will LOVE IT!

Hope you enjoy!

What Conspiracy Theorists Taught Me: Patriotic Edition

One of the joys or being a writer is the research. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. I love it! "Facts" are so often presented through a single lens, but when you start focusing in on a subject or question, that little extra ounce of focus starts opening the doors to non-traditional perspectives.

So since it's the 4th of July, I thought I would write about the very thing we pledge our allegiance to: the flag.

Huh. As I write that, it sounds weird... We pledge allegiance to cloth, not our country, leaders, or even the Constitution. But that's not what I'm writing about... or maybe it is... you tell me.

So today's post focuses on conspiracy theories surrounding our flag. But to understand the conspiracy, you need to be made aware that there is more than one flag. One is a peace-time, civil flag, and the other a martial flag used during times of war, occupation, and martial law.

The martial flag looks like this:

Pretty familiar, right? The second flag, or non-martial/civil flag looks like this:

Descriptions of this flag being displayed can be found in older literature, like the Scarlet Letter and the design is currently implemented in both the designs for US customs and the Coast Guard in designs like this:

Once you know what to look for, doing the research is easy enough. Once can start by simply googling "American flag" and "American civil flag." The civil flag, designed in 1799 by Oliver Wolcott Jr., was supposed to serve as a signal--largely on ships-- to differentiate between military and civilian vessels, in order to protect civilian vessels from being fired upon. This flag was allegedly used regularly up until the Civil War. Once war was declared, martial flags were raised. And since that day, no one has ever taken the military flags down and raised peace-time/civilian flags in their place.

So to bring this to modern times, if this civil/martial flag thing were still in effect, commercial airlines, cruise ships, civilian yachts, and anything transporting civilians would prominently display the civil flag to communicate that they come in peace, while jet fighters, battleships, and anything transporting military would bear the "we've got guns" flag so that citizens of any country and other military operations would be clear on what they were dealing with.

The conspiracy theory? Well, I probably don't have to spell out how conspiracy theorists interpret the permanent retirement of a "We come in peace" flag and replacing it with our war-time, military flag. Nor does it probably need explanation of what they think about a pledge of allegiance being written for every civilian to learn, memorize, and repeat whenever the military flag is raised. ESPECIALLY when images like this are available from the time the pledge was instituted by Congress (source: wikipedia, which is also a great place to research the Bellamy salute--especially if you find this image incendiary):

Last, it also probably doesn't need description as to what they might think about the military flag being stamped onto every commercial ship and craft that leaves our nation's boundaries.

And all this is just the beginning of the rabbit hole surrounding this underground controversy. Because if there's one thing governments and militaries don't take lightly, it's the emblems that identify them. And the fact is that they still are using the civil flag in areas of government where it's appropriate. I saw the civil flag when I drove through customs at the Canadian border a few years back and was totally confused by the flag. I thought it odd that on the border of my own country they had the wrong flag on the uniforms. But like most Americans, I just shrugged and got on with my drive.

Now, years later, it turns out those customs agents wore a different emblem for a reason. The government hasn't forgotten the flag, or its meaning. It just doesn't raise them, manufacture them, or advertise their history anymore.

Isn't research fun?

Right there--right in that very premise--is a book. I probably won't write it, but still, this is why I love research. You never know when little nuggets like this will come in handy :)