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Eurovision 2013

Eurovision needs to make sure they get their stream running when the show starts. This year they didn’t until near the very end of the results and I ended up watching almost everything on an Irish TV stream(where in place of the home nation’s phone number instead of all caps reminders not to vote for your own country, like they do in Britain, they just had GOOD LUCK, IRELAND, since they trust their viewers to have some intelligence. A pity they did not have good luck, though).

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Suffice to say this week is not going well for me at all.  Too bad, because it was such a great week for the show.  But even that is at least a little overshadowed by the announcement ABC made about doing away with the results show next year.

On one hand, with the ratings down, I understand why.  They’ve always had the problem with the results show that it’s more or less a whole hour of filler for a brief announcement of one ultimate result.  And maybe the show has gotten a little overbloated the past couple of years, especially with the spike in ratings Bristol brought with her.  But on the other, I’m wary of a format that doesn’t give the viewers time to properly vote based on the events of the week; that felled at least one skater who didn’t deserve such a misfortune on Skating With the Stars.  It disconnects the votes from the results and makes you feel less connected to the show.  Also, we probably won’t get numbers like this anymore:

Allow me to be at least a little sad about that…

This week’s headlines:

ISU releases schedule of international competitions for next season

Nebelhorn to have entry restrictions & team event

Czisny & Weaver & Pojé relate last season’s travails

Johnny-Weir Voronov talks while headlining Ice Dreams

More music & Grand Prix preference news

Viktoria Pavuk comes out of retirement

Iliushechkina & Kocon split confirmed

Mozer & Zhulin groups choreography travel

Interviews with Hurtado & Diaz, Hochtstein, & Johann Wilkenson

More show news

Went to the Anderson House near Dupont Circle this afternoon, a turn of the century historically registered house originally owned by an ambassador and his very rich wife and now in the hands of the Society of the Cincinnati, a society originally formed by veterans of the Revolutionary War probably to try to get their salaries actually paid to them, which now interests itself in the historical time period and famous historical members such as Ambassador Anderson, and operate his house as a museum.  The Society also runs concert series in the Anderson’s small(but very fancy) ballroom, and today they had pianist Raj Bhimani performing on an expensive instrument that apparently had to be tuned just before the concert because it was so high maintenance.

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It is definitely the summer; even Dancing With the Stars has gotten into the sequel act!

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This week’s headlines:

USFSA Governing Council Meeting

Bereswill & Reagan announce partnership

More music information & discussion

Mozer gives updates

Gerboldt & Enbert possibly to Vasiliev

Stepanova & Bukin to do Senior Grand Prix

Bariev possibly trying to change countries

Misha Ge moves to Beijing

Frank Carroll invited back to old rink

Margaglio speaks of Finnish dance situation

Ito on roster for third appearance at Obertsdorf

More Japanese show news

Kim donates prize money from Worlds

Iron Man 3

After immensely enjoying Robert Downey jr’s snark and saunter his way through The Avengers, I was greatly looking forward to a whole movie worth of him, but when Joss Whedon wasn’t involved, I actually felt like I could only expect so much.  So while without him the zinger quotient was definitely lower, even so I was pleasantly surprised.

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Having the ability to win immunity on Dancing With the Stars is certainly something that could’ve saved a deserving couple or two in the past, but employed as it was this week, I’m afraid it felt kind of pointless.  After all, what were the odds Kellie and Derek wouldn’t have been safe anyway even without it?  And meanwhile, we got into an uncomfortable spot when their scores tied with Aly & Mark’s, leaving us with no idea who would get the immunity until Tom thought to divulge the tiebreaker info.  And then it was kind of the wrong couples that got the immunity, since if one had to choose, one might say that even if they got the same score, Aly & Mark were maybe a bit more fun than Kellie and Derek.  It’s no coincidence they landed the enscore:

Between those two couples and Zendaya and Val, get ready for the Finale to be a Hough-Ballas-Chermkovskiy battle, and which one of them will win is anyone’s guess, especially when the most talented dancer seems to be paired with the least experienced partner, though that’s relatively speaking when the competition is Mark and Derek.
Meanwhile, we get two guys who actually were pretty good in conveying the character of the rumba, but in Latin dance, if you can’t get your hips right, the judges will not like you. Even if, in Sean’s case, it felt more genuine when his hips were clumsy, and a relief to see that after last week. Perhaps why Ingo and Kym ended up in the bottom two instead, since of course one of them had to, but while we all may love Andy & Sharna, it genuinely was time for the them to go.

This week’s headlines:

Nicks to no longer travel

Lots more music announcements

Asada & Kozuka both discuss plans, new Japanese show additions

Amodio after a month off the ice

Vasiliev to develop 2018 prospects, Canada already doing so

ISU releases technical details for singles & pairs

Junior teams splits

Skate Dallas & Irish Nationals

Music on Ice & other shows

Alexei Rogonov marries

The last three Met opera broadcasts I saw this year(I skipped Rigoletto, which apparently wasn’t that good anyway, and Parsifal, which apparently was, but it was really too long) all seemed to be about the prima donna.  Riccardo Zanondai’s Francesca da Ramini was actually revived for the first time at the Met since the 80s and only the 2nd time ever specifically because Eva-Maria Westbreok wanted to sing it, Maria Stuarda was done because their doing all three of the Gaetano Donizetti’s Tudor Queen operas but still was pretty much centered around Joyce DiDonato, and Handel’s Giulio Cesare might not have been centered around Natalie Dessay, but when she’s still missing performances due to her health, today became largely about showing she’s not done yet, doing a role that requires not only hard singing but also Bollywood dancing!

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