Danny ChaiThe Transporter 2, on the other hand, was a fantastically entertaining movie. Lee would love it – there’s essentially no character development, and the flimsiest excuse of a plot. The rest is just action; pure ridiculous action. One scene involves the hero, an ordinary man, dodging bullets as they come at him. And that was one of the more realistic scenes. I was very entertained. But also confused; how come I never heard of the original movie? Has anyone?
My problem with So You Think You Can Dance (SN. Darn you, Ted. Really. Darn you.) is I don’t buy the fundamental premise of the show, which judges them in large part on their versatility. That’s just not fair. Someone who’s trained in whatever lyrical jazz is (besides weirdo and boring) can do hip-hop, but someone who taught themselves hip-hop can’t go in the other direction. And maybe that’s fine, but then what’s the point of even having hip-hop peeps on the show? They can’t win. So why even bother? I have the same problem with the Apprentice. He insists on having people on the show without a college education, even dividing up teams along those lines last season, but one of the last screening processes is interviews with executives, in which the non-educated peeps never have a chance. So why even bother pretending that they do? End the charade or change the show.
Anyway, watching SYTYCD brings back memories of… never. I’ve never been into dance. I think my dance peak was 7th grade square dancing. And I have more scars related to dancing than joys.
Have I ever shared my worst dancing scar? So before we went to Viennese the first time, Jieun and I went to all the pre-dance events, including the lesson nights. One such night in Roble we were practicing the Viennese Waltz, which is, at least for me, a difficult, dizzying dance. We were slowly getting it, but I wasn’t the best Waltz lead.
So there’s no exclusivity at these practice things, but I dunno, I think it’s somewhat uncouth to cut in on someone’s Viennese date, right? Because during a break in the action, this guy comes in and asks Jieun for the next dance. He was one of Those Guys. You know who I’m talking about (or maybe you don’t). But a good dancer, goes to every single social dance event at school, all his friends do also, and is only cool within that loser dance subculture. (Note – I’m not talking about friends like, say, Andy or Sophia, who are into dance but also good people, well-adjusted, and have lives outside of dance. I’m talking about the loser dance crowd.)
Obviously, I’m being ridiculously harsh. Maybe he’s a standup guy who gives time and money to charity and nurses starving cats to health in his free time. What I do know is, he took Jieun out on the floor, since I couldn’t really say no. And, maybe I’m wrong, but when the male lead is really good, and the female decent enough, they can dance really well. So they did. From the sidelines, I proceeded to watch them dance a beautiful waltz, complete with little flourishes well led by him. And on each turn, I saw on Jieun’s face a look of pure joy, the look of someone reaching a new level in dance, a look that she had never had dancing with me. When the song finished, he bowed, then returned her to me, so we could struggle through more waltzes. He gave to her an indelible memory of what waltz can be, and never will be with me. Thanks a lot, jerk. What the heck is that? Why you gotta go around and ruin everything for mediocre dancers by emphasizing to their dates how much they suck? I’m not even joking, that scarred me, remembering the look on her face and knowing I can’t provide that. Not a good feeling.
We never found out his name, so I started calling him “Fred”, for Fred Astaire. (What I really should have called him I can’t say out loud or here; this is a family blog.) And to this day, if you mention “Fred” and “Viennese Waltz”, I start foaming at the mouth and reach for my machete. Not good dance times. Bad dance times.
And that’s pretty much my dance life in a nutshell.