"Next week's no good for me... The Jonas Brothers are in town. But any week after that, it's totally fine."

There's something about bachelorette and bachelor parties that bring the fun out in people. Over the weekend I was lucky enough to celebrate the lovely sex superhero Bryanna's upcoming nuptials in Vegas on the water, otherwise known as the Carnival Ensenada Cruise.

I've always said I'll be the first to admit when I've been wrong, and I definitely had a picture in my head about what a cruise would be like. Apparently I believe everything Chelsea Handler says, and when I read her chapter on cruises in her book "My Horizontal Life" I came to believe that cruises were not exactly my scene. But like I said, I'll admit when I was wrong! Being the social anthropologist that I have decided I am, I figured I should document my top 5 findings of what an Ensenada cruise is really all about.

1. If you don't want to have to worry about sea sickness, just keeping drinking!

2. If you are there with a bachelor or bachelorette party, make sure you have at least one theme night, so that way you stand out and everyone wants to hang out with your group. For example, sex superheros, matching tanks, speedos and mustaches, 70s and 80s gear (and mustaches), and characters from movies about bachelor parties (see below example):

3. If you go to Papas and Beer for your day trip off the boat, make sure your friends don't become "that girl" after one (or ten) too many tequila shots.

4. After a few cocktails the hilarious one-liners will more easily flow into the course of conversations (whether or not the grammar actually makes sense).

5. Coming home after 4 days and 3 nights at sea causes a fun hangover consisting of swaying and rocking and mimosa withdrawals.

All that being said, I have to conclude my findings by saying that my cruise hangover was well worth it. I was able to spend a lot of time with a group of lovely, wonderful ladies and meet some fun, interesting people. Maybe I should expand my social anthropology research to do things like this every weekend!

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Alan Garner, "The Hangover"

"I'm from a freaking farm, and I just danced next to Alex freaking Wong, and Anthony, who could frickin' smash the crap out of me."

We officially have our top 10, I mean 11, season 7, So You Think You Can Dance dancers! It looks like this season is going to be particularly good, with a bevy of extremely talented dancers at our disposal.

I'll admit, when I heard earlier this year that they were only doing a top 10 and bringing back all stars from previous seasons as partners, I was worried that it would make the show less interesting to watch. I also worried that the all stars would end up outshining the newbies, making it harder for them to garner votes from the viewers. I then realized that by the time it was top 10 in previous season that the weak dancers were weeded out and the strong dancers were really provided the opportunity to shine. Now I think it will just make for a much more competitive, exciting season, which is great since season 6 was semi-lackluster.

Now for our top 11. And, just for fun, I'll compare them to contestants from the past few seasons:

Kent Boyd - jazz dancing farm boy from Ohio, this season's Jakob

Alex Wong - ballet dancer from Miami who had made top 20 in season 5 but couldn't get out of his contract with the Miami Ballet, this season's Will

Billy Bell - contemporary dancer who had to drop out of season 6's top 20 due to illness, this season's Billy Bell :)

Lauren Froderman - ex cheerleader, contemporary dancer who impressed the judges throughout the entire Vegas week with her flawless technique and fun personality, this season's Jeanine

Jose Ruiz - Miami based B Boy who grew into new styles during Vegas week, this season's Legacy

Alexie Agdeppa - jazz dancer from LA who's ALMOST made top 20 4 times, this season's Katee

Melinda Sullivan - unique tap dancer, mentored by a great tap legend, this season's Evan

Adechike Torbert - contemporary dancer who pissed off the judges by tapping in his first Vegas solo, then re-won them over by nailing his "dance for your life" dance, this season's Brandon

Christina Santana - salsa dancer who barely missed making the top 20 last season, this season's Janette

(Now the next 2 dancers weren't given much air time in Vegas, but I'll do my best)

Ashley Galvan - contemporary dancer and Lil' C's favorite, this season's Kathryn

Robert Roldan - contemporary dancer, who trains at Alvin Alley with Billy, this season's Mark

Let's go back now to my personal favorite. I absolutely LOVE Kent Boyd! If he doesn't win, I may end up crying myself to sleep every night. OK, that's a bit dramatic, but still. It would kind of be like last season when everyone thought Jakob would win because he killed it every performance, but then lost out to Russell, who I thought was overrated even in the audition episodes. Back to Kent. Now, I'm by no means a dancer of any kind, but I can appreciate natural talent when I see it. This boy has EVERYTHING that it takes to make it a long way in SYTYCD: talent, technique, heart, passion, personality, I could go on and on. If you don't believe me, take a look at this little ditty Fox threw together for us all about the young man from a farm in Ohio:



I can't wait to see him excel over the course of the show. And, I especially can't wait to see him partnered with my favorite all stars Courtney Galiano (who saw her in Vocal Adrenaline in Glee!?) and Kathryn McCormick. Or the routines Sonya, Wade, Mia or Travis come up with for him. Should be good!

Be sure to check out the top 11 show their stuff, in their own style, tonight on the "Meet The Top 11" special tonight on Fox.

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Kent Boyd, "So You Think You Can Dance"

"You think Puck and Santana will acknowledge my existence if we're not in glee club together." "She has a point."

I don't even know where to begin about last night's episode of Glee. I can probably sum what I thought about it in two words: SIMPLY AMAZING!

Going in to the episode there were a few things that I was hoping would happen. I definitely haven't been secretive about my love for Jesse St. James, so my biggest hope was that he would end up sabotaging Vocal Adrenaline's performance and try to win back Rachel's heart in the end. Unfortunately, earlier in the day yesterday I read an interview Jonathan Groff gave about the filming of the episode and how it was his last. I guess there goes my hope of a Rachel/Jesse reconciliation. At least I still have hope that Glee provided the exposure necessary to make Jonathan Groff a big star.

Back to what actually happened.

We find out Sue is going to be a judge at Regionals; Mr. Shue and New Directions freak out and think they don't stand a chance to win; they realize it's not about winning but the "journey" and decide to do a medley of Journey songs for their performance; Quinn reconciles with her mother, goes into labor and rushes to the hospital with New Directions coming along for support; Vocal Adrenaline (well, Jesse mainly, with a bunch of past So You Think You Can Dance dancers backing him up) KILLS it with Bohemian Rhapsody; Quinn has a baby girl; Rachel and Shelby have a touching moment backstage about heart and family (where Shelby finds out about Quinn's new baby); the judges Olivia Newton John, Josh Groban, Rod Remington and Sue Sylvester debate about which group should win; Vocal Adrenaline ends up winning which leads to New Directions being forced to disband by Principal Figgins; Emma sticks up for glee leading to a revelation by Mr. Shue that he loves her, even though she's now dating her dentist; New Directions performs a touching thank you to Mr. Shue, witnessed by Sue; Sue decides that she'll give glee some of her Cheerios budget to keep them around another year; the show ends on a happy note with Mr. Shue and Puck singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow and all the glee clubbers happy!

That's that, in a very large nutshell. I really do think that this was the best episode of the season, which is appropriate, it being the finale and all. I'm not surprised that they had Vocal Adrenaline beat New Directions in the end...it really is too soon for them to be the "best." I was very happy to discover that Quinn's baby was being adopted by Shelby, meaning that Idina Menzel will hopefully be around a lot next season. I am very excited to see where season 2 takes us.

Now for the music. I pretty much loved every performance this week, so I'll include the studio versions of them all!











I'll leave you now as the crew at McKinley High left us for the summer, with Puck and Mr. Shue's lovely rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow:



Until Next time... xoxo

Title Quote: Puck and Mercedes, "Glee"

"I know that we are young and I know that you may love me. But I just can't be with you like this anymore. Alejandro."

Hey Gaga fans! The Steven Klein directed video for Lady Gaga's latest single, Alejandro was released for our viewing pleasure today.



Part Madonna video, part war film, Steven Klein and Lady Gaga really use both of their aesthetics to bring us a fierce 9 minutes of music, dance and fashion. I'm a huge fan of his photography and so I'm not surprised I was visually pleased watching the video. His editorial featuring Victoria and David Beckham in W Magazine back in 2007 were some of my favorite celebrity fashion editorial photos.

I'm already reading about the backlash that will come about from religious groups as to most of the imagery in the video, but I guess Lady Gaga is used to this by now. I'm not sure there has been anything that she's done that hasn't caused some sort of controversy, but isn't that what artists want?

Now I want her to make a video for my favorite track on the Fame Monster, Dance in the Dark. I can see all the disco balls already!!

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Lady Gaga, "Alejandro"

"Sometimes the bitch wins."

The wait is almost over! Only a little over a week left until the season 3 premiere of True Blood.

Yesterday we were treated to a brand spankin' new trailer with a pretty in depth look at the drama to come over the next 12 episodes.



I don't know about you, but I think this looks even better than I expected. Club Dead was one of my favorite books of the Sookie Stackhouse novels so I've been really looking forward to seeing how Alan Ball translates it on to our television sets each week. I am also looking forward to seeing much more Sookie/Eric interaction and meeting all the new characters, Alcide in particular.

If you need more True Blood to tide you over until Sunday, June 13, click HERE for HBO's True Blood page, which includes all the trailers and original minisodes.

Until next time... xo

Title Quote: Sookie Stackhouse, "Club Dead"

"They call it a funkification, meaning they show us what they've got and we spiral into a deep cloud of funk."

It's Wednesday, and we all know what that means. Time for my weekly Glee wrap up! Or "Hump Day" as Mr. Shue awkwardly pointed out last night.

I'm not the biggest fan of funk music which worried me a bit going in to the episode, considering it was called "Funk," but I was pleasantly surprised. Let's break it on down, shall we?

I have to say, I was nervous about what was happening with Jesse St. James when I saw the preview for this week's episode last week, and all my fears came true. Not only has he gone back to the dark side of Vocal Adrenaline, but he's also the ring leader of the destroy New Directions and Rachel Berry brigade. Poor girl just can't catch a break, can she? And while I am upset that Jesse is again the villain, he did kill it with his performance of Queen's Another One Bites the Dust.



Basically the episode revolved around getting the New Directions kids (and everyone else) out of their respective funks. New Directions being psyched out by Vocal Adrenaline, Mr Shue being threatened (again) by Sue Sylvester (which led to way too many awkward moments for my taste), Quinn dealing with the hardships of teen pregnancy, etc. I was pleased to see the Quinn got a solo song this week, as she hasn't really had much spotlight on her singing, rather than her pregnancy, before. While she may not have the chops of Rachel or Mercedes, she still threw down with an amazing performance of James Brown's It's a Man's Man's Man's World.



I'm not really going to go in to the whole Mr. Shue/Sue Sylvester seduction, because I don't really think Shue played this one right at all. I can see why he thought that leading her on would be a good way to get back at her, but I also think in the end it just made him look like a jerk. Hasn't he learned that you can't fight fire with fire? Puck and Finn were almost expelled at the beginning of the episode by doing so. Which also led to some classic Mrs. Robinson moments with Finn and Terri Schuester at Sheets and Things.

Also, loved that Sue had Kurt do a 14 minute long Celine Dion solo (all in French) to win the Cheerio's 6th national championship! If only they had shown a teeny bit of it. And, speaking of Kurt, his defense of Rachel after she's egged by Jesse and Vocal Adrenaline, led to another great one-liner, "Rachel's one of us - we're the only ones who get to humiliate her."

Anyway, as the episode wraps up we see New Directions finally figuring out what it is that they can do to beat Vocal Adrenaline in the end: FUNK! Apparently Vocal Adrenaline are "souless automatons" so they are unable to perform this style of music. The tables are turned in the end when New Directions invites Vocal Adrenaline to watch them in their newest funk number.



All in all, another solid Glee episode. I'm really looking forward to next week's season finale. Maybe Jesse St. James will realize the wrong he's done and come back over to the good side. Doubtful, but a girl can dream!

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Artie, "Glee"

"Everybody hates you today. A superstar by tomorrow. You gotta put a smile on. Just to hide your sorrow."

Now, I'm going out on a limb today by coming clean about my guiltiest pleasure of 2010 (so far): season 9 of American Idol. Up until last week, I was pretty undercover about the fact I had been sucked in, but alas, I was. I realize that this confession may knock whatever music street cred I may or may not have down a notch or two, but I don't really care!

Lee DeWyze was my favorite contestant of the season. I will admit, however, that when he was chosen for the top 24, I didn't get his appeal. Then I heard his voice and was blown away. I was very pleased last Wednesday night when they announced this year's winner and it was him.

In the aftermath of his big win, the press rounds began. This morning on Live with Regis and Kelly, Lee performed an amazing acoustic version of his American Idol single, Beautiful Day.

As a fan of music, I wanted to do a bit of research on my newest crush. During some of his interviews on the show, Lee would talk about the original songs he had written and used to perform prior to Idol. I decided to track these down.

Upon Google and YouTube searches I discovered that Lee has 2 independent studio albums under his belt. I decided to head over to iTunes and see what was available, and I was able to grab up a copy of Slumberland, recorded last year and I LOVE it. It's a little Kings of Leon meets Dave Matthews Band, both of whom I'm a fan.

Enjoy a playlist of my favorite Slumberland tracks and singles from the show:

Lee DeWyze by Erin Boy

Here's hoping Lee's career goes the way of Kelly and Carrie and not Ruben and Taylor.

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Lee DeWyze, "Flower Child"