Trav's Thoughts

For those of you here to see another list of authors from my library, scroll on down for Thursday 13.



The Final 4

Judges tonight are Mary Murphy, Nigel Lithgow, and Dan Karaty.

Woooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! We get another season of dancers next year!!!

Everybody dances with everybody tonight in a two hour performance finale.

We begin with a Tyce Diorio Broadway routine for the final four and they are excellent dancing to Liza Minelli singing Mein Herr from Cabaret. Based on what we just saw, any of the four of them could win and we can’t pick a favorite just yet.

Lacey dances her solo in a very odd costume. But regardless of what she’s wearing she is a sexy hot performer. She is a natural on stage.

Sabra and Neil dance hip hop choreographed by Shane Sparks. That really didn’t show off their skills. They had energy, but you could tell that they don’t dance hip hop. The choreography was good, but they weren’t up to it. It was fun, but it’s not a winner of a dance for either of them.

Lacey and Danny dance Viennese Waltz choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereaux. That was really beautiful. That was so well done. Lacey corrected most of her technique issues with her hand extension. The spins and turns were gorgeous and the lines were tremendous. That’s one of my favorite dances of the season.

Neil dances his solo. This young man has grown so much during the course of this program. He’s gone from an after thought for us to a dancer we truly enjoy watching.

Lacey and Sabra dance a Wade Robson piece. Unfortunately it was difficult to understand the dance, although I think they interpreted the choreography as well as they could. We did enjoy the performance. It was art.

Danny dances his solo. I’ve run out of ways to describe how amazing this kid is. Remember the name Danny Tidwell.

Danny and Neil dance contemporary choreographed by Mia Michaels. Outstanding. It was very interesting to see the two of them together, because we’ve always believed that Danny was a professional dancer and Neil was still a few steps behind. But this routine proved that they are both pros and of equal ability. Neil is raw whereas Danny is polished and we think that is the only difference in their dancing.

Sabra dances her solo. She dances with such passion and joy. It blows my mind that she’s only been taking formal training for four years.

Lacey and Neil dance Lindy Hop choreographed by Nick Williams. I was nervous for them the whole dance but they really pulled that off!!!!! That’s not easy to learn in just a couple days if you’ve never done it before. Fantastic energy and amazing performance to do that at the end of the show.

Sabra and Danny dance Cha Cha Cha choreographed by Melanie LaPatin. We were actually disappointed in that dance. They didn’t have the energy or speed it needed. We thought it was awkward in spots and the technique wasn’t good. However, they looked like they enjoyed dancing with each other. That’s a tough dance for them to end on and we hope that voters take the body of work into consideration tonight.

And that’s it – the competition is over. Pam and I are in voter brain lock. We can’t decide. We like them all.



I've got another list for you.

As a reminder, here are the ratings: (NR) Not Recommended, (R) Recommended, (HR) Highly Recommended, (RR) Really Recommended. If I haven't read the book, I won't put a code for the author unless I'm familiar with other work.

Oh, and if you're interested in previous lists, click here.

1. Erich Maria Remarque - A Time to Love and A Time to Die
2. Anne Rice (HR) - Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, Pandora, The Vampire Armand, Blood and Gold, Blood Canticle, Violin, Cry to Heaven, Servant of the Bones, Vittorio the Vampire, The Feast of All Saints, The Mummy, The Witching Hour, Lasher, Taltos
3. H. Jay Riker (R) - Silver Star
4. Jennifer Roberson (R) - The Chronicles of The Cheysuli series
5. Joel Rosenberg (R) - Guardians of the Flame
6. J.K. Rowling (RR) - Harry Potter series
7. Salman Rushdie - Satanic Verses
8. Fred Saberhagen (R) - The Complete Book of Swords, The Lost Swords
9. Melissa Scott - The Kindly Ones
10. Leonard B. Scott (HR) - The Last Mile, Charlie Mike, The Expendables
11. William Shakespeare (RR) - The Complete Works
12. Irwin Shaw (R) - Rich Man Poor Man, The Young Lions
13. Clifford D. Simak - Where the Evil Dwells