Have you never watched Mick Jagger ‘dance’ during his shows? It’s agonizing to see the contortions. I don’t know, exactly, what it is that causes some people to be able to ‘feel’ the music, but you sure know it when you dance with one.
Oh, man, while on that subject, I have no idea whether Julia Louise-Dreyfuss can actually cut a rug or not, but given how famous her dancing bit on ‘Seinfeld’ has become, the producers are really missing a bet if they don’t try to get her on.
A fun idea, but she’d never take it – she’s way too big for DwtS. She actually has a paying job at the moment, unlike their usual unemployed C-listers.
You obviously never saw him perform his big hit “Achy Breaky”. I caught it once on a late night talk show. I never really liked the song and was very glad that I wasn’t hitting the clubs when it was a hit.
But back to the live version - The man is not a dancer.
I thought Laila’s foxtrot was really good, and I think she’s going to tear the house down on the latin dances. Joey has nice rhythm and energy, and can do well if he buckles down and works. No one else really impressed me. Billy Ray needs to get off my television screen right now.
I did think it was funny that Karina is well known for having a terror of having her hair come down in competition, and so she goes overboard with spray and pins (even for a ballroom dancer), and avoids “dangerous” hairstyles. I wonder if she did her usual and stuck a few extra pins in, and suffered the consequences?
Seeing as he often makes a fool out of himself on her show, I’d say it wouldn’t be that shocking for her.
This is my first season watching, but I was fascinated. I even found myself rooting for Heather a little. I’ve just gotta say this though: Shandy’s partner, Brian, has a really abnormally small head. It distracted me.
That’s what it was! I couldn’t decide if it was his haircut, or too much makeup – but there was something just not right about him.
My mantra during the evening, no matter how bad a dancer I was watching – “well, s/he’s better than Master P”.
That defines “damning with faint praise” pretty succinctly! 
I don’t watch the show, but I wanted to check in on how Clyde Drexler is doing. He is my favorite basketball player of all time, so I want him to do well.
I saw some footage of his dancing and from the clips, I agree with the assessment here. Clyde is at a true disadvantage being a legit 6’7". Add to that the fact that he is very lean and that makes him appear even taller. I think his smile and graceful manner will push him past the first few cuts, but I doubt he can make it much further.
I only saw clips of the athletes, but I thought Ali and Ohno were pretty good. I could see Ohno winning it. He had moves and that facial charisma that seems to really sell what he is doing.
God help me, I might actually watch next week.
What the hell, 9’s in week II? And for Appollo? I don’t see it, I really don’t.
Agreed. That was way off, in my book.
And 7’s for Billy Ray? What the hell!
Joey is fabulous. They better have kept some of those damn 9’s for him.
I’m not sure he was 7’s, but you have to admit he was a helluva lot better than last week.
Laila and Maks are hot!!! I thought her legs went a little wild at times, but I loved their routine. I do think, however, that they’re egos are well suited. I don’t think anyone will love them as much as they love themselves. I can stand to see a little more of Maks working out though. 
Oh and my prediction for who goes home tomorrow.
I think it’ll be: Shandi
OK, so here are my entirely subjective rankings for the second night of the, er, first round:
Mambo
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Laila/Max – Enugent called it last week, she did indeed burn the house down. Best dance of the night, by a fairly wide margin.
-
Heather/John – I can’t believe I’m typing this, but from a technical standpoint a very impressive turn regardless of any added tolerance that her missing limb may have contributed. Maybe her clear disinterest in being a ‘starry’ personality made it more compelling. In any event, she gave it a serious bit of welly, as Len might say.
-
Paulina/Alex – love her personality and technically not bad, but nothing really special, unfortunately.
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Shandi/Brian – a spray-on tan, a smile and frankly not much else at the moment. Gets down about as well as Woody Allen at a battle of hip-hop DJs.
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Leeza/Tony – unacceptably low hotness quotient. More Jersey boardwalk than Havana nightclub.
Quickstep
This one always strikes me as one of the most difficult dances for an amateur to carry off well. With that said:
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Joey/Kym – I love this guy (well, in a manly fashion, of course). Great personality, the whole thing of putting his name on the back of his clothes, as if he was a boxer, cracks me up. Not the best overall dance of the night, but still well up there.
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Ian/Cheryl – definite improvement over last week, still a ways to go. Probably will make it to the late rounds as usual.
-
John/Edyta – He’s not really built for this, but hey, the guy knows how to entertain.
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Apolo/Julianne – I don’t pretend to know all that much technical about this kind of competition, but I saw nothing whatsoever to justify 9s for this dance. Utterly undistinguished.
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Clyde/Elena – the papers in Houston, the area where I live, have been pumping up Mr. Drexler to no end, but his galumphing performance tonight did him no favors. His sheer size works against him, as if anyone’s shocked by that revelation, and he’s clearly going to have a mighty struggle developing a graceful technique…
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Billy Ray/Karina – …as will Mr. Cyrus, who seemed genuinely shocked by how hard he got slammed last week. Better, but still, in my view, the weakest dance of the night.
Speaking of which, are the dancers getting to choose their own music in the first round? I find it a bit odd that BRC would randomly get one of his own songs and ‘Ring of Fire’ as the first two selections.
Now, who’s going? Once I would have said BRC for sure, but I’ve now seen enough of these to know that the fan base rules. He should go, but he won’t, and overall there seems to be more support on the guys’ side. That leaves Leeza or (sob) my beloved Paulina walking the plank, I reckon.
I think Leeza’s got to go. There’s still some hope for Shandi and BRC really surprised me. I definitly don’t think Apollo deserved 9s and don’t know why the judges seem to think he’s the Golden Boy.
I love this show to bits because people you think won’t do well surprise the heck out of you. I honestly thought Heather’s leg couldn’t hold up to the knee and hip action of Latin and she was terrific. I expected BRC to crash and burn and he was good - not great, but good. And John has a definite sense of music - more than a couple of the other guys. But Leeza’s hopelessly stiff and I don’t think she’ll overcome that. She’s the one who must vamoose.
I forgot how much I like this show.
For me Mambo:
- Leila - By far the best mambo.
- Heather - she had hip action, which the bottom three did not have. Not at all. And the walkover.
- Paulina - was not good. But she’s coming across as really, really likeable.
- Leeza - also, not good. But coming across as likeable.
- Shandi - not coming across as likeable. Plus, her extensions are awful. That split tonight looked wrong - was it just that her toes weren’t pointed or what?
Quickstep:
Joey & Apolo - at the top. I thought they both nailed it. I’d also forgotten how good Kym is at making her partners look great.
Ian & John & Clyde - Ian was solid. John was surprisingly good and he’s charming. Clyde shocked me at how good his feet were (especially compared to some of the other athletes we’ve seen). Also, he seemed to be dancing more than “walking in the correct direction to the beat of the music” - again, compared with some of the other athletes.
Billy Ray - no one was injured. Way better than his chacha though. And how did he do that in 5 days while the mullet thing took 4 weeks?
That may have been the worst rendition of “the lady is a tramp” that I’ve ever heard.
Score combination is the same as last year. So - next week, when the judges award all 9s, they’ll be meaningless again.
Hi again. Forced myself to sit through two hours tonight. Never, never, ever watching this live again. Sheesh, on top of the tedious booing, the endless unfunny “jokes”, and that “you gotta VOTE!!” mantra being rammed into my skull every 5 minutes, there’s gotta be worked shoot crap now? As if reality TV isn’t fake enough as it is…
Anyway, my hastily-scrawled comments on the 11, with the reminder that there’s no way I know who everyone is at this point.
Apolo Ohno - Didn’t see all of his. He can move, that’s for sure. Probably overrated at this point, but he’ll be a contender at least.
Leeza Gibbons - Looks for all the world that she’s just happy to be here. Played for par tonight and got it; nothing special.
Ian Whasisface - Also nothing special. (Who is this guy again?)
The blonde that’s not Leeza, the tall one - Huh…look…it’s really very simple. If you’re tall, really tall, as tall as your partner, if not a shade taller, DON’T WEAR HIGH HEELS!! Sheesh, hasn’t anyone on this show ever heard of flats? Or boots? Or moccassins? Anyway, she didn’t screw anything up, but she looked a bit stiff tonight; this is clearly not easy for her.
Clyde Drexler - Let’s face it, fluidity and grace don’t come easily for an NBA forward, and he’s also hampered by an injury. Valiant effort, but just could not hide his weaknesses.
The European model - Expected a little more, honestly. Did a lot of basic movements and relied on her partner for the rest.
Billy Ray Cyrus - He’s COMPLETELY in over his head and looked flat-out whipped in the practice video. And that hair-pulling schtick is going to get painfully old by, oh, tomorrow. He’s in trouble.
Heather Mills - Wow…much better than anticipated. One of the best performances of the night, no problems whatsoever that I could see. Might not be a one-and-done sacrificial lamb after all.
John Ratzenberger - The problem isn’t just his age, it’s his bulk. As someone who’s carrying some extra pounds myself, I can tell you that it make any kind of dancing much, much harder. Looked like he was hustling just to keep up with the quickstep. He’ll run out of gas before too long.
Leila Ali - That was good, very good, and it perfectly illustrated the importance of athleticism in this competition. By far the most entertaining performance of the night.
Joey Patone - He threw everything he had into it, and honestly, after so many nondescript performances, it was refreshing. I think he needs to settle down and learn some discipline if he wants to be there at the end, but he definitely should be considered a strong favorite.
It looks like a two-man…er, two competitor race right now. I don’t see anyone with the chops to catch Ali or Patone, let alone the stamina to keep going strong after 8 rounds.
First elimination pick…does BRC really have that big a fanbase? In 2007? What the heck has he done lately? Anyway, I still think it’s more likely to be him than anyone else. Even if he does survive, he’s not exactly Hank Williams Sr., so he won’t be long. If not him, then either Ian or Leeza, with John as an outside chance (although he’s a great sport and deserves better). Clyde is on the bubble, and Not MJ = no free rides from NBA fans, but he won’t go this early.