Remembrance of American Classics

It was more than just an evening of dancing and singing. It was a remembrance of the American classics.

On Oct. 18, the Illinois Central College presented its Guest Artists series “Two on Tap” at the Performing Arts Center. It starred Melissa Giattino and Ron DeStefano, who danced to tap to hit songs from vaudeville to Broadway, and there was some comedy along, too.

 “It was like going back in time and reliving some of these classic hits that we don’t get to see perform anymore,” said Lisa Johnson of East Peoria.

The night's first performance was to tap dance to the song “I Got Rhythm.” They sang and danced during their performance and, along with that, talked to the audience, doing a bit of comedy as they danced to the music.

“It was like watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers,” said Johnson. “They showed class.”

Through the night, we learned a bit about the two stars. They each got to perform one song and dance number from which they performed years ago.

For one, DeStefano introduced a video of Giattino in the cast of 42^nd Street performing at the Tony Awards. As the video was playing and saw the cast dancing, Giattino came out dancing along in a dark blue dress.

Another was when DeStefano only sang with no music to the tune of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from the Broadway musical “Carousel.” Audience members were amazed and cheered for his performance.

But the night performance came to the second song near the end as Giattion and DeStefano performed the hit classic “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” DeStefano and Giattion's voices brought the house down and had the audience on their feet for a good minute or two of cheers and applause.

To one audience member, that performance didn’t just bring her to her feet but also brought tears of joy. She said that Giattion's voice was unique when she reached that high note of the song.

She also mentioned that watching Giattino and DeStefano perform was something we don’t see anymore on television or in the movies and that they are restoring those classics.

I have to say that that performance also brought me to tears as well. This show wasn't just an act to make the audience happy but to give the audience a bit of what true American classic of songs and dance, the authentic style that we once watched back in the day but now somewhat seems no more.

The Cutting Thrill of Edward Scissorhands

After watching the film “Edward Scissorhands” this week and going over it again, you see the different kind of ideals that they used in the film like color, texture and even costumes in the film that give it that sense to what Tim Burton is trying to use in the film.  

        I think in the film that the color was a bit equality of light and dark. The light colors going into the neighborhood that the Boggs was living. The colors seem to be of a 60’s-70’s suburban neighborhood with blended colors, such as lighted yellows and blues. It kind of made it look like it came from the 70’s era. And only the dark colors when we go into Edward’s home when he was running away from the neighbors after they thought that he was hurting Kevin. It seemed to be that even though it’s a comedy that there can be a mixed of color.

        The texture in the film looked somewhat real but when you watch it again there is some that really doesn’t quiet look real. When going into the castle where Mrs. Boggs first met Edward, the structure of the place didn’t look quite as real. The walls looked more of pastor walls than cement walls. The hole in the room where Edward sleeps, his bedroom or attic, the way it looked just didn’t quiet had that realness that you would kind of see from an old abandon building or castle.

        The costumes in the film had that 60’s to 70’s look that had such a light color to them. Most of the characters in the film, their costumes were mostly light expect for Edward, which he wore a dark suede outfit. I think that the dark outfit shows the side that the character is scary, yet someone who had been in the dark for so long, is quiet and shy. On the other side, like the costume for Peg Boggs, it was light and colorful. Her costumes showed warm and even caring. I guess to someone like Peg, not only her clothes showed the personal side she is but her attitude towards people.

        The makeup in the film, for the character of Edward there seemed to be a lot of makeup on him. The scares that he had from accidentally scratch his face or even when

Peg put on her stuff from Avon that was going to help him clear his face up from the scares and yet help his skin.

The film had some interesting costumes and set designs for a comedy that almost has that take of "Frankenstein" just a little bit. Some of the things looked real and others in the film a bit not. From what I saw in the film, I thought that it was pretty good from a standing point.

     

I'm Sorry but You'll Just Have to Try: Parenthood "A Potpourri of Freaks"

As the final season continues, this week's episode of Parenthood deals with sorrys, trying and the talk. That's probably the three words I got most out of this episode and it wasn't even bad.

Julia and Joel relationship situation has really affected Sydney this season, as she has been behaving badly to a kid at school. They tried making her apologized to the kid and his parents but that didn't turn out that well.

But sure enough the parents let them have it. Telling them that sorry isn't just going to cut it, not anymore. It really seems that both Joel and Julia's vocabulary is sorry. Soon they discuss about their living situation, are they going to get back together, yes or no?

It seems that it's very unlikely that it won't happen, which just breaks my heart to see it. They are one of my favorite Braveman couple besides Adam and Kristina.

Meanwhile, Max has a new friend, Dylan. She just transferred from another school. She seems to be an outspoken child. She calls Max by his disability, which just freaked the hell out of Adam and Kristina but mostly Kristina.

They talk during lunch, as far as we can see. Max was literally going to cut his hair because she doesn't like his hair and thinks that he's going look like a rock-star, which he doesn't want to be. Let's just say that Max has finally someone to talk to besides Hank and that he asked Adam a question that was soon to come now than later, what do you do when you like a girl.

Mostly, yeah mostly is a good word to say, that this episode was focus on the recovery of Zeek as he came home from the hospital. Camille is trying to get him going, walk a bit to build up strength but he doesn't seem to want to do it. He just wants to sit and watch John Wayne blow stuff up.

Zeek shows his fears for trying to move, he shows his emotions when Camille is trying to tell him that he needs to move. The one thing out of all this was when Adam and Camille was talking and you can see Kristina just watching and listening to them talk and from that look on Kristina that you know what was going to happen next.

Kristina talks to Zeek about recovering, getting a move and saying that the one thing that pissed her off was when people starts to help you and say the word we into every sentence. There's a real connection between them, with her cancer and his heart surgery those two can see eye to eye.

And eventually, Zeek starts to get up and walk, Kristina and him walk around the block. As they come back to the house, Zeek got nervous again seeing those steps but with the hold of Kristina they went for it.

Another thing: Hank has finally gotten through to his wife but given his two cents in about what's going on. Apparently, his ex didn't like Sarah being around when their daughter is with him but that all changed for the best. But probably not for Sarah to say.

This episode reminded me of when my grandfather has his heart surgery and the recovery he had to go through was hell enough. I had a pillow in front of him. He had to have help every time he had to go or need to get some exercise. It really was like a flashback a year ago.

Next week's episode will have Amber falling in love with another person? That's probably what I go out of that promo.

You can catch "Parenthood" Thursday nights at 10/9c on NBC

Wednesday Night Dramas of Women Crush Wednesday

  

The Mysteries of Laura: The Mystery of the Terminal Tenant

This episode started as if it was like watching Bones. An elderly lady enters her neighbor's room and sees if he's home. She smells something and follows it to the bathroom, where she finds a skeleton of someone in the tub full of blood.

Laura and the gang look into who may have entered the victim's room. A suspect by the name of Harris checked his place. They meet him and his girlfriend. Then, they go a bit deeper into the victim's past.

Laura found out the victim was going to Mommy and me classes she did not want to go. She spots someone by herself and looks at him. Laura talks to her and mentions Cody, the victim. The mother replied to her and said crystcrystalstal meth.

She gets busted and goes to the station to answer questions. She mentions this roller skating rental shop where you asked for a nonsize shownonsized you get some money.  Jake and Meredith are undercover; she's the buyer, and Jake's the lookout.

When the switch was made, someone gave a signal to the delivery guy and ran. JJake chased him to a house, where he went to the back and saw the guy about to jump, but then an explosion happened. When Meredith arrested him, he thought that they were muscle.

He gives the name Jimmy. Laura and Billy later stake out two men that whoor Jimmy; they see that they are taking two bottles of what seems to be water but are not. They go up to them and ask them for the bottles. One big guy says no and later punches Laura in the face. That guy later turns out to be an undercover cop who's been secret looking for Jimmy for six months.


He does give up info about where they're going to be, Jimmy.

As Laura and Billy stake out again, they see the gang coming in, and they send in the squad to arrest them. Laura then sees a lady walking away, and the others stop her, too, which turns out to be Jimmy.



Laura then brings in Harris and picks out Jimmy from the lineup, but a clue emerges when Harris starts to stutter his words. The meth mother mentioned someone who had a stutter when he got nervous.

Later, she thought she could get the dental records, thinking that Harris was Cody and Cody was Harris. That turned out to be correct. But Laura did find out that Harris did have the LP, thanks to his dental assistant girlfriend.

Harris is let go, but soon, the elderly lady comes back looking for Laura and her wallet, witnessing

Harris stole her cards and was withdrawing money from her account. They were both arrested.

There were a lot of funny moments in this episode.

Laura is having a time at the hotel, as she called it, "nesting," eating beef jerky, candy, and beer, playing great music,c and watching Bravo.

Also, Jake had a time when he watched the boys at Laura's house, and the boy's friend's mother came over and had some fun with Jak,e too.

Next week's episode deals with murder and fashion. You might not want to miss it.

You can catch "Mysteries of Laura" on Wednesday nights at 8/7c on NBC








Chicago PD: Chicken, Dynamite, Chainsaw

What the heck is Chicken, Dynamite, Chainsaw? I never heard of it as a game, let alone heard it anywhere else but in last night's episode of Chicago PD.

This week's episode deals with two missing girls, one a politician's daughter. He talks to Voight about getting her back. Even the higher power told him to get on the case.

As he and the gang go through the debrief of the situation. Halstead and Ruzek explain what the girls might have used, like what kind of ride they take. They taught Voight and Al about this new tech that the kids use today.

Suddenly, I just got information about the car the girls were in, and Voight, Dawso,n an,d,l found the car driver beaten, tied, and out of it in an open field. The driver talked and couldn't remember much but that there were two guys and that he didn't pick up the girls from the library.

Later, Roman and Burgess are assigned to gun buyback at a community neighborhood on a rainy day. Burgess doesn't seem too pleased and wonders if this was the worst thing or if being out on the beat during the winter vortex, she thinks that in the rain was worst. Good call; last winter was terrific!

Soon, they see a lady bring a pretty big gun, and Roman recognizes it as a weapon missing in a homicide case. They turned it in to Platt, who was upset and told them to turn it in and return it. They don't and found the rest of the evidence that will help in that case. Soon, they were told to go home; Platt didn't like what they did.

Meanwhile, Dawson and Erin talk to the parents of the other missing girl, and they give their information. Soon, the gang moves into a neighborhood, looking for where the suspects could hide. Soon, in seconds, a girl jumps off a second-floor apartment building, cut and bleeding. Erin protects her as Dawson, Atwater, Ruzek, and Halstead enter. Dawson shoots the suspect who was shooting at him and dies there.

Halstead goes to the back and sees the other suspect getting in the other car and escaping.

Britt and Mils come in and take the victim to the hospital. Later, she talks to Erin about what happened.

Moving on, as Voight gets more information and starts debriefing everyone, someone comes to see him. It turns out to be a friend of his son, Justin, and she is pregnant with his child.

The thought of Voight being a grandfather is a real thinker. He seems to be happy with the news.

Later, Voight and Erin go back to the hospital to talk to the girl and show her the photo they have of the suspect. Halstead and Al go and see the dead suspect's mother and ask who he's been working with, and she gives them a name.

We later found out that the girl's father, who was in the hospital, had owned the suspect money because he was arrested and in jail for ten years, so revenge is the name of the game for this suspect.

The gang goes to the school building, which looks abandoned; EErin and Dawson go in, Halstead takes the sky, and Voight and Al take the ground as Atwater and Ruzek look through the blueprints. They find the suspect with the politician.

Voight and Al find the other missing victim, and Halstead shoots the suspect in the leg.

We learn in this episode that Dawson and his wife are taking a break; their daughter is very upset about it. Soon, Roman asked him if he wanted to take some extra cash because he had a job as a dressed security guard; later, in the evening, he took the job.

Halstead and Erin have to retake the gun test; they both make a bet on who's better than who. My money is on Erin.

As for Voight, he takes the mother-to-be to his house cooks Herman authenticenticl meatstalked about what she'll be doing. He later tells her that Justin will be back in a couple of days and then goes to his basement and gets some cascash-outhat's it.

But the promo for next week's episode shows a lot and could push Voight to the extreme edge as he gets beaten down by two thugs and probably robbed. Someone's messing with the wrong person.

You can catch "Chicago PD" on Wednesday nights at 10/9c on NBC

Tuesday Night: Two Comedies and a Drama

I think that I'm going to start doing one blog with three recap/reviews of Tuesday night's shows. It's not that I don't like writing up every show but I think it would save some time. So Tuesday night has become a four show night on NBC with The Voice at 8/7c, the series premiere of Marry Me at 9/8c, the season premiere of About A Boy at 9:30/8:30c and Chicago Fire at 10/9c.

Marry Me: Pilot 


Is a new series on NBC a comedy by the creator of "Happy Endings." The pilot is about how two couple, Anne and Jake, who have been dating for over five years and after a trip that they just took, Anne gets upset that Jake did pop the question on their trip. She goes off for a good five minutes about how horrible it is and calling their friends in an insult way.

It was one of the best scenes in the episode. After that, Anne goes to Jake at his office and propose to him, mention the trip and all until Jake's boss heard and fired him because Jake told him that he was sick in the hospital.

During the time after the first and second proposals, we see flashbacks of Anne and Jake meeting at a restaurant where they first met.  And after a long night Jake is eating nachos supreme and get call from Anne asking if this was a sign that they shouldn't be together until he sees her at the same restaurant. Jake proposes to Anne one more time and the answer is....you just will have to find out.

I find this series to be very entertaining. It a way I see this series as a little bit of a pre Mad About You kind of show. In which I don't mind at all to watch it. I think that Casey Wilson and Ken Marino are hilarious as Anne and Jake. They do have some chemistry.

You can catch "Marry Me" on Tuesday nights at 9/8c on NBC

About A Boy: About A Vasectomy
Where we last left off, Will has moved to New York City with his totally hot girlfriend doctor, Fiona and Marcus are by themselves in San Francisco as they try to move on without Will being there.

Now as season two premiered last night things have changed, we see Will running for the prefect bagel and found it at a local bagel shop who happens to have a meat-head of an owner, who just happens to be played by Rob Reiner.

As Will got his bagel, he then is video chatting with Marcus about the bagel and everything. Will then travels to San Francisco for business and pops in to see Fiona and Marcus.

That's when he sees them recreating Marcus's birth, in a weird way and because Fiona is a doula. Reminding me of what happen in this week's Mulaney.

Will was hoping to spend some time with Marcus until he learned that Marcus has a play date with some friends from school. But apparently they turn out to be bullies to him as they kept him away from his tree house and taking everything that he has in there like drinks and food. Plus making fun of his mom didn't do justice too.

Will sees that Marcus is in trouble and tries to convince Fiona that Marcus is being bullied. He spies on them and finally shows Fiona the truth. They deal with it and told the boys if they make fun of Marcus behind his back at school that he will do something bad.

Meanwhile another thing, Andy apparently didn't get a vasectomy that his wife thought he had gotten and thinks that his wife Laurie is pregnant. Blaming Will for it because Will told him not to get it.

Apparently Will is staying a bit longer in San Francisco because of what's been going around there since he came back. He seems to have miss all that is there and seems pretty much happy to be around Andy, Fiona and Marcus.

Could this be the end of his relationship with his awesome hot doctor girlfriend? Maybe. It does seem that he wants to come back home and stay with his own family.

You can catch "About A Boy" Tuesday nights 9:30/8:30c on NBC.

Chicago Fire: Apologies Are Dangerous
You never apologies for something that you think was bad. It will turn around and bite you in the ass, is which I got out of from this week's episode of "Chicago Fire."

Dawson starts her candidate duties, which means....kitchen duty and pranks! Everyone treating Dawson as every other candidate that has come through the open doors. We see her first action with a car on top of a guy in a car lot, Herrmann tells her to get  the jacks, which are in the truck but can't find the levers until Herrmann told her to improvise and cracks open the trunk of the car and gets one lever and she goes and fines the other.

Dawson was going to apologies to Casey but Herrmann stopped her and told her not to do it because it would be a risk to do so. She did it anyway and she and the rest of the crew were to do drills.

But she did earn her way after finding water source after all the fire hydrogen were cut off and helped save some of the girls in the building fire. They celebrated by having her drive the truck into the building but then as she turned the truck on, confetti popped out and turned out to be a prank. But after all she is the candidate, which means she has to clean the mess up.

One the another hand, Severide has been doing some late night partying at local bars. After having six Irish bombs, oh my god someone tell me this drink is good to have at least once, he leaves and goes on the L. Soon as he sits down the train stops and he hear gun shots firing. Soon passengers moves to the back and Severide moves to the front to see the situation.

There's a kid pointing a gun as the train conductor has a gun shot to the shoulder. Severide takes out the gunner and gets the conductor out of the train and they move out and into an area. Severide then grabs some stuff and starts a fire to get help, a tip that he had learn from Shay. The fire alarm goes off and the two gun men come and tries to take out them until the Chicago police came and stops them.

A couple of days later, the conductor stops by the firehouse and gives her thanks and a treat to Severide and told him to give her thanks to Shay. Which he told her that she had died. But it wasn't until the moment that she told him that she's not gone, that she's right there with him in his heart.

Hopefully with that talk and the talk that he had with Casey about losing someone he loved that he could move forward in the process. Who knows how long this would go for, I know it takes time to get over someone that you love.

Another thing that happen was that Britt isn't the runaway bride that we thought she said to be, but the other way around as the groom turned out to be. He come and apologized to her in front of the firehouse gang. She doesn't want to see him and that she doesn't want to get back at all as she's got a new life.

But after that, she starts the day with a new partner, Mils. Those two didn't see eye to eye after the building fire, which had fifteen girls come out and she was focusing on one, trying to save her but knew she wasn't going to make it. Mils gave Britt a bit of a warning that she needs to focus on what's the emergency at the moment.

I think we're seeing Severide in the moving process towards his grieving of the lost of Shay. It still hurts talking about only more than a couple of weeks since her death. Dawson seems to get into the groove of things after a bit of a rough first day, but she's Dawson she can make through things that are difficult to make.  She's a tough cookie to break, right?

You can catch "Chicago Fire" Tuesday nights at 10/9c on NBC.

A Piece of Mind: The Blacklist "Dr. Linus Creel"

This week's episode of "The Blacklist" takes Dr. Linus Creel, a man who takes psychology into a new way of turning people into doing bad things.

We see a lady at a bank who was denied. She then later get's in her car, very up set and then grabs a gun out of the glove compartment and goes back in the bank shooting. We come to a guy who is watching this event in his car, he talks and then grabs a piece of his hair and kind of licks it and places it on the folder with the lady's photo and information.

Since this season has started, we wanted to know about what's the deal with Red's ex wife, Naomi. What information does she have that Red is protecting from Liz? Course, Liz wants to find her and talk to her. She looks into while Red give her a tip about the latest violence going on in the D.C. area.

She takes it and looks into the latest victim, the bank shooter. They try to talk to her but she was talking to the psychiatrist. As they left, they talked to others that known her, friends, coworkers and even her ex-husband.

Then the gang comes to a project that the U.S. have been doing for years called "Project 7" where they use psychology and change the minds of someone into doing something else. Keen goes and talk to a senator about it.

Meanwhile, Red, who is hiding Naomi, they talk about Liz, about this whole mess that she's been in and also the name Jennifer has come up a bunch of times as well. Red is looking for Jennifer. Could it be his other daughter? Could it be Liz's twin sister? Or maybe it could be Berlin's child? Hey things can go either way in this show, need to think outside the box just a little, right?

Red has Naomi's husband, Frank, at the house. He meets with them and tells them that he has all the papers in place for them to go to a safe place. Frank doesn't want to and that's where Vargas comes in and takes care of Frank's mistress, by telling her that he's gone from her life.

Red then takes Frank out for a walk and discuss about how he loves Naomi and will protect her no matter what. He then shows his mistress's dog from the SUV and threats him to agree. Threatening back at Red to go to the cops, Red then takes a broken stick and sticks in close to his neck. He then agrees.

Later on, Liz and the gang find out who's been setting these victims into criminals, the name Dr. Linus Creel. Liz goes undercover as a mental patient who has been since college. She talks to him about her past, from husband to family. As he goes checking on her blood work, Keen goes into his bag and look up his computer password code. She gets it and finds out who's the next victim to go wild.

As they try finding the student, who's been catfished by Creel. The student goes off in rage to kill a girl that dumped him and goes to a gun control event. Creel meets the student and tells him to shoot him. He wants to be recognized by the world who he is and also his work.

Keen and the gang get there and talks down the student. The student than shoots Creel in the shoulder, but as Keen goes to check in on him, he has a gun on her. As they talk, a sniper shoots Creel in the head ending that event.

Later on, we see Liz finding out where Naomi is at and goes there to talk to her. They talk and was interrupted by Red and Naomi and Frank leave. Both Red and Liz talk. Liz knows that Red has someone watching her, for that reason so for her protection since Agent Malik was killed.

But then Red thinks that Liz has something that she's hiding. She leaves and then we see her sitting on a chair, drinking a beer, holding a pair of keys just looking at a lock door that says Exit 2. And it ends there.

Who is Jennifer and why is Red on the hunt to find her and protect her? What is Liz hiding behind that door?

This episode was so good. Creel character really creep me out a bit. The way he talks to his victims, the pulling of his hair and then licks it. What kind of crazy person does that?

Liz seems to take on Creel and get help at the same time when she went in to talk in her undercover.

I loved the Red and Naomi scenes. There's seems to be some love that they have for each other but you can also kind of see the damage of their relationship in their eyes.

Next week's episode tackles the most deadly virus and no it's not the Ebola virus. Something much worst. Can't wait to see who this person is that's on Red's Blacklist.

You can watch "The Blacklist" Monday nights at 10/9c on NBC

A Retake of Sex Ed: Mulaney "The Doula"

With only this being the second episode of the first season, "The Doula" is literally the funnest episode so far. The reason why is that it had just enough cringe-worthy material that make you rethink of your time learning in sex ed class.

When John is dating a Doula, a person who has no medical training but helps the midwife during childbirth, he seems to like her but when it comes to her talking about her job, he gets very uncomfortable about it.

I think some of us, do find it uncomfortable to learn about sex and the miracle of life.

One scene, John was talking to the Doula at a restaurant and as soon as she starts talking about the day she had of a baby being born, John looks at certain things around as she's describing the birth, like the crowning, the stretching, the legs spreading, and the fluid as well.

As John gets sick just by looking at things and listening about it, I to get a bit sick of it and had to spin my chair around as it was still going.

Another scene in the episode was when Jade and Andre were trying to take out the old air conditioner, as soon as the Doula got there, she get both Jade and John to help as Andre pushed the machine into the apartment. It was like watching a birth, a bit distributing but funny.

John then tells the Doula that he would like to watch her do it for real. That lead to him learning what the miracle of childbirth was, with the help of Jade and Andre.

They read through books about it and even watched a tape, which by the way was the birth of Motif and we hear that his mother didn't want to see him after birth because she didn't like him.


On the other side of the story, John had to fix a problem with Lou as he's been harassing not just the female employees but also the contestant and audience members as well. It comes to find out that he needs to have some "good time." Unfortunately by the time John tries to fix it, the female employees were on strike. But Lou has seen some light into it as he had a male makeup artist do his face.


I really find this episode hilarious. The characters of John, Jade and Andre were just too funny not to laugh when they were learning about childbirth. It felt like retaking sex education from Jr. high and high school all over again, in a way that made me feel kind of what John felt.

I know it's too early to say it but as I said it before, this was the funnest episode so far.

You can catch new episodes of "Mulaney" Sunday nights at 9:30/8:30c on FOX