Showing posts with label tv guide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tv guide. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Maks TV Guide Blog: Everything's Cool with Carrie Ann
Hi everyone,
Hope you had a great week. Thanks for voting for us!
I just want to get this out of the way: Everything's cool with Carrie Ann. She's passionate and I'm passionate. We made up afterward. Everything's back to normal. I never expected it to get blown up like it did, but I guess it was like, "reality drama"! We talked after the show and everything's great now. The post-mortem is that I don't think it was something I needed to say then and there. But the whole thing goes back to the intensity of the season. We're all busting our butts and working hard every second for the show. I'm trying so hard to do so much and life goes on outside of it. It's not like this is a scripted show. If that were the case then I would be a robot, which is what the show demands you to be. You have to keep your cool and be professional. Honestly, it's close to impossible to do that for the full 10 weeks. It's been five years now — I've done five seasons back to back and another five back to back. With everything that's going on in my life now, I let that particular moment get to me and I lost it. That's it. However frowned upon that moment was — I'm not justifying it — but I'm also not ashamed. I pride myself on the fact that I voice my opinion. I don't think there's anything wrong with speaking your mind and I think everyone should. I wish people spoke out more. In my case, it's just the place and the time. I didn't choose the perfect time or the perfect setting. At the end of the day, the judges and dancers all in it together. The celebrities come and go, but we're the constant.
I understand the point Carrie Ann was making, but I still disagree with it. And that's fine. We agree to disagree. What I was upset about was the face that if you go back and watch other couples' performances, you'd see that they skipped eight bars before dancing. And she didn't comment on that to them at all. You look at other people's stuff and count. Eight bars in, they're only starting to dance. We started dancing four bars in because our song hit an accent at that particular count. Would I love to have started dancing right away? Yes, but you can't always do that with your music. I wanted to make it musically right. On the dance floor in a competition format, yes, it's frowned upon, but if you back it up with dancing, no one's going to deny you praise. It's a matter of personal opinion.
We have the paso doble and the Argentine tango next week. We've finished the paso and are working on the tango now. We're dedicating the paso to everybody who's been bullied. I thought it was great for that particular message. We're taking a risk with our interpretation. Will the audience get it? Will the judges get it? I don't know. But it's something Brandy and I clicked on. We spoke a lot about it and we went through tough, tough moments in our lives, but we came out on top. I want kids to understand that you have to speak up — let your voice be heard. Don't be silent and wallow. Talk because there are people who care and who will listen. Our Argentine tango will be traditional. I think it's going to be fun. We just want to do a good tango. The paso — we want to get people out of their seats.
It was a bummer that Kurt left. He's such a cool guy. I know there's been a lot of talk about the past few eliminations, but it's about the votes. If you didn't vote for who you think deserved to stay, I don't think you can complain. I also think for every person who's upset that Bristol is still in it, there are a handful more who are happy she's still in it because, well, she is. She's an element in our show. She's doing her thing and she's giving her fans something to vote for every week. Again, it just goes to show, it's not about the scores as much as it is about the votes. Kurt overcame a huge score deficit a few weeks ago on votes. I've been on the receiving end of this situation and I've also been on the other end. It is what it is. Everyone who is still on the show deserves to be on.
Right now, Brandy and I are just focused on the semifinal. We're not thinking about the final yet. if we go through to the finale, it would be cool and it's definitely our goal, but we can't look too far ahead. I need to take everything one step at a time because, as I've mentioned, this season has been very tough on all of us pros. Yesterday, I was at my worst. I was ridiculous. I was mentally and physically done. It's really hard. No one — absolutely no one — understands what we go through no matter who you are. You haven't been in our shoes. You have no idea how difficult it is. When you get to the final, you are so drained that you become a shell of a person. You're on complete autopilot. Once it's over, you go, "I have absolutely no idea how I did." I love our fans. I love my fans. I love seeing what they like, bad or good. The positive stuff gives me a good reinforcement and tells me I'm doing something right. Most of the negativity I laugh at because it's so stupid or unreasonable since these people clearly don't know anything about ballroom dancing or what we go through. It's funny to me that there's so much negativity spewed at everyone. Why don't you get up and try to do what we do? People judge me for being a certain way. Honestly at this point, I really don't care. I only care about what Brandy thinks right now. I know what my past partners think and how good our relationships are — and people are still speculating about how we supposedly "hate" each other and whatnot. I love when I get tweets from people who say they created a Twitter account just to tell me they hate me. If you hate me, why waste your time making an account to tell me? If I hated someone, I would never waste time doing that. It's really amazing the lengths people go to behind the protection and anonymity of the Internet to be mean. But I'm not letting those people get to me. I'm just focused right now on Monday. I'm tired. Brandy's tired. But I know we will bring our best next week.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading.
Maks
Hope you had a great week. Thanks for voting for us!
I just want to get this out of the way: Everything's cool with Carrie Ann. She's passionate and I'm passionate. We made up afterward. Everything's back to normal. I never expected it to get blown up like it did, but I guess it was like, "reality drama"! We talked after the show and everything's great now. The post-mortem is that I don't think it was something I needed to say then and there. But the whole thing goes back to the intensity of the season. We're all busting our butts and working hard every second for the show. I'm trying so hard to do so much and life goes on outside of it. It's not like this is a scripted show. If that were the case then I would be a robot, which is what the show demands you to be. You have to keep your cool and be professional. Honestly, it's close to impossible to do that for the full 10 weeks. It's been five years now — I've done five seasons back to back and another five back to back. With everything that's going on in my life now, I let that particular moment get to me and I lost it. That's it. However frowned upon that moment was — I'm not justifying it — but I'm also not ashamed. I pride myself on the fact that I voice my opinion. I don't think there's anything wrong with speaking your mind and I think everyone should. I wish people spoke out more. In my case, it's just the place and the time. I didn't choose the perfect time or the perfect setting. At the end of the day, the judges and dancers all in it together. The celebrities come and go, but we're the constant.
I understand the point Carrie Ann was making, but I still disagree with it. And that's fine. We agree to disagree. What I was upset about was the face that if you go back and watch other couples' performances, you'd see that they skipped eight bars before dancing. And she didn't comment on that to them at all. You look at other people's stuff and count. Eight bars in, they're only starting to dance. We started dancing four bars in because our song hit an accent at that particular count. Would I love to have started dancing right away? Yes, but you can't always do that with your music. I wanted to make it musically right. On the dance floor in a competition format, yes, it's frowned upon, but if you back it up with dancing, no one's going to deny you praise. It's a matter of personal opinion.
We have the paso doble and the Argentine tango next week. We've finished the paso and are working on the tango now. We're dedicating the paso to everybody who's been bullied. I thought it was great for that particular message. We're taking a risk with our interpretation. Will the audience get it? Will the judges get it? I don't know. But it's something Brandy and I clicked on. We spoke a lot about it and we went through tough, tough moments in our lives, but we came out on top. I want kids to understand that you have to speak up — let your voice be heard. Don't be silent and wallow. Talk because there are people who care and who will listen. Our Argentine tango will be traditional. I think it's going to be fun. We just want to do a good tango. The paso — we want to get people out of their seats.
It was a bummer that Kurt left. He's such a cool guy. I know there's been a lot of talk about the past few eliminations, but it's about the votes. If you didn't vote for who you think deserved to stay, I don't think you can complain. I also think for every person who's upset that Bristol is still in it, there are a handful more who are happy she's still in it because, well, she is. She's an element in our show. She's doing her thing and she's giving her fans something to vote for every week. Again, it just goes to show, it's not about the scores as much as it is about the votes. Kurt overcame a huge score deficit a few weeks ago on votes. I've been on the receiving end of this situation and I've also been on the other end. It is what it is. Everyone who is still on the show deserves to be on.
Right now, Brandy and I are just focused on the semifinal. We're not thinking about the final yet. if we go through to the finale, it would be cool and it's definitely our goal, but we can't look too far ahead. I need to take everything one step at a time because, as I've mentioned, this season has been very tough on all of us pros. Yesterday, I was at my worst. I was ridiculous. I was mentally and physically done. It's really hard. No one — absolutely no one — understands what we go through no matter who you are. You haven't been in our shoes. You have no idea how difficult it is. When you get to the final, you are so drained that you become a shell of a person. You're on complete autopilot. Once it's over, you go, "I have absolutely no idea how I did." I love our fans. I love my fans. I love seeing what they like, bad or good. The positive stuff gives me a good reinforcement and tells me I'm doing something right. Most of the negativity I laugh at because it's so stupid or unreasonable since these people clearly don't know anything about ballroom dancing or what we go through. It's funny to me that there's so much negativity spewed at everyone. Why don't you get up and try to do what we do? People judge me for being a certain way. Honestly at this point, I really don't care. I only care about what Brandy thinks right now. I know what my past partners think and how good our relationships are — and people are still speculating about how we supposedly "hate" each other and whatnot. I love when I get tweets from people who say they created a Twitter account just to tell me they hate me. If you hate me, why waste your time making an account to tell me? If I hated someone, I would never waste time doing that. It's really amazing the lengths people go to behind the protection and anonymity of the Internet to be mean. But I'm not letting those people get to me. I'm just focused right now on Monday. I'm tired. Brandy's tired. But I know we will bring our best next week.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading.
Maks
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Maks TV Guide Blog
Hi everyone,
Hope you had a great week. Thanks for voting for us!
Well, we had another very good week. Our team dance went great and I'm so proud of Brandy for the foxtrot. Gilles was funny because he came up to us afterward and apologized for giving us a 9. I told him, "Friendship aside, you were being the judge."
I mean, I've got to admit, I felt like the whole time the celebrity judges weren't particularly looking for anything. I think having the celebrity judges was an exciting gimmick. They were more or less there to say something nice, give a 10 and move on. I felt like Gilles wanted to give a 10. I don't think there's anything wrong with them handing out "free" scores to inflate our scores.
Len's 10 was the highlight for Brandy this season. She was like, "Oh my God!" I'm not trying to show off or whatever, but I seriously think she did one of the best performances. People are talking about the face she made after her little slip-up, but it was minor and I still think, overall, she did a fantastic job. Whether or not judges deduct points for that is up to them. It's totally up to the viewers. I'm just focused on having Brandy do her best.
Rick leaving is another example of the judges not being a factor. I don't know why he got fewer votes, but it's totally undeserving. I feel like his fans were like, "Oh, he's safe." He's a stand-up guy. This guy is amazing. I can compare him to Jerry Rice and how super-nice, genuine and smart he is. He has this very contagious smile. I know some people were surprised that Bristol was safe, especially since she said she wanted to go home. I feel like, why would you want to go home? You put yourself out there for people to vote — and they do — and instead of embracing it, you're undermining the participation. If she embraced it better, I think she'd be having a lot more fun.
So next week, we have the waltz and the Cha-Cha for Instant Dance. First, I think everyone needs to know that getting music the last minute is part of competitive ballroom competitions. You work on five routines, go to the competition and you don't know what music they're going to play. But Dancing with the Stars is not a competitive ballroom competition. The beauty of Dancing with the Stars is that we can come up with the costume, the look and the stage performance beforehand so we can put on a show for people. It's not a straight-up dance competition. And we have to teach the celebrities. They only just got familiar with learning a dance in a week and now they don't get the music. So for our purposes, it's going to be messy. If anything, I find it unfair to the celebrities because we've had past winners going like, "I would never be able to do this. This format is crazy." Seven seasons ago — which sounds like a long time ago, but isn't because we have two seasons a year — we had a show that everybody loved and everybody watched. And it was a simple show. The dances are still iconic and phenomenal. If you noticed, on the list of iconic dances, most of them were from the middle seasons, except for Nicole, who was out of this world last season. It got so crazy in the later seasons.
The format and changes are wearing on the professionals too. We are mentally drained and physically exhausted. I've been sick this entire season. I know they want to try new things and keep people on their toes, but I also think it will make for better TV if you can prepare properly. I'm a proud professional and I would never let myself come out with a mediocre product, but I'm going to give a hard thought about what I want to do. I've said this before, but the only thing I can compare it to is to have a professional swimmer swim in Jell-O.
I'm the best at what I do under the proper circumstances. It doesn't make me less professional. I don't want to do instant dances or dance marathons because there's no way to properly prepare for it. I don't understand why we got Argentine tango and paso doble in our semifinal if we get there. They're just way too similar.
All I know is, it' been go-go-go constantly. I haven't seen my family. I haven't sat down. In order for me to provide for my family, I need to work for the entire year. I don't take vacation. After this season is over, I continue working on my studios, shows and other projects. The season is very, very hard. I haven't sat down in four and a half years. But then I go, "I love it." I saw my past partners and we had a great time hanging out and talking. I haven't won yet — and I want to point out that there were only five professionals in the top 10 dances. I think I've done something right, but other times, I go, "I want to go home." I haven't seen my mom. I have to rely on the phone. Then I feel I'm not a good enough son or grandson. All the tabloids and gossip blogs keep saying that Brandy is a diva and I hate her and stuff like that — which couldn't be further from the truth. We have so much fun together and what they don't know is that Brandy was trying to convince me to go to Russia together so I could see my grandma before she died. She had her publicist try to convince my publicist. I sat her down and said, "I love you for even having this thought, but we logistically cannot." It's probably one of the most amazing things anyone has considered. It's an 18-hour flight and then a 9-hour drive. I feel so protective over Brandy because I know how amazing she is as a person, as a mother and how she's turning out to be a true friend. What has she done to deserve the crap that's been written? But the fact that she was willing to do that so I could see my grandma and be with my family speaks volumes about her.
That was a lot of venting! But I guess the bottom line is that the show is no joke. I am having a blast with Brandy, but it has been a difficult season overall. But I am not going to let any negative feelings derail our focus. I know we can get better and I feel like we've really hit our stride.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading!
Maks
Hope you had a great week. Thanks for voting for us!
Well, we had another very good week. Our team dance went great and I'm so proud of Brandy for the foxtrot. Gilles was funny because he came up to us afterward and apologized for giving us a 9. I told him, "Friendship aside, you were being the judge."
I mean, I've got to admit, I felt like the whole time the celebrity judges weren't particularly looking for anything. I think having the celebrity judges was an exciting gimmick. They were more or less there to say something nice, give a 10 and move on. I felt like Gilles wanted to give a 10. I don't think there's anything wrong with them handing out "free" scores to inflate our scores.
Len's 10 was the highlight for Brandy this season. She was like, "Oh my God!" I'm not trying to show off or whatever, but I seriously think she did one of the best performances. People are talking about the face she made after her little slip-up, but it was minor and I still think, overall, she did a fantastic job. Whether or not judges deduct points for that is up to them. It's totally up to the viewers. I'm just focused on having Brandy do her best.
Rick leaving is another example of the judges not being a factor. I don't know why he got fewer votes, but it's totally undeserving. I feel like his fans were like, "Oh, he's safe." He's a stand-up guy. This guy is amazing. I can compare him to Jerry Rice and how super-nice, genuine and smart he is. He has this very contagious smile. I know some people were surprised that Bristol was safe, especially since she said she wanted to go home. I feel like, why would you want to go home? You put yourself out there for people to vote — and they do — and instead of embracing it, you're undermining the participation. If she embraced it better, I think she'd be having a lot more fun.
So next week, we have the waltz and the Cha-Cha for Instant Dance. First, I think everyone needs to know that getting music the last minute is part of competitive ballroom competitions. You work on five routines, go to the competition and you don't know what music they're going to play. But Dancing with the Stars is not a competitive ballroom competition. The beauty of Dancing with the Stars is that we can come up with the costume, the look and the stage performance beforehand so we can put on a show for people. It's not a straight-up dance competition. And we have to teach the celebrities. They only just got familiar with learning a dance in a week and now they don't get the music. So for our purposes, it's going to be messy. If anything, I find it unfair to the celebrities because we've had past winners going like, "I would never be able to do this. This format is crazy." Seven seasons ago — which sounds like a long time ago, but isn't because we have two seasons a year — we had a show that everybody loved and everybody watched. And it was a simple show. The dances are still iconic and phenomenal. If you noticed, on the list of iconic dances, most of them were from the middle seasons, except for Nicole, who was out of this world last season. It got so crazy in the later seasons.
The format and changes are wearing on the professionals too. We are mentally drained and physically exhausted. I've been sick this entire season. I know they want to try new things and keep people on their toes, but I also think it will make for better TV if you can prepare properly. I'm a proud professional and I would never let myself come out with a mediocre product, but I'm going to give a hard thought about what I want to do. I've said this before, but the only thing I can compare it to is to have a professional swimmer swim in Jell-O.
I'm the best at what I do under the proper circumstances. It doesn't make me less professional. I don't want to do instant dances or dance marathons because there's no way to properly prepare for it. I don't understand why we got Argentine tango and paso doble in our semifinal if we get there. They're just way too similar.
All I know is, it' been go-go-go constantly. I haven't seen my family. I haven't sat down. In order for me to provide for my family, I need to work for the entire year. I don't take vacation. After this season is over, I continue working on my studios, shows and other projects. The season is very, very hard. I haven't sat down in four and a half years. But then I go, "I love it." I saw my past partners and we had a great time hanging out and talking. I haven't won yet — and I want to point out that there were only five professionals in the top 10 dances. I think I've done something right, but other times, I go, "I want to go home." I haven't seen my mom. I have to rely on the phone. Then I feel I'm not a good enough son or grandson. All the tabloids and gossip blogs keep saying that Brandy is a diva and I hate her and stuff like that — which couldn't be further from the truth. We have so much fun together and what they don't know is that Brandy was trying to convince me to go to Russia together so I could see my grandma before she died. She had her publicist try to convince my publicist. I sat her down and said, "I love you for even having this thought, but we logistically cannot." It's probably one of the most amazing things anyone has considered. It's an 18-hour flight and then a 9-hour drive. I feel so protective over Brandy because I know how amazing she is as a person, as a mother and how she's turning out to be a true friend. What has she done to deserve the crap that's been written? But the fact that she was willing to do that so I could see my grandma and be with my family speaks volumes about her.
That was a lot of venting! But I guess the bottom line is that the show is no joke. I am having a blast with Brandy, but it has been a difficult season overall. But I am not going to let any negative feelings derail our focus. I know we can get better and I feel like we've really hit our stride.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading!
Maks
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Maks TV Guide Blog
Dancing's Maks: We Want to Stay on Top
Hi everyone,
Hope you had a great week. Thanks for voting for us!
So we got the top score! It felt great! I mostly was just happy that Brandy got rewarded for all the hard work she put into our quickstep. She's doing all the right things. It's very hard to explain to people why you get criticized. For obvious things, it's fine. We can go back and work on it. But when you get criticized for vague things I can't explain or barely get criticized at all, we're in a state of confusion. She was applauded for what she did. I didn't have to go back and find an explanation for anything.
I honestly was surprised at how well the dance turned out to begin with because of the state of mind and the way the week began. But we persevered, worked hard and pulled through. I'm not saying we work harder than anybody else. We just know we're in the studio a lot. It takes a lot to stay consistent. I think Brandy's getting the hang of this ballroom dancing thing and Dancing with the Stars as a competition. I totally see the potential is there. This is very different from anything she's done in her life. We're finding a way to deal with all the difficult elements. It all came together in the quickstep. I know my grandma was watching over us. My mom called me from Russia. My family's coping. We're just hoping that grandma's in a better place. My grandpa's doing fine. All his kids are there now. We're just trying to figure out that he'll be OK later on.
We have the tango next week. It's going well. We're taking the same approach. Like the quickstep, we have a dance that has us in a close position the entire time. It's the challenge of making it as exciting as possible since other couples have the paso doble, which is a much more visually exciting dance. We're just trying to do the best tango we can. I'm a little concerned about the costumes because we have to do things that represent Rock 'n' Roll. We have a rock song and the floor is going to be black. I know some people don't like all the themes, but I don't mind them. You will never be able to please everybody. Producers are doing what they can to make it entertaining. I just want to make sure that the focus doesn't shift from ballroom dancing. The simplest comparison I can think of is asking a pro swimmer to swim in something other than water. I'm just worried about the changes to the floor. It's not hardwood, so it poses some difficulty. I know there's going to be some rips and stuff. But we're all in the same situation. We all need to figure out how to be our best. I feel like they can experiment and we'll see how it goes. There's no way of predicting what it's going to be like.
We also have the Rock 'n' Roll marathon. We started working on ours a little bit. We'll put together like a 30-to-40-second routine mix of jive, swing and lindy and go from there. The biggest challenge will be to dance for a long period of time. They didn't choose an easy dance for four minutes. It's really about stamina and creativity. We'll put together a more active routine. The thing with the marathon is that the audience doesn't get to see the whole floor, especially for those watching at home. So you watch whoever you're drawn to. But this is more of a ballroom format where there are so many couples dancing at the same time, so you need to be active.
But honestly, my focus right now is the tango. I'm so in my head as far as the tango goes. Brandy and I had a long conversation Wednesday. We got a taste of what it's like to be on top and we want to stay there. We don't want to rest on laurels and say, "That's good enough." I'm focused on bringing out the best in her every week. She said she's considering putting some stuff on hold because she wants to do her best as well. Every celebrity who does the show does it to promote themselves in some way, but I always believe that the publicity will absolutely come to you. If you do too much publicity during the show, it could cost you. Or you could be on the show until the end and the publicity will come to you after you're done. Also, I want her to get the most out of this experience. You blink and it's all over. We're halfway done now. Five weeks sounds like a long period of time, but it's short in this competition. I'm happy that she actually told me that. I was like, "OK, great."
That's all for now. Thanks for reading.
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