Another day another charity event for Hingis

She may be banned from the WTA tour for a couple of years (for what I still believe are false charges).

But what better way to redeem your image then by participating in Tennis charity events.

Aside from the confirmed Liverpool event in June it now looks like Martina Hingis will also participate in The Esurance Tennis Classic at Harbor Point Tennis Club in Strawberry which takes place Oct. 10-13.

It's nice to see that there are some people who still recognize and respect Hingis for her ability, accomplishments and class. Now if only the WTA/ITF would realize the same.

Zac Hanson becomes a proud parent!

Yep, it's finally happened the youngest Hanson brother is a dad.

He and his wife Kate (above) are the proud parents of a baby boy, John Ira Shepherd Hanson born on May 27th.

Wow, that's a lot of names! lol. The boy is apparently going to go by Shepherd.

Interesting name, even more interesting is the fact that for the first time ever Zac did not go with the family tradition of giving his child his own name as the middle one.

Zac a father. Wow that's still weird and freaky LOL. I guess I'm always going to think of him as that 11 year old who always seemed to be hopped up on sugar lol.

With brother Isaac's wife also pregnant (and due next month!) it will definitely be one full house.

I guess their parents really can't complain about a shortage of grandchildren lol.

All jokes aside though, congrats to the proud parents:).

And suddenly the bonus track "I Am" from "The Walk" takes on a whole new meaning.

"I am father and son". Indeed.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on DVD this summer

This awesome series will be released on DVD August 19th. I am so tempted to buy it. Especially after looking at all the special features:

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Terminator-Sarah-Connor-Chronicles-Season-1-Press-Release/9663

• Cast Audition Tapes?

Yep, I am putting this one on my list of must-have for sure!. Can't wait for season 2 to begin is it September yet?!.

DWTS: The Finals part 2

Well, the finals went the way I wanted/predicted since the season begun. A battle between 2 of the best couples Kristi & Mark and Edyta & Jason.

It was also nice to see all of this season's stars on the dance floor again doing their best routines.

As always I particularly enjoyed, Marlee, Marissa and Priscilla. They were all so much fun throughout that I just never get tired of watching them dance.

As their final dance Kristi & Mark did a reprise of their fantastic Jive and again received a perfect score from the judges.

Edyta & Jason on the other hand reprised their Quick Step. Jason out did himself and performed his best dance of the competition.

The judges seemed to agree and give him a perfect score as well. At the end of both dances Kristi lead with a 90/100 overall and Jason 81/100. So it was close.

In the end though, it was the former Olympic Champ who took the trophy becoming only the second woman in the 6 years of the competition to do so.

Despite the somewhat predictable conclusion I have thoroughfully enjoyed the show this year, just as I did the year previous.

In fact I have enjoyed this show much more then American Idol which has become quite boring in recent years IMO.

I will definitely be tuning in come September, to see what other celebs this show will garner for S7.

Though I think the producers will have quite a challenge trying to top this year that's for sure. Nonetheless I am hooked.

DWTS: The Finals pt. 1

Tonight the 3 remaining couples faced-off with the Cha-Cha. Cheryl and Cristian were the first to hit the floor followed by Edyta and Jason and Kristi and Mark.

It was the first time the show had done dancing in this format (where all the couples danced for 1 minute and ended it with a group performance complete with a great air pose/lift by Kristi. I must say it worked quite nicely, excitement wise.

Each couple brought their own flavour and energy to the Cha-Cha. The most energetic being Kristi and Mark of course, who won the first round (and the night but more on that in a bit) with glowing comments and a perfect score of 30/30 from the judges. Can't say I disagree with their assessment Kristi was definitely awesome.

Cheryl and Cristian received a 26/30 and Jason and Edyta the lowest a 24/30.

Next it was time for the Free-Style, Kristi and Mark were first, both wore some very glittery out-fits (looked good though;). And the dance was just as impressive, a perfect execution of lifts, spins and MJ inspired moves.

I particularly loved how they managed to stay in unison through-out despite it being a very fast-paced dance. Even Len was beyond impressed, which not surprisely give them another perfect score, ( 60/60 overall) making them the ones to beat and setting a very high bar for the rest.

Edyta and Jason chose to dance R&B style. Which I think worked quite nicely for a big guy like him.

The dance was filled with lots of lifts through-out. And I'm sure Jason will earn a few extra fans for taking his shirt off at the end lol. With a 6 pack like that he would get my vote for sure!.

The judges thought it was great as well (but not great enough to warrant a perfect score). Still a 27/30 is nothing to sneeze at, it give them an overall score of 57/60 putting them in second place.

Cristian and Cheryl concluded the night with a Free-Style infused with lots of Latin flavour. I gotta hand it to this guy, he's definitely got a hell of a lot of fighting spirit.

Despite only having one useful arm (and despite risking possible re-injury during rehearsal) he still managed an excellent performance. He got a 26/30 and 52/60 overall.

Tomorrow night a champion will finally be crowned, and I have a feeling that for the first time in the competition it'll be a woman. Unless Jason pulls a few more tricks out of his sleeve. Again it's all up to the fans.

Fun with #3 on BSG

This is what I like to call vintage Lucy Lawless, you just can't write the kind of responses that she comes up with lol.

Whenever I need a good laugh I can always count on her to provide it. Oh, and a nice jab about Rob Luce LOL. Guess he's the only one who can boss her around lol.

Shania Twain & Robert John "Mutt" Lange call it quits!

After almost 10 years of marriage Country singer Shania Twain and producer husband Robert "Mutt" Lange are getting a divorce!.

Ok, as a long time fan of hers I did not see that one coming. That's like Celine Dion splitting with hubby Renee Angelil.

It's just unthinkable. Well, at least to me. Hell, you hear about celebrity power couple break-ups all the time it's nothing new.

But it's the ones that make it past the double digit mark that are always the most shocking I think. It gets especially tricky when there are kids involved.

For the sake of the child I hope it was an amicable split. There were rumors going back as far as 2000 that things were not all rosy between them, I guess they were true.

Now that their personal relationship has ended, I wonder what this means for their professional one?.

Will Shania still work on producing songs with her ex? or will she find a new creative team?. And does this mean a delay on the new album?. I guess we'll see.

Trailer for Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse"

Finding this was a real treat, didn't expect a trailer for this new show so soon. All I can say is CAN NOT WAIT!!( but unfortunately looks like it's gonna be a long one since it'll be a mid-season replacement). But, hey for Joss Whedon, I'll wait as long as it takes! :D.

Plus Eliza Dushku and Amy Acker?, count me in!. And I can't help but wonder how many more Buffy alums might show up as the show progresses, oh the possibilities....

If you haven't heard about this new offering from the mastermind of Joss you can read more about it here. They do a much better job of explaining it then I ever could lol.

World #1 Justine Henin retires from the WTA!!

Well, the Tennis world suffered a crashing blow today. The current world number one women's player Justine Henin, has announced permanent retirement from the sport.

I have to say I am completely stunned. Usually players who are at the top want to ride that wave for as long as they can before calling it quits.

The cited reason for her ending her career was lack of motivation. Which can be a very valid point when it comes to Tennis, but the conspiracy theorist in me finds it hard to believe that's her only reason.

I think the constant grind and heavy schedule might have had something to do with it as well.

Long term it can be quite physically taxing (even for the best athlete). Whatever the reason, we'll probably never know the truth since Justine is an extremely private person.

I'm sure I've mentioned this in the past, but I'll say it again, I really think the WTA needs to make some major adjustments in terms of the schedule and perhaps even the conditioning of the players or unfortunately we will continue to lose players the likes of Justine or even Roger Federer, early on in their careers.

Some of you might be thinking that I need to accept that the days of players sticking around well into their 30's are long over and you may be partly right.

But, I stand by my earlier statement that there's a lot that still can be done in terms of schedules and conditioning (more then is being done) to improve things so that player's don't wear themselves out by their mid 20's.

Even though I can't really say I've been a true fan of Justine, (at least not to the same level as Martina Hingis).

I've always admired her style of play and thought that she was quite a legend in her own right (with all her accomplishments). And such a breath of fresh air, from the constant onslaught of power players (like Serena or Venus).

We've lost so many great veteran pros in the past year first Martina then Kim, and now Justine. It's very sad.

Her retirement does open a big door of opportunities in terms of Grand Slams for all the current player's on tour as well as future hopefuls. Not to mention the spot for #1 ranking.

As I've said above though this is a huge loss for women's Tennis and she will undoubtedly be sorely missed by the sport and it's players. I suppose if you are gonna bow out there's no better way to do that then while still on top.

Dancing with the Stars: Semi-Finals

Well, we're down to 4 competitors. Edyta and Jason started the semi's off with a very elegant Foxtrot.

I had no idea a Foxtrot could look elegant, but that's exactly what Jason pulled off. And it worked for the judges as well earning him a score of 28/30 for the first round.

I've said this many times in the past 9 weeks, but I absolutely love the way this man dances. He just has this beautiful way of gliding gracefully across the floor making it look almost effortless.

Marissa and Tony were next with their Quick Step and it was almost flawless except for one small slip up on a turn towards the end.

I actually thought the dance was quite well done (especially considering the complexity of the moves involved).

Based on that I thought the scores should have been a tad higher then 26/30 (well ok she did get one point more compared to last week for the same dance so I guess that's a small improvement).

Last week's top scorers Cristian and Cheryl performed a very pretty Viennese Waltz. I seriously have to hand it to this guy, he's done a complete 180 since injuring his arm and is dancing better then ever. The judges give him a decent score of 27/30 for his efforts.

Kristi and Mark Tangoed to try and reclaim the top spot on the judges leader board and managed to do just that with a dance just short of perfection and a score of 29/30.

I disagree with Len on his comment about the Tango being hectic. I thought the change of pace from fast to slow worked really well and made it more interesting then the traditional one.

Next it was time for the Latin Round again. Jason and Edyta begun with the Paso Doble.

And I thought this one was ten times better then his first one earlier in the competition. The choreography was much more interesting and he showed more dominance and power.

An element that I thought was missing the first time he did this dance. The score didn't reflect his level of improvement however and he only got 27/30. Giving them an overall total of 55/60.

Marissa and Tony were next with a very intimate Rumba. It was good but not as good as their previous dances (it could just be the dance style itself) the technicality of it doesn't allow a dancer to show off or do anything fancy. I thought she did well with the technical aspects of it. And it earned her a 26/30 for a total of 52/60.

Cristian was working his Latin charm aka his abs lol with the Samba. Which of course was the dance responsible for his arm injury.

There were no accidents this time however. He did a sizzling Samba which got him an almost perfect score of 29/30. And total of 56/60 making him the second highest score of the night after Kristi and Mark.

Kristi and Mark ended the night with a slightly different rendition of their jive from 2 weeks prior (for which they received a perfect score).

This time they were not so lucky and only managed a 28/30. The dance may not have been as technically sound as the previous one, but it was still just as much fun to watch.

I have not mentioned who I think might stay in the competition, because it is now all up to the fans. So there could be a few surprises. The scores really don't matter. Whoever has the biggest fan-base will be the victor.

If I had to pick I would go with Kristy and Mark, Cristian and Cheryl and Edyta and Jason as the final 3. Though I think Marissa may stick around if the Xena-verse has anything to say about it, but we'll see.

I'm not going to hazard a guess on the winner, because I like all the remaining couples too much and I can't decide who I want to win more lol.

One thing is for sure, tomorrow night is going to be one heck of a nail-biter!.

A little song celebrating mom :)

She used to be my only enemy and never let me free,
Catching me in places that I know I shouldn't be,

Every other day I crossed the line,
I didn't mean to be so bad,
I never thought you would
Become the friend I never had

Back then I didn't know why,
Why you were misunderstood,
So now I see through your eyes,
all that you did was love,

Mama I love you, Mama I care,
Mama I love you, Mama my friend,
My friend

I didn't want to hear it then but
I'm not ashamed to say it now,
Every little thing you said and did was right for me,
I had a lot of time to think about,
About the way I used to be,
Never had a sense of my responsibility.

Back then I didn't know why,
Why you were misunderstood,
So now I see through your eyes,
All that you did was love,

Mama I love you, Mama I care,
Mama I love you, Mama my friend, My friend

But now I'm sure I know why,
Why you were misunderstood,
So now I see through your eyes,
All I can give you is love,

Mama I love you, Mama I care,
Mama I love you, Mama my friend,
My friend

Mama I love you, Mama I care,
Mama I love you, Mama my friend,
You're my friend

Mama ~ Spice Girls

I don't usually post songs by the Spice Girls (even though I admit they still are one of my guilty pleasures) but this one is perfectly appropriate.

I think the song really encompasses what the day is all about. So I'll just end by saying Happy Mother's Day!! .

A couple of good verses

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

High up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
If you never try you'll never know
Just watch and learn

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Fix You~ Cold Play

DWTS: 100th Episode

That was fun!. Great to see all the past winners together again. Although poor Sabrina didn't get to talk much lol.

How great were Mel and Max?. Those two just sizzle with electricity when they dance.

It's the kind of electricity that I think has been sorely missing from this season. But hopefully the remaining four will bring that to the floor in the next two weeks.

Ok, show of hands for those who were disappointed Julianne didn't dance with Helio? *raises hand*.

Don't get me wrong Apollo is a wonderful dancer, but I just love the chemistry between Helio and Julianne.

And I got my wish on the elimination (I should seriously start making bets) I've been right several weeks in a row! lol.

I'm so happy Marissa is sticking around, (never underestimate the power of the Xena-verse I tell ya! ;). I think everyone must have dialed till their fingers bled again.

And Jason and Edyta are in the semi's (woo-hoo!!). They absolutely deserve it. Now the competition is going to be totally ON!.

Mario Lopez is certainly doing well for himself, dancing on Broadway. Who knew?. I've also seen him doing reports for E.T. A man of many talents. Though personally I'm forever going to remember him as Slater from Saved by the Bell.

Here is hoping the next two weeks are as exciting as the competition has been thus far. I'm looking forward to seeing who will come out on top.

Dancing with the Stars (week 7)

Well, as of this week we are down to 5 competing couples (wow, where did the time go?, feels like we just begun). The night started off with the ballroom round and a Quick Step from Kristi and Mark.

This dance seems to fit Kristi perfectly, she looked quite comfortable performing it. The score certainly reflected that and they were back on top with 29/30. Nearly perfect, but Carrie-Ann got nit picky again, she's starting to annoy me.

That's all I have to say about those two for now, sometimes I honestly feel like there's no point in commenting because, it's pretty obvious that Kristi will be in the final without a doubt.

I'm actually much more interested in watching the other couples and seeing whether they'll pick up their game to match and best Kristi.

I really hope the final won't be one sided and that whoever does make it gives Kristi a run for her money (my money is on Jason and Edyta).

Moving right along, Mario and Karina stepped it up a bit this week, but I still don't think they have what it takes to win.

I usually don't like to repeat myself (at least not too often) but I feel this bares repeating, I love watching Marissa dance!.

She's just so energetic and bubbly it's infectious. And I have to give her extra props this week for all those spins lifts and jumps (I keep forgetting she's pregnant). All power to her.

I thought her Foxtrot tonight was really fun and that she deserved a higher score (at least one or two points more). But instead she got 25/30.

Last week's score board leaders Jason and Edyta Tangoed their way into a tie with Kristi and Mark. Seriously, how sexy was that Tango?.

Cristian and Cheryl soldiered on despite his injury with surprising results. More on that later. Oh, and nice to see Marlee in the audience supporting her friend :).

The Latin round was next, Kristi and Mark and Edyta and Jason battled it out with their Samba's.

Kristi did another solid job and some impressive skating-like spins but still came quite short of perfection with only 26/30.

Personally I thought the dance was awesome, but I had a feeling the judges would once again be especially tough on Kristi.

That's what happens when you start out perfect, judges will have a tendency to want to knock you down a peg or two and the slightest mistake will cost you.

Jason and Edyta didn't fair too well, in the Latin round either and received their lowest score in a while 23/30 for their Samba.

Again I thought the judges were a bit harsh with the scoring, but I guess it's understandable since we're getting to the semi-finals, they expect more from everyone.

Still I thought they were all exceptionally cranky tonight. Especially Len, geez lighten up man! LOL.

Perhaps as a result of the crankiness Marissa didn't wow them with her Mambo and received the same score as in the ball room round.

Giving her a total of 50/60 the lowest of the night. I really hope people vote for both Marissa and Jason, because I really want them to stay to the end. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

As I mentioned earlier in my post the biggest surprise of the night were Cristian and Cheryl, he really went out to prove himself and came out on fire.

Delivering his best dances of the competition. And as a result received the highest scores of the night (becoming the score leader in fact with a total of 57/60).

Who knew he could actually dance better with one arm instead of two lol. All credit to Cheryl for what I'm sure was challenging, but impressive choreography.

As for my predictions I would like it to be Mario and Karina, but I fear it might be Marissa and Tony or possibly Jason and Edyta (although it will definitely be a shocker) and I hope it doesn't happen.

Looking forward to tomorrow's 100th episode special with all the returning faves. It's gonna be fun!. It'll be nice to see Mel B. and Max again:). Wonder if Marlee will participate?. Guess we'll see.

T: TSCC creator gives clues for S2

Found an informative interview with Josh Friedman the creator of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Here are a few bits that I found particularly interesting:

What I want to do this year is, within each episode try and tell fewer stories but tell them more in depth and so no one storyline is on the chopping block. That happened a lot to the high school stuff last year is that it was always a story line that we had going but it was never the highest priority, and when we're trying to decide between more Sarah or more high school intrigue, we always settled on more Sarah. So the high school stuff went away, because we rarely committed to it as a large block of story.

Glad to know the show will be more focused in the coming season. I don't disagree with Sarah being the focus in the slightest that was an excellent idea. In fact I hope it continues.

Because frankly as much as I enjoyed stories of John the student, there are only so many high school ones you can do before it becomes repetitive and too remenicient of other shows.

Speaking of that stuff, will we see Cheri again? (that was the mysterious girl at John's school)

Friedman: I think we'll see her a little bit.

Good to see they will be addressing that. I was wondering whether that character would be significant later on, now I guess we'll find out to what extent.

The plan never got into a lot of details. I always believed that in some version of the time travel theory I could bring Kyle Reese to the present day from the future and not upset the continuity of the previous movies. I had a whole way it worked in my head and the more I tried to explain it to people, the crazier it sounded.

Ok, I have to admit it sounds intriguing and I'm kind of curious as to exactly how it would have worked.

But, in the long run I think it's better that it was dropped much less confusing that way. Helps to avoid more possible bitching and moaning from the fans in regards to the time line lol.

Speaking of I think many of them will be very happy with this bit,

It's a coming of age year for John. Last year he was still a boy, and this year he's going to move towards becoming a man.

There you go folks, from the creator himself, John like every other teenager will become a man, all those constantly complaining about him acting like an annoying brat can now stop their griping.

You get so many questions about your allegiance to the Terminator movies, but the show is so clearly different. What influences your approach to this?

Friedman: I don't know if there's any particular influence. If you talk about things I watch or things that I read, I'm a huge Battlestar fan. I can sometimes only watch so much of it because it treads so close to certain topics.

I knew it!, is there any show that isn't influenced by BSG these days? lol. But seriously it's good to know that his influences come from one of the best written shows on t.v.

Oh, and I had to laugh at the Summer Glau comment, yes Josh you better not let her get away! LOL.

I also had the same mixed reaction when I first saw Brian Austin Green as Reece. After all it's often hard for any actor to avoid being type cast into playing a character (especially if you've played one for 10 years!).

But he really is doing an awesome job on this show, his portrayal and believability of the character has definitely helped the show and I'm so happy he's going to be a regular.

I'm also really glad they nixed the idea of bringing in the original Dr. Silberman, as fun as it would have been to see him make a cameo, it really would have detracted from the current universe as the creator himself mentioned.

Read the article in it's entirety here.

Retro Reflection: Dr. Alban "It's My Life"

I was doing my daily YouTube search and came across an old video of a song I used to love as a kid Dr. Alban's "It's My Life".



All I can say is thank god for changing tastes! LOL. I can't believe I used to like this song!. I guess there are some advantages to not knowing a language, ignorance really is bliss.

Hingis keeps it clean in Sanex ad

Sanex

I wonder if she still uses the same product, if she is then it really does work! ;).

Out of all the ads I've seen with her over the years this is definitely one of the more interesting.

It's amazing how much more effective an ad can be if you keep it very simple.

If you actually read the words though, it sounds real depressing doesn't it?. It's no wonder she retired lol (the first time anyway).

And here's another one (in German), personally I like the other one better.