Shows That I Love: New Girl

Shows that I love. We're starting with New Girl, obviously. The premise: a dorky teacher moves in with three single guys. Nick, a poor bartender. Winston, a small-time basketball star who played on a European team but since his return to the US is having a hard time finding work, and Schmidt, a womanizer with OCD. She quickly earns her way into their hearts with her lovably nerdy ways, and the four of them become best friends.

New episodes air on Fox on Tuesday nights, so normally my Wednesdays are ripe with emails, IM's, and Facebook wall posts from Melissa, Richard, Solomon and Mark R., that consists of random funny New Girl one-liners.

For instance, Melissa will email me and just say, "Why is she dressed like a woman's studies major?"  Or Mark R. will post on my Facebook wall, "I'm sorry, but that's how the electoral college works."  Or Solomon will IM me from work saying, "I'm going to have to reinstitute my ban on high-waisted shorts."

So to whet your appetites and tempt you to watch the whole season, here are some fun clips, and the lines from them that were left on my voicemail, worked into conversations, and mumbled during dance rehearsal arguments to lighten the mood (always works, by the way). Most of our favorite scenes are not available anywhere easily accessible on the INternet, so you'll have to watch on fox.com or OnDemand, or purchase the first season on amazon.com or iTunes. Or you can do what I do sometimes be a really evil selfish person and download free torrents.



"You want me to do a voice?"
"You look ravishing in your netting contraption.."


"Who washes a towel? The towel washes me!"


"I can taste my spine"


 "This is the saddest song....in the woooorrrld.."
 "cause the ice in the glass represents the tears from my eyes, dawg"


"I'm like a Dominican teenager playing Little League. It's just not fair for anyone else."
 "I'm feeling pretty twirly..."


"What if I had a croissant blog???"

 
"TWO MOONS HAVE PASSED!!"
 "Why do you start talking like a Native American when you get angry?"


"The downstairs neighbor put a password on their wi-fi..."
"I thought he was going to try to sell us something."


"Bees are dying. Don't pretend to know my pain..."


"It's like you're ripping the side block out of my mental Jenga."

Two Things

I sent the kids to bed the other night. Ava came down to find Eric, and I heard her corner him in the kitchen, saying in her cute little girl voice, "Dad, two things....One, hurry up and come tuck us in. Two, you HAVE  to tell us a story when you do."

Eric replied, "Oh, I HAVE to?? Or what?"

Still in her cute little girl voice, "Or I'll do something bad!"

5 minutes later he was upstairs telling them stories. He came downstairs afterwards mimicking her..."Dad, two things....two things."

The funniest part of this story is all that day I'd been getting all the people in my life to watch Homeland. I'd sent my dad, and Richard, and John and Karen Burns links and instructions on how to watch the whole season online. My dad had already watched a few episodes, Richard promised to watch them this weekend while Solomon was away, and John Burns was in the process of starting the first episode that night. I mentioned to John that my dad had already watched 4 episodes and really liked it. John said, "Good grief, do all the men in your life just do whatever you tell them to??"

I just smiled and typed..."Two things:"

(To Eric's credit, he is an expert storyteller. The kids die for his "When I was a little kid" stories. They'll do anything to get him on a roll at night...)

This Is Your Birthday Song...

At midnight on my birthday, I was in a rehearsal room at the UCWDC World Championships in Orlando. Richard, John and Antoinette stopped dancing and burst out in song. It was something else. Then, Antoinette sang a little solo birthday song to me, the cutest song I ever heard. I tried to get her to sing it again on camera, but she wouldn't. I tried so hard, but that girl is STUH-BERN!!!!! She was awfully cute while refusing, though...

Did I Just See A White Elephant???

It's Mosley Cocktail Party 2011 time!

Will this happen again tonight???!?!

This pic is to remind Brooke that she was hot before, and will be hot again in no time at all... ;)

Dancin' In Dixie, & How-Tos For The Weekend

Headed to Birmingham today for the Christmas In Dixie event. Haven't been to this event since I lived in Nashville many years ago. Should be a fun event, lots of my favorite dancers will be in attendance.

In other news, this video is for Eric, a little reminder of how to do Ava's hair this weekend.

And, in case anyone needs this information, how to work Zachary's nebulizer to do his breathing treatments.

In other dance related news, I came across these old photos of Richard and I. Um, how skinny were we?? I forwarded them to Richard, he asked, "Good lord, what were we doing back then to look so thin?"

Being young, Richard....being young.....

WILL IT EVER END???

Sometimes ProAm sessions last so long Richard goes crazy, grabs my undergarments and runs around with them on his head...

I Thank The Bank For The Money, Thank God For You

(The title? Come on y'all, vintage Sawyer Brown!)


While I'm most grateful for this cute bunch today, I'd like to take a minute to be grateful for my friends. Oh yes, I have a few of them, don't look so shocked...

First, the original and still the best, Melissa. She's the devil on my left AND the angel on my right. How else would she be able to stick around so long...


While changing their dirty diapers, I never thought that my 4 oldest nieces would grow up to be 4 of my best friends, but here we are.

the one I'd go on a field trip with any day of the week, Bonnie May

the one I love getting late night calls from, Brianne Elizabeth

the one who knows what I look like doing "Superman! BANANA!", Brooke Suzanne

and the one who feels my sweat pain, Bethany Gates.

My dance partner Richard, who became one of my best friends our first Christmas as partners when he looked at me and said, "So...I like you, you like me, we don't have to get gifts for each other, right?" And then solidified our friendship when he later said, "Um, my dead gramma in her casket can spin faster than you." And his partner Solomon, who is wickedly intelligent but still treats me like a goddess. Bizarre, I know.

Hold on, I'm going to go so far as to add two more, who over the past year have become peas to my carrots. Everyone's Sugar Daddy, John Burns, who makes this list not just because his grammar is as good as mine, but because he gets me even though he doesn't like to admit it. (I'd add his wife Karen to this list but she's prettier than I, so screw that idea...)

..and the beautiful Antoinette Santoro, who makes me laugh for real, not the fake laugh that I usually use around most of you. Her sense of humor is so much larger than her chest, thank goodness, which is basically just average....

There! See? I have friends!

(Now, to hope that none of these people comment on this post with, "What? Who are you? Do I know you??")

Hippies At The Shore

Showdance from Panama City. I just can't seem to get the speed right. At this speed it seems snoozy. We practice it to a speed that seems great, but then when we dance it in a show, it seems slow again. It's so hard to account for adrenalin, I wish I could come up with an equation.

Waltzin' At The Beach

Classic Waltz from Panama City. It's definitely getting better. Not quite where I want it to be yet, but closer....thanks to Stan for taping this!

Lifecycle Of A Showdance, Part 2

I promised to show you how a Showdance develops throughout the dance season, so here is our Showdance from Boston. When you watch the previous version next to this one, you should see many changes, from costumes to specific movements to quality of dancing.

Boston Showdance from Suzanne Mosley on Vimeo.

New England Dance Festival Update

What a successful weekend! Richard and I won Two-Step again, proving that wasn't a fluke last time. (And one judge gave us first in waltz against Clive and Emily, whaaaaat???!!!!?)

My student Stan competed in Male Diamond Newcomer and took 1st overall. He also competed in Male Open Newcomer and took 2nd, just narrowly missing 1st. He took 3rd in West Coast Swing Jack and Jill, and took 2nd in Two-Step Jack and Jill.

Richard's student Lee took 2nd overall in Female Diamond Intermediate, and his student Barb got Gold With Honors in all 3 of her dances in Syllabus B. Sasha and I successfully got through a full Showcase Masters program, and took 1st overall (we were the only ones dancing a full program). Solomon took 2nd overall in Male Pro-Pro, winning Cha Cha, Two Step, and West Coast. (no "student" of mine will ever lose twostep!!!)

I completed my 2nd apprentice judging panel, only one more to do before I am a fully certified judge!

We got to eat at some great restaurants in Boston, went to John and Dee Soares fun Hallway Party, caught up with some dance friends, all in all a great weekend. Now on to Chicago this coming weekend!

Line Up!

Here are Richard's and my line dance videos from Montreal. We did Rise and Fall again, and added Lilt. We worked with Clive, who is a Line Dance Superstar, on these line dances this week, so the next time we compete them the styling will look completely different.

Tons Of Poutine Needed After That Night

So I promised you a look at Showdance v 2.0. Here it is, from Montreal:

New intro, beginnings of a new costume theme, a few new moves. We slowed the music down 2%, just so our intro could be clean, but we'll speed it back up at the next event. Orlando is in two weeks, so you'll get to see version 3.0 soon.

In other dance news, my new partner Sasha and I competed in Showcase Masters for the first time in Montreal as well. Sasha is 23, and he holds the honor of being the youngest male to ever make it into Masters, which he did when he was 18 (he beat Richard and I that year, the bugger!!). He hadn't been on the competition floor in 3 years and I am so excited to be a part of his return to glory!

This was the first competition where I was going to have to compete in Classic and Showcase at the same event, during the same floor show. The event directors were nice enough to create the floor show schedule in such a way that I had 2 acts between each time I danced. I made it out alive, I didn't pass out, my legs didn't give out....I will admit that during floor show rehearsal I had a moment where my brain said, "Wow, who do you think you are?? Why do you think you can do all this?" But I told my brain to piss off and I just buckled down and willed my legs to keep moving.

Showcase Masters is different from Classic Masters (which is the division I compete in with Richard) in that you choose your own music, and you can do lifts and aerials. Sasha and I had choreographed and practiced this twostep routine exactly 6 hours total, and I think it looks great! We had some costume malfunctions (no more dancing two step in a long coat with tails when I'm sliding through the man's legs and spinning under his arm!), but other than that I think this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership!

Here are Richard's and my Smooth flight and Rhythm flight from Montreal, in the Classic Masters division. Classic Masters do not know what song will be played for each song, and you may not do lifts or aerials. You dance your 8 dances in two flights, Smooth and Rhythm. You don't have to dance all 8, you have to dance at least 5 and that 5 has to include Waltz and Two Step. In Smooth flight you can dance Waltz, Triple Two, Nightclub and West Coast, all back to back. Or you can elect to do just 2 or 3. We are doing 2 smooth dances right now, until we get new choreography.

And here is our Rhythm flight. In the Rhythm flight you dance Two Step, Cha, Polka and East Coast Swing, or a combination thereof. If you aren't dancing a certain dance, you must step off the floor while the other couples dance, then step back onto the floor for the next dance. Obviously when you're the only couple competing they don't give you a break, you just dance them all nonstop. This was a brand new polka routine, choreographed one week earlier, and when cha is finished and we're walking to our new place for polka, I'm saying to Richard, "SLOWLY, walk SLOWLY.....SLOWLY please...." Rhythm flight is a monster.

Tomorrow I'll post our line dances.

Welcome Back To America

What a crazy, crazy day yesterday....seeing my friend Clive completely unresponsive and barely breathing in the car was quite a shock. St Peter's Hospital in Albany, NY did a nice job treating him and releasing him in a timely fashion. Turns out he'd had an allergic reaction to a painkiller he'd taken 10-15 minutes before.

All has ended well, and once we all sleep for 3 days, we'll be back to normal.

Life Cycle Of A Showdance

In the UCWDC, Classic Masters are required to dance at least 5 of 8 dances, danced in two separate flights: Smooth Flight and Rhythm Flight. We don't know what songs are going to be played for those 8 dances, so our choreography for those 8 dances is done in such a way that it will fit with most any song.

We are also required to dance a Showdance. The Showdance is a 2 1/2 minute dance of your choice (from the 8 dances we use in the UCWDC), to a song of your choice. The dance doesn't have to have a theme, but it can. In my mind, the Showdance is a time for Classic Masters to express a little bit more of their personalities. You can play a little bit more with the tempo and the character of your chosen dance.

You are not required to dance both flights and a Showdance at every competition, but doing so qualifies you as having danced a "full program". And only those couples who danced a full program are eligible for prize money. So you can see why Richard and I try to have a full program ready at all times!

While Classic Masters normally keep the same choreography from year to year in their flight dances, the Showdance tends to change each year. I'm going to let you in on how a Showdance goes from birth to adulthood. Masters have one year to get their Showdance to World Championship shape.

The World Championships are the first week of January, and Richard and I usually take the rest of the month off from each other when we get back home. October-December are spent in feverish rehearsal, so by Jan 10th we're over each other. We usually start rehearsing again in February. Our first competition is Baltimore in March, so we only have a month or so to come up with a new Showdance.

This year, Richard and I chose to do East Coast Swing for our Showdance. I found a song that we liked, and we needed to have something to put on the floor by March. So in February we took our old ECS flight choreography and danced it to our chosen song. We tweaked a few places, added an intro and an ending, and bam! we had our first draft of a Showdance. Showdance v1.0.

Here is how our first version looked back in March. Throughout the year, I'll post the Showdance each time we dance it, so you can see the subtle changes it goes through before it reaches fighting condition in January, ready to be put on the World Championship floor.

Showdance Baltimore from Suzanne Mosley on Vimeo.

It's very hard for me to watch this, as we've made so many changes since March. A few changes were major, we changed the entire intro and added another trick section in the middle, but most of the changes have been subtle: changes to HOW we dance certain parts. It's so much better already that I almost can't watch this version

We're dancing it again in Montreal this weekend, and you should be able to see a lot of changes in version 2.0 when I post it next week.

Monday Mornings With Zachary

Today Zachary is preempted by his mother's first attempt at advanced line dance in over 10 years. That's right, it's not enough to compete in Masters Classic and now in Masters Showcase as well, I also have my eye set on becoming a Superstar line dancer. Richard is trying his hand at it as well. We both did the Rise and Fall in Baltimore in March after spending maybe 4 hours learning it, and these are our videos.



Triple pirouette has become much easier since March. Not stepping on my waltz skirt while getting up from the ground is still tough...haven't figured out the trick to that one.



Clive Stevens gave both Richard and I a 24 count intro for the beginning of the dance, before the "4, 5, 6" count in happens, at 1am that morning. I was cursing his name when he told me I had to start on the floor. As if I'm not on the floor enough in this dance. Clive is 5'1" and 125lbs, so he has no idea how much harder it is for 5'10" and 130 (why are you laughing??) to get up from the floor.....

Anyway, we both received great critiques our first time out, so we're going to compete again in Montreal, and this time do both the Rise and Fall and the Lilt. If we decide to continue through Worlds, we'll have to dance all 6 line dances, one of which is this one.



What is the deal with all the laughter today? You just watch, I'm going to be the hip hoppiest of suburban minivan driving homeschooling mothers you ever saw...

Jill's Day Off

So, I've explained to you what a Jack and Jill competition is. But there is a subset of Jack and Jills that I failed to mention in my original post. And that is the Jack and Jack competitions.

Jack and Jacks are exactly what you are imagining they are. They are Jack and Jill competitions, minus the Jills. Jack and Jack competitions are rare and highly entertaining, so if you have the chance to see one, you're going to want to take it.

I'll give you a secondhand look at a Jack and Jack to whet your appetite. This one took place in Baltimore at the Mid-Atlantic Dance Classic this past March. (Great fun, don't miss this event next year! I was super impressed with Anita Strawser's event running skills...) This Jack and Jack was an Invitational, so all the men competing in it are professionals. You'll see all of my favorites; sister wife #1 Richard, the dance god himself Clive Stevens, my baby brother Sasha Budaska, the dreamy Marc Davidson, Sam Arvidson, Dean Garrish, and the newest Master Mike Zuspan (ooh, you sexy American hips!!), among others.

While all of the guys were fantastic, Clive was UNREAL. He got lucky being paired with the quintessential showman, the legend Dean Garrish, but somehow I think Clive could win over an audience by himself with both feet tied behind his back. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. You ladies need to all take note, this is how you make every audience member and judge in a room watch you and only you, even if you aren't the tallest girl in the room. Clive dances like he thinks he's as tall as Suzanne Mosley. I bow down.....

Sam Arvidson did give Clive a run for his money. Mark Davidson and Sam Arvidson together, kind of delicious I daresay. I mean, Sam on Mark's shoulders and they're just about tall enough for me! Normally I would call foul on Sam for stealing Richard's original partner, but I can't really fault him. I'd steal Mark from Richard too, every day of the week and twice on Sunday without a second thought.

Anyway, enjoy the hilarity, but please excuse my very unladylike hooting and hollering. And my head squishing. Jack and Jacks get me a little riled up.

Yellow Stars Of David All Around!

We survived Day 1 of Holocaust Week. Not only that, but people from all over are jumping on board the Nazi Diet cattle train. And by "from all over" I mean other people in my family. Oh, and Richard. So come along and ride with us! You know you want to be a Frank too...

Michael ate fried shrimp for lunch yesterday and brought home a takeout container of leftovers. His excuse was that he hadn't read the list of Approved Holocaust Food yet. Melissa yelled at him, "DO YOU THINK ANNE FRANK ATE FRIED SHRIMP??!??!?!?!! You're a terrible Nazi..." It's off to the crematorium for Michael!

Eric survived too. He instant messaged me at 4pm asking, "Do I have to ask you if I can have a stick of gum, Herr Kommandant?" He's the Hogan to my Klink, I love it......

Dieting is fun.

It Was Great, Fuhgettaboutit!!

The amazing wedding reception at Capo's.

My Posse

Lemington, my costume designer and friend, shows us the move he feels should be in every country dance routine. When he hears a country song, this is the way he feels like moving his body.




Lee and I got caught in a torrential downpour walking back to the car at 1am on Sunday morning. Drowned rats...