Dancing Update #345

I've had a ton of people ask if there is a DVD of our DANCING WITH THE STARS performances. Ok, at least my mom asked. Due to union rules, only certain amounts of the performance could be documented. The best way to see what we did is through Victoria Hong's report on Channel 4.

Great job Vic! Thanks for making us look good!

Clean The Furniture... And Wait To Buy New

Here's a neat article from the Wall Street Journal on how the economy is affecting the furniture cleaning and upholstery business. Funny...I remember my parents had the same furniture for 18 years. The whole time I thought they were just boring and didn't want to update. As I got older I realized that with three boys, there was no way they would invest in new furniture only to have us break/stain it, and that they were also fiscally smart!

DANCING W BUFFALO STARS RECAP


The show was a blast to be in, and hopefully for you to watch. If you weren't there, you can read the Buffalo News review here. I think Anne Neville did a fine job reviewing the show, although on behalf of Tony Masiello and I, we really did work hard at our parts and tried very much to be more than pivot points (my words, not hers) for our female partners.

Again thanks to Kat Fenn, my partner and teacher. At only 23 you can tell that very soon she will be doing something HUGE. The BPO members I spoke to thought she was the most impressive dancer in the show. And thanks to my wife Linda, for putting up with me these past two weeks. Between nerves, rehearsals, my reticence to even accept the challenge, and my normal neurotic self, I don't know how she put up with me. Thanks as well to Air Gordon Scherer, who came to the show Saturday and gave major emotional support the whole time, except for when he said "I have a stomach ache for you" about a week before the show!

As for the performance...we were pretty happy with it! There were a few moves we could have done better, but many that could have gone worse. So I would give it a B+. By the way, with my lack of dance ability, it would take an A+ by me to equal a B for a normal person. Hope that makes sense!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a week. If you listen to the show, you know I've been consumed by rehearsals for Dancing With The Buffalo Stars. To get the whole story and why this show will be great for the whole family, listen to our interview with Conductor Robert Franz via the ON DEMAND tab at mystar1025.com. Robert was really cool...no stuffy Philharmonic guy...a real fun person.

Tickets for DANCING WITH THE BUFFALO STARS are available at www.bpo.org. They start at $29, but no matter what level you buy, you get a $10 discount by plugging my name, LUCAS, into the discount code area. By phone call 885-5000 and use the same discount name. So many things I could tell you about this.

As I write this we are just starting our 2nd week of rehearsal and truthfully, I don't know what to tell you. For you, I'm sure this night will be entertaining, funny, and maybe even surprising. At the same time there will be points in the show where I'll want to stop the music and shout " I'm sorry for what you are about to see!" And it's not because we didn't practice. 18 hours of rehearsals over the past two weeks. All of us leaving with our brains and bodies feeling like mush after being up early for our normal job, then rehearsing till late in the afternoon. It's all become a mental jumble.

I need to thank the charity I am dancing for. The Town of Tonawanda Kiwanis. They do great work at quietly getting needed funds to area groups that get very little publicity or help. Thanks to the team at STAR 102.5 for their support and not laughing, at least not in front of me.

And I need to thank my partner, Kathleen Fenn. Only someone as incredibly talented as Kathleen could get me anywhere close to looking like I have dancing ability. The most amazing part was the very first day, when after about 20 minutes she was trusting me to hold her over my head and spin her around. I say this now, because If I drop her in the show, I want you to know we could really do it! I'll prove it in the hallway afterwards! The best part of rehearsal is hearing her exclaim "YES!" when we got a move right. In between, there were moments of "No, that happens much later in the piece," or "If you don't have your hand on my hip/leg bent forward/arm our straight, I will probably end up on the floor." And she is correct about the floor thing...there are about 4 places where I could drop her into the first row, or onto Robert Franz' podium.

So if you can, show up Saturday night and see how we do!

Dr. Phil Quote

Love him or hate him, Dr. Phil does have some great one liners. Here's one I caught on his show last Friday. I wasn't really watching his whole show...I was just flipping channels...I swear!

Dr. Phil on making sure you have enough savings for retirement:

"Social Security is the greatest Ponzi scheme of them all. We all pay into it, most of us will see none of it."

Your thoughts? Leave a comment.