Spanish Armada in Monte Carlo

Defending champion and clay-court extraordinaire Rafael Nadal roars into the final eight at Monte Carlo losing only two games in two matches. Bidding to win his first title in 11 months, Nadal leads a strong contingent of Spanish players with four of his countrymen joining him in the quarterfinals.


Fernando Verdasco and David Ferrer defeated the most recent Masters champions Tomas Berdych and Ivan Ljubicic respectively while Juan Carlos Ferrero and Albert Montanes were able to win against top 10 players Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Marin Cilic.

Joining the five Spaniards are top seed Novak Djokovic, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and David Nalbandian. The latter defeated Tommy Robredo who could've added to the armada of Spanish players.

Most recent Slam winners Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro are both out of the tournament due to vacation and injuries respectively. Andy Murray was ousted in his first match as dispirited as he's looked in awhile.

Hell-O, Hello Goodbye

Last night, in an episode entitled "Hell-O," Glee was welcomed back to the small screens with much media fanfare. With all the buzz, awards, and hype building and building during its four-month hiatus, the show returned with its highest ratings ever. And what was not to love? The kids were still showing off their mad singing skills. Sue Sylvester was deliciously diabolical as always. And Broadway divas Jonathan Groff and Idina Menzel made fantastic additions to the cast. The second half of season one will surely be chock full of moments to talk about so onwards...


And well, as one bright shiny show returned, another one ended this week. With much less fanfare, Ugly Betty had its final episode ending a four-year run full of fashion faux-pas, high drama, and heartwarming moments. The final episode, entitled "Hello Goodbye," was light in actual plot and was more focused on giving the fans and the characters some much needed closure. I was totally down with this.

The closures:

• Wilhemina listens to reason from Marc and realizes fighting with the Meades will be the death of her. She reunites with her love and in the end ends up becoming the sole editor-in-chief of Mode anyways.
• Marc stands up to Wilhemina, reconnects with Troy (should've been Cliff, but whatever), and seems to be the new Creative Director of Mode.
• Amanda is not completely failing as a stylist, but doesn't really matter since she's now reunited with her long-lost father.
• Hilda is married to her high school sweetheart, moving out of her childhood home to live in the city with her son...
• Justin is with Austin, both proudly raising their adorable gay flags.
• Ignacio, while sad to see his family leave the nest, is proud of all of them taking their next steps paralleling it to when he first moved to America.

And then there's Betty and Daniel. Oh man. I was so very fearful at what they would do to these two characters, but I think they handled it quite well. Betty risked it all once more and moved out to London to take a hold of her dreams. Daniel, in the meantime, pulled a Felicity and followed Betty to London but thankfully not to declare his undying love for her. Instead, he wanted to work himself to the top, just like Betty did, and in the process get to know Betty as someone other than his former assistant. The ending is so open-ended for both of them that it's difficult for a fan or non-fan of Betty/Daniel to be too upset. Perfect.

Overall, an absolutely beautiful finale. Bravo.

Looking Forward To...

Toy Story 3
Release: June 18, 2010
Distributor: Buena Vista
Director: Lee Unkrich
Starring: Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Bonnie Hunt, Timothy Dalton, Wallace Shawn, Don Rickles, and John Ratzenberger

Catch-All Post on TV

I meant to post all of these as separate entries in the past five days or so, but one thing led to another and I never wrote any of those entries. So in hopes of getting it all off my chest before I completely forget and/or it becomes pointless...

Justin's Sweet Coming Out and the Dreaded Betty/Daniel


I have nothing but superbly positive words on how the show has handled Justin coming out to himself and to his family these past few episodes. From confiding with Marc to asking Austin to dance with him at his mother's wedding, it was quite touching and definitely had me in tears. But hold up, with one episode remaining, why the hell would they try to bring us a possible Betty/Daniel ending. I know that's how every other version of Ugly Betty ended, but it just would not be right for these versions of those characters!

It wouldn't have been so heinous if they had just built it up during these last few episodes. Instead we have seen more of a brother/sister type relationship development between these two this past season. If anything, they should be building more on that development i.e. that they both consider each other as family now. It still provides that drama of Betty having to decide between London and leaving her family, extended or otherwise. No matter what though, I'll be a bit disappointed if Betty does not go to London. And if the reason is Daniel, I might scream.

Idol Eliminates Nobody and Dubiously Brings Back Runner-Up


The Top 9 gets a second week to prove themselves as one of them, Michael Lynche, ended up with the lowest number of votes last week only to be saved by the judges. With the Judges' Save used, two people will be leaving next week. This non-elimination was surprising enough, but even more so was the realization that Tim Urban is gaining fans. He wasn't even in the bottom three this week!

With that said, I'm still rooting for Crystal and Lee with Siobhan and Casey as possible dark horses. Clearly hoping to add some much needed buzz this season, Idol have asked back last year's showstopper Adam Lambert to mentor the contestants. I love Adam and all, but it's a little odd considering the show has not previously extended this offer to previous Idol winners, let alone other runner-ups. Not to mention that while Adam has released his album and kicking ass performing everywhere, he's still very VERY new to the industry and well, it all sort of reeks of desperation for both parties really. Still looking forward to it though.


Tina Fey Does Palin and Flirts with Bieber


Haven't seen much of Saturday Night Live the past few months, but I knew I had to see Tina Fey especially since I saw the hilarious Date Night this past weekend. Maybe I'm conflating her with her character Liz Lemon, but for some reason I was pleasantly surprised to see Tina so extraordinarily confident. Her standout sketch was, of course, her Sarah Palin sketch where the "Vice-Presidential silver medalist" started her own network to obvious hilarious results.

Musical guest and tween idol Justin Bieber showed up in a few sketches in between performing and fighting off all the ladies. His most surreal (and funny?) sketch had to be him singing about his feelings for his teacher (as played by Fey) all the byproduct of the teacher's fantasy. Other episode highlights include Fey eating her Brownie husband with the "caramel surprise" and The Devil putting a 5-min smackdown on the Catholic church.

Love. Lost. Love.

In Richard's episode two weeks ago, we find out that the Island is a "cork" holding back the Man in Black. In last night's amazing Desmond-centric episode, we find out what the show is all about with another four-letter word: Love. Too corny for you? Tough. I am eating it all up.

I love the show's dense mythology and ambitious ways of telling a story, but it's all about the characters for me. And when those characters are in lurve (with the key exception of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle of who-the-fuck-cares), I get all giddy. I'm looking forward to seeing the inevitable Sun/Jin reunion on Island and hopefully seeing the alt-universe coupling of Sawyer/Juliet, Charlie/Claire, and Daniel/Charlotte. But really it's all about Desmond/Penny isn't it?

At this point I don't care if the writers answer all my questions in the end. I just want those couples to live happily ever after. That's probably way too much to ask, but I'm asking anyways.

Waiting for the Doctor

Twelve days. That's how many days American audiences have to endure until they can see new episodes of Doctor Who featuring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. The season five premiere entitled "The Eleventh Hour" already aired in the UK with critics and audiences alike giving it lots of praise.

Tune in to BBC America on April 17th 9PM for the premiere. New season. New Doctor. New theme music. New logo.

Second Titles & Second Chances

Former US Open champions, Kim Clijsters and Andy Roddick both claimed their second title of the year by winning the Sony Ericsson Open this weekend. While lacking the drama and epicness of their semifinal bouts, both held steady amidst a struggling opponent. Venus Williams looked out of sorts piling unforced errors after unforced errors while Tomas Berdych was lucky to log a scoreline that close despite his low service percentage.

While often overshadowed by their more decorated rivals, both have shown the willingness and determination to change and get better. For Clijsters, she took that much-needed hiatus from tennis to center her life while Roddick has been working with Larry Stefanki to change up his game. The win this weekend show something is working, but their successes were even evident last year. Who could forget Clijsters winning her second Grand Slam title in Flushing or when Roddick was one break of serve away from taking the Wimbledon title from the great Roger Federer in that final set?

So for both, it's been a good start of the year and it seems both are taking full advantage of the second chance they've been given. True, both are probably past their primes, but once a champion...

Enchanted Central Park

Giselle has the right idea on how to spend a lovely spring day in the city. That's where I'll be today, albeit not singing nor looking as absolutely adorable as Amy Adams.

Miami Report

Confession time. The reason why I put Clijster's and Roddick's images in my last Miami entry was because I thought both would lose (valiantly) to their respective opponents in the semifinals. They proved me wrong.


Kim Clijsters defeated her arch rival Justine Henin in a roller coaster 6-2 7-6 7-6 match. Clijsters was up 6-2 3-0 before letting Henin back into the game. The final set was a game of chicken for both ladies, neither one capable of taking a hold of the win. With her fourth match point, Clijsters eked out Henin 8-6 in the third leveling their H2H at 12 wins a piece.


Clijsters will have a chance to even another H2H when she goes up against Venus Williams in the finals. Both ladies have move through the draw with minimal drama, losing only one set the whole tournament. They most recently met in the fourth round of last year's US Open with Clijsters winning a very strange 6-0 0-6 6-4 match. Clijsters then went on to win the tournament.

Fun Fact: Clijsters will break into the top ten with a win here in Miami. Even without the win, she will move up all the way to #11. Unranked until this week, Henin will move into #23 after this tournament, just in time for her favorite part of the year: clay season.


Andy Roddick was seen as the underdog against Rafael Nadal. When Nadal won the first set, many thought the Spaniard would win in straights to reach the finals and finally get his first title in nearly 11 months. Roddick had a different idea. Playing aggressive and smart tennis, Roddick was able to break Nadal late in the second set and then early in the third set to take control. For his part, Nadal didn't help himself as he looked frustrated by the end. Roddick clinched the win by breaking Nadal a second time in the final set. Roddick d. Nadal 4-6 6-3 6-3.


Roddick will face the man who took out Roger Federer earlier this week, Tomas Berdych. Roddick has a 5-2 H2H against Berdych, but do remember that Nadal had a similar H2H against Roddick before they played. Plus en route to the finals Berdych not only took out Federer down a match point, but he also beat talented players such as Fernando Verdasco and Robin Soderling.

Fun fact: Three of the four men's semifinalists also made the semifinals in last week's BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (Roddick, Nadal, and Soderling). Both Nadal and Soderling also lost in the semifinals while Roddick made it to the finals as well. Will the "other" person (Berdych) win like last week (Ljubicic)?

Prediction: Since I underestimated them both last time, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and predict that both Kim Clijsters and Andy Roddick will be walking off the champions this weekend down in Miami.

Catching Up in Miami

Rafael Nadal will try to reach his first final in almost 11 months by going up against Andy Roddick in the Sony Ericsson Open semifinals. Both also made the semifinals in Indian Wells a week ago with Roddick making it all the way to the finals. Nadal is once again the last player of the Big Four to survive the tournament with Roger Federer losing to Tomas Berdych in the fourth round after having a match point in the third set tiebreaker. So no Fedal final still! Berdych will have to get through Fernando Verdasco today to get one of two remaining semifinal berths. Mikhail Youzhny and Robin Soderling will be contesting the other one later today.

The ladies are set for the semifinal matches. Venus Williams will face Marion Bartoli in one side while the other side is none other than a pair of newly un-retired Belgians. This will be the second match between Grand Slam champions Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin this year. Both made a remarkable return to tennis after a brief hiatus from the game with Clijsters winning the US Open last year and Henin reaching the Australian Open finals earlier this year. Both are now ranked in the Top 30 with both having NO POINTS to defend for most of the year.