<p>John Burroughs is in Southern California? Since when? Are there two of them?</p>
<p>One of my college roommates and one of my current best friends both went to John Burroughs School . . . in St. Louis MO.</p>
<p>JHS… yes, there is a John Burroughs High School in Burbank, CA. It has quite the notable alumni list.</p>
<p>Even though I actually LOVED CopRock- I didn’t care for Glee after watching the pilot- but I did participate in the Glee Flashmob a week or so ago.</p>
<p>I do love me some Madonna ( I played her first few albums a lot as a young mom), & I noticed that the most recent episode is already on Hulu.</p>
<p>Dance scenes were very good- but the characters are kinda ehh, the adults more so than the " kids".</p>
<p>I might watch it again- but only if Jayma Mays character gets some ovaries and decides that she doesn’t want to date someone she works with.</p>
<p>Loved last night’s episode, especially the cheer squad number on stilts. I’m not a madonna fan, but the entire show was just so, so clever. D1 and I were in hysterics over the misogynist line. </p>
<p>One of my favorite things about the show is glancing over at D2’s face while watching. She always has an enormous smile pasted across her face.</p>
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<p>Yeah, younger D does both all-star and school cheer, so we love the Cheerios. Query: however does one get up from splits on stilts?!</p>
<p>I have a question about the stilts routine too. I know this program is not steeped in reality but I have zero experience with show choir or cheerleading. Can either of those groups use stilts? I loved it when Sue walked into the Principal’s office with the pointy Madonna bra and then the camera angle with it blurred in the foreground. Too funny!</p>
<p>I didn’t expect Jane Lynch’s character to be enamored of Madonna, but she does remind me of Camille Paglia & her " take no prisoners" atttitude.</p>
<p>[But</a> hey- we can’t all be Molly Ivins.](<a href=“http://www.its.caltech.edu/~erich/misc/ivins_on_paglia]But”>http://www.its.caltech.edu/~erich/misc/ivins_on_paglia)</p>
<p>The requirements for cheer competitions are strict and LOL of course they can’t use stilts, jump ropes, marching bands or vocalists. The cheer must be of a certain length, and include jumps, stunts, running and standing tumbling, a dance portion and an actual cheering portion.</p>
<p>My first time. JUst too much musical theater geekism for me. Ignored that crowd in HS and have the same reaction now.</p>
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<p>I was one of those geeks you ignored, so that must be why I’m now a Gleek! :)</p>
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<p>Show choir can pretty much use any kind of props that you can get on stage (smoke from dry ice, and fire extinguishers are the most common special effects). I think I remember seeing a show one year where one or two performers might have come out on stilts. I’m looking for it now and will let you know if I find it.</p>
<p>Hi Lergnorm,
Nice to see your post. Long time no speak! I fondly recall your kind advice from BU threads years ago.</p>
<p>I haven’t read up all the posts on this thread but I thought I will chime in. I began watching Glee purely because I enjoy music and because it follows the American Idol. I have indeed enjoyed the music which brings me back to watch for now.</p>
<p>The only thing that has been bugging me in the most recent Glee episodes is the basis that the entire series hinges on… the message that it is completely acceptable to have such intense rivalry, open hostiilty, and antagonism between two teachers or any professional colleagues at work! This part really twists my stomach when I watch the series. </p>
<p>Although I have never been in the educational system as a teacher myself, and agreed, my exposure in my entire life has been circumscribed to ‘Pharmaceutical R&D’ environment, I have never found such open hostility between two colleagues. It’s not to say that competition shouldn’t exist. It should and it does! But it’s far more subtle and cloaked in a colleagial atmosphere.</p>
<p>I am shocked week after week, with the open hostililty and lack of colleagiality between the two Teachers in Glee. It also seems to be staged in their episodes at the cost of what’s in students’ best interest. I find that part of the series totally unacceptable.</p>
<p>It’s a wrong message to give to the Teaching community… and a wrong impression to create about the Teachers who work very hard to put their students’ interests ahead of their own in reality I think.</p>
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<p>While I don’t know if what I’d say I’ve seen is hostility, I have seen some very passive-aggressive, antagonistic sort of behavior from faculty members within the same school. The problem is, because these are elective activities (for the most part), each faculty member is out to ‘prove’ their own program, because of the fear that, if they don’t, their funding might be decreased (or taken away completely). Different schools handle the funding of show choir differently. Some wealthier school districts budget a very generous amount of money toward their choir programs, and in some districts, the costs of show choir are entirely the burden of the student/family. At our high school, it is a combination of both… the choir director is paid a salary by the school district, but all fees for costuming/travel/clinics, etc., is paid for by a fee. Ours was around $300/year for what I just mentioned, but our school also had a more ‘national’ competition that we attended every spring, and this would be a major trip costing each student another $350-450. We always had lots of opportunities for students to fundraise for the big trip, but the initial fee has to be paid up by the start of the school year. </p>
<p>Among the drama, band, and choral teachers, there’s competition for the student’s time after school (many kids that are in show choir, are also theatre kids, and the combo for the show choir is casted by audition of interested band members). So there’s lots of overlap and teachers get very possessive of their rehearsal time and space. I’ve seen some rather nasty passive-aggressive stuff pulled, which only impacts the students (my daughter was not cast in a play one year because the show choir director all of a sudden changed rehearsal times to meet his needs, which meant she had a conflict with play rehearsal). Our show choir director is notorious for avoiding conflict, so he usually pulls this passive-aggressive stuff.</p>
<p>And to add fuel to the fire, show choir is a very political activity, due to its subjectivity in judging. So even across the country, most people know which judges like which style of show, which choreographers are in most demand, which choir directors always question the outcome of a competition, etc., etc., etc. This political atmosphere just adds another layer of pressure to the show choir director to not only please the school administration, but to play the game during competition season.</p>
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<p>You know, Pharmagal, I think you nailed it. I tend to fast forward through parts of the program because I just don’t find it entertaining, and the parts that I fast forward through are always the teacher interactions. Just don’t care for them.</p>
<p>Oh c’mon. Of course you’ve never found such “open hostility between two colleagues”. The show is a wildly over-the-top comedy/satire. I’m sure you’ve also never seen students routinely douse each other with Slurpees or football players dance to “Single Ladies”. If you’re looking for a realistic portrayal of high school life or teacher interactions, Glee’s not your cuppa tea.</p>
<p>Yep, they take everything and go way over the top. It makes the comedy/satire fun. Otherwise it is just HS musical. There is friction between athletics and arts in a lot of schools. Jealousy over the students time spent in the arts instead of on the field. Missing games or practices for newspaper or concerts, trips. Missing practices of one for the other. It just is not as openly hostile as the show. More sniper fire instead.</p>
<p>Sue is an over the top villian. It’s not supposed to be a realistic portrayal of a school. I love that she’s the cheer coach, instead of the coach of a boys’ sport.</p>
<p>I agree this is suppose to be over the top satire in everything. Let’s be honest if the GC and Principal were that weak in backbones regarding teachers they wouldn’t be in administration for very long.</p>
<p>I thought the funniest part was when Sue did the Vogue video and put her name and his in the song.</p>
<p>If I was the actress playing Gwen I would be concerned since her story has been totally dropped. Bullet and I discussed it yesterday and we both agreed it feels as if the Rachel story is being forced to make her the break out role.</p>
<p>I did chuckle when she did the hypothetical relationship question and said suppose you were at a WIGGLES concert 
I can say for the avg teen I couldn’t see it, but for her character I could.</p>
<p>^^^ which character is Gwen?</p>
<p>Do you mean Emma?</p>
<p>There hasn’t been much of a reference to Quinn’s pregnancy yet…</p>
<p>I think Pima meant Quinn. I agree that Dianna Agron has been practically invisible the past two weeks. I was looking to see if they were still presenting her as pregnant, and I couldn’t tell. I think what has happened is that they wanted to do more to establish the other secondary female characters – Santana, Brittany, Mercedes, Tina – and something had to give.</p>
<p>Rachel was always the breakout role, and Lea Michele a much more established star than the other young actors. Than the other old actors, too, with the possible exception of Matthew Morrison.</p>