Yesterday I saw that new Filipino Prison Dance video… the tribute to Michael Jackson. One of my contacts posted it on Facebook with the caption “You’ve Got To Be Kidding”. I guess I’m a sucker for that kind of caption (take note).

When I saw the inmates dancing in that first Thriller video, I think my reaction was something in between, “That’s very weird” and “That’s very impressive.” But on this new one, my feelings were a little more defined. Obviously with Jackson’s death only days ago, they didn’t have much time to practice… but I think it’s the lackluster performance on a whole that got me wondering… how much of this is coming from the prisoners?

I mean, of course they didn’t devise it… but how much of the inspiration, the drive to do it comes from them? You know, at one point in the video, I think you can actually hear someone laughing behind the camera.

Anyway, I tweeted asking whether anyone knew the story behind the vids, and I guess there are a lot of stories out there, because several of my peeps did. Most of the stuff I read was about the inspirational nature of the project… an alternative and positive way of rehabilitating prisoners…

And then (with the help of @christiolson) I found the story I kinda had a hunch was out there too. Although, to be honest… I didn’t expect it to be this friggin creepy.

So in the wake of The King of Pop’s death, consider this a rather depressing… kind of angry… definitely “I’m not watching another one of those Filipino prison dance videos” Movement Monday.

The piece is about 23 minutes long. If you don’t have time to watch it now, please come back and watch it later. My favorite part? The crony inmate explaining who deserves to get a coveted “Byron” tattoo. Oh, and I find it ironic and pretty fitting that this warden was inspired by Shawshank Redemption. Man, I really wish this piece was as viral as the dance videos themselves.

What do you all think? Let me know in the comments.

Hey guys! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do much cosmetic work on the scoreboard. And I may not be able to do much before next week either, since I’m racing towards a writing deadline that’s consuming me.

But I think what we’ve got in the Scoreboard below, paints a really nice picture as is.

We have a new pack leader. @BabsiS has pulled ahead by a half point for nailing both bonuses tonight. @raelee is right there behind her, followed by @LN84 and @MandyKerr.

@thayerf also nabbed a solid win with Asuka along with hitting both half point bonuses. Going from 7 to 28 is an impressive feat, my friend. We have our eye on you.

Also, I feel like I should clarify the bonuses some more, since a few people were confused. I actually had to call @seangunn and make sure I wasn’t confused.

So… every week there are two half point bonuses… 0.5 for the girl and 0.5 for the guy. Every player is eligible to get those bonuses. Even if you think the same person is going home as you already have picked, you can still tweet them as your bonus pick (although some might argue there’s a strategy in not doing so). And if you get it right, you not only get the full 11 points for your original pick, but you also get the bonus.

For example, @Chia_Wombat’s original picks had Asuka and Vitolio going home this week. Then yesterday she tweeted her bonus picks. They were Asuka and Jonathan. So she got the 11 points for getting Asuka right with her original pick, and she got 0.5 bonus for tweeting Asuka and 0.5 bonus for tweeting Jonathan.

You also don’t lose anything by getting the bonus wrong, so there’s no reason not to just guess. But I do need those guesses in by 8pm EST, which means 5pm PST.

And the most important part of the bonus is that it has to include #SYTYCD-FDL, and you have to tweet it to me as an @reply. That means the tweet has to contain @johncabrera in it.

When I tally the bonuses, I first scan the search for #SYTYCD-FDL. However, some of you have protected profiles (@xina ) and your tweets don’t appear in the search. So then I look at my mentions and see if there are any protected tweets that are not accounted for. I add them from there.

And to those who do protect their tweets, it’s also safer to reply to me by clicking the reply button next to one of my tweets rather than typing my username. That’s just because of a bug that Twitter hasn’t totally fixed (and it goes for replying to anyone about anything, actually.)

Bonuses may not seem as important now, but aside from helping you boost your score by as much as 9 points during the game, I’m also using them as the tie breaker. If there’s a tie for first, it’ll go to the tying winner who had the most bonuses correct during the game.

Okay, enough babbling, sorry. Here’s the new Scoreboard.

The Scoreboard from my June 19th post, has also been updated with this new one. It will remain in my POPULAR category in the sidebar for quick access.

Last night’s episode… here’s what I took away:

• Jonathan is hugging a lot of people between tonight an tomorrow.
• Melissa is SMOKING hot.
• There was a Conan the Barbarian themed Paso Doble.
• Mia believes a female dancer shouldn’t be insecure about drawing attention to her butt on national television. No ma’am.
• Phillip jumped it!! He friggin JUMPED it!!!!!
• Vitolo is now the NKOTB that all of America wants to marry.
• Brandon is a Class III Dancing Android.
• Kayla is a Class IV(b) Dancing Android.
• And Janette is a Cuban nerd from Miami……. hmmm… sounds familiar.

And this was my favorite piece:

Dancing guys at music festivals are always an inspiration to the Monday movers of the world. Admittedly, his technique, his lines aren’t great… but this man is teaching us a lesson about the power of perseverance… and, of course, any professional dancer will tell you how difficult it is dancing on a raked stage.

Be sure to stick with it until at least halfway through the vid. That’s when the real magic starts to happen.

Kudos my wiggling friend. You are a true inspiration to Movement Monday.

This vid was brought to my attention by the Norwegian blogger, @mmartee… currently my main source for the letter “å”.