Miss America 2008

We watched the pagaent live. It was pretty fun. I thought it was nice to do the 50-state (plus DC and the Virgin Islands) parade in blue jeans. I enjoyed almost all the quirky little lines the gals delivered to introduce themselves. The color-coded tank tops were interesting (states with winners, states with runners up, states with oldest contestants, etc). The MC SUCKED. He stammered a lot, he made mistakes... he just was not smooth at all, not funny, and kept making little depricating remarks about how difficult it was for him to announce the contestants being eliminated. Whatever. Also, the "DJ" sucked...very boring music, very repetitious, and bordering on adult-movie cheesy music. Ick! The swimware was tasteful...but what was up with Miss Utah wearing a one-piece when no one else did? I laughed at several of the evening gowns when the gals said "I designed this dress to show my personality" via a plunging v neck and backless dress. Um...those assests ain't your personality, sweetie. I liked the bit of tension by doing eliminations in the middle of rounds. For example, during the talent round, all 10 gals were in costume and ready to perform. A few did their number, then a gal was cut instead of getting to perform. Then a few more performed, and one of the final two to perform was cut.

The 19-year old who won looks more like 29. I never ever would have guessed she was 19. I hate the song she sang as her talent ("Over the Rainbow") and she only did a so-so job IMO. The gal who did the opera song in the gold ballgown had a MUCH better voice and also picked a song that really showed off her range, power and clarity. We laughed to see that one girl was actually going to twirl batons as her talent...Mike kept saying, "Are we watching a real show or is this the movie Miss Congeniality?"

Here's how I would change the show: 1) the bikinis would all be EXACTLY the same...because some of the color accents and designs were not flattering. If we're not supposed to be looking at the suit but the body inside it, then the suits should be exactly the same. 2) Same for the evening wear... everyone should wear the same dress since this is not supposed to be about the dress but about your ability to be graceful and elegant. 3) Talent should all be the same for each genre. In other words, all singers will sing song X. All ballet dancers will perform together in choreographed moves so that we can compare who can arch more, who can jump higher, who is more graceful. Etc.

Here's me (on the far right) as a finalist in the 1989 Miss T.E.E.N. Virginia pagaent (my first and only pagaent...it was a lot of fun. The redhead on the far left was a professional and as you can see, she was PISSED that I ranked higher than her).