The “celebrities” for season 8 of Dancing with the Stars have been announced, and what an odd crew they make.  From computer makers to formerly jailed rappers, they seem to have covered all of the bases this time around.

• Belinda Carlisle (former front woman of the Go-Go’s)
• Chuck Wicks (country singer and boyfriend of dancer Julianne Hough)
• David Alan Grier (comedian)
• Denise Richards (actress)
• Gilles Marini (actor)
• Jewel (singer, girlfriend of fellow competitor Ty Murray)
• Lawrence Taylor (football player)
• Lil’ Kim (rapper)
• Nancy O’Dell (host of Access Hollywood)
• Shawn Johnson (17-year-old Olympic gold medalist, youngest ever competitor)
• Steve-O (from Jackass)
• Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computers)
• Ty Murray (rodeo star, boyfriend of fellow competitor, Jewel)

While I have discussed the show a few times before, I have never had a mad urge to blog about the actual non-pros that go on the show. However, when you throw Steve Wozniak on there, I almost feel obligated to do so.

For those unfamiliar with “Woz”, he co-founded Apple Computers with Steve Jobs, but he left the company to pursue his interests in being a philanthropist.  While I have a feeling he will be one of the first eliminated this season, there is still something oddly compelling about seeing one of the “Kings of the Geeks” out there dancing away.  I also think it is an interesting testimonial to how important computers have become in our lives that one of the original home computing people is now considered a “star”.

As for some of the others, I’m not that surprised by them, most of them are low tier celebs, but Jewel?  What the heck!  And Lil’ Kim?  Will she be able to stay out of jail long enough to finish the season?  Steve-O, well, apparently he’s sober now, but we’ll see.  While they grabbed some more recognizable names this time, they sure went with ones with checkered pasts, too.

I am also hopeful that perhaps we can skip all of the insanity over Cheryl Burke’s weight that we suffered through last time.  How dare that woman balloon all the way up to a size 4!  I am also sure Harold Wheeler and the Dancing with the Stars Band will be there to make me miserable with their butchered versions of songs.  Either way, I am sure I will “watch” (more like I only look up when someone is actually dancing) and find something to complain about.

As we start another year, it’s time for me to take a look back at what struck a chord with my readers.

2008 was very good to this blog, and I have to take a moment to thank you, my readers, for an amazing year of growth!  Unique visitors grew by almost 600%, and total page views was darn close to 700%!  I hoped for a year of growth, but I could have never dreamed readership would be up that much!  Don’t get me wrong, this blog is still a long ways away from the major leagues… a long, long, LONG way… but it is still a nice amount of growth.

So, without further ado, the 10 entries that helped me see this growth.

Who Is The Best James Bond? – Who knew people were this interested in who made the best James Bond? Published in September, this post brought in more page views in three days than this blog got total in the year of 2007.  It is still getting viewed every day, some days only 1 or 2 views, but it is still looked at on a constant basis.  Quite surprising, I must say.

Anonymous Takes On Scientology -This post came in second with a very healthy showing (the Bond post has about 4 times the page views), and it was also one that took me by surprise in how it took off.  It didn’t hurt that members of Anonymous put links to it all over the Web, and with that in mind, I am sure I am now on the Scientology watch list.  -waves-  Hail, Xenu!

The Music Industry Vs Net Neutrality -This post was from January of last year, and was my biggest success to date at the time.  Net Neutrality is always a touchy subject, and the music industry seemingly want to wage war on it is not sitting well with anyone, and understandably so.

How To Watch Internet Videos On Your TV -This is a very popular post, and one on plan on revisiting soon as a lot has changed since I published this last February.  This was also part of the inspiration for the launching of StarterTech.com.

Olympic Beach Volleyball Uniforms -This was my second article about my anger over how women’s beach volleyball athletes were treated by the medie at this past Summer Olympics.  The first article, Olympic Beach Volleyball, was only a few hundred views behind this one, but I am counting them as one entry on this list.

I will admit, from analyzing the search traffic on these two posts, they are found for all the wrong reasons, and that being mainly people looking for pictures of the athletes asses.  Somehow I doubt they read the accompanying articles that say that is what I’m talking against…

Who Is The Best Doctor Who – Okay, I am not too proud to admit this was an obvious attempt to copy the success of the James Bond post, but apparently I went a little too obscure with the subject matter.  It obviously still did well as a post as it made this list.

JJ Abrams Unveils The New Enterprise From Star Trek – This is another one that surprised me with how well it did.  I guess people really, really wanted to see how the new Enterprise looked!

Dancing With The Stars Band – My dislike for the Dancing With The Stars band, and it’s conductor, Harold Wheeler, has turned this in to my most controversial post ever. I have received numerous nasty comments and emails about me and my opinion of these… “musicians”… and all I can say is… Keep it up! I always need more laughs in my life!

New The Dark Knight Trailer Hints At Joker Greatness – The massive upswing I saw in traffic to this post in October prompted me to write a post entitled “Just Put Down The Clown Makeup!” as I could see it was mainly being found by people looking for pictures of the Joker.  Sure enough, it was all about people trying to dress as him for Halloween.

Weighty Issues For Cheryl Burke of Dancing With The Stars -Poor Cheryl Burke took a real pounding for her non-existent weight issues on the fall season of Dancing With The Stars.  It was a whole lot of hype over a woman gaining a meager 5 lbs, and I personally found that the fact anyone was even calling her “fat” just silly.

Honroable Mentions – Somehow my review of a Combichrist/K.M.F.D.M. concert from 2006 was technically in my top 10 viewed posts… I have no clue why.  Also, my post on Armando Montelongo also made it into the top ten, but I like to keep this list about posts published in 2008.

So, there you have it, the top 10 posts of the year for this blog.  Just like last year, this list tells me entertainment related posts do well, but I will probably continue to talk about just whatever is randomly on my mind at any given time.  I will say that the increased readership has made me a lot more self conscience about my posts, and what I tend to pick as the subjects, but at the end of the day, this is still just a personal blog… filled with a lot of ranting.

Thank you all so very much for making 2008 such a great year here at SeanPAune.com, and I only hope I can keep you all as interested in 2009!

This controversy over Cheryl Burke’s weight has officially become ridiculous.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Louis van Amstel, two male dancers from Dancing With The Stars, have come out with quotes over the fact that Cheryl Burke put on five pounds this past summer.  Not only now is it Ms. Burke being targeted, but also the new female  dancer Lacey Schwimmer is being targeted as she is curvier than some others.

When I first saw these women this season, I said, ‘Guys, you know the camera adds 10 pounds. You have to do something about this.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy

This was followed by

[People] look at this show to be inspired and think, ‘If I just work hard enough, I can look like that. If they watch someone who’s dancing her butt off and she’s still heavy, they can be discouraged.”
Louis van Amstel

First off, van Amstel has a reputation for being a pain in the ass, and has been rumored to be a problem with the dancers during the tours.  He isn’t even an official professional on the series this season though he has floated through some of the showcase dances.  As for Chmerkovskiy, who is he to make such comments?

If it sounds like this makes me angry, than you are hearing correctly.  I have known many people with eating disorders, and there are many deaths related to such disorders each year.  True, people also die from being overweight, but Ms. Burke and Ms. Schimmer are far from being overweight.  For these men to say anything of this nature is just irresponsible, uncalled for and unnecessarily vicious.

If these women are happy with themselves, then more power to them, and to suggest that they are of unhealthy weight levels does nothing but further the idea that women must be model thin at all times.  The wisest thing for these men to say about the situation would have been either a) to support their fellow dancers or b) not say a thing at all about it.  Any guesses which option I think is the better choice?

I would hope to see this issue just die and go away, but so long as people continue to say such nasty things about a women of a perfectly healthy weight and size, then I feel compelled to say something about it.

For shame Mr. Chmerkovskiy and Mr. van Amstel, for shame.

Would someone mind telling me why in the world how much someone weighs should matter to anyone but the person who is carrying it?

Case in point is professional dancer Cheryl Burke, one of the fan favorites from Dancing With The Stars, apparently put on five pounds over the summer.  She opted to take this summer off, her first time off in several years, and was not dancing her usual 7 hours a day.  Even with the “weight gain” (which was said to be mainly in her shoulder blade area) she still fit into her size 4 costumes.

In a recent article on the Chicago Sun-Times website, they went into great detail about how many nasty comments and blog posts have been made about Cheryl’s change in weight.  Apparently she finally went on Good Morning America (video link) and addressed the issue, saying that the comments had been very hurtful and she had some emotional moments over what had been said.  While I would say Ms. Burke needs to grow a slightly thicker skin, I do think any comments about her gain are just ludicrous.

Now you would think in an article about how she was hurt by the comments, and explaining her weight and size, people might take a hint not to say more, but, alas, this is the Internet.  (spelling and grammar mistakes are all of the commentor from the)

Cheryl needs to look at herself in the mirror and pictures. Her butt and thighs are huge. She needs to compare with other coworkers or people who are the top of the game that not the right look for professional dancers. It does not matter how good she dances because your appearance does not appealing to watch it. People who turned to be huge and fat are all said that same things like she said. Honestly, she is fat with humounous butt and thighs. I like her but if she is keeping her fat weights right now or getting fatter, I probably my mind would gradually not going to be her fan anymore. She needs to be realistic that she is fat. Like one of the trainer, the blonde hair, not tall and chubby, she has exercised hard and makes a living out of it why she does not have nice body but because she keeps on exercising hard for her carrer that why she does not turn to be big butt and thigh like she was born to be which is the same like Cheryl. Cheryl is in public eyes. She needs to want to look good or the best herself, nobody could make her do it. She is fat if not like a pig but she would if she keeps on denial it and gets people to cheer her that it is okay and good to look like now. They do not tell the truth or in the eyes of the beholder. Well! be honest she is getting fat and fatter. If she or anyone who was born with big butt and thighs then they should live with it, right! WRONG!!! Look at the trainer who has the same generic problems like Cheryl but she beats it by working out A LOT and diet. No pain, no gain! It is her choice! It would be sad that she would choose to let go and be natural (FAT). Britney Spears at least she has 2 kids. Cheryl, if you let yourself go and keeps denying the truth and feel hurt and does not listen to any criticism then you have a chance to be like STAR JONES before her diet and plastic surgery with a lot of scars everywhere. People does not want you to be better than them.
Good Luck!

Okay, first… wow.  How about some people worry about actually talking like they’ve gotten an edumakation before commenting on someone elses “carrer”.  All that aside, I go back to my original comment about why should anyone’s weight matter to anyone beyond the person carrying the weight?  Obviously it shouldn’t, but this has become a real problem in the United States where young girls are constantly bombarded with “be thin, be thin” imagery and comments. Is it any wonder that anorexia is a problem here?

And there was this portion of a comment by another user.

I really think most of the people who thinks it’s okay for a PROFESSIONAL DANCER to look like this is overweight themselves and defending her so as not to look so bad themselves. She’s not just a woman, she’s not a mom who just recently had children, she’s in a profession where her body is her one tool.

Well, guess what, I am overweight (something I am very up front about), and I will defend her because I think it is just pure insanity to call a size 4 woman “fat”.  Yes, I am trying to lose weight, but I am doing this strictly for myself, and no one else and I think everyone, no matter what their size or profession, should just be allowed to be themselves.  If they are comfortable, if they can work with the weight they are at, then it is simply no one elses business.

Honestly, the only thing I can figure is that these people’s lives are so sad, they have to find an excuse to tear down someone else, and if that is the case, I would much rather be fat than so petty.