It's the most wonderful time of the year

So I'm maybe the only person in the United States who's excited about this, but THE NEW 'PUMP IT UP' IS ALMOST OUT! Check out the preview above.

It's glaringly (and probably creepily) obvious to anyone who's read this blog that I am a Big Fan of Ministry of Sound's "Pump It Up" series. I explained why, in detail, in this post. But to summarize:

- They're long (70-90 minutes), thorough and challenging. No half-assey "20-Minute Solutions!"

- They're entertaining and varied, drawing from dance, aerobics, kickboxing and pilates. To quote myself, again from that post I linked to above: "The workouts are basically structured, aerobicized sassy-dancing in a fantasyland of bright lights and hot bodies wearing impossible outfits."

- They use real music, which is like omgthankyouwhycan'tmorevideosdothis. Even if you don't like LMFAO's "Party rockin in the house tonight" song (I don't, but I can tolerate it) or club music in general, I maintain it's still better than 90% of the crappy muzak used in other videos.

- They are built for a lengthy shelf life. They better be, since they only release one of these suckers a year. Instead of spending gobs of time explaining each move and, in effect, pandering to the audience, the videos keep a swift, fluid pace. It's assumed that you may need to press pause a couple time on your first or second go-round to get the hang of some of the dancier steps, but then once you get it, you don't have to slow down again!

The 2012 installment features the debut of a new instructor, neither Deanne nor Gareth nor that annoying girl from the older ones! (I think I'll have to write about Gareth for my next post; he's too good to keep away from you any longer.) Two of this year's dancers were in prior videos and.... now I'm really starting to sound psychotic. Ok, stopping here! Here's a longer behind-the-scenes preview:

Butts: A celebration!

So I'm way way behind in finishing an article on my first-ever pole dancing class for The Hairpin, and part of what's taking so long is explaining how I feel about butts. Ferreal. It's especially ridiculous because I know exactly how I feel about butts: I LOVE THEM! Why? Well, watch that belly dance video clip above, for starters. That's seriously one of my fa-vor-ite butt exercises. So meditative and pleasing. (Btw, "Churn the Other Cheek"??? I DIE. It's like an Itchy and Scratchy episode title.)

Anyway, butts are just fantastic in my book, but the Hairpin piece is about a bunch of other stuff and saying "I LIKE BUTTS" isn't really enough to fill an article, you know? However, it is enough to fill a blog post!

I give to you...a bounty of butts. A paean to posteriors and the workouts that keep them so darn likeable.

Here's that same video, but with "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" dubbed in. It's worth it.

The original butt-sculpting bible:

"Press it. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh."