A friend does a "Meme Monday" on her blog and in the interests of being supportive, here's mine. I'm going to attempt to make this figure skating related...
I Am... A rabid figure skating fan
I Want... time to skate.
I Have... a blog about figure skating.
I Wish... Michelle Kwan could win the OOO gold
I Hate... people who hate this skater or that skater.
I Fear... that CoP has ruined the sport forever.
I Hear... figure skating music wherever I go.
I Search... for balance, on ice, wheels, and in life.
I Wonder... what color undies Matt Savoie wears for exhibitions—we all know what color Stephane Lambiel wears! RED! That was a joke. Matt's mom reads one of the major skating lists and I wouldn't want her to think I was serious.
I Regret... nothing. I learn from every experience.
I Love... the feeling of flying that skating—roller or ice—gives me.
I Ache... after I skate. Fact of life.
I Always... make excuses why I'm not getting back to the rink.
I Usually... enjoy myself once I get there.
I Am Not... in person, much like I am online.
I Dance... ballroom.
I Sing... mezzo soprano.
I Never... say never.
I Rarely... think before I speak. I save considered thought for email.
I Cry... when I'm angry.
I Am Not... skinny.
I Lose... weight—hey, we can all aspire!
I'm Confused... about the meaning of life.
I Need... some nyquil and a good night's sleep.
I Should be...not so hard on myself sometimes.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
More Stupid Survey Tricks...
As if I needed to know what kind of car I am.
I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!
You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.
Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.
Interesting... in her later years (and in the serial version of On the Edge), Elayne drives a vintage Corvette.
I was always a 64 1/2 Mustang sort of girl myself...
Friday, March 24, 2006
I Made the Final Flight!
Read my Blogging for Book Entries about being a military spouse?
There were over 40 entries, which is a great turn out for a contest like this. In the first round, they chose 18. In the second round, they narrowed that down to 10. In the THIRD round, they chose 7.
I made the final 7!
Yippee!
You can read about it here.
If you missed my entries, they're here.
There were over 40 entries, which is a great turn out for a contest like this. In the first round, they chose 18. In the second round, they narrowed that down to 10. In the THIRD round, they chose 7.
I made the final 7!
Yippee!
You can read about it here.
If you missed my entries, they're here.
Figure Skating: 2006 Worlds Ladies Short Program
Warm-Up Group 2
They are playing Joan Jett and the Black Hearts "I Love Rock and Roll" during the warm up...
Literally EVERY girl in this flight is wearing red. And almost the same shade!
7 Valentina MARCHEI ITA 22 19.12
Red strappy dress with white stones and elbow length red mitts, diagonal skirt.
REALLY familiar heroic music... Carmen?
looooonnnggg edge 3Z fall. 2A. camel outside twist sit, ugh layback. ch sit inside catch nice. familiar tango music slow; she's being cutsie to it. steps into 3S 2footed. one handed beill spiral, steady COE nice, beill back spiral nice, nice side spiral to back spiral ugh not well done. fast music: SL: FW uppy downy swirly FW good speed and
flying sit outside twist weird cannonball. nice sideways lean to extreme layback with awful leg position, foot to head.
26.08 + 19.98 = 45.06 T = 64.18 (2nd)
8 Julia SEBESTYEN HUN 20 19.77
red with black sequins. black one sleeve, one no sleeve and the back mostly illusion. black illusion sleeve and elbow length mitt. A weird but attractive dress
Esperanza
steps 3F fall (way under rotated). 3Z-1T (3Z was a bit under rotated). fly camel inside nice donut upright. nice classic spiral COE ugh beill short nice forward side ugh spiral to back ugh. half beill not held any of them. 1A step out. nice sideways to so so layback foot to head beill???. C FW good expression, nice choreo, to the music. camel sit layback ch camel, donut, beill eh, inside upright.
19.39 + 20.14 = 38.53 T = 58.30
9 Teodora POSTIC SLO 24 18.96
red skirt, pinker halter top and ugly dress and a BAD color on her who is a white on white blonde with pale lipstick and eye shadow. She needs to get with Sasha and learn how to do her makeup!
Wild Time
she sticks her butt out when she strokes. 2L pop 1T. steps 2S. nice death drop. sideways eh foot to head, layback, all EH. SL FW okay speed, but is she even skating TO the music? wobbly FW really BLAH. she needs a back flip here. nice 2A maybe 2footed. ugh Forward spiral wobbly COE, UGLY hbeill back so so side spiral. camel outside nice sit ugh sideways lean ch sit, inside squat, cannon (not well done), scratch. She can spin but her positions are ugly, her jumps were AWOL and she needed a dose of excitement BADLY.
14.66 + 16.11 = 30.77 T = 49.73
10 Amanda NYLANDER SWE 19 19.79
more mulberry than red. fading to white at the bottom. a nicely understated srappy dress oh wait, the skirt has a long pointed tail in the back. belay that.
Bach Toccata and Fugue ?
NICE axel sit cannon. steps 3L nice. good speed. 3F 2T. nice sideways to layback foot to head, nicely to the music. SL FW fast uppy downy not too difficult otherwise though. 2A okay 2foot? back beill ugh COE okay. ugh forward spiral. ugh back spiral to side nice. camel cannon nice, layback foot to head ch sit okay, inside catch
Girl skates pretty fast and had nice, economical stroking. She's not "artistic" but I like her. And she says hi to "Mama" in the K&C.
27.27 + 19.03 = 46.30 (personal best) T = 66.09
11 Annette DYTRT GER 21 19.47
candy red strappy dress with diagonal skirt longer in back. pretty. she needs less bronzer though.
oh shit. Tocatta and fugue AGAIN
3Z under-rotated, 2foot 2T. arm waving. steps 3F badly under rotated 2foot. fly camel layover donut. ah, the hooked on classics version! very nice side catch spiral F 2hand beill back hand to knee spiral. 2A nice. nice sideways to okay LB foot to head half beill. C FW good speed. nice difficulty swirly well sold. camel outside cannon half beill ch sit catch scratch
Boy... what a contrast! This girls can't jump, but she had mature presentation. Other girl did easier jumps but landed them. And to have 2 tocatta and fugues back to back! Ie yi yi!
20.96 + 20.94 = 41.90
Her PCS were garbage. She's trying not to cry. She misssed her jumps, but was head and shoulders better than the last skater and her PCS didn't reflect that AT ALL.
12 Anastasia GIMAZETDINOVA UZB 23 19.00
Red straight skirt. Bodice and sleeves has red curlicues over illusion. More illusion than dress, yet not particularly attractive.
The Godfather Part II
3Z 2foot, pitch forward 2T. ugh muzak "From a Distance." steps 3S nice. fly camel inside donut hbeill? okay Forward spiral COE slow back hbeill. nice side spiral. to back steady. camel outside sit layback beill traveling all over. ch squat, twist. C FW swirly and uppy downy. but SLOOOOOW. sideways nise to layback foot to head beill.
Okay, I hated the music, but she has a nice quality to her skating. She has a VERY pretty camel position. Her spirals need a bit of work. Hug and kiss for her coach... who appears to be immune to being kissed by pretty girls.
29.27 + 20.23 = 49.50 (personal best) T = 68.50 (1st)
Deserved? Maybe they didn't catch those under rotated jumps!
End Group 2
Arina Martinova RUS
Moonlight Sonata
Black with open back and white stones and white underskirt.
3F wonky landing, whippy2T. a heavy metal moonlight. 3Z. 2A LOVELY. nice F classic spiral COE nice HUGE extension. back beill nice, nice side spiral. to nicer back spiral. fly camel inside, donut nice. serp FW swirly, uppy downy, fast and well sold. camel outside sit cannon layback beill ch squat sash catch. nice sideways to layback foot to head beill.
She's very flexible and her laybacks have a kind of betn turned out leg, but a VERY extreme back position.
29.59 + 19.37 = 48.96 T= 67.91
The judges are ON DRUGS. Those PCS scores are idiotic. She rough, but she points her toes and turns them out. She sold the program, though it was not a pretty-pretty program. She must be young and unfamiliar to them... that's it.
Katerina Gerboldt
red, illusion and gold lame in arabian pattern
Orient Qualibet
nice 2A. good stroking. 3L 2T. steps not flip slipped on the pick fall. fly camel inside nice donut upright. beill forward, nice COE not really nice position. side catch eh. back beill not nice. nice sideways to layback (ugly leg position, nice back) foot to head, beill not nice position. good speed though. C FW music is fast, she is slow and not selling it. she skates pretty and the music is not-pretty, bad match for her. camel outside squat layback, ch camel donut beill.
She's a VERY pretty girl, but she lacks the ability to really DO a beillmann so god knows WHY she's doing them. She neither presents well, nor sells the program. her jump landings are kinda wonky but generally clean.
19.44 + 17.15 = 36.59 T = 54.17
Warm-Up Group 3
13 Susanna POYKIO FIN 14 23.13
pink with silver criss crossy straps and skirt is 3 progressively darker layers of fringe. It looks nice, but down not move well.
One Mint Tulip, Girls Night Out
3Z2T NICE. steps nice 3F. fly camel inside hbeill. sexy music. easy 2A nice. eh back spiral to ugh side F spiral ugh COE ugh. back beill ugh sideways to layback foot to head beill eh. Sl FW swirly ell choreographed but slow. and not sold. awful music cuts/ camel sit layback beill, ch sit inside catch. She traveled all over the whole time.
Her jumps were lovely, but she really didn't sell this program well, especially at the end.
30.08 + 24.20 = 54.28 T = 77.41 (1st)
Unfortunately, I am going to have to leave to go get my kids at school now. I'll probably miss the rest of this group. I'm recording, so I'll catch up on them later.
14 Viktoria PAVUK HUN 15 21.31
15 Elene GEDEVANISHVILI GEO 17 20.72
16 Idora HEGEL CRO 13 23.26
17 Nadege BOBILLIER FRA 18 19.89
18 Yan LIU CHN 16 21.16
Warm-Up Group 4
19 Kiira KORPI FIN 8 25.44
ballet pink with deep bscoop back and chiffon over lycra skirt. pink illusion sleeves
violin/symphony music Beatles?
3T-3T NICE! steps3F fall. nice side ways to okay layback. C FW swirly. nice 2A. camel cannon sit catch ch sit sasha catch nice speed. nice F Spiral argh COE bad, back beill sp., back side catch sp nice. axel sit outside twist. Music ends abruptly
She was doing SO well at first... the flip was gorgeous until she fell... She was fully rotated, she just landed very strangely, dug in where she could have flowed. It was a very weird fall. She bonks herself on the head when she finishes. I swear, the child looks like Barbie.... except that she has arms and legs (our barbies don't)
28.98 + 25.34 = 53.32 (personal best) T = 78.76 (1st)
Lots of hugs and laughter from the coach. Boy are they happy!
20 Carolina KOSTNER ITA 7 25.64
Something awful with clear sequins over zebra fabric and the pattern repeated in black stones on illusion on the arms with a white very short , very fluffy chiffon skirt that darkens to blue. with a light blue lame panty and she has a massive wedgie. The designer should be SHOT. And what does this have to do with an angel??!!
Gabriel's Oboe
3F fall. steps 2L popped. arabian camel variant donut upright. bad wedgie. nice side back sp. F classic COE nice. back catch side nice. back beill sp. nice 2A. serp FW uppy downy camel outside sit nice sideways ch squat camel hbeill. sideways lean to nice layback
22.98 + 26.97 = 48.95 T = 74.59 (4th)
21 Sarah MEIER SUI 10 24.64
Lemon yellow with white around the bodice top, strappy, nice chiffon skirt, it lays very well. I like this dress. so simple, so elegant...
Finding Neverland Soundtrak
easy 3Z 2T nice. steps easy 3F very nice/ camel outside squat twisted upgiht ch sit twist upright, inside. nice delicate, light quality about her. she's selling this well. back spiral COE abrupt. f hbeill sp. nice 2A. nice DD twist squat, variant. SL FW very swirly and uppy downy. Finishes her footwork and then--pratfall! Probably technically NOT a fall since she only put a hand down. NICE sideways lean to nice so so layback foot to head. Ends a bit after her music.
33.47 + 27.04 = 60.51 T = 85.15 (1st)
Well deserved...
22 Elena SOKOLOVA RUS 11 24.42
hot pink half-and-ice-dancer's dress. She looks determined
Turandot
LONG edge 3Z2T. steps 3L nice. arabian camel inside donut. h beill COE sp nice. back hand on knee sp. ugh side spiral to back spiral, smooth. 2A. nice sideways to ugh layback foot to head. C FW finally, she selling it. camel outside sit cannon layback ch squat hbeill upright inside.
She pumps her fist at the end. Finally she lays down a decent program. She was really tight and not even bothering to do anything but skate between jumps at the beginning, as she laid the jumps down, she loosened up and really started to make more out of the program. After the Olympics and a not so great qualifying at Worlds, this HAS to feel great.
33.24 + 27.74 = 60.98 (personal best) T = 85.40 (1st)
23 Yoshie ONDA JPN 12 23.39
dark salmon one shouldered dress, a somewhat longer than normal skirt that flutters a lot
Madame Bovary
3Z 2T nice. steps 3F ugly layback to sideways foot to head. ugh ugh ugh. F classic sp CEO ugh beill. back catch side sp. UGH back sp. steps nice 2A. Death drop squat twist. C FW, not sold well. good speed. camel outside sit cannon foot to head layback ch sit inside crossfoot. Good speed.
Why do they insist on giving Onda girls programs? I can see her saying to Josee, "but I WANT to be pretty-pretty" and unfortunately, it is like lipstick on a chicken. She just doesn't FEEL IT... and i wonder what there is that she DOES feel. She seems happy with how she skated and I guess she should be, it was clean.
29.49 + 23.00 = 52.49 T = 75.88 (5th)
24 Mira LEUNG CAN 9 24.77
strapless w/illusion mulberry fading to white... and the crowd goes WILD.
Freedom
steps nice 3F. steops 3Z-2L nice. sideways to layback nice leg foot to head beill nice speed. steps 1A ooooooohhhhh! beill sp nice steady COE to classic sp back side sp. back catch sp nice. fly camel inside donut. C FW she's tired and only selling it some. good speed. camel outside, sit, twist, layback foot to head, beill ch camel donut, beill nice, sasha catch.
Leung has made such a HUGE advance this year in her presentation and artistry that she should really be proud of herself no matter WHERE she places. She went from being a skater I hated to being someone I really like and am excited about seeing in the future. I can't WAIT to see what she becomes.
26.43 + 23.06 = 49.49 T = 74.26 (8th)
That is just WRONG. What the hell are these judges SMOKING? I know that she missed the axel. I expected low tech scores, but they are not watching the same skater I am! They seem to be seeing the skater she WAS, not the skater she IS. There was no interruption from the axel whiff... and to give her PCS similar to ONDA??? Someone GOT some of this shit? Cause it must be GOOD SHIT they are smoking... good shit.
Bad news... Dh is home and we MUST go run an errand before 5 PM. So off we go. Ladies last group later when I get home...
Warm-Up Group 5
25 Yukari NAKANO JPN 4 27.79
26 Fumie SUGURI JPN 2 28.47
27 Emily HUGHES USA 6 25.68
28 Kimmie MEISSNER USA 3 28.46
29 Sasha COHEN USA 5 27.59
30 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN 1 29.28
They are playing Joan Jett and the Black Hearts "I Love Rock and Roll" during the warm up...
Literally EVERY girl in this flight is wearing red. And almost the same shade!
7 Valentina MARCHEI ITA 22 19.12
Red strappy dress with white stones and elbow length red mitts, diagonal skirt.
REALLY familiar heroic music... Carmen?
looooonnnggg edge 3Z fall. 2A. camel outside twist sit, ugh layback. ch sit inside catch nice. familiar tango music slow; she's being cutsie to it. steps into 3S 2footed. one handed beill spiral, steady COE nice, beill back spiral nice, nice side spiral to back spiral ugh not well done. fast music: SL: FW uppy downy swirly FW good speed and
flying sit outside twist weird cannonball. nice sideways lean to extreme layback with awful leg position, foot to head.
26.08 + 19.98 = 45.06 T = 64.18 (2nd)
8 Julia SEBESTYEN HUN 20 19.77
red with black sequins. black one sleeve, one no sleeve and the back mostly illusion. black illusion sleeve and elbow length mitt. A weird but attractive dress
Esperanza
steps 3F fall (way under rotated). 3Z-1T (3Z was a bit under rotated). fly camel inside nice donut upright. nice classic spiral COE ugh beill short nice forward side ugh spiral to back ugh. half beill not held any of them. 1A step out. nice sideways to so so layback foot to head beill???. C FW good expression, nice choreo, to the music. camel sit layback ch camel, donut, beill eh, inside upright.
19.39 + 20.14 = 38.53 T = 58.30
9 Teodora POSTIC SLO 24 18.96
red skirt, pinker halter top and ugly dress and a BAD color on her who is a white on white blonde with pale lipstick and eye shadow. She needs to get with Sasha and learn how to do her makeup!
Wild Time
she sticks her butt out when she strokes. 2L pop 1T. steps 2S. nice death drop. sideways eh foot to head, layback, all EH. SL FW okay speed, but is she even skating TO the music? wobbly FW really BLAH. she needs a back flip here. nice 2A maybe 2footed. ugh Forward spiral wobbly COE, UGLY hbeill back so so side spiral. camel outside nice sit ugh sideways lean ch sit, inside squat, cannon (not well done), scratch. She can spin but her positions are ugly, her jumps were AWOL and she needed a dose of excitement BADLY.
14.66 + 16.11 = 30.77 T = 49.73
10 Amanda NYLANDER SWE 19 19.79
more mulberry than red. fading to white at the bottom. a nicely understated srappy dress oh wait, the skirt has a long pointed tail in the back. belay that.
Bach Toccata and Fugue ?
NICE axel sit cannon. steps 3L nice. good speed. 3F 2T. nice sideways to layback foot to head, nicely to the music. SL FW fast uppy downy not too difficult otherwise though. 2A okay 2foot? back beill ugh COE okay. ugh forward spiral. ugh back spiral to side nice. camel cannon nice, layback foot to head ch sit okay, inside catch
Girl skates pretty fast and had nice, economical stroking. She's not "artistic" but I like her. And she says hi to "Mama" in the K&C.
27.27 + 19.03 = 46.30 (personal best) T = 66.09
11 Annette DYTRT GER 21 19.47
candy red strappy dress with diagonal skirt longer in back. pretty. she needs less bronzer though.
oh shit. Tocatta and fugue AGAIN
3Z under-rotated, 2foot 2T. arm waving. steps 3F badly under rotated 2foot. fly camel layover donut. ah, the hooked on classics version! very nice side catch spiral F 2hand beill back hand to knee spiral. 2A nice. nice sideways to okay LB foot to head half beill. C FW good speed. nice difficulty swirly well sold. camel outside cannon half beill ch sit catch scratch
Boy... what a contrast! This girls can't jump, but she had mature presentation. Other girl did easier jumps but landed them. And to have 2 tocatta and fugues back to back! Ie yi yi!
20.96 + 20.94 = 41.90
Her PCS were garbage. She's trying not to cry. She misssed her jumps, but was head and shoulders better than the last skater and her PCS didn't reflect that AT ALL.
12 Anastasia GIMAZETDINOVA UZB 23 19.00
Red straight skirt. Bodice and sleeves has red curlicues over illusion. More illusion than dress, yet not particularly attractive.
The Godfather Part II
3Z 2foot, pitch forward 2T. ugh muzak "From a Distance." steps 3S nice. fly camel inside donut hbeill? okay Forward spiral COE slow back hbeill. nice side spiral. to back steady. camel outside sit layback beill traveling all over. ch squat, twist. C FW swirly and uppy downy. but SLOOOOOW. sideways nise to layback foot to head beill.
Okay, I hated the music, but she has a nice quality to her skating. She has a VERY pretty camel position. Her spirals need a bit of work. Hug and kiss for her coach... who appears to be immune to being kissed by pretty girls.
29.27 + 20.23 = 49.50 (personal best) T = 68.50 (1st)
Deserved? Maybe they didn't catch those under rotated jumps!
End Group 2
Arina Martinova RUS
Moonlight Sonata
Black with open back and white stones and white underskirt.
3F wonky landing, whippy2T. a heavy metal moonlight. 3Z. 2A LOVELY. nice F classic spiral COE nice HUGE extension. back beill nice, nice side spiral. to nicer back spiral. fly camel inside, donut nice. serp FW swirly, uppy downy, fast and well sold. camel outside sit cannon layback beill ch squat sash catch. nice sideways to layback foot to head beill.
She's very flexible and her laybacks have a kind of betn turned out leg, but a VERY extreme back position.
29.59 + 19.37 = 48.96 T= 67.91
The judges are ON DRUGS. Those PCS scores are idiotic. She rough, but she points her toes and turns them out. She sold the program, though it was not a pretty-pretty program. She must be young and unfamiliar to them... that's it.
Katerina Gerboldt
red, illusion and gold lame in arabian pattern
Orient Qualibet
nice 2A. good stroking. 3L 2T. steps not flip slipped on the pick fall. fly camel inside nice donut upright. beill forward, nice COE not really nice position. side catch eh. back beill not nice. nice sideways to layback (ugly leg position, nice back) foot to head, beill not nice position. good speed though. C FW music is fast, she is slow and not selling it. she skates pretty and the music is not-pretty, bad match for her. camel outside squat layback, ch camel donut beill.
She's a VERY pretty girl, but she lacks the ability to really DO a beillmann so god knows WHY she's doing them. She neither presents well, nor sells the program. her jump landings are kinda wonky but generally clean.
19.44 + 17.15 = 36.59 T = 54.17
Warm-Up Group 3
13 Susanna POYKIO FIN 14 23.13
pink with silver criss crossy straps and skirt is 3 progressively darker layers of fringe. It looks nice, but down not move well.
One Mint Tulip, Girls Night Out
3Z2T NICE. steps nice 3F. fly camel inside hbeill. sexy music. easy 2A nice. eh back spiral to ugh side F spiral ugh COE ugh. back beill ugh sideways to layback foot to head beill eh. Sl FW swirly ell choreographed but slow. and not sold. awful music cuts/ camel sit layback beill, ch sit inside catch. She traveled all over the whole time.
Her jumps were lovely, but she really didn't sell this program well, especially at the end.
30.08 + 24.20 = 54.28 T = 77.41 (1st)
Unfortunately, I am going to have to leave to go get my kids at school now. I'll probably miss the rest of this group. I'm recording, so I'll catch up on them later.
14 Viktoria PAVUK HUN 15 21.31
15 Elene GEDEVANISHVILI GEO 17 20.72
16 Idora HEGEL CRO 13 23.26
17 Nadege BOBILLIER FRA 18 19.89
18 Yan LIU CHN 16 21.16
Warm-Up Group 4
19 Kiira KORPI FIN 8 25.44
ballet pink with deep bscoop back and chiffon over lycra skirt. pink illusion sleeves
violin/symphony music Beatles?
3T-3T NICE! steps3F fall. nice side ways to okay layback. C FW swirly. nice 2A. camel cannon sit catch ch sit sasha catch nice speed. nice F Spiral argh COE bad, back beill sp., back side catch sp nice. axel sit outside twist. Music ends abruptly
She was doing SO well at first... the flip was gorgeous until she fell... She was fully rotated, she just landed very strangely, dug in where she could have flowed. It was a very weird fall. She bonks herself on the head when she finishes. I swear, the child looks like Barbie.... except that she has arms and legs (our barbies don't)
28.98 + 25.34 = 53.32 (personal best) T = 78.76 (1st)
Lots of hugs and laughter from the coach. Boy are they happy!
20 Carolina KOSTNER ITA 7 25.64
Something awful with clear sequins over zebra fabric and the pattern repeated in black stones on illusion on the arms with a white very short , very fluffy chiffon skirt that darkens to blue. with a light blue lame panty and she has a massive wedgie. The designer should be SHOT. And what does this have to do with an angel??!!
Gabriel's Oboe
3F fall. steps 2L popped. arabian camel variant donut upright. bad wedgie. nice side back sp. F classic COE nice. back catch side nice. back beill sp. nice 2A. serp FW uppy downy camel outside sit nice sideways ch squat camel hbeill. sideways lean to nice layback
22.98 + 26.97 = 48.95 T = 74.59 (4th)
21 Sarah MEIER SUI 10 24.64
Lemon yellow with white around the bodice top, strappy, nice chiffon skirt, it lays very well. I like this dress. so simple, so elegant...
Finding Neverland Soundtrak
easy 3Z 2T nice. steps easy 3F very nice/ camel outside squat twisted upgiht ch sit twist upright, inside. nice delicate, light quality about her. she's selling this well. back spiral COE abrupt. f hbeill sp. nice 2A. nice DD twist squat, variant. SL FW very swirly and uppy downy. Finishes her footwork and then--pratfall! Probably technically NOT a fall since she only put a hand down. NICE sideways lean to nice so so layback foot to head. Ends a bit after her music.
33.47 + 27.04 = 60.51 T = 85.15 (1st)
Well deserved...
22 Elena SOKOLOVA RUS 11 24.42
hot pink half-and-ice-dancer's dress. She looks determined
Turandot
LONG edge 3Z2T. steps 3L nice. arabian camel inside donut. h beill COE sp nice. back hand on knee sp. ugh side spiral to back spiral, smooth. 2A. nice sideways to ugh layback foot to head. C FW finally, she selling it. camel outside sit cannon layback ch squat hbeill upright inside.
She pumps her fist at the end. Finally she lays down a decent program. She was really tight and not even bothering to do anything but skate between jumps at the beginning, as she laid the jumps down, she loosened up and really started to make more out of the program. After the Olympics and a not so great qualifying at Worlds, this HAS to feel great.
33.24 + 27.74 = 60.98 (personal best) T = 85.40 (1st)
23 Yoshie ONDA JPN 12 23.39
dark salmon one shouldered dress, a somewhat longer than normal skirt that flutters a lot
Madame Bovary
3Z 2T nice. steps 3F ugly layback to sideways foot to head. ugh ugh ugh. F classic sp CEO ugh beill. back catch side sp. UGH back sp. steps nice 2A. Death drop squat twist. C FW, not sold well. good speed. camel outside sit cannon foot to head layback ch sit inside crossfoot. Good speed.
Why do they insist on giving Onda girls programs? I can see her saying to Josee, "but I WANT to be pretty-pretty" and unfortunately, it is like lipstick on a chicken. She just doesn't FEEL IT... and i wonder what there is that she DOES feel. She seems happy with how she skated and I guess she should be, it was clean.
29.49 + 23.00 = 52.49 T = 75.88 (5th)
24 Mira LEUNG CAN 9 24.77
strapless w/illusion mulberry fading to white... and the crowd goes WILD.
Freedom
steps nice 3F. steops 3Z-2L nice. sideways to layback nice leg foot to head beill nice speed. steps 1A ooooooohhhhh! beill sp nice steady COE to classic sp back side sp. back catch sp nice. fly camel inside donut. C FW she's tired and only selling it some. good speed. camel outside, sit, twist, layback foot to head, beill ch camel donut, beill nice, sasha catch.
Leung has made such a HUGE advance this year in her presentation and artistry that she should really be proud of herself no matter WHERE she places. She went from being a skater I hated to being someone I really like and am excited about seeing in the future. I can't WAIT to see what she becomes.
26.43 + 23.06 = 49.49 T = 74.26 (8th)
That is just WRONG. What the hell are these judges SMOKING? I know that she missed the axel. I expected low tech scores, but they are not watching the same skater I am! They seem to be seeing the skater she WAS, not the skater she IS. There was no interruption from the axel whiff... and to give her PCS similar to ONDA??? Someone GOT some of this shit? Cause it must be GOOD SHIT they are smoking... good shit.
Bad news... Dh is home and we MUST go run an errand before 5 PM. So off we go. Ladies last group later when I get home...
Warm-Up Group 5
25 Yukari NAKANO JPN 4 27.79
26 Fumie SUGURI JPN 2 28.47
27 Emily HUGHES USA 6 25.68
28 Kimmie MEISSNER USA 3 28.46
29 Sasha COHEN USA 5 27.59
30 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN 1 29.28
Where IS My Figure Skating Coverage?
Anyone who got their Olympic reports and Junior worlds reports from this blog are probably screaming, "Where's the Worlds coverage!" The truth is, I haven't even watched it. The last few weeks have grown increasingly crazier and I just ran out of time, energy and oomph. However, I did record the RTR coverage and I'll be posting reports on some of the OES (Obscure Europeans Skaters), as well as better known favorites. Okay, so it's not spoilers. Sosumi.
I did take a FEW moments to be irresponsible—really, it wasn't even enough to watch a single long program--to find out what Operating System I am and which File Extension. For us tech geeks (which I am by trade if not by birth), these are imperative questions. I am surprised though, that I am neither a Mac nor a flavor of Linux.
Which OS are You?
And I don't blame my parents for my lack of lack of success... credit where credit is due.
Which File Extension are You?
Hey! I'm not flashy OR annoying!
Well, not MUCH.
If I ever get some time on my hands, perhaps I shall do a skating quiz or two for the blog... "Which Figure Skating Commentator Are You?" anyone?
I did take a FEW moments to be irresponsible—really, it wasn't even enough to watch a single long program--to find out what Operating System I am and which File Extension. For us tech geeks (which I am by trade if not by birth), these are imperative questions. I am surprised though, that I am neither a Mac nor a flavor of Linux.
Which OS are You?
And I don't blame my parents for my lack of lack of success... credit where credit is due.
Which File Extension are You?
Hey! I'm not flashy OR annoying!
Well, not MUCH.
If I ever get some time on my hands, perhaps I shall do a skating quiz or two for the blog... "Which Figure Skating Commentator Are You?" anyone?
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Figure Skating: 2006 Worlds Compulsory Dance
Ravensburger Waltz
Evening Note:
So here's the upshot. I've been working on this blog entry about half the day. There are still bits missing and I'm beat. This was a day from hell... the one where you find out that someone from Lower Slobovia has been using your debit card since November and has stolen $611.23 cents from you and then you have to chase around and do all the identity theft things... Yeah, THAT kind of day!
Not to mention I have TWO, count 'em, TWO work days when I am not volunteering and not doing the insane amount of laundry, dishes and housework this place seems to require just to stay marginally sanitary. And yes, THIS wasn't one of my two work days. I spent it making phone calls and filing reports instead of working.
Tonight, I have added links to several videos. Video links are beside each team's names. Eventually, I'll have links to almost everyone from Belbin and Agosto onward. Tonight, I'm just uploading the important ones from the top performers, because then I am going to go to bed and leave this miserable day behind me. Look later tomorrow for other videos.
These video files are upwards of 15MB each. You need broadband (cable/DSL/T1)to download them. For some reason, they do not play on Macs. Before anyone howls about that, please realize that my primary machine IS a Mac and if I COULD make the files work in RealPlayer for the Mac, I would.
(edited: 25 Sept 0-6. I have found videos of some of these skaters on YouTube and as long as they stay there, the links will work. They now play on the Mac.)
Standings thus far:
1 Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON CAN 38.31 Video
him short black tails with white trim Her: silver chiffon with Ginger Rogers scarf (nice touch) but this costume is too see through for my tastes.
nice speed. clean feet. nice swingy swings. nice TW. far apart on MH nice even chasses. so so unison in back half. nice waltz ending. They had decent character. GOSH, their feet are CLEAN.... not even a hint of spray. His turns are also rather neat (though he doesn't get much to do in this one).
He looks like the love child of Brad Paisley and Orlando Bloom.
18.93 + 19.38 = 38.31
2 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 37.30 Video
Him: LONG black tails. Her pink sequins and chiffon knee length dress with some pathetic ostrich feathery crap.
nice waltz opening. low swings not swingy okay TW far apart in MH even high chasses pattern a weird shape across the back. her TW is just weird to me... awkward. better TW in the L3 it may be that their lobes are deeper because they skate faster and cover the ice better. One thing it's really hard to tell on TV or webcast is if they are getting good ice coverage and if they have nice deep lobes. Replay shows he slipped behind one of her TW.
He thinks they did a good job. I'm not so impressed.
18.35 + 18.95 = 37.30
3 Galit CHAIT / Sergei SAKHNOVSKI ISR 34.77 3 Video
Him short black tails her: white dress w/ sheer handkerchief skirt
far apart MH, uneasy chasses wild swings on swingy part TW are okay. They are pushing and you can tell. They don't have much character to speak of. In replay their edges are kind of wobbly and they throw a fair amount of ice spray. He has a REALLY bad colorist... very cheesy looking stripes in his hair. Hers looks great.
Ah, Zhenya Platov in the K&C is as hot as ever. Some guys age and get un sexy (like Sasha Zhulin) other guys age and just get hotter. And Zhenya's old enough to drool over and not feel guilty. Unfortunately, Z's hairline is receding. I suppose all good things must come to an end.
17.14 + 17.63 = 34.77
4 Anastasia GREBENKINA / Vazgen AZROJAN ARM 25.17
Begin live coverage...
5 Olga AKIMOVA / Alexander SHAKALOV UZB 23.67
I thought the UZB were better than they got credit for. They had clean feet, good unison and good speed, half decent character... I guess "skating while Uzbecki" is like "skating while Polish." not a good thing.
6 Alexandra KAUC / Michal ZYCH POL
him: long tails her: light yellow lace strapless w/ illusion dress with criss crossy back fading to white at knee length hem
a Gidget sort of cute opener. nice unison on 1st lobe swings, nice and close on center mohawk. eh unison on the back half. decent TW. he has high, even chasses on lobe 3. a bit uncontrolled on the back half. They are PUSHING and you can tell. Their edges weren't hugely deep, but they are pleasant dancers. He's ADORABLE.
15.09 + 11.73 = 26.82
7 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA
him: long tails. Her: backless black halter dress with black sequins and cow patches on sides
not very waltzy opener. low swings on 1st lobe. hard to see if close on center mohawk, camera angle sucks. swings are wild. TW okay. his chasses are AWFUL on L3, irregular and trippy. everything about this couple is irregular. Sometimes they swing at this height, sometimes they swing at that height. They are very imprecise. They throw a fair amount of snow from the blade. Her skirt is too heavy for waltz. Their hydroblade closer was kind of pathetic. If you can't hydro... DON'T.
Gosh, he looks like Elijah Wood with hair.
16.78 + 15.82 = 32.60
AH, they are not being held up like they were at the Olympics.
8 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN
him: long black tails and huge white ruffle down front and cuffs shirt. her: nice pink satinish and chiffon dress with handkerchief ends of her sleeves. nice costumes.
not very swings swings L1. far apart on mohowk L2. not great unison on back part. chasses that aren't on L3. her Tws are merely okay. a so so dance all the way through. Was this a waltz? Do they have a clue HOW to waltz?
14.30 + 11.41 = 25.71
They were ABOVE the Uzbeckis? Sheesh.
9 Natalie BUCK / Trent NELSON-BOND AUS
him long black tails, her Pink sequined dress with satin hankerchief skirt
not so great swings of different heights, icky half-hopped TW. uneven chasses on him. poor unison in the back section. she doesn't point her toes at all. she's pulling him and his tails are a real distraction. They have no waltz character to speak of.
He looks like Jerry Louis.
12.32 + 9.09 = 21.41
I am having some bad buffering problems, so I'll probably miss the Munana's for now. I'll try to go back and get them from Russian TV... if the Russians show them.
10 Laura MUNANA / Luke MUNANA MEX
him: short black tails her: teal waltz chiffon with tea length skirt
Russian TV joins the CD live in progress.
Warm-Up Group 3
11 Nozomi WATANABE / Akiyuki KIDO JPN
Chacked...
15.30 + 13.17 = 28.47
12 Nora HOFFMANN / Attila ELEK HUN
White dress with uneven deep V neck and black boa around the longer skirt
15.16 + 13.31 = 28.47
Chacked...
She is happy to be in 6th.
13 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA Video
him: long black tails her: white lace dress fading to light blue
nice opener. nice swings. nice and close MH. nice unison in the back half. nice TW L1. nice even chasses from him. good speed. very good character. replay shows a good bit of ice spray on every stroke. Hate to say it, but I'd put them behind Dubreuil. Their character was better, but D&L were more precise.
18.55 + 19.04 = 37.59
14 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS Video
him: long black tails her: bright pink not waltz dress...
And unfortunately, I MUST go get the kids at school. I am recording this from webcast, so when I get home, I'll fill in...
Please come back later and look.
15 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR Video
Warm-Up Group 4
16 Elena ROMANOVSKAYA / Alexander GRACHEV RUS Video
17 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE Video
18 Alla BEKNAZAROVA / Vladimir ZUEV UKR Video
19 Kamila HAJKOVA / David VINCOUR CZE Video
20 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR Video
I'm back live now. I'll be filling in Group 4 from recording later.
Warm-Up Group 5
21 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA Video
Him: long black tails Her: turquoise dress with the "wrap me in ribbon and pretend I'm not naked" bodice and the diagonal chiffon skirt that is too pouffy.
awful opening. nice swings, even and swingy. did she TW? nice MH close together HUGE chasses, uneven. okay back section. NICE TW so fast I missed it. they are pushing. or she is. he trails. in replay, he jumps his turns and they both spray a LOT of ice. She needs braces (I'm so American sometimes). He doesn't need anything except maybe the key to my room. Tssssst! Hot hot hot!
15.75 + 13.56 = 29.31
22 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS Video
White on white in white. IE Attack of the Good Humor Man and the Ice Cream Woman.... too bad, cause I like Shabby and the chick he skates with. She has bleached her hair very light... platinum. might even look good on her. Unwaltzy dress!
nice swings and good TW good MH lovely chasses. okay back half. Nice speed but pushing in the second round. They are spraying ice going into the third turn, especially him. I think he slipped a bit. She tripped some on one of her TW too. In the K&C she is not looking happy. They made mistakes.
17.04 + 17.04 = 34.11
And get held up.
23 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR Video
black pants and white shirt with BIG shoulder pads. Her white lace dress with deep diagonal V and half GR scarf. On half of her dress is lacey seashells and she looks half naked.
First round was nice, swingy swings, decent TW, sos so MH. eh chasses. spraying ice into the 3rd corner. awkward on the back half. Second round was slower, even less precise. Nothing to write home about.
14.94 + 11.09 = 26.03
The coaches look really disappointed but the team doesn't much.
24 Margarita DROBIAZKO / Povilas VANAGAS LTU Video
Him: black pants and draw green renassance vest with split in the back, white shirt. White lace crop top and odd gored knee length skirt Kind of renaissance feeling... kinda ... I like ti but damned if I can say WHAT it is.
nice swings. bobble on the TW. okay MH uneven chasses. nice 3rd corner. okay back half. losing character in the second round. very good speed though and not visibly pushing. They do look a TAD off balance. ON reply, they hop their turns and vary from a tiny bit to quite a bit of ice spray.
Maybe ahead of BelAgo but behind DubLau
17.89 + 18.63 = 36.52 In 4th... maybe that's right.
WAY behind BelAgo
25 Megan WING / Aaron LOWE CAN Video
Him: black pants cream shirt. Her: gold dress that looks MUCH better in person. I love how her dress moves. It looks very waltzy in person.
okay swings okay TW slow center pretty clean feet in 3rd corner. bobble on TW in L1 round 2. uneven chasses. poor unison on back half.
They close up on Megan in a replay. Did Aaron have his teeth "done" they look chickletty...
17.05 + 15.85 = 32.90
Warm-Up Group 6
26 Alisa ALLAPACH / Peter KONGKASEM THA Video
Him: black long tails. Her Wine Red dress, backless, strapless w/illusion and deep v nice skirt though.
hopped poor swings, nice MH though close. uneven chasses. wobbly 3rd corner turns. eh TW. so so L3 TW. poor unison on the back half. Not awful character.
I LOVE her dress and she's a real doll... simply adorable... and the color was great on her... but they were pretty bad. They aren't Transplanted Americans, are they? He looks a lot like a friend of mine from college who wasn't from Thailand.
12.36 + 8.86 = 21.22
She's not too happy, but he's clapping and smiling... "we're just happy to be here" kind of thing. Good sport he is. Good sport.
27 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVISKI BUL Video
The green and purple nightmare again!
Now... i MUST remember to watch her TW... otherwise I'll just watch him.
nice swings nice MH. okay chasse. slip going into 3rd corner okay back half. nice TW trip coming out? another trip in the 3rd corner?? They have great speed and pretty nice waltz character... but it offends my sense of propriety to dress a stud like him (short though he may be) in a frou-frou outfit like that. She jumps her turns a little bit too and they spray a lot of ice.
I'd put them above DroVan and below BelAgo... above DelSho? Maybe... six of one half doz f another.
19.17 + 19.29 = 38.46
In first? I would NOT have put them in first. No way. Period. 3rd, maybe. But not first.
28 Morgan MATTHEWS / Maxim ZAVOZIN USA Video
black pants and smoking jacket. her pink satinish tip and chiffon skirt with darker underskirt.
low un-unison swings slow across the ice. not great coverage/ poor unison on back half. poor unison on swings. icky TW. barely there chasses but nice and even. in replay, lots of ice spray in some moves, almost none in others... that's better.
She's too tall for him and their swings are never going to match in this dance. This is exactly the problem Ben yammers about DelScho (he's too tall for her they never match, wrong lines). She has TOO MUCH bronzer!!! He has too little. Looks pasty.
15.43 + 13.66 = 29.09
A good start for them at their first worlds!
29 Melissa GREGORY / Denis PETUKHOV USA Video
Him: black long tails. her: white with ostrich and low back. I found his tails distracting
nice TW eh MH. nice chasse. smooth C3. not great back half. swings don't swing much no character to speak of. but nice TW. better coverage this round. They actually gained speed into the second round. Showy ending, very traditional waltz. They had a bobble in the 4th corner, she trips slightly. He needs to bleach his roots.
16.85 + 15.52 = 32.37 in 10th so likely a top 10 finish for them in the CD.
30 Christina BEIER / William BEIER Video
black bolero jacket white shirt. her: black halter dress with pink under skirt VERY NICE.
I tend to like this team better than the judges.
nice opener. so so TW. okay MH ick chassee. okay 3C. so so back ha;f. slowing. poor TW slow in L1. slow TW in L3 too. slip in L4? This team is slow and they don't cover much ice. They do have a nice waltz quality even if they don't get the rise and fall quite right. Their steps are hoppy, but their blades are clean. They don't throw a lot of spray.
He's a cutie and she has no eyebrows!
15.97 + 13.70 = 29.67 (13th)
Evening Note:
So here's the upshot. I've been working on this blog entry about half the day. There are still bits missing and I'm beat. This was a day from hell... the one where you find out that someone from Lower Slobovia has been using your debit card since November and has stolen $611.23 cents from you and then you have to chase around and do all the identity theft things... Yeah, THAT kind of day!
Not to mention I have TWO, count 'em, TWO work days when I am not volunteering and not doing the insane amount of laundry, dishes and housework this place seems to require just to stay marginally sanitary. And yes, THIS wasn't one of my two work days. I spent it making phone calls and filing reports instead of working.
Tonight, I have added links to several videos. Video links are beside each team's names. Eventually, I'll have links to almost everyone from Belbin and Agosto onward. Tonight, I'm just uploading the important ones from the top performers, because then I am going to go to bed and leave this miserable day behind me. Look later tomorrow for other videos.
These video files are upwards of 15MB each. You need broadband (cable/DSL/T1)to download them. For some reason, they do not play on Macs. Before anyone howls about that, please realize that my primary machine IS a Mac and if I COULD make the files work in RealPlayer for the Mac, I would.
(edited: 25 Sept 0-6. I have found videos of some of these skaters on YouTube and as long as they stay there, the links will work. They now play on the Mac.)
Standings thus far:
1 Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON CAN 38.31 Video
him short black tails with white trim Her: silver chiffon with Ginger Rogers scarf (nice touch) but this costume is too see through for my tastes.
nice speed. clean feet. nice swingy swings. nice TW. far apart on MH nice even chasses. so so unison in back half. nice waltz ending. They had decent character. GOSH, their feet are CLEAN.... not even a hint of spray. His turns are also rather neat (though he doesn't get much to do in this one).
He looks like the love child of Brad Paisley and Orlando Bloom.
18.93 + 19.38 = 38.31
2 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 37.30 Video
Him: LONG black tails. Her pink sequins and chiffon knee length dress with some pathetic ostrich feathery crap.
nice waltz opening. low swings not swingy okay TW far apart in MH even high chasses pattern a weird shape across the back. her TW is just weird to me... awkward. better TW in the L3 it may be that their lobes are deeper because they skate faster and cover the ice better. One thing it's really hard to tell on TV or webcast is if they are getting good ice coverage and if they have nice deep lobes. Replay shows he slipped behind one of her TW.
He thinks they did a good job. I'm not so impressed.
18.35 + 18.95 = 37.30
3 Galit CHAIT / Sergei SAKHNOVSKI ISR 34.77 3 Video
Him short black tails her: white dress w/ sheer handkerchief skirt
far apart MH, uneasy chasses wild swings on swingy part TW are okay. They are pushing and you can tell. They don't have much character to speak of. In replay their edges are kind of wobbly and they throw a fair amount of ice spray. He has a REALLY bad colorist... very cheesy looking stripes in his hair. Hers looks great.
Ah, Zhenya Platov in the K&C is as hot as ever. Some guys age and get un sexy (like Sasha Zhulin) other guys age and just get hotter. And Zhenya's old enough to drool over and not feel guilty. Unfortunately, Z's hairline is receding. I suppose all good things must come to an end.
17.14 + 17.63 = 34.77
4 Anastasia GREBENKINA / Vazgen AZROJAN ARM 25.17
Begin live coverage...
5 Olga AKIMOVA / Alexander SHAKALOV UZB 23.67
I thought the UZB were better than they got credit for. They had clean feet, good unison and good speed, half decent character... I guess "skating while Uzbecki" is like "skating while Polish." not a good thing.
6 Alexandra KAUC / Michal ZYCH POL
him: long tails her: light yellow lace strapless w/ illusion dress with criss crossy back fading to white at knee length hem
a Gidget sort of cute opener. nice unison on 1st lobe swings, nice and close on center mohawk. eh unison on the back half. decent TW. he has high, even chasses on lobe 3. a bit uncontrolled on the back half. They are PUSHING and you can tell. Their edges weren't hugely deep, but they are pleasant dancers. He's ADORABLE.
15.09 + 11.73 = 26.82
7 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA
him: long tails. Her: backless black halter dress with black sequins and cow patches on sides
not very waltzy opener. low swings on 1st lobe. hard to see if close on center mohawk, camera angle sucks. swings are wild. TW okay. his chasses are AWFUL on L3, irregular and trippy. everything about this couple is irregular. Sometimes they swing at this height, sometimes they swing at that height. They are very imprecise. They throw a fair amount of snow from the blade. Her skirt is too heavy for waltz. Their hydroblade closer was kind of pathetic. If you can't hydro... DON'T.
Gosh, he looks like Elijah Wood with hair.
16.78 + 15.82 = 32.60
AH, they are not being held up like they were at the Olympics.
8 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN
him: long black tails and huge white ruffle down front and cuffs shirt. her: nice pink satinish and chiffon dress with handkerchief ends of her sleeves. nice costumes.
not very swings swings L1. far apart on mohowk L2. not great unison on back part. chasses that aren't on L3. her Tws are merely okay. a so so dance all the way through. Was this a waltz? Do they have a clue HOW to waltz?
14.30 + 11.41 = 25.71
They were ABOVE the Uzbeckis? Sheesh.
9 Natalie BUCK / Trent NELSON-BOND AUS
him long black tails, her Pink sequined dress with satin hankerchief skirt
not so great swings of different heights, icky half-hopped TW. uneven chasses on him. poor unison in the back section. she doesn't point her toes at all. she's pulling him and his tails are a real distraction. They have no waltz character to speak of.
He looks like Jerry Louis.
12.32 + 9.09 = 21.41
I am having some bad buffering problems, so I'll probably miss the Munana's for now. I'll try to go back and get them from Russian TV... if the Russians show them.
10 Laura MUNANA / Luke MUNANA MEX
him: short black tails her: teal waltz chiffon with tea length skirt
Russian TV joins the CD live in progress.
Warm-Up Group 3
11 Nozomi WATANABE / Akiyuki KIDO JPN
Chacked...
15.30 + 13.17 = 28.47
12 Nora HOFFMANN / Attila ELEK HUN
White dress with uneven deep V neck and black boa around the longer skirt
15.16 + 13.31 = 28.47
Chacked...
She is happy to be in 6th.
13 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA Video
him: long black tails her: white lace dress fading to light blue
nice opener. nice swings. nice and close MH. nice unison in the back half. nice TW L1. nice even chasses from him. good speed. very good character. replay shows a good bit of ice spray on every stroke. Hate to say it, but I'd put them behind Dubreuil. Their character was better, but D&L were more precise.
18.55 + 19.04 = 37.59
14 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS Video
him: long black tails her: bright pink not waltz dress...
And unfortunately, I MUST go get the kids at school. I am recording this from webcast, so when I get home, I'll fill in...
Please come back later and look.
15 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR Video
Warm-Up Group 4
16 Elena ROMANOVSKAYA / Alexander GRACHEV RUS Video
17 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE Video
18 Alla BEKNAZAROVA / Vladimir ZUEV UKR Video
19 Kamila HAJKOVA / David VINCOUR CZE Video
20 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR Video
I'm back live now. I'll be filling in Group 4 from recording later.
Warm-Up Group 5
21 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA Video
Him: long black tails Her: turquoise dress with the "wrap me in ribbon and pretend I'm not naked" bodice and the diagonal chiffon skirt that is too pouffy.
awful opening. nice swings, even and swingy. did she TW? nice MH close together HUGE chasses, uneven. okay back section. NICE TW so fast I missed it. they are pushing. or she is. he trails. in replay, he jumps his turns and they both spray a LOT of ice. She needs braces (I'm so American sometimes). He doesn't need anything except maybe the key to my room. Tssssst! Hot hot hot!
15.75 + 13.56 = 29.31
22 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS Video
White on white in white. IE Attack of the Good Humor Man and the Ice Cream Woman.... too bad, cause I like Shabby and the chick he skates with. She has bleached her hair very light... platinum. might even look good on her. Unwaltzy dress!
nice swings and good TW good MH lovely chasses. okay back half. Nice speed but pushing in the second round. They are spraying ice going into the third turn, especially him. I think he slipped a bit. She tripped some on one of her TW too. In the K&C she is not looking happy. They made mistakes.
17.04 + 17.04 = 34.11
And get held up.
23 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR Video
black pants and white shirt with BIG shoulder pads. Her white lace dress with deep diagonal V and half GR scarf. On half of her dress is lacey seashells and she looks half naked.
First round was nice, swingy swings, decent TW, sos so MH. eh chasses. spraying ice into the 3rd corner. awkward on the back half. Second round was slower, even less precise. Nothing to write home about.
14.94 + 11.09 = 26.03
The coaches look really disappointed but the team doesn't much.
24 Margarita DROBIAZKO / Povilas VANAGAS LTU Video
Him: black pants and draw green renassance vest with split in the back, white shirt. White lace crop top and odd gored knee length skirt Kind of renaissance feeling... kinda ... I like ti but damned if I can say WHAT it is.
nice swings. bobble on the TW. okay MH uneven chasses. nice 3rd corner. okay back half. losing character in the second round. very good speed though and not visibly pushing. They do look a TAD off balance. ON reply, they hop their turns and vary from a tiny bit to quite a bit of ice spray.
Maybe ahead of BelAgo but behind DubLau
17.89 + 18.63 = 36.52 In 4th... maybe that's right.
WAY behind BelAgo
25 Megan WING / Aaron LOWE CAN Video
Him: black pants cream shirt. Her: gold dress that looks MUCH better in person. I love how her dress moves. It looks very waltzy in person.
okay swings okay TW slow center pretty clean feet in 3rd corner. bobble on TW in L1 round 2. uneven chasses. poor unison on back half.
They close up on Megan in a replay. Did Aaron have his teeth "done" they look chickletty...
17.05 + 15.85 = 32.90
Warm-Up Group 6
26 Alisa ALLAPACH / Peter KONGKASEM THA Video
Him: black long tails. Her Wine Red dress, backless, strapless w/illusion and deep v nice skirt though.
hopped poor swings, nice MH though close. uneven chasses. wobbly 3rd corner turns. eh TW. so so L3 TW. poor unison on the back half. Not awful character.
I LOVE her dress and she's a real doll... simply adorable... and the color was great on her... but they were pretty bad. They aren't Transplanted Americans, are they? He looks a lot like a friend of mine from college who wasn't from Thailand.
12.36 + 8.86 = 21.22
She's not too happy, but he's clapping and smiling... "we're just happy to be here" kind of thing. Good sport he is. Good sport.
27 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVISKI BUL Video
The green and purple nightmare again!
Now... i MUST remember to watch her TW... otherwise I'll just watch him.
nice swings nice MH. okay chasse. slip going into 3rd corner okay back half. nice TW trip coming out? another trip in the 3rd corner?? They have great speed and pretty nice waltz character... but it offends my sense of propriety to dress a stud like him (short though he may be) in a frou-frou outfit like that. She jumps her turns a little bit too and they spray a lot of ice.
I'd put them above DroVan and below BelAgo... above DelSho? Maybe... six of one half doz f another.
19.17 + 19.29 = 38.46
In first? I would NOT have put them in first. No way. Period. 3rd, maybe. But not first.
28 Morgan MATTHEWS / Maxim ZAVOZIN USA Video
black pants and smoking jacket. her pink satinish tip and chiffon skirt with darker underskirt.
low un-unison swings slow across the ice. not great coverage/ poor unison on back half. poor unison on swings. icky TW. barely there chasses but nice and even. in replay, lots of ice spray in some moves, almost none in others... that's better.
She's too tall for him and their swings are never going to match in this dance. This is exactly the problem Ben yammers about DelScho (he's too tall for her they never match, wrong lines). She has TOO MUCH bronzer!!! He has too little. Looks pasty.
15.43 + 13.66 = 29.09
A good start for them at their first worlds!
29 Melissa GREGORY / Denis PETUKHOV USA Video
Him: black long tails. her: white with ostrich and low back. I found his tails distracting
nice TW eh MH. nice chasse. smooth C3. not great back half. swings don't swing much no character to speak of. but nice TW. better coverage this round. They actually gained speed into the second round. Showy ending, very traditional waltz. They had a bobble in the 4th corner, she trips slightly. He needs to bleach his roots.
16.85 + 15.52 = 32.37 in 10th so likely a top 10 finish for them in the CD.
30 Christina BEIER / William BEIER Video
black bolero jacket white shirt. her: black halter dress with pink under skirt VERY NICE.
I tend to like this team better than the judges.
nice opener. so so TW. okay MH ick chassee. okay 3C. so so back ha;f. slowing. poor TW slow in L1. slow TW in L3 too. slip in L4? This team is slow and they don't cover much ice. They do have a nice waltz quality even if they don't get the rise and fall quite right. Their steps are hoppy, but their blades are clean. They don't throw a lot of spray.
He's a cutie and she has no eyebrows!
15.97 + 13.70 = 29.67 (13th)
Monday, March 20, 2006
A Wearer of the Ice Blue Habit...
...posted this restrospective video of Michelle Kwan. I can live without Carrie Underwood's insipid so-called music (I am SO not CU's demographic), but this video clip has some nice highlights of La Kwan and the ending is bittersweet...
Just the perfect touch.
Just the perfect touch.
Figure Skating: 2006 Worlds Pairs SP
Petrova & Tikhonov RUS
Black SP outfits
Sarabande
sbs 3T. S2T hands over head nice. T3L turns out, but huge. sbs fly camel sit ch sit catch, bad unison break in the beginning pairs spin camel-sit, camel-sit ch spin ch camels h beill, sits. between the legs to one handed star lift double twist out, nice ice coverage and strong turns. SL FW nice unison. but slow. shoot the duck to poor entry to FI DS.
33.99 +29.05 = 63.04
Aganina & Knyazev UKR
red with black pants, red dress with straight skirt
La Boheme
sbs 2A nice. T2A, nice. FW nice S2T not so big split though. slow SL FW fair unison sbs fly camel upright h sit AWFUL unison break uprights. one handed starr lift. shoot the duck all the wy into FI DS. camels sit-catch ch camels sit-h beill sits.
25.05 + 16.12 = 41.17
4 Jessica DUBE / Bryce DAVISON CAN
Him black pants and shirt, her red satinish dress with low back and straight skirt
Hasta Cou de Conochi (sp?)
sbs 3S nice. good speed. star ch one handed star lift to upside down set down nice footwork and steady. camels sit catch pairs sit sit-uprightish. S2T. eh. nice energy and choreo. T3L NICE. good cha cha character sbs camels sit catch ch sit nice cannon she falls out bad unison break. SL FW good speed, so so unison but nice otherwise. SalPel entry to FI DS VERY NICE.
I love this team, though they are quite young. They actually attempt to express the music a bit. They have nice speed and pretty good positions and the footwork in his lifts are not scary.
32.92 + 25.89 = 58.81
5 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR
freaking video dropped out on me and I totally missed them.
6 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN
black unitards with silver sequins. I like her better in pants than in the shirt she wore earlier in the season for this program.
Variations on Paganini
sbs 3T so so unison. T3L. over the head into FI DS change of hands nice. flying camels bad break sits ch camels sits catch. one handed to star to one hand set down very fast and great coverage very confident footwork in the lift. steps to S2T wow. SL GFW nice unison to mirror camel-sit upright-sit ch camels uprights sit-h beill
35.53 + 29.45 = 64.98
7 Rumiana SPASSOVA / Stanimir TODOROV BUL
brown costumes, her with no shoulders and a deep V neck lots of illusion
Renaissance Medley
Sailor's Hornpipe (Popeye's theme) a la Hooked on Classics huge S2T nice. T3S 2footed? SBS 2L. Anchor's aweigh: star to reve direction of rotation. beill spiral to nice FI DS sbs camels sit poor unison ch sit catch. SL FW mirror not bad unison. camels sits ch camels can-opener nice.
At this point, without warning, my internet connection cut off and I had to reboot the WHOLE network.... after I got my daughter from daycare.
8 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS
Warm-Up Group 3
9 Julia OBERTAS / Sergei SLAVNOV RUS
cornflower blue
Concerto for Whiny Bitches--I mean, Coloratura (God, I hate this music)
SBS 3T she falls out, he turns out. T3F pitch forward hand down. star to one handed overhead lift. S2T eh, no handed catch but ugly. SL FW nice unison eh speed. spiral to poor entry FI DS not very low because he's not low enough. fly camel sit catch upright ch sit catch so so unison, one big break, but very close together. pairs camels sits ch camels sits uprights.
I've seen them skate this better.
29.12 + 26.48 = 55.60
10 Dorota ZAGORSKA / Mariusz SIUDEK POL
him black overall white shirt. her white dress
La Vie en Rose/ Mack the Knife
sbs 3T him hand down. T3S? nice. camels U break sits catch ch sit inside. steps S2T NICE. paris camel-sit sits ch camels sits. SL FW nice unison. cartwheel to one handed flying inverted star flip out fantastic. nice split entry to nice FI DS Her body position was strong throughout... not sticky can here.
This is about the most engaging program I think they've ever skated. God, I LOVE their lifts. And he actually kisses her at the end of the program. Very cute. I hate that flippy haircut she has, but it looks cute on her and really fits the music
29.45 + 25.60 = 55.05
11 Emma BRIEN / Stuart BECKINGHAM AUS
black pants and narrow referee stripe vest with black back. her same bodice with white skirt. He's BALD
S2T low. star lift poor position. sbs 2A she steps out. he falls after 1A. fly camel bad unison sits catch ch upright T2L. poor entry to FI DS but nice once she gets in. SL FW so so unison. pairs spin: camels upright-camel ch camels upright-h beill.
19.86 + 12.88 = 31.74 And there's another pegging of the PC to the TC... improperly IMO.
12 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER
black unitards with white sequining and the crissy crossy back for her
SE to sbs 3T (S? she 2 footed). through left to S2T nice. spiral to T3S she touched down and turned out. SEs to star ch overhead NICE good FW for him. fly camel sits inside catch ch catch so so unison. SL FW mirror nice swirly but not uppy downy. spiral to FI DS not great entry or position he changes hands and she gets very low. pairs sits ch camels can-openerish sit-hbeill.
32.33 + 28.91 = 61.24
Warm-Up Group 4
13 Dominika PIATKOWSKA / Dmitri KHROMIN POL
him black pants w/B&W striped top with black sleeves her black hose with skirt and white sleeves and B&W ZEBRA striped bodice with cut out back. Awful, awful AWFUL costumes. What is it with unattractive B&W stripes this year?
Black Cat, White Cat soundtrak
sbs 3T (S?) sos S2T. shoot the duck to star lift eh. T3S eh. sbs fly camel sit inside upright ch sit upright outside. SL FW very close, okay unison. shoot the duck to poor entry to FI DS but nice and low in it. pairs camels uprights ch upright-catch was that second spin a reverse spin?
26.24 + 18.43 = 44.67 personal best
14 Valerie MARCOUX / Craig BUNTIN CAN
her red strapless dress, him black pants, white shirt and vest with red tie
Hey Big Spender
sbs 3T nice but far apart. good speed. star slow turns and not steady or perhaps it's just the feed, her position not great. sbs fly camel sit ch camel uprights outside nice unison. steps S2T nice. hydro SE to T3L nice. pairs sits nice ch camels ch sits nice uprights. SL FW nice unison break. FAB SalPel entry to FI DS NICE very low, GREAT.
They get a rousing standing O and it is very well deserved.
34.77 + 27.89 = 62.66
15 Julia BELOGLAZOVA / Andrei BEKH UKR
him black pants. turquoise top with black underarms and sides. her turquoise with black down one side.
Greetings to Morricone
steps S2T nice. sbs 3S him, her 2S fall. T3S pitch forward hands down. spiral to NICE star lift variant position. spirals to sbs camels sit uprights ch sit outside. SL FW so so unison small breaks. beill to shoot the duck to POOR entry to FI DS, nice and low once in though. pairs camels uprights sits ch camel-sit beill-sit.
WHY do they do the sbs 3S? I have NEVER seen her land it. Not ONCE. Even in practice at SA she was maybe 1 for 5. However, her lift position is beautiful.
21.08 + 17.72 = 37.80
16 Rena INOUE / John BALDWIN USA
him black/black with chest hair and her pretty white fading to turquoise dress with tassles at the shoulder.
pardon me for a moment of partisanship... GO RENA AND JOHN!!!
Adiago in G Minor
nice star gentle set down. T3A NICE!!!! okay, a bit pitched on the landing... 1/4-beill to FI DS NICE him: change of hands?. sbs 2A nice. sbs fly camels sit inside upright ch sit catch outside. S2T with hands over head catch. nice sbs serp FW decent unison. pairs camels sit-hbeill ch camels sit-camel upright-catch.
They were on tonight... very lovely. Too bad they don't have a sbs triple though... how well can they really do without it?
34.30 + 26.60 = 60.90 (which is within a point or so of their personal best)
We are now getting an EXTENDED fluff piece on pairs and Shen and Zhao which consists of highlight moves over and over from different programs set to the Chinese version of My Heart Will Go On (from Titanic)... while they cut the ice?
GOD HELP US, I keep thinking... PLEASE don't let the Zhangs be World champs. PLEASE.
Warm-Up Group 5
17 Marylin PLA / Yannick BONHEUR FRA
black pants red/black shirt. her black dress with bare back and tattered skirt. and red flower at the breast
Blues for Klook
Sigh... CCTV5 just froze. it's buffering and buffering and not really doing anything at all... totally missed them... not getting any picture. nice T3 something. eh S2T. between the legs and then nice star to eh star frozen again. really poor entry to FI DS but very low in the sDS
24.64 + 20.91 = 44.55
18 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR
Black unitards with crissy crossy neon yellow stripes... looks like they are skating to TRON. VILE costumes even so.
ages 17 and 21.. they are babies.
Krit krit? drummy, electric guitar piece. background music, skated OVER not TO.
steps S2T pretty good. pairs camel-upright uprights ch came;s uprights. SBS 2L turn out. eh star lift slow turns and careful exit. circle FW slow and careful not bas unison. Ina Bauer to T3L? fall. sbs fly came; sit inside ch sit catch fairly good unison one break. shoot the duck to FI DS very low. Nice. cartwheel upside down ending was interesting.
22.14 + 15.00 = 36.14
She looks unhappy, but that was about what they deserved.
19 Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG CHN
Black with black and gold glittery stuff. Same ones they been wearing all season.
Kashmir
eh star to side airplane nice. T3L nice huge as usual strong landing. spirals h beill to FI DS nice and long, good speed. steps 3S NICE, close together. sbs fly camels inside sits catch ch sits catch nice one small unison break, maybe 2 . serp FW not close but good unison. steps HUGE lateral S2T with arms over head the whole thing. pairs camels (traveling badly) sits beill-upright ch camels canopener
I hate to say it, but they deserved this one. I have never seen them skate with anything close to intensity and this one, they had... they were in the moment THERE.
35.82 + 29.76 = 65.58 in 1st by a point
20 Marcy HINZMANN / Aaron PARCHEM
black pants, loose maroon shirt. pink strappy dress with sequins.. very delicate.
GO MARCI AND AARON!
The Mission (soundtrack)
steps S2T okay. T3L nice, easy landing. sbs 3T NICE. FROZE argh. )(&)(&^&*%$&^%$(&^#&^$%)(*#%&)(^!@#&%^$@#)($*&^#@^%@($^#*^%#$((*&@*& sbs camels sit ch sit upright inside traveling. pairs camels sit-camel. uprights layback ch camels upright-catch nice exit. lovely star to one hand to one hand exit easy. fab FI DS very low. Lovely. By the sound of it, they did well. they pretty much brought the house down.
I love this program for them. It really fits their strengths. There weren't enough gimmicks to make ti score really high under CoP unfortunately. it was just moderate difficulty done sublimely.
28.92 + 23.92 = 52.84
Okay, Obertas and Slavnov MUST have paid off the judges to place over BOTH Zagorska and Shuidek and Hinzemann and Parchem. But other than that, I don't have real problems with the placements.
I wonder when the US TV coverage is... unfortunately, the teams I missed will never see US TV.
Official Results
Black SP outfits
Sarabande
sbs 3T. S2T hands over head nice. T3L turns out, but huge. sbs fly camel sit ch sit catch, bad unison break in the beginning pairs spin camel-sit, camel-sit ch spin ch camels h beill, sits. between the legs to one handed star lift double twist out, nice ice coverage and strong turns. SL FW nice unison. but slow. shoot the duck to poor entry to FI DS.
33.99 +29.05 = 63.04
Aganina & Knyazev UKR
red with black pants, red dress with straight skirt
La Boheme
sbs 2A nice. T2A, nice. FW nice S2T not so big split though. slow SL FW fair unison sbs fly camel upright h sit AWFUL unison break uprights. one handed starr lift. shoot the duck all the wy into FI DS. camels sit-catch ch camels sit-h beill sits.
25.05 + 16.12 = 41.17
4 Jessica DUBE / Bryce DAVISON CAN
Him black pants and shirt, her red satinish dress with low back and straight skirt
Hasta Cou de Conochi (sp?)
sbs 3S nice. good speed. star ch one handed star lift to upside down set down nice footwork and steady. camels sit catch pairs sit sit-uprightish. S2T. eh. nice energy and choreo. T3L NICE. good cha cha character sbs camels sit catch ch sit nice cannon she falls out bad unison break. SL FW good speed, so so unison but nice otherwise. SalPel entry to FI DS VERY NICE.
I love this team, though they are quite young. They actually attempt to express the music a bit. They have nice speed and pretty good positions and the footwork in his lifts are not scary.
32.92 + 25.89 = 58.81
5 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR
freaking video dropped out on me and I totally missed them.
6 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN
black unitards with silver sequins. I like her better in pants than in the shirt she wore earlier in the season for this program.
Variations on Paganini
sbs 3T so so unison. T3L. over the head into FI DS change of hands nice. flying camels bad break sits ch camels sits catch. one handed to star to one hand set down very fast and great coverage very confident footwork in the lift. steps to S2T wow. SL GFW nice unison to mirror camel-sit upright-sit ch camels uprights sit-h beill
35.53 + 29.45 = 64.98
7 Rumiana SPASSOVA / Stanimir TODOROV BUL
brown costumes, her with no shoulders and a deep V neck lots of illusion
Renaissance Medley
Sailor's Hornpipe (Popeye's theme) a la Hooked on Classics huge S2T nice. T3S 2footed? SBS 2L. Anchor's aweigh: star to reve direction of rotation. beill spiral to nice FI DS sbs camels sit poor unison ch sit catch. SL FW mirror not bad unison. camels sits ch camels can-opener nice.
At this point, without warning, my internet connection cut off and I had to reboot the WHOLE network.... after I got my daughter from daycare.
8 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS
Warm-Up Group 3
9 Julia OBERTAS / Sergei SLAVNOV RUS
cornflower blue
Concerto for Whiny Bitches--I mean, Coloratura (God, I hate this music)
SBS 3T she falls out, he turns out. T3F pitch forward hand down. star to one handed overhead lift. S2T eh, no handed catch but ugly. SL FW nice unison eh speed. spiral to poor entry FI DS not very low because he's not low enough. fly camel sit catch upright ch sit catch so so unison, one big break, but very close together. pairs camels sits ch camels sits uprights.
I've seen them skate this better.
29.12 + 26.48 = 55.60
10 Dorota ZAGORSKA / Mariusz SIUDEK POL
him black overall white shirt. her white dress
La Vie en Rose/ Mack the Knife
sbs 3T him hand down. T3S? nice. camels U break sits catch ch sit inside. steps S2T NICE. paris camel-sit sits ch camels sits. SL FW nice unison. cartwheel to one handed flying inverted star flip out fantastic. nice split entry to nice FI DS Her body position was strong throughout... not sticky can here.
This is about the most engaging program I think they've ever skated. God, I LOVE their lifts. And he actually kisses her at the end of the program. Very cute. I hate that flippy haircut she has, but it looks cute on her and really fits the music
29.45 + 25.60 = 55.05
11 Emma BRIEN / Stuart BECKINGHAM AUS
black pants and narrow referee stripe vest with black back. her same bodice with white skirt. He's BALD
S2T low. star lift poor position. sbs 2A she steps out. he falls after 1A. fly camel bad unison sits catch ch upright T2L. poor entry to FI DS but nice once she gets in. SL FW so so unison. pairs spin: camels upright-camel ch camels upright-h beill.
19.86 + 12.88 = 31.74 And there's another pegging of the PC to the TC... improperly IMO.
12 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER
black unitards with white sequining and the crissy crossy back for her
SE to sbs 3T (S? she 2 footed). through left to S2T nice. spiral to T3S she touched down and turned out. SEs to star ch overhead NICE good FW for him. fly camel sits inside catch ch catch so so unison. SL FW mirror nice swirly but not uppy downy. spiral to FI DS not great entry or position he changes hands and she gets very low. pairs sits ch camels can-openerish sit-hbeill.
32.33 + 28.91 = 61.24
Warm-Up Group 4
13 Dominika PIATKOWSKA / Dmitri KHROMIN POL
him black pants w/B&W striped top with black sleeves her black hose with skirt and white sleeves and B&W ZEBRA striped bodice with cut out back. Awful, awful AWFUL costumes. What is it with unattractive B&W stripes this year?
Black Cat, White Cat soundtrak
sbs 3T (S?) sos S2T. shoot the duck to star lift eh. T3S eh. sbs fly camel sit inside upright ch sit upright outside. SL FW very close, okay unison. shoot the duck to poor entry to FI DS but nice and low in it. pairs camels uprights ch upright-catch was that second spin a reverse spin?
26.24 + 18.43 = 44.67 personal best
14 Valerie MARCOUX / Craig BUNTIN CAN
her red strapless dress, him black pants, white shirt and vest with red tie
Hey Big Spender
sbs 3T nice but far apart. good speed. star slow turns and not steady or perhaps it's just the feed, her position not great. sbs fly camel sit ch camel uprights outside nice unison. steps S2T nice. hydro SE to T3L nice. pairs sits nice ch camels ch sits nice uprights. SL FW nice unison break. FAB SalPel entry to FI DS NICE very low, GREAT.
They get a rousing standing O and it is very well deserved.
34.77 + 27.89 = 62.66
15 Julia BELOGLAZOVA / Andrei BEKH UKR
him black pants. turquoise top with black underarms and sides. her turquoise with black down one side.
Greetings to Morricone
steps S2T nice. sbs 3S him, her 2S fall. T3S pitch forward hands down. spiral to NICE star lift variant position. spirals to sbs camels sit uprights ch sit outside. SL FW so so unison small breaks. beill to shoot the duck to POOR entry to FI DS, nice and low once in though. pairs camels uprights sits ch camel-sit beill-sit.
WHY do they do the sbs 3S? I have NEVER seen her land it. Not ONCE. Even in practice at SA she was maybe 1 for 5. However, her lift position is beautiful.
21.08 + 17.72 = 37.80
16 Rena INOUE / John BALDWIN USA
him black/black with chest hair and her pretty white fading to turquoise dress with tassles at the shoulder.
pardon me for a moment of partisanship... GO RENA AND JOHN!!!
Adiago in G Minor
nice star gentle set down. T3A NICE!!!! okay, a bit pitched on the landing... 1/4-beill to FI DS NICE him: change of hands?. sbs 2A nice. sbs fly camels sit inside upright ch sit catch outside. S2T with hands over head catch. nice sbs serp FW decent unison. pairs camels sit-hbeill ch camels sit-camel upright-catch.
They were on tonight... very lovely. Too bad they don't have a sbs triple though... how well can they really do without it?
34.30 + 26.60 = 60.90 (which is within a point or so of their personal best)
We are now getting an EXTENDED fluff piece on pairs and Shen and Zhao which consists of highlight moves over and over from different programs set to the Chinese version of My Heart Will Go On (from Titanic)... while they cut the ice?
GOD HELP US, I keep thinking... PLEASE don't let the Zhangs be World champs. PLEASE.
Warm-Up Group 5
17 Marylin PLA / Yannick BONHEUR FRA
black pants red/black shirt. her black dress with bare back and tattered skirt. and red flower at the breast
Blues for Klook
Sigh... CCTV5 just froze. it's buffering and buffering and not really doing anything at all... totally missed them... not getting any picture. nice T3 something. eh S2T. between the legs and then nice star to eh star frozen again. really poor entry to FI DS but very low in the sDS
24.64 + 20.91 = 44.55
18 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR
Black unitards with crissy crossy neon yellow stripes... looks like they are skating to TRON. VILE costumes even so.
ages 17 and 21.. they are babies.
Krit krit? drummy, electric guitar piece. background music, skated OVER not TO.
steps S2T pretty good. pairs camel-upright uprights ch came;s uprights. SBS 2L turn out. eh star lift slow turns and careful exit. circle FW slow and careful not bas unison. Ina Bauer to T3L? fall. sbs fly came; sit inside ch sit catch fairly good unison one break. shoot the duck to FI DS very low. Nice. cartwheel upside down ending was interesting.
22.14 + 15.00 = 36.14
She looks unhappy, but that was about what they deserved.
19 Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG CHN
Black with black and gold glittery stuff. Same ones they been wearing all season.
Kashmir
eh star to side airplane nice. T3L nice huge as usual strong landing. spirals h beill to FI DS nice and long, good speed. steps 3S NICE, close together. sbs fly camels inside sits catch ch sits catch nice one small unison break, maybe 2 . serp FW not close but good unison. steps HUGE lateral S2T with arms over head the whole thing. pairs camels (traveling badly) sits beill-upright ch camels canopener
I hate to say it, but they deserved this one. I have never seen them skate with anything close to intensity and this one, they had... they were in the moment THERE.
35.82 + 29.76 = 65.58 in 1st by a point
20 Marcy HINZMANN / Aaron PARCHEM
black pants, loose maroon shirt. pink strappy dress with sequins.. very delicate.
GO MARCI AND AARON!
The Mission (soundtrack)
steps S2T okay. T3L nice, easy landing. sbs 3T NICE. FROZE argh. )(&)(&^&*%$&^%$(&^#&^$%)(*#%&)(^!@#&%^$@#)($*&^#@^%@($^#*^%#$((*&@*& sbs camels sit ch sit upright inside traveling. pairs camels sit-camel. uprights layback ch camels upright-catch nice exit. lovely star to one hand to one hand exit easy. fab FI DS very low. Lovely. By the sound of it, they did well. they pretty much brought the house down.
I love this program for them. It really fits their strengths. There weren't enough gimmicks to make ti score really high under CoP unfortunately. it was just moderate difficulty done sublimely.
28.92 + 23.92 = 52.84
Okay, Obertas and Slavnov MUST have paid off the judges to place over BOTH Zagorska and Shuidek and Hinzemann and Parchem. But other than that, I don't have real problems with the placements.
I wonder when the US TV coverage is... unfortunately, the teams I missed will never see US TV.
Official Results
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Awful Ugly Death Spirals
So, I was considering the comment made by one of my readers about how difficult the BO death spiral done by Demers-Boutin and Joncas at Jr Worlds was and why that makes it NOT an awful, ugly DS. The commenter said it got a Level 4 and has been used as an example of how to do a death spiral by Skate Canada (the org not the event), meaning it must have been done spectacularly well.
So, I found the video of their performance online and downloaded it... because frankly, I had already lost the visual in my head. Having too much to be responsible for tends to drive relatively unimportant things out of your head rather quickly. I've uploaded D-B&J's Long Program at 2006JW to YouSendIt here. That link will be good for 7 days at most, if it wears out, you might try asking for their program to be reposted in the 2006 Jr Worlds forum at FSVids. The recording is really crappy quality. Sorry about that, I didn't make it.
So, was D-B&J's death spiral awful and ugly or was it a Level 4 DS spiral done spectacularly well.?
Let's take a look at it step by step:
On entry, D-B performs a "difficult" side catch spiral in an extreme position. She holds this position on a shallow edge for 3 seconds and then lowers her leg into a more classic entry position in a controlled manner. I'm going to begin counting rotations from the time that she hits this position. Technically, the ISU does not begin counting rotations until the man sets his toe pick, so I'm spotting them a extra rotation that they should not get credit for under ISU rules.
My take: a pretty stunning position, though the edge was nothing to write home about. I liked it: +1
Now, take a look at this next pic, which is 1/2 a rotation into the death spiral. Look at her position. Her free foot is rotated in instead of turned out. The foot underneath her is way under her, not extended as it should be. The harsh bend in her knee makes a very ugly line. And also note that with her foot right under her like that, she's not really on all that deep of an edge. It's not edge control that's keeping her "up" it's that her foot is right under her. She's not terribly secure with this spiral. He's doing his job pretty well, but he's very "up" on his knees, not down into them.
My take: this is REALLY ugly. I hated her position and the spiral's poorly executed as far as she is concerned: -2
This next pic is 1/4 of the way into the second rotation. I know that the pic is blurry and it's hard to see, but notice how straight her back is. There's no arch there. In fact, there is no arch in her body at all. The hard bend in her knee is still there, only barely extended, her back is straight. The twist in her back and how her head drops to the ice, makes you THINK she's arched when in reality, she hasn't arched at all. Nada. In fact, her butt is sticking out. You can't see from this angle, but she is edging less shallowly (note: I don't say "more deeply" because her edge is still not very deep). Her free foot (along with her free hip) is STILL turned in.
My take: still a rotten position and still not great as far as execution goes. But since she's a tiny bit more into the edge: -1.
Now, finally, here's a picture from 1/4 turn into the second rotation. D-B has pulled her leg down and crouched it behind her bent knee. Finally, she's fairly deep into the edge a mere half a rotation before she pulls out of the spiral. Her back is still not arched. Her free foot, knee and hip are still turned in. Now she has TWO ugly bent knees instead of one! Her head in thrown back to simulate arch and closeness to the ice, but look at her body, look at her back. Look at the shoulder she's NOT twisting. She is not all that close to the ice, is she? Nope. She's not. All the close she IS to the ice is from that way-under-her bent supporting knee, NOT because she is on a super deep edge. This is not a well executed spiral. The low to the ice should come from the depth of the edge, not from the bend in the supporting knee.
My take: ugly position, no arch, optical illusion fake-out. Not fooled here: -2
I should note that putting her free foot behind her knee, which disguises her poor position is a "feature" under CoP that gives her a higher level. That twist in her back and dropped head which makes her look closer to the ice when she's really not? Another "feature." In software development, we have a saying when the customer comes at us with a fault that we should have fixed and didn't, "hey, that's a feature not a bug." Let's take away those features and see what kind of spiral we have.
Bent supporting knee.
Shallow edge.
No arch in the back.
Poorly executed.
He's not low to the ice.
Is it a good one?
No, it isn't.
Now, here's one that's better (Hinzeman and Parchem at SA 2006). No, this isn't the best BO DS I've ever seen, but it's got a lot going for it. Though you can't quite see it at this angle, Marci's supporting leg is pretty straight and her knee is extended. She's staying up pushing against the edge, not by putting her weight on a supporting leg that is bent under her. The "low" in the DS comes from the depth of her edge and the attractive arch in her back, not from a bent supporting knee. Her head is thrown back and the the shoulder is twisted but only to the extent that her back is arched. It complements the arch, rather than hiding the fact that there isn't actually any arch to speak of. The free foot is turned out (not as far as it could be and it's not pointed... but as I said, this is not the best BO death spiral I've ever seen. Note also, that Parchem is very deep into his knees. He's sunk down as low as Marci has rather than staying high (which is easier) and letting her dangle.
.
I wish I could find a good picture of Berezhanya and Sikhuralidze doing their BO DS or better yet, Gordeeva and Grinkov. Gordeeva's edge control allowed her to get WAY close to the ice.
At any rate, when one is taking notes in split seconds, sometimes a great deal of analysis gets condensed into "AWFUL, UGLY." I thought you might be interested in the thought processes behind the extra, short summarized version.
This is the nature of the beast in CoP. Sometimes you can use "difficulty" to hide poor execution and positioning. But then, I am the kind of person who would rather see the moderately difficult done sublimely, than watch the "very" difficult done poorly. I put "very" in quotes because I'd argue that it is ten times as hard to really get down into a deep edge in a death spiral than it is to grab your leg or tuck your free foot behind your knee.
As my coach always said, "It's a gimmick and you don't need gimmicks."
So, I found the video of their performance online and downloaded it... because frankly, I had already lost the visual in my head. Having too much to be responsible for tends to drive relatively unimportant things out of your head rather quickly. I've uploaded D-B&J's Long Program at 2006JW to YouSendIt here. That link will be good for 7 days at most, if it wears out, you might try asking for their program to be reposted in the 2006 Jr Worlds forum at FSVids. The recording is really crappy quality. Sorry about that, I didn't make it.
So, was D-B&J's death spiral awful and ugly or was it a Level 4 DS spiral done spectacularly well.?
Let's take a look at it step by step:
On entry, D-B performs a "difficult" side catch spiral in an extreme position. She holds this position on a shallow edge for 3 seconds and then lowers her leg into a more classic entry position in a controlled manner. I'm going to begin counting rotations from the time that she hits this position. Technically, the ISU does not begin counting rotations until the man sets his toe pick, so I'm spotting them a extra rotation that they should not get credit for under ISU rules.
My take: a pretty stunning position, though the edge was nothing to write home about. I liked it: +1
Now, take a look at this next pic, which is 1/2 a rotation into the death spiral. Look at her position. Her free foot is rotated in instead of turned out. The foot underneath her is way under her, not extended as it should be. The harsh bend in her knee makes a very ugly line. And also note that with her foot right under her like that, she's not really on all that deep of an edge. It's not edge control that's keeping her "up" it's that her foot is right under her. She's not terribly secure with this spiral. He's doing his job pretty well, but he's very "up" on his knees, not down into them.
My take: this is REALLY ugly. I hated her position and the spiral's poorly executed as far as she is concerned: -2
This next pic is 1/4 of the way into the second rotation. I know that the pic is blurry and it's hard to see, but notice how straight her back is. There's no arch there. In fact, there is no arch in her body at all. The hard bend in her knee is still there, only barely extended, her back is straight. The twist in her back and how her head drops to the ice, makes you THINK she's arched when in reality, she hasn't arched at all. Nada. In fact, her butt is sticking out. You can't see from this angle, but she is edging less shallowly (note: I don't say "more deeply" because her edge is still not very deep). Her free foot (along with her free hip) is STILL turned in.
My take: still a rotten position and still not great as far as execution goes. But since she's a tiny bit more into the edge: -1.
Now, finally, here's a picture from 1/4 turn into the second rotation. D-B has pulled her leg down and crouched it behind her bent knee. Finally, she's fairly deep into the edge a mere half a rotation before she pulls out of the spiral. Her back is still not arched. Her free foot, knee and hip are still turned in. Now she has TWO ugly bent knees instead of one! Her head in thrown back to simulate arch and closeness to the ice, but look at her body, look at her back. Look at the shoulder she's NOT twisting. She is not all that close to the ice, is she? Nope. She's not. All the close she IS to the ice is from that way-under-her bent supporting knee, NOT because she is on a super deep edge. This is not a well executed spiral. The low to the ice should come from the depth of the edge, not from the bend in the supporting knee.
My take: ugly position, no arch, optical illusion fake-out. Not fooled here: -2
I should note that putting her free foot behind her knee, which disguises her poor position is a "feature" under CoP that gives her a higher level. That twist in her back and dropped head which makes her look closer to the ice when she's really not? Another "feature." In software development, we have a saying when the customer comes at us with a fault that we should have fixed and didn't, "hey, that's a feature not a bug." Let's take away those features and see what kind of spiral we have.
Bent supporting knee.
Shallow edge.
No arch in the back.
Poorly executed.
He's not low to the ice.
Is it a good one?
No, it isn't.
Now, here's one that's better (Hinzeman and Parchem at SA 2006). No, this isn't the best BO DS I've ever seen, but it's got a lot going for it. Though you can't quite see it at this angle, Marci's supporting leg is pretty straight and her knee is extended. She's staying up pushing against the edge, not by putting her weight on a supporting leg that is bent under her. The "low" in the DS comes from the depth of her edge and the attractive arch in her back, not from a bent supporting knee. Her head is thrown back and the the shoulder is twisted but only to the extent that her back is arched. It complements the arch, rather than hiding the fact that there isn't actually any arch to speak of. The free foot is turned out (not as far as it could be and it's not pointed... but as I said, this is not the best BO death spiral I've ever seen. Note also, that Parchem is very deep into his knees. He's sunk down as low as Marci has rather than staying high (which is easier) and letting her dangle.
.I wish I could find a good picture of Berezhanya and Sikhuralidze doing their BO DS or better yet, Gordeeva and Grinkov. Gordeeva's edge control allowed her to get WAY close to the ice.
At any rate, when one is taking notes in split seconds, sometimes a great deal of analysis gets condensed into "AWFUL, UGLY." I thought you might be interested in the thought processes behind the extra, short summarized version.
This is the nature of the beast in CoP. Sometimes you can use "difficulty" to hide poor execution and positioning. But then, I am the kind of person who would rather see the moderately difficult done sublimely, than watch the "very" difficult done poorly. I put "very" in quotes because I'd argue that it is ten times as hard to really get down into a deep edge in a death spiral than it is to grab your leg or tuck your free foot behind your knee.
As my coach always said, "It's a gimmick and you don't need gimmicks."
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Announcing Figure Skating News Service
This evening, I spent several hours I really didn't have putting together a special news feed for It Figures. Over to the right, under the "About Me" section is now an automatically updating news feed of figure skating articles. The news feed updates every hour. I wouldn't be so proud of this except that I wrote the scripts that obtain and parse the headlines myself.
Anyway, if you're jonesin for figure skating news, feel free to visit as often as you like.
Anyway, if you're jonesin for figure skating news, feel free to visit as often as you like.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Blogging for Books
Every once in a while, I do something bloglike... writing on a particular topic... you know, blog-shit. Well, this time, like many other times, it's an author-thing.
Except this author-thing is about the military. The book the author-thing is promoting is about being a military wife. I'm familiar with the author, though I don't know her. Perhaps I should. Despite being a military wife for nearly 12 years and having loved a sailor for almost 14 years, I write very little about military life. Perhaps because I don't find it so all fired amusing and I don't think people are interested in hearing about it. Maybe just because I am Melodrama Girl, it's a pretty dramatic tale.
Anyway, there are three things I've ever written about being military. I am going to post them in separate posts, but these three are my entry in the military themed Blogging for Books. Please read them in the order shown here.
They are:
Except this author-thing is about the military. The book the author-thing is promoting is about being a military wife. I'm familiar with the author, though I don't know her. Perhaps I should. Despite being a military wife for nearly 12 years and having loved a sailor for almost 14 years, I write very little about military life. Perhaps because I don't find it so all fired amusing and I don't think people are interested in hearing about it. Maybe just because I am Melodrama Girl, it's a pretty dramatic tale.
Anyway, there are three things I've ever written about being military. I am going to post them in separate posts, but these three are my entry in the military themed Blogging for Books. Please read them in the order shown here.
They are:
Leave a Light On
Where Are You Tonight?
Unsung (a poem)
Leave a Light On
It took me over a year to realize that Ahoy Acres was shaped like a ship. Ahoy Drive is the bowsprit leading into a small '60s era development of unrelieved, single-story brick ranchers and faux salt-boxes with fake clapboards. After a block, to your left, Port Road cradles the south side of this crumbling little haven of the lower-middle-class American dream. Yes, Starboard Road is on the right. We lived on Port, just before the waterline's curve. It was the best we could afford.
My husband had just left for six month deployment. He's in the Navy--you'd think Ahoy Acres would take me less than a year. I'm a little slow. We'd never done such a long deployment before. I knew the agony of being parted for months at a time. He had already been gone 45 days that year, and six months seemed an eternity.
To keep myself busy, I began a quilt. I've sewn most of my life, always creatively, but seldom well. I'd never quilted anything before, but I needed something to make the days run together--anything to make six months shorter than it was. I chose a simple log cabin design, in autumn browns with a dark red square in the center. That square, I'd learned, was the home fire burning.
As the squares grew beneath my fingers, my 2 year old daughter moved from my bed into her own. She weaned. She got bit by the cat and needed antibiotics. The stove died and had to be replaced. I learned everything one could learn about decorating and furniture refinishing from The Discovery Channel. I decided the quilt was too small--a queen--it needed to be a king.
I tried laying the pieces out every which way. No dice. I tried buying more fabric. Not in any store near me. Then, as if I was a cartoon character, a light bulb illuminated my room one late night I smoothed my tousled bed-clothes, too empty and forlorn, and began to lay out the quilt squares in the shape of a ship.
With complementary sashing, it would work. I was only one piece short. I gathered the scraps together. Yes, there was enough and dug into three generations of fabric stash, my grandmother's, my mother's and mine and found a clear yellow cotton. I ran up that square and placed it just before the waterline's curve. The red squares spread across the bed, dim and inviting--all the other wives awaiting all the other men on my husband's ship. But at the corner, exactly where our house stood in Ahoy Acres, there was a light in the Log Cabin's window.
I never finished the quilt, but it served its purpose. It's somewhere in one of my fabric bins waiting for desperate hands to lay upon it again. Though we no longer live in Ahoy Acres, that was three houses ago, my quilt won't have long to wait.
At the beginning of this year, my husband's ship deployed for parts unknown, for an undetermined time, and an unpredictable return. It could be 40 days. It could be 9 months. My second child, now a two year old might be weaned by then. She might sleep in her own bed, too. As he prepared for war, I feel like I need to make preparations of my own. I've prepared my mind for the idea that he might never return--and I studiously ignore it, employing every tool at my disposal to make the days run together. Even a quilt.
Somewhere out there, on the dark waters, three hundred men know that somewhere, in developments shaped like ships and not, the home fires are burning. But my husband knows there is a light in the window.
Come home safely, beloved.
Come home.
Note: This was written in 2003, as the Iraq War loomed. My husband's ship was one of many that fired the opening salvos of that war. Each day during that 5 month deployment--by the grace of God a short one compared to what some endured--my husband boarded ships daily, carrying a gun, perhaps facing only scared merchant sailors, perhaps facing terrorists who would shoot first and answer questions later. For three days, while CNN reported nothing, my email returned undelivered, bounced. For three days, I knew--WE kNEW, we military wives--that the shooting had already begun. We were at war... but no one heard us and no one dried our tears.
My husband returned, well and healthy, alive to deploy again another day. This August he will have "15 years in." A bit more than five years from now, he will retire from the Navy... on my birthday.
My husband had just left for six month deployment. He's in the Navy--you'd think Ahoy Acres would take me less than a year. I'm a little slow. We'd never done such a long deployment before. I knew the agony of being parted for months at a time. He had already been gone 45 days that year, and six months seemed an eternity.
To keep myself busy, I began a quilt. I've sewn most of my life, always creatively, but seldom well. I'd never quilted anything before, but I needed something to make the days run together--anything to make six months shorter than it was. I chose a simple log cabin design, in autumn browns with a dark red square in the center. That square, I'd learned, was the home fire burning.
As the squares grew beneath my fingers, my 2 year old daughter moved from my bed into her own. She weaned. She got bit by the cat and needed antibiotics. The stove died and had to be replaced. I learned everything one could learn about decorating and furniture refinishing from The Discovery Channel. I decided the quilt was too small--a queen--it needed to be a king.
I tried laying the pieces out every which way. No dice. I tried buying more fabric. Not in any store near me. Then, as if I was a cartoon character, a light bulb illuminated my room one late night I smoothed my tousled bed-clothes, too empty and forlorn, and began to lay out the quilt squares in the shape of a ship.
With complementary sashing, it would work. I was only one piece short. I gathered the scraps together. Yes, there was enough and dug into three generations of fabric stash, my grandmother's, my mother's and mine and found a clear yellow cotton. I ran up that square and placed it just before the waterline's curve. The red squares spread across the bed, dim and inviting--all the other wives awaiting all the other men on my husband's ship. But at the corner, exactly where our house stood in Ahoy Acres, there was a light in the Log Cabin's window.
I never finished the quilt, but it served its purpose. It's somewhere in one of my fabric bins waiting for desperate hands to lay upon it again. Though we no longer live in Ahoy Acres, that was three houses ago, my quilt won't have long to wait.
At the beginning of this year, my husband's ship deployed for parts unknown, for an undetermined time, and an unpredictable return. It could be 40 days. It could be 9 months. My second child, now a two year old might be weaned by then. She might sleep in her own bed, too. As he prepared for war, I feel like I need to make preparations of my own. I've prepared my mind for the idea that he might never return--and I studiously ignore it, employing every tool at my disposal to make the days run together. Even a quilt.
Somewhere out there, on the dark waters, three hundred men know that somewhere, in developments shaped like ships and not, the home fires are burning. But my husband knows there is a light in the window.
Come home safely, beloved.
Come home.
Note: This was written in 2003, as the Iraq War loomed. My husband's ship was one of many that fired the opening salvos of that war. Each day during that 5 month deployment--by the grace of God a short one compared to what some endured--my husband boarded ships daily, carrying a gun, perhaps facing only scared merchant sailors, perhaps facing terrorists who would shoot first and answer questions later. For three days, while CNN reported nothing, my email returned undelivered, bounced. For three days, I knew--WE kNEW, we military wives--that the shooting had already begun. We were at war... but no one heard us and no one dried our tears.
My husband returned, well and healthy, alive to deploy again another day. This August he will have "15 years in." A bit more than five years from now, he will retire from the Navy... on my birthday.
Where Are You Tonight?
(Note: My husband sometimes uses this essay to counsel young sailors who are having marital problems. It's too common. The military has a much higher rate of divorce than civilians.)
He called from the ship tonight. "I can't tell you where I am."
How come?
"Because I don't know where I am. Somewhere off the coast, less than 12 miles."
In the Indian Ocean. Or in Bahrain. Or near the Canary Island. Or in Cuba.
Or across the street from La Segrada Familia in Barcelona. He doesn't even know why he might want to go see La Segrada Familia, the great unfinished Cathedral of the Holy Family. He knows that his friends are out for a beer and he's stopped to call home.
It's always been nice when he called home from some exotic place. The US Navy takes him to some strange places: Israel, Italy, Egypt. He could see the pyramids, the bazaars, the paintings, the cathedrals. Instead, he goes for dive bars, museums of dirty pictures, dusty streets. It's all about the next beer.
I stay at home and dream--and fume--a boiling kettle of need to fly, to see new places, different things. Instead, I go to the day care, the elementary school, Wal-mart. I wipe noses, mouths and tears. My own raised voice echoes the screams of a tantrumming toddler and the steaming desire to get away.
What am I doing here?
How did I become a drudge to dishes and diapers while he travels the world? Remember me? I have the toughest job in the Navy. I do it alone, but I'm not a single parent. The Navy does not "take care of its own." I am a member of no team. I am a Navy of one.
He says, he could do this, day in, day out, stay home like I do. It's not that hard.
He'd go crazy.
I'm not crazy. I can wait for the day when I'll see the Louvre, walk the cathedrals of Europe, eat falafel in the streets of Haifa. It only hurts a little that I'll probably never get there. I can accept that. Security is a prison. Freedom is risk. Commitment holds me as sure as an iron cuff about my ankle.
Commitment is not big in this day and age. He understands commitment. The Navy requires nothing less than to be number one. He understands sacrifice, living in the close quarters of the ship, hard metal and his radar system between him and death. He would give his life willingly, but not cheaply. Freedom, he understands so well, because his life is on the line.
Commitment to freedom, I understand that too. I have committed my freedom to these three, small girls. Though smiles balance tantrums and kisses weigh down the tears, there is no one to balance me. He would give his whole life at once for your freedom.
I give my life in inches.
He called from the ship tonight. "I can't tell you where I am."
How come?
"Because I don't know where I am. Somewhere off the coast, less than 12 miles."
In the Indian Ocean. Or in Bahrain. Or near the Canary Island. Or in Cuba.
Or across the street from La Segrada Familia in Barcelona. He doesn't even know why he might want to go see La Segrada Familia, the great unfinished Cathedral of the Holy Family. He knows that his friends are out for a beer and he's stopped to call home.
It's always been nice when he called home from some exotic place. The US Navy takes him to some strange places: Israel, Italy, Egypt. He could see the pyramids, the bazaars, the paintings, the cathedrals. Instead, he goes for dive bars, museums of dirty pictures, dusty streets. It's all about the next beer.
I stay at home and dream--and fume--a boiling kettle of need to fly, to see new places, different things. Instead, I go to the day care, the elementary school, Wal-mart. I wipe noses, mouths and tears. My own raised voice echoes the screams of a tantrumming toddler and the steaming desire to get away.
What am I doing here?
How did I become a drudge to dishes and diapers while he travels the world? Remember me? I have the toughest job in the Navy. I do it alone, but I'm not a single parent. The Navy does not "take care of its own." I am a member of no team. I am a Navy of one.
He says, he could do this, day in, day out, stay home like I do. It's not that hard.
He'd go crazy.
I'm not crazy. I can wait for the day when I'll see the Louvre, walk the cathedrals of Europe, eat falafel in the streets of Haifa. It only hurts a little that I'll probably never get there. I can accept that. Security is a prison. Freedom is risk. Commitment holds me as sure as an iron cuff about my ankle.
Commitment is not big in this day and age. He understands commitment. The Navy requires nothing less than to be number one. He understands sacrifice, living in the close quarters of the ship, hard metal and his radar system between him and death. He would give his life willingly, but not cheaply. Freedom, he understands so well, because his life is on the line.
Commitment to freedom, I understand that too. I have committed my freedom to these three, small girls. Though smiles balance tantrums and kisses weigh down the tears, there is no one to balance me. He would give his whole life at once for your freedom.
I give my life in inches.
Unsung
Autumn
Pondering deployments to come
Five days, eight weeks, six months.
One set of hands--
Short.
Leaves to rake,
Sweet Gum balls on the ground.
And him--
out protecting freedom again
My hero.
Pondering deployments to come
Five days, eight weeks, six months.
One set of hands--
Short.
Leaves to rake,
Sweet Gum balls on the ground.
And him--
out protecting freedom again
My hero.
Figure Skating: Junior Worlds Men's FS
Takahito Mura JPE age 15
Tchiakovski violin concerto
shit shirt with blue trim and side panels, blue pants
3A nice. 3F-2T nice. 3Z-2T. nice easy death drop squat outside twist. SL FW swirly there's some intensity there. 3S nice. outSEs now we see some presentation where before was only stalking jumps. 3Z 2footed?. steps PAUSE 3L. sit squat twist. 3T-2T. 3T. circle FW fast and nicely sold, swirly but not upy downy L3 at best. fly camel sit inside ch camel; squat outside.
The boy stalks his jumps and his presentation skills are fairly unformed. He gets tired and raggedy towards the end, but his jumps remain easy and unhesitating. I like his intensity in the FW, but obviously, he forgets any attempt at artistry to stalk the jumps. He's young, but there's excitement here
61.32 + 51.92 = 113.24 Personal best T =168.39
Ryo Shibata JPN age 19
Maleguena
purple shirt with military shoulder pads and crushed velvet half. black pants with sequined side stripe. A fashionable hair cut bleached brown.
3T-2T. 2A-2T-2T. 3Z-2T. his jumps are whippy. Serp FW difficult but not sold at all. 3L nice. NICE fly camel inside ugly donut. music: slow. nice side catch spiral. WOW nice forward Beioll spiral. to 3S. camel inside layover donut upright. steps 3Z fall. SL FW difficult sirly uppy downy but he's tired and it's raggedy. 3F fall. 2A nice camel inside layover sit inside ch squat beill NICE.
The boy spins well, quick and well centered. He's long and lean and has great flexibility... not quite Shawn Saywer, but definitely on par with Plushenko. His falls are fully rotated... but he obviously left out a lot of content... for sure a quad attempt. Two of his coaches are very solemn in the K&C and the other is smiling widely, rubbing Shibata's shoulder and handing him tissues. I think the poor kid is crying.
47.89 + 50.04 = 95.93 T = 151.01
American viewers will be intrigued to know that Russian Sports TV shows 2 programs and then breaks for several minutes of commercials... sometimes 5 or 10 short ones. Pepsi is a skating sponsor in Russia and they keep showing the SAME stupid soccer commercial with the dancing German team in Leiderhosen beating the sexy soccer guys.
Varner USA age 19
Conquest in Paradise (that Columbus film from a couple years ago)
black velvet unitard with half the shirt in gold and black sequins with flowers and black gloves
3Z-3T hop out. 2A squat inside pancake ch bad squat, foot behind foot spin. 3F-2T-2L last badly cheated eh. SL FW uppy downy swirly but not sold now he;s selling a little kind of gumby-like, but he's more Goebel than Savoie. steps 3L off center and landed but badly, also cheated, fell out. lots of arm waving passing for presentation. 3S. camel variant sit nice catch upright. ch sit pancake upright inside. SE to 2Z. 3F 2 footed 1T. circle FW very ragged but difficult. 2A wonky landing but landed. death drop squat pancake.
He's a kid. Not much to say. from the look of his SP score, this was not a good night for him.
51.74 + 47.44 = 99.18 T = 152.54
Kevin Reynolds CAN age 15
Vareki Ombra
black pants purple (blue?) shirt with white instead and black stripes. He's TEENY Tiny!
steps 2A. nice arms. 3Z-3T-2T nice. stalking steps 3S NICE (apparently, according to a reader, this was a 4S and was 2footed. It's easy to miss that extra rotation. But color me even MORE impressed with this little guy). eh death drop squat upright nice crossfoot. music slow and gentle steps 3L nice. 2A-3T nice. good air position. 3Z eh. getting tired. steps 2S-2T. nice twisted inside argh bad pancake. circle FW not really sold very tired. steps 3F he likes that! SL FW fast difficult and very well sold. the audience is clapping along. camel outside inside squat pancake ch squat upright crossfoot nice headless slow scratch.
Kid pumps his fist. He's happy. This was a very young program for a very young kid, but it's what I imagine Johnny Weir must have looked like at 15, seeds of that divine movement style... maybe with better jumps. The kid's air position is textbook beautiful, but his picking technique disturbs me and the 3A is definitely not there yet. He points his toes and has some clue how to use his hands and arms... he has nice soft elbows but his hands hang. His sit spin positions are AWFUL, barely squatted and the bent jackknife/pancake leaves a lot to be desired not really an upright, not really a sit. Still be fun to watch him grow. He seems like a very unpretentious kid and was just smiling to beat the band in the K&C.
On a personal note, he is adorable, with curly auburn hair and looks a great deal like my HS boyfriend. That, if nothing else, would make him a favorite of mine, but he's got a lot to offer for such a young kid. If he can get the jumps... he will be a VERY exciting contender for those who like their skaters to move like Curry and Weir.
66.12 + 45.98 = 112.10 T =165.14
Alexandr Uspenski RUS
The Bird
black velvet unitard with nice white sequined leaves, white gloves
NICE 3A-2T landed at a dead stop though. lovely 3A very easy. 3L hL 3S. wonky on the loop landing. 3Z badly under rotated and fell. 3T^-2T2L wonky. nice fly camel; inside layover. behind music. shades of Ilia. he presents well when trying. SL FW nice.y done and presented. steps 3F hand down turned out. 2A nice. camel squat cannon catch upright ch upright squat. circle FW good speed slowing lots of arm flinging but it works. 3S sit cannon ch squat
This kid is half Plushy, half Ilia and his costume is 500% Yags. A very nice Winter knock off... would that the program was. I can't help liking this boy. The jumps weren't there for him today, but he's a cutie, give him 4 years and he'll be a HOTTIE (give him 15 years and he'll be old enough to be more than aesthetically pleasing). He has lovely straight features... now he needs a quad to match. He needs a better hair cut and a bleach rinse to lighten his kind of blah sandy hair... a good colorist definitely. His camel positions leave something to be desired, his foot droops. He didn't melt down, just didn't land a lot. I can see why they would initially choose him over Alexei Notquiteivich Nextbigthingsky for Worlds... other fellow hasn't skated great this year either.
52.83 + 52.86 = 104.69 T=157.68
Yang CHN age 16
Tocata and Fugue
blue velvet unitard with gold inset sequins and stones
nice crisp movement style. 3F-3T almost a lip. steps 3Z-2T-2L camel nice outside nice sit jack ch sit inside twist upright. nice fast spin. music slows kid has nice edges. steps 3S hand down then steps out on a bed edge and fall long after the jump was landed. steps 3F NICE. 2A nice. steps 3Z. death drop squat inside twist pancake, slow. circle FW music change slow FW very flow but swirly and uppy downy and interesting. 2A step out. SL FW nice, well sold. well choreographed to the music. nice. very nice. camel half beill ends after music.
I like this boy... but no 3A. He has a BEAUTIFUL Lutz though. His spins could use some work when they are there, they are okay, not too fast, but when they are not there--like that last spin--they are REALLY not there.
Gosh, he's a BABY.
47.83 + 49.14 = 95.96 T = 152.48
I think this kid was undermarked as far as components went. They used it to place him in line with his tech, which wasn't there. He was convicted of skating while Chinese and that is never good for components and while he was not overly artistic, he moved well and easily and he did not present-forget-present-forget like a lot of the other kids did. The ROBBED him in components. I smell a PROTOCOL here!
Patrick Chan CAN (according to a reader, he is 15)
Guitar concerto
black with ice blue stripes all around and over ice blue velvet cummerbund and diagonal side
fast. 3S nice. NICE death drop inside pancake. 3A pitch forward hand down. nice transitions though lots of FW. arm waving but nice. serp FW nice. steps 3Z-2T-2L. ina bauer eh. 3L nice air position. camel nice speed inside donut ch camel layover eh droopy foot. steps 3F eh landing. SL FW tiring but so so presentation walley 3T-2T steps 3F fall out (fall?). 2A-2T. camel outside sit cannon upright ch camel sit twist.
The kid Lips pretty bad, but his Lutz is nice. His coach is ANCIENT.
58.31 + 52.34 = 108.65 T = 168.19
He's puzzled and a bit upset with his scores. I think he got jobbed by the protocol. His presentation was better than that and he had a tough program FILELD with transitions.
Yannick Ponsero FRA 19
Les Lacs du Conemare
black with blue stylized wave on shoulder and leg.
Gosh he's a cutie! 3A NICE. 4T? sit inside twist. steps 3Z fall just slipped out from under him. 3S. DD squat inside twist. SEs3A turn out hand down. 2F hl 3S. camel layover sit upright inside scratch ch camel half beill sit outside upright. 3S pitch forward hand down. nice circle? FW fast and WELL sold. 2A fall slipped out from under him. SL FW fast swirly uppy downy.
He's not happy with himself. I'm not so sure what was wrong with those jumps. they looked okay on take off and fine in the air but he just didn't get into them in the landing... perhaps a core strength problem. No... on replay, he was tilted in the air which means picking problems.
Anyway, Yannick is adorable and almost old enough to drool over without feeling like a pederast. He looks stockier on TV than in person (saw him at SA this year). In person, he's slim and almost graceful, so much so, I think Ben Currie had a crush on him.
Yannick was not ON tonight, and I've seen him skate better... but so far, he's the class of this field... he skates like a man, not a boy. He must have placed WAY down in the long program to drop to third overall... and can see why. The jumps just were not there. He has technique problems picking, methinks. He definitely needs more core strength if he is going to muscle out those wonky take offs.
54.32 + 55.36 = 107.68 T = 170.97
And as I thought of later while I was grocery shopping, " Alas, poor Yannick, he didn't skate well!"
Leibers GER age 17
Cool Runnings (if you forgot, this was the forgettable movie about the Jamaican bobsled team)
black pants orange poet shirt with multicolor ruffles at neck and funny tie thing on his tummy. This costume should be taken out and shot.
stalking. 1A pop. nice 3F. arabian to camel donut. steps nice 3Z low landing. 3L. serp FW fast but awkward. 2A skid on landing. arm waving. SL FW getting into the music. 3T-2T. camel crouch camel sit outside upright ch squat upright inside. 3S 2T turn out. hop squat ch squat inside.
Nice run out on his landings but landings are very low and deep and soft in the knee... almost uncontrolled. He's young and he TRIES to sell his program... pretty much all the way through, he's just awkward and he flails. he doesn't have anything approaching line and he's not dance-y much, but he does try.
44.44 + 48.22 = 92.66 T = 105.33 (10th)
His response, "SHIT!"
Gotta love him. Just for that.
Voronov RUS age 18
Coach is Urmanov
Music was alternately heroic and gentle.
black pants, black sequined maroon vesty thing with peach chiffon flowers and white sequined shirt, black gloves. Very deep cut V and illusion neck over very skinny hairless chest.
nice 3Z. 3A nice but no flow. 3L tight landing. 1F popped. nice circle FW fast good music building. music gentle piano. kid emotes well. stalking. SE nice outside one long. 3A 2T 2L nice. very nice. jack catch upright variant. death drop NICE inside 2A nice. music fast again clapping. 3T SL FW swirly but not uppy downy. 3S high wrap and whippy. camel nice. sit NICE inside jack ch sit inside.
The kid has a lot of intensity, but is a "manly" skater rather than an arty one. There's a LOT to like--maybe even ready for prime time. Nice haircut too. A very cute kid, still got a baby face... and there is Urmy in the K&C looking as hot and edible as ever.
60.82 + 54.44 = 115.26 personal best T = 172.92 (1st)
He'll get at least a bronze says the announcer.
Stephen Carriere 16 USA
once upon a time in Mexico
maroon shirt with rolled up sleeves black pants with white chevrons down the side.
steps 3S. 3A nice flow out. steps 3Z 2T decent. SL FW swirly uppy downy fast. but not sold well. traveling camel squat jack pancake hop upright. posing. "gee coach said to put my hand up here. how long should I keep it up? okay drop it now." nice 3F. nice 3L. nice 3F 2T. death drop pancake. serp FW fast and uppy downy swirly but not sold at all. fast but just done. steps 3Z fallish. 2A 2T. hop sit pancake.
"whew" hand motion at end which is the ONLY thing this kid seemed to give any emotion.
He has LOVELY jumps, nice take offs, LOVELY air position, very tight, freaking TEXTBOOK... things of beauty. a joy forever.
His coach is a hottie though... all in black with nicely done hair. Unfortunately, he has my gaydar screeching. This is not to imply that he IS gay. How the hell should I know. It only implies that guys that look this good with hair that good never play for my team. Oh well, once can still admire from afar.
60.09 + 52.16 = 112.25 T = 169.40 (3rd) That's about right...
Reader says if Carriere had hit that 3Z instead of making it a 2Z he would have gotten the bronze over Ponsero. In the long run, I am comfortable with this result. Ponsero is soup--though his jumps were AWOL. Carriere isn't soup, as lovely as him jumps are. He needs another year or two in Jrs.
Takahiko Kozuha JPN
piano concerto, Gershwin
black pants and black shirt with red vesty thing
3A muscled landing. 3Flz touch on landing. SL FW swirly but not uppy downy. steps 3L nice. 3S nice. sit NICE, outside twist pancake. SE death drop inside nice. 2A 2T. 3Z-2T-1T. 3F. 2A-2T. steps lot sof nice steps in this full program. circle FW fast and pretty well sold. uppy downy. camel sit nice outside jack ch sit inside pancake upright, NICE scratch (traveling)!!!
The kid can spin. He has nicely centered spins, his sit position is EXCELLENT. His flip is great but Lutz less great. he still has to really try for the 3A. His landings are not so well controlled as they could be.
63.96 + 56.02 = 119.98 personal best T = 180.05 (1st!)
This was well deserved.
Gosh, he is HUGE compared to his coaches... at least 6-8" taller... which means for a Japanese kid, he's pretty tall even without skates.
More comments later, MUST get the kids to school!
Tchiakovski violin concerto
shit shirt with blue trim and side panels, blue pants
3A nice. 3F-2T nice. 3Z-2T. nice easy death drop squat outside twist. SL FW swirly there's some intensity there. 3S nice. outSEs now we see some presentation where before was only stalking jumps. 3Z 2footed?. steps PAUSE 3L. sit squat twist. 3T-2T. 3T. circle FW fast and nicely sold, swirly but not upy downy L3 at best. fly camel sit inside ch camel; squat outside.
The boy stalks his jumps and his presentation skills are fairly unformed. He gets tired and raggedy towards the end, but his jumps remain easy and unhesitating. I like his intensity in the FW, but obviously, he forgets any attempt at artistry to stalk the jumps. He's young, but there's excitement here
61.32 + 51.92 = 113.24 Personal best T =168.39
Ryo Shibata JPN age 19
Maleguena
purple shirt with military shoulder pads and crushed velvet half. black pants with sequined side stripe. A fashionable hair cut bleached brown.
3T-2T. 2A-2T-2T. 3Z-2T. his jumps are whippy. Serp FW difficult but not sold at all. 3L nice. NICE fly camel inside ugly donut. music: slow. nice side catch spiral. WOW nice forward Beioll spiral. to 3S. camel inside layover donut upright. steps 3Z fall. SL FW difficult sirly uppy downy but he's tired and it's raggedy. 3F fall. 2A nice camel inside layover sit inside ch squat beill NICE.
The boy spins well, quick and well centered. He's long and lean and has great flexibility... not quite Shawn Saywer, but definitely on par with Plushenko. His falls are fully rotated... but he obviously left out a lot of content... for sure a quad attempt. Two of his coaches are very solemn in the K&C and the other is smiling widely, rubbing Shibata's shoulder and handing him tissues. I think the poor kid is crying.
47.89 + 50.04 = 95.93 T = 151.01
American viewers will be intrigued to know that Russian Sports TV shows 2 programs and then breaks for several minutes of commercials... sometimes 5 or 10 short ones. Pepsi is a skating sponsor in Russia and they keep showing the SAME stupid soccer commercial with the dancing German team in Leiderhosen beating the sexy soccer guys.
Varner USA age 19
Conquest in Paradise (that Columbus film from a couple years ago)
black velvet unitard with half the shirt in gold and black sequins with flowers and black gloves
3Z-3T hop out. 2A squat inside pancake ch bad squat, foot behind foot spin. 3F-2T-2L last badly cheated eh. SL FW uppy downy swirly but not sold now he;s selling a little kind of gumby-like, but he's more Goebel than Savoie. steps 3L off center and landed but badly, also cheated, fell out. lots of arm waving passing for presentation. 3S. camel variant sit nice catch upright. ch sit pancake upright inside. SE to 2Z. 3F 2 footed 1T. circle FW very ragged but difficult. 2A wonky landing but landed. death drop squat pancake.
He's a kid. Not much to say. from the look of his SP score, this was not a good night for him.
51.74 + 47.44 = 99.18 T = 152.54
Kevin Reynolds CAN age 15
Vareki Ombra
black pants purple (blue?) shirt with white instead and black stripes. He's TEENY Tiny!
steps 2A. nice arms. 3Z-3T-2T nice. stalking steps 3S NICE (apparently, according to a reader, this was a 4S and was 2footed. It's easy to miss that extra rotation. But color me even MORE impressed with this little guy). eh death drop squat upright nice crossfoot. music slow and gentle steps 3L nice. 2A-3T nice. good air position. 3Z eh. getting tired. steps 2S-2T. nice twisted inside argh bad pancake. circle FW not really sold very tired. steps 3F he likes that! SL FW fast difficult and very well sold. the audience is clapping along. camel outside inside squat pancake ch squat upright crossfoot nice headless slow scratch.
Kid pumps his fist. He's happy. This was a very young program for a very young kid, but it's what I imagine Johnny Weir must have looked like at 15, seeds of that divine movement style... maybe with better jumps. The kid's air position is textbook beautiful, but his picking technique disturbs me and the 3A is definitely not there yet. He points his toes and has some clue how to use his hands and arms... he has nice soft elbows but his hands hang. His sit spin positions are AWFUL, barely squatted and the bent jackknife/pancake leaves a lot to be desired not really an upright, not really a sit. Still be fun to watch him grow. He seems like a very unpretentious kid and was just smiling to beat the band in the K&C.
On a personal note, he is adorable, with curly auburn hair and looks a great deal like my HS boyfriend. That, if nothing else, would make him a favorite of mine, but he's got a lot to offer for such a young kid. If he can get the jumps... he will be a VERY exciting contender for those who like their skaters to move like Curry and Weir.
66.12 + 45.98 = 112.10 T =165.14
Alexandr Uspenski RUS
The Bird
black velvet unitard with nice white sequined leaves, white gloves
NICE 3A-2T landed at a dead stop though. lovely 3A very easy. 3L hL 3S. wonky on the loop landing. 3Z badly under rotated and fell. 3T^-2T2L wonky. nice fly camel; inside layover. behind music. shades of Ilia. he presents well when trying. SL FW nice.y done and presented. steps 3F hand down turned out. 2A nice. camel squat cannon catch upright ch upright squat. circle FW good speed slowing lots of arm flinging but it works. 3S sit cannon ch squat
This kid is half Plushy, half Ilia and his costume is 500% Yags. A very nice Winter knock off... would that the program was. I can't help liking this boy. The jumps weren't there for him today, but he's a cutie, give him 4 years and he'll be a HOTTIE (give him 15 years and he'll be old enough to be more than aesthetically pleasing). He has lovely straight features... now he needs a quad to match. He needs a better hair cut and a bleach rinse to lighten his kind of blah sandy hair... a good colorist definitely. His camel positions leave something to be desired, his foot droops. He didn't melt down, just didn't land a lot. I can see why they would initially choose him over Alexei Notquiteivich Nextbigthingsky for Worlds... other fellow hasn't skated great this year either.
52.83 + 52.86 = 104.69 T=157.68
Yang CHN age 16
Tocata and Fugue
blue velvet unitard with gold inset sequins and stones
nice crisp movement style. 3F-3T almost a lip. steps 3Z-2T-2L camel nice outside nice sit jack ch sit inside twist upright. nice fast spin. music slows kid has nice edges. steps 3S hand down then steps out on a bed edge and fall long after the jump was landed. steps 3F NICE. 2A nice. steps 3Z. death drop squat inside twist pancake, slow. circle FW music change slow FW very flow but swirly and uppy downy and interesting. 2A step out. SL FW nice, well sold. well choreographed to the music. nice. very nice. camel half beill ends after music.
I like this boy... but no 3A. He has a BEAUTIFUL Lutz though. His spins could use some work when they are there, they are okay, not too fast, but when they are not there--like that last spin--they are REALLY not there.
Gosh, he's a BABY.
47.83 + 49.14 = 95.96 T = 152.48
I think this kid was undermarked as far as components went. They used it to place him in line with his tech, which wasn't there. He was convicted of skating while Chinese and that is never good for components and while he was not overly artistic, he moved well and easily and he did not present-forget-present-forget like a lot of the other kids did. The ROBBED him in components. I smell a PROTOCOL here!
Patrick Chan CAN (according to a reader, he is 15)
Guitar concerto
black with ice blue stripes all around and over ice blue velvet cummerbund and diagonal side
fast. 3S nice. NICE death drop inside pancake. 3A pitch forward hand down. nice transitions though lots of FW. arm waving but nice. serp FW nice. steps 3Z-2T-2L. ina bauer eh. 3L nice air position. camel nice speed inside donut ch camel layover eh droopy foot. steps 3F eh landing. SL FW tiring but so so presentation walley 3T-2T steps 3F fall out (fall?). 2A-2T. camel outside sit cannon upright ch camel sit twist.
The kid Lips pretty bad, but his Lutz is nice. His coach is ANCIENT.
58.31 + 52.34 = 108.65 T = 168.19
He's puzzled and a bit upset with his scores. I think he got jobbed by the protocol. His presentation was better than that and he had a tough program FILELD with transitions.
Yannick Ponsero FRA 19
Les Lacs du Conemare
black with blue stylized wave on shoulder and leg.
Gosh he's a cutie! 3A NICE. 4T? sit inside twist. steps 3Z fall just slipped out from under him. 3S. DD squat inside twist. SEs3A turn out hand down. 2F hl 3S. camel layover sit upright inside scratch ch camel half beill sit outside upright. 3S pitch forward hand down. nice circle? FW fast and WELL sold. 2A fall slipped out from under him. SL FW fast swirly uppy downy.
He's not happy with himself. I'm not so sure what was wrong with those jumps. they looked okay on take off and fine in the air but he just didn't get into them in the landing... perhaps a core strength problem. No... on replay, he was tilted in the air which means picking problems.
Anyway, Yannick is adorable and almost old enough to drool over without feeling like a pederast. He looks stockier on TV than in person (saw him at SA this year). In person, he's slim and almost graceful, so much so, I think Ben Currie had a crush on him.
Yannick was not ON tonight, and I've seen him skate better... but so far, he's the class of this field... he skates like a man, not a boy. He must have placed WAY down in the long program to drop to third overall... and can see why. The jumps just were not there. He has technique problems picking, methinks. He definitely needs more core strength if he is going to muscle out those wonky take offs.
54.32 + 55.36 = 107.68 T = 170.97
And as I thought of later while I was grocery shopping, " Alas, poor Yannick, he didn't skate well!"
Leibers GER age 17
Cool Runnings (if you forgot, this was the forgettable movie about the Jamaican bobsled team)
black pants orange poet shirt with multicolor ruffles at neck and funny tie thing on his tummy. This costume should be taken out and shot.
stalking. 1A pop. nice 3F. arabian to camel donut. steps nice 3Z low landing. 3L. serp FW fast but awkward. 2A skid on landing. arm waving. SL FW getting into the music. 3T-2T. camel crouch camel sit outside upright ch squat upright inside. 3S 2T turn out. hop squat ch squat inside.
Nice run out on his landings but landings are very low and deep and soft in the knee... almost uncontrolled. He's young and he TRIES to sell his program... pretty much all the way through, he's just awkward and he flails. he doesn't have anything approaching line and he's not dance-y much, but he does try.
44.44 + 48.22 = 92.66 T = 105.33 (10th)
His response, "SHIT!"
Gotta love him. Just for that.
Voronov RUS age 18
Coach is Urmanov
Music was alternately heroic and gentle.
black pants, black sequined maroon vesty thing with peach chiffon flowers and white sequined shirt, black gloves. Very deep cut V and illusion neck over very skinny hairless chest.
nice 3Z. 3A nice but no flow. 3L tight landing. 1F popped. nice circle FW fast good music building. music gentle piano. kid emotes well. stalking. SE nice outside one long. 3A 2T 2L nice. very nice. jack catch upright variant. death drop NICE inside 2A nice. music fast again clapping. 3T SL FW swirly but not uppy downy. 3S high wrap and whippy. camel nice. sit NICE inside jack ch sit inside.
The kid has a lot of intensity, but is a "manly" skater rather than an arty one. There's a LOT to like--maybe even ready for prime time. Nice haircut too. A very cute kid, still got a baby face... and there is Urmy in the K&C looking as hot and edible as ever.
60.82 + 54.44 = 115.26 personal best T = 172.92 (1st)
He'll get at least a bronze says the announcer.
Stephen Carriere 16 USA
once upon a time in Mexico
maroon shirt with rolled up sleeves black pants with white chevrons down the side.
steps 3S. 3A nice flow out. steps 3Z 2T decent. SL FW swirly uppy downy fast. but not sold well. traveling camel squat jack pancake hop upright. posing. "gee coach said to put my hand up here. how long should I keep it up? okay drop it now." nice 3F. nice 3L. nice 3F 2T. death drop pancake. serp FW fast and uppy downy swirly but not sold at all. fast but just done. steps 3Z fallish. 2A 2T. hop sit pancake.
"whew" hand motion at end which is the ONLY thing this kid seemed to give any emotion.
He has LOVELY jumps, nice take offs, LOVELY air position, very tight, freaking TEXTBOOK... things of beauty. a joy forever.
His coach is a hottie though... all in black with nicely done hair. Unfortunately, he has my gaydar screeching. This is not to imply that he IS gay. How the hell should I know. It only implies that guys that look this good with hair that good never play for my team. Oh well, once can still admire from afar.
60.09 + 52.16 = 112.25 T = 169.40 (3rd) That's about right...
Reader says if Carriere had hit that 3Z instead of making it a 2Z he would have gotten the bronze over Ponsero. In the long run, I am comfortable with this result. Ponsero is soup--though his jumps were AWOL. Carriere isn't soup, as lovely as him jumps are. He needs another year or two in Jrs.
Takahiko Kozuha JPN
piano concerto, Gershwin
black pants and black shirt with red vesty thing
3A muscled landing. 3Flz touch on landing. SL FW swirly but not uppy downy. steps 3L nice. 3S nice. sit NICE, outside twist pancake. SE death drop inside nice. 2A 2T. 3Z-2T-1T. 3F. 2A-2T. steps lot sof nice steps in this full program. circle FW fast and pretty well sold. uppy downy. camel sit nice outside jack ch sit inside pancake upright, NICE scratch (traveling)!!!
The kid can spin. He has nicely centered spins, his sit position is EXCELLENT. His flip is great but Lutz less great. he still has to really try for the 3A. His landings are not so well controlled as they could be.
63.96 + 56.02 = 119.98 personal best T = 180.05 (1st!)
This was well deserved.
Gosh, he is HUGE compared to his coaches... at least 6-8" taller... which means for a Japanese kid, he's pretty tall even without skates.
More comments later, MUST get the kids to school!
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Sorry no Junior Worlds Ice Dance
My apologies to readers who came looking for a review of Junior Worlds Ice Dance on RTR. Getting up at O'Dark-Thirty to do the reviews did me in Monday and Tuesday. I didn't get anything significant done yesterday beyond napping for 6 hours. I just couldn't face another gray dawning. I MUST get some work done today... figured sleep was the better part of valor. I'll be back with the reports from the Junior Worlds Men's Free Skate on Friday.
I am gratified, though, that my dance reports are not a total throw away for readers. Who'da'thunk!
I am gratified, though, that my dance reports are not a total throw away for readers. Who'da'thunk!
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Figure Skating: Junior Worlds Pairs FS
Kazantseva/Enbert RUS
Die Fleidermouse
him purple overall, white shirt, her brighter purple dress with purple illusion sleeves and a white sequined stripe down the back. Very nice, tasteful and attractive costumes.
T2L fall her. 3T her fall. bad unison break. S2T iffy catch. SBS 3S her fall. fly camel bad unison break half beill HIS was nicer. nice sbs side spiral, eh forward spiral, nice back half beill spiral good matching positions. overhead lift him scary footwork. her nice positions. a very difficult lift though. T3T LANDED! SBS circle FW pretty good unison. overhead lift aborted. overhead lift one arm nice position, good footwork but slow. weak FI DS. pairs sit ch camel sit-sit
She's young... but has a nice quality I think will age well. She has nice in air positions in her lifts. But as tiny as she is, he seems to have a lot of trouble lifting her. They match pretty well for all that he is a GOOD 14" taller than she is! She looks very sad and almost ashamed in the K&C. It was not a great skate for her. They had a lot of difficulty though.
30.17 + 31.88 = 60.05 T = 99.61
Goreeva/Talan UKR
Chicago
black/grey striped tux. black dress with yellow/gold accents/underskirt
sbs 2T. good speed. s2T eh. T3S her fall. sbs 1A steps 2T. sbs camel twist ch sit catch not so great unison. They sell this program well though. back press lift nice steady footwork. overhead lift, nice speed, good footwork, pretty good position for her. T3T nice. they have nice unison. star lift good speed and position. eh spiral sorta steady COE more eh spirals. really EH back spiral. over head into BO DS, so so position from her. SL FW poor unison not selling it really anymore. bobble. pairs camel ch pairs camel, sit.
She looks dizzy as she finishes. She is tall for him and not the skinny girl we normally see in young pairs. On the other hand, he lifts her really well, with good security (perhaps because the lifts are simple) and speed. I prefer this pair who can DO their lifts to the pairs with more difficulty who are scary. It will be interesting to see how this pair develops.
35.77 + 33.61 = 68.38 T = 104.19 (Personal Best)
An/Wu CHN
black with green. greens fading to black at bottom with mandarin collar
modern music with Chinese sound
sbs 3T her fall. huge S2T. huge T2L. pairs camel, camel-sit, sit-beill. ch camel, poor can-opener spin. overhead lift eh positions decent footwork. spirals side spirals nicer, forward spirals slow and careful. sbs 2A okay. star lift aborted. sbs fly camel bad unison catch knee ch sit sit catch foot side. huge T3S her fall. overhead lift him so so footwork. SL FW fairly decent unison. FI DS with half beill entry variation
They look fairly well matched, though she is quite small. She is not so thin as other CHN pair girls have been... a welcome change if you ask me!
30.49 + 30.84 = 59.33 T = 96.40
Riberio/Chutter CAN
black pants light peach shirt, her light peach with crissy crossy
The Legend
NICE S2T arms over head landing. T3S her 2footed. overhead him decent footwork her nice position. sbs 2A her fall. nice unison. overhead lift him okay FW. T2S. sbs fly camel; pretty good unison camel sit ch camel sit upright sit catch. sbs 2T something weird with his sbs 2T her: funny landing. star lift aborted. SBS SL FW decent speed eh unison. FI Ds with entry variation wobbly. side catch spiral CEO nice, BI spiral eh, pairs came; sit him catch ch pairs sit finish slightly after music.
These two are pretty well matched in height and ability. they have that nice Canadian pairness and decent confidence. She has nice air positions in her lifts--when they happen. they have a lovely S2T, good split.
36.78 + 32.64 = 68.42 T = 106.46
Namiotka/Coughlin USA
black pants and ashes of rose shirt/ ashes of rose dress with straps. she is tall and THIN.
Prince of Egypt
lasso lift to carry nice positions to turning again. very secure footwork. sbs 2A her whippy but good unison. sbs camel sit ch sit NICE unison. good stroking. star lift eh position change star. HUGE T3S. S3?T nice. very big. steps sbs 2F 2T. T2L. good speed circle FW nice unison. overhead lift sos so position NICE FW for him. good ice coverage eh pairs spirals. good matching eh positions. sit-camel sit-sit pair camel pairs site pairs layback. NICE FI DS past and GREAT body position for her on the entry. FANTASTIC
OH MY GOD. An American pair I can get excited about! They were great! They have very nice unison all over, but particularly in spins... and absolutely HUGE throws and twists. Her body position in the FI DS would be the envy of the senior pairs event at the OOOs.
48.95 + 39.89 = 88.84 T = 132.35
Note from a reader:
Apparently, Namiotka has a health problem that is controlled with a special diet which contributes to her being so thin and she is sensitive about people noticing how thin she is and thinking she might be anoretic—understandable. You can read about Namiokta's health in her USFS bio. News like that is always troubling, so here's wishing a complete recovery (or at least good control of her health issues) to this talented young lady. I hope we get to see her and her partner develop in years to come.
Maheu/Cote CAN
black pants and shirt with greek decorations. her deep back green dress
spanish music
small S2T. T3S her pitch forward but landed. lasso overhead to star. eh. sbs 2A both fall. side spiral. eh forward COE spiral VERY EH. poor positions, so so back spiral. overhead lift decent ice coverage okay FW her so so position. T2F okay. 2T her nope 2S. fly camel sit inside upright poor unison. press overhead to star to airplane carry. SL FW slow tentative poor unison big break. shoot the duck (hiding poor entry) to FI DS, nice once she gets into it. pair camel. sit-sit ch camel sit-sit upright.
She's pretty and looks VERY like another familiar skater. Can't place her...
39.48 + 34.82 = 73.30 T = 113.56
Krazilinklova Bezmaternihk RUS
black pants red matador top, her blood red with gold stomacher.
Don Quixote (no, i can't spell it)
steps HUGE S2(3?)T. T3S nice. sbs 3T her fall. fly camel sit ch sit catch. good unison til the end. nice BO DS catch foot spiral entry. lovely star to awful flat butt in the air position nice FW though. sbs 2S her fall out sbs 2T? forward spirals COE okay, back spirals back spirals. lasso good coverage nice FW okay position. T3S nice landing. lasso overhead nice FW good speed and coverage. SL FW pretty good unison. pairs camel uprights ch pairs sit end a bit after music.
This is a very dynamic team. Another pairs team to get excited about. She's tiny and very pinched looking and he's YOUNG, but he lifts her well, has good, clean footwork in lifts and good speed over the ice and NICE coverage.
47.92 + 40.61 = 87.43 T = 132.66 1st place... and it's pretty well deserved.
Demers boutin/Joncas CAN
dark "jeans" black shirt with suspenders. her fuchsia dress
West Side Story
huge S2T no handed catch. sbs 1A. lasso overhead star so so footwork. careful. T3S tilted in air, her fall. overhead star really scary FW. catch spiral to AWFUL UGLY BO DS. music: Maria, sbs 1F turns 2T both messy. forward spirals COE nice. BI spirals nice. eh side spirals back spirals nice. T2L. fly camel sit inside catch ch sit upright ch sit so so unison poor positions. music tonight tonight. circle FW star lift eh good FW and coverage pairs sit ch camels sits uprights
I hate lifts that are too difficult where the man stands STILL while his partner changes position. As Canadian pairs go, they have a LONG way to go.
45.01 + 36.66 = 80.67 T = 121.31 3rd
Vasilieva/Smirnov RUS
dark cornflower purple unitard with lighter blue sleeve. her lighter blue chiffon with darker blue panel.
Somebody's Tune
sbs 3T her fall. steps 2T off sync. nice S2T not high though. sbs 2F her under rotated. spiral SE, T3L nice. axel lasso nice coverage, FW, position. T3S fall. forward COE spirals eh. back ha;f beill nice. careful Sl FW eh unison. but difficult. star lift nice FW, coverage, position. over head shakey start but improved as the lift went on. poor entry to nice FI DS. sbs camel sit ch camel half beill eh upright. pairs camels her half beill ch camels then him sit
These two were tentative and careful... kind of bland, but bland in a pretty way. nothing to get excited about. She's adorable and he has arms (and thighs) for DAYS. WHEW!
40.70 + 40.50 = 79.90 T = 127.31 3rd
Pylkina Hogner SWE
black pants and top her red with black trim
Jalouise Andalouse
nice speed. huge S3T, nice. T3S her hand down. sbs 3S her fall. fly camel sit inside catch upright. nice press lift to good turns. lgiht set down. T2L popped. forward COE spirals NICE positions, back spirals eh. nice side spiral. sbs 2FZ? overhead to star nice coverage FW. SalPel drag the girl variant entry to FI DS nice. SBS SL FW slow good unison. axel lasso overhead one arm nice set down. pairs camel over the head ch upright ch sit-sit
This is a gorilla and flea pairing. he must be 16" taller than she is and BIG compared to her. HUGE compared to her, which explains the security of their lifts. They also have incredible speed and pretty good unison. This will be an interesting pair if they stay together and she doesn't grow too much.
40.85 + 43.49 = 83.34 T = 129.62 3rd
Moyle/Seitz USA
black pants maroon fuchsia shirt with pink leaves. her fuchsia dress with pink leaves
tangos (Jealousy from Addams family)
S2T okay. good speed. sbs 2A steps 2T poor unison. T3L BEAUTIFUL. overhead lasso to one arm nice set down okay FW, sbs 2F. beill FI Ds VERY low, might have touched her shoulder to the ice, with drag the chick exit. slow. T3S fall. lasso overhead to one arm okay FW coverage speed. camels sit upright inside ch sit upright. spirals wobbly COE poor positions back spirals okay, side spirals. star to one hand poor set down. SBS SL FW eh unison good speed. her fall out of TW. pairs camels sits ch paris camels
43.29 + 42.74 = 85.03 personal best T = 133.50 1st place
other teams were better, but this one landed jumps and probably had done well in the short.
Vlassov/Meekins USA
not quite matching blue/purple outifts with illusions sleeves and white sequins
dynamic music
sbs 2A her popped 1A. overhead one arm nice set down good coverage and FW. T3L nice. lasso overhead one arm. S2T okay with variant entry. sbs 2Z 2F. sbs camel; sit inside forward spirals COE back half beill nice matching. side spirals. T3S. nice. pairs sit, ch pairs camel sit-camel ch uprights slowing. star lift to carry to change rotation eh. sbs Serp FW gaining speed. nice transitions catch foot entry to BO DS bas drag the girl exit.
This team is not soup. They have a lot of interesting transitions, but nothing is done really well. For a team that has been skating in US seniors for a year, they seem awfully juniorish. They do have difficult entries into everything though.
CORRECTION: Vlassova and Meekins have not skated US Srs yet. I must have mixed them up with another pair, probably one of the Vise sisters. My other comments hold though.
48.43 + 44.18 = 92.61 T = 138.05 1st place
Okay, color me clueless and unimpressed. I didn't see what was all so great about this team. They were slow, had poor unison and positions... the ONLY thing they had was a program designed for CoP and nothing else, really. They were NOT all that good, and yet they won because of the construction of their program. Of all the teams in the top 6, this was probably the weakest. Almost all the teams made mistakes, and while V&M didn't make really bad mistakes, they were lackluster and slow.
Just color me clueless. This isn't pairs, it's a freaking mathematics competition.
Freaking Math.
Die Fleidermouse
him purple overall, white shirt, her brighter purple dress with purple illusion sleeves and a white sequined stripe down the back. Very nice, tasteful and attractive costumes.
T2L fall her. 3T her fall. bad unison break. S2T iffy catch. SBS 3S her fall. fly camel bad unison break half beill HIS was nicer. nice sbs side spiral, eh forward spiral, nice back half beill spiral good matching positions. overhead lift him scary footwork. her nice positions. a very difficult lift though. T3T LANDED! SBS circle FW pretty good unison. overhead lift aborted. overhead lift one arm nice position, good footwork but slow. weak FI DS. pairs sit ch camel sit-sit
She's young... but has a nice quality I think will age well. She has nice in air positions in her lifts. But as tiny as she is, he seems to have a lot of trouble lifting her. They match pretty well for all that he is a GOOD 14" taller than she is! She looks very sad and almost ashamed in the K&C. It was not a great skate for her. They had a lot of difficulty though.
30.17 + 31.88 = 60.05 T = 99.61
Goreeva/Talan UKR
Chicago
black/grey striped tux. black dress with yellow/gold accents/underskirt
sbs 2T. good speed. s2T eh. T3S her fall. sbs 1A steps 2T. sbs camel twist ch sit catch not so great unison. They sell this program well though. back press lift nice steady footwork. overhead lift, nice speed, good footwork, pretty good position for her. T3T nice. they have nice unison. star lift good speed and position. eh spiral sorta steady COE more eh spirals. really EH back spiral. over head into BO DS, so so position from her. SL FW poor unison not selling it really anymore. bobble. pairs camel ch pairs camel, sit.
She looks dizzy as she finishes. She is tall for him and not the skinny girl we normally see in young pairs. On the other hand, he lifts her really well, with good security (perhaps because the lifts are simple) and speed. I prefer this pair who can DO their lifts to the pairs with more difficulty who are scary. It will be interesting to see how this pair develops.
35.77 + 33.61 = 68.38 T = 104.19 (Personal Best)
An/Wu CHN
black with green. greens fading to black at bottom with mandarin collar
modern music with Chinese sound
sbs 3T her fall. huge S2T. huge T2L. pairs camel, camel-sit, sit-beill. ch camel, poor can-opener spin. overhead lift eh positions decent footwork. spirals side spirals nicer, forward spirals slow and careful. sbs 2A okay. star lift aborted. sbs fly camel bad unison catch knee ch sit sit catch foot side. huge T3S her fall. overhead lift him so so footwork. SL FW fairly decent unison. FI DS with half beill entry variation
They look fairly well matched, though she is quite small. She is not so thin as other CHN pair girls have been... a welcome change if you ask me!
30.49 + 30.84 = 59.33 T = 96.40
Riberio/Chutter CAN
black pants light peach shirt, her light peach with crissy crossy
The Legend
NICE S2T arms over head landing. T3S her 2footed. overhead him decent footwork her nice position. sbs 2A her fall. nice unison. overhead lift him okay FW. T2S. sbs fly camel; pretty good unison camel sit ch camel sit upright sit catch. sbs 2T something weird with his sbs 2T her: funny landing. star lift aborted. SBS SL FW decent speed eh unison. FI Ds with entry variation wobbly. side catch spiral CEO nice, BI spiral eh, pairs came; sit him catch ch pairs sit finish slightly after music.
These two are pretty well matched in height and ability. they have that nice Canadian pairness and decent confidence. She has nice air positions in her lifts--when they happen. they have a lovely S2T, good split.
36.78 + 32.64 = 68.42 T = 106.46
Namiotka/Coughlin USA
black pants and ashes of rose shirt/ ashes of rose dress with straps. she is tall and THIN.
Prince of Egypt
lasso lift to carry nice positions to turning again. very secure footwork. sbs 2A her whippy but good unison. sbs camel sit ch sit NICE unison. good stroking. star lift eh position change star. HUGE T3S. S3?T nice. very big. steps sbs 2F 2T. T2L. good speed circle FW nice unison. overhead lift sos so position NICE FW for him. good ice coverage eh pairs spirals. good matching eh positions. sit-camel sit-sit pair camel pairs site pairs layback. NICE FI DS past and GREAT body position for her on the entry. FANTASTIC
OH MY GOD. An American pair I can get excited about! They were great! They have very nice unison all over, but particularly in spins... and absolutely HUGE throws and twists. Her body position in the FI DS would be the envy of the senior pairs event at the OOOs.
48.95 + 39.89 = 88.84 T = 132.35
Note from a reader:
Apparently, Namiotka has a health problem that is controlled with a special diet which contributes to her being so thin and she is sensitive about people noticing how thin she is and thinking she might be anoretic—understandable. You can read about Namiokta's health in her USFS bio. News like that is always troubling, so here's wishing a complete recovery (or at least good control of her health issues) to this talented young lady. I hope we get to see her and her partner develop in years to come.
Maheu/Cote CAN
black pants and shirt with greek decorations. her deep back green dress
spanish music
small S2T. T3S her pitch forward but landed. lasso overhead to star. eh. sbs 2A both fall. side spiral. eh forward COE spiral VERY EH. poor positions, so so back spiral. overhead lift decent ice coverage okay FW her so so position. T2F okay. 2T her nope 2S. fly camel sit inside upright poor unison. press overhead to star to airplane carry. SL FW slow tentative poor unison big break. shoot the duck (hiding poor entry) to FI DS, nice once she gets into it. pair camel. sit-sit ch camel sit-sit upright.
She's pretty and looks VERY like another familiar skater. Can't place her...
39.48 + 34.82 = 73.30 T = 113.56
Krazilinklova Bezmaternihk RUS
black pants red matador top, her blood red with gold stomacher.
Don Quixote (no, i can't spell it)
steps HUGE S2(3?)T. T3S nice. sbs 3T her fall. fly camel sit ch sit catch. good unison til the end. nice BO DS catch foot spiral entry. lovely star to awful flat butt in the air position nice FW though. sbs 2S her fall out sbs 2T? forward spirals COE okay, back spirals back spirals. lasso good coverage nice FW okay position. T3S nice landing. lasso overhead nice FW good speed and coverage. SL FW pretty good unison. pairs camel uprights ch pairs sit end a bit after music.
This is a very dynamic team. Another pairs team to get excited about. She's tiny and very pinched looking and he's YOUNG, but he lifts her well, has good, clean footwork in lifts and good speed over the ice and NICE coverage.
47.92 + 40.61 = 87.43 T = 132.66 1st place... and it's pretty well deserved.
Demers boutin/Joncas CAN
dark "jeans" black shirt with suspenders. her fuchsia dress
West Side Story
huge S2T no handed catch. sbs 1A. lasso overhead star so so footwork. careful. T3S tilted in air, her fall. overhead star really scary FW. catch spiral to AWFUL UGLY BO DS. music: Maria, sbs 1F turns 2T both messy. forward spirals COE nice. BI spirals nice. eh side spirals back spirals nice. T2L. fly camel sit inside catch ch sit upright ch sit so so unison poor positions. music tonight tonight. circle FW star lift eh good FW and coverage pairs sit ch camels sits uprights
I hate lifts that are too difficult where the man stands STILL while his partner changes position. As Canadian pairs go, they have a LONG way to go.
45.01 + 36.66 = 80.67 T = 121.31 3rd
Vasilieva/Smirnov RUS
dark cornflower purple unitard with lighter blue sleeve. her lighter blue chiffon with darker blue panel.
Somebody's Tune
sbs 3T her fall. steps 2T off sync. nice S2T not high though. sbs 2F her under rotated. spiral SE, T3L nice. axel lasso nice coverage, FW, position. T3S fall. forward COE spirals eh. back ha;f beill nice. careful Sl FW eh unison. but difficult. star lift nice FW, coverage, position. over head shakey start but improved as the lift went on. poor entry to nice FI DS. sbs camel sit ch camel half beill eh upright. pairs camels her half beill ch camels then him sit
These two were tentative and careful... kind of bland, but bland in a pretty way. nothing to get excited about. She's adorable and he has arms (and thighs) for DAYS. WHEW!
40.70 + 40.50 = 79.90 T = 127.31 3rd
Pylkina Hogner SWE
black pants and top her red with black trim
Jalouise Andalouse
nice speed. huge S3T, nice. T3S her hand down. sbs 3S her fall. fly camel sit inside catch upright. nice press lift to good turns. lgiht set down. T2L popped. forward COE spirals NICE positions, back spirals eh. nice side spiral. sbs 2FZ? overhead to star nice coverage FW. SalPel drag the girl variant entry to FI DS nice. SBS SL FW slow good unison. axel lasso overhead one arm nice set down. pairs camel over the head ch upright ch sit-sit
This is a gorilla and flea pairing. he must be 16" taller than she is and BIG compared to her. HUGE compared to her, which explains the security of their lifts. They also have incredible speed and pretty good unison. This will be an interesting pair if they stay together and she doesn't grow too much.
40.85 + 43.49 = 83.34 T = 129.62 3rd
Moyle/Seitz USA
black pants maroon fuchsia shirt with pink leaves. her fuchsia dress with pink leaves
tangos (Jealousy from Addams family)
S2T okay. good speed. sbs 2A steps 2T poor unison. T3L BEAUTIFUL. overhead lasso to one arm nice set down okay FW, sbs 2F. beill FI Ds VERY low, might have touched her shoulder to the ice, with drag the chick exit. slow. T3S fall. lasso overhead to one arm okay FW coverage speed. camels sit upright inside ch sit upright. spirals wobbly COE poor positions back spirals okay, side spirals. star to one hand poor set down. SBS SL FW eh unison good speed. her fall out of TW. pairs camels sits ch paris camels
43.29 + 42.74 = 85.03 personal best T = 133.50 1st place
other teams were better, but this one landed jumps and probably had done well in the short.
Vlassov/Meekins USA
not quite matching blue/purple outifts with illusions sleeves and white sequins
dynamic music
sbs 2A her popped 1A. overhead one arm nice set down good coverage and FW. T3L nice. lasso overhead one arm. S2T okay with variant entry. sbs 2Z 2F. sbs camel; sit inside forward spirals COE back half beill nice matching. side spirals. T3S. nice. pairs sit, ch pairs camel sit-camel ch uprights slowing. star lift to carry to change rotation eh. sbs Serp FW gaining speed. nice transitions catch foot entry to BO DS bas drag the girl exit.
This team is not soup. They have a lot of interesting transitions, but nothing is done really well. For a team that has been skating in US seniors for a year, they seem awfully juniorish. They do have difficult entries into everything though.
CORRECTION: Vlassova and Meekins have not skated US Srs yet. I must have mixed them up with another pair, probably one of the Vise sisters. My other comments hold though.
48.43 + 44.18 = 92.61 T = 138.05 1st place
Okay, color me clueless and unimpressed. I didn't see what was all so great about this team. They were slow, had poor unison and positions... the ONLY thing they had was a program designed for CoP and nothing else, really. They were NOT all that good, and yet they won because of the construction of their program. Of all the teams in the top 6, this was probably the weakest. Almost all the teams made mistakes, and while V&M didn't make really bad mistakes, they were lackluster and slow.
Just color me clueless. This isn't pairs, it's a freaking mathematics competition.
Freaking Math.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Figure Skating: Junior Worlds Ladies FS
Well, Russian Sports TV is showing Junior Worlds this week and despite Rosaleen's great live reports I'm getting up insanely early to watch russian TV and do my own reports. Russian commercials are fairly interesting. Anyway, I arrived in the midst of...
Nella Simaova CZE
2A, 2Z-2T-2L
Nella does not point her toes, but I like her very understated black costume with a few lines of stones.
35.99 31.44 67.43 105.79 5th
Megan Hyatt USA
red and red velvet with a deep V front. Attractive.
drummy music
3T nice. badly under rotated 2Z, traveling camel, donut, half beill, sit layback inside upright. 1L pop. back beill spital CE forward classic spiral eh back spiral eh. 2A-2T. 3S nice. axel sit. 3T turns out. tango music. uppy downy FW. steps 3S-2T? NICE layback, foot to head, beill EH.
Megan has the beginnings of some decent presentation. Give her a couple years.
39.01 + 34.70 = 73.71 T=113.82
Nana Takeda JPE
Lavender chiffon. nice.
Music: Otonal, the same arrangement as Johnny Weir
nice 3L. 2F. 3T-2T. layback nice, foot to head, beill. 2S. spiral eh ChE, back beill sp, side catch spiral. 3L. step 2A. 3T. axel sit outside. SL FW eh. 2A-2T-2T, camel inside sit camel donut, something, beill.
She kind of collapses trying to bow low. It's cute.
48.10 + 42.05 = 90.15 T=129.09
Hello protocol judging! I didn't get a close look at the components, but where the heck did they come from? The child didn't make even a creditable ATTEMPT at presentation. She had good speed, but that was about all. Maybe it's the effect of the music. But i just don't see components this high.
Chae-Hwa Kim KOR This is Korea's #2?
red velvet, black illusion sleeve
VERY familiar music? Nutcracker maybe?
3T(2foot)2F. 3S-2T-2L. 2A-2T. nice death drop inside. 3L. back spiral ch E beill. nice and steady. side catch eh bent knee. 3T. layback ugly leg foot to head. 3S nice. 2A nice. SL FW. camel sit outside layback ch sit inside sasha catchfoot.
She landed a lot of jumps. Her presentation is still very VERY embryonic. She gave up much pretense at it towards the end. I'm still not sure how the previous skate outpoints this one... maybe in the FW? CoP is sure unintelligible when a lackluster skate like Takeda outpoints this by 5 points on the tech score...
43.73 + 36.96 = 80.69 T= 122.81 2nd place
Elena Glebova EST
blue with straps, couple lines of stones. nice.
Queen symphony
3T turns out 2T. 2Z NICE. flying camel squat upright inside. 2A. 1L pop. weird layback on outside edge beill nice speed, spiral ChE wobbly. low catch foot side spiral. 3S-2T. Sl FW slow tentative upy downy. NICE twizzles though. 2A-2T-2T. 3T. camel sit inside layback ch camel outside-layback beill.
Now, under CoP, this exceptionally unique, probably nearly impossible, layback on an outside edge will get NO more points than the usual one.
In the replays, they are playing the Stairway to Heaven violin chamber music.
42.79 + 35.05 = 77.84 T = 118.26
I am still amazed how the Japanese girl outpointed these girls in components. That was really weird.
Jenniu Vahamma FIN
yallow dress with black stones and trim
little girlish showtunes
walley. 2S-2T-2L. 2A hop out. flying camel inside nice donut. 3T hand down. 2F-2T close to the boards. layback eh. half beill wobbbly so so classic forward nice catch side spiral nice side spiral. 2A-2T. 3S nice. nice circle FW very fast, slowing. Flz. fly camel, outside, sit nice catch, ch sit inside NICE catchfoot.
She's probably 12, she looks 9 and is just a delight. She has good speed and a nice tight wrap on her jumps... a pretty face and a bright smile. She has nice camel positions.
41.86 + 37.26 = 79.12 T = 121.88
Someone explain to me how this comes over Glebova? IN COMPONENTS? This kid isn't "juniorish" she's NOVICE-ISH for chrissakes! She was cute, and fast, but she was so unformed... She landed like one decent jump... color me not getting the judging here. Color me not getting it BIGTIME. At All.
Katerina Gerboldt age 16 RUS
WAY ugly dark pink with black insets and long black gloves.
2A eh. 2L-2T wonky landing. steps 3Z 2foot? steps 3T? flying camel inside donut nice. good speed. 3S bad fall out. beill spiral ch E nice. back beill. 3L. 2F-2T. layback. metal rock music with high vocal. camel outside squat layback ch donut beill.
Very pretty girl. VERY ugly dress.
39.13 + 35.99 = 75.12 T = 120.90
Isabelle Nylander SWE age 15
orange dress with red sequins and boa, my bet, Firebird... YEP, Firebird.
layback foot to head, nice fast spin. good speed. spiral back half beill ugh. side spiral. 2A. 2L 2foot. 3T FALL. 2S. camel outside nice sit layback foot to head. ch nice sit inside slow catch. 3S fall out. spiral to 2F-2L? SL FW nice speed. 2A turns 2L NICE axel sit slow cannonball, free leg bent in sit spin.
This kid looks like she's actually a normally sized human being. She has something nice about her skating, but the jumps really were not there for her today.
26.98 + 34.80 = 60.78 T = 102.83 12th place
Laura Lepisto FIN
snuffy brown and gold lamé dress with flowers... really, INCREDIBLY ugly... the color was awful.
Feeling Begins? Arabian music
3T nice. 2T-2T. steps 3S-2T, flying sit (DD?) inside. music change. nice 3L. 3T nice. wobbly ch e spiral so so position. back half beill, nice sideways lean to layback nice, foot to head. bad pop 1S fall. music change. circle FW slow2L 2T. camel outside sit catch, ch sit inside catch (the Kwan spin).
39.48 + 38.33 = 76.81 T = 121.05
Christine Zukowski USA
Nice forest green dress with criss crossy straps and white stones
oboe music
2L. nice speed. 3Z? sat on the landing but landed. layback. steps 2Z. spiral ch E half beill. back half beill BAD. 3S. 3T 2T. hop sit inside, foot behind the leg crouch. SL FW, swirly. 3S-2T-2T. 2A-2T, landed the 2A on an inside edge. traveling camel outside, sit cannon, layback, ch squat inside catch.
Here's a CW jumper, so I may have miscalled some of the jumps before I figured it out.
44.51 + 39.26 = 83.77 T = 135.14
Alissa Czisny USA
La baydere
dark blue Salome costume
3Z 2foot, fall. flying sit inside pancake good speed through. 3F 2foot? 3L wonky landing. camel inside donut sit catch ch sit layback beill. 2A. 1F pop. fast circle FW 1A pop. 1Z pop. SL FW fast and nice. side catch to unsupported ch e side spiral back spiral. forward beill spiral. sideways layback beill, very fast great positions.
Lovely as always and a very UN-juniorish skater, but jumps were AWOL today.
33.21 + 41.61 = 73.83 T = 124.18, 3 place
The idea that Takeda could have gotten better components than this when Takeda skates like a junior and Czisny skates like a senior is just beyond me. Where can I get some of the good drugs these judges are on?
Arina Martinova RUS
black velvet with long black chiffon skirt and silver "bow" in sequins, black velvet gloves
Devil's Trill (a la Kulik) and others.
2T. steps 3Flz. arm waving. 3F bad fall. arm waving. 3Flz fall. 2T?-2T 2A 2T. flying camel inside donut. music change to bluesy something. 2S-2T camel outside sit layback beill, ch sit inside catch traveling bad. spiral music change nice change of edge, steady. music change. back beill spiral. circle FW nice good speed. sideways lean layback foot to head beill finish after music.
Her coach looks like she must be her older sister. Talk about a family resemblance!
30.03 + 38.40 = 66.43 T = 116.39, 9th place.
Aki Savada JPE
red velvet with geometric designs
City of Veils
3F-2T nice. 3S ok. layback sideways, foot to head. 3Z pretty nice. 3F fall out and fall on knee. ugh spiral COE half beill. back half beill poor positions. back spiral poor position. 3L wobbly camel outside sit layback ch sit inside cross foot upright. 3T nice. 1A pop, another jump pop. axel sit inside.
This is no waif skater. She is short, but stocky and powerful looking (which means she's probably tiny compared to real people). They give her powerful music and it works for her. She both flutzes AND lips. her spins are wobbly and not well centered... until she gets into them. She IS adorable though.
39.46 + 39.84 = 78.30 T = 126.15, 3rd place
Yu Na Kim KOR
blue green strappy dress. No puberty monster here! age 15, looks 10
violin music.
3F-3T nice. 2A nice. nice death drop sit twist pancake. good arms nicely evocative. steps 3Z. layback foot to head beill. ina bauer to 2A 3T. 3Z-2t-2L spiral COE half beill. back beill eh. nice SL FW. 3L. 3S camel sit layback ch sit twist inside sasha catch.
This was very clean, nicely "pretty" and well done. It would have done pretty well in seniors. She has good speed... but, let's see what the Puberty Monster does to her. She has obviously NOT had a visit from said monster yet.
64.85 (she goes WOW) + 51.83 = 116.68 T= 177.54
A senior level score for a senior level skate... and in 4 minutes instead of 4:30! This really was an impressive skate. I do think it's a shame that this child could not be at the olympics. If she skated there that well, she could easily have done as well as Messiner. Kim's as "mature" as a skater.
Mao Asada JPE age 15
Her pink little girl dress... still looking very prepubescent.
Swan Lake?
3A popped to 1A. 3L nice. fly camel inside donut. illusion nice. swirly7 SL FW. 2A nice. small death drop twist panacke. 3F nice. beill COE spiral back slide catch foot. 3L-2L-2L. 3F-1L. 1Z pop. camel inside donut beill ch outside twist beill.
Okay, this isn't exactly the end, but I need to get my kids to school.
pardon the typos!
Nella Simaova CZE
2A, 2Z-2T-2L
Nella does not point her toes, but I like her very understated black costume with a few lines of stones.
35.99 31.44 67.43 105.79 5th
Megan Hyatt USA
red and red velvet with a deep V front. Attractive.
drummy music
3T nice. badly under rotated 2Z, traveling camel, donut, half beill, sit layback inside upright. 1L pop. back beill spital CE forward classic spiral eh back spiral eh. 2A-2T. 3S nice. axel sit. 3T turns out. tango music. uppy downy FW. steps 3S-2T? NICE layback, foot to head, beill EH.
Megan has the beginnings of some decent presentation. Give her a couple years.
39.01 + 34.70 = 73.71 T=113.82
Nana Takeda JPE
Lavender chiffon. nice.
Music: Otonal, the same arrangement as Johnny Weir
nice 3L. 2F. 3T-2T. layback nice, foot to head, beill. 2S. spiral eh ChE, back beill sp, side catch spiral. 3L. step 2A. 3T. axel sit outside. SL FW eh. 2A-2T-2T, camel inside sit camel donut, something, beill.
She kind of collapses trying to bow low. It's cute.
48.10 + 42.05 = 90.15 T=129.09
Hello protocol judging! I didn't get a close look at the components, but where the heck did they come from? The child didn't make even a creditable ATTEMPT at presentation. She had good speed, but that was about all. Maybe it's the effect of the music. But i just don't see components this high.
Chae-Hwa Kim KOR This is Korea's #2?
red velvet, black illusion sleeve
VERY familiar music? Nutcracker maybe?
3T(2foot)2F. 3S-2T-2L. 2A-2T. nice death drop inside. 3L. back spiral ch E beill. nice and steady. side catch eh bent knee. 3T. layback ugly leg foot to head. 3S nice. 2A nice. SL FW. camel sit outside layback ch sit inside sasha catchfoot.
She landed a lot of jumps. Her presentation is still very VERY embryonic. She gave up much pretense at it towards the end. I'm still not sure how the previous skate outpoints this one... maybe in the FW? CoP is sure unintelligible when a lackluster skate like Takeda outpoints this by 5 points on the tech score...
43.73 + 36.96 = 80.69 T= 122.81 2nd place
Elena Glebova EST
blue with straps, couple lines of stones. nice.
Queen symphony
3T turns out 2T. 2Z NICE. flying camel squat upright inside. 2A. 1L pop. weird layback on outside edge beill nice speed, spiral ChE wobbly. low catch foot side spiral. 3S-2T. Sl FW slow tentative upy downy. NICE twizzles though. 2A-2T-2T. 3T. camel sit inside layback ch camel outside-layback beill.
Now, under CoP, this exceptionally unique, probably nearly impossible, layback on an outside edge will get NO more points than the usual one.
In the replays, they are playing the Stairway to Heaven violin chamber music.
42.79 + 35.05 = 77.84 T = 118.26
I am still amazed how the Japanese girl outpointed these girls in components. That was really weird.
Jenniu Vahamma FIN
yallow dress with black stones and trim
little girlish showtunes
walley. 2S-2T-2L. 2A hop out. flying camel inside nice donut. 3T hand down. 2F-2T close to the boards. layback eh. half beill wobbbly so so classic forward nice catch side spiral nice side spiral. 2A-2T. 3S nice. nice circle FW very fast, slowing. Flz. fly camel, outside, sit nice catch, ch sit inside NICE catchfoot.
She's probably 12, she looks 9 and is just a delight. She has good speed and a nice tight wrap on her jumps... a pretty face and a bright smile. She has nice camel positions.
41.86 + 37.26 = 79.12 T = 121.88
Someone explain to me how this comes over Glebova? IN COMPONENTS? This kid isn't "juniorish" she's NOVICE-ISH for chrissakes! She was cute, and fast, but she was so unformed... She landed like one decent jump... color me not getting the judging here. Color me not getting it BIGTIME. At All.
Katerina Gerboldt age 16 RUS
WAY ugly dark pink with black insets and long black gloves.
2A eh. 2L-2T wonky landing. steps 3Z 2foot? steps 3T? flying camel inside donut nice. good speed. 3S bad fall out. beill spiral ch E nice. back beill. 3L. 2F-2T. layback. metal rock music with high vocal. camel outside squat layback ch donut beill.
Very pretty girl. VERY ugly dress.
39.13 + 35.99 = 75.12 T = 120.90
Isabelle Nylander SWE age 15
orange dress with red sequins and boa, my bet, Firebird... YEP, Firebird.
layback foot to head, nice fast spin. good speed. spiral back half beill ugh. side spiral. 2A. 2L 2foot. 3T FALL. 2S. camel outside nice sit layback foot to head. ch nice sit inside slow catch. 3S fall out. spiral to 2F-2L? SL FW nice speed. 2A turns 2L NICE axel sit slow cannonball, free leg bent in sit spin.
This kid looks like she's actually a normally sized human being. She has something nice about her skating, but the jumps really were not there for her today.
26.98 + 34.80 = 60.78 T = 102.83 12th place
Laura Lepisto FIN
snuffy brown and gold lamé dress with flowers... really, INCREDIBLY ugly... the color was awful.
Feeling Begins? Arabian music
3T nice. 2T-2T. steps 3S-2T, flying sit (DD?) inside. music change. nice 3L. 3T nice. wobbly ch e spiral so so position. back half beill, nice sideways lean to layback nice, foot to head. bad pop 1S fall. music change. circle FW slow2L 2T. camel outside sit catch, ch sit inside catch (the Kwan spin).
39.48 + 38.33 = 76.81 T = 121.05
Christine Zukowski USA
Nice forest green dress with criss crossy straps and white stones
oboe music
2L. nice speed. 3Z? sat on the landing but landed. layback. steps 2Z. spiral ch E half beill. back half beill BAD. 3S. 3T 2T. hop sit inside, foot behind the leg crouch. SL FW, swirly. 3S-2T-2T. 2A-2T, landed the 2A on an inside edge. traveling camel outside, sit cannon, layback, ch squat inside catch.
Here's a CW jumper, so I may have miscalled some of the jumps before I figured it out.
44.51 + 39.26 = 83.77 T = 135.14
Alissa Czisny USA
La baydere
dark blue Salome costume
3Z 2foot, fall. flying sit inside pancake good speed through. 3F 2foot? 3L wonky landing. camel inside donut sit catch ch sit layback beill. 2A. 1F pop. fast circle FW 1A pop. 1Z pop. SL FW fast and nice. side catch to unsupported ch e side spiral back spiral. forward beill spiral. sideways layback beill, very fast great positions.
Lovely as always and a very UN-juniorish skater, but jumps were AWOL today.
33.21 + 41.61 = 73.83 T = 124.18, 3 place
The idea that Takeda could have gotten better components than this when Takeda skates like a junior and Czisny skates like a senior is just beyond me. Where can I get some of the good drugs these judges are on?
Arina Martinova RUS
black velvet with long black chiffon skirt and silver "bow" in sequins, black velvet gloves
Devil's Trill (a la Kulik) and others.
2T. steps 3Flz. arm waving. 3F bad fall. arm waving. 3Flz fall. 2T?-2T 2A 2T. flying camel inside donut. music change to bluesy something. 2S-2T camel outside sit layback beill, ch sit inside catch traveling bad. spiral music change nice change of edge, steady. music change. back beill spiral. circle FW nice good speed. sideways lean layback foot to head beill finish after music.
Her coach looks like she must be her older sister. Talk about a family resemblance!
30.03 + 38.40 = 66.43 T = 116.39, 9th place.
Aki Savada JPE
red velvet with geometric designs
City of Veils
3F-2T nice. 3S ok. layback sideways, foot to head. 3Z pretty nice. 3F fall out and fall on knee. ugh spiral COE half beill. back half beill poor positions. back spiral poor position. 3L wobbly camel outside sit layback ch sit inside cross foot upright. 3T nice. 1A pop, another jump pop. axel sit inside.
This is no waif skater. She is short, but stocky and powerful looking (which means she's probably tiny compared to real people). They give her powerful music and it works for her. She both flutzes AND lips. her spins are wobbly and not well centered... until she gets into them. She IS adorable though.
39.46 + 39.84 = 78.30 T = 126.15, 3rd place
Yu Na Kim KOR
blue green strappy dress. No puberty monster here! age 15, looks 10
violin music.
3F-3T nice. 2A nice. nice death drop sit twist pancake. good arms nicely evocative. steps 3Z. layback foot to head beill. ina bauer to 2A 3T. 3Z-2t-2L spiral COE half beill. back beill eh. nice SL FW. 3L. 3S camel sit layback ch sit twist inside sasha catch.
This was very clean, nicely "pretty" and well done. It would have done pretty well in seniors. She has good speed... but, let's see what the Puberty Monster does to her. She has obviously NOT had a visit from said monster yet.
64.85 (she goes WOW) + 51.83 = 116.68 T= 177.54
A senior level score for a senior level skate... and in 4 minutes instead of 4:30! This really was an impressive skate. I do think it's a shame that this child could not be at the olympics. If she skated there that well, she could easily have done as well as Messiner. Kim's as "mature" as a skater.
Mao Asada JPE age 15
Her pink little girl dress... still looking very prepubescent.
Swan Lake?
3A popped to 1A. 3L nice. fly camel inside donut. illusion nice. swirly7 SL FW. 2A nice. small death drop twist panacke. 3F nice. beill COE spiral back slide catch foot. 3L-2L-2L. 3F-1L. 1Z pop. camel inside donut beill ch outside twist beill.
Okay, this isn't exactly the end, but I need to get my kids to school.
pardon the typos!
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