KatjaThera

Diamonds are a girl's best friend? *hides* Actually Jin Akanishi has a song called Yellow Gold, but it's not really about a love for gold and I can't imagine it's skating friendly either lol But no, he'll sing an original song and take his wanting to bring new music to the FS world to a whole new level!

Maybe he'll follow on Adam's footsteps and do one of his programs to his own singing

Hmm, I wonder if it's possible to do this arrangement and choreography to such a detail in just the few days they've had? Since it must have involved David, as well. I guess technically it is, but I wonder if it's not also possible that Yuzu did edit an original piano version that served as a base for the final product. (For all his talent, I don't think he's managed a skill level to edit to the point where the result can be used as it is, but in the same time, it wouldn't make sense to hire a sound editor when the final arrangement comes from Shinya anyway.) Then Yuzu could have sent that - basically, the sound equivalent of a rough sketch - to David and Shinya ahead of time to give them an idea of what he wants... In which case, yes, a professional, official recording wouldn't exist, but it also wouldn't be that hard to put together. There's just no point in hurrying to do so at this point. It's only June after all. I also doubt the costume could be made in just a handful of days... it's too fancy and detailed, so at least part of the idea might have existed before they all met in Kobe. And that implies communication before Kobe and I doubt that was face to face. So, mail exchanges. Or maybe even skype. But I'd be surprised if Shinya didn't roughly record changes he made to send to Yuzu, until he said "perfect". So, yeah, bottom line is: a professional, studio recording of this version probably doesn't exist. However, I'm quite sure it was a lengthy process and there might be edits and rough recordings and making an official recording or official edit could be just a matter of time. Also, this is Yuzu, he probably won't say whether it's his EX or not until he steps on ice to perform it after the first competition. (He might even say it won't be, and still use it :P) We have no choice but to wait and see, IMO...

The only logic I could find as to why the Chinese judge was punished but not the US one is if they compared the total score the nation's judge gave to the final score. That way, indeed, the Chinese judge's score was much higher than average, while the US' not as much, because most other judges also scored Nathan highly. However, what they should have looked at is the difference between the scores given to their athletes and those given to other athletes. Nathan getting a score over 20 points higher than Shoma, and some 30 (I forgot the actual numbers) points over Yuzu, who, incidentally, was 5th (after Shoma, Vincent and Javi, I think) for the US judge, is absolutely ridiculous. But they won't look at that, so might as well not waste energy on it...

I love it! (And watching it like that, for some reason, made me wonder what if he made it his FS ^_^; but the music is too calm and beautiful to squeeze in all the jumps, so no chance)

My poor wallet... but after getting 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, I can't rezist 2017-2018... The photobooks are usually really nice, they include pictures from competitions, ice shows and his training in Toronto (usually super cute ones), as well as all his protocols from competitions that season.

You can go back and watch the show, it was just a few minutes about the parade and the twitter hashtag with the bad pictures. (I almost burst out laughing in the office again...)

I know she's very famous, but I've only listened to one other song of hers, that was featured in a drama mini-series. I do love her voice, though. I wonder now... if Yuzu said part of why he chose it is the lyrics, maybe if he does it as an ex, he'll do the vocal version? I think it'd add an extra layer of awesomeness to it...

I'm hoping there will be more in the actual video, especially since some sing in groups apparently... But we'll see...

Ehhh he only has that short line?! But if that was the playback of his singing, it sounded pretty good!

I'd be surprised if it'd be much different from Kouhaku. They'll probably all sing together, so picking out his voice among the rest will probably be difficult. I wonder why 2am, though? o.O And what is up with June 23rd?! Everything happens then lol CiONTU special, ABC FaOI Kobe special, TV Asahi Nagano Heroes & Future broadcast, now this and Javi is on a TV show then, too. Plus more FaOI and there might be more I forgot... (I had a friend in highschool who was very superstitious, but believed 23 was a lucky number and so her birthday was a lucky day. Her birthday was June 23rd, so I'm starting to think she might have been on to something lol)

Well, it's also very possible they did take pictures with him, but they didn't post them. Maybe he asked them not to (if, say, they took them in the dressing room or so), or they just didn't. Not everyone has to post their pictures online

According to the second Team Brian book, Yuzu trains 3 days, then rests 1 day. So my guess is some weeks he trains 6 days per week, while others 5, depending on how the cycle goes. Javi trains 5 consecutive days per week, and probably does rest both Saturday and Sunday (in the book, it only mentions 5 days and him being free on Saturdays). It's also possible nobody trains on Sundays, but for Yuzu that would ruin the cycle, so I'm not sure. Of course, that was in the 2015-2016 season, but Brian pretty much made it clear that each skater has his/her own custom training schedule, in cycles that best suit them. (He also mentioned Yuna trained 5 days hard, one day just light skating and one day rest.)

Actually, he's Japanese, which means he's worn a tie as part of his school uniform for six years. Admittedly, for one of those he was in Canada and he probably had quite a few days off for competitions, but still He should be used to ties lol

Aww they look like they've had quite a bit of fun! But really ROFL at Yuzu... Aiming for a 4A, but he still can't tie a knot

Judging by the tag, I guess they might be imitating a badminton pose? A serve, maybe? ETA: I'm not sure Yuzu knows himself, though, he's just imitating the ladies

Honestly it's a bit disturbing as they report on his every move and gesture... o.O I'd rather get a picture and skip all these details...

I think speculating how Yuzu will deal with the new rules is really hard, because we have to remember he's said he's going to do what he wants from now on. So he might actually do things more difficult than the rules require... I wouldn't be surprised if he'd want to challenge himself with more quads in the second half, to get bonus points, or do more crazy combinations. Of course, it all depends on his health. It might also be worth remembering Brian did mention he also jumped 4F last Summer. Again, IF his health allows it, he might want to trump Nathan and be the first skater to do all types of quads. But this is all fantasy at this point. As far as we know, at this point in time he can only do 4T and 4S, so... too many question marks now, I think... And has the new GOE system been adopted, too? Not just +5 - 5, but also the percentage thing? (ETA: I was hoping someone would defend 4A's honor...)

Yeah... And I didn't even catch the jump sequence thing, they went through it so fast. Actually, I also don't really understand if that means they've already accepted the change or just accepted the amendment to the proposal. The whole congress is confusing, though it probably doesn't help I'm listening at work, while also supposedly working ^_^; (The iii thing is funny, though ^_^; )

They've amended the only one type of each quad rule and now you can repeat just one quad... I have no idea if that's better or worse...

I admit I don't know the song, but if we're talking connotations, Let's Go Crazy was far from innocent, either... I'd love a black and red costume (I was dreaming of a dark Seimei last year...), but I'm fine with purple and black, too. Purple, black and gold could look stunning if mixed properly. Blue can be hit and miss, IMO, so I'm not sure about that. And I'd want rock, dramatic or dark music, though something more romantic could also be an interesting change for him. But drama and darkness are more up his alley, so who knows. Thinking about different types of programs, I can't really imagine him doing a comedy program. Whatever it is, I hope he just has fun from now on. ETA: (actually that Yuzu-icon just made me thing he could show up in a white costume with the Olympic circles on it and have fun with it never let them forget he's a two times Olympic Champion lol Maybe throw in graphics of his medals, too And skate to a medley of warhorses. I don't think he's that much of a troll, though...)

The funny thing is for the Javi/Caro rule they even brought up Javi by name, but to be honest, I understood neither the argument, nor the explanation... (then again, I don't really understand the proposal either; ISU makes me doubt my English comprehension skills...)

(Do we have a streaming party for the ISU congress? :P) The current thing with not allowing country spots if they don't have good enough skaters at the previous Worlds almost sounds like the Javi rule... wasn't it the case that he was the only skater and Javi won the World Championship so he got three spots for Spain? (though I think this is just for Oly?)

I'm far less technically savvy than many people here, but to me the one of each type of quad proposal sounds a lot like: "We're really annoyed Hanyu won Olys with just two types of quads when there are others who jump five types." And I tend to doubt he would have won if that rule had been in place. (He probably would have felt forced to go for 4Lo, too, which might have done even more damage to his ankle.) Because not only Nathan, but also Shoma would have been advantaged by it. And Javi might not have made the podium. Overall, I'm pretty sure if the rule passes, it could go either way. Quads are risky and falls can happen (as well as other issues that would deduct points). So at times high quality two types of quads and high quality triples could beat 5 quads. However, if the quads are landed without anything too glaring, I'm not sure it'd be possible to win with two types of quads over five types. I haven't had time to fully go over the math they mentioned and see if there's any truth to it, but to me the biggest thing isn't so much the difference between quads, but between triples. A skater who can only do 2 types of quads will have to do 5 triple jump elements. Let's say two can be 3A, but the other 3 will have to be lower level triples. A skater who can do 4-5 types of quads, will have to do 2-3 triple jump elements. If two are 3A, that leaves just one lower level triple element. Combinations will probably be tacked onto quads and put at the end, which I think further increases the difference. As far as Yuzu is concerned, maybe he'll get Loop and Lutz back and he'll be playing with the big boys, but it'd only create a bigger rift between quadsters and non-quadsters. IMO, @Xen's suggestion for splitting the quads would make the most sense, if they really wanted to balance things out. Adding a bonus for doing one of each would also be good (maybe even a mini-bonus for 5 quads out of 6, and a mini-er for one of each triple). But like this... What baffles me is that there's a gazillion proposals but few of them seem to really matter or make sense or make a difference. And when there are some big ones, the arguments are generally poor and poorly worded. To be honest, the arguments against the one of each type of quad proposal seemed pretty weak even to me. None of them was really "Huh, that guy really makes sense!" I was happy to hear people speak up against it and they had good points, but none was really great. (I did like Ari mentioning Nathan by name, even if it wasn't in a bad sense, not really.) But really, proposals and arguments could be a lot more clear and logical than they are >_< As for JSF, from the little I heard in the sessions, I have to wonder if they don't have language barrier issues. I'm used to hearing Japanese speak English and still it was hard to understand them. That can be an issue when discussing things like this that are very much about fine-tuning and such. But yes, their judging and attitude is just weird a lot of the time. (I just hope they don't use them as the benchmark when they analyze the national bias among judges >_>)

Listening to this is so awkward, even aside from the topics debated... it's just so badly organized...