rockstaryuzu

So I finally had a chance to sit down and watch Nathan's SP, and...well...hmm...I can tell that he's trying. so. hard. There's definitely more going on in there than there was before, and it has an actual step sequence, and I can see that SLB worked hard to give him something better than he had before...but. But. But. It's still kind of meh. Why? I really want to like it.

Probably because he hasn't officially withdrawn yet?

Thanks! Right now I'm thinking that I should have made and put more feathers on the top (I only did it for the light-coloured ones you can see on his costume), but I was working at such a small scale that just making them was a challenge. I took a figure drawing class several years ago and I would recommend that to anyone. Apart from being the most fun you can have locked in a room with a naked man and 20 grey-haired grannies (for some reason all the students were old ladies in their retirement years except me), it's actually a really great way to learn to see someone. You think of people differently after you've spent 20 minutes studying the minutest details of the angle their jaw makes with their chin and trying to reproduce it accurately on paper or with clay. You get a lot of insight into how they occupy space. And that makes it easier to draw or model them. It's a lot of fun and I could geek out about it for hours.

Oof! It just keeps getting worse...

It's back! What a relief... Thanks admins! Without the Planet, I do wild things: If you like the art, please drop a like on my Twitter too... it's looking weirdly lonely for some reason ...

Good for her!!!

Not only is she not officially retired, she gave an interview this summer where she said she was thinking about competing some more. The woman's got the fountain of youth figured out when it comes to skating...

She seems to be doing ok with remote training.

Thing is, I work in Ottawa's largest hospital, and as of the most recent report from our CEO, we have only 10 cases in the hospital and 3 in ICU. Yes, positive cases are going up but it's not being reflected in hospitalizations (yet). Maybe this second round won't be as lethal? One can hope. Also, it's important to remember that the phrase 'hospitals nearing capacity' actually is a description of normal operating conditions, not something that happens because of COVID. Ontario hospitals are chronically over capacity for the past ten years. Of course long term care was, is, and shall remain a disaster as long as it's business as usual in them. I find it incredibly sad that we can't do better for the most vulnerable among us.

well, TV Tropes is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek anyway, and I think it's volunteer-based, so my expectations aren't high. @barbara I think the image that lured me in was a partial view of an IB, but then when I clicked the link, there was nothing I could use.

So I was Googling 'yuzuru hanyu ina bauer' images for a project today and for some reason the search landed me here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/YuzuruHanyu Yup, Yuzu's now got his own entry in TV Tropes. LOL.

Keegan getting Skate America instead of Skate Canada blows. I hope he'll be safe in Vegas. Otherwise, the men's field for Skate Canada might be quite interesting. To my mind Roman, Nam, and Jason are fairly evenly matched if they're all having a good day. And Conrad, Joseph, and Nicholas are also on par with each other. So it should be a battle. I doubt there'll be any surprises in the pairs, and ice dance will be another bloodbath.

....can't see how they're going to pull it off. Ladies' NHK and CoR are going to be bloodbaths. I begin to see the strategic wisdom behind Rika's choice to train in Switzerland, she'll be at IdF instead. And I expect Satoko can win that SCI field pretty easily. Makes it all the more painful that Zhenya's in Moscow and not Toronto... if she'd been here in Canada that probably would have been a sure win for her.

The heck? Did they just...not even bother to update from back in the summer?

Well that's disappointing. As @LadyLou said, we don't know her side of the story yet, though.

TBH I feel like Vanessa James has been unfairly victimized by all this. It's not her fault if her partner is a creep. Her career shouldn't have to be over because of that. The whole thing is a crying shame. They were a great pair when it came to skating and I think they had a lot more in them. Not saying this to excuse what happened, I just want to underline how much damage was caused by that one person's poor actions. The phrase "What were you thinking!!" comes to mind...

That rocks! Imagine being free to turn your workplace into a Yuzu shrine

TBH, I'm not understanding why the ISU is still talking about making assignments, since they already said that GPs entries were not going to be as usual this year and should instead go to skaters in the same geographic area as the event. Unless they mean for small fed skaters who aren't in or near a country with a GP.

Agree, I don't think anyone misses figures. Although, if you have a sharp eye, you can sometimes catch Yuzu knocking one or two out during his open practices at competition. He even did it in Pyeongchang. It's probably a good way for coaches to teach concentration and edge control in one-foot skating, even now. Anyway, where Yuzu says "I wonder if figure skating, which includes the entire venue, the country, and above all the hearts and values of the audience, is established for each land." I got the impression he's really talking about more than just some kind of national style or skating philosophy. It seemed to me that he was referring to the fact that each event has it's own alchemy and that every performance will be different based on the audience and location and so on. I've talked about it before but it's something I've noticed at competitions - there's a feeling that the skaters and the audience are actually coming together to create the event, instead of a passive feeling of skaters showing what they do and audience watching. I've never had that feeling at any other type of sporting event or artistic performance. It's distinctive and exciting.

I don't know about fanyus, but BTS often uses the phrase "You look like Yuna Kim!" when one of them is striking a graceful pose...

Maybe he'll finally teach Plush not to stick his head forward when spinning...

Well it's one thing to woo Ice-chan, it's quite another to be set up as some kind of idol-style bf substitute.

Yes I know that's the surface reason. But this is Eteri we're talking about here. There's probably more to it. I like the way Kosto's new step sequence is shaping up. Should make for some interesting competitions if what Plush gives her is all that high calibre.

Using her platform for constructive purposes, I see. So I looked at those photos of Zhenya raising the flag at Sambo-70 and just thought 'wow, now they've got their grips back on her, they won't be letting her go again' . The whole thing had that energy. I half-expected her to blink Morse code SOSes with her eyelids. Also, why do it? Maybe in response to the time Brian put her flag up at TCC?

Yes, but "snuggled together" fits Citizen's boyfriend-ish narrative for this advertising campaign better. Wouldn't be surprised if that's why they chose it. Our Yuzu, an icon of romance...wonder what he thinks of that.