Sombreuil

On the topic of NC exaltation by US media, and particularly by his coach, the hubris is extraordinary

There is a lot of possessiveness about FS among older, often North American fans who have a tendency to regard it as ‘their’ sport . Possibly also among Russians, which I’m less aware of because unfortunately I don’t speak the language. There are also west European purists. They all do a lot of annoying things like gate keeping, insisting on western music/ themes unless a western skater is being ‘refreshing’ or ‘innovative’ by using someone else’s cultural music/iconography. One thing that hasn’t been addressed above are the Western Hemisphere fans who take Asian skaters to their hearts then gatekeep their ‘Asian ness ’ - (idk if that is even a word but I drove a long way to attend a funeral today and I’m tired). For example there were a whole lot of western fans who adored young YH and his lovely Japanese coach who went nuts when he moved to Canada, hated on Parisan, which as far as I can see Japanese fans took to their hearts, and have probably been sniping from the sidelines ever since. (That’s not to say Japan doesn’t have its own nests of snakes - but that’s a different, more political story). To them he should have stayed in Japan with his lovely coach rather than manifesting an ambition to do whatever it took to get those jumps and the technique that could take him to the top. Thin line between love and hate, when the love is the possessive sort that doesn’t take kindly to the object of that affection demonstrating a will of his/ her own and changing the narrative. Regarding Olympic programmes I think it would come as a shock to the people who only watch FS at the Olympics to hear that YH only does classical programmes- to them he’s used Parisian walkways, the soundtrack to the R&J film score, Chopin and a Japanese film score, with ex pieces set to a Japanese version of Tchaikovskys Swan Lake and an Italian tenor groups version of St Saen’s The swan. So two film scores in quite different styles, two different arrangements of Romantic/ impressionist scores, one traditionally Romantic piece and a bluesy rock piece. That’s all ancient history. For me he’s the first male singles skater who has made me feel awed at his performance - transfixed by it at times - since I was a child watching John Curry gliding through jumps and steps when others were stiff and muscling their way through. He’s magic - and the only ones currently with the same magic are Sui/Han in pairs. I enjoy lots of skaters but after last weekend will undoubtedly cherry pick once he’s gone, rather than following whole competitions as I have done since 2015.

And their Covid numbers are terrible and getting worse.....

I’d like him to take a leaf from Satokos book and try an arrangement from Satie’s Gnossiennes- they have an otherworldly feeling to them that would suit him very well.

Me too

No Otonal or Origin - he’s back to skating for himself remember? No extra pressure in order to do justice to his heroes/ muses. And JW has had enough mileage out of being the inspiration for that SP.

I really appreciate a journalist asking straight questions that we want the answers to rather than burbling on about Pooh bears

This always cheers me up

I wish Japan would cancel it.....

For me the really irritating comments are along the lines of ‘ he’s just recycling Seimei’ as if there is only one ‘Japanese’ style to use. No one blinks if a skater uses a range of western classical music, or several different rock bands/performers - that’s fine, but all Japanese music is the same and you can only use it once as some sort of novelty? If a second John Curry were to miraculously appear and use a Merlin theme one season and a Henry V the next would he get criticised for repeating? But for a lot of those people it’s ok for Shoma to use his Great Spirit SP, and for NC to mash European Spanish and South American themes together - I read somewhere he was doing it as a jokey ironic thing? Short step from humour to offence, especially with the attitude of the outgoing administration towards ‘Hispanics’. I give up - there are a lot of tone deaf people with loud voices out there.

That first practice..... https://youtu.be/qrOzbFW7HkU

If Kolyada can perform consistently the way he did in the SP in Euros 2019 now that he’s had his sinuses fixed he will be a much worthier opponent than Chen, and will probably get some Rusfed uplift, if there are enough competitions to build up some impetus. I always hoped Boyang would get the rest of the package but for whatever reason that has never happened. Kolyada has that elegant line - I don’t think he’s as good as Yuzuru obviously 🙄- who is, or will be in the immediate future, but he’s a lot nicer to watch than Chen or Zhou or any of his Russian contemporaries.

I’m having trouble uploading a photo to be the cover photo on my profile? Probably user error?

It’s Ok - that’s as much as you can say. ‘ Pretty decent’ is what you expect of reasonable mid level skaters - surely a champion should be more than that. They all work hard - the likes of Harry Mattick and Conor Stakelum work very hard with no big fed support, no cash and at the moment no ice. Working hard isn’t enough, according to ISUs own guidelines they have to perform wonderful correct jumps with height, beautiful landings and the appearance of effortlessness — on paper. In fact if your face and flag and coach fit ( and I’m not just talking about the men or NC now ) you can get away with incorrect jumps, obvious strain, stiff knees on landing, terrible posture and crappy (or no ) transitions and be showered with points. You can be exceptionally highly marked for ‘consistency’, which I don’t believe appears in the ‘ guidelines’ ( I feel like Captain Barbossa) instead of the performance you actually put on the ice on that day in that championship. If ISU were honest it wouldn’t annoy me so much but I’ve been watching a lot of old competitions over the last months and it really drives it home to you. The anointed get the benefit of the pcs as soon as they become contenders - the unanointed must work extra hard for them, in fact in some cases may never get them. Consider - if Fernandez hadn’t had an exceptionally supportive family, been willing to move countries several times and hadn’t ended up at TCC, or a similarly highly rated coaching establishment which was willing to nurture him along, would he have ended up a multiple European and world champion? If the ISU said, in terms, we don’t care about transitions for men, just give us the quads, in ladies we don’t care about correct jumps or posture, just pack in as many scrambled transitions as you can , I would have less of an issue with it all (- though I would still be complaining about some of the jump scores ) but at least skaters wouldn’t be trying to reach a standard that the ISU don’t actually want or aspire to, and certainly their judges don’t attempt to enforce.

Because it’s competent, workmanlike, and totally lacking any wow factor. You’re not on the edge of your seat hoping his 4ltz doesn’t propel him into the boards and rejoicing when he lands it with enormous height and amplitude like Boyang. He doesn’t have the charm of Fernandez, the edges of Patrick Chan, the elegance of Kolyada, the appeal of Uno. I don’t myself rave about the appeal of all those skaters, but I can recognise it when I see it and watch others fall under the spell. He’s pedestrian.

I’m hoping Mai’s return will help Kaori regain her composure - matrix is a good fit for her when she’s storming round the rink with those powerful strokes, full of confidence. But it’s only just October and with Mai at NHK ( which I’m thrilled about for her own sake) the Kobe girls will be competing together again. Mai looks very fragile but hopefully is on the mend 🤞🏻

I’m so glad to see Mai back - and I LOVE the green dress

I watched a David Bowie concert from around 2003 on tv tonight - very good. I saw him live only once, in Manchester in the late 80s - his voice was rough from a long tour and he hadn’t resorted to delegating some of the vocals to others as he had by the time of the concert in Dublin that I watched tonight. He probably should have. I’ve said I’d like Yuzuru to skate to something by Bowie, and I still would like to see that, but in the present climate I’d just like him to find something that calls to him, like Seimei, and something that fits him perfectly like Ballade no 1, or Parisan, do that 4 A in competition and then free himself from the straitjacket of ISU and its vacillations and create whatever he feels like, free of requirements of time or elements, or any of the rest of the requirements that are so arbitrarily dropped when it suits the powers that be.

I wonder which bits of the NWS they’re using? Satoko’s NWS was one of my favourites- I was sad it didn’t get much of an airing.

With Rika in France, Satoko in Canada and a full list of Japanese ladies at NHK there must be an excellent chance of three Japanese ladies in the final if it ever actually gets off the ground.

I hope everyone will be safe and that locals will pull the plug if it looks dodgy. Perhaps the Nevada Gaming Board will prove a better guardian of the health of those concerned than various local and national politicians have proved to be worldwide.

I can’t see it happening - bound to be some withdrawals here

entire governing body is delirious with Covid - only a fever night terror could produce that idea.

Rewatching 2017 WC and marvelling again at Boyang’s 4ltz - it’s astonishing. Really hope that China broadcasts any competition they may hold - would live to see him and Han Yan and S/H again ( assuming he’s recovered of course)