Sombreuil

Happy 2nd birthday 🦢🌏

@liv I am saying this in a totally non confrontational spirit - you don’t want the ‘signature moves’ - fair enough - so what do you think should replace them?

I’m sure it’s been done but I’d like Yuzuru to do ‘Perfect Day’ - Lou Reid version - “you’re going to reap what you sow “ good message to the powers that be ..

Hopefully he will be tactful with Japanese media.

He will do whatever he wants, but I hope it’s two new ones. Enough tribute. I’d like an upbeat short and a non warhorse classical long - been listening to Schubert lately and enjoying it though possibly a better fit for P/C than Yuzuru.

I don’t see why he should abandon layback IB and hydroblade - it’s not as though anyone else is doing them better or indeed much at all. Lot of SE, few anywhere near the quality of his, the odd cantilever, the rest is pretty pedestrian stuff outside spins and jumps, step sequences seem to be meh too again aside from the odd exception. To someone who is bored by them I would say “what is it you want to see then? “. To which the answer is probably quality crossovers or balletic ankles/arms or a nice rink long lead into a big jump like Brian Boitano used to do or something similar..

I don’t think they pull the likes of Federer/Biles/Uchimura down in the UK either- but if there is a contender from the uk they do talk them up - Murray/Downie/Whitlock - not as much as the US but there is a flag waving component. Just not the sense of being entitled to do well and justification (injury, local bias) or blame (the athlete/the coaching programme) when they don’t that you get with US media.

I’m afraid that western cultures tend more to the patriotic and less to the quality of individuals when it comes to sport, at least as far as the casual ‘fan’ is concerned. Someone who knows a lot about a particular sport, especially in individual rather than team sports, is more likely to ignore nationalism in favour of excellence- my husband would never support Murray over Federer for example. Costumes you get that toxic masculinity thing but it’s a lot worse as far as I can see as regards both attitudes in the US. In the sports I have followed, tennis, gymnastics, skating, there seems to be a presumption that the US will be successful and almost bewilderment when they’re not. MAG for example I remember a heated discussion a few years ago about why the men are not as successful as the women - the answer is obviously that boys with the quick twitch reflexes in USA will end up in more lucrative sports - but some US commentators just could not understand, they were certain that Leyva or Mikulak could dethrone Uchimura, and they really didn’t understand when GB ended up above them in the team event. Also sportsmanship is way down the list of what they look for - you need to do something really bad to get called out on it like that swimmer in Rio.

I find the preference for the “double eyelid” odd- is that a long-standing phenomenon or a recent one? I believe some people have cosmetic surgery to achieve it? For me the scrunchy eyed smile is very endearing, not just with Yuzuru, look at Kaori

QUADS - AMERICAN QUADDDDSSS 😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍😍🤩

OMG I don’t believe it. Can no one think of any other tango to use?

Exactly - we’ve been talking about Carmina Burana on the music thread - there’s loads of music there after O Fortuna - but no one uses it. I could put up with a non Roxanne MR if I absolutely have to but no one ( or very few) look beyond the ones that have already been successful.

Really? After god knows how many seasons? I’m a bad example because I hated the film, walked out , but even if I’d adored it don’t you think we’ve had enough?

Shoot me now - I can’t bear any more

FIFA tried very hard to resist tech in football - without the poverty excuse that ISU and FIG trotted out...

I love that song but I have an attachment to the Julie London and Mari Wilson versions - the former my mothers favourite, the latter in my own youth.

Resurrect this thread? Listening to Carmina Burana - wondering if the drama and slightly combative in a subtle way O Fortuna music might actually work well for him next season - especially if he does his own music cuts? Also a bit appropriate? Or go for the joyful Ecce Gratum and put in Y spin? I would love that Or reference current judging patterns and use Olim locus colueram.......

It’s fabulous - same delight as in that Y spiral that is my new screensaver

Ah - so Vera Wang wetsuit costume and generic American college student rock or Canadian costume (you all know what I mean ) and one of the usual suspects? I think he doesn’t want to win at that cost.

He looks great in pale blue. I hadn’t realised before but now I need someone to photoshop his head onto the (hopefully winning) Cambridge cox for the boat race. Please why all these terrible music suggestions? Are you trying to test the fandom to destruction?

I am having a bit of a grim week irl, but immediately after the WC, before the gala I replaced my screensaver with the photo of Yuzuru doing the Y spiral in practice and grinning all over his face. That joyousness in what he’s doing makes me feel better about a lot of things, including some of his own rather terrifying pronouncements, because however kuyashii he might feel about the way his season panned out he still purely loves to skate and all the aggro hasn’t ground that out of him. I’m coping with some stuff that’s beyond my control, and that photo and all it represents is cheering me up a lot.

I am watching the equivalent in gymnastics with great interest. I think they need more time to refine the system but I think they’re planning to use it in Tokyo 2020. If it can give reliable, explainable stats on landings, rotations, subjective quality of catches on bars (point at which the catch happens, straight arms, legs together etc) then those elements become measurable, at speed, by a machine. It’s translatable to skating with extra viewpoints. It’s potentially a game changer

I was forced to watch a lot of snooker before Xmas - a LOT, and was shocked to find them all in black and covered in sponsors logos - not half as attractive as all those fancy Wild West style waistcoats they wore last time I looked at it about 20 years ago. I just hope all these dress down Friday costumes aren’t the thin end of the wedge.....

Perhaps that’s what Mr Hamilton needs - a new fashion for hyper masculine high heels- trouble is I think you have to be an absolute monarch to get people to prop you up to that extent. He always comes across as a fussy opinionated little dinosaur to me - the kind that really worries about his own image and is really offensive as people of that generation can often be if they never engage with feminist women, gay people, mildly left wing opinions etc etc. There are loads of blokes like that in my extended family- old codgers who think De Valera had the right idea and on this side of the Irish Sea adherents of Mrs T.

We all do - him especially I should think - but it won’t stop him. He just keeps forging ahead and all we can do is watch in awe. And be thankful.