memae

Hahaha, Nobu I didn't understand a word of that except 'step sequence' but I got the gist. Also, Shizuka is still very nice to watch even just pottering through H&L St-Sq for the sake of this demonstration. Thanks for posting!

I think that he could if, just if he wasn't competing. He really switches on as an athlete in a way that is so focused on the technical skills that he closes himself off from performance aspect. A bit of it came out with Caravan but we didn't get much. I think that's why his free last season worked so well for him. Contemporary in style but simple and minimalist - I know it looks empty compared to Yuzu's programs (I typoed the ms in programs the wrong way around TWICE just now, but like, as a portmanteau that's pretty much how good Yuzuru's programs are so...) but I thought he brought out a lot of elegance for something that could have been much more boring in different hands. What we know about Nathan is that he has the humility to not only to know he has real room for improvement in PCS but that he actually wants to improve (he said so at GPF). The contemporary style works for him (I just call it that because it reminds me of contemporary dance). He should go to Marie France for a decent chunk of time for more than choreo and just learn to melt in with music the way dancers do. His musicality is good - it's just that it doesn't all quite connect when he's performing (because he's not performing so much as competing). Yuzuru's crazy footwork is magic with music because he just connects his movement and expression with every moment in every aspect of the music. Nathan has gorgeous lines and those 'balletic arms' (as everyone likes to call them) - he might not be able to what Yuzu does the way that he does it, but damn if he held a spiral (or something) at the right moment for the right amount of time (he did ballet FOREVER so you just know he can do one) it would really play to his strengths outside of the jumps. His style and the music he uses would work well with holding positions for the right amount of time to build that emotional connection with the audience so it doesn't have to come from his 'performance'. It's like if you give a speech, people will applaud after the 3rd point because we're conditioned to consider 3 to be completion or a point of emphasis. If he could just hold a move for a couple of seconds at the right time, the audience would eat it up and he wouldn't have to try to deliver that emotion in a way he's not capable of. God knows he has time for it when he's doing laps between jumps. Imagine him doing LGC - it would end up too schticky and ham-fisted without Yuzu's performance quality. H&L, Chopin, Origin, etc, would all just feel flat, and it's the feeling you get watching Yuzu skate that makes him so special. His technical elements are great, of course, and those SS are to die for, but I think if he did a program like Land of All or La Boheme (I just had to google to remind myself what Nate's SP is this season - how bad is that? And I'm even a fan of Nathan!), as they are, no added Ina Bauers or Biellmanns or Yuzu Step Sequence, he'd still have you mesmerised and hanging on his every move. I like watching Nathan. I like that he and Yuzuru are such different skaters because it would be so boring if they were the same. I do just really hope Nathan grows into his PCS more and more and doesn't get complacent because of the current inflation and his ability to rest on his technical capability (he should have learned his lesson at the Olympics). He has a style he likes and that works for him, but he doesn't own it yet. I hope he keeps working towards it because I want to see Nathan skate in a way that deserves his current scores.

Indeed, but I feel like the colours will stay. Even Origin 1 and 2 have the same colours dispersed differently. Origin 2 has grown on me - don't get me wrong, I thought it was gorgeous the first time I saw it just not in the same way as Origin 1 which I considered a masterpiece the instant I saw it. But every time I see Origin 2, I like it more and more. H&L does the same to me. I even like the flounce ruffle thing now. It makes me think of sea foam and the ocean. I love that costume and I used to think it was the worst of his competition wardrobe.

There's the same shade of purple on his Seimei costume! Satomi knows Zu's colours! You'll just need some acid green and gold accessories or ribbon to go with it.

I wish other skaters would repeat some of their programs so they can really fine tune them as much as Yuzuru does. Nemesis, for example, could be just wonderful if Nathan gave it another season's work. I want Dima to repeat his free for next season too because it feels like it just hasn't gotten there yet, and I think there's so much room in it to become something even more.

Lol and after he ripped Otonal 2.0 at SC! Poor Satomi!

Also, I have to say that I was strongly considering going to 4CC when tickets first became available. I'm currently on a giant trip around the world and have plans for Egypt in March but I was so sad when none of Shoma and Jason and Jun and Nam made it to GPF that I thought perhaps I'd catch them at 4CC but March just felt too early to head back towards that side of the world so I decided not to. I've also been to S Korea a million times so I was like, no, go to Egypt and other new places while you have the chance. And then Yuzu decided to participate and I had to tell myself that it's okay, I saw him at GPF, I saw him at GPF. But now. Chopin and SEIMEI??? I have SO MUCH regret. = me in Egypt at the magnificent pyramids while 4CC is on

I agree about Chopin/Seimei vs Otonal/Origin. I guess he ended up a half season down on both programs too because of injuries. Now he's done Otonal/Origin for a full season and while he has done Chopin and Seimei multiple seasons, they both ended up on a .5 because he pretty much missed the second half of the 2017/18 season. Lol, maybe this whole thing is just because he just likes fully rounded numbers. He is superstitious, after all. (I am being very tongue-in-cheek, don't take me seriously). As for next season, I think new programs are a go too. If he goes to Beijing, or is at least thinking about it, he'll want a full season of working on his programs before the Olympic season. He's never taken new programs to the Olympics and it's worked for him. Unless he brings Origin and Otonal back for a season and then decides that poor old LGC and H&L need a second season and that they deserve the Olympics. I know this is absolutely not what will happen but like.... maybe if I say it I can speak it into being?? Imagine LGC at the Olympics. You just know the Olympic Channel won't stop short of anything to be able to keep an Olympic LGC on their channel, copyright be damned. Ah, a girl can dream.

So I put my phone down for like 2 hours and open Insta to find maximum chaos. What is he doing to us?? My thoughts are that he's already gotten 112 or so for Chopin before and it seems like it's perhaps less taxing than Otonal (those twizzle sandwiches!) but it's still been very well favoured for GOE and PCS. As for Seimei, I just watched it and I while I don't know where he's going to chop the 30 seconds from (those cross rolls better stay!), I can see where he might swap some jumps for others. It's also beloved by everyone, even the judges, and there's no room for docking PCS because it is on point and Seimei is his. If there's ever a program that people will associate with Yuzu, it's Seimei. Plus he never got to 'complete' it - whatever he was building to for the Olympics was taken from him with the injury and we know he's sentimental so perhaps returning to Korea feels like the right place to get his perfect Seimei since Korea was where he had intended to perfect it, and if he wins he makes history again like he did last time with the 2nd OGM. Also, another possible reason he wanted to do 4CC (besides that gold) might be because he wanted to get a competition in with Seimei (I imagine it's the one he envisioned for the Olympics, perhaps amped up even more) before Montreal. Maybe we'll get Origin again next season. I doubt he'll leave it unfinished and I doubt he's abandoned his 4A dreams. Maybe we'll get Origin at Montreal even (if he is still working on the 5-quad layout but he doesn't want to do it for 4CC if he doesn't need it to beat Nathan but doesn't want to go back to the 1.0 layout at this stage? Or something.). I'm not sure anyone should listen to me. I'm confused. My apologies for the far-fetched rambling. My brain has been bamyuzulled.

She's incredible. The Dara Torres of skating.

Lol or we get Uncle G breaking away with Zu to bring out the worst in each other like a couple of mad scientists

Phelps still holds an IM WR from Beijing, so even past his 'era'. It's a bit hard and all to compare skating scores to swimming records just because of the sheer number of events in swimming and because of the subjectivity of the judging in skating vs the precision of timing races, but I do think that Yuzuru's accomplishments in skating and the sheer amounts he has broken WRs by are equivalent to Phelps still holding a world record over a decade later.

Same. That's our swimming backgrounds coming out to play

It's so bad. If she is struggling with anorexia, speculating about it so publicly risks making it more difficult for her to recover. She doesn't need to be burdened with rumours and speculation while she's unwell, regardless of what her illness is. If it is anorexia, how does it help her by writing such an article? Is it something we really need to know? If it isn't anorexia then it's damaging to her to speculate as well as to everyone else out there with anorexia and whatever Mai is suffering from.

Just listening to the podcast now. So far so good. Seems nicely put together. I'm pleased that ABC is living up to my expectations after I assured everyone they'd be nice and fair. Phew.

On the Cricket Club coaches all being at Worlds: is Ekaterina Kurakova still at TCC? She's national champion and she has minimum TES. Might she be at Montreal?

Right? I stopped filming him because I was so unsettled (and then missed getting my own footage of the fully rotated one ). Like it was mesmerising, he's mesmerising, but it was scary to watch.

ABC is generally pretty fair and objective. They're one of the more reputable networks in Australia. They're government owned but they are not a mouthpiece for the government - every so often there's scandals of people getting fired or investigated from ABC or the other public network because of the things they say or publish that the government doesn't like but the government usually gets called out on breaking their own rules for doing it. If they have anything negative they're going to bring up, I'm sure it'll be about how our poor Zu can't have a peaceful day out with his family in Japan or something like that or about the worst of his fans and how they treat other skaters etc.

He did say he's been training 4F so it wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly the case - he can do it but he just won't put it into competition (yet).

Yuzu in the style of Tim Burton. I would pay so much money to see that film.

I did recently find a stitched clean LGC on a Chinese site that had all the music. Guess it's a little easier to avoid copyright cleanses if there's a language barrier to hide something under.

But not before someone saves it with music somewhere so I can retain a copy for .... important research.

Same. Korea throwback and Chopin is the one from PC he hasn't done as an EX this season yet.

My heart breaks again and again. I still can't believe he was medically cleared to skate.

Gorgeously eloquent there.