19 hours ago, fireovertheice said:

So, I am late for the party, as usual, and you said already all about programs, jumps (UR) and scores.

 

Still, please, can someone of you explain to me which is the concept of Nathan SP? I love the rythm of the music and Shae Lynn did the best coreography for Chen skills, but what is trying to interpret here? And does he know that? It should be important for the scores of IN...that to me in this performance was almost not existent.

 

And maybe it's because the concept at the base of the program is not so clear to him and his team - besides Bourne, oc - that Vera Wang came up with this kind of costume (it refers to the colors of piano keyboard?)

I get that they want to sell it like the fresh and contemporary program in contrast to all the classic pieces mostly chosen by the others, but the song and its words are playing under the skating without any meaning?

 

I look forward to hearing a convincing explanation, please.

 

I can't explain anything because I have the same questions.

tbh, before I actually stopped to properly listen to the lyrics, I had a much better opinion of the program. Nate usually skates it with energy and kind of... cool exuberance? youthful bubbliness?(a la PW Yuzu) that imo goes well with the music...but not really with the meaning of the lyrics, which are kind of somber, harsh even (and watching the official video I get a feeling of "what could have been, but was not" and "can't escape punishment". Regret and despair, too. But this is my interpretation)

I'm not sure Nathan is skating to the song, more to the rhythm. When he skates I don't see Nemesis (meant as Justice and rightful Punishment)  or Karma (as in the bad you did comes back at you. The video of the song shows that it's too late to atone, so the man is left alone crawling...kinda creepy and sad.OT but yay I like this singer! He's a very interesting character too)

About the costume, at first I thought it could be related to the piano keyboard, too, but... that's a long stretch of imagination and again, it has little to do with the actual meaning of the song. But at a certain point in the video there is this white strip on the floor (like a road in the darkness... but the man turns and runs away, and later he frantically crawls there) so maybe that's it...   (but then what about the red brick wall? the ladder? the empty chairs? they are all methaphors, they could add those too and still this doesn't explain those strange sleeves...)

btw, this disconnection between the actual theme of the song and the program performed on it (when Nathan performs it, like at the beginning and in the stsq) enforces my feeling that they wanted to channel the PW-effect for Nathan (the young talent skating to something fresh and quite different from what general audience expects from figure skating), but they chose the wrong song (had they left out the lyrics it would be very good, tho). But I don't expect people to care about the meaning and concept that much (heck, I myself didn't bother to care that much till that costume popped out)

 

Anyway it really looks like Nathan still hasn't recovered fully (or was so unlucky to catch that stomach bug too) if he isn't even going to attempt a 4Lz (tho with him you never know). He knows he doesn't need it to win (and even to have huge scores). I think that what he has to care the most in this event, right now, is to not injury himself (but he's still gonna do 5 quads talk about watered layouts)

 

20 hours ago, fireovertheice said:

So, I am late for the party, as usual, and you said already all about programs, jumps (UR) and scores.

 

Still, please, can someone of you explain to me which is the concept of Nathan SP? I love the rythm of the music and Shae Lynn did the best coreography for Chen skills, but what is trying to interpret here? And does he know that? It should be important for the scores of IN...that to me in this performance was almost not existent.

 

And maybe it's because the concept at the base of the program is not so clear to him and his team - besides Bourne, oc - that Vera Wang came up with this kind of costume (it refers to the colors of piano keyboard?)

I get that they want to sell it like the fresh and contemporary program in contrast to all the classic pieces mostly chosen by the others, but the song and its words are playing under the skating without any meaning?

 

I look forward to hearing a convincing explanation, please.

 

I think his SP has a cool, carefree character. Its not about interpret the lyrics all the time, you can skate to the rhyme and create your own theme there. I'm sure Jason's sp is not about the lyrics too. I dont know about Halmiton but my friend said she didn't know which character he want to potray. The same with Yuzuru's PW, that program has a very cool and sassy character without any lyrics. Or Patrick's blackbird SP, he didn't skate to the lyrics all the time, more like the feeling and the atmosphere

IMO Nathan's best interpretation of this SP still the performances at Caoi and COR. 

Yuzuru's PW was an instrumental piece- if you're going to skate to a song surely interpretation of the lyrics is important?  The Hamilton SP doesn't do much for me tbh, and Nemesis is surely intended to be dark and foreboding rather than 'sassy'?

Just now, Sombreuil said:

Yuzuru's PW was an instrumental piece- if you're going to skate to a song surely interpretation of the lyrics is important?  The Hamilton SP doesn't do much for me tbh, and Nemesis is surely intended to be dark and foreboding rather than 'sassy'?

Which is exactly why Nathan's new costume and haircut, which makes him look much younger, is not working with the program for me  

 

and I said it before about Jason's SP, he needs to lose the lyrics and just keep the music. The lyrics and very distracting and add nothing to the program 

Nathan's curl add a certain charm to his SP  now with that adidas costume, it look like he's trying too hard. I don't mind if Nathan isn't really skate to the lyrics, I like some choreo details, the atmosphere and a bit wildness that he showcased. Hopefully he can skate with more freedom next time (with the curl and black t shirt of course) 

My point is, if you're going to disregard the song you're skating to, why did you choose it (keeping the lyrics)?

They could have used an instrumental version. If they weren't given permission or absolutely wanted a song with lyrics, they could choose another song that fit what they wanted to portray.

It's not like there is shortage of songs with sassy feeling, sung by whichever type of voice you want. But they chose this song, sung by this guy and with this lyrics, so both the voice and the lyrics became part of the song, so imo it's different from when you have to skate to classic or something like PW, where you have only the music and whatever feeling it inspires in you.

What is even the sense of choosing a certain piece if you're just going to say "I do what I what" with it? I don't demand the interpretation to be literal, but at least not completely different!

(which is why I liked the program better before I considered the song itself. I still like the program a lot and I don't even care about any of this when I watch it because I don't listen to the lyrics at all, which is quite easy for me given I'm not even native english speaker, but I think judges should care and this disconnection should be evalued in IN at least. Quoting from ISU: "The personal, creative, and genuine translation of the rhythm, character and content of music to movement on ice." Yes, it says personal and creative, but I'd like to point out it doesn't mean do whatever you want, it still has to be connected to the piece. And "Expression of the music’s character/feeling and rhythm, when clearly identifiable". Imo those lyrics do contribute to the character/feeling of this particular piece. The pure enjoyment of a program might have nothing to do with this, just like it can have nothing to do with difficulty, quality crossovers, lacks of TR and so on, but how the program needs to be judged is a different story)

Vera Wang part 2

 

 

I don't find it as amusingly meme-able as the SP costume and I like the sleeves but the visible zipper on the back kinda ruins it for me.

Jason's new costume is great, though!

 

Erm... what was that fuss about the costume about, Nathan? 

 

Just now, xeyra said:

Jason's new costume is great, though!

 

That looks great!  

I’m kinda laughing. Looks like Yuzu’s UA, except the zipper. Fashion TM obviously. 

What do you mean this is the costume? We've been waiting all this time for... this? 

*cries* 

 

sorry it is so ugly, why 

LOL and again I am wondering what these costumes were hyped for. This one is just boring and idgi

Seem like Vera Wang doesn't know any color but black  How much did Nathan have to pay for this when he looked better with no real costume