Cup of China
Goddamn, this Grand Prix season is grueling. FOR ME. Can't they do it every two weeks or something? Because I was sick I actually ended up watching nearly everything. Except the women's short because I'm a hater.
In other news I bought a new phone today. The guy laughed at my old phone when I showed it to him. Particularly when he saw that five years ago I had named it my "yuppie phone" because it was kind of cool at the time. Now I have what is definitely not a yuppie phone because it's... just a phone. Doesn't do my taxes or even tell me the weather. It just calls and texts and doesn't have an overwhelming data plan.
So my iPod Touch will have to remain my yuppie status symbol. <3333
Salute the Shorts:
Manly Men
Peitong Chen is for some reason really adorable to me, despite the fact that he was merely canon fodder in this competition. He's like my Chinese Jeremy Ten.
Brian Joubert! I remember liking this program a bit more when he debuted it. I'm still a sucker for the way Njarro tells skaters to mover their arms, it's more interesting to me than some of the usual motions I see though my dance vocabulary is woefully inadequate to describe what it is I'm really trying to say. Watching Brian didn't feel a hundred percent comfortable no, but I liked seeing people trying and he's trying. So I was happy to see him in second.
Takahiko Kozuka! Eh. I guess I liked it. I see why his performance was first in the short, but really it wasn't my cuppa. I love seeing well landed jumps and complicated footwork but also... I love to see pretty. /o\ I am in the Johnny Weir School of Judging all the way, apparently. Which is fine. In the end I've got enough skaters on my plate to stan without deciding that every gold medalist is amazing and a must see!
Tomas Verner! (He has accents somewhere in his name but I am lazy.) I like him. I like his skating. And found myself liking the program though it wasn't exactly a show stopper. I wish the back of his vest wasn't khaki because every time he turns around his otherwise adorable costume becomes drab and boring.
Samuel Contesti! Yup. He skated at Cup of China in 2010. His coach had the MIGHTIEST of mustaches. My god.
Ross Miner and Brandon Mroz. How glad am I that Jeremey Abbott is still skating this season? So glad. I'm also desperately grateful for Adam Rippon. Because uh. They're good and all but they really lack a certain wow factor for me.
Fly Honeys
Again they get the short shift from me, but you know what. That's just how it's gonna be this whole season I think.
I loved Mirai's short though I did not love the music. I think I like her one from last year more, but at least I'm here finally enjoying a woman's short program that is not latin themed. So hey. I'm improving.
Akiko Suzuki. She's got such a cute smile. And ta-da a vaguely latin themed program! So I liked it. It had a good combination jump at the start and great spins to thrill me. The footwork was good, too. Good for her!
I feel like Miki's short could be so fierce by World's but watching Miki skate I couldn't help but think that either her hips or her knees were very stiff. I don't know. Something wasn't easy, or entirely smooth when I was watching it. Maybe it is meant to be tense. IDK. Though it was a sassy performance, but it was just not 100% for me.
Alena's short program was... not my favorite. At all. From the costume to the choreography, I was just not loving it.
Ice Dancin' on the Ceiling
What I remember most is dearly loving the Hungarians, hearting Massimo and Fede, and I was v. impressed with Nathalie and Fabian. But for some reason Massimo and Fede edged out as winners in the "Ice dancers previously not paid attention to but now dearly loved category." When I heard about Massimo getting his blade caught in Fede's dress I figured that meant a fall, but no, he stayed upright like a pro, they just had to break character. Fede looks very... severe in all that white, but I love My Fair Lady and thought that their SD was super charming. I know why Nathalie and Fabian were first after the SD, but I was more charmed by Fede and Massimo. The Hungarians were just a hoot to watch in a ice dance competition that, overall, was not as amazing as NHK. I just liked them more than the Russian team who were otherwise very nice.
Uh, IDK. Pairs
Uhhhhh, this was the first discipline I watched and I didn't take notes. Fail. I remember the bloomers and chaps on Sui/Han. Because that's commitment. And also Huibo Dong's fierce bob and even fiercer death spiral in the short. I found myself totally crushing on her despite a low scoring performance. And alas that the Russians weren't as good this time around. Boo. Caitlin and John Coughlin looked great. I don't remember watching their short at NHK, perhaps because they weren't highly ranked there, but I reallllllly liked their short. Pang and Tong were less magical than NHK but Pang remains smack-you-in-the-face pretty. Ten points for that alone.
Free Skates are not Free, but they are Long:
Manly Men
Peitong Chen. WHY WAS THIS SO CUTE DESPITE SO MUCH FAIL? IDK. He just kept trying and I kept thinking it was cute. I guess he just had a good attitude? He just always got up like, "Ah well." Unlike Wu who seemed so unhappy (not that I don't understand why he'd be miffed).
Samuel Contesti is 27 a fact which escaped me until just now. So props for not giving up. But I hate your costume. Shouldn't you have grown out of day-glo? His jumps were not all landed with confidence, and I felt the spins were slow. His footwork is not bad, but slow and not engaging. I do like some of his elements... but uhhh the second footwork sequence felt like it was in half time. Was that just me?
(Side note: One of the scenes of children picking up toys made the plushies look like fallen soldiers and the bb!skaters look like medics on skates.)
Ross Miner. I was all excited that he was skating to a As Time Goes By, but I'm not hugely in love with the mix he went with. And again. Seems like a nice guy who sorely lacks in the wow factor. And consistency.
Brandon Mroz. The jumps for the most part were very solidly landed, and I can't so much find a fault with this program as just not really connect to it. Watching this season has really shown me why I choose some of the skaters I ended up stanning. Like I don't really stan Joubert, he's just an amusing guy to me. Brandon Mroz at this time does not amuse me. Had they been equally solid on the landings and skated by other people, I feel like both of their programs would have both felt the same to me to watch: nice but not something I'd need to see again. I just would have been happier to see Joubert win, because again, he's amusing to me. And because I liked Joubert, I liked some of his touches more than I did Mroz.
Tomas Verner. Oh Tomas. In the battle of Micheal Jackson flavored medleys... I'm sorry. Florent Amodio wins. This was just... unusual to me. Very old school when they used to have like three sections to each program, with actual pauses in the mix. I thought he skated well, but this was just a little boring to me. Except for when I mime laughed to Vincent Price. Iiiiiiidk about that. Let's ban miming to laughter in programs please.
Brian Joubert. At the risk of sounding like someone who doesn't know anything (too late!) I don't understand why they downgraded that quad. I thought it looked beautiful. It was weird seeing Brian doubling jumps (I guess the transitions were too much for him?), and the music didn't suit him. I kind of hope the reason he chose to recycle the costume so that he could scrap this long and start anew. But that's more a Stephane-m.o. than Brian, I think. WHO KNOWS. Again, I liked some things about this program, and that quad was absolutely fine to me. I would have liked to see Brian medal, but it wasn't the same as watching Adam win Bronze in the face of Patrick Chan's showing. I thought Mroz didn't really knock it out of the park at all but he was solidly workmanlike rather than a disaster. (Like your SP, Chan.)
Takahiko Kozuka. I do not like that costume. But the program was good. He definitely won this competition, and not at all just by landing jumps. His performance was solid. But again, not my cuppa in the long run.
Fly Honeys
Miki's long was great. Just absolutely great. I'm almost regretting choosing Mirai over her in my fantasy league, but I just can't help but love Mirai's adorable face. But this program was really, really great to watch. Her three jump combination got an instant replay from me. With Akikio's it was one of the best three jump combination I saw in the entire competition.
Mirai's costume is mouthwateringly gorgeous and her spins are still something that makes me squeal to watch. If she hadn't headcased, or hadn't had the issue of an injury all this summer I think that this could have just been fabulous, but it was not meant to be. =T
Akiko Suzuki! She was so energetic at the start and end of this. It wasn't at all ponderous, I loved that. But it was also a bit cutesy. But she's cute so. IDK. She and Ando both had better looking three jump combinations than the men! Wish the other jumps had been as consistent. =T
Alena Leonova. LOL. That short hair and that smile. I feel like cloned Irina Slutskaya. Her gloves have fake nails and her eye shadow is green. This girl. She really goes for it. I feel like if figure skating were high school she would be the square peg in a round hole. That's charming, but her gimmick is just not my gimmick though. I hope some other people get a kick out of her, but I badly wish Mirai had held it together and placed higher. I did like her first combination sit spin, but I didn't like her camel spins very much, and footwork made her seem... actually crazy.
Ice Dancin' on the Ceiling
I just ended up watching Massimo and Fede's FD. So sue me. Today was the first day I could breathe through my nose in four days. I had things to do. I'M SO SAD THEY FELL. Because I loved it. Really loved it. Also I wish Massimo hadn't chosen blue for his costume. Other than that... <3
I'll add more FD reactions later.
Pairs
Woooooow, the lower ranks of this discipline was not fun to watch. I still love Huibo Dong's bob, but it was rough watching their free. Ah well. Evora and Ladwig were strangely charming with their terrible spiral sequence and stepping out of a jump in synch. I don't like the Ave Maria program skated by Caitlin and John. I feel like I'm napping through it and then I wake up to find they've got higher scores than a pair I liked better. I don't begrudge them it, I just wish I enjoyed watching their program. =T
I thought that Lubov and Nodari were very nearly FLAWLESS in their freeskate. I almost want to be mad that they didn't bronze, but they weren't quite as solid in the short buuuuuut. IDK. They were just adorable and amazing and their entries and exits into their elements were great, and sometimes even surprising. Maybe I do wish they'd gotten the bronze instead.
Sui and Han. Sui is 15 but she looks like she's 12. And the choreography kind of played that up cuteness and it made me a little uncomfortable. She's sooooo young and she's competing on the international level and I feel like they should have been forced to stay in juniors for a little while longer. But there is no arguing that their technical element scores were huge. I wish I new more about how pairs were judged so that this wasn't all gut feeling. Least insightful!
Pang and Tong really sold the story of their skate, and I'm not surprised they got gold. It was much less obvious that they deserved it than NHK but their skating was still lovely and beautiful and I can't really begrudge their PCs scores. Well actually one judge was apparently like ALL OF THE 8.00s and 8.75s! But eh. Good for them. And my fantasy league. \o/
In other news I bought a new phone today. The guy laughed at my old phone when I showed it to him. Particularly when he saw that five years ago I had named it my "yuppie phone" because it was kind of cool at the time. Now I have what is definitely not a yuppie phone because it's... just a phone. Doesn't do my taxes or even tell me the weather. It just calls and texts and doesn't have an overwhelming data plan.
So my iPod Touch will have to remain my yuppie status symbol. <3333
Salute the Shorts:
Manly Men
Peitong Chen is for some reason really adorable to me, despite the fact that he was merely canon fodder in this competition. He's like my Chinese Jeremy Ten.
Brian Joubert! I remember liking this program a bit more when he debuted it. I'm still a sucker for the way Njarro tells skaters to mover their arms, it's more interesting to me than some of the usual motions I see though my dance vocabulary is woefully inadequate to describe what it is I'm really trying to say. Watching Brian didn't feel a hundred percent comfortable no, but I liked seeing people trying and he's trying. So I was happy to see him in second.
Takahiko Kozuka! Eh. I guess I liked it. I see why his performance was first in the short, but really it wasn't my cuppa. I love seeing well landed jumps and complicated footwork but also... I love to see pretty. /o\ I am in the Johnny Weir School of Judging all the way, apparently. Which is fine. In the end I've got enough skaters on my plate to stan without deciding that every gold medalist is amazing and a must see!
Tomas Verner! (He has accents somewhere in his name but I am lazy.) I like him. I like his skating. And found myself liking the program though it wasn't exactly a show stopper. I wish the back of his vest wasn't khaki because every time he turns around his otherwise adorable costume becomes drab and boring.
Samuel Contesti! Yup. He skated at Cup of China in 2010. His coach had the MIGHTIEST of mustaches. My god.
Ross Miner and Brandon Mroz. How glad am I that Jeremey Abbott is still skating this season? So glad. I'm also desperately grateful for Adam Rippon. Because uh. They're good and all but they really lack a certain wow factor for me.
Fly Honeys
Again they get the short shift from me, but you know what. That's just how it's gonna be this whole season I think.
I loved Mirai's short though I did not love the music. I think I like her one from last year more, but at least I'm here finally enjoying a woman's short program that is not latin themed. So hey. I'm improving.
Akiko Suzuki. She's got such a cute smile. And ta-da a vaguely latin themed program! So I liked it. It had a good combination jump at the start and great spins to thrill me. The footwork was good, too. Good for her!
I feel like Miki's short could be so fierce by World's but watching Miki skate I couldn't help but think that either her hips or her knees were very stiff. I don't know. Something wasn't easy, or entirely smooth when I was watching it. Maybe it is meant to be tense. IDK. Though it was a sassy performance, but it was just not 100% for me.
Alena's short program was... not my favorite. At all. From the costume to the choreography, I was just not loving it.
Ice Dancin' on the Ceiling
What I remember most is dearly loving the Hungarians, hearting Massimo and Fede, and I was v. impressed with Nathalie and Fabian. But for some reason Massimo and Fede edged out as winners in the "Ice dancers previously not paid attention to but now dearly loved category." When I heard about Massimo getting his blade caught in Fede's dress I figured that meant a fall, but no, he stayed upright like a pro, they just had to break character. Fede looks very... severe in all that white, but I love My Fair Lady and thought that their SD was super charming. I know why Nathalie and Fabian were first after the SD, but I was more charmed by Fede and Massimo. The Hungarians were just a hoot to watch in a ice dance competition that, overall, was not as amazing as NHK. I just liked them more than the Russian team who were otherwise very nice.
Uh, IDK. Pairs
Uhhhhh, this was the first discipline I watched and I didn't take notes. Fail. I remember the bloomers and chaps on Sui/Han. Because that's commitment. And also Huibo Dong's fierce bob and even fiercer death spiral in the short. I found myself totally crushing on her despite a low scoring performance. And alas that the Russians weren't as good this time around. Boo. Caitlin and John Coughlin looked great. I don't remember watching their short at NHK, perhaps because they weren't highly ranked there, but I reallllllly liked their short. Pang and Tong were less magical than NHK but Pang remains smack-you-in-the-face pretty. Ten points for that alone.
Free Skates are not Free, but they are Long:
Manly Men
Peitong Chen. WHY WAS THIS SO CUTE DESPITE SO MUCH FAIL? IDK. He just kept trying and I kept thinking it was cute. I guess he just had a good attitude? He just always got up like, "Ah well." Unlike Wu who seemed so unhappy (not that I don't understand why he'd be miffed).
Samuel Contesti is 27 a fact which escaped me until just now. So props for not giving up. But I hate your costume. Shouldn't you have grown out of day-glo? His jumps were not all landed with confidence, and I felt the spins were slow. His footwork is not bad, but slow and not engaging. I do like some of his elements... but uhhh the second footwork sequence felt like it was in half time. Was that just me?
(Side note: One of the scenes of children picking up toys made the plushies look like fallen soldiers and the bb!skaters look like medics on skates.)
Ross Miner. I was all excited that he was skating to a As Time Goes By, but I'm not hugely in love with the mix he went with. And again. Seems like a nice guy who sorely lacks in the wow factor. And consistency.
Brandon Mroz. The jumps for the most part were very solidly landed, and I can't so much find a fault with this program as just not really connect to it. Watching this season has really shown me why I choose some of the skaters I ended up stanning. Like I don't really stan Joubert, he's just an amusing guy to me. Brandon Mroz at this time does not amuse me. Had they been equally solid on the landings and skated by other people, I feel like both of their programs would have both felt the same to me to watch: nice but not something I'd need to see again. I just would have been happier to see Joubert win, because again, he's amusing to me. And because I liked Joubert, I liked some of his touches more than I did Mroz.
Tomas Verner. Oh Tomas. In the battle of Micheal Jackson flavored medleys... I'm sorry. Florent Amodio wins. This was just... unusual to me. Very old school when they used to have like three sections to each program, with actual pauses in the mix. I thought he skated well, but this was just a little boring to me. Except for when I mime laughed to Vincent Price. Iiiiiiidk about that. Let's ban miming to laughter in programs please.
Brian Joubert. At the risk of sounding like someone who doesn't know anything (too late!) I don't understand why they downgraded that quad. I thought it looked beautiful. It was weird seeing Brian doubling jumps (I guess the transitions were too much for him?), and the music didn't suit him. I kind of hope the reason he chose to recycle the costume so that he could scrap this long and start anew. But that's more a Stephane-m.o. than Brian, I think. WHO KNOWS. Again, I liked some things about this program, and that quad was absolutely fine to me. I would have liked to see Brian medal, but it wasn't the same as watching Adam win Bronze in the face of Patrick Chan's showing. I thought Mroz didn't really knock it out of the park at all but he was solidly workmanlike rather than a disaster. (Like your SP, Chan.)
Takahiko Kozuka. I do not like that costume. But the program was good. He definitely won this competition, and not at all just by landing jumps. His performance was solid. But again, not my cuppa in the long run.
Fly Honeys
Miki's long was great. Just absolutely great. I'm almost regretting choosing Mirai over her in my fantasy league, but I just can't help but love Mirai's adorable face. But this program was really, really great to watch. Her three jump combination got an instant replay from me. With Akikio's it was one of the best three jump combination I saw in the entire competition.
Mirai's costume is mouthwateringly gorgeous and her spins are still something that makes me squeal to watch. If she hadn't headcased, or hadn't had the issue of an injury all this summer I think that this could have just been fabulous, but it was not meant to be. =T
Akiko Suzuki! She was so energetic at the start and end of this. It wasn't at all ponderous, I loved that. But it was also a bit cutesy. But she's cute so. IDK. She and Ando both had better looking three jump combinations than the men! Wish the other jumps had been as consistent. =T
Alena Leonova. LOL. That short hair and that smile. I feel like cloned Irina Slutskaya. Her gloves have fake nails and her eye shadow is green. This girl. She really goes for it. I feel like if figure skating were high school she would be the square peg in a round hole. That's charming, but her gimmick is just not my gimmick though. I hope some other people get a kick out of her, but I badly wish Mirai had held it together and placed higher. I did like her first combination sit spin, but I didn't like her camel spins very much, and footwork made her seem... actually crazy.
Ice Dancin' on the Ceiling
I just ended up watching Massimo and Fede's FD. So sue me. Today was the first day I could breathe through my nose in four days. I had things to do. I'M SO SAD THEY FELL. Because I loved it. Really loved it. Also I wish Massimo hadn't chosen blue for his costume. Other than that... <3
I'll add more FD reactions later.
Pairs
Woooooow, the lower ranks of this discipline was not fun to watch. I still love Huibo Dong's bob, but it was rough watching their free. Ah well. Evora and Ladwig were strangely charming with their terrible spiral sequence and stepping out of a jump in synch. I don't like the Ave Maria program skated by Caitlin and John. I feel like I'm napping through it and then I wake up to find they've got higher scores than a pair I liked better. I don't begrudge them it, I just wish I enjoyed watching their program. =T
I thought that Lubov and Nodari were very nearly FLAWLESS in their freeskate. I almost want to be mad that they didn't bronze, but they weren't quite as solid in the short buuuuuut. IDK. They were just adorable and amazing and their entries and exits into their elements were great, and sometimes even surprising. Maybe I do wish they'd gotten the bronze instead.
Sui and Han. Sui is 15 but she looks like she's 12. And the choreography kind of played that up cuteness and it made me a little uncomfortable. She's sooooo young and she's competing on the international level and I feel like they should have been forced to stay in juniors for a little while longer. But there is no arguing that their technical element scores were huge. I wish I new more about how pairs were judged so that this wasn't all gut feeling. Least insightful!
Pang and Tong really sold the story of their skate, and I'm not surprised they got gold. It was much less obvious that they deserved it than NHK but their skating was still lovely and beautiful and I can't really begrudge their PCs scores. Well actually one judge was apparently like ALL OF THE 8.00s and 8.75s! But eh. Good for them. And my fantasy league. \o/