European Figure Skating Championships (part 3)
Or gala day.
My photos from this day weren't as good, so I'll mostly be relying on Youtube videos.
I finally managed to meet up with M. I turns out that, in many ways, it was probably good that we didn't meet up beforehand because one of the people I would have been with is a rabid Plushenko hater. Now, I am cool with criticism of him - he has all the artistic merit of a haddock and is given to advanced hamminess and is guilty of lame, sequin and glove-related crimes beyond measure - but he does have tech. merit, and if you're not willing to admit that, then, well, I'm going to think you're a fool. This was before she claimed Thomas Verner had artistic merit and Stephane Lambiel had tech. merit. I like Verner, and adored some of Lambiel's programmes, but bzuh?! what?!
She insisted that Gachinski's programme was better (it probably was) and that the only reason Plushenko won was because he got the former champion's bump. Which, hey, is also probably true. I think she was mildly put out by me agreeing with her on both these points. But I've always been perfectly willing to admit that Plushenko isn't the best, but he is my favourite so I don't care.
Also, and not related to any of the above, skate bunnies/skate rats/insert your choice of description here, I just don't get it.
Anyhow
It opened with a British novice skating to 'We No Speak Americano' and he was adorable.
Then came Ilinykh and Katsalapov (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHNnOcyRiWs) dancing to 'Black Velvet' with Elena Ilinykh wearing one of those outfits that makes me glad that illusion netting exists.
Followed by Florent Amodio dancing to 'Mess Around' (the Ray Charles version) which I really liked - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YDkYKShO1M I have to admit to a closet fondness for the pocket rocket.
This was followed by Vartmann and van Cleave (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQF9G5ReMS0) dancing to 'Le temps de Cathedral' or to quote M, 'yet more French miserableness'. Thanks to only having seen the men's and women's free I mostly managed to miss what appeared to be this year's theme, which was miserable French songs.
Viktoria Helgusson came next, dancing to Someone Like You - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoGd-k-EvZo which lead to a cry of 'no more miserable songs' from M. She was not going to get her wish.
Riazanova and Tkachenko came next skating to 'The Master and Margarita' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTCFbEWSVO8 which was not miserable in any way /sarcasm
Michael Brezina came next skating to something forgettable - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_slRHTSdj5U I am slightly fonder of Brezina than most of the other people I know but I really can't remember anything much about his performance other than this was where the compère really started to lose it. His pronunciation of the names previous had been off, but given that Brezina (who has enough vowels that the compère can't complain about Czech names) became Cretzina, and the attempts at the names got worse afterwards and I think the compère lost his bottle because at some point he managed to get totally confused by the word 'championship'. You'd think they'd have enough time to actually ask how the various names are pronounced.
What he did to the names of Stolbova and Klimov is past understanding but I liked their routine even if Stolbova's dress verged onto Katerina Witt levels of tiny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUU2zxH-9l8 I know it's a gala but I thought there were rules.
The department of inappropriate song choices struck with Polina Korobeynikova (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoAo60kC2q0). For goodness sake, she's 15, she shouldn't be dancing to 'Burlesque', she shouldn't be dancing to anything sexier than 'The Teddy Bears's Picnic'.
Not strictly related to the figure skating, I'd forgotten how distinctive (and kind of awesome) Cher's voice is.
Capellini and Lanotte danced amusingly to 'That's Amore'/ the song that 'We No Speak Americano' sampled - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0JAtGGLE5E
Elene Gedevanishvili danced to something miserable and Australian http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQmdNHt4s_Y
Bazarova and Larionov (whose name gained vowels) also danced to something miserable http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omRM-T4sJ5o
I'll give the Kerr's this, they did not dance to anything miserable (mostly, I suspect, because John Kerr couldn't keep a straight face if he tried) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMAr_Rfz1dk
They brought the first half to an end and we were able to complain about voice over people and miserable music choices to our heart's content.
The novice who started the second half was lovely. I mean, really. Now, if only British sport could learn how to graduate people from novices to seniors.
Penny Coomes and Nick Buckalnd joined in the general miserableness by dancing to 'Fix You' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbktNC0DuvA
Tomas Verner did not - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwyvKd-mcsE. Unfortunately, striping to gold lame pants has been done before (in smaller pants) by a certain other person - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogpwrc6oCKM That being said, my favourite stripping related skating video features is this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeA_VJK1wEE Sadly Philippe Candeloro ruined all other half-naked skaters for me when I was 9.
Berton and Hotarek looked adorable while skating to 'Caruso' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApX3rXbe7bw even if it was a return to miserableness.
Despite the outfit Kiira Korpi (dancing to Lady Gaga's 'You and I') also joined in with the misery - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7BCV-tHR_s
I think Boborova and Soloviev's miserableness was Italian-flavoured - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kcu-kIjBiU
Then came the clone Gachinski. Unfortunately, on gala day, Plushenko had his hair a little scruffy and they were both wearing purple and sparkly tops. I give up. Seriously, even my Mum, once she'd seen Gachinski's long programme went 'he's wearing Plushenko's gloves'. Gachinski also danced to something French, although not miserable, well, probably not miserable - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TZYJaJaAns
Even if you don't like figure skating, you will probably enjoy Volosozhar and Trankov's routine, which is why it's not going behind the cut. It's both funny and clever.
Let's be honest here, Carolina Kostner dancing to 'Hallelujah', Jeff Buckley version, was never going to be cheerful. But it was beautiful. For all that she was reusing her free skate outfit, her routine fit to the music beautifully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0NkSP53bVs
Pechalat and Bourzat were not miserable, and were dancing to a mash up 'Time of My Life' and 'Dirty Bit' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J-YehAKZMM which worked. Also, unlike a lot of other ice dance couples, I suspect them of actually being able to dance.
Plushenko's dance was to miserable music, but his inner silliness was never far from the fore - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_AFcU785U
So yes, I had a whale of a time, there's nothing quite like unexpectedly being there to see your favourite winning the Europeans.
My photos from this day weren't as good, so I'll mostly be relying on Youtube videos.
I finally managed to meet up with M. I turns out that, in many ways, it was probably good that we didn't meet up beforehand because one of the people I would have been with is a rabid Plushenko hater. Now, I am cool with criticism of him - he has all the artistic merit of a haddock and is given to advanced hamminess and is guilty of lame, sequin and glove-related crimes beyond measure - but he does have tech. merit, and if you're not willing to admit that, then, well, I'm going to think you're a fool. This was before she claimed Thomas Verner had artistic merit and Stephane Lambiel had tech. merit. I like Verner, and adored some of Lambiel's programmes, but bzuh?! what?!
She insisted that Gachinski's programme was better (it probably was) and that the only reason Plushenko won was because he got the former champion's bump. Which, hey, is also probably true. I think she was mildly put out by me agreeing with her on both these points. But I've always been perfectly willing to admit that Plushenko isn't the best, but he is my favourite so I don't care.
Also, and not related to any of the above, skate bunnies/skate rats/insert your choice of description here, I just don't get it.
Anyhow
It opened with a British novice skating to 'We No Speak Americano' and he was adorable.
Then came Ilinykh and Katsalapov (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHNnOcyRiWs) dancing to 'Black Velvet' with Elena Ilinykh wearing one of those outfits that makes me glad that illusion netting exists.
Followed by Florent Amodio dancing to 'Mess Around' (the Ray Charles version) which I really liked - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YDkYKShO1M I have to admit to a closet fondness for the pocket rocket.
This was followed by Vartmann and van Cleave (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQF9G5ReMS0) dancing to 'Le temps de Cathedral' or to quote M, 'yet more French miserableness'. Thanks to only having seen the men's and women's free I mostly managed to miss what appeared to be this year's theme, which was miserable French songs.
Viktoria Helgusson came next, dancing to Someone Like You - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoGd-k-EvZo which lead to a cry of 'no more miserable songs' from M. She was not going to get her wish.
Riazanova and Tkachenko came next skating to 'The Master and Margarita' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTCFbEWSVO8 which was not miserable in any way /sarcasm
Michael Brezina came next skating to something forgettable - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_slRHTSdj5U I am slightly fonder of Brezina than most of the other people I know but I really can't remember anything much about his performance other than this was where the compère really started to lose it. His pronunciation of the names previous had been off, but given that Brezina (who has enough vowels that the compère can't complain about Czech names) became Cretzina, and the attempts at the names got worse afterwards and I think the compère lost his bottle because at some point he managed to get totally confused by the word 'championship'. You'd think they'd have enough time to actually ask how the various names are pronounced.
What he did to the names of Stolbova and Klimov is past understanding but I liked their routine even if Stolbova's dress verged onto Katerina Witt levels of tiny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUU2zxH-9l8 I know it's a gala but I thought there were rules.
The department of inappropriate song choices struck with Polina Korobeynikova (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoAo60kC2q0). For goodness sake, she's 15, she shouldn't be dancing to 'Burlesque', she shouldn't be dancing to anything sexier than 'The Teddy Bears's Picnic'.
Not strictly related to the figure skating, I'd forgotten how distinctive (and kind of awesome) Cher's voice is.
Capellini and Lanotte danced amusingly to 'That's Amore'/ the song that 'We No Speak Americano' sampled - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0JAtGGLE5E
Elene Gedevanishvili danced to something miserable and Australian http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQmdNHt4s_Y
Bazarova and Larionov (whose name gained vowels) also danced to something miserable http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omRM-T4sJ5o
I'll give the Kerr's this, they did not dance to anything miserable (mostly, I suspect, because John Kerr couldn't keep a straight face if he tried) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMAr_Rfz1dk
They brought the first half to an end and we were able to complain about voice over people and miserable music choices to our heart's content.
The novice who started the second half was lovely. I mean, really. Now, if only British sport could learn how to graduate people from novices to seniors.
Penny Coomes and Nick Buckalnd joined in the general miserableness by dancing to 'Fix You' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbktNC0DuvA
Tomas Verner did not - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwyvKd-mcsE. Unfortunately, striping to gold lame pants has been done before (in smaller pants) by a certain other person - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogpwrc6oCKM That being said, my favourite stripping related skating video features is this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeA_VJK1wEE Sadly Philippe Candeloro ruined all other half-naked skaters for me when I was 9.
Berton and Hotarek looked adorable while skating to 'Caruso' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApX3rXbe7bw even if it was a return to miserableness.
Despite the outfit Kiira Korpi (dancing to Lady Gaga's 'You and I') also joined in with the misery - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7BCV-tHR_s
I think Boborova and Soloviev's miserableness was Italian-flavoured - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kcu-kIjBiU
Then came the clone Gachinski. Unfortunately, on gala day, Plushenko had his hair a little scruffy and they were both wearing purple and sparkly tops. I give up. Seriously, even my Mum, once she'd seen Gachinski's long programme went 'he's wearing Plushenko's gloves'. Gachinski also danced to something French, although not miserable, well, probably not miserable - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TZYJaJaAns
Even if you don't like figure skating, you will probably enjoy Volosozhar and Trankov's routine, which is why it's not going behind the cut. It's both funny and clever.
Let's be honest here, Carolina Kostner dancing to 'Hallelujah', Jeff Buckley version, was never going to be cheerful. But it was beautiful. For all that she was reusing her free skate outfit, her routine fit to the music beautifully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0NkSP53bVs
Pechalat and Bourzat were not miserable, and were dancing to a mash up 'Time of My Life' and 'Dirty Bit' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J-YehAKZMM which worked. Also, unlike a lot of other ice dance couples, I suspect them of actually being able to dance.
Plushenko's dance was to miserable music, but his inner silliness was never far from the fore - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_AFcU785U
So yes, I had a whale of a time, there's nothing quite like unexpectedly being there to see your favourite winning the Europeans.