The "Best Of"

The "comments" section below the "Who is paying for it" post is getting lengthy, so I'm putting this here - my personal "best of" this ongoing hoax:

1. Menage a Trois Sur la Glace
   "I'm Jessica Dube and I date Scott MOIR and skate with Bryce. AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS." [shrug_shrug_shrug_shrug_shrug_shrug_shrug_shrug]
   
   Let's see:
   
   "I'm Tanith Belbin and I skate with BEN and fuck Charlie WHITE! And that's the way it is!" (Sorry Tanith... and Charlie.)
   
   Yes, that sounds normal.
   
   
2. The Dominican photo spam coinciding with the start of the Olympic season, not to mention the photos themselves. By banking the photos in May but waiting til September for the drop,  Jessica appeared desperately threatened by Tessa.* "It's ME in the REAL relationship!" They could have saved album space with just one photo of Jessica lifting her leg and peeing on Scott.


3. The Paris walkabout photoshoot - grotesque, realities considered.

4.  The Monaco sting – no Olympic photos from Alma, no Worlds photos but come see Monaco!! And look who’s here! Tessa too, but she’s not around much. The big whoop with the prince is mostly about Scott and Jessica! We don't really like spending time with Tessa when she and Scott aren't skating.

5.   OMG, this one time, like, super recently, on practice ice, for the first time in 13 years on ice or off, our lips totally by accident barely sort of kind of almost BRUSHED during practice, while we were in CHARACTER, but not really BRUSHED more like a bump? and it could even have been a lip BREEZE, but we are such complete twits and innocent KIDS we were so embarrassed and couldn't even like, look at each other afterwards!! And Scott took it personally and was all what the hell, but it was really because the idea of kissing him was so WEIRD!! I mean, I just never think of him like that - he's my partner!! We don't even think of the other one as having genitalia, to be honest! And you know why that is  - it's because we're so platonic we almost forget the other is the opposite gender and the idea of kissing them is SO ALIEN and WEIRD that we were completely FREAKED when it happened!! OMG, is there any way we can embellish this MORE - just ask!!

6.   “Characters on the ice”, George Clooney, "It's a compliment" and a bonus for the gaslight special: “I get it – I want characters in movies together in real life too.” Fuck off and stop telling us what we think and why we think it.

7.  The RIFT – their new story (180 from their original story) is that from her first surgery through -  how CONVENIENT - TEB and beyond -  they were estranged. That's right. Scott jerked his chair close to hers in the Bercy Kiss'nCry and pawed her neck, kissed her on ice, went with her everywhere, barely left her side during Worlds 2009 and practically stapled himself to her during 2009 4CCs to cover up the painful reality that they had lost their connection. How difficult it must have been to develop both Mahler and Farrucas off mere memory, to act out what they no longer felt. Scott saying Farrucas (versus Canadian folk) was right "for US", telling the media they were in constant communication, Tessa saying Mahler definitely "came naturally" - all lies concealing their estrangement, right when the Olympics loomed. Oh the humanity. And it must have been really tense not speaking when they played golf.

What a relief to come clean in their book and what guts it took dropping the public charade of being supportive and super close.

Nothing demonstrates the mainstream media's disinclination to do independent verification than the reporting of that one.

And right there on youtube is the Skate America interview they conducted together midway through her recovery, belying their story of being completely cut off from each other from the time of her surgery to the day she returned to Canton.

8.  This.

9.      Bryce is injured and immediately it's broadcast that "Scott Moir" will choreograph Jessica’s singles short program. Once again, WAY to go. Use Bryce's injury to promote the hoax and make D&D fans feel like those two callous attention whores are dancing on the grave of his career.

I wish I had a #10 to round off a 10 "best of" but there are too many examples competing for the spot from the 2011 4CCs to JESSICA IN THE STANDS WITH THE FAMILY!! OMG! for three Canadian free skates (but overseas? Meh. Outside Canada, no guarantee Jessica in the stands will be on camera. Overseas is for field trips that we post on the web!) to the massive unscreened fan sweeps into facebooks which "Scott" did just about every day while giving fans nothing because they were only in there as dupes to see Jessica's stuff and he didn't have the time or care to pretend otherwise, the great facebook re-set this past spring (I like how "Jessica" was unable to hit 5,000 on schedule so they opened "Jess Dube" anyway and restricted "Jessica" for no given reason), Tessa acting like she wasn't attending Danny's wedding just because it's May,  the indiscriminate spamming of Xmas and NYE photos complete with copious red-eye and Jessica/Scott's apparent ability to spend Xmas 2010! simultaneously in Ilderton and Drummond, Tessa claiming she feels guilty over not being together to Tessa working in "storyline through movement" and 'character' like a robot every opportunity she gets.

Rote repetition and staying "on message" does NOT = effective brainwash. It sounds like rote repetition and comes off tense and controlling. Besides, you're exploring rhythm, music, elements, steps and style, and the successful synthesis of figure skating/athleticism/dance - always pushing yourselves and raising the bar. What you're not doing is exploring characters and storylines, as that's always "Man/Woman are Hot for Each Other and WORK It!" "Man/Woman in Love!" and "Man/Woman Flirting en ROUTE to Falling in LOVE!" and that, you've got down.

Maybe the problem here isn't thinking fans are stupid, per se, but believing fans must be a step or so stupider than THEY are. And that would, obviously, set the bar to scraping the ground.
____________________________
*Scott could have cut to the chase with a simple status update: "I'm getting laid."

Scott looked so sexually insecure that to let it be known he was getting some he was willing to be a douchebag towards Bryce and pose for embarrassing photos with a girlfriend he hates.

Was this what was going on or the message they intended? No. But a moron could have seen that would be the takeaway.

I hope this baby is never used as a prop (or propaganda)



But I don't like the odds

I think babies shouldn't be exploited to help push a scam on people. Normally I wouldn't put babies on the blog but Alma has her profile picture public and she certainly knows the difference. So that's a choice, and it's a choice that has a reason; no pretending it's just proud Grandma sharing with everybody, including fans she lies to all the time (on behalf of her loved ones, so this is not on her, particularly). And the blame for the above goes to Casen's parents.

HPC camp is nigh, and in preparation, yesterday Carol Moir revealed a spanking new renovated and broom clean facebook wall:

Carol Moir shows off her renovation

The same evening as her mom's renovation reveal, Carol Moir set herself up for an IPO:

Jessica, as usual, vacillates about the best look for an approaching occasion: Over a 72 hour period: Do I stick with this?

This?

No - this !

We semi-match!  This!

Truly, I'd like NOT to anticipate b.s., or think - okay, this is a set up for a full half-gainer triple reversal off the third platform - but the odds are nil. All of this is on them and their games. They know exactly what they're doing, exactly who sees their facebooks, and calculate what's going to be done with them.

Is Jessica Going to Skate Canada No Matter What?

This is a placeholder so I can look back and see how it played out. It's speculation.

But - I wonder if the tbd spot at Skate Canada is already earmarked by Skate Canada for Jessica and Sebastien - part of the quid pro quo for her role in the game of "Scott and Jessica are dating." 

Jessica and Annie have declared Dube/Wolfe's goals for the season  --  same as Jessica with D&D. A podium finish at Nationals, an international assignment and the available berth at Skate Canada. Meantime Skate Canada reported - apparently erroneously - that Bryce had retired for good.

True, she and Bryce had the Olympic podium as a goal and didn't get it, and there was a rumor that unlike the defending champs in the other disciplines, she and Bryce were not guaranteed a trip to the Olympics no matter how they finished at Nationals 2010. There's nothing wrong with setting your goals high. But I'm curious. This is a somewhat resurgent time in pairs, and Sebastien/Jessica are by no means leading the charge.

Fans could always count on seeing D&D at Skate Canada along with Virtue/Moir. But now that Moore-Towers/Moscovitch are the champions, the champions don't get Skate Canada. Maybe Dylan needs to fake-date Tessa.

In the outing at Liberty, winning the long, Sebastien doubled his sbs triple flip (so the team got credit just for the double), Jessica fell out of a death spiral and they both splatted on the second half of the double axels. These aren't "new team" mistakes. They beat Americans Donlan/Speroff by just five points. They did just a split double twist. Girls new to pairs as well as other girls in brand new teams are doing the triple - girls with no world medal who have never been to the Olympics. What the hell with Jessica?

In a good showing in their Quebec short, Jessica and Sebastien both splatted the triple flip. In the long Jessica aborted two lifts.

Sebastian also again doubled the flip, and singled the first axel. And again with a split two twist.

Jessica's pairs combination spins have been sloppy the past few years but here she even had to hop a few times to get aligned for the same combinations she's done for years with Bryce. They were slower than at Liberty and had a heavy descent from the one lift they accomplished.

Jessica making like a Christmas ornament.

Jessica did not appear to have any intention of doing either press lift and while hanging off Sebastien's back aborting the second she seemed to glance over at Annie. She did not seem chagrined or disappointed at any point.

(Perhaps Sebastien needed to be made to feel insecure so she can reassure him and have the upper hand.)

Going by her performance in the ladies short, the Dube/Wolfe long program performance did not suffer from Jessica's focus on those singles skills she's claimed restored her "spark" for figure skating. 

This is a lot of equanimity combined with some pretty desultory skating for a girl we're supposed to believe hopes to earn her way to Skate Canada. Unless it was earned before she and Sebastien ever competed this summer.

This team has been together over six months; she's a World medalist, he's a junior nationals medalist and the long program has degraded since we saw it at Liberty.

Not to mention that while skating to an explicitly non-romantic Phillip Glass score, at Quebec Jessica randomly seemed to believe she was skating The Way We Were. The eyes would close and the head would swoon, the shoulders lifted and sighs were heaved. She zoned out. This was not her performance mode at Liberty. It was the weirdest.

Way We Were-ing it

Who is paying for it? A question.

When I was cutting the video about Jessica, the Moirs and the night of the Olympic free dance, I began to wonder if the supposed sideshow - Skate Canada's involvement - isn't the main event.

Skate Canada is always good for snark, but I've given it more thought, particularly with the facebooks getting further restricted, including Barb MacDonald's. There are a number of reasons to restrict the facebooks - among them, not wanting outsiders to take a second look and see things for what they are, particularly not outside media checking things out.

But what if things are dirtier than that. What the fuck WAS Debbi Wilkes doing in the Kiss'n Cry personally overseeing a public scam, using Skate Canada resources (Debbie Mac and that other guy) - not to mention Wilkes allocating her own time and attention as Team Manager and Director of Public Relations? And appropriating the venue for it too? (The Kiss'nCry became a staging arena for public deception.)

Why is Barb MacDonald - whose job is corporate communications - jumping aboard "Jess Dube's" fb the first night it's set up?

No doubt other skating federations know or wink when their skaters are sanitizing or faking their private life, but do they openly serve up the beard, spend resources on it and market it? Is this a proper way for Debbi Wilkes to use the venue? Is it appropriate for Skatebug to make this sham/scam part of its commentary at an event as it did for Canadians in 2010?

I'd assume the Moirs/Virtues spend the money to ferry Jessica back and forth from Ilderton - but do they? What about the Dominican, which included Veronique Dube and Jonathan Dube? What about Jessica's pere and mere in Paris at TEB 2009 where the parents did a walkabout with Scott's parents and Jessica and Scott for the edification of Jessica and Alma's fans on their facebook albums? The Dubes do not have the $$ resources some other parents have.

What about Monaco? Somebody has to hotel and feed the girl and fly her home from there instead of Italy.

Indisputably, the Jessica arrangement is not handled privately; Skate Canada officials in their professional capacity help manage logistics and execution. That's if any of it can be considered private, since so many of Scott's immediate family are high profile members of Skate Canada.

That top level SC personnel devote on-the-job time and attention to this is without question. What about $?

Jessica being on the same competitive circuit as VM saves money because she generally has Canadians and SC in common with them, and has had TEB in the past - and then last November when Scott posted on Jessica's facebook wall: "Can't wait til next week... Je taime" he was referring to Mississauga, where he and Tessa turned out to have a book promotion appearance and did a signing at the Hershey Center where Jessica was competing singles. Debbi Wilkes interviewed them there for Skatebuzz and plugged their book.

Was this promotional appearance belatedly set up so it coinciding with Jessica's competition would be paid for by the publisher or Skate Canada? Seems like Nationals would have been a more logical place to push that book. But VM had no intention of showing for Nationals and they managed to get a two-fer done in a venue where it wouldn't normally take place.

It might be a challenge this year to get Jessica to Skate Canada, but there is a TBD pairs slot, and what are the odds everything will work out as she hopes, and the less-than-inspiring Dube/Wolfe lp at Quebec will be overlooked. This team was also able to commission a Marina Zoueva short program -  a nice value add for Jessica too.

Is this ongoing situation a legitimate expenditure? SC got something like 1.7 million in gov't funding this year. Should an organization receiving public monies be openly deceiving the public?

Skate Canada has lost sponsors, yet the people in charge of sponsor relations and development seem to enjoy being personally hands-on with this bedroom farce a whole lot more. It's not just improper, it's icky and unprofessional.

Maybe the rationale is that spending this kind of energy making Scott and Tessa comfortable keeps them competing and is good for Skate Canada's bottom line. Maybe someone should ask why Scott and Tessa need this to be comfortable and remind both they're now adults. But who's going to tell them? Nobody at Skate Canada knows what that means.

One of Skate Canada's many dodgy marketing premises has been that they need stars to fill arenas and get television ratings. Skate Canada tends not to re-examine their premises, or consider whether their ideas about creating and marketing stars actually work.

SC got the gold medal from VM but Patrick Chan had to take his own career to Colorado to get results; D&D came up disappointing. SC was unable to keep the Canadian National Champion dance team together (Crone & Poirier). Nor does SC appear to have a clue how to manage press releases or press conferences.

They have no women singles skaters to speak of. I think attendance and TV ratings remain down despite the braggings about rebranding and storytelling, and despite how self-aggrandizing these current officials have been at the expense of their predecessors.

I'm only asking $ questions, I don't know. But unquestionably Debbi Wilkes was using Federation resources - herself, the venue and the volunteers - to bullshit the fans about the private life of the Canadian gold medalists the night they won the gold medal, in the venue where they won it. If she'll do that, what else will they do?

Maybe they believe this was part of the care and management of athletes en route to Olympic gold, no different than sports psychology and informational seminars. I think that angle is specious, but okay.

Tessa and Scott won a year and a half ago.

After Worlds 2010 and Worlds 2011, Tessa and Scott hedged about continuing in the sport without identifying any of the factors that would determine whether they continued or retired. Is this arrangement with Jessica- facilitated by Skate Canada - one of their conditions for staying?

Before last season Michael Slipchuk said that without Own the Podium monies, "if it's a matter of $10,000" between Virtue and Moir staying or going, he didn't see why Skate Canada wouldn't find it. Considering the shows VM do, the high-end wardrobe sported by both Tessa and Scott on and off the ice, the travel, the lifestyle and Tessa owning multiple copies of skating dresses that cost thousands of dollars each - for WHAT and why would they be in need of a "mere" $10,000 as a condition of staying in training? It was a curious amount.

Is this an appropriate allocation of Skate Canada resources - not just money, but attention, planning and time?

Proceed at your own risk

He Got Over That One

But when you're a big enough deal to think you're
really smart enough to make total fools of thousands
of fans who trust you, go ahead.