Horace Ball: March 12th 2012, 2:05pm
Mayor Fontana can ignore Skate Canada's comments. London has the games and the city will deliver just fine. When the feds get finished with their budget cuts, Skate Canada and the rest of Sport Canada will have bigger things to worry about than a light show in London. And thats a good thing - Ottawa needs serious budget cuts including the overindulged folks at Sport Canada.
Andrew Castenada March 12th 2012, 10:32am
Anyone else noticed that Fontana is less a mayor than a pimp now? He keeps throwing this city out on the corner, trying to 'attract investment', yet when it works, it doesn't seem to do anything to improve the city. I'm in favour of downtown revitalization, but Market Lane and this 'light show' do little to improve the declining quality of life in this city; now we're facing being FORCED to pay for this asinine light show, lest we 'pay the price' reputationally. Read the national headlines on this city, Joe; that damage is already done. Cut your losses and tell Skate Canada you bid beyond our means. If they want to pout over a light show, that's on them.**
Gary J Kenny March 12th 2012, 9:26am
You have to be in Downtown London to view this show. How does that help Tourism unless you put it on YouTube? Better and cheaper to do that first and then project that of the wall of a building. The idea should be to promote London to the world, not to the people who are already here.
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| London, Ontario, St. Patrick's Day 2012 If London doesn't give William Thompson his light show, its reputation will suffer. |
They're not in business thanks to stupid little girls but thanks to not being fiscally accountable and thanks to a syncophantic media.
ReplyDeleteApart from the sorts of fans that every fandom has, even the most dedicated, maple-leaf wearing, discretionary-budget spending fan is smarter than Team VM and Skate Canada takes them for. There's a lot of courteous enabling. That's what's so galling. Many fans aren't nearly as credulous as SC thinks they are. SC stages all this bullshit from mise en scenes in the stands to little drops in Above the Crowd to all the fb crap, and does everyone really buy it or do they just not want to discuss what they really believe in public? It's obviously very important to Tessa/Scott, so why alienate them?
I also can't help wondering if figure skating were a sport watched largely by men, if the media would happily conspire to pull the wool over the public's eyes about Virtue and Moir. But we're talking here a bunch of middle-aged women - useless fools, did you not know that? Sweet, and "very dedicated" (I enjoy Scott's euphamism), but you know, not the coolest crowd. And toss in some very naive girls/teens who think Twilight, Harry Potter, stuff happens in real life (except not, but SC doesn't really realize that while fans enjoy that type of discussion, what they really think and don't say can often be somewhat different). The bottom line is whether we like it or not, if middle aged women are your core demographic, the media feels free to disrespect them (up to and including helping out VM's lies) and so often do the public figures themselves. Look at the implicit eye rolls whenever a figure skating article refers to fans.
As galling as all of this is, we can take comfort from the realization that William Thompson, Skate Canada CEO, is stupider than any fan. He cannot shut his trap. He shows his ass every time he opens his mouth. He can't add 2 + 2. I think people show who they really are when they've got a little power and aren't really accountable, and he sure has. He treats the syncophantic Canadian media like shit. This is a media he relies upon not to bust the VM scam open (and the regulars know about it) - does he care? He takes it for granted and lectures them about Chan - Chan was legitimate news and the media wasn't under any obligation to spin it the way Thompson wanted, except he takes it for granted that they're supposed to. The whole thing was bogus - the SC officials behaved as if they were on the starting blocks anticipating the Chan kerfluffle, eager to blast their names into print, the reaction was so overblown.
He just finished embarrassing London in public. Or trying to embarrass London - actually he embarrassed himself although he's immune to the realization. You don't say the words "light show" and "civic reputation will suffer" in the same sentence without coming off like a joke. Is there a reason he couldn't have continued to talk about the economics of the light show in private or coughed up a diplomatic sound bite? Well, if he had, he couldn't have done his usual pompous grandstanding (Remember when there was discussion over where some competition would be held and Thompson said "nice try?" This is how he handles himself in business.)
So comfort yourself, many fans are, I guess, dumb fools in some ways, except not quite as dumb as SC takes them for. Many fans actually PLAY dumb in front of Scott and Tessa. But even the dumbest fans can take comfort that William Thompson is dumber.
If SC is relying on the media, why would the media go along with it? They are under no obligation.
ReplyDeleteScott's euphamism "very dedicated" - does he mean his middle aged mom-type fans are stalkers? Or maybe Scott is just acting like they are, as an excuse to keep his "private life private." Yeah, he's really going to have to protect himself from those dangerous soccer moms.
Sarah did you see the "media" going along with Barb's scrum staging at HPC? That's media theatre. Figure skating "media" are close to professional groupies, they've been around a long time and want to get credentials for HPS, Canadians, press conferences and other figure skating events. The organization gives out the credentials, nobody wants to be blacklisted. My experience and observation of a lot of media at this level is they identify more with their higher profile subjects and not so much with the public. The public is the paycheck and the necessary evil. Especially when the public is middle-aged 'soccer moms', arena-seat knitters. I.e. - uncool nobodies, which is precisely how much of the media looks at them - semi-pathetic nobodies - middle-aged ladies. Ew ew ew. Yes, ironically, middle-aged ladies themselves can be the biggest bigots in this regard (look at Wilkes, or the many women involved in skating), or look at some of the commentators and some of those in the media itself. There is no class of audience or fan treated with more contempt than the slightly older demographic that's mostly women. I believe that because figure skating has such an unglamorous demo, the media feels very comfortable treating them precisely as Skate Canada wants them treated. As romantic (ew), "fraus" ("fraus" is the catch-all term for unattractive, middle-aged, low status job holders, concerned with every day things and living vicariously because their daily lives are so mundane - and sadly they're oblivious to how uninteresting and annoying they actually are).
ReplyDeleteOf course, usually these are the women who do most of the grunt work in society, including Skate Canada's grunt work, but what else do they have to do? If they had lives they wouldn't be figure skating fans. They don't know they're pains in the ass, so we have to sort of protect them from realizing that while protecting ourselves.
This is how it goes. There are reality shows (like DWTs) and other media (like soaps) with the same demo. The audience is perceived as kind of pathetic.
I don't think fans are considered actually dangerous. I believe Tessa/Scott use "privacy" as an excuse, had a distorted understanding of how you manage privacy as an elite, even "star" level figure skater, were led to believe that as they were young, good-looking and in love the fans would eat them alive if they knew the truth, love-and-sex-starved as the entire fandom is considered to be.
The sham has and continues to be revealing about what not just the media but the SC skaters and SC really think about the sorts of women who are just like their parents, their teachers, the SC volunteers and the neighbors.
So the VM/SC crowd is not in fear of the fraus, just disgusted by them... that's pretty disgusting in itself. Do they think their own sh** doesn't stink? It really makes you think twice about ever wanting to meet a skating "celebrity", knowing that the whole time you're getting the autograph/photo, the skater in question is holding you in contempt, wishing you'd go away. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is that VM has tried so hard to look platonic, yet the VM ubers do nothing but talk about how in love they "look", how Scott "presents her", create fan-videos of loving glances & accidental pecks on the cheek, focusing non-stop on the romance (obviously just theater, *wink wink*) and how that is what propels this team above DW, but it's all just *friendly* and DW should take acting classes on how to "appear" more romantic like VM.
For a team like VM that desperately wants to avoid romance, that seems to be the most common topic about them. I think the fans know just as much as you here at this blog, only they want to BE part of that SC-media-arse-kissing circle, so the fans go along with the sham, just to feel like they're part of that world. Of course VM is happy to oblige. The media - "professional groupies", not wanting to be black listed - looks like they go hand-in-hand with SC's grandiosity, full of themselves type operation, and they along with the fans are pieces of that ecosystem that feeds off each other. One could not exist without the other. SC could not get away with their treatment of people if they did not have a willing accomplice in the media; VM could not get away with their lies if the fans didn't get to live vicariously through their "fake" romance. The fans accept this looking-down-the-nose treatment, but I think SC has gone a step too far with the light show, because now they have brought non-skating citizens into the shenanigans. Since the SC people have been able to exist within their bubble for so long, they forget that they have stepped on the toes of people, who have lives outside skating and do not want to cut their fire department for a light show.
Just curious - does Mrs. Moir not see herself as a "frau"?
If you're a woman, middle-aged, and in an ordinary job or have an ordinary life - iow, not hot - and you have enthusiasm, interest in and excitement about something in the entertainment or sports world, I assure you, you have become dirt. I've seen the attitude, heard the remarks and seen the treatment from those who work inside entertainment media and sectors of the industry where "frau" is the demo, both the demo and the knee jerk contempt from Skate Canada is easy to recognize. If you're that demo, you're basically an embarrassment but kind of sweet even in your stupidity.
ReplyDeleteAlma Moir is not a frau because she's a figure skating coach, she and the MacCormicks and Moirs are in a status position inside Skate Canada and in Ilderton, so she can be treated with respect. Somebody without credentials that offset the invisibility of being a middle-aged woman is a frau. They're just so embarrassing - they have romantic notions, they admire the attractive young actors/skaters/performers, they have no inherent social/cultural status, and they preoccupy themselves with unglamorous activities like ferrying family members to necessary appointments, making sure a family member's diet/medicine is taken care of, working at an uninteresting job, doing community stuff - all trying to feel useful. As escapism, they take interest in the lives of people who have real lives, unlike themselves. Their self-esteem derives from mundane stuff that anybody can do.
There's the "nitwit" younger crowd too, who, of course, must be taken incredibly seriously and on face value. If you're a figure skating fan your life is vicarious and you're of little social value. Skaters need a barrier from them too, because their fandom has nothing to do with discharging some energy/boredom or creating a community with other fans. Can't possibly be that.
I agree plenty of fans play along with Tessa and Scott - they want to be in the loop and don't examine the entire situation critically. When it's examined critically, it falls apart and is revealed as sensational idiocy.
"I agree plenty of fans play along with Tessa and Scott - they want to be in the loop and don't examine the entire situation critically. When it's examined critically, it falls apart and is revealed as sensational idiocy."
DeleteAnd what's ridiculous is that even when fans suspect V/M may be lying, they go on the message boards and act all holier-than-thou over anyone who questions what V/M (or other skaters) are putting out. I think you're exactly right, it's a way to feel they're in the loop and if they kiss ass they think Scott and Tessa will appreciate them, and being gullible fans ("nice fans" "non-critical fans") is so much more important than the truth.
Barf.
The odds are you have no life and most likely sitting in your mothers basement right now. Considering the amount of time you have invested in trying to find a scam going on.
ReplyDeleteI highly doubt that with the training VM have to put in they
hardly have time to come up with fake relationships while worrying about not blowing theirs. Seriously if this is one of your biggest concerns in life, and by looking at the size and frequency of your posts it is, then you really need to get a life. Isn't it perfectly plausible for tessa and scott to simply be great friends and scott actually be in a relationship with jessica?
In reading your posts, you look way deeper into situations then you need and seem to make somthing out of nothing. my advice is to get off the computer and get outside and find something better to do then look for scams in the canadian figure skating organization.