Saturday, January 3, 2015

First of two posts. The second post isn’t fully worked out, but I think is going to focus on last month's Angelika Krylova interview, with a particular emphasis on Meryl Davis’ superior talents in the realm of figure skating and ice dance, which Krylova had no problem whatsoever enumerating. I may also remark on Meryl Davis’s implied hot romance with Fedor Andreev, and how this doesn’t do her fans’ near-unquenchable need for validation any favors.

The just-concluded holiday season has been, for the blogger, about two weeks’ worth of holiday celebrations/busyness, and one week procrastination. I didn’t really want to know or think about if Virtue and Moir, a couple of mid/late twentysomethings, apparently retired ice-dancers, continued to feel the need to make a display of self-importance via shamming on social media during Christmas and New Year’s, so I avoided finding out. I also didn’t want to pollute the holidays with second-hand embarrassment, even though anybody following Virtue and Moir should be real comfortable with second-hand embarrassment by now.

Every day she's shoveling all right.
I don’t know what’s going to be sadder – when the latest crop of Virtue Moir fans, in, say, 2029, wonder if these two fortysomethings regret never having gotten it together, sharing fan fic about Tessa and Scott’s wistful conversations about what might have been, or Virtue and Moir still pretending to themselves, enabled by the sycophants who appear to surround every figure skater, that shamming is necessary.

Caveat, for what follows: this isn’t focused on skating women in social media to the exclusion of men. It’s just that in some respects, what I’m talking about next is kind of what a gossip columnist once said about the cast of Friends: as the show went on, the actresses on it got skinner and tanner, their hair got longer and straighter, and the dudes just got fatter and more slovenly. The particulars of Tessa’s social media image manipulations got me thinking along these lines.

When I look around at guys who were competing ten years ago, some of whom are now coaching, a number of them have gotten pretty comfortable wearing relaxed-fit pants and jackets. I look at women who were competing more recently, or are still competing, but have been at it a long time, and some of them, no matter how free-spirited they pretend to be, have become even more image-conscious.

So, speaking of second-hand embarrassment, Jessica Dube is now posing like this:



Even if you’re just 27, or can’t yet afford to stuff your forehead like an insecure 48 year-old ex-starlet loaded up with botox while o.d.ing on mid-face silicone volumizer, you can always pose like it. I worry about these skaters. Jenny Kirk is 30, and when I watched The Skating Lesson’s interview with Lubov Iliushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch (the first and only time I’ve watched The Skating Lesson anything), not only was Kirk’s face as immobile as a ceramic doll’s, it was shiny enough to see your reflection. Like a peeled boiled egg. Jessica is just posing like she’s done shit to herself, but obviously thinks having eyebrows halfway up her forehead, eyes popped in surprise, sucking in the sides of her face so it looks like she’s spent a year’s salary on restylane cheek injections, and finishing it off with perma-duck face, is a whole lot cuter than looking, you know, 27. One or two photos, fine, but every single profile shot for a long time uses this face.

This isn't about condemning using artificial means to enhance (one presumes) one's looks, but just the look that's set up as the ideal. It's rigid. It's constipated. It's sad.

Then there’s Kirsten Moore-Towers, who perhaps should be called MISS Kirsten Moore Towers. You know: Miss Dolly Parton, Miss Loretta Young, Miss Tammy Wynette. Suddenly it’s full face and country-western hair (i.e., beachified, volumized, curled, and artfully disheveled) even when chillin at home on a xmas weekend (well, she does have hundreds of facebook friends, but back in the olden times, Jessica Dube never felt it was worth gussying up just for that.).

Actually, when it comes to Kirsten, if she likes to rock the early 2000’s Jessica Simpson look 24-7, whatever floats her boat, but when it comes to her choreography, I’d like to see a whole lot less of this:
Point
Point
Point

Point
Despite these illustrations, there's actually more pointing in Cell Block Tango than in Chess.

Hola!
It's all very Shae Lynn, who, as some may recall, is my absolute all time favorite.

Kirsten’s friends on the skating forums have staked out the position that if she remains publicly positive and happy, her critics will get no satisfaction. Because as usual, the “skating community” thinks it’s personal. They go to the personalities, not the skating.

Here’s how I see it. KMT’s public statements can be publicly critiqued. The many lame reasons her friends have offered up to explain her decision to switch partners don’t add up to one good reason – it doesn’t work like that.* If she thinks she and Dylan had hit their ceiling, does she think he’s the reason they hit the ceiling? Because we can all see that she hasn’t changed anything in her skating, nor her skating fitness (she’s not skating nearly at the level she was last season), nor the program components.

In fairness, I can see why MTM2’s team decided to keep the same template – character-driven, extroverted, quirky. It’s what they may think people expect of Kirsten, they may think it appears confident, and they may have felt it would help dress up substandard skating until the team finds its groove. The problem as I see it is that, as it turns out, the extroverted, smiley, quirky, sassy stuff highlights the substandard skating. I don’t know, however, if her team could have foreseen this. When I watch, I’m wondering why she’s pointing and grinning instead of focusing on her partner, working their on-ice communication, and concentrating on the quality of the in-betweens instead of simply the elements and tricks, which are hit and miss enough.

Skating, IMO, is all around depressing. I looked at Duhamel and Radford’s Grand Prix free skate and have to go along with the Eurosport guys, who were accidentally on point in observing the actual skating in that program isn’t a patch on the Russians. I’m also curious – if you have two hands down on your sbs 3 lutz, is your massive TES still justified because the 3 lutz was in the program? If the quad throw is landed with not just the landing leg in a crouch, but the free leg bent, and delivered at a near stand-still (as Savchenco Salkowy’s program-ending throws were), is that advancing the tech side of the sport?

IOW, is skating moving in the direction of losing the skating part in not just ice dance, but other disciplines? Get the tricks, lose the skating, why the hell is the sport still called figure skating?**

*Not that she needs a reason, or that we’re entitled to one if she doesn’t care to offer one. But she did. And if her friends are going to have chips on their shoulder and attempt to control conversation, if they’re going to nail some manifesto to a post intended to shut down further comments, if Kirsten herself decided to offer up a reason, then it’s a two way street. As with any sport - and sport doesn’t exist without the public, because it’s a branch of the entertainment industry - the public can weigh in. It’s so freaking TYPICAL that those in skating can’t distinguish the sport itself from personality politics. I think winning and losing the personality politics is more important to them than winning or losing competitions.

**The blog and the comments section addressed ad nauseum the case of Davis White versus Virtue Moir, where Virtue and Moir had the better tricks AND the best skating, by many miles, but the sport pretended the opposite was the case. That being so, for the moment it's easier to swallow Duhamel Radford's mismatched stroking and element-centric programs winning over Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov's very basic program, even if the latter skates their program while Duhamel Radford's is hardly skated between the elements.

99 comments:

  1. This should make you happy this will be my only post on your blog this year, so it would be nice if you didn't delete it.
    Facts- Davis and White won because they needed to win. Americans have the biggest television audience which in turns means big bucks for rights to broadcast Olympic sports. If viewership wanes, and it does when the US does not win, it means no big dollars spent for television rights. Look at the past years for ice skating in general, the Americans have lost interest in it. This is the only reason they won, it had been set up for a while, everyone knew what was going to happen, it also has something to do with Shpilband's firing,,,that was the start. Marina was in on it although I truly believe she wanted VM to win, there was an actual look of hope on her face when the marks came up, she looked surprised and happy.
    So on this note I totally agree with you, skills and talent are not what Olympic skating is about, it never will be,,,,quite sad really.

    Now onto your other favorite topic. clearly it does not matter what Tessa and Scott do you will criticize it, when they weren't on social media you said they were hiding and didn't want to slip up, now they are and they are still criticizing, they cannot win with you. That is really no surprise really, after all its your job to make them seem less perfect to their fans or anyone that is interested. It places doubts in some peoples minds and justifies them losing and also makes DW seem more down to earth and likeable (okay not really) but it makes them seem okay.

    Hope you got your Christmas bonus and as I said I will not post again, but I may make my own blog and tell everyone who you are , at least I have proof!

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    Replies
    1. 8:00 PM
      I don't agree that Shpilband's firing was the start of the gifting of DW. From their very first year as seniors, they were placed as close to VM as possible, in spite of not having anywhere near the skating skills. By Vancouver, the narrative had been established that they were equal to VM, it just depended on the day of the competition which team the judges would prefer.

      By the first Worlds after Vancouver (2011), the narrative had shifted to saying that DW had surpassed VM and VM had stagnated or even regressed. Of course, totally ignoring what was actually happening on the ice. VM's win at Worlds in Nice (2012) IMO was not supposed to happen. DW had been designated to win but there was a glitch somewhere in the judging (gasp - the deserving winners actually won!). After that, the scores were going to be so OTT as to ensure VM didn't "accidentally" win again.

      What I saw happen after Shpilband's firing was that any pretense that DW were working at improving anything in their skating was dropped. DW simply needed to show up, it didn't matter how they skated. Their sky-high scores and wins were in the can, guaranteed.

      How ironic that in fact, DW regressed every season and VM improved every season. However, DW's trajectory was established long before Vancouver and certainly long before Marina and Igor split.

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    2. "Skating, IMO, is all around depressing. I looked at Duhamel and Radford’s Grand Prix free skate and have to go along with the Eurosport guys, who were accidentally on point in observing the actual skating in that program isn’t a patch on the Russians. I’m also curious – if you have two hands down on your sbs 3 lutz, is your massive TES still justified because the 3 lutz was in the program? If the quad throw is landed with not just the landing leg in a crouch, but the free leg bent, and delivered at a near stand-still (as Savchenco Salkowy’s program-ending throws were), is that advancing the tech side of the sport?"

      I disagree with some of this. DR's flawed lutz was scored correctly. They did fulfill the criteria to earn the base value of the triple lutz. They also received negative GOE to the tune of mostly -2's and a couple of -1's. No zeros or positive GOE's for the element.

      As for the throw quad, it's a very new element to them. This is not something they've been trying for years. If this element still looks like this in a couple of years or in 2018, I'll agree it did nothing to advance the sport, but for now I think it's unfair to say it's not advancing the sport simply because it's too early to make that particular call. The only way to get better at executing that element is to keep doing it over and over again--in competition too-- and now, at the beginning of the quad, is the time to start putting it out there. It's the same principle as some of the younger male skaters learning the 3A. It's sometimes really messy in competition when they first start out, but it gets better with time. So, at the very beginning of this new quad, I approach DR's quad throw as a work in progress. We can decide in a couple of years or in 2018 if the execution of the element has or has not progressed to the point of pushing the sport.

      For the record, SK had a higher PCS than DR did and they earned more in GOE as well. DR won on base value that was actually fairly earned.

      I agree that DR are not the greatest pairs team ever, but there are positive qualities to their skating and their win at the GPF doesn't signal any sort of demise of anything in pairs skating given who was and wasn't there.

      I also don't think that the likes of Jenny Kirk, Jessica Dube, and Kirsten Moore-Towers are a representative sample of how most of the girls and ladies in skating are when it comes to image consciousness and/or that consciousness increasing over time. There are certainly plenty of current and former female skaters who don't seem obsessed with their looks in a way we see from people like Jenny, Jess, and Kirsten.

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    3. "I agree that DR are not the greatest pairs team ever, but there are positive qualities to their skating and their win at the GPF doesn't signal any sort of demise of anything in pairs skating given who was and wasn't there."

      I agree. DR are not getting scored purely according to a pre-established political agenda. Even though they may not be the greatest pair team ever, I admire their hard work every season in trying to improve themselves. I don't see any attitudes of entitlement, the way Jessica Dube had when she skated with Sebastien Wolfe.

      "I also don't think that the likes of Jenny Kirk, Jessica Dube, and Kirsten Moore-Towers are a representative sample of how most of the girls and ladies in skating are when it comes to image consciousness and/or that consciousness increasing over time. There are certainly plenty of current and former female skaters who don't seem obsessed with their looks in a way we see from people like Jenny, Jess, and Kirsten."

      Agreed with this also.

      IMO Tessa has played around with her image in photos mainly as a means of distracting the attention from what is real in her life. So far, in her I don't see an obsession with her looks that is beyond the regular girl who loves fashion and enjoys playing around with it.

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    4. "Hope you got your Christmas bonus and as I said I will not post again, but I may make my own blog and tell everyone who you are , at least I have proof!" PLEASE do!! Sign me up! Would love to know who this person is - hard to believe they are a functioning human being along with being so obsessed with two people they've probably never even met.

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  2. And meanwhile Kaitlyn Lawes is busy retweeting mentions of her spending time in Ilderton, far away from Tessa who recently picked up alpine skiing.
    She comes across desperate. Is she trying so hard because she's worried nobody would notice these tweets unless she hits them on the head with them ?

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    1. 12:44. That is how VM like the sham to be managed. Jessica and Cassandra also were made to appear "desperate".

      I'm not sure these SO's can ever be made to come across as "natural". Because it's fake all the way around, things can't help but come across as weird and bizarre. It also invariably comes across as very juvenile. It's like watching the relationships of junior-high kids.

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    2. ^^ This. But seeing as most of their fans are juvenile, and appear to have limited experience of actual real-life relationships, it's working for them. Although I'm sure OC would argue, whether it works or not, is not actually the point.

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    3. I find it insane that they continue with these shenanigans. Their career would be off the charts if they were honest. Tessa is obv a trust fund baby and Scott does whatever she says bc she's got her social status over him. sad, but true.

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    4. Is Tessa's family really that wealthy and willing to pay for her grown up daughter's lifestyle ? And would they be able to piggy bag Scott, their child and the ISC as well ?
      If Tessa is such an upper class twit would she really settle for somebody like Scott who can't give her any of it ? Rich girls usually don't like to spend their own money, why would Tessa settle for a guy who is beneath her ? If Tessa is a trust fund baby with no intentions to actually work for her money and capitalize on her own career their relationship is doomed in the long run. Once her parents don't pay for her anymore, her 15 minutes of fame fade away and skating gigs become rarer Tessa will need somebody who pays for her designer clothes and that guy isn't Scott.

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    5. Scott's family isn't exactly poor. They own a skating club that is doing rather well for itself. I'm pretty sure that it isn't just Tessa's parents that are bankrolling this sham and financial support. How else would 2 twenty something's affird to raise a family when they don't have a real job and one is still a part time student?

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    6. How much could they possibly make with a small town ice rink ? It will be enough for them to make a comfortable living but I doubt they're rich enough to finance Tessa and Scott's little family plus Tessa's love for expensive things. Scott said his family needed a mortage on their house to finance his training. Scott probably makes some money now but with their messed up pr it can't be that much.

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  3. What a mean-spirited blog post, criticizing numerous women's appearances. So they like to pose - so what. So Moore-Towers likes big hair - so what. Nasty and absolutely no point to it. Here is an idea: post some pictures of yourself. Stop being the Nikki Finke of skating fandom. Come out from behind your venom.

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  4. How could this blog die down so quickly ? Not too long ago almost every post had 100+ comments and now it's a ghost town.

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    1. ?? Last five posts are 122, 46, 74, 4, 202. Looks like is just one of those posts where people don't have as much to say.

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  5. http://advertisingweek.ca/schedule/#!/jan-27-7

    You just have to laugh. These two shouldn't be advising anyone on marketing, let alone for 40$+

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    1. OMG. Those two are nuts.

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    2. "Hear them discuss how the essence of a brand cannot be artificially manufactured; rather, it must be built on the foundation of who you truly are."

      This is pure comedy gokd.

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    3. I don't believe the sham but I still cringed when I read about this event because their pr has certainly been odd. At least we won't get video.

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    4. Anon at 2:01 pm - I agree that their pr is all over the place. And the wording of that summary - especially the last quarter is cringeworthy. They should be talking about teamwork, respect, compromising within a team, communication, skating, etc not branding...I suspect that they will have the same speaking engagement/story throughout 2015...

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    5. It's like a shopaholic, who possibly could have interesting things to say about luxury brands, instead focusing their seminar on budgeting.

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    6. ...while boasting about how thirfty they are

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    7. 3:10 and 5:17
      Bwahahahaha. Great parallel to what Tessa and Scott do. *All the time!*

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    8. V/M aren't marketing or advertising experts, they're the talent. The point of branding is to create a kind of public persona and sell that to an audience, not tell an audience how branding works. They lie, so now they want to lie about how they haven't constructed their public persona on those lies?

      On the one hand, it feels like this kind of thing is their reaction to being called out for their lies, like if they just dig in deeper and find ways to make their lies seem more legitimate, that'll prove credibility. On the other hand, V/M selling themselves as being "true to themselves" and their brand "prioritizing inherent values and character" reads like it's been directly lifted from some half-assed, combination Ayn Rand and Dale Carnegie advice manual for post-pubescent adolescents.

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    9. I think the problem is VM believe they're marketing and advertising experts, or at least Tessa does (she's the one who loves to talk about personas, branding,etc.) I understand wanting to maintain control over your career but at some point you have to take a step back, recognize that you're out of your depth and trust qualified people to get you where you want to be. It doesn't look like they've done that and, like much of the sham, I think it has to do with being control freaks, and that it mostly comes from Tessa. It's a sad mess.

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    10. If they were actually married or in a real relationship, their PR/ad dollars would be going through the roof - as they well know. This is why they tease a relationship all the time. There is nothing the MiniVan Majority loves more than a fairy-tale, and why there are so many articles and fans obsessed with them being a couple - this blog, most of all. The blogger wants them them to be married so badly she's created a "conspiracy" theory and actually gotten others to jump on board. Sad and laughable all at the same time! Inventing a child, and then griping about "bad parenting" is a little over the top, however, and makes one wonder if she needs a bit of therapy or perhaps the meds adjusted. To the poster who said they are starting a new blog to out this blogger - sign me up!

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    11. 7:29 AM
      I've been reading this blog for a while. I never see any shippers here. No one fantasy-wishing VM were together. You got that from the shipper tumbler fans.

      All I've seen here is an attempt to keep track of VM's "relationship" media. Which all points to contradictions and lies. Blogger and a few others have said they know the reason for their *stupid* PR is the reality behind the mess: a real couple in a real marriage.

      Commenters like you keep trying very hard to make this blog into a shipper problem or a conspiracy problem. It's neither. An observation of VM's PR-history since their teenage years gives Much Much more credibility to this blog's premise than any attempt to actually believe the crap put out by VM and Co. You go ahead and believe them if that's what you want. Your choice to be gullible. Others, myself included, prefer not to fall for their patronizing games.

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    12. 11:55 AM Reading it? More like writing it. The blogger author is well known for answering her own posts anonymously, to make it look like she has supporters. This blog reeks of teenage shipping taken to the extreme. And now, she's backed into a corner and can't get out. Will love it when both Tessa and Scott marry other people and have children. Then it will be they "got a divorce" in order to save face. Hilarious, predictable and pathetic all at the same time.

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  6. 2:10
    IKR.
    It's terrible. How do they get away with this ever-increasing blatant hoaxing?

    When true facts become known, do these kinds of stunts end up biting them in the ass at all? People will just shrug and blow it off?

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    1. People got away with a lot worse. Just look at Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen or Chris Brown. And those were real celebrities that the media actually bothered to follow.
      Tessa and Scott aren't really famous and their sham isn't illegal either. If their bubble bursts in a couple of years the media will most likely have forgotten about them, the fan girls on Tumblr will have grown up and only a handful of people on FSU will remember them. It's not going to hurt them.

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    2. I think it depends when it happens. Ten years from now it wouldn't be a big deal but if the bubble burst next week it would be uncomfortable for a while. What I'd love to know is what people in skating and media think of their increasingly agressive games. And what about their agent? He doesn't appear to have worked as an agent before but he's worked in business and sponsorship long enough to know better.

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  7. [[How could this blog die down so quickly ? Not too long ago almost every post had 100+ comments and now it's a ghost town.]]

    I wouldn't take it as any indication that the basic premise of this blog is no longer believed. It's believed all right.

    I've talked to many who are extremely tired of Tessa and Scott's games. I appreciate this public platform that keeps a record of their lies but so often there's nothing more to say. How many times can you call them idiots and then keep watching them dig deeper to see how much more idiotic they can be?

    I feel sorry for all the fans who think everything they do is perfect. What a joke.

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  8. VM are guest skaters for SOI Japan so they won't be in the group numbers (unsure if they'll be in the opening and finale though but they probably will be). I don't think it's that far fetched that it's intentional they won't be sharing the ice with DW/will have a smaller role on the tour.

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  9. Or, what's more likely, they're guest skaters because they're not part of the US tour and haven't learned the group numbers.

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  10. I thought the US tour usually has the same group numbers as the Canadian and Japanese tours?

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    1. This year Kurt Browning is choreographing CSOI and all the group numbers will be different from the US and JSOI.

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    2. That's a shame, Jeff's choreography is usually superior.

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    3. It will be interesting to see whether Joannie Rochette and to a certain extent Patrick Chan have enough gas in the tank by the end of CSOI...Joannie will be in Japan, in Art on Ice in Europe, the US SOI and CSOI....that's a lot of travel and let's face it she will be the main female skater with jumps at least in the US SOI and CSOI...

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  11. The "Two for the ice" blog did a round-up of the best NA ice dance elements in 2014...not surprisingly, V/M's midline step sequence from the SD made the top of the list.

    And D/W, the (fake) OGM, had no elements listed. Hmm, why is that?

    http://www.twofortheice.com/2014-the-year-in-elements/

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    1. That midline is divine. Best one I've ever seen from V/M or any other team.

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  12. Anon at 9:27 am - thank you for bringing that link here. It's amazing how a sport like figure skating has virtually nobody looking at elements. My hats off to the "Two for the Ice" blog because it has provided great interviews and insights from a non-insider perspective and that's refreshing.
    And yes that mid-line step sequence from VM - power, control, unison, edging, musical ...gorgeous...

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  13. Ughh that mid line sequence is perfect. No team can deliver that kind of quality. I've noticed S/K, Marina's new pet team, try the same thing in their SD and it looks horrible compared to this.

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  14. agree with oc on this post. want to see virtue moir soi osaka performances.

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  15. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10153520954137538&id=278550292537

    P/I changed their FD to In Your Eyes. Hopefully this one has the power to beat G/P.

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    1. G/P have silver locked up (even though they don't deserve it). Let's just hope this beats Paradis/Oulette.

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    2. Anon at 4:18 am - I would tend to agree with you. That 3rd spot for worlds is important. In the end I just hope that PI can skate cleanly and see where the chips fall. And as discussed earlier this year - the SD is pivotal.

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  16. I don't know how many people on here watched the continental cup of curling, but from what was seen this weekend it seems like Kaitlyn is loosing interest in the sham. She seemed pretty interested in fellow curler John Morris, and it seemed like every time the camera panned over to the Canada bench that he was flirting with her. Let's not forget the mixed doubles. There is no way if she thought there was any chance in her continuing the sham that she would act like she was single.

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    1. I thought the sham gfs are allowed to do what they want in their personal lives. Who would agree to be a fake gf under the stipulation that they couldn't have a real relationship (outside the public eye at least). Maybe Lawes should have told her teammate she was giving it up as Jill Officer tweeted Lawes and Moir are together just yesterday.

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    2. That makes complete sense considering he's been in Japan for the past week...

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    3. "Together" meaning dating, not physically together. Weird how Jill Officer has no problem giving out personal information about her teammate's private life, just like SC had no problem telling everyone that Scott and Jessica were dating.

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    4. Anon at 8:11 pm - I agree that the way Jill Officer responded to the tweet was overkill. I don't think if a male curling fan had asked Rachel Homan's teammates if she was available that they would have responded the same way as Jill Officer.

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    5. Did Jill Officer delete the tweet again, I couldn't find it.

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    6. No it's just buried about 2 days back in the Canadian Curling Associations profile from when she did their Twitter take for 'ask the expert'. It might take a while to find since Rachel Homan who was the next expert answer tons of questions. She tried to answer everything.

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    7. I guess Jill only answered the most important questions.

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    8. 2:37
      It came across so much like a plant. Job done.

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  17. I see the blogger is still talking as blogger and anon lol. Pretty bad when you have to make up bogus comments in your own blog.

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  18. 7:36
    You are so sure of that because.....?
    I'm 3:18 and I know I'm not the blogger.

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  19. On a completely different note - is it just me or according to the photos we've seen from SOI Japan - it appears that Scott has put on some weight - predominantly in the abdominal area / love handle area...realistically I don't expect him to look like he did last year but then again I don't think he should let himself go either...I guess we will see over the next month or two whether Scott slims down for SOI Canada...and this is coming from a Scott fan...more skating / playing hockey / cardio rather than curling/beer drinking....the only other excuse I can see is perhaps Scott is experiencing back pain and he is not trying to aggravate it...

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    1. Scott always put on weight in the off season. My guess is that this new figure is here to stay and it will only get worse from here on out. If only he could take tips from Lauzon.

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    2. Anon here at 7:27 pm - Scott used to bulk up during the off-season on purpose and then lean out during the year and that was strategic. Perhaps the guy is depressed about the eventual retirement from competitive skating and doesn't have the motivation to work out etc...which can be normal.....

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    3. If you look at his mother and aunt, it shouldn't be surprising that Scott's packed on the pounds since he stopped training. He probably has been too idle and drinking too heavily though as that seems to be the curling culture.

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    4. Anon at 8:58 pm - I agree with you. On one hand - Scott's brothers are not big but then again as you pointed out if Scott is drinking and not working out cardiovascular wise - the pounds add up. If this indeed continues - hopefully someone will tell him - (lol - can someone have Mike Babcock spring a quick physical on Scott)...And indeed if Scott is not taking care of himself - it doesn't bode well for his relationship with Klawes longterm...just my two cents...

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    5. Fanfiction belongs on tumbler, where fans have all sorts of inside knowledge about Tessa and Scott.

      Scott skates with Tessa, the love of his life. KL is fake as is any supposed narrative that involves Scott neglecting Tessa or skating.

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    6. His face has really filled out too, even comparing to 2.5 months ago at SCI. He still looked fast and agile in the video Tessa posted though. I guess it's good these programs are 3 minutes or less.

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    7. What happened to Tessa's pregnancy ? She doesn't look like she has given birth just last month.

      Scott's weight gain doesn't look deliberate, he looks like he's letting himself go.

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    8. Much like her first pregnancy, the second one never happened.

      Scott needs to check himself before he wrecks himself.

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    9. Much like her first pregnancy, she had the child. I think the baby was born in November, not in the last month. Not every woman gains a lot of weight that needs to be lost. I have a good friend who has been back in her regular, non-maternity clothing within a month of giving birth. With her first, it was within a couple of weeks. She isn't even an athlete.

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    10. Tessa had ab muscle definition on Nov 25th. Throughout November they had pretty consistent events, every 3-5 days at most. Scott did go to that hockey game in Winnipeg, whether it was for a dumb sham drop or he wanted to go doesn't matter. He was physically there. (The biggest gap in their schedule was between SCI and that outlet appearance but the hockey game was in the middle.)

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    11. i really dont think she was pregnant given her appearance and timeline. also, dont forget that their events are planned in advance so it' s hard to hide. meaning, she could have shown more earlier or gone full term etc. i think that she gained weight then lost it.

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    12. 9:59. How can you be sure Scott was physically at the Winnipeg hockey game when the photos posted by Lawes were clearly photoshopped? You're making shit up.

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    13. 10:19, They weren't photoshopped. The masking ("fuzz") between Scott and Lawes is consistent (especially around his hair which is where it would be most noticeable), the lighting it consistent (weird lighting would still be noticeable even with a filter).

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    14. 9:29 Yours is just a different kind of fanfiction. How exactly do you know Scott isn't "neglecting Tessa or skating"? Again, we don't know these people.

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    15. "Not every woman gains a lot of weight that needs to be lost."

      The entire blog is filled with posts about how much weight gained over the last couple of months, how this alleged pregnancy shows much more than the first, that she needed to photoshop pictures in order to look slim and now Tessa suddenly didn't gain any weight that she needed to lose ?
      In April 2010 ( 4-5 months after giving birth ) Tessa was still much bigger than usual despite not having gained too much weight. It's not like Tessa's body just magically went back in shape the last time.
      And like anon 9:59 said, she already had her abs back in November after a marathon of events that didn't leave her much time to deliver, recover and work out while taking care of a 4 year old. Especially not if she had a natural birth because dates of birth can't always be planned ahead. I doubt she had a C-secture because that wouldn't have allowed her to skate in shows in December.

      I highly doubt she was pregnant at all. If Scott, who is equally as perfectionist as Tessa, let himself go a bit why wouldn't Tessa ?

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    16. This is anon at 9:22 pm. Well the good thing is that guys can lose weight easier than the ladies. I don't expect Scott to lose his tire by Art on Ice but if he shows up at SOI Canada even bigger - then I will get worried.

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    17. where are these SOI photos/videos of performances?

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    18. No videos yet but there are some pictures, you can find them on Tumblr, Twitter and the VM thread on FSU.

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    19. If Scott, who is equally as perfectionist as Tessa, let himself go a bit why wouldn't Tessa ?

      Because Tessa's weight gain was consistent with a pregnancy. Plus, while the 2010 surgery probably forced Tessa to stop training for a while, she had no such problem this time and was obviously in fantastic shape. About one event a week, usually in Toronto, leaves plenty of time to work out; and who knows how many classes she's even taking.

      I don't think she needed photoshop more this time, she just decided to do it. Why? Probably to amuse herself and "win" against the blog. Judging by comments like yours it looks like she's pretty much won so I guess it worked.

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  20. " Media Headquarters is pleased to announce that its fan favourite series Tessa & Scott has been nominated for the prestigious 2014 Rockie Award in the category Best Arts and Performing Arts Program."

    Oh dear god ... Is Canadian television so awful that their damn show actually looks good in comparison or did The W Network bribe somebody ?
    Wonder what VM think about it, I was always under the impression that they wanted to forget the show ever existed.

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  21. What irks me most about it is that they didn't even bother to hide their fixed results. They gave DW the gold for the worst programs they ever skated, even for DW standards that lousy tango, NDDT and Scheherazade were awful. With DF and POTO they at least tried to trick people into believing that they're good skaters but after that they didn't even bother anymore because they knew it didn't matter. Even IK had the decency to try to make people believe that they actually deserved their inflated scores but not DW.

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  22. I'm Seriously so glad to hear that someone else is still ticked off...I still get mad....and it's been almost a year ....I guess it's just the idea of knowing that VM could've taken the sport soooo much further and continued for quite a number of years. It makes the corruption so much more evil

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  23. with u all on still being mad. esp since the sport has taken 30 steps back. idk why I'm still surprised. even torville and dean were screwed with.

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  24. i will always be mad. and i will never forgive dw for that esp. since they profited and are still profiting at the expense of vm.

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  25. Agreed with all the comments of VM getting screwed-over and DW profiting from a gold medal they didn't actually deserve.

    However, I have to admit VM themselves have such terrible PR they've practically handed DW the PR-stage on a golden platter. VM only stir themselves to action on behalf of the "relationship status," whatever they want it to be at the moment -- whether teasing about a perhaps-someday between them or hitting fans over the head with sham vomit.

    VM are Olympic, World and National champions in their own right but their crap PR doesn't work to take advantage of that. DW have excellent PR. It's VM's fault they're not at a similar PR level as DW.

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    1. Good PR or shit PR, this is still supposedly a sport, there are rules and critiera, and DW did not even come close to fulfililing the criteria, no matter how good their PR is. DW shouldn't have even made it out of their own Nationals, they are so beyond shitty.

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    2. 12:44. All true. But how is it DW's problem that the ISU rewarded their shitty skating? DW are simply profiting from their sport's corruption. Were they supposed to gallantly refuse to accept the scores or the medals because they didn't deserve them? Give me a break.

      Anger should be directed toward the true crime bosses of the ISU mafia. The ISU President, his cronies, and the Federations (USFSA, SC, etc.) who are part of that mafia.

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    3. people who have benefited from the corruption and the collusion such as Elena Ilinykh never acted like ungrateful assholes as meryl (and charlie) have acted towards vm.

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    4. DW are too blame as well, they and their families certainly did everything to make sure they'd benefit from ISU corruption. They are everything but innocent.

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  26. Why should they be grateful to V/M?

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    1. do u not understand the huge impact vm made towards ice dance? they fucking smashed barriers meanwhile dw piggybacked on their success. if it weren't for vm, and had they not train with vm, dw would be nothing.

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    2. Having Igor and Marina as coaches made D/W successful, not training with V/M.
      I think saying V/M had a huge impact on ice dance and D/W's career is a bit much. Tanith and Ben really paved the way for D/W's success. Of course V/M were the first North Americans to win the Olympics but at the time people weren't counting out D/W for gold. And at 2010 Worlds their margin of victory was very close. They never had a period of dominance.

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    3. ^lol is this anon serious?

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    4. The only reason DW were ever on the podium is corrupt and incompetent judging. They haven't earned it, their skating is a disgrace to the sport.
      All these years with Igor and Marina haven't taught them skating skills, difficult lifts or how to hold an edge. They haven't mastered transitions either. Meryl doesn't even know how to point her freaking toes and let's not even talk about dance holds.
      DW were never near VM, they weren't even in the league of the teams far below them on the podium.
      DW should have battled for a top ten spot along side GP and nothing more.

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    5. Agree with 3:30.

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  27. yes DW are at fault too. everyone is at fault who supports a shitty corrupt system. The one thing that really did VM in- in addition to corruption and collusion beyond their control- is their incredibly inept stupid PR strategy. They revealed how small-town, shortsighted and vain they were with their stupid "our connection" strategy. Everything they could do wrong w/r/t PR, they did. Seasons is the best FD- even better than Carmen despite Seasons' seemingly boring lifts- and they did nothing to promote Seasons despite saying it was the "story about our connection through the years".. STFU!!! talk about the skating. I dont think VM could have done anything to beat back the collusion that gave DW their crap gold, BUT, they could have made DW's gold illegitimate and their silver mean more if they had a better PR strategy. Insanely stupid group of people behind them.

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  28. "Everything they could do wrong w/r/t PR, they did. Seasons is the best FD- even better than Carmen despite Seasons' seemingly boring lifts- and they did nothing to promote Seasons despite saying it was the "story about our connection through the years".. STFU!!! talk about the skating. I dont think VM could have done anything to beat back the collusion that gave DW their crap gold, BUT, they could have made DW's gold illegitimate and their silver mean more if they had a better PR strategy. Insanely stupid group of people behind them."

    ^^This. A million times, this.

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  29. Per an article from Tacey Wilson today on tsn.ca about this week's Canadian's it appears that VM will be part of the TSN crew. Also interesting is that Paul/Islam's new FD has been choreographed by Jeff Buttle. I just hope that PI get a fair shake but I am not holding my breath - especially with Skate Canada politics...In a way I am glad that they are working with Buttle - but one gets the sense that move was done in desperation...especially if Buttle can get the scores in PCS to improve for PI...but PI have to be in the hunt with their SD...

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    1. If they were going to change programs they needed to do it much earlier in the season. I love Jeff's choreography but I'm expecting a similar program set to different music, there wasn't enough time to train something truly new.

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  30. Am I alone in this? I would LOVE LOVE for tessa and scott to perform a modern dance inspired/copying Sia's Elastic Heart and Chandelier choreography. It would be top/unreal!

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