12:58AM, in the comments to the previous post, left this link, so I thought I'd embed the video here. Thanks 12:58.
The skating is sublime. As to the music, thank GOD their competitive program choices don't resemble anything they do in shows. Enough already with this quasi-acoustical wispy shit.
*****
Periodically I follow Jessica Dube's social media, and of course encounter her inspirational quotes or her "this is me" memes - we know the kind. "Your faults are beautiful and compelling, they're like patina on a painting, it's how you know you're alive, etc." Came across this article:
If you share deep quotes on social media odds are you have a low IQ
The linked article addresses a study out of the University of Waterloo called: "On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit."
(It's actually a decent paper. Here's the pdf: On the reception and detection of pseudo profound bullshit. The researchers used this website: New Age Bullshit Generator)
I believe the study bears out my own impressions of the relative intelligence of Scott's fake girlfriends. In descending order: Kaitlyn Lawes, Cassandra Hilborn, Jessica Dube.
Don't know if Hilborn is closer to Lawes or Dube in the brainpower spectrum. I suspect she might have used her pseudo profound quotes about love and life as a lazy fake girlfriend's formula for keeping up appearances.
 | ||||||
| What if her face freezes like that? Most people with this facial expression HAVE frozen their faces like that. Jessica just uses filters on the brow furrows to get that desired bad plastic surgery effect. |
"As to the music, thank GOD their competitive program choices don't resemble anything they do in shows."
ReplyDeleteI fear the "don't" needs to be a "haven't yet". Fingers crossed it continues that way.
You're right. Knock wood. I can't stand it. Every time they have a new show program Tessa describes the vocals and why they chose it, then here it comes and it's the same damn song. Get it out of your systems already! You can be extremely sexual and melodramatic with an underpinning of innocence reinforced by superior skating even if you skate to other kinds of vocals!
DeleteYour above comments about Jessica are beyond rude and quite unecessary. You really are a sicko.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to this new program, a common reaction seems to be that it's only an ex, so you shouldn't criticize it, but also that it's an amazing ex with lots of promising choreo that shows how much D/L are already helping them. So which is it? It's either fair game to make predictions about or it's not.
ReplyDeleteJMHO: I find the program troubling. Not in terms of deserving to win. It's clearly not meant to be a competition program at this stage, despite some oohing and ahhing on Tumblr over the new "elements" and the fact their skating is going in curves (that's...what figure skating is). But even if the emptiness and waist-up crap were to remain, it hardly matters. OC is right, the only word for the skating quality is sublime. Beyond gorgeous. They could plop any old elements in there to get a full scorecard and the basic skill would still put them on top, albeit deserving of lower scores than they would if they showcased every facet of what they're capable of.
Instead my concern is just about my own selfish enjoyment of them. (Well, and perhaps also about strategy, because V/M will always, always, always be held to a higher standard than their supposed rival.) Maybe it's demanding too much, but I'm going to find it sad to watch anything but the best possible version of them. There has been no indication that D/L know how to develop material that uses the type of skills V/M possess. But despite it being only a gala program, was this not an opportunity, as V/M's first performance as D/L's students, to show off that they did in fact know how to craft a program with substance? But instead - forget difficulty, they put out a program so unoriginal they should send royalties to Jeff Buttle. It's HWIK, just cluttered with additional dramatic gesturing. I mean really: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOybMqjuQAU
At the very least, I think this ex could be speaking volumes about the direction in terms of packaging. Despite the similar sexy longing nightgown theme, which they've done multiple times, I don't remember V/M ever having an ex program this ridiculous. The "movement" that makes it "new" both reflects the self-declared priority of this camp (overexpressing every damn thing) and makes it indistinguishable from P/C's style. Unless, as OC says, they pay Marina, I'm thinking this isn't going to be far off what we will be forced to watch them do in competition.
The moments that showcase the depth of V/M's talent are few and far between. They are such fantastic skaters they can clear away some of the debris just by how pure their glide is, and their lines and carriage are still excellent, when you're allowed to see those things in between the attempts to strangle each other. But I'd sure rather watch those skills free of such encumbrances and instead challenged to the fullest possible extent. Hopefully their competition programs will be a pleasant surprise. We shall see.
I was at first surprised at how few fans were concerned about what quality of material V/M will be given, when this is the fandom that freaked out that Seasons was beneath them. Surely it's partly explained by the understandable excitement fans feel at V/M returning, but it also seems like ... this crap is what fans have wanted them to skate all along. If that's the case, it's disappointing.
I haven't made a habit of signing my name except when linking my own stuff, because it feels weird to mess with the anon dynamic when this is OC's platform, but in this case it seems disingenuous not to when I've already said all of this on Twitter.
-canadablue
Continued:
Delete"P.S. Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon? They suck. Maybe it was part of the deal Skate Canada hammered out when allowing Virtue Moir back. Train with Canadians at a Canadian training center and we won't screw you over at Canadians. Maybe they'll secretly pay Marina to choreograph."
The prevailing fan opinion seems to be that this move is, in addition to D/L being good at what they do, because V/M are friends with D/L, and that somehow will prevent what fans think happened with Marina and D/W from happening with P/C.
Since Seasons is what fans keep bringing up as proof V/M couldn't go back to Canton, I have a question. Why is the new curve lift better than the Seasons curve lift that was despised by so many because it was too easy? Tessa's dramatic arms? Both are something a good junior team can do, but the exceptional positions and incredibly smooth execution bring them to a much higher level.
Seasons as a whole had far more challenging detail than most fans give it credit for, but it was a vehicle to show off purity of skating rather than blatant difficulty. That can be a valid strategy.
But D/L's recent choreography seems to fall into two categories. Either so bare and one-note that it's hardly even there, or the empty spaces are filled in with overwrought junk. So far it looks like V/M will be slated to receive the latter option, which is the one that seems to go over better with judges right now. So maybe it's just what V/M need to please the ISU. Or maybe the ISU will change the unwritten rules on them once again. "Do what P/C are doing!" may be the exact same thing as "Go back to lyrical!" was. Again, we shall see.
YES to all. they need better choreography. amazing but utterly beneath them.
DeleteI have to agree. I know V/M favor these sorts of angsty soft-vocal exhibitions -- and it is just an ex -- but it's so characteristic of MFD's competitive style too that it doesn't make me feel good as foreshadowing, at least.
DeleteTessa's comments about "restructuring" their technique in Steve Milton's latest piece also makes me go ?? Did MFD and Patch pull their "Let's pretend this thing of yours sucks and "fix" it" with them the way MFD told Hub/Don she never knew they were tall because they looked so small on the ice (never mind the great lines already apparent in programs like their Spanish ones and Bohemian Rhapsody)?
I'm glad you brought this up, CanadaBlue. I didnot like this EX at all and I usually do love them...(obviously their competition skates blow me away!) There was way too much arms flying everywhere and not very much done in unison. I felt it really minimized them.
DeleteI feared this would happen when I first saw the initial piece which promoted them working on this EX with MF. MF said she comes into practice with really no clue...it's just whatever they think of. ...contrast that with Marina who is said to have studied ballet books to think of lifts etc.
Also, a recent interview that was posted on tumblr has Tessa saying their skating had gotten to be too regimented like Russians and now they want to move away from that to skate more like the French...citing possible rivalry with P/C....It's not looking pretty!!!
Also, in relation to getting screwed over by the ISU...I was wondering if they wouldn't keep Shibs on top...as in USA is the top dog in IceDance
Oh I know the piece you mean - MFD: no plan, "we leave space for magic, a lot of space!" or something like that. Oy ve.
DeleteI think one thing that is striking me with V/M throwing Marina under the bus is - there's a difference between saying a professional relationship became incompatible for some reason (the vision wasn't the same, they stopped working together well) and saying she's not worthy of trust(ie. *she* doesn't give all her teams 100%, basically implying that she took their money etc but didn't follow through). The latter is a short-sighted professional decision even if it happened to be true.
I've wondered the same thing re: the Shibs. I can't imagine a scenario in which USFSA wants to let V/M get gold again. But I also can't imagine the ISU wanting 3 North Americans in a row, one of which already won. I hope V/M know what they're doing.
-canadablue
*North American teams in a row to win, but especially one
DeleteWe know nothing of what went down, some of you are taking your feelings for Marina and spinning them as facts.
DeleteMaybe Marina neglected them in a blatant way, maybe it was subtle, maybe it never happened but VM felt it did, maybe they made it all up as some kind of misguided PR scheme. Marina being an incredible coach and choreographer, in your opinion, has nothing to do with this. Marina being a great person, a great professional, whatever else image you have of her is not necessarily the truth. And all people are flawed.
Fans cling so tightly to their chosen narratives that you end up with a bunch of fans somehow believing the platonic nonsense that VM peddle despite years of ridiculousness. But you also have the Marina fans somehow becoming experts on the training situation. Nobody is immune, even people who seem more sophisticated, we all think we somehow know these people when we really don't.
And not that it matters but I hate that ex program like I've never hated a VM program before.
I think you're reading more into what was said here than actually was meant. An opinion that Seasons is not evidence of neglect and that the way V/M are handling the situation is unprofessional whatever the situation is is not the same as saying all the facts about the relationship are known.
DeleteWikipedia: To throw (someone) under the bus is an idiomatic phrase in American English meaning to sacrifice a friend or ally for selfish reasons. It is typically used to describe a self-defensive disavowal and severance of a previously-friendly relationship when the relation becomes controversial or unpopular.
DeleteWhat you want to see from V/M and what V/M themselves want to do may be two very different things. It seemed from the "What's Love" background piece that 1) Tessa loves this type of music, and 2) V/M feel like the choreo was pushing them to new heights. Personally, I hate this music and thought the choreo was awful, but I'm not V/M.
DeleteThe other point is, I'm not trying to win a gold medal, and V/M are. I love programs like Carmen, Waltz Will Go On, and Dream a Little Dream, because they to me represent the direction I'd like ice dance to go -- an emphasis on "the connective tissue between the elements" as Jen Swan would say, so that the program is actually a dance rather than a showcase of random ice dancing elements. But guess what -- the ISU doesn't want ice dance going in this direction. They made that clear by repeatedly rewarding the crap shown by D/W over what V/M were putting out. Why the hell should V/M kill themselves making masterpieces like they did if the ISU is just going to tell them to shove it and reward worthless junk programs like the type D/W and P/C now put out? It's a case of "don't hate the player -- hate the game."
I agree with everything you said, 7:44. I didn't mean to suggest that V/M had an obligation to cater to fans, only that I was disappointed if this is their new direction. I don't think acknowledging it's their choice to make precludes having feelings about those choices.
DeleteI would always choose for a team to skate masterpieces instead of trying to win (goes without saying how ridiculous it is that it's an either/or in the first place), but I'm not a competitive athlete and don't blame V/M if the latter is the primary goal that is motivating them. I do, however, see this strategy possibly backfiring. I don't believe that skating good material is what caused them to lose to D/W.
-canadablue
OC, you should have email.
ReplyDeleteAnd right after the comeback announcement Ryan Semple is back in the picture. And he even owns a house in Montreal. It's going to be a fun two years...
ReplyDelete@12:19, what makes you say Ryan Semple is back in the picture?
ReplyDeleteThere were reports of them meeting each other recently and Tessa publicly started following him on Instagram a few days ago.
ReplyDelete7:33
DeleteThere are no reports. This is nothing but your own fanfic version of VM's life.
Tumbler is fanfic, I see fans wild speculations. I see nothing on twitter or Instagram reporting Semple and Tessa were seen together.
DeleteLinks to these reports please.
(There are none)
10:25. Name calling did not make your lies become facts.
DeleteRight, people on Tumblr who have said they have seen them are fabcricating fanfiction but people on this blog ( without any connection to Tessa ) who claim she's popping out babies like a wet gremlins are spreading nothing but the truth.
ReplyDeleteNobody here had any first hand information on Tessa in years, this blog has been based on nothing but speculations in years but somehow you don't seem to have a problem with that.
At this point people on Tumblr who say they have seen them together are just as valid as anybody else. You can believe them or not but it doesn't make your own speculations any more true than theirs.
And Tessa wouldn't have started following him out of the blue either. Everything she does on social media is deliberate.
Speaking of Tessa's babies, how is she going to hide three of them in Montreal ? London may have covered them but the Moirs are nobodys in Montreal. Nobody there has a reason to play along with them. The first child is probably in pre-school now, that makes it increasingly difficult to hide her.
9:02
DeleteLinks please to those who claim they've seen Tessa Virtue and Ryan Semple together recently.
Your belief that this blog is merely empty speculations does not consequently validate your own speculations.
Links please.
Montreal is probably the best place in Canada for VM to be anonymous. It's in Quebec, where they have virtually zero media coverage outside of the Olympics, and it's a big city, where much more famous people have managed to keep various secrets out of the public sphere.
DeleteWhy would any of the kids need to be in Montreal? They'll stay in London and be cared for by the grandparents, as has always been done.
DeleteWhen VM were training in Canton, Little Moir was with them with Tessa's mother there to help. From that, it follows that Little Moir and sibling will also go to live in Montreal, with Tessa's mother also coming to help.
DeleteTessa's a big girl now. How do they explain Kate in Montreal, Tessa still needs her mommy to live with her and take care of her? That story was already silly back in the Canton days.
DeleteDoesn't Kate Virtue have a life of her own? How does her husband feel about her leaving him to go care for his daughter's kids. He must be a very understanding and patient man.
DeleteOC, are you a philosophy professor? http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/18/can-olympic-ice-skating-sink-any-lower/
ReplyDelete@1:29
DeleteThank you for bringing over that link. That is a great article, I had never seen it before.
I don't really care who OC is or who the writer of that article is, the views expressed regarding the corruption in figure skating, and ice dance in particular, are true.
What I'm finding very interesting is why this article, or anything said about the corruption in ice dance that made the DW wins possible, has not managed to get any traction. Like the L'Equipe article that broke during Sochi, alleging collusion in the judging, all allegations are swept under the rug. If they're addressed at all, they're called lies and labeled conspiracies.
Taking this seriously and doing any real investigating? No one in the mainstream media wants to touch it. That's the power of the mafia that is the ISU and all the major skating federations, such as the ones from the USA, Canada, France and Russia.
The DW scandal got swept under the rug because DW American. If DW were any other nationality, specifically, Russian, the mainstream media would have been all over it.
Delete^^make that DW are American.
Delete