The thing looks like Debbi Wilkes' "tough" campaign come to life. Is she still trying to make that one work?
Panting, sweating, muscles bulging, HARD falls. It's so DRAMATIC. Voice overs about the legions of girls and boys who want to be one of the elite figure skaters but only a few make it because it's so damn hard! What it does to the human body! There's almost no other pursuit that takes this type of toll, that demands this sort of control, except maybe dance and gymnastics.
It's all like real athletes!
A bonus for me is it seems to feature my absolute favorite Canadian figure skater, Kurt Browning. I can never ever get enough of that guy.
For people who don't get cbc.ca and will miss Ice! Sweat! and Tears! I recommend renting this as close enough:
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| A little more understated but, as a substitute, Black Swan will do in a pinch. |
"It's all like real athletes!"
ReplyDeleteLol.
Didn't SC originally announce this was a documentary focusing on Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir? You wouldn't think so by this preview.
Not too change the subject but, whoever is Managing Tessa & Scott are doing a lousy job. Meryl & Chalrie are all over the media spectrum now, gaining fans from twitter with all the gymnastics fans. As we all know... Ice Dance is all about politcking and popularity now, not about the performances.Tessa and Scott should be made to have twitter & or Facebook accounts. WE all know the sport is going downhill in North America. The judges will be forced to do something to gain audiances again. They will pick the team who is in the the public eye the most.Tessa & Scott have to pick up their game, not on the ice put in Social Media. They will have to allign themselves with someone popular on twitter or facebook to compete with Meryl/Charlie(they have all the momentum now)None of this taking time off after comps anymore. Look at Meryl and Charlie after GPF...Still skating getting all of the attention. I find that Tessa & Scott have become lazy with their skating, ever since they announced that they only train 4 days a week since last year. They are too concerned with their private lives and matters of the heart than their training and public view. No wonder they loose every competition to the Americans. IT SHOWS. No more taking things for GRANTED. I just wish they could see this post and get their asses into gear.
ReplyDeleteSigned: A Concerned Fan.
There's not even a way to get in contact with them anymore. Their website is only for professional reasons. What a joke they have become. Well not to talk out of turn, but I predict they will losse every competiotion from here on out until they retire, and good enough for them. We all know skating is all political now. Scott said on his facebook that he never had the time to update it, yet he was spotted out how many times partying at bars and Fairs??? Give me a Break. Meryl and Charlie haver time for: skating, school, charities, and significant others. Who does he think he is trying to kid??? They couldn't care less about the Fans. They have become too big for their britches, and yet they are loosing every comp. LOL. Go Figure.
DeleteI thought Scott and Tessa beat Meryl and Charlie twice in a row at the end of last season - at the 4CCs and then at Worlds.
DeleteThey've never beaten them at the GPF, including in the Olympic season when they went on to beat them at the Olympics and Worlds.
I think there's a double standard in the judging at times - that Scott and Tessa are critiqued and their feet held to the fire down to the nuance of every turn of blade, while Meryl and Charlie are judged very generously and not examined all that closely. But that said, they've faced each other three times at Worlds and VM have beaten DW twice. The time they lost, Worlds was their first full competition of the year and despite what they pretended, the free dance was seriously undertrained.
They've faced each other three times at the GPF and D/W have beaten them both times. Look at it this way - if the ISU wants to keep the competition close for public relations reasons, the GPF could be their annual gift to D/W. The fact remains VM have beaten them more than they've lost to them.
Above re GPF should read - DW have beaten them three times.
DeleteAs a point of clarification, V-M train on ice 5 days a week (mentioned both this year and last in interviews/meetings with fans). They do two days a week with their trainer in London. The only day they don't do any training is Saturday.
ReplyDeleteThe judges also don't give a rats behind about which team is more popular with the audience. 2011 Worlds in Moscow? V-M were more popular with the crowd, but D-W won. 2012 Nice? It was the opposite. The judges also don't care in the least who has a facebook, twitter, or website.
Historically, V-M grow programs on a slow burn, peaking in time for the big championships later in the season. I expect to see the same this season. The only two years we didn't see this were 08-09 (leg surgery) and 10-11 (baby). As it was, in the 10-11 season, they still came very close to winning worlds.
Also, as another point, V-M aren't taking time off right now. They're at home training, doing the smart thing, instead of skating in an inconsequential show.
CBC Sports to Skate Canada, is like the drinking buddy to an alcoholic and PJ Kwong is the bartender. The fact that Elvis is in the Doc shows you their world has not changed in the last 20 years. Unfortunately, the rest of the world has moved on.
ReplyDeleteDocs for old farts, on the CBC!
Does anyone remember the horrible, seemingly home made Skate Canada videos? One I mock all the time - it has the skaters posed in interrogation type spotlights saying things like "I'm a seven day a week, 24-hours a day - perfectionist." (Dube is the one saying this) - everything with deadly self-seriousness and half-cooked drama. Then there was the "are you READY?" campaign with awful music and ridiculous close-ups trying to show us everything but the skating and again, trying to pump up the drama without being clear what everyone was being dramatic about.
DeleteThese people in charge of Skate Canada now have no faith that the audience can enjoy figure skating. Figure skating, after all, has what some consider feminine attributes (music, choreo, aesthetic, dance, etc.) and Skate Canada feels that stuff gives the audience cooties. What makes it comfortable for the audience, in the eyes of Skate Canada - or at least so they pretend - is some toxic soup of frat house humor, unbelieveable mugging that serves to distance the skater from what Skate Canada is afraid prejudices the audience against figure skating, and personal stories. You'd think an additional component of this formula would be making the skaters apppear to be somewhat accessible to fans, but that's inconvenient for Skate Canada, as its officials like to sort of be the gatekeepers - if you want to see the skaters, you can only get see them filtered through the officials, who are the ones who are really in the spotlight.
The one thing that never gets highlighted is actual figure skating. We're told how hard it is, and all the rest of the crap, but never allowed to really experience the skating itself, or get involved, because Wilkes & Co. are too busy interpreting it.
1) I wonder how much we'll see and hear Wilkes talk in Ice, Sweat and Tears. I could see leaving that out of the previews and then springing her on us as the primary spokes-idiot.
2) I wonder how much figure skating will be promoted in Ice, Sweat, and Tears - the sport they want us interested in - and how much they'll continue to try and address a problem they made up - that the public thinks figure skating is too gay. And we all know gay = feminine and straight = TOUGH. Gay can never be tough and feminine isn't either.
So yes, a bunch of dinosaurs. And Kurt Browning is exactly the guy I want explaining it all to me.
I agree P.J. Kwong has become sort of the bartender component to the Skate Canada alcoholic, but she's better than Wilkes, and it seems clear she's been recruited to take Wilkes' place in many instances, since it's become over-obvious how grasping Wilkes is for the spotlight. As she's a coach, I wish she, as well as other figure skaters/commentators, would quit promoting misinformation about how the sport is judged, or ought to be judged, when they comment.
DeleteFor instance - I think Virtue and Moir are shortchanged vis a vis D/W, this year especially. That doing that entire program with sublime figure skating while restricting themselves to a modern dance physical vocabulary is outrageously difficult and should be rewarded (one judge knocked them down to 8's in several categories while across the boarding 10s for D/W. Ridiculous). It's ice dance. If you take on the challenge of actually dancing while hitting your elements and skating beautifully, IMO, that should be recognized. I don't even mean rhythm, but head to toe movement.
However, one thing that ought not to be judged is if Meryl and Charlie are able to convince us they have chemistry. Kurt Browning and others have been all "not buying it." They don't have to. It's irrelevant. That's not the sort of connection that CoP evaluates. They don't evaluate acting either.
They're going to lose every competoiton from here until they retire? i'll take that bet in a heartbeat. You think they are going to lose Nationals? Skate Canada or Cup of Russia? Those are competitions.BTW they have won 3 of the last 5 competitons they've been in including the only one that really matters Worlds, convincingly. Talk to me in March, but for now bring it on how much do you wanna bet?
ReplyDeleteI meant every comp against Davis/White. I will definately take that bet
ReplyDeleteI just love that video you posted:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdDrTWMPgI8
Lol - Tessa saying she would only date outside the sport, right next to all those pictures of her with (then skater) Fedor Andreev. And Scott, "I'm open..." even as you show the huge quantity of pictures from the super-private relationship of Scott&Jessica.
I'm eagerly awaiting the latest installment of Scott and Tessa's private-public postings and shenanigans (which I'm sure they have planned for these upcoming competitions in and around their home town) with the most current boyfriend and girlfriend. Lol, these guys sure have given fodder for entertainment. I hope they aren't sitting somewhere taking themselves too seriously - I don't think any fans take this seriously anymore.
Scott was once again out at the bars...
ReplyDeleteYeah, he really acts like someone with a kid at home.
DeleteWas Senor Carmen spotted with someone or was it a guys night out?
DeleteHe was buying drinks for a guy named Joe.
DeleteSounds terribly romantic.
DeleteIsn't his Dad called Joe?
Deletescott has the night off from baby? how lucky those who see it! his dad is joe
Deletescott behaves like one who has a child at home by going to the bar in the evening? I do not understand
DeleteThey are being saracastic and implying he is not a good father. But since they are NOT married and DO NOT HAVE A BABY, it's all bullshit anyway. Fill your boots Scotty!!! Drink and barhop to your heart's content. Woohoo!!!!
DeleteHis dad's name is Joe. But I think this was a young London girl describing what a sibling or friend had told her (didn't drill into twitter enough to figure out which).
DeleteIt's the weekend. I know young fathers and mothers, both separately and together, who go out from time to time to a bar on the weekend, particularly a sports bar. The baby isn't a baby anymore - the child is pushing two years old.
Becoming a parent doesn't necessarily chain you to the house every night; it depends on your circumstances. For example, if you're "home" (i.e., where you come from) for the weekend with the baby and your hometown is chock full of grandparents and other relatives dying to spend time with the baby, you might find yourself with the time to go to a bar with some of your friends. The debauchery of it all.
Tessa's "boyfriend" is also getting into the spirit of things it seems. Looking for some sugar on the dfloor, eh Uncle Ryan? Hope your girlfriend doesn't mind. Maybe it's an open relationship.
ReplyDeleteYou think that Scott buying someone called Joe, a beer, is debauchery?
ReplyDeleteIf you're talking about my comment, it was sarcastic.
DeleteScott wasn't out wrecking the town. He was at a bar. In his home town, where 90% of his child's relatives live. I don't get the translation that buying someone a beer means neglecting your family.
Out one evening to drink not mean abandoning the child at home alone! all have a free evening out even if you are parents! probably at home happens to be looking for friends tessa and he preferred to leave! then the child is 2 years is no longer a baby. must maintain the script disappear altogether if people might get suspicious!
Delete