Thursday, September 5, 2013
Not bad, Rosie.
Rosie DiManno. Her new article on Virtue Moir doesn't suck.
pretty good there, Rosie.
Right off the bat describes Carmen as revolutionary, exquisitely beautiful, and technically demanding, but she's not soap-opera-ing it up; she's not padding this one with histrionics and cheesy asides. She only refers to Davis White as Virtue and Moir's perennial rivals. She also says Carmen never got the scores it deserved in international competition.
What I like about this article is it's direct. There's none of the consciousness of "oh, I'm writing for figure skating fans, so better lard this thing with sentimental shit about their personalities or looks." (That's how most writers distance themselves from this sport and its fans, by trivializing everything or making it melodramatic. God forbid they're caught writing like it's a sport. They want us to know the fans only care about personalities.) She hasn't included any asides about fans whatsoever. A little from Virtue and Moir about their Vancouver experience, what's different this time, how they feel about their new free dance, over and out. No back door shit either. Basically, this article comes off almost as if she's writing in her own, newfound figure skating voice, and not just regurgitating skater spin dressed up with her (formerly) signature purple prose. I actually have to give her more credit than that, since Tessa is going on a bit emotively about how starry-eyed a whirlwind Vancouver was, and Scott, I think, mentions how they chafed about at the emphasis on their inexperience, and she lets those remarks stand alone and drives on by. She didn't get sucked in and succumb to writing about them like it was a personality profile.
Rosie, good job.
Who would have thought Rosie-freaking-DiManno would be the Canadian figure skating beat reporter to set the bar? (I don't count Beverly Smith - who is always strong - because figure skating is her metier, and she's not heard from enough.) Please maintain this self-discipline Rosie, and please please let the reason you were able to produce this piece be that you've bothered to learn a little bit about figure skating. The sport needs all the help it can get, and the fans need a break.
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I read that piece and then glanced out the window to look for any pigs flying by. Better safe than sorry and all that.
ReplyDeleteWell, she was the one who called out DW's overscoring last season - I think she stands alone there. So something's going on. I hope she can keep it up. It's also a clever piece because, if she hasn't learned more about figure skating, you can't tell from this article. She asserts what she says about Carmen as if it's an informed opinion, and manages not to undermine her point the way so many journalists do by describing program content and performance in a way that exposes they don't know jackshit about what they're talking about. She also kept totally clear of talking fans and audience and what a freaking relief that is.
DeleteShe needs to stay the course. She has the stones to do it and she also has the hide of an elephant, and the writing about VM can use someone like that.
"I read that piece and then glanced out the window to look for any pigs flying by. Better safe than sorry and all that."
DeleteIKR. Lol
Thank you Rosie.
It would be great if she could delve deeper into the scoring shenanigans with the same even, forthright tone.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she could write an article around Tarasova's recent quote that the judging wasn't fair?
DeleteHaven't read that - where did that come from?
DeleteI think for DiManno to make the case she'd have to be clear she had an informed opinion. I believe after Worlds last year she made a reasonable observation - that even a casual viewer could see that DW are much rougher. She could take that even further and say it's obvious that despite the hype DW are no faster or more powerful across the ice than VM.
I'd love someone to ask why the ISU insists that a hop into a two set twizzle pass merits level 4 when physics says that aids rotational speed and rotation itself, and doesn't challenge the element.
DeleteI'd love to know why hopping is even allowed to catch up to your partner. Unless hopping is part of the choreography it should be penalized...and OC your right that hopping is kind of cheating since the power should be coming from the ground up. You see this all the time with hockey players with less than great skating skills - the hopping is everywhere whereas he great skaters glide and can turn on a dime without the skates leaving the ice.
DeleteI am pretty sure that it goes to skating skills, and that as DW employ it it's choreography, not an element. I'm sure they do the required number or type of steps in a step sequence, and then in between hop and skip. To travel across the ice into and out of elements and as transitions and linking moves, they are hopping and skipping their faces off. Also twinkling, scampering and scurrying. Charlie leaps and lunges. That seems to be the trick to gaming CoP. Do the letter of the law with the elements - even though even there the judges are overscoring DW's elements - and then in the choreography, where many skaters show their basic skating and high level linking moves and transitions, load it up with that crap. It doesn't matter because the judges end up assigning it to pcs. They don't seem to care how little DW use their edges "in between". In between includes getting into and getting out of an element. It's all about elements, and faking the rest.
DeleteThe elements don't hold up under inspection either - they are most definitely not on par with Virtue and Moir's, but that's how they're working CoP. The way the Eurosport guys call it is typical - they call VM's middle twizzle the easier of the three in the pass, when DW do it that easy twizzle as one of their two, the Eurosport guys fall over themselves. There's a double standard at work. If DW weren't North American Tracy Wilson and other commentators would be having a field day taking them down, as they did with Domnina Shabalin.
"The way the Eurosport guys call it is typical - they call VM's middle twizzle the easier of the three in the pass"
DeleteWhere does this come from?
When Meryl and Charlie perform, actual non-element edgework (and they do the absolute minimum of that) is adornment. It gets no more value than all the sliding, truly bizarre walking and hanging out on two feet done by Meryl, Charlie's squatting and running, etc. Their skating in the programs is just another minor flourish - every so often they'll be - we're going do brief edge here - safely slotted between two footed re-sets. They don't USE their skating in their program. They USE their tricks - the hopping, etc. The skating is just an accent note.
DeleteNot the one who brought this up, but here's the Russian article in which Tarasova says that Carmen was under-appreciated by judges.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sport-express.ru/velena/reviews/34881/
However, in an article last year she said that Davis White should have won in 2012 Worlds with DF. So it would be disingenuous to portray her as some sort of authority on how Virtue and Moir are always better.
Hi Anon at 12:34 - I think Tarasova just didn't like the music with Funny Face to be honest. God - it will be interesting to see how she will get through the short dance this year with the Finnstep..she'll probably wear ear plugs, LOL...
DeleteThe lack of appreciation for Carmen by the judges shows you can't teach intelligence. Everything about Carmen goes to the core of what judges are supposed to recognize and reward in ice dance. It was a CoP master class.
Delete