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| This is the woman who claimed she cut her contacts to seven so she could focus on Vancouver. Gold must be a lock in Sochi. |
Also this:
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| 34 year old Stockard Channing playing 17 in Grease. |
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| 30something Gabrielle Carteris playing a high schooler in 90210. |
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| Poor Cindy Brady. |
The last photo killed me. Which one gets to be Blanche and who gets to be Jane?
ReplyDeleteScott is Jane (eternal child). Tessa is Blanche.
ReplyDeleteLittle Cindy Brady looks like Charlie White. That's what Carlie & Taniths' daughyer would look lile.
ReplyDeleteThis whole thing has gone past the point of ridiculous. What would it take for someone to out them in a big way?
ReplyDelete8:16 - blogger and others have said there are many in Ilderton, London and skating media surrounding VM who not only know the truth but ate disgusted with the Moirville antics. You gotta figure there are compelling reasons why none of them have blown the whistle. Too bad, too, that those around VM and Co who disagree never said anything. Their silence only ended up enabling and this is what we get. The lies and acting out have become more egregious with time, not less.
Delete8:43 here - sorry, typo - that should say many who *are* disgusted (not ate).
DeleteI would love to know what those compelling reasons are. It's just so bizarre. I know a lot of people in figure skating sham and beard, but to this degree? Is it common to actually hide the existence of a child of a married couple? A guy could hide an extramarital child, I guess, but this is really weird, and doesn't it offend people in the close knit "family oriented" skating community?
DeleteI do believe the child exists, but I'm so confused why no one has ratted them out. Moirville is very cliquish, but almost the entire town knows, apparently. So no one who's just on the outside of the clique and sick of it has ever said to hell with it and posted a picture or details on the inernet?
I also still don't understand what is so embarrassing or shameful to Tessa and Scott, a married couple who conceived a child in wedlock, that they couldn't just do a tasteful announcement that she was pregnant and they'd been married some time? I don't have inside sources, but it makes me think there's something much darker to it that we don't know about it.
As to outing, I look at it this way. I've mentioned Gelsey Kirkland's book "Dancing on My Grave" in the past. In it she exposes a lot about ballet during the time she was a star, including a lot of not pretty stuff about Baryshnikov, Ballanchine, Peter Martins. Although her perspective was immature in some respects and she's so intense in the book it's almost suffocating, what she said was her story and was true. It made her an outcast in the US ballet world and she had to work in Europe until enough time had passed for her to be forgiven.
DeleteA fictitious example would be Mad Men. Don Draper writes a letter to the NY Times declaring his agency will never again represent a cigarette company (Lucky Strike had dumped them). The agency was celebrated by the American Cancer Society but also informed that nobody was going to do business with Draper's agency because it had proven it will turn on and betray clients. Even competitors of the client he betrayed would shy away.
Virtue and Moir are doing it up big, there's no question, even if people inside skating are used to it and have their own problems. But if someone comes along and blows it up then people will wonder if they're next. As to the media, the media covering figure skating are inane and groupies. The ones who need to be held to account are those who proactively lie to the public when they know better (Steve Milton, possibly). There's a work around when you know but don't tell, and that's called reporting what the subjects say, which becomes fact. The subjects do SAY this, after all, and that's all you've reported.
Otherwise what the media would do if someone else exposed Virtue and Moir is write the story about the story - the subject would be Virtue Moir are exposed, not Virtue and Moir themselves.
It's not embarassing or shameful, it's SPECIAL. It's unique. Some of the arguments about how they want to respect their freedom of expression on the ice don't really work when we understand they're not really shy about each other away from what they consider prying eyes, and considering they're already skating in front of hundreds of nearest and dearest who know their status. It seems to me, theoretically, that this is about Moirs owning the franchise. At the moment they're milking it for everything they can get until while Scott and Tessa are still at the height of their celebrity. I also think exhibitionism plays a huge role in this because they're all drama queens and get off on the drama of this mess.
A more conventional sham would be Tanith, for instance, suddenly not saying much about her home life with Charlie. She used to refer to it fairly frequently if innocuously - glad to be home with @Chalieawhite, or being grateful to a bf who didn't mind she tipped over a canoe, or tweeting a photo.
DeleteTanith would go quiet so people would speculate if she were with Charlie or not. Maybe she'd show up in proximity to some other guy somewhere so people would speculate she must be dating someone new.
Then after Sochi is over and Charlie and Meryl have gold and Tanith has used her commentating position to help them to the top of the podium, she'll mention she and Charlie got married in 2011.
I'm not hinting, I'm just saying that would be a very conventional sham. Notice, though, that Tanith is not writing a book called "I Am No Longer With Charlie White", "I Love Being Single and Playing the Field", or crying in interviews about her break up. And there are no men on social media practically letting us know how they're dying and need relief because Tanith is on tour, and, also, nobody not Charlie White is grabbing Tanith sideboob on facebook just so we really really really believe she and Charlie are probably not together.
She just shuts up and allows speculation that serves her interests.
That's a conventional sham.
New article: http://olympic.ca/2013/10/23/virtue-moir-they-can-just-do-things-others-cant/
ReplyDeleteI thought this was actually half-way decent.
Tracy Wilson is much more specific talking VM than talking DW.
DeleteI think Mike Slipchuk could work harder talking of VM in the present and future tense instead of past tense.
the french version of the article is a bit better. for instance, the headline sounds so awkward and vague whereas in french version it gets straight to the point "Les autres patineurs sont incapables de les imiter " which roughly translates to "other skaters are incapable of imitating them"
DeleteSlipchuk won't. He is focused on Chan. All of Skate Canada has either written them off as coming second or there is a deal...
DeleteIronically - I will LMAO if one of Brian Orser's skaters (ie. Hanyu) sneeks in there for the gold. Yes there may be a deal but Chan has to deliver and the fact that he doesn't have a technical coach speaks volumes to me. You would have thought that Orser would be a decent fit but somehow I think Patrick is not the easiest guy to coach. Skate Canada is beyond dumb to put all there eggs in one basket...
DeleteTotally agree. In fact, I do not think that Chan will win the Olympics. I think last year worlds was too much and there will be a whack him if he makes a mistake mentality this year. His technical is getting shakier and shakier and he has no technical coach. I cannot see him going clean in Sochi. So the deal is complete madness! They should be working their asses off for V/M, by far the best ice dance skaters in the world.
DeleteHow strange to see both of Skate Canada's top medal contenders approaching the Olympic season with anything but the most intense focus and preparation.
DeleteChan is delusional if he thinks his skating will be what it should be without a technical coach. It's arrogance.
And then there's Tessa and Scott. Signing up for a reality-show (documentary my ass - it's Tessa and Scott and Moirville all acting out their tight-knit public-personas fantasies for the cameras), playing around with a social media GF who apparently needs Scott's attention, and in general making excuses ("October mistakes"). I have never seen VM's attention this divided during the beginning of any season, let alone in the run-up to the Olympics. Like Chan, there has to be an underlying arrogance if they thought they could say yes to all these outside distractions and still be at their best as skaters.
I don't understand how Moirville thought getting their faces on camera was a good way to help their babies prepare for the Olympics.
Even if they're not on camera this is a great way to occupy them organizing, setting up, emailing, arranging, chatting, etc. as they coordinate all things London/Ilderton with the production. They can't carry on their own lives while Scott and Tessa compete. Scott and Tessa ARE their lives.
DeleteD/W fans are honestly obsessed with V/M and their fans lmao
ReplyDeleteI would be too if my favorites were as exposed as DW are and the fans of their rivals started noticing and pointing it out, and I had no answer because it was true.
DeleteIn one of the pay-for sections of FSU, someone posted a link to this article: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/figureskating/skate-canada-international-1.2158955 They included this remark when posting "Note the rant from someone who obviously is not a DavWhi fan in the comments...."
DeleteThe comment in question was this, in two parts:
"After seeing Skate America, I am really concerned. I am a long-time ice dance fan and I enjoy a lot of the ice dance teams right now, including D&W, but I am disgusted by what has been going on with the judging recently.
D&W's short dance has very little actual dancing in it, and they exhibited poor use of rhythm (which is supposed to be of prime importance in the short dance as per the ISU rules). More importantly, they, particularly Charlie, kicked up piles of snow on the Finnstep pattern (and throughout the program) yet received high GOEs for this element and stellar scores for skating skills and all other PCS categories.
In the FD, I am hard pressed to find the actual skating: they hop, leap, toe pick, and run to build speed. Charlie also pulls and drags Meryl at times. When they don't have these things to fall back on, they noticeably lose speed. They simply don't have a lot of run to their blades (especially Meryl). And they dance very tight--they don't make full use of their bodies to interpret the music. Charlie in particular is stiff, and they have poor posture and line for a lot of their program, they just hide it by rushing from one movement to the next. And they skate so far apart and constantly drift away from each other. Yet the judges almost unanimously awarded them with 9.75s on skating skills.
(continued) Compare that to the Shibutanis, who had their issues but danced the quickstep and foxtrot rhythms far better than anyone else, and who have the clean edges and beautiful carriage and line to go with it. And they were struggling to get onto the podium.
The rules are supposed to call for speed created through rhythmic knee action, not hopping, dragging, etc. But the judges are rewarding the latter.
In all my years of watching the sport I have never seen such ludicrous judging. I feel sorry for V&M who clearly put a lot of time into learning different dance styles and exhibiting proper dance technique, and perfecting their skating technique (look at their long blade runs, the power of each stroke). Even though the rules say these things should matter, they don't in terms of scores. Sad."
The DW ubers really do behave exactly like spoiled children who have always gotten their way with every little thing. They are not happy that DW's skating is getting critiqued, and like OC said, it's impossible for them to answer because it's all true.
Despite the snark by fsu, I'm glad that person took the trouble to comment on a media site instead of confining it to fan boards. Everything they describe in DW's skating is true. It's not hyperbole. It's the pcs where corruption in ice dance judging exist but skating skills are not some intangible. They're very specific and DW very obviously do very little blade work.
DeleteThat same person added to their post by adding specific sections of the PCS rules.
DeleteThose DW fans are only making themselves look bad when they post things like that. If they disagree, why not counter what the poster is saying? Of course, the answer is because they cannot. so they have to tell everyone to just ignore them. That is childish. And a person can be a fan of a skater or team of skaters without ignoring and failing to comment on weaknesses and mistakes in their skating.
Also, have you seen the VM thread lately? People are really being honest and posting specifics on the deficiencies in DW's skating, and why their marks are too high. Someone also posted a breakdown of the transitions in Carmen in response to someone who said the modern dance parts weren't that difficult. I am glad those fans stopped tiptoeing around this stuff--it needs to be laid out clearly.
I'm 9:05pm. To be clear, the post that was added to was the CBC one.
DeleteHere is that breakdown of Carmen from the FSU thread. I would love to see how the D&W ubers can claim ND deserved to win after reading this:
DeleteWatch Tessa turn on one foot and stay on that same foot while transferring weight from one side to the other, changing from an inside to outside edge to an inside edge again. Watch her free leg as well. This particular transition employs sinuous movement and then a sharp movement on the beat that is accompanied by a strong shape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AicV...outu.be&t=126s
Look at the shaping of the body here. Tessa orients her body backward, arching her back and releasing the neck while skating backward on one foot. Scott is simultaneously gliding on one foot, on an outside edge and then turns around her. Also watch the play of tension here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AicV...outu.be&t=146s
And here we see Tessa drop her centre of gravity, working from an upright position and moving through a split through Scott’s legs as he moves into an Ina Bauer. I want to point out that this kind of movement impedes their ability to carry momentum forward in the skating that follows, and the body positions impede their ability to move across the ice in these moves, yet they manage to do it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AicV...outu.be&t=155s
And here they again drop their centres of gravity, using low positions and moving force outward by kicking their right feet to the right before moving forward on a curve on one edge. Simultaneously, they are rotating their upper torsos, making it more difficult to balance. They then arrest the movement again throwing some weight outward, then bring it back in and shift their weight again. I especially like when Tessa moves onto a left back inside edge and brings the free foot forward. And shortly after we have a move where Scott drops into a plié while Tessa rides on a right forward inside edge and twists her torso and kicks her left leg over her right to land on her left foot and travel backward. Also, in the section preceding the diagonal step sequence, they are working in the middle of the ice, changing direction and directing their momentum side to side or up and down—in other words, in ways that impede their ability to gain forward momentum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AicV...outu.be&t=281s
And I love this transitional movement in the diagonal step sequence, right after the choctaw, when Tessa kicks behind her, directing her momentum backward and quickly bringing it right back in order to complete the subsequent steps. Again, this transition makes it more difficult to keep balanced over the blades in the step sequence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AicV...outu.be&t=307s
All these moves are about creating dynamic shapes, playing with tension and levels, and they manage to maintain blade movement as they do them. The constant and quick transfers of weight make it a lot harder to stay balanced over the blades so that they can build and maintain speed as well as complete their elements. Very, very difficult.
http://wildhonesty.tumblr.com/post/64819959487/theicedancekingdom-skate-america-2013-meryl have you all seen this? copying lifts?
ReplyDeleteI saw that yesterday. Anna and Luca do it better.
Deletewhere is anna's "italians do it better" sign that she had at euros? its so relevant for that post.
DeleteWell, a lift is more than the pose, but comparing the photo of the poses, Anna's is much better. She opens her pelvis/hips and her chest and extends her entire body. Meryl doesn't use her pelvis or her chest.
ReplyDeleteI've got some new comparisons up:
ReplyDeleteFirst Outing of 2013-14 programs
http://youtu.be/7UUKyk8NWZw
http://youtu.be/FpYrjaxkeE0
2013 FD Elements in Slow Motion
http://youtu.be/mSKw1PtR0xQ
Would you object if I embedded these in a post? I like that they are cut and matched by transition destination very much. It's much better than my method of gifing and screen capping.
DeleteYep, that's fine (or rather, no I don't mind), but please make it clear that they're not yours. And thanks, that's great - I would like these to be viewed as much as possible!
DeleteOf course, and thank you.
Deletegrrr skate canada is video anywhere?
ReplyDeleteSo, 73.15 for the SD. I would have preferred for there not to have been a twizzle error or the bobble on the one Finnstep pattern, but I'm actually very pleased. Without that twizzle error, I think VM would have outscored what DW put up at SA, and this is with VM having an American caller.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see what happens tomorrow, but if I were DW, I'd be a little nervous right now. The judges were willing to do it if VM were clean.
Also, kudos to VM on the level 4 step sequence.
I agree. Comparing protocols between SA and SC, there's still ridiculous GOE for DW on twizzles and ridiculous GOE on lifts, but even with the key point problem in the Finnstep (which was otherwise stellar) VM would have bested the SA score and comfortably, just executing the twizzles clean, not OTT.
ReplyDeleteWhat amuses me at the moment is how pressed the DW uber fans are over VM's score tonight. My amusement lies in the fact that the message the judges sent tonight was also addressed to DW in all capital letters. That message was that if VM are clean, the judges will do it, and DW don't have this in the bag. Granted, we need to see what happens tomorrow, but for tonight, I am pleased.
DeleteThe errors that VM made tonight are things that are easily fixable with simple repetition in practice. The problems with DW's programs don't have that kind of easy fix. They'd need a time machine.
I hope that if VM's confidence issues have been tied to fears about the judging that tonight's outing and scores serve as a boost. I know they're mad over the errors, but they're smart when it comes to skating, so I can't imagine this is going to be lost on them when they look at the protocols. They are still very much in the game at this point. At least right now, I no longer feel that Sochi Gold for VM is a lost cause.
I agree. Anybody with a calculator could see that even with Tessa missing a key point on the Finnstep (in slow mo you can see she's not on a clear outside edge when she finishes the one and a half twizzle in the Finnstep), with clean twizzles Virtue and Moir would have easily outscored DW in both tech and PCs, and not by fractions.
DeleteThe bones of the twizzles were so impressive they got some GOE even with a drop of two levels.
I don't know why DW fans are pressed - maybe they scented blood when W/P got 70, remember that VM got in the sixties in Finlandia. Maybe they hoped VM would lose the short to W/P. That IS the dream, after all. Then to see that with a drop of two levels in the twizzles they still got 73.+ (deservedly) and very high pcs, it's got to shake them up. I read the other day that some of the elements as performed by the pairs team Volosozhar and Trankov need a Level 5. I think Virtue and Moir's sd footwork needs a level 5.
And I agree, the problems with DW's programs don't have an easy fix. Traditionally their strongest outings are earlier in the season and then they hold on for dear life as it goes on. They don't grow their programs because they don't grow their skating.
Now, when I look at DW's SA protocols there's no question it's ridiculous for them to get a string of +3s on the rotational, nor should the twizzles be getting high GOE. It's bizarre because those are the two most obvious elements that are subpar and that's where the high GOE is awarded, while the GOE for other elements are more conservative. But still, this outing is very encouraging for VM fans, not just because of how they skated - their skating was as gigantic as VT's, but they were relaxed and didn't get screwed in TES or levels.
d/w fans are saying w/p should've beat v/m lolololol
Deletein that case c/l should've beaten d/w because at least c/l's sd looks like a quickstep.
also im p. sure v/m will do better tomorow. w/p tango is WEAK.
DeleteI think W/P's tango is a strong program - for the team that they are, and who they are competing against this season. It's ridiculous to say W/P should have beaten V/M because V/M's skating is much much better, and if you start criticizing W/P in an OTT fashion, it only makes you sound threatened by W/P, which we have absolutely no reason to be.
Deletewhat about tessa's reaction in kiss cry? the fd needs better footwork and transitions. its just them gliding and gliding and too many hops. any link to video of sd tonight?
ReplyDeleteLink to sd:
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOUDABTPW70
I think Tessa was pissed because she wobbled on the transition between the first and second twizzle set, and in reaction to that Scott wobbled on the second, but between them it was probably the cleanest and most controlled wobble I've seen from them in a twizzle error and twizzle set one and three were fantastic.
You and I disagree completely on the free dance. I suggest you look at it more closely, particularly in terms of changes of direction and orientation to each other.
"the fd needs better footwork and transitions. its just them gliding and gliding and too many hops."
DeleteWhat? Couldn't disagree more. But hey, since you're so sure the FD is in need of better footwork, transitions, and is just them "gliding" with too many hops, maybe you can pull up the video and point out to everyone here exactly where you see problems and break down the bladework in detail, explaining how it can be improved in each specific section of the program, where they could put in more multidirectional skating, and why the "hops" are a problem in relation to the various holds and transitions.
Go ahead. The rest of us will hang up and listen.
Exactly - this isn't nitpicky, this is what the judges are meant to be doing, and fans with strong opinions ought to know what the judges are judging.
Deletehttp://31.media.tumblr.com/56ae629d83b7c2de6e21e0bbd03dc5d7/tumblr_mv95vomOp71rmbfdco2_1280.jpg
ReplyDeleteTessa is just something else in lifts.
im 625, dont get me wrong i love them and noone compares, and i do not have knowledge u guys do, but after 2011 latin dance which i thought was unreal, and carmen, this fd just doesnt stay with me. their upper bodies are more stiff then in those other two programs. it just doesnt seem as interesting as the prior fds.
ReplyDeleteThough I do not understand what you're saying about their having stiffer upper bodies in this season's FD (because I don't think it's true) that has to do with how the program makes you feel and you're entitled to feel anything you want about it. But how it makes you feel has nothing to do with the technical worth of the program as it relates to CoP.
Delete625 again. ok. carmen, the 2011 program was more aesthetically pleasing. i prefer watching those over the new one. i think the new one is amazing. d/w to me suck, i cannot watch them jumping running squatting and white literally flinging davis around like a sack of potatoes. but, this free dance lovely as it is, is not in the same category of inventiveness, originality, as the previous masterpieces. i was never enthralled about mahler tho i know it's incredible, but mahler while less technically difficult than this new fd, was more engaging. there's technical and then there's something that cannot be explained about a performance. and this one is lacking it. idk if it's the music or what, but while yes its better than everyone else, its not the best virtue moir fd.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 6:25/9:31. Seasons is not my very favorite VM program. I love Farracus, Pink Floyd, Latin, Carmen... this is not the style I would've chosen for them this year. Your opinion is completely valid. But I would be careful to be negative about this FD on more public forums because then it will be twisted into "even VM's own fans think they suck..." and this program may lack in inventiveness and originality compared to their past work, but IT IS just as inventive, original, and great as anything anyone else is putting out, especially the crap from DW. Most importantly, it really really really showcases all the qualities that are necessary under the COP... they are showing fantastic power and flow in that FD, never pausing for a second, with multiple changes of positions in every lift, all gorgeous. It is exactly what the rulebook calls for. I wish the vehicle for it were a music and theme more to my taste and yours, however, remember that two of the FDs VM fans considered more boring won gold medals (Mahler and FF), so blame the judges, not VM.
Delete