ETA: this is the most recent link to canadablue's video:
Canadablue's video comparison
Below is canadablue's comparison between Davis and White's lyrical-ish 2014 gala program to Rachmaninov and Virtue and Moir's exhibition version of Mahler, performed in 2010. The original canadablue video compares the DW Rachmaninov performance to three additional Virtue and Moir exhibitions, but the central points are on display in the video's initial look at Davis White in 2014 vis a vis Virtue and Moir in 2010. Those points are:
...to illustrate the difference in difficulty and quality, of both skating and dancing, and especially with regards to how the teams gain and maintain power. Skating to slow music does not necessitate skating slowly. A team's movements can be in time to the music while still allowing them to cross the ice with speed. (canadablue)
Davis and White's bastardized appropriation of what some argue is Virtue and Moir's style is annoying because it exemplifies the bastardization of the sport itself. Never mind the skating Virtue and Moir are executing - Davis White merely ape the style, imitate some performance aspects, and, when pasted atop mediocre skating presented with conscious pseudo-import, it's seen as the same thing. While no skater or skating team owns a particular genre, piece of music, or style, I believe in this instance that Davis White's gala exhibition is intended to run the table, mimicking Virtue and Moir, so as to assert that Virtue and Moir have nothing we don't. We're complete.
It's sad. This sport is spitting on itself by pretending this (Davis White) is as good as that (Virtue Moir). It's a further blurring of style and technique, refusing to acknowledge any distinction. Through Davis and White, ice dance encourages fans to see generic styling as indistinguishable from superior skating. Journalists of course follow along. Some even now assume there's actually an artistic mark**, and that the artistic mark comprises things like mood setting, impact, momentum, and other non-technical, non-executional, subjective intangibles.
I'm going to start with canadablue's Davis White vis a vis Virtue Moir Mahler exhibition clips, and later, make gifs.
What bothers me, really, is not Davis White seeming to put on their bastardized Virtue Moir; it's the on-purpose bullshit in their skating. It's how they gesture towards doing something, and, gesture made, drop it. That's enough for them to be declared better than teams that actually do it, and to defeat them.
That's them all over. They're pro forma ice dancers. They appear to initiate something to a phrase of the music, and, gesture made, I bet many people think they did something, such as achieved and sustained matching lines while gliding. Except they didn't. They "present" it as if something's happening, and it's not. That's pretty much all their choreography/skating is, while Virtue and Moir are actually doing it. The sport doesn't want us to appreciate the difference. Considering the enormous gulf between what Davis White do versus Virtue Moir, this is heartbreaking.
**There's no need for any journalist to fact check what they say about figure skating when writing about the actual skating, because there's no accountability in journalism either. Nobody expects somebody writing about figure skating to actually understand the rules or know what's being scored.
uh OC thoughts on this? http://scottmoirfckedmyfriend.tumblr.com/
ReplyDeleteHe's basically asking for it. And hey, at least people aren't saying he's gay. That's MUCH more important. I'm sure Moirville on some level LIKES this sort of thing. Huge package, player, and straight? That's what they want.
Deletei dont understand how anyone can like being accused of being a sexual predator.
Deletealso i dont understand how anyone can even think thats his dick. scott has a happy trail but the dude in the photo doesn't. whoever the troll behind the blog is, they're doing a poor job.
For a horrible minute I thought Moirville might be behind it, but yes, it's one thing to be thought a player, it's a whole other thing to have these kinds of accusations levelled at you.
DeleteWhen Heather had a twitter, Heather was trying to provoke a response out of the Moirs - either something that would make them somehow deny or somehow confirm if Scott and Tessa were together. I'm not sure what idea was behind the attempt - that if her twitter were taken to an extreme, Moirville would have to react somehow.
DeleteThis seems to me to be along the same lines - an attempt to take Moirville's Victoria Day strategy and up the ante, make them think they've lost control of the narrative and pull back before damage is done. Moirville is lying - what if somebody else began taking it to an extreme?
I am more and more convinced Scott didn't actually act like much of an ass on Victoria Day, but when people said he did, it not only establishes that he's out and about without Tessa on Tessa's birthday, it also makes people think that Moirville can't be behind it. I just think a tumblr like this, while of course it could be straight up trolling, might have a Heather agenda in it - an aggressive gambit to scare Scott/Tessa/Moirville out of shamming, or at least produce some reaction that the tumblr owner can take as information.
It wasn't Tessa's birthday.
DeleteI have a hard time believing the HFBoards report was a plant. An obscure thread on a message board (instead of their usual social media platforms), a long-time serious poster. And you think Moirville cunningly created damaging reports because they would be more believable? Really? I'm not sure how acting like an ass and being coked out is supposed to prove he isn't with Tessa. Why not making out with a bunch of girls or something? If they're going to make up stuff, that kind of report would be a lot more effective.
Was there a sham agenda involved? Probably. Scott took pictures with half the women in the bar and I don't think that's a coincidence. Not so sure about the rest.
perhaps it wasnt a plant and scott is just guilty by association. you know how his friends are. he could've been acting the most reasonable in the group but because he's the most famous, the poster focuses on him the most. also the facebook user could've been using the term 'coked-out' metaphorically.
DeleteYou don't know how obscure these message boards are to Moirville - Scott and all his buddies love hockey. I'm not going to assume none of his friends know that board. What Moirville considers damaging and what we considering damaging are, as the sham and everything around it has borne out time and time again, different things. The few instagram pictures show a hazily drunk guy posing out-of-itly with fans, and singing karoake. I find it interesting so many supposedly random fans saw him acting so rambunctious not just at the hockey game, but in bars, enough to get tossed out, and nobody had an Iphone. Amazing.
DeleteIt's not that "cunning". It's basic.
How obscure is the board anyway, if not just a skating fan, but a Virtue and Moir fan located that post and disseminated it?
DeleteFurthermore, plenty of fans do message board searches looking for hits, and that's not exactly a secret. Just plant it there, a fan finds it, and oops, who would think it was on purpose, the board is so obscure! Despite the fact that this kind of thing occurs repeatedly.
Delete"an aggressive gambit to scare Scott/Tessa/Moirville out of shamming, or at least produce some reaction that the tumblr owner can take as information."
Deleteor perhaps their motive is too scare people out of shipping them/troll shippers. its absolutely disgusting that they are using accusations of rape to bait/troll fans.
There were multiple reports, from a variety of social media outlets, discussing a plethora of negative behaviors observed, some citing specific examples and some voiced as pure speculation and opinion. My point is that while I don't doubt there was some (or majority) of "input" from the ville, I don't think it all was, esp the coked out comment. IIRC, that was someone saying he looked or seemed... so speculation (from possibly someone drunk/stoned), or more likely someone not even there just piggybacking on other comments, for attention or trying to stir up shit.. much like it seems this newest tumblr is. A lot of the shamming (whether fake s.o.'s or other narratives) can be set up like this. Go out, act a certain way, put out comments to set up the story you want, and let fans or others take it and run with it. Of course, this comes with the risk of comments getting out of hand, but I guess when you think you have everything under control you don't care about that and figure you can reign it back in...
DeleteOC, you still haven't explained why acting like an ass, getting thrown out, etc. is supposed to prove Scott isn't with Tessa. He already took pictures with lots of women and doesn't have to do anything else to demonstrate that he was drunk at a bar with women fawning over him. What does the rest accomplish other than make him look bad? I agree with 10:09, if there were any made-up reports, they were probably from fans, not Moirville.
Delete"scott has a happy trail but the dude in the photo doesn't."
DeleteHow do you know this?
10:09, oh yeah, I agree that piggybacking happens all the time. Going back to the origins of the sham, self-styled insiders piggybacked onto "Menage a Trois Sur La Glace" to create the fist fight between Scott and Bryce over Jessica, and to claim Skate Canada was facilitating mediation/counseling between Bryce and Scott. I agree that possibly the "coked out" comment was piggybacking, but you know, it's not a given. These people are boundary challenged themselves. They think a lot of stuff that's not funny is hilarious. Their humor is sex and booze, why not drugs. I never thought I'd watch a reality show starring Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue where Scott wanted us to know he was bringing two condoms to Sochi. That was such a giant fail, and unbelieveably pathetic. What sort of person says, seriously, earnestly, that they're "hot and heavy" with somebody? What sort of husband eggs his buddies on to leer and drool over his wife? I think they're so self-conscious about what they do their appropriateness barometer broke a long time ago.
DeleteI don't believe, though, that Moirville simply put it out there that Scott was out on the town. There was too much saying that he was rambunctious for it not to create reasonable suspicion that Moirville wanted that construction on his behavior that night. And yet, as I've pointed out, nobody took out their cell phone. It's one thing for a fan to recognize Scott, Tessa when they're with their daughter, and be reticent about taking their picture (wouldn't they notice?) and putting it on the internet. It's another for someone to present themselves as not a fan, but just somebody who recognizes Scott Moir, and refrain from taking his picture, as we're meant to believe happened in multiple venues, and these somebodies thought it was interesting enough to tweet or post about, but not get out their Iphones. We don't know what they (Moirville) want out there. Scott himself let us know he was arrested at some point since Vancouver, and Scott's not prone to unintentionally sharing anything. He didn't have to say he'd been arrested and was now turned off to law enforcement. The arrest was out of the media, why bring it up?
Obviously, I'm not saying I believe Moirville is behind the coked out comment as well. I'm simply pointing out that we can't use common sense and automatically exclude the possibility simply because of the implication Scott was using coke.
^i've seen him shirtless and im sure you have too, if you watched the show.
Delete"OC, you still haven't explained why acting like an ass, getting thrown out, etc. is supposed to prove Scott isn't with Tessa."
DeleteDo you mean, why Moirville would think it proves he's not with Tessa? NOTHING proves he's not with Tessa. Nevertheless, this is how Moirville operates. It was her birthday. Fans would think he'd celebrate it with her. What husband would go carousing instead of being with his wife?
"He already took pictures with lots of women and doesn't have to do anything else to demonstrate that he was drunk at a bar with women fawning over him."
Unless I've missed some photos, what I've seen is Scott with glazed eyes standing and posing with fans. Remove the bar setting and the photos look like pictures Scott takes with fans at any other venue when he's somewhat brighter-eyed. The last time twitter "spotted" Scott, it was when he was reputedly out to dinner with his parents and Kaitlyn Lawes. This was immediately called out as Moirville bullshit, particularly when one of those who tweeted works at UWO, and acted coy when she was asked a follow up question.
It's completely in keeping for Moirville to be, oh, well, we'd never want Scott to look bad, so if tweets and posts come out saying he's rowdy, nobody will think it's us. Do the Moirs look like people who think rowdy is a bad thing to you? Do they think partying with girls is a bad image for Scott? Do they think doing manly shit like getting thrown out of a bar is a negative? This is Testosterone 101 to Moirville. It's a twofer. Re-emphasize Scott's non-gay credentials and throw some misdirection as to where these reports are coming from. Bottom line, it's Tessa's birthday, fans can't imagine a guy would go out so conspicuously carousing on his wife's birthday, especially when she's pregnant = classic Moirville.
It's amazing how Scott must have been totally saintly before and after. He's become a stay at home. Does he not like to drink anymore? Where are the reports from the road?
Furthermore, as pointed out many times, Scott Moir is an ordinary looking guy. Out with his buddies on a night when everybody else is out with their buddies, ice fans might recognize Scott Moir, but non-skating fan GUYS recognize Scott Moir? What's a Scott Moir? Of course, if we're led to believe Scott Moir is being so incredibly obnoxious he and his friends draw attention to themselves, and that's why your regular guy notices him, and then someone handy helpfully says "Why, that's Scott Moir!" that would justify regular guys tweeting about Scott freaking Moir. Regular guys who think it's notable enough to go to social media about it, but fail to get out their phones.
Delete"What sort of husband eggs his buddies on to leer and drool over his wife? I think they're so self-conscious about what they do their appropriateness barometer broke a long time ago. " except he wasn't??? my memory is fuzzy on the "Can we use your partner" episode but i remember his face in the ep where he talks about his buddies texting him about Tessa's sportsnet shoot. he was obviously uncomfortable talking about it. also according to his body language during that radio interview they did right after sochi he obviously wasnt comfortable with the way the hosts were egging on tessa about tinder. the thing with scott is that his eyes and his body language give him away, no matter what his mouth says.
DeleteI don't know why you keep repeating it, but it wasn't her birthday. There's no rule that says a husband is supposed to spend the whole weekend following his wife's birthday glued to her side.
Delete11:05 p.m. , if we're taking body language, with Scott I think it's his MOUTH that gives him away every time. Not what he's saying, but the way his actual mouth looks. In the old blog banner showing lying Tessa and Scott lying to us, Scott's mouth was a billion times more telling than his eyes, and that's saying something. The only time he seems to be able to manage his facial expression is to have a wall come down, and that's telling too.
Delete11:05 AM, the question wasn't, "Hey Scott, what did your "buddies" think of Tessa's sportsnet shoot?" Tessa was asked about it and Scott was asked about it. Is there something wrong with saying "Tessa looked beautiful as always?" HE chose to say "My buddies texted me every five seconds." Most people WOULDN'T say it, not about their platonic partner, and not about their wife. If they say it about their platonic partner, it's creepy and weird - it implies that his buddies think he gets sexual jollies skating with his long-term platonic partner. That's a boundary problem right there, and an immaturity issue. If it's his wife, it's also creepy and weird. In the sportsnet photo shoot, Tessa wasn't wearing a lot of clothes, that was the point of the shoot. Show the body. That's different than saying "I'm lucky to be skating with a pretty girl."
Delete11:25am - it was fans who were purporting to have conniptions because it was her birthday weekend. I'm not putting it on them, this was the blowback from the supposed sightings.
11:25 - Right. Tessa's birthday was their last day in Vancouver, after SOI. There were reports of Tessa dining out without Scott, so that *separate* narrative was already out there for her birthday.
DeleteDuring the carousing weekend, I more had the impression it's a way of saying, "See, as soon as I get back home from touring with whats-her-face I can't wait to hang with the buddies and get away from the demands of skating and whats-her-face."
Right after Sochi, Scott also spent several weekends in a row assiduously sowing the narrative of single-frat-boy out on the town, drunkenly posing with every woman in sight. The weekend immediately following SOI and Tessa's birthday also happened to be a holiday weekend. What better time to continue the same narrative they started after Sochi. To Moirville, it probably made some sort of logic.
I do tend to believe there was some bad public behavior involved simply due to the amount of drinking. If Scott is out on the town getting plastered, it's not like he's in full control of himself, especially around the group of buddies all misbehaving. But like it's been said already, to Moirville these things are a positive. From the abundance of social media photos on the record for years, it's clear Moirville thinks getting drunk out of your mind is the only way to celebrate. To them, this behavior is normal and expected. When you add in their attitude that anything Mr. Scott Moir does is wonderful and cute/acceptable - he can carouse for a whole weekend and in spite of any "reports" of bad behavior (planted or not), he's just being a down-home guy. And oh yeah, everyone is lining up to get their picture taken with him. They're all groupies at heart and in fact, Scott can get away with anything. Moirville counts on that. I expect many more carousing weekends. They want that narrative out there at this time and obviously, to these clowns it's a positive narrative. Forget about the thousands of Canadian children and youth who look up to VM, this perception of who Scott is happens to be better for Moirville's purposes.
Several weekends after Sochi? I only remember one, right after they got home.
DeleteDuring the carousing weekend, I more had the impression it's a way of saying, "See, as soon as I get back home from touring with whats-her-face I can't wait to hang with the buddies and get away from the demands of skating and whats-her-face."
I agree with this. That particular narrative started in the reality show and they're attempting to continue with it.
12:12PM, yes, and to expand on my answer to a question posed above, namely, how do reports that Scott was out carousing prove he's not with Tessa - that's the wrong question. How do these reports prove Moirville isn't behind them? Because they portray him as an asshole, or so it's pretended. Would Moirville be behind THAT?
DeleteOf course, with Moirville, pictures are what count, and the only pictures that made it to the internet show him perfectly well behaved. The wildest he got is karoake. Not wild karoake, just plain old sedate karoake. A whole bunch of people around him aiming their phones at him. He's super drunk, so are his friends.
Where were all these people with phones at the hockey game? At the bar where he was coked up and tossed out? There were no reports of Scott and his friends taking out anybody who tried to film or photograph his appalling antics. But we go to the images on the internet, and there's nothin.
The people who claim to have witnessed all this thought it was interesting enough to put out in public on the web, but apparently, Scott Moir getting thrown out of a bar, or acting like a massive asshole at a hockey game, is not as interesting as karoake, cause nobody took out their phone. Shit, the lululemon/Bud party in Vancouver did better than that.
So while we don't know Moirville is behind every report, I think the absence of any photos of him in the act, so to speak, is of note.
??? What's not acceptable for a married father? It's in the daytime. In neither case is he around a woman. In one he's making an "eek" "wtf' face as some guy hugs him from behind and mugs for the camera, and in the other it looks like people hanging in the backyard with (possibly - resembles her ) his cousin Janet Carey among the gang. That's SoP for a Moirville weekend, it certainly isn't carousing, and I certainly would never link those photos as evidence of Scott out of bounds on a weekend. My point stands, nobody who went to the internet to report Scott and his buddies drunk and out of control at the hockey game, and drunk and out of control at a bar, bothered to take a photo. Neither photo shows anyone out of control. If he looks drunk in the second, that's called Saturday (or Sunday) for where Scott comes from.
DeleteMY point was Scott was reported to be so out of bounds in a bar people thought he was on coke, and he was thrown out of the bar. He and his friends were so out of bounds they were harassing hockey players at a big game, and making a spectacle of themselves, and this behavior carried on throughout his evening on the town. The links you show look no different than roughly a million photos that used to be featured on Moir and Moir-related facebooks and are not what I'm talking about.
^Around a woman in any kind of "PARTAY!" way. There's a fully dressed, sober-looking woman with her hand on his shoulder in the second photo, who appears to have her hand on his shoulder purely because she's leaning in to be included in the photo.
Delete"The links you show look no different than roughly a million photos that used to be featured on Moir and Moir-related facebooks and are not what I'm talking about."
DeleteI think the photos are relevant because of context. They're from a weekend of reported carousing and actually, being in daytime, it continues the narrative of "weekend-long" drunken spree. It may be what Moirville calls a normal weekend. I think it looks bad within the context of all the reports of that weekend. I guess that's just me.
It continues the narrative of a weekend long drunken spree, instead of the narrative we have in instagram, and twitter, which is a guy who had beer the night before, posed with fans, and did a little kareoke? The first photo shows Scott making a face while some guy takes a selfie. What in the world is wrong with that? He doesn't look drunk or hung over in that photo. He's making a face because the guy taking the selfie is OTT. The second has Scott shirtless, making a face while being photographed with a group. What's wrong with that? Apart from being shirtless, his own mother has been photographed like that. He's not posing for a sponsor or event. There are photos from his parents' living room that look exactly like these.
DeleteThe other thing is, you are saying these photos looks bad in context. What context? Because as I understood you, you were saying these photos helped support reports that he'd been badly behaved the night before. Really? I'd posted that despite all of the reports of Scott out on the town being out of bounds, nobody who thought it was worth posting or tweeting about managed to take a photo, and the only photos from that night are inoccuous. You said "not quite" and posted some morning after photos, which don't tell us anything or validate anything about his behavior the night before. Nobody is disputing Scott was probably drunk. His glazed eyes show that in all of the inoccuous photos from that night. He looks a bit overserved and also tired. The next morning he's not going to look fresh as a daisy, but the photos are consistent with a guy who was out the night before drinking beer. They do nothing to reinforce the reports that he was thugging it up.
P.S. The same rule of thumb people say should be used to compare not pregnant Tessa to pregnant Tessa - compare Tessa to TESSA, not Tessa to other women - should be used to inform any conclusions formed about Scott. It's makes no sense to compare him to some ideal, wish-fulfillment Scott in your head (anyone's head) - a preppy-esque guy who keeps his shirt on when he has people over, or whatever. If Scott had spent the previous night at Vespers he'd probably still have his shirt off in the backyard the next day and make that face at the camera.
DeleteNow you are whining about exhibition programs? Shouldn't your beef then be with Marina who designed the program?
ReplyDeleteThe theme of the blog is very relevant to this post-are u that clueless?
DeleteWhy whine about Marina? She's doing what she's paid to do--your comment makes no sense
DeleteThe theme of the blog is to make up random crap about Meryl or pick Meryl apart. It is pathetic.
DeleteNo one is making anything up about the deficiencies in DW's skating. It's all on video.
DeleteYou are pathetic, 1:26, for making up statements that are not based on facts. Go ahead, demonstrate with facts - video, photos - that anything posted here about Meryl is false. Demonstrate Meryl's skating and dancing qualities that prove this blog is making things up. Don't throw out whining accusations without backing them up.
DeleteThis blog always backs up any DW criticism with evidence. Let's see you do the same in your criticisms of the blog.
Oh please 1:45, there is nothing more pathetic and immature than a hate site. And that is exactly what this it. It uses slow motion or takes elements out of context and then has a temper tantrum.
DeleteAnd then there is the crazy assertion that somehow Meryl and Charlie, but mostly Meryl have the entire world under their control.
Critiquing an athletic performance in comparison to the rules and standards of good skating and ice dance technique is not having a temper tantrum or hating.
DeleteIf you understand skating technique, you can see the errors and problems with DW's skating in real time. Also, if an element is done correctly, it doesn't matter how slow you slow it down--it'll still be correct. Slowing an element down doesn't magically make it go from correctly executed to incorrectly executed. Also, there is no context that makes an element executed correctly and a different context that makes it executed incorrectly. It's either correct or incorrect.
1:59 is trying to manipulate the narratives. If legitimate analyzing of an athletic performance is labeled "hate" hopefully it either makes the discussion shut down or it makes other fans not want to join in the critiques, right, 1:59? You can name-call all you want, it doesn't make DW's huge deficiencies go away.
Delete"And then there is the crazy assertion that somehow Meryl and Charlie, but mostly Meryl have the entire world under their control."
DeleteWell, let's see. FSU shut down any negative posts re. Meryl, under police threat, no less. No skating commentator is caught saying anything negative about DW - oh no, everything they do is sublime, no matter what we just saw with our own eyes or what the rulebook says. In DWTS Meryl is praised as "best ballroom dancer ever" and no one dares say a peep otherwise, again, in spite of the evidence of our own eyes and such a thing called traditional ballroom dance standards that rule all other ballroom-dance competitions of the world, except when it comes to Meryl Davis.
Ok, so they don't have the *whole* world under their control. But certainly those parts of the world that hand out scores to Meryl Davis or that have any kind of "control" over the talk about her (like FSU or skating commentators or other media) are under a Meryl-spell, where everything she does or says is beyond reproach. As I don't believe in magic spells, I have to assume some very powerful people behind the scenes are greasing wheels and palms on her (or DW's) behalf.
dear 1:26. please provide your evidence that shows to the contrary that DW lack skills. Everything this blog states about their skills is backed up with evidence and provides reasons what they are not doing right.
DeleteI am no technical pro but I can see with my own eyes that DW edges are not as deep as VM or the lifts are wobbly compared to VM. Those are facts. Not trying to drum up false accusations as to why they are subpar. The evidence shows that, but lo and behold the ISU and most media thinks differently. I wonder why that is....
Typical toddler tantrums from DW fans - they can't actually provide evidence so they stomp their feet and tell us we're mean. Grow up. When (most) adults refute an opinion they bring something to the table - I'd love to see them try.
DeleteI've never seen fans argue that their fave is good-looking before. That's another odd thing about Meryl fans. I've seen tumblr posts with images that basically say "See, she's attractive!" "She totally IS good-looking!" What other fan base does this? If people are actually confident in their favorites they're not going to be defensive or thin-skinned.
DeleteThe scores for Meryl Davis on DWTS were absurd. The standards of ballroom were thrown out the window. Other contestants were called out for being barefoot or not having proper shoes, while she "danced" salsa in wedge sneakers. She and Maks repeated the same moves throughout every routine. The result is Meryl Davis had the highest cumulative score of any celeb in the history of DWTs. That's called overcompensation. It's exactly how it was played in ice dance.
"Now you are whining about exhibition programs?"
DeleteBack in February, I took a break from the oodles of competition videos I still have planned because I thought D/W skating an ex like this was astoundingly unclassy considering the situation. But why aren't gala programs relevant? They're still skating.
"Oh please 1:45, there is nothing more pathetic and immature than a hate site. And that is exactly what this it. It uses slow motion "
This is great - showing slow motion video of a sporting competition is hateful!! How do all the professional athletes cope with it every time they play a game??
Almost all of the videos shared on this blog were made by me, canadablue. OC has always made that clear and given credit, but I will take this opportunity to re-affirm that there are several different individuals behind the critiquing-D/W effort. And not sure if the "taking elements out of context" was about video or not - but the vast majority of the videos I make show the entire programs, and the rest of them show element vs element with the context explained. But something different to look forward to - one that details every single category of D/W's flaws. The sheer volume is the context, in that case.
Looking forward to that, canadablue. And as I said below, and taken in context with the entirety of DW's amazingly classless, arrogant narrative push, I agree that this is the equivalent of Virtue Moir putting on Bollywood drag after defeating Davis White.
DeleteIt's the context that makes it disgusting. Their p.r. narrative didn't just promote DW, but undermined VM and attempted to suggest their 2012 Worlds title was unearned, attempted to tell us Virtue and Moir didn't actually have chemistry and connection but DW did, and attempted to tell us that VM didn't fucking DANCE as well as Davis White.
12:46, this is a valid comparison. This exhibition was designed knowing DW would be the Olympic champions. Any time DW take the ice they're supposed to be showing off all those superb qualities that got them the gold medal, right? Most especially in an exhibition skate immediately following that Olympic gold. And guess what, their exhibition skate turns out to be every bit as crappy and inferior as all their other programs. It's a pathetic attempt to show they're as good at VM at what VM do best. It also shows how delusional DW and Marina are, as well as everyone else who calls their skating "great."
ReplyDelete"It's a pathetic attempt to show they're as good as VM at what VM do best." Or what skating fans think VM do best. VM can actually do everything "best." :) But as the post says, yes, I believe the entire point was to say we can out-VM, VM. They do it with music choice, styling, and mood, because what else is there? Nothing else counts. They're slow as shit too, but as skating fans DO know you're supposed to be fast, even VM partisans in the media say DW are fast. You see the boards crawling by in the background, and DW near skating in place, but don't let your eyes fool you. They're fast.
DeleteBecause he isn't and there's a troll on the loose that a lot of people don't want to feed.
ReplyDeletedo we even know who this troll is. if not, how do we find out?
ReplyDeleteLooks like Heather got bored on Twitter with everyone ignoring her....
ReplyDeleteWho's heather?
ReplyDeleteA fan set up a fake twitter account under the name of "Heather", purporting to be connected to Scott and Tessa via a cousin, and the twitter account's aim was to provoke Moirville by insinuating things like Scott's imminent engagement to Cassandra, and also by running down Tessa a little bit. In the beginning, the account made fun of fans who believed Scott and Tessa were together, which appeared to prompt a few Moirs to follow the account. That's what you want, to validate twitter accounts that mock your relative's fans. After awhile, the whole thing just got silly, and the fan came clean in the comments section of this blog. My understanding of the purpose behind the fake twitter was to see if, via upping the ante a little, Moirville would respond in some way that shed light on whether or not the sham was real or fake.
DeleteHeather was me and that got out of hand. This definitely wasn't me.
ReplyDeleteOkay, thanks. I won't speculate in that direction again.
ReplyDelete^Actually, looking through what I've said, I'm not sure I speculated it actually WAS Heather, but rather speculated it could be intended to up the ante and provoke Moirville, similar in agenda to the Heather twitter, although in this case obviously much grosser.
ReplyDeleteNo one really knows who I am but it just skeeves me out to even have anyone speculating that I (aka Heather) could be the same person basically accusing Scott of rape. That's just a whole other level of creepy and disgusting.
ReplyDelete9:13, that's understandable. The tumblr is pretty skeevy, but I can't just write it off to flat out trolling, since plenty of fans, some VM fans included, are boundary challenged and otherwise challenged in the area of taste and what's appropriate. You know you're you, so being creeped out is natural.
ReplyDeleteno its definitely trolling. before the blog was created, they targeted a specific group of v/m fans (im honestly still puzzled as to why i wasnt targeted :/) spamming their inbox with a variation of "LOLOLOLOL SCOTT FUCKED MY FRIEND AND CAME INSIDE HER LOLOLOL HE AND TESSA DONT TALK ANYMORE" and now they changed their story claiming that scott is a sexual predator that got her friend drunk just to screw her. also notice how the anon HAD to mention tessa. their claims have nothing to do with scott and said friend instead its about tessa and scott are their relationship, further pushing the narrative that scott's an ass and their relationship isnt as solid as it seems. its off-season, people are bored and still obsessed with v/m's relationship so they create rumours just to stir shit.
ReplyDelete10:38 AM - you're right, that sounds like trolling.
ReplyDeleteI have another question, as this is all so much to understand. How do all of these people know that they're married with children? Are there people here who know them personally, do we know through the skating grapevine? Are people from London? I've been a fan of there's for a very long time, and obviously noticed their insane chemistry, but I've never heard of their marriage, or child until a friend referred me to this site
ReplyDeleteThe blog has never and isn't going to share how it knows Scott and Tessa's actual status. There are participants in the comments section who've reported that they know for themselves, independently, or have, subsequent to the blog, intersected with a source they find valid, who confirm Scott and Tessa are married parents. Obviously, this confirmation isn't on the web but that's as specific as any of us are going to get. I think I speak for those who know independently, based on what they've said here. Given that, everybody is free to disbelieve the blog and to believe what they want about Tessa and Scott, or to believe what Tessa and Scott say.
DeleteP.S., if you are interested in further discussion about it, there's a lot of conversation in the comments sections under numerous blog posts. If your question is on the level, I can say that it's not a secret, as literally thousands of people know at this point, and certainly the entire elite skating community and Virtue and Moir's non-skating communities, friends, know, and the media personalities that routinely interview Virtue and Moir and routinely cover figure skating.
DeleteIf you have questions that arise from that, such as the most asked one - how are they not busted or outed in public on the web if so many people know - that subject has been exhaustively discussed in the various comments section also, and you can go there and see what was said. You don't have to be satisfied with the answers, but you can see what the blog and others have to say.
OC, can you provide the links to canadablue's videos? When I click on the images in this entry I don't get anything that makes sense. It's like a bunch of gifs all scrambled and jumping from the middle of one thing to another.
ReplyDeleteThere's a link to her mediafire underneath an earlier post. I'll try to repost it later. The full video isn't on line right now.
DeleteLink added to the post, and thanks.
DeleteThayer needs to transition to mainstream media and I have confidence that's in the cards for her. Her subject is figure skating and yet there's actual content. Who knew. Of course one hopes she continues to write for www.twofortheice.com and icedance.com for a long time to come.
At the moment, those who write about figure skating on line on figure-skating centered websites are under the radar of the so-called legit media outlets, by which I mean outlets owned by corporations, outlets that transcend the figure skating niche.
I agree with you 100% about what Davis White did with their gala exhibition. It IS akin to Virtue and Moir handing them a devastating defeat and then skating a victory lap to Bollywood. This gala exhibition has to be taken in context with Davis and White's public relations narratives leading up to Sochi. It was ALL about taking the chemistry and connection narrative from Virtue Moir and appropriating it for themselves. Which, I think we can all agree, took some gall. It was then that it became clear they were all in, there were no boundaries, and nobody was worried about telling instead of showing. Davis and White never had to show anything. They only had to SAY it. Once that became clear, nothing was off limits. The spectacle was grotesque.
In terms of narrative, they were shameless. These two rich kids appropriated the poverty of Detroit, pretending Detroit was some Horatio Alger enclave of independent "can do" types who didn't have their hand out because it was a CHOICE, not because the area had been devastated economically. They acted like poverty was a character-building value add they soaked up in the air over the Ann Arbor golf course.
Icenetwork had some inane ballroom dancer critique Carmen vis a vis Notre Dame and conclude Virtue and Moir lacked connection!!!! in Carmen and Notre Dame showed connection. The whole game plan was to strip attributes from Virtue and Moir and take them for themselves. This exhibition is the piece de resistance. If they hadn't spent the entire run up pretending Virtue Moir lacked connection and didn't really dance, if it hadn't proactively gone after Virtue Moir and attempted to appropriate what they had for their own p.r., this exhibition would just be a lyrical exhibition, doing all their same old same old crap only (even more) slowly. But it's not. As you say, context can't be ignored. It's low class, it's arrogant.
One of the comments section participants has repeatedly shared their opinion that figure skating doesn't want to become more popular; it wants to be what it is - a sport that caters in large part to the privileged. I don't know why the USFSA wanted an ice dance gold medal so badly - and in addition to that, it seems to me they could have tagged a team with wider appeal than Davis White for that agenda. But the entire story that it was Davis White's "turn", that they'd earned it simply because of the money they'd put in, paid their dues, speaks to entitlement and privilege. In sport, paying your dues doesn't entitle you to anything. Ice dance doesn't want to function as a sport. It's, I put a ton of money into this, I traveled all over the world (another privilege that some spin as a hardship), I want to see my kids on the top of the podium at the Olympics! Davis and White were even grotesque when talking about Sochi. At least as I received what they were saying. Meryl put it almost like "We were good little ice dancers in Vancouver, good sports, and didn't begrudge them their gold - we were able to look up at them and say "you deserve it."' But THIS time they weren't going to "play nice" - they wanted the gold for themselves. It was the whole tone of how they played nice in Vancouver instead of having their asses kicked. Good fucking sports about WHAT? They were lucky to get silver and were overscored as it was, particularly in the cd. The attitude is insufferable.
Thanks very much, OC!! As I commented in the new post above, veoh is being super slow at processing and so the link still doesn't work, but it should soon, I hope!
Delete"Icenetwork had some inane ballroom dancer critique Carmen vis a vis Notre Dame and conclude Virtue and Moir lacked connection!!!! "
It was a DTWS cast member! There does seem to be ties between them and icenetwork, maybe that was a contributing factor with Meryl.
"It was the whole tone of how they played nice in Vancouver instead of having their asses kicked. Good fucking sports about WHAT? They were lucky to get silver and were overscored as it was, particularly in the cd. The attitude is insufferable. "
Agreed. The D/W flaws video I mentioned above has some interviews included. It's going to be fun :D
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