*****
Pause in prepping the skating post. This post is for the doubting Thomas in the comments section in the post below this one, who harrumphs that I suppose I'm going to say Tessa manipulated her instagram video too! As if such a thing can never EVER be.* There is no such thing as aspect ratio, there was no such thing as Britney Spears' digitally altered Work Bitch video (Britney Spears was digitally elongated in her Work Bitch Video), and even if there were, Scott and Tessa are regular people who just happen to skate.They don't even have a reason to go downtown or to an airport unless a special person comes to visit. Scott and Tessa are not the sorts of people who'd know a single person with access to professional video manipulation tools, and even if they did, it's so TIME CONSUMING. If only the market were flooded with apps and software that could process video easily, be uploaded "likethat", it might be possible, but alas.
So fine.Tessa didn't manipulate this video. She did it standing in front of this super skinny door:
Warped doors and door frames are extremely popular with the celebrity crowd. The housing/shelter industry caters to them by coming out with lines of warped window frames, furniture, and accessories, too.This door was custom-built to follow Tessa's own shape - be just as wide as she is at the shoulders, and taper as she tapers lower down.
The molding detail on the door lightens and fades the higher up you go. So does Tessa's body and face.
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| The wall, door frame, and ... warp in and up as Tessa lifts her shoulder. The already low detail on the light switch flattens out further as it warps with Tessa's movement. It's well known that background never stays stable in unmanipulated video when a figure is moving in space.The stuff behind and next to them moves, too. That's how we know nobody messed with it. Also when she moves her right arm, the entire right side of her shirt expands, like it's attached with a short thread, and her right leg goes with it, like pulling a puppet string. |
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| Love a door with a waist. Oops, Tessa's midsection is dissolving (same thing happened in the ice bucket challenge). |
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| Crazy to say there's distortion in this video. |
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| These are her normal proportions. Deal with it. |
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| That's not a healthy size for a door. |
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| Whoa - ghost boobs! Just like in Paranormal Activity! |
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| Editing - I think that guy behind Tessa is part vampire. Only his feet cast a shadow. And, ya know, even though this was taken a short while ago, before she and her door did a cleanse, and some of those Flex classes (the door is really making progress, although I think is now maybe too thin) - I could still side eye the section of sidewalk where the detail is blasted out for some strange reason, corresponding with the fuzzy outline of Tessa back end. |
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| Show yourselves, Ghost Boobs! We know you're there! |
I can see the appeal of the camera setting/app/manip process Tessa used in the "football" video and the ice bucket challenge, but there's a LOT of distortion, and once you pay attention to the background, and how when something moves (like the movement of her elbow to the right suddenly expands her midsection width and jerks her leg over at the same time), that's the reason these videos kind of feel weird and make you almost seasick. The background isn't stable, the image isn't stable, period.
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*I suspect this person is one of those fans who just thinks about the TIME it would take. First of all, exagerating the time, and second of all, just not able to process the thought that Scott and Tessa would spend ANY time doing this. As if Tessa's entire social media presence didn't exist in the first place to generate content like this.
P.S. Of course nobody is photoshopping Tessa:
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| All That Skate L.A. |
This iPhone app: videoslimmer app supposedly compresses video size (different from compressing the video images) and allows video customization (aspect ratio and other settings).
I took another look at the ice bucket challenge video and I realized what makes me seasick is the water. I think the horizontal compression in that video just leaves the impression the water is moving but not going anywhere. There's no feel of it moving across the frame and out of the frame.
Hey @5:39 (in the comments section):
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| "Does this corner make me look fat?" |
I agree that it's been manipulated for the reasons you mentioned, as I think the ALS one was too.
ReplyDeleteI still don't think it's from today though unless her hand was miraculously healed, or the picture from the other night was a fake/old. If the picture from the other night is fake/old, the video is negligible since it all comes back to the same thing.
As you pointed out, she also doesn't look anything like this right now compared to less than a week ago. I noticed the parts of the street picture messed with too... I think we're supposed to think it just looks like that because she was moving.
Just an FYI, my fairly basic computer came with Photoshop installed. I don't use it because I haven't had a reason to, but I just checked, and it does include a video section with tools as well.
It just looks like that cause she was moving, yep. And the guy's shadow disappears behind him because the sun came out and covered it.
DeleteIt's hard to determine anything about her hand being healed because the video image is so compressed we're not going to know what her real hand looks like. Everything is indistinct, and there appears to be a filter that was used as well. There's no detail at all.
These aren't the sorts of video manipulations that will get someone hired at Industrial Light and Magic. These are consumer level video hacks, although, and as much as some fans keep forgetting, Tessa and Scott have been interviewed, photographed, video'd since they were baby Tessa and Scott. Every person who has ever interviewed them has a production team. Every skating event has a production team. They have friends and connections and friends with connections in and out of skating.
The learning curve on this stuff is also not that difficult.
I never really paid attention to these things, but the skinny door is pretty damn compelling.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting if someone took some photos or videos of Tessa that we knew were real, maybe from the last pregnancy, and photoshopped/altered them to make her skinny so we could see how easy it is to do.
I have to say I had more respect for how she did it last time, which was mostly through clothing... she's really a genius at that. The video enhancing seems so lazy and boring, but it does explain a lot.
Yeah, but she didn't do mostly through clothing. Go back and look - she's photoshopped back then as well.
DeleteSomebody already did - go look at All That Skate L.A. There's pregnant and not pregnant stills from that video.
DeleteI could be wrong, but the thin photo from ATS looks like a pro job... I was referring to someone maybe demonstrating how easy and quick it would be for a layperson to do... because the photoshops from the current pregnancy do not look professional at all.
DeleteI actually think her instagrams were very clever and not done by Tessa, and better than I could do figuring it on my own. I'd need somebody to walk me through. The left side has been warped, the right side is normal, we read it as normal because they used color picker and a filter (with whatever opacity settings) to make both sides go together colorwise, and she angles herself so your eye just reads "angle" and not "Different size sides." As I said, if you know it's been done, you can't not see it. But I didn't see it until the "nerd" photo. The nerd looked so compressed - her lower body didn't work with her upper body so I really looked at that one. That's when I saw the "one side" thing, but it's really clever, IMO. For all I know it's a common trick, but this is the first time I've noticed.
DeleteThe only problem with those photos is she's going way too waify with it, like suddenly she has no muscle. It also shrinks her shoulders. But her shoulders are SO wide I think people don't notice when they get a little smaller. She has a lot to play with.
Wiping out the car detailing at TIFF is messy because they used the clone tool, which is just stroking with a mouse. I think possibly they did it to get rid of some of her reflection in the car, as well as some of her size.
The next day TIFF looks odd because they did a shortcut - warped her body and then filled it all in with the color picker/paint tool to hide the noise from it. It's one flat color and looks "off". When you go in, you see - it's paint. And you see all the stroking on her chest and around her boobs.
I can't explain the mess from LetsBond - that's pretty awful. It's a serious clusterfuck on the bottom half, and the top half is messed up. The bottom and top don't come close to reasonably matching - I think that's why it's been darkened so much at the bottom half (if you try to use edge detect as a forensic tool there's no edges to detect - it's like there's nothing down there). But there also seem to be layers because of the mess around Eric's face - like one of the under layers didn't have shrunken plant fronds, and it ended up on his face (I don't know how that works - I've seen examples on the web of stuff ending up in a picture that shouldn't be in the "final" layer - like someone's head in two places.)
The warped one from the event with Scott looks like something the public relations coordinator did herself on her ipad or phone - or maybe had someone in her department do it. That's the kind of warp you see guys do on youtube (if you want to see amateurs warp people, just youtube. Some of them are better than we've seen with Tessa).
I agree some of the stuff last pregnancy was photoshopped, (ATS-case in point), but not all of it. She was able to hide some with clothes. Also, she worked with the advantage that people weren't really looking at her discussing how pregnant she looked in every photo and interview. At least not publicly. However, not just from pictures, but across multiple videos (skating and interviews)... of which the majority did not look anything close to this type of warping/pulling/stretching/poor quality... she carried atypically. This time, I think she's having to resort to these tactics because she is showing more traditionally. Check out the picture of her and Scott and trace the outline of his jacket where she is turned and pressed against him, and you can see at least part of her shape. It's pretty impressive, and that's with some of her still behind him. It doesn't appear they bothered to mess with that part of the picture as much since when you zoom in on it it doesn't pixelate like the others. I don't know why it's not as touched up. Maybe since it's so dark (even when you try to lighten it in photoshop), and he's got her pulled snug into his side as much as he is able.
DeleteThe images with Semple from the day after TIFF, another reason the top she's wearing looks so hard and flat is they outlined it with the selection tool before filling it with color. The selection tool edges created hard margins that don't pixelate at all. They stay much too straight, dark and flat when you zoom in. The edge on her right side in the image where she's wearing the same top sitting in that vehicle is angled too sharply, too straight, and too hard, and it loses three dimensionality, not to mention they made a ridiculous-sized waist.
DeleteP.S. - I'm interested in this stuff not to prove they're lying, because their social media output isn't how I know they're lying. I'm interested BECAUSE they're lying, and I'm curious how they do it. What are they addressing with their social media output, what are the patterns.
DeleteWay WAY more than shamming with Ryan Semple, Tessa's entire social media focus, from day one, has been "I'm not pregnant."
Get a grip people. The door is not on the back wall. Its a side door thus the corner on the left. And thus it narrow appearance. Such a desperate attempt at nothing and for nothing.
ReplyDeleteGet back to skating comments. The rest of this is pure shit.
She got one of those shadow doors that moves when she does.
DeleteDo you want to explain a) how you know the location of the door in this video and b) the tradition of super skinny side doors?
I'm sure your chastising the blogger for continuing to talk about TV's pregnancy and look at the many ways it's possible to manipulate photos and video will do the trick. Yep, it's almost certain the blogger will stop now and you'll get your wish to shut down discussion of anything you don't like. That's pretty much how it always works, right? Where would everyone be without you to steer this place away from what you've decided does not matter or you aren't comfortable seeing discussed? Phew! Close call!
DeleteI really like how this one, and the one in time out, come in and are like clapping their hands "That's enough! Back to work!" I'm used to hissy fits but I wonder what makes them so accustomed to commandeering discussion on the internet.
DeleteI love how only back wall doors are regular size. The ones in the corner are narrow, everybody knows that. I'll tell my home, I don't think it's aware.
As the video isn't three dimensional, and using a normal sized door as our reference, and how the distorted version barely frames a distorted Tessa, one wonders if this means a regular door barely frames Tessa as this stage.
Hey up above - can you explain how the properties of sunlight erase a person's shadow? Thanks.
Although you know, it must mean this post really pisses them off. It's like when Tessa started appearing less then svelte, people would show up in the comments section crowing about how svelte she was that day. Then only unsvelte images would be found, and I'd be WTF - where's the svelte ones? Then I realized - ohhhhhh. They're trying to tell us not to trust our lying eyes. This one really hit a nerve.
DeleteBut she IS svelte! It's just her clothing that makes her look pregnant, you see.
DeleteToo bad the poor frump doesn't know how to dress. Maybe she's the one that should be sent to work on the farm.
DeleteYikes, that is a skinny door... She barely looks like she would fit through it-even here at the tinniest we've seen her in a long time! Guess Scott is just out of luck. Hope it doesn't go anywhere important.
DeleteMy first thought when I saw the video was that the door was a closet door. I've seen narrow closet doors like that in older houses. My bathroom closet door is narrow and would not work for a normal doorway.
DeleteWhatever the size of the door, VM are still distorting images right now.
And by distorting, I see that as inclusive of digital manipulation, time shifting, and staging fake scenes to photograph or video.
DeleteScott? What about Ryan! I don't think he could get through it even turning sideways.
Delete@8:10 Does your thin door move with you when you move, and does it taper at the bottom? Does its height constantly change relative to the top of your head? I think this is one of those newer skinny doors we find in Tessa's instagrams, not an old house closet door. Not to mention, the door isn't the only compressed, warped thing in that video. Look at Tessa. Forget thin or wide. Look at the proportions up and down. They're funhouse mirror.
DeleteYeah there's no way that's an untouched video, too many weird things going on.
DeleteNo, my bathroom door doesn't move or change size. If it did, I'd have to move.
DeleteI'm just saying that was my initial thought before your post. When I first saw the video without scrutinizing, just giving it a single brief viewing before rolling my eyes at them, I thought the door was an old closet door and this was a banked video from sometime else.
"No, my bathroom door doesn't move or change size. If it did, I'd have to move."
Delete^^ LOL!
I know she's moving forward and back, but anytime she moves the move first STREEEETCHES and then snaps back, like she's rubberized. I think that's the compression effect - everything is squeezing so hard towards the middle it ends up going up in a very exagerated way and the, for want of a better word, gravitational pull in any direction is bizarre. When she goes, the entire space goes with her. (I know gravity isn't horizontal and it doesn't pull up, but that's just the quality of the movement).
DeleteI also think with these instagram pictures, she doesn't show herself full length, because they're stretched, and the leg proportions won't work.
DeleteEpically relevant: http://www.tokyohive.com/article/2014/10/figure-skater-arakawa-shizuka-skates-at-9-months-pregnant
ReplyDeleteDiscussion from Golden Skate: http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?52193-Arakawa-on-ice-at-9-mos-pregnant
She is so beautiful! I'm glad she's not a weirdo like Tessa.
DeleteI don't see what the GS crowd is getting bent out of shape about. She's not jumping or doing lifts or well, anything. That's pretty much equal to standing or walking.
She could be doing lifts and probably be okay. See an earlier post about the pregnant circus acrobat. Skating fans seem to have gotten their notions about pregnancy from Gone With the Wind.
Delete"She could be doing lifts and probably be okay."
DeleteOf course she could if she had been a pairs skater or ice dancer and had the training already.
"Skating fans seem to have gotten their notions about pregnancy from Gone With the Wind."
Or afternoon soap operas.
I just love that this is a concrete (in that Arakawa doesn't sham and lie about her private life and the fact that she's married and pregnant is public) example of a pregnant elite-level skater on the ice and skating at 9 months.
I do too. And once again it tells us just how much many of the regulars at fsu and GS appreciate what it means to be an elite level figure skater. OMG - she's endangering the baby! Do they know that she is not them? Do they know that elite level athletes are an entirely different animal than "regular" athletes or the physically fit?
DeleteI see it in discussion all the time. Exactly zero understanding for what goes into being an elite athlete, the level of awareness these people have about their bodies - nada.
You're getting ahead of yourself, OC. In order to understand elite level athletes are an entirely different animal than regular athletes or the physically fit, those posters would need to understand that skaters are elite level athletes in the first place (along with understanding CoP guidelines and actual physics versus imaginary physics for the logically impaired). I wouldn't bet the house on that coming to pass anytime soon.
DeleteWhen I first started reading fsu and its archives, it was very puzzling how, in a forum devoted to figure skating, there was little talk about figure skating. There was a lot of talk about programs, both hypothetical and actual. Each season people would talk about how so and so had a great program, so much better than this other person's. The reason it was better was the performance qualities, non-element/non-skating choreography and music cuts appealed more. They apprehend figure skating as a pageant.
DeleteHi OC - when you get a chance - on FSU - Angelika Krylova gave a recent interview talking about WP, Sochi etc...I think it just speaks volumes about "the sport" particularly icedance and how nobody is willing to rock the boat. There is no backhanding slaps for VM but it appears that she supports the bronze medal for IK over PB...An judging from her point of view, it appears that VM are not coming back...and I agree with others here that WP is not her best team - Hubbell/Donohue, Islam/Paul, Hawayek and her partner are stronger. And it is funny that she mentions that it's important to have your federation's support and that Skate Canada is doing that now for WP...and I am thinking well where was Skate Canada for VM...yup just play quiet...
ReplyDeleteAs for Tessa's recent video etc - the fandom is obviously falling all over themselves over it..I wonder if the fans from 2008 or at least 2010 - the skating fans are wondering like myself whether Tessa is trying to pitch herself for another reality show cuz that's the impression I get...but hey like many others I can just choose to ignore her...have a good week folks...and I agree that the skating discussion is more interesting...at least Skate America is around the corner - so let the games begin....
Who knows what Tessa's other angles are, but I agree with the person who said her entire social media output exists to cover her pregnancy - or exists largely to cover her pregnancy. Last time they were meant to be training/recovering from surgery. This time they're taking at least the year off, and she and Scott are officially supposed to have separate social lives, etc. At the same time, they're not competing, so they don't have the same pre-set travel schedule that made the Jessica logistics so convenient, and as they're not competing they certainly don't want a hometown girlfriend Scott would be expected to be seen with all the time. I'm sure we'll see Kaitlyn, but she's still competing, way out of town, and training has resumed. So Tessa is out there creating a fake virtual life on social media as well as a fake, virtual digital body on social media. She's going to have to keep it up even after the baby is born, because she's got a whole year of activity to manufacture, not just the last trimester of her second child's gestation.
DeleteIf they don't come back, I can see them becoming the Evan Lysacek of ice dance. As I said, they shrink from coming clean - they're chickenshit, and Pious Tessa can always make like it's to "protect" the jillion people in public life who helped them lie, including at their Federation. By Evan Lysacek, I mean they're not going to admit they've retired until after the next Olympics, and in the meantime, they can keep on shamming in case they make a comeback.
Of course, if Tessa got off social media, and Scott continued AWOL (so surprised he didn't return last week, as promised), they'd still be invited to all of these events, but probably the fandom would not be chattering about them. They'd have so much privacy, and only surface when they wanted to. Even without a social media profile, young, beautiful Olympic figure skating Gold Medalists will always be invited to events such as TIFF, fundraisers, charity galas, "Meet the notable!' etc.
DeleteThey don't want privacy. They want to churn social media with all of this crap, so that fans talk about it, and then they can point to it and say this is why we have to churn social media with all of this crap. It couldn't be more logical, in a chasing its own ass way, as is their style.
CanFund is hoping to raise some $$$ tonight with ten Olympians attending including Scott - so maybe we might some pictures..in Canada - and judging by the websites to see the difference of how Canfund works and Goldmedalpates works in terms of fundraising...
ReplyDeleteI don't know enough about the manipulation of videos to say. But I do find it odd that Tessa, who is known to "eat too much chocolate" while not training, somehow looks thinner than ever after not competing for several months? I think this video is old and being passed off as new.
ReplyDeleteShe has never looked like that. she's never had a beanstalk, stretched out, elasticized torso with warped contour. She doesn't look like that in the oldest videos there are. The proportions in those screen caps are not human, not even translated into two dimensions. They're cartoonish, and constantly warping.
DeleteIt's possible she made it while earlier in her pregnancy, but she's not thin in it because it's old. It looks as it is because it's manipulated.
I did have the opportunity to speak with somebody very familiar with Final Cut Pro, and with Adobe video editing software, and they said you lose quality and stability when you do horizontal compression in processing. We can see it's true - this video of Tessa's is awful quality with bizarre warping and, no detail and constant shape shifting. You could never watch a long video with this quality, never introduce a second person who is also moving, never film a real script with it, never use this quality professionally. The quality is too unstable even for something like Britney Spears' video gambit. There are specific lenses that are more and more in use for film, video and television that morph bodies thinner and longer. I was told the lenses are very common, and are preferable to changing the aspect ratio. The aspect ratio will ultimately degrade the quality of the video, while the actual lens will produce good quality video while achieving the desired attributes (thinner, longer people). That simply doesn't look like a lens effect to me; the video quality is a mess. I do believe the clear, crisp, HD quality of, I think it was All That Skate L.A. (where Tessa and Scott did I Want To Hold Your Hand with her red costume and ribbon at the waist) must have used lens for the highly vertical format, versus changing the aspect ratio.
That's true, she has never looked this thin, even in 2010. It doesn't seem possible without a little help.
DeleteIt's more than a little help - these distortions aren't subtle. They're actually extreme. It's not simply that she's been thinned. The ratios and dimensions of different parts of her body with other parts don't work on a human, and on top of that, the ratios are constantly shifting.
DeleteRe the person up above - their view is that the distortion in Tessa's video was applied manually in processing software like Adobe premiere, versus applied in Final Cut pro, based on their basic familiarity with both editing programs. It's perfectly simple to take a clip that size, send it to the person who has the software, they change the aspect ratio and shoot it back.
DeleteIn the video Tessa's shirt flaps up as she turns and her stomach becomes exposed for a fraction of a second. Just wondering if you looked into that since it's hard to tell if she has a bump
ReplyDeleteThere's not going to be a bump - everything is ridiculously compressed and the image is constantly warping. You can't see actual dimensions/actual contour in that video because it's hideously compressed from the horizontal and it creates incredible, unstable warping everywhere. You can't see her boobs, either (until she gets close to the camera and turns to the side and the camera reads the bounce, even that is bloated/distortion) Her shoulders are shrunken in this. That's not her body. That's a warp of her body.
DeleteActually I noticed a fraction of a second too when her shirt flies up and she turns sideways there's a bump. I feel ridiculous because I watched it so slowly a couple times to see if I actually saw it-and I saw it again. Anyway I wouldn't do it if it weren't for this blog #haterzgonnahate so whatever
DeleteI thought I saw a bump too. I also watched the clip far too many times. :/
DeleteIf you pause the vid when she's completely sideways there's definitely a bump.
DeleteI didn't see anything in that video that can be trustworthy as actual accurate parts of her body, but if you want to see a bump, you can see it in the picture from the event last week.
DeleteIt's just so RME that she has the images out from the TWIINS event - even those that are photoshopped don't show her as this long, reedy wraith. She's the one who put out the photo of her muscular, not all that tall, pregnant self (in the black and white sidewalk photo), then turns around and posts a video of an entirely different body type. I don't think she's seriously intending to have people believe her touchdown dance video.
DeleteTessa and Scott are going to make another appearance on Oct. 18th. Can't wait to see the pictures.
ReplyDeleteIf you cant see the corner of the wall to our right of her in the photos you posted yourself, then you are in complete denial of reality. The door is not flush on the back wall it is a side door. Thus it looks thinner than a door that would be flush on the back wall. How is that so hard to understand? ?
ReplyDeleteI must be in denial as well. Since when are side doors thinner than regular doors? Side doors usually lead outside the house and doors to the outside are usually slightly bigger, if anything. I have no idea what you're talking about.
Delete4:16 - skinny side doors that match Tessa's body contour (tapering where her hips taper, widening at her shoulders) are very common in the universe where Tessa and Scott are platonic. This is a universe where doors that move and warp in a video are ridiculously common and anybody who doesn't understand that is crazy.
Delete11:22 I already see the corner - didn't see it when I posted in the comments section, and I amended the blog post, which you did not read.
Look how thin Tessa has made herself in this video - thinner than she was in Vancouver, and keep saying that even though at the bottom the door is only as wide as her extremely narrow hips that's a side door. It gets wider as it goes up - very normal for side doors. The light switch flattens out and shifts up when she moves, as does the frame and a piece of the wall, as is normal with these side doors - they move when you do.
As you can see in the post you did not read, 11:22, side doors are the same damn size as normal doors, with occasional variances, such as older construction or a door to utility switches.
If you freeze frame it, that "bump" is her blouse flying around. Try it. You will see. Then you can all move on to the next attempt at trying to prove she is giving birth any day now....
ReplyDeleteNo it's her FLESH that I saw. Why don't u move on and worship somewhere else
DeleteYou are truly grasping here. When you look at any photo you have to take into consideration lighting, angles, type of camera, movement and even colors as they all affect the final outcome. Pixelation always occurs when you blow up a picture, look very closely at comics, they are made of of dots to form the image, its the same idea with digital images that we see every day. She looks quite thin in this video so you can surmise it was taken from an angle lower than she was, the same effect as the door, the wall colors are similar and her shirt is has the same shades and the checkered pattern only adds to the effect, and her dark pants make the contrast more stark. I can take any photo on this blog and tear it apart, find pixelation , distortion and anything else I want to, its there is some degree in all photos. Angles are especially important as they can distort size, that is why we all at sometimes have a photo of ourselves where we look to fat or to thin, add bad lighting to that and you have a terrible photo of yourself.
ReplyDeleteI know this for a fact as my work deals with this .
But hey knock yourself out seems you have nothing better to do than criticize anything to do with them and attract all the haters to agree with you. I am almost beginning to think you are from the usfsa, can't criticize their skating skills so you do it with everything else they do.
Thanks for the irrelevant tutorial, 7:07, but I have eyes and I can see extreme distortion and warping, which is not angular perspective, just fine. I see the wall and light switch moving just fine as well. I can see the door is tapered. Thanks as well for the pixilation tutorial, because that's what the blog has been saying for days - the way you can tell something is photoshopped is if you zoom real close, you can see the image becomes a bunch of pixels. That's a give away. All along, I've thought my driver's license is photoshopped cause when I zoom in on a digital copy, there's pixils. Turns out I'm wrong, it hasn't been photoshopped. I'll go look at those cartoons right away and try to understand how this all works.
DeleteI've said it repeatedly and am saying it again. Read the fucking blog before you go to the comments section and attempt to set everybody straight. Address stuff the blog actually said, not stuff you pretend it said because you're too impatient or pissed to actually read.
READ it and don't comment again until you are able to do so in a way that demonstrates you've done it and comprehended it. Don't address points the blog didn't make, and don't pretend the blog didn't address points that it has.
Attacking the blog, without actually reading and comprehending it, in this way is going to get you banned. It's immature, pathetic, and adds absolutely nothing to the discussion. The blog isn't trying make anybody think a certain way, or control the way people think. You're free to do the whatever the FUCK(oops, does my language offend you?) you want to do. NO ONE is holding a gun to your head. NO ONE is telling you to believe this, or believe that. You don't believe it, fine. You don't want to read it, fine. You don't want to understand it, fine. Just don't come here mouthing off, pulling facts out of your ASS(oops, does this one offend you too?), and sticking your tongue out at the blog and and expect it to change what's posted here, or the direction of the discussion.
DeleteAfter repeating points that the blog has already made many many times, I will ban an IP or take comments off the blog that demonstrates the person has either not read, or willfully mischaracterizes what the blog says and then uses the comments section as a forum to grandstand. For example, in this comments section, we've had people come in and "explain" that all photos pixilate, as if the blog's entire discussion on photoshop has been about how their social media images pixelate, and normal pixelation is a sign of photoshop. Ditto lenses and angles. This is someone who isn't reading the blog, just using the comments section to act out and attempting to hijack discussion. This is also the sort of person who has pretty much everything inverted - they believe their inability to control what people say and think means the people they can't control are the problem.
DeleteLOL, what are you talking about, 4:44? It's like you think if you repeat your little tantrum enough times it's going to change reality. It's not. Reality is that V/M are married with a child, likely have another one on the way, and are STILL lying about all of it after all these years. Your little metaphors about boats and water and whatever else you're talking about don't mean jack shit. This blog is telling the truth about V/M lying and utilizing legit and social media to do it. If you don't like that the blog does that, TOO BAD. There IS only one point of view about this. It's not up for debate and the blogger has been clear about that. It's not a guess that V/M are lying about these things or is something inferred by looking at photographs or video. It's something that's known by a hell of a lot of people other than the blogger. V/M are married. They have a child. It's an open secret in London and in the skating community. The same skating community that manipulates information for its own gain, often helping spread lies/misinformation online for V/M when it suits them or is in their best interests to do so.
DeleteClearly, your biggest concern is trying to control discussion over here and shut down anything you don't like. It's not going to happen. You are, however, a great example of the type of individual V/M target with their bullshit, so congrats on that.
What's with all the people (person?) coming here all the sudden in a huge pushback? I know this happens on occasion, but this seems to be a very concentrated effort. Is this the next tactic by the camp since the photo shop isn't working, and the shams are losing their effect? Is this going to continue to increase as we get closer to delivery?
DeleteI do not know all the people of London, nor why nobody talks about it publicly, but I do know (along with many others, not just the blogger), that they're married and live in London, had a kid and are pregnant again. Those are facts, so whether Londoners, or anyone else in the skating community, discuses it online or not is irrelevant, and just an attempt to discredit something that is an actuality, despite the surrounding circumstances.
At the end of the day as fans - we really don't know who Tessa and Scott are and what their private lives are about. Tessa with her twitter presence has made it a point to show that she and Scott are not hanging out if its not business related. And you know what - I am fine with that. If they are retired - they deserve down time to figure out the next chapter of their lives. I don't think its an easy transition - since you basically need to re-define yourself and when you have been successful in an endeavor/career that doesn't last a lifetime such as athletics and when you haven't earned the amount of money to just retire (such as professional athletes or amateur athletes who were able to get big endorsement deals) perhaps you can wonder if it was all worth it...and then in VMs case - with how Skate Canada, the USFSA and ultimately the ISU treated them over the last quad - it does take a toll psychologically. Then add the reality show and whether Scott really wanted to do it, the enormous pressure at Worlds 2013 and then at Sochi...and who knows what the real deal was with Zoueva and Shpilband...looking back at this quad - VM fought and fought and fought...and even though they may want to continue to skate - as stated by another comment - I don't think they have the full support of Skate Canada or the ISU...which is criminal...and judging by the lack of pro-shows (and who knows if Yuna-Kim will do other shows) - I wouldn't be surprised if VM do a last hurrah next winter to summer and then pull the plug alltogether - especially if Tessa continues her schooling after her undergraduate degree.
DeleteSo what we basically have here are fans who are frustrated that they're not part of these communities, not connected privately with anyone who knows, whom they trust, who can confirm, and think this is unfair and the world can't possibly work this way. Somebody has got to put this out online where it's easy and simple to find without any effort whatsoever on their part. This is what everybody in London would be doing if any of this was true.
Delete^ The other part I find funny about all of this "no one discusses it on the public internet!" thing is that...they do. There were discussions on fan forum, back in the day, and there have been comments on articles and video etc. since before the blog's time, and there continue to be now. Occasionally people run into T&S somewhere (groceries, once, or something?) and DO report it on social media. Hell, there's the ducky video, where, after their SD, a fan gives both T&S rubber ducks "for the new baby," and they smile and say thanks so much and toodle on to the kiss and cry.
DeleteIn other words: there are lots of places to find discussion or "evidence" on the public internet besides this blog, if you are willing to do a little research. You probably won't find some magic page with copies of their marriage certificate and photos, snapped from the bushes, of them taking their daughter to preschool, or whatever, because those are the things that people do not run to post on the internet, as has been discussed. But lots does make it out there, if you look for it. This blog is merely the best place to talk about it, not the only place.
6:39, you said " that they're married and live in London, had a kid and are pregnant again. Those are facts"
DeleteI'm just curious if you know about the second pregnancy in the same way you know for sure about the other things. I think what's been put out there by V/M certainly points to that, but this is the first I've heard someone possibly confirm that they KNOW absolutely first hand without having to rely on and interpret only what's been out there publicly.
Whether or not you think the video has been modified, surely you can see that recent images of Tessa are wildly contradictory as far as what she looks like?
ReplyDeleteIt is beyond me how one could look at Video Tessa and have no trouble reconciling her with Walking-To-A-Meeting-Tessa in that black and white photo, or with any other picture/video of Tessa ever, because even when she was very thin after her first surgery, her thighs have never lacked muscle, as they seem to in that video. "Lighting, angles, and types of camera" can't account for complete changes in body-type over the course of a few days. I can't believe anyone actually looks at Tessa's recent images and doesn't see anything strange.
These are images that VM are putting up themselves, on Tessa's social media. They know that Tessa looks different in all of them. They don't care - they also know fans will rush to lecture others on camera angles before they'll actually admit that VM are lying to them, and so bold-facedly as to be practically begging for it to be noticed.
""Lighting, angles, and types of camera" can't account for complete changes in body-type over the course of a few days. I can't believe anyone actually looks at Tessa's recent images and doesn't see anything strange. "
DeleteAre you sure 8:28 AM because 7:08 uses these things in their work. Those lights things and types of lenses. All the time.
"lighting, angles, and types of camera" are no more mysterious than the contents of a skating program, but there are categories of fans who like to pretend both are big unknowns that can't be evaluated by an informed observer. It's gotta be some mystery lens, some of those different types lights, and you know how perspective distortion and wardrobe makes someone in a video look like Jim Carey's tongue in The Mask. Happens all the time. That's why Tessa looks like a lost El Greco painting in the screen caps up there. No regular person can look at an image or video and possibly understand how the effects in the video were achieved. There's no place to learn that stuff.
I never know how to evaluate the sincerity of someone who comes pretending the blog hasn't said anything already about the points they're pretending to refute. For example, a lot of people come in and keep pretending the blog is using public domain evidence to conclude that Tessa and Scott are married with a child. A lot of other people come in and just immediately start caring about what people think, like 7:08, a person who seems very preoccupied with controlling what other fans say and do. Do these people honestly believe Scott and Tessa are platonic, or are these people just unholy pissed off that outsiders, presumed non-members "of the skating community" are talking about sacrosanct information that only belongs to them? It's not important in the end, but I do wonder sometimes.
I wonder if Doris Pulaski gives courses, and that's why we get these visits. "Physics I Made Up." "Lessons in Perspective Distortion - Lose feet and inches standing close to, but not flush with, corners, and other visual tricks."
DeleteThis is skating-related, but there are two brilliant posts on GS that need to be read.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?50963-2014-Nebelhorn-Trophy&p=991612&viewfull=1#post991612
http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?50963-2014-Nebelhorn-Trophy&p=991613&viewfull=1#post991613
I'm surprised mathman generalized as much as he/she did, and kind of hand waved the fact that it's a sport, and managed to miss sisinka's points so completely.
DeleteWhen we look at the regulars on goldenskate and fsuniverse, we see the sort of fans this sport wants and has cultivated. These fans are the same stripe as the journalists this sport wants and has cultivated.
sisinka is fabulous. His/her posts are always fantastic. It's frustrating though how continously people miss the points made.
ReplyDeleteOMG, Goldenskate is really no better than FSU. Skating "fans" make the dumbest shit up:
"To me, it's tricky. We are (perhaps foolishly) trying to make this discipline into a sport, sort of. You can't give a team a lower score than their actual performance merits just because they twizzled the same way as they did last year. (For that matter, does the music of Swan Lake or Romeo and Juliet cry out for the performers to go twizzling down the ice in unison?) "
"It's in the Olympics. It's supposed to be a sport. Also, I thought unison was supposed to be important. My bad."
ReplyDeleteOops. My bad also.
Things like unison and great technical and dance skills only matter if the favored team has those qualities. If the favored team does not, then Doris and her ilk spend a whole quadrennial making up excuses why the non-unison, non-good-technique team is fabulous after all! What do you know, they invent new physics' rules!
That's why it's a stupid "sport". It's not about the great technical and artistic skills that SHOULD characterize icedancing. It's about politics and who is in and who is out.
I think only time/history will show the true greatness of VM. It makes me so mad. VM should be free to continue competing as long and as far as their talent would take them, with appropriate recognition all along the way -- as in, winning everything hands down when they are the best in the field, which they are and have been from the moment they debuted as seniors. Instead, we have the travesty of the last quadrennial, along with VM probably retiring because the ISU doesn't want them around.
Well said - anon at 2:37 pm...well we knew that Lawes would show up somewhere and so according to her twitter and CanFund's twitter she was at the same CanFund event in Toronto on Monday night with Scott and a couple of other winter/summer olympians....
ReplyDeleteOh aren't they just precious? Tru lurve, right there. I see Scott's acting abilities have not improved with the new love of his life - it's like he's not even trying.....
ReplyDeleteIt's just so so gross.They're not competing.They're may actually be retired. They're expecting a second child. But sure, the strategems that seemed to make sense for you both as teen-agers apply to your lives now. There's nothing weasel in continuing the sham. Just flip it - it's noble, it's "protective."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure Scott has had a sham gf who does meh face as much as he does, with the same dead eyes. Cassandra seemed as into him as much as Jessica was into him (meaning, not really) but both Jessica and Cassandra loved the camera and Cassandra was always aware this was her showcase, so she tried to make it look good. Kaitlyn looks as deer in the headlights as Scott.
As I'm observing in the skating post that's being giffed and screencapped, it's absolutely wonderful what North American ascendance has done for ice dance. Apply the values of marketing and advertising to sport in a way that hasn't been seen before. Good is actually bad. This is the crowd that pretended to be the good guys versus the Evil Empire, and they've done more damage to the sport both in outright collusion, deal-brokering and corruption, than Russia ever did, but in going even further than Russia and brutally deciding the actual skating didn't matter at all, and skating values can actually be inverted to mean the opposite of what they mean.
ReplyDeleteObviously Scott can't be in love with Tessa because he never looked as miserable next to her as he does with Jess/Cass/Lawes. True love hurts and it shows on Scott's face.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, according to a comment on Tessa's Instagram from today mentions Outer Layer, a store located on Queen West in Toronto...where her business partner that she has a totally platonic relationship with and a completely separate life from was just last night. #caughtintheact #orcoincidence?
ReplyDeleteNice.
DeleteWait, he probably just took the picture when he went there with his girlfriend, and sent it to her because he thought it was funny. Oooh, or maybe KLawes sent it to her since they like to coordinate/are bff's on social media and all.
OMG, they appear to actually be touching each other! They must be getting serious. Man that picture screams couple....
ReplyDelete#funfewdays
The fans aren't buying this either - there is next to no chatter about this, at least not publicly. I must admit I find it slightly disconcerting that certain places have shut down to discussion to such an extent - it is creepily reminscent of some totalatarian regime in Eastern Europe or something.
ReplyDeleteTo blogger author, I find your reaction to my comment interesting...as it had been deleted. I only suggested you or anyone of your canadian visitors here to go and get a picture or better yet get full film of her and scott public appearance so we get real stuff. Here's the link again: assets.tangeroutletsca.com - it's on October 18. I'm interested too in finding out the Truth.
ReplyDelete6:56 - if you weren't piggybacking onto someone else's comment and deleted in your own right, then you may have been removed because your comment directly replied or was attached to one I removed - that can happen automatically when an original comment is taken off. I usually try to preserve the reply if I can, even if I take off the original.
DeleteYour link doesn't work for me. That said, I'm not interested, and never have been interested, in Scott and Tessa's personal details. I'm interested in what Scott and Tessa put out on social media, knowing that they're married and have a child, and knowing that they use interest in their relationship to hoax and manipulate the public, and mock the supporters of their skating. Therefore, the photos and media that Scott and Tessa have manipulated, which they've done with plenty of outside assistance, is more interesting to me than, for example, the image of Tessa in the leopard dress where she is conspicuously pregnant.
I hope someone from here does go to the Tanger opening. I would love to see some real current photos of her to compare to their social media output.
Delete7:44 - two things.
ReplyDeleteI know Scott and Tessa are married parents, and it's obvious they're expecting again. This isn't a theory, this isn't research based on social media. I don't know about this from anywhere on the internet.
BECAUSE I know they're married, I'm aware they're lying on social media, and I'm looking at how they lie on social media. These are married people acting out on social media with people they pretend are their girlfriends/boyfriend, when it's fake. These are parents who give interviews talking about being single, dating, and did a reality show. These people are aided and abetted not just by their Fed, but by the entire entertainment and sports media matrix, who apparently don't bat an eye. THAT is what I'm looking at and researching on line - how they lie. I'm not researching on line proof that they're lying - I already know they are.
Hey where's the Anon who posted their first post that started this whole discussion? You just leave when your points get proven wrong, suddenly you're quiet?
ReplyDelete^No, I'm taking them off the blog because they're still not listening or reading the blog. Unless people address points the blog actually makes, it's a waste of time. It's probably helpful for the blog to address this in current comments sections from time to time, because not everybody starts reading from the beginning to the first person who refused to read the blog, or ignored what it actually said, and addressed themselves to what they pretended the blog was saying. But if someone keeps at it, they're gone until they demonstrate they've read the blog, and address what the blog actually said. For example, the blog did three long posts on photoshop. The result was someone came in and very kindly explained that it's not photoshop, it's just that images pixilate when you look closely, please see a comic for an example.
ReplyDeleteThat's someone who doesn't give a shit what the blog says, because they're ignoring it.
There's people who come in and insist that their perspective be accepted as the way it is. Such as - if it were true, impossible everybody would keep it off the public internet. THEREFORE ...
No, no therefore. It's true, and people do keep it off the public internet. It's possible, because that's what's happening.
And my favorite: If you have any kind of real proof, there is no problem sharing with strangers on the internet. I can't imagine any kind of scenario where that would be a problem. THEREFORE...
No. There are obvious issues. If someone can't see them, that doesn't mean the rest of us can't see them.
These are people who get to post a couple of times to see if they're actually having a conversation. If they're not, if it's - in order to have this conversation, you have to accept all of my assumptions as true, and discuss from there - they get taken off.
I want to respond to the person who said people have been discussing the marriage on places like fanforum and other commenting areas. I have never seen any comments like that myself so I did a google search. Not much came up so I thought that maybe they have hired a service like Reputation Defender to remove certain searches of their names. It surprises me that there's not much being said about the marriage even in speculative/wishing fashion, which suggests a broad washing of the topic altogether.
ReplyDeleteThere were a couple of facebook photos posted on fan forum from 2010 that I've never been able to find again either. Sham photos from Moir and Jessica facebooks.
DeleteThe language they continue to use in interviews and articles is "not dating, not a couple." Tessa implicitly refuted the David Pelletier lie that was mostly put out on the web by one fan who jumped on some fsu bullshit. This fan was obsessed, and got it out on twitter, inquiring to media outlets, so it looked like they finally felt they had to swat it. Nobody ever asks about the silly rumor that they're married parents, Scott and Tessa never joke that they spend their weekends visiting their secret children stashed all over Ontario. They've made up inane things to address, they steal their fake narrative from the most insipid fan fiction on message boards, so it's not as if they never notice what's said about them as if it's beneath them.
DeleteI wouldn't put it past them to actually come out and do it, but they certainly appear keen to keep the focus on "dating or a couple."
I don't remember the marriage being discussed at FF pre-blog but the pregnancy definitely was. Amazing how once those fans started lying about her being pregnant, her body actually grew in proportion to a pregnant woman, the closer she got to her return to competition.
DeleteI doubt you would be able to find by googling "term" + FanForum, though. I found it because I painstakingly read through all those old threads. They have links there to all the threads. You have to figure out the period of time you want but it's there, and sometimes it's spoken of in code, and some posts are deleted but you can see them in replies, and the p-word doesn't get used until later, but the discussion is definitely there.
There was actually a lot of allusions to Tessa's pregnancy made on FF and by a select few members. I didn't catch it at the time but I went back and reread the old threads a while back. Don't know how I managed to miss it. It's amazing what we can filter out.
DeleteThere was a lot of things implied on fanforum, but not much open discussion. The most open discussion would probably be mid-quad, when some posters started discussing where they stood on the blog.
DeleteIn terms of what they've addressed, there was the Sportsnet fluff that added "a secret life that no one knows about" to the regular options of how unfairly misunderstood their relationship is. Now, obviously plenty of people know, but that is how many fans describe the blog's "theory" (eg. how are they hiding a child from the world, do they never take her out?), so I think it was meant to address the blog in the most round-about way possible.
This is why I think they're scrubbing the web.
DeleteWhy do you think that? I thought it was indicative of fans trying to be discreet. If they wanted to scrub the web, wouldn't coming after the blog be the biggest priority?
DeleteYou can't just hire somebody to 'scrub the web' and trample the first amendment. No internet monitoring company can do that. As I posted below, the most common services are to remove personal data that may have gotten onto the web - many places that have the personal data of even ordinary people have a method for people to opt out. A large amount of what these services do is "reach out" and solicit cooperation. A third is to generate positive content that pushes negative content to the back pages of the search results.
Delete^remember that google, which owns blogger, is an American company.
Delete@ 10:48AM I think it's b/c the blog is considered by the fans to be a bunch of nut jobs that they (the fans) don't take seriously, so why worry about that.
DeleteAs far as scrubbing, see below at the conversation about the gym tweets.
Well, it's very belatedly occurred to me, as usual, that the unusual spate of "Huh duh, me no follow" in the comments section is a trolling campaign. I don't just mean angry troll acting out on the blog, I mean all the "I really sincerely don't understand" stuff packed with assumptions, bizarre reasoning, and conclusions." Those are bullshit and insincere.
ReplyDeleteThen the person comes back and instructs us about what we've all seen and what we've said about it, once again disregarding everything that's been said, and everything that's been seen, that contradicts their trolling.
From this point forward in this comments section, if you have a question, or an imaginary logical issue with the blog's perspective, know that all of them have been raised repeatedly before, going back to the blog's inception, and go find for yourself what was said there. Not here.
This is just to tell us , they don't spend the night together, Tessa is still pining over Scott and the first thing she does in the morning is to text him, but then Scott is so busy with other women that it takes him 2 hours to reply to Tessa.
ReplyDeleteIt's the reality show all over again.
^It's more than one person, so I suspect there's a small collection of fans who decided among themselves to have a trolling party and divert this comments section. I don't want to take off entire discussion threads so I'm not wiping out all of those that are still here.
ReplyDeleteThe new post that I hope to have published soon has canadablue's comparison videos embedded, then gifs of the Nebelhorn comparison, comments/observations about the skating, and some comments about Weaver & Poje's short dance. The earlier P/I & CB comparison may be added to that post after it's published (so it at least can be out there), or will be part of another post, of which cuteiceprincessblog's articles will also form a part.
I will check into it more closely later, but isn't it Tessa retweeting what she believes is a fan manipulation/shout out from tumblr or something? Not meant to be taken as real? Scott's last name has a typo (the "o" in Moir is a typo).
ReplyDeleteI've taken a bunch of stuff off the blog. I should have focused in on the comment that noticed it was all of a sudden, and multi pronged. It's a campaign. I don't believe Moirville pushes back, this is just fans getting together and deciding to act out here.
ReplyDeleteLULZ, V/M continue to spam the fans with fake bullshit to cover up the pregnancy, but OC removing posts off the blog is what angers those fans. It's no wonder it's so easy for V/M to lie to them.
DeleteWell if you saw the hours some of them spend here, they're probably going through withdrawal. That can make people cranky.
Delete6:22
DeleteWhat I see is tantrums because OC (and others) will not out their sources. You don't seem to get the difference between theory and facts. The premise of this blog is not a theory. And no, I'm not the blogger and I don't know the blogger. But I am happy for a place to discuss this.
What - as fans who know the truth we're supposed to be good little fans and shut up and pretend along with all the others around VM? Why? It's *bad* to out their lies? Why?
I've been around this sport for years and I knew in 2010 the true facts about VM's status (before this blog existed. And I'll repeat - I do not know the blogger, I have no idea who is blogging). I personally also believed they were getting ready to reveal the truth but then they decided not to and instead dug in with Jessica even further. I have no idea why blogger thinks they would reveal but I know I did have that same opinion.
VM are perpetuating a hoax on the public and the scale has gotten bigger and grander with time. Damn right I think this thing should be exposed.
6:52 I definitely believe the issue these people have is that the photoshop is pretty damning. The main tactic is just "say the opposite" and go ad hominem until people cry uncle. I also don't believe any of them really believe what they're saying. The only authentic aspect of their visits here is the vitriol.
Delete^I also believe they were getting ready to tell the truth, and that was the general understanding of many many people who knew/know them. They decided not to, and it's been petty, childish, sanctimonious self-justification ever since.
DeleteI think the fact that everyone thought that this was a fan manip pretty much speaks for itself....
ReplyDeleteLol, no, I'm fairly certain were supposed to be believing that's real. Full names, pictures, implications and all.
ReplyDeleteScott's name has a typo. So Tessa we're meant to believe Tessa saved his name among her contacts with a typo in Moir? Why didn't she go the distance and save it as Scott Moir!
ReplyDeleteGreat skater. Great choreographer for anyone other than himself and Jayne? Never saw it. I love how he basically just handed them his old routine, and wanted them to use the same costumes. I'm not even sure what the point is here. "Remember Christopher Dean? He and Jayne Torvill did a memorable paso in 1984. Gilles & Poirier hired him to let them do it this year, but thought their costumes should suit who they are, instead of dressing up as Torvill & Dean." The End.
ReplyDeleteSo much skating talk there, though. So much talk about the pattern, the dance character!
Why do they need last names at all?
ReplyDeleteDean never choreographed for anybody but himself. He only gives teams programs that he himself would have skated too and ignores the personality and individuality of the teams he works with.
ReplyDeleteThougj I have to admit that GP's Hitchcock FD was one of my favorite dances in years. I only wish a better team had done it.
What baffles me more than the typo is Tessa's picture. Why would she use a pro photoshoot of herself and Scott ( iin the backround ) as her avatar ?
ReplyDeleteI read the blog on an RSS feed so it's very noticeable and frustrating when I go to click on a post and it's not there because it's been deleted. FWIW, if you read the posts through the feedly app (you can also view on the web in your browser), you can read all the deleted posts, at least the posts as of the time you start using feedly. I don't think you'd be able to go back and read what was deleted last night if you're a newbie.
ReplyDeleteI ought to have paid attention to the fact that it was orchestrated sooner. By round three, it was obvious and I think it went to something like round seven.
DeleteI don't care if they can be read via an app or if they're saved on a screenshot. The point isn't to hide what they posted, stuff which can be found ad tedium going back to the blog's beginning.
Dean didn't do Hitchcock (not sure if that's what you're saying?). He did Sweet Dreams, this Paso and their new ex. That's it.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get the hype for Hitchcock. Maybe a better team could have done something interesting with the theme and more difficult choreography, but the program as it was seemed very gimmicky IMO.
This is 3:26... sorry for misattributing Hitchcock to Dean... I do believe 3:14 is correct.
ReplyDeleteThe picture she posted is a BBM screenshot; their display names are not what they've saved each other as under their own contacts but rather are their usernames for the app, so first and last names being displayed is standard. The typo would be on Scott's part.
ReplyDeleteAnon @2:56PM, it's because she's still secretly in love with Scott, and wants him in her avatar, but not something too obvious.
ReplyDeleteI'm 2:51 Sorry, i must have gotten something wrong then. I thought Dean did Hitchcock because the British Eurosport guys kept saying so. I usually ignore Nicky Slater but I thought he couldn't possibly get something so simple wrong. Now I know better :)
ReplyDeleteI like Hitchcock because it stood out, was original and they created a great atmosphere. Despite their lacking skating skills and simple choreo this program kept me interested which is something that doesn't happen too often these days. At least they tried to be entertaining, which is more than I can say for the reigning Olympic champions.
3:26 - I agree A&P's 2000 free dance was a terrific program, all the more so because it addressed the apparent reason they were Worlds runners up in 1999. Man In the Iron Mask displayed their gorgeous edges and musicality, but my impression is she spent maybe too much of the program off her feet. Not ridiculously too much, but maybe enough to give the nod to K&O (I'm going to have to really look at that K&O program some time - it's packed, but the last time I saw it was quite some time before I actually scrutinized the skating). A&P's 2000 shows a marked difference in the amount of time Maria A's blades were engaged with the ice, and I think that was the key.
ReplyDeleteThe way they present themselves reminds me too much of Two and a half men. Scott is Charlie, womanizer with a bad habbit fro booze and drugs, while Tessa is Rose, the neurotic stalker with a crush.
ReplyDeleteIf your public narrative resembles a crappy Tv show you know you've done something wrong.
They are pitching their public narrative at the mentality of the fans. Isn't it flattering? That's what Scott and Tessa say about fans every single time they do something like this. "I don't know Scott - is it stupid enough?"
ReplyDeleteThat's how it reads. One blog participant pointed out that Scott and Tessa don't feel responsible for, nor the need to acknowledge, anything they didn't intend, even if what actually happened was a complete botch. Scott and Tessa are taking their cues from fan stuff on the internet. They're pandering. They're much much smarter and more clever than some crappy TV show. But that's all that fans deserve, being so stupid.
So anyway, THAT's what they're doing. They're not being stupid - WE'RE stupid, and they have to drop to our level or we won't get it.
ReplyDeleteThat's who they are. Most people with decent upbringings are raised to believe that how you treat others says something about YOU, not other people. Scott and Tessa are raised to believe that only appearances matter, and how you treat people directly is all that counts. How Scott and Tessa manipulate skating fans in situations where they're not accountable just proves how dumb ass skating fans are, not how nasty Scott and Tessa are. That's why they don't give a shit the reality show was ridiculous because that's our fault for only understanding dreck like the reality show.
I think the Hitchcock program was an effective program as a very accessible piece of theatre that enjoyably met expectations as theatre, and less effective as skating, and it was very clever packaging geared towards competing in a "sport" that doesn't give a shit. The previous season, Piper's skating was a running, tripping, scraping, yanking, broken-lined sloppy mess, and the choreography attempted to make a virtue of her defects. Hitchcock attempted to repackage/conceal her (and Paul's) limitations. Of all its performances, I preferred its debut, as enjoyed Piper's acting in certain moments (skating aside). Subsequent performances lost a little bit each time, IMO.
ReplyDeleteIt's a well known story/dynamic that everybody recognizes. Even though it's Hitchcock and I guess, "Hitchcock blonde", it's a theme the director didn't just execute on camera, but how he was famously rumored to operate as a director (control his actresses, who were his puppets). The music was very.dramatic, familiar, and portentious, punctuated occasionally by something sharp and abrupt - and short-lived. Naturally, Piper and Paul skating only one.short.phrase.at.a.time slowly was how they observed the music and skated in the style of the music. They skated pretty far apart, but then again, the character (I guess a "dramatic" version of Hitchcock) played by Paul is attempting to retain control over his creature (I guess any actress) played by Piper, so there's going to be push pull. When they did skate, they actually did have lobes, and Piper actually did carry her body weight through some of the lifts, so in toto I believe it left the impression - which is all that matters in skating - that their skating had matured. I believe if you turn off the sound it's obvious that they're skating pretty damn far apart and spend an awful lot of time stopping.
^The above, by the way, seems to be how many skating fans view this sport. It's okay to skate super slowly and far apart, because what's important in your program is what's appropriate theatrically, not good skating.
ReplyDelete"Scott's name has a typo."
ReplyDeleteIt's not a typo. It's a play on how he signs his name -- with the "M" and "O" in big letters, and the "i" and "r" in small ones.
It's possible to appreciate the artistry of a program even if the skating is bad just like one can appreciate great skating that is poorly presented. It doesn't mean you ignore what the sport is supposed to be about and it doesn't mean one wants an inferior team to be held above a team of better skaters.
ReplyDelete^True, and in that respect, I think the choreography, as straight up choreography, was well matched to the music, and suited the music, and as theatre, the program worked. The issue for me isn't appreciation as theatre, it's evaluation as a competitive program. Too many fans believe that an effective performance is much more important than superior skating, and if a choice is to be made, well of course you choose theatre. Skating is so inartistic, so pedestrian. I'm not questioning your enjoyment of this or any other program; I'm pointing out that many fans think it's entirely appropriate to sacrifice superior skating for a theatrical conceit, and also think it's appropriate that a team or skater that does it should pile up the points available in CoP for great skating.
ReplyDeleteI met Kaitlyn Lawes in the summer, and she showed a video that all the athletes received from sochi, and in it there is that signature kiss from V/M free dance and it doesnt seem to even phase her. Like if they were really together wouldnt something like that bother her slightly? and yeah she said they were dating but got really defensive and restrictive about it. So make what you want of this
ReplyDeleteIn what context did she say they were dating? Who asked her directly?
ReplyDeleteShe said it because somebody asked her about the rumour at point blank and she promised before hand to answer all questions honestly. She just said that yeah it's true and that not to go spreading it around. Also as a side I was suspicious about it before she said since kaitlyn kept spinning around the ice like a figure skater and kept saying things that hinted at him. Like for example she stayed with a friend that lives near London. And we all knew he dropped her off at the club, it's like she didn't really try and hide it.
ReplyDeleteThanks. That's really ridiculous. Don't go spreading it around? Unbelieveable.
ReplyDeleteApparently it's not for the public. Kaitlyn has managed to keep a lot of her personal life private, and it's not something she wants to give up. Like her CCA profile has no info on her besides her birthday and throwing side. Most players have FAQ's and stories, etc. I haven't said till now, and that's because it's pretty much a known fact.
ReplyDeleteIt's ONLY for the public. She has no relationship with Scott. That's why it's ridiculous. If her CCA profile has no info besides her birthday and throwing side, that is possibly a clue as to why she's decided to sham with Scott. For a woman who has been concertedly posing with Scott Moir on instagram and facilitated planted sightings all summer to tell fans not to spread it around is the most ludicrous type of hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteI kind of get the feeling they must get off on this? Like...they've been together a long time...things might feel a little predictable, a little less than exciting...maybe it kind of shakes things up to pretend they're these fan fiction characters that a small sub-set of their fans think them to be? Just as a way to pass the time, to imagine how things might be if they weren't the way they are? Stuff like these fake texts are just so unabashed, and kinda gross, because of it. I should have stopped being surprised once that whirling torrent of a bullshit reality show hit the air...but I haven't, somehow, stopped being surprised that sheer EMBARRASSMENT hasn't made them just give up on the sham already.
ReplyDelete"I should have stopped being surprised once that whirling torrent of a bullshit reality show hit the air...but I haven't, somehow, stopped being surprised that sheer EMBARRASSMENT hasn't made them just give up on the sham already."
ReplyDeleteYou've described my feelings perfectly. Thank you.
They've been doing it since they were teen-agers (shamming) so I don't think shaking it up part of the mix. They have tons of stuff to "pass the time" - it's not as if the grass grows and they're looking for something to fill the time. They have a pretty full schedule, they're preparing for shows, they have a kid and another on the way.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely that it's unabashed, and gross. You have a strong point about the sheer EMBARRASSMENT. How the hell can Scott stick his mug next to yet another freaking fake chick on social media, at age twenty-seven, and his wife is expecting their second, and how the hell can Tessa do whatever she's doing on her twitter, she has managed to catch up two seven years of embarrassing Scott social media behavior in about two months. What's embarrassing is her sheer need to compete and one up anonymous fans, and the mean girls attitude about it (starting with Scott's birthday). It's so regressed. That's shit a Real Housewife would do, or teen who never got out into the real world even after they became an adult. Maybe despite their athletic success, in some ways Scott and Tessa ARE like Disney stars who are raised in an exclusive environment, don't know anything else, and are still being brats in their mid-twenties.
I think their decision to press on damned them. They're now too stubborn to shift course. They're bent on winning, whatever it is they think they're winning, although I think they need somebody or something to compete against. Some people claim it's the blog - I don't think so. They set fans up as the other, the entity they needed to push back against, way before the blog. The need for this dysfunctional clusterjoke is in them, and they reach out for reasons for it afterwards. I genuinely believe saving face is 99% of it. They chickened out when it was the right time to just rip off the bandaid and everybody in the world that knew them stood by ready to support them however they needed it. They punted instead and there they've been ever since and will probably remain that way until they're the age of Torvill and Dean and beyond.
I just finished all the gifs and will be putting them in the post. Weaver & Poje are clearly doing more than Chock & Bates, and are superior skaters to Chock & Bates (I really can't wait til I've been able to sit with these programs, and these skaters, over time, because at the moment I'm processing the impression that Evan Bates is just awful, worse than Maddie, and I know there were people who were fond of Samuelson Bates and thought their skating had some strong attributes).
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling with Kaitlyn Weaver. The short dance is easier, because there are choreographic sections where she doesn't have her feet under her, and everything else gets just place marked - she's tripping a bit and has a lot of rushed, unfinished movement. But there are, also in the short dance, moments where she and Andrew suddenly find their mutual rhythm and their skating instantly acquires fluidity, power and ease, with natural unison and flow. These moments aren't sustained, but leave the impression that the choppy, trippy, unfinished aspects of the performance are down to getting used to the choreography, getting it into their bodies, and the real skating surfaces when the program settles into real skating. But, the free dance, while choreographed very well and with a lot of good content, features a Kaitlyn who is straight up and down, not on flats like Meryl (although the edges aren't consistently deep and the blade run is eh), not bending her knees, not extending through her body, and not finishing her movements. I never noticed such an all over difference between Kaitlyn and Andrew before, but the posture, the knees, and the impoverished movement from Kaitlyn make the difference really marked. They do more skating and have more content than Chock & Bates, but I'm a bit flummoxed at Kaitlyn. I don't recall this sort of showing even at the first viewing of The Statue program, when they were disappointed with the scoring, and where I thought they were judged a little too harshly.
I think that's a fair assessment of this outing for W/P, OC, but I will add that in a recent interview, Krylova commented on what a late start to training they had this season (touring with CSOI, a holiday in Europe and attending the Olympic celebrations across the country) so I'm expecting to see improvement over the coming weeks.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, if I'm not mistaken, they did tour with CSOI in 2012 (and not in 2013), but maybe they cut short vacation time or something to compensate. Also, it sounds like you're referring to Skate America 2012? They did Ondrej Nepala as a Senior B that year, so that might be worth a look if you want to see them at the same point in the season as this year's Nebelhorn.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1602941/jills-house-is-there-a-gold-medal-for-bedtime/
ReplyDeleteJust thought this was interesting.
Oh my do those girls love their new found fame. When KL first appeared on the scene, I'll admit, I was sceptical as to what was in it for her - now it's blatantly obvious.
DeleteThe first interview I read with Jennifer Jones was really marked. Her enthusiasm for the new fame seemed more intense than her joy over winning a gold medal. The theme was the same - OMG, I am so famous now. I'm just a star wherever I go. Can't fly, walk down the street, etc. So amazing.
DeleteJill's article is along the same lines. Might be a brainstorm of their agent's. If you constantly tell people someone is famous/recognizeable, they'll believe it.
I also thought interesting that here is someone "in their circle", who has a daughter of a similar age, and it's not only talked about, but discussing the dynamics between being a gold medal Olympian and a parent at same time.
DeleteVirtue and Moir don't have to use any other Olympian with children if they don't care to have their family in the public eye. They're in the public eye by their own choice. Whatever excitement fans have about their chemistry is stoked by Virtue and Moir, constantly, while they posture as tolerating this repetitive interest that won't go away. They are the ones who stipulate that the subject be addressed, they're the ones trolling for fan respone, they're the ones who want it on the table. There are far too many examples of skaters, themselves popular, who easily keep their personal lives off the table with no dent made in their popularity, and hardly any speculation about their personal lives.
DeleteJennifer has a girl toddler as well, and was mentioned frequently in fluff, how it changed her life so much for the better.
DeleteOh yeah, she's keeping it real private. Retweeting every picture and doing her little hints....."coincidentally" very similar to the way Tessa's playing hers (although she makes sure her "bf" is not on her social media at all). They must be just alike. No wonder Scott's dating her.....Ridiculous.
ReplyDelete@ way upthread, the person saying KL said she's dating SM but to keep it quite.
ReplyDeleteWhile I believe it's fake, I am interested in what they're doing in front of those they use to keep promoting the lies. You said Scott dropped her off. Please give details how they interacted. It's always interesting to see what exactly they're doing and saying within their bubble of sham. Everything is so premeditated, as Tessa's tweets have been showing, also seen in the timing of KL's tweets and retweets.
Unfortunately I didn't see him at the club, we just saw pictures that were posted there if him with fans. (Also the KW granite's social media may have a few picture). He dropped her off either the day before all the campers arrive (Saturday aug 16) or the morning of well before we got there (Sunday aug 17). So they had no interactions that I could see. However she got really defensive reguarding their relationship and who knew about it. Hope this helps.
DeleteWhy would she be defensive about people knowing when she's been heavily hinting about it for months? It makes no sense and that's because it's fake. Tessa's got the same "pretending to be private" thing going on as well but neither of them are acting like people who want privacy. I guess after
Delete...the overkill with Jessica they decided it would be more believable this way but it really isn't.
DeleteHe was seen in Toronto the night of Jeff's wedding, so if he *was* really there and dropped her off it was before he went to TO.
DeleteI'm still not sure she's really into this whole sham thing. I think she likes the idea of it and the benefits she gets out of it, but she seems nervous about it, like she may mess it up, or say the wrong thing or something. Maybe it's because Tessa's pregnant.
Or maybe she's just getting warmed up.
I agree with you 5:47 she seemed like she was watching her words because she didn't want to say the wrong thing and screw everything up. From meeting her, she seemed rather moral and grounded so it is likely that this is playing on her a little and that eventually she will back out because its too much. She honestly is so nice, I could see her doing this to help them out if they became friends in Sochi or on one of those Olympian tours.
DeleteI love the coy way of hinting- spinning like a skater, hinting at him - basically wanting to be asked.
ReplyDelete11:41 PM, granted, and there are segments of the short dance where the skating, even now, is World podium caliber given the current field. There are also segments where it's not. Maybe Kaitlyn is somebody who needs to really absorb choreography before she can utilize strong skating skills. That's different from other top flight teams, the very best, where even when a new program is a bit raw, it's still obvious this is a World's best team. I think I said somewhere that the first training/practice video of Volosozhar and Trankov's Jesus Christ Superstar program not only was place held in several places, but left the overall impression that they'd just left the beach or pool for the first time that week. Even without all engines firing, the stroking, the power, the parts of the elements they observed - it was all immediately clear these skaters were international championship caliber. The same has always been clear of Virtue and Moir no matter how early days. I just find it odd, watching Kaitlyn, that it's really not possible to tell in many sort of basic places in the program - stroking, changing a pose, moving smoothly with Andrew - that this is a skater capable of contending for the World podium. I was very happy to see some of her ability kick in in the short dance, but I wonder why some of the very basic high level abilities (quality stroking, tracking her partner) just went AWOL because they had a late training start. Late training start usually just means a program isn't in muscle memory as much as usual, or things like exits and entrances to elements need more speed, and some things need to be smoothed out. Not fundamental needing to be re-acquired every time.
ReplyDeleteEvan is a MESS.
Watching WP and VM on the ice at the same time, it becomes obvious, IMO, that Poje and VM were trained in the same place. What has to be the MacIntosh influence is evident in all three of them. Kaitlyn is not the skater that the other three are. I think she she still has to pay a lot of conscious attention and effort to skating well and think through what she's doing. For this reason, I feel like the younger teams at the DSC, HD, PI, and HB could, and probably will, surpass WP by 2018, and perhaps sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteI need to go back and rewatch SB, but my impression when watching Evan skate is that he's regressed since he's been skating with Chock and training under Igor. I don't think Igor is half the technical coach people try to make him out to be.
"Watching WP and VM on the ice at the same time, it becomes obvious, IMO, that Poje and VM were trained in the same place. What has to be the MacIntosh influence is evident in all three of them."
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree with this more.
Evan Bates seems to be experiencing the same issue Paul Poirier has skating with Piper Gilles. He's visibly skating down to the level of his partner. With W/P, it seems more like Weaver tries to skate up to Poje's level and he makes a concerted effort to meet her somewhere in the middle when she simply can't, for whatever reason, get to where she needs to be. Poje also partners Weaver far better than Bates partners Chock or Poirier partners Gilles, IMO.
ReplyDeleteSo Maria Mountain has to tweet Tessa her workout kudos to help us all understand why Tessa is so extra fit and trim these days. Kind of disappointing she's involved in this.
ReplyDeleteAnd Scott was at the gym too. A different gym I'm sure. Scott Moir is like the Beatles with all these girls fainting over him.
I still don't see this tweet as a way of dispelling the rumours of Tessa being pregnant again. Pregnant women can still work out, and MM never said anything about Tessa's size. Idk, this really doesn't change or dispel anything
DeleteThese tweets are a way for Maria Mountain to promote her business but I don't think the timing is random. While pregnant women can definitely work out, most of the public seems to think they can barely do anything, especially near the end. "Smashing your workout" doesn't sound like someone taking it gently.
Delete3:04 Except Tessa didn't look fit in her video. Very skinny yes but none of her usual muscle.
"'Smashing your workout' doesn't sound like someone taking it gently."
DeleteThis. I got the feeling this was more of the same of putting this idea out there for who Tessa is and what kind of shape she's supposed to be in. Maria has been with them forever and knows them very well. I don't think she is innocent in this.
Tessa probably did go to the gym and smash her workout. A workout that was tailored to her. One that was most likely still harder and more ambitious than one a majority of the other people there were doing. Pregnant women can do some pretty impressive physical feats if they are well-trained, such as she is.
But again, it's the implication and impression that's important and what they're banking on.
At this point, I anticipate her daily updates, waiting to see what she's going to put out there next, either as not pregnant or sham (both Scott and RS). It is inevitable.
Both tweets about seeing Scott at the gym were later deleted... they were pretty innocent tweets and didn't refer to a location, it's odd they were both deleted.
Delete7:03
DeleteThat is odd. I've come to expect anything on social media regarding Scott and/or Tessa is driven by an agenda, is mostly lies, and is manipulative.
In this case, the first thing that comes to mind is the tweets in some way messed with some narrative VM are trying to set up, such as Scott being away from London. Or just the fact it was too close to a "Tessa activity" made it essential to delete. Scott and Tessa, *of course,* cannot be in the same place at almost the same time. They aren't *that* kind of friends. (Rolleyes)
Ah ok, so then it's not that real fans don't ever see them and post it online. It's that if anything gets out that's not planned or wanted, somebody's immediately on it to make sure it's erased from the record, eh?
DeleteFunny.
I hadn't heard of Reputation Defender before, but here's what Wikipedia says:
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation.com
Reputation Defender can monitor social media and privately request anything they don't want out there taken down, but Reputation Defender lacks enforcement authority, can't remove anything that's legal, and hasn't sued anybody that I can read, but has been sued itself.
Another tactic is: " In other cases it will generate websites and social media profiles that are intended to rank higher in searches than negative results."
It's most common approach, at least what's claimed by Reputation.com itself, is to politely solicit cooperation. I'd imagine that might be effective with some fans.
I posted the comment at 3:04 so let me clarify what I meant about Maria Mountain.
DeleteEarlier in the summer, Tessa was clearly getting bigger and they really couldn't hide it because she was still skating in public and there's only so much you can do to hide her body there. So Tessa latched on to the narrative of French pastries and not working out to explain these changes in her body. https://twitter.com/tessavirtue/status/488062954701484033 Maria Mountain replied "heh heh heh #onedaysore-er." Tessa was working an angle and Mountain was in on it. I'll even give her the benefit of the doubt - maybe Tessa was working out with someone else and this was her first workout with Mountain in a long time. But whatever it is was a gross exaggeration of reality - the reality was Tessa was in good shape at that time.
Now Tessa has been putting out lots of photos where she looks thinner (and 3:04 is right - she actually doesn't look fitter, just smaller, although I think the public is meant to perceive fitness). And she's now tweeting about her midnight workouts, mountain climbing, and now Mountain posts about "smashing her workout." Again, I will view this in the most favorable light to Mountain, and assume Tessa really did work out with her that day, and smashed whatever the workout was for her current level of ability, and that level could be high. But still, we have Tessa promoting this narrative that's contrary to reality and Mountain is promoting it. Tessa is presenting herself as smaller and fitter than before, so in reality she's probably getting really big. That sucks because I had respect for Mountain. She never tweeted that Tessa smashed her workouts before. She's only doing it the very time when the blog is questioning that Tessa is photoshopping to make herself look small. So that's how simple they think we are. We latch on to the blogger - photoshop! - and then they tweet - workout! - so we're all supposed to go, oh, ok, she's working out, that's why she's so small. It's cringeworthy.
I really do hope that someone from here goes to the Tanger opening so we can get some real photos and reports.
All this working out has changed Tessa's frame - I wonder what the secret may be. Her shoulders aren't nearly as wide as they were at her absolute skinniest. Since her hips and thighs have also become teensy tiny, and her midsection practically disappears in her instagram video when she faces the camera, her shoulder width should be emphasized. Instead she's got new, tinier, less wide shoulders.
DeleteAnon at 3:04 pm - I had to laugh at that tweet from Maria Mountain...hmmm I guess Scott wearing those revcon t-shirts over the last couple of years - don't mean much, lol...and as a side note per Lawes twitter and her appearances - I don't exactly get the impression that team Jones is exactly on the ice as much as other curling teams - whether female or male....perhaps they are taking it easy this year...
ReplyDeleteI think we have that impression because they've been using social media to promote themselves as gold medalists/stars ("come meet a gold medalist and pose with the medal!), and personalities, more than athletes. Social media and other p.r. doesn't reflect who people are or what they're actually doing. It reflects what they want the public to focus on.
DeleteI also wanted to add does Tessa's phone have an app on it - monitoring Scott's GPS location and if he gets too close - less than 50 km when in London - she gets a message saying - abort abort AAABBBBOOOOOORT!!!
ReplyDeletePretty sure her phone would blow up then, since they're married and live in the same house and all.
Delete"Poje also partners Weaver far better than Bates partners Chock or Poirier partners Gilles".
ReplyDeleteAgreed, and that makes a big difference. I wish Andrew had a better partner but Kaitlyn's come a long way since the start of their partnership and not every pair can be as well matched as V/M.
I'm the person who commented at 3:03 PM. I want to add that I like Kaitlyn Weaver and think she's a good partner for Poje, but at times she's clearly the weaker of the two when it comes to skating skills. They're not terribly mismatched, though, and they've done an excellent job over the years at improving their skating. IMO, they've rightfully earned their placement as Canada's new #1 team, even if they're surpassed in a few years by Paul/Islam (which I expect will and should happen).
ReplyDelete"They're hard workers!" is a frequently used (and awful) rationalization for bad skating among ice dance fans, BUT I think in the case of Weaver/Poje "hard workers" accurately describes their skating and it's not a negative. They are working hard out there and it is usually apparent in their performance. However, they're clearly working hard at skating the right way, even if they don't always succeed in accomplishing their goals. I respect that.
"hard workers" is yet another term that's been corrupted, much like "deserve" has. To combine the two, the always frustrating "They deserved to win because they worked so hard," when there is little to no improvement in the skating and the team did not actually deserve to win or place a certain way in a given competition because their skating didn't warrant it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there are the skaters who you can tell have put in the hard work to improve their skating and because of those improvements in their skating, they can and do deserve to win competitions because they are indeed the best there. I think we all forget after the way things were corrupted by DW that "hard work" and "deserve" are not dirty terms and words if used appropriately.
^^^ Correct. If Paul/Islam outskate Weaver/Poje in competitions yet don't defeat them in the points, claiming the latter deserved their win because they've clearly worked hard to improve will be bullshit. But IF Weaver/Poje outskate Paul/Islam and it's clear they worked their asses off to do it, then more power to them. They'll deserve those wins they earned through hard work.
ReplyDeleteI'm not questioning whether the other DSC teams will surpass W&P as skaters sooner rather than later, as all three appear to have more potential than at least Kaitlyn, but whether they'd be allowed to surpass them internationally or at home on the score sheet. Kaitlyn's issues are a bit eye-opening for me at the moment, but even observing some of her struggles, there is no question her skating is honest. I agree with 3:03PM - Kaitlyn is trying to skate up to Andrew's level, and whenever possible, even if it's somewhat outside her current comfort zone. She actually is skating her program; it's not full of non-skating workarounds. She's just not skating it as well as he is, and most probably not as well as she will skate it.
ReplyDeleteOh how cute the twitter user @marina_fois just share to the world the cutest picture of the lovebirds (Tessa and Ryan) For god sake, he's barely touching her, not even her waist, HER UPPER BACK lol. Seriously she better find a new sham bf cause this one looks so dumb. #butTHEYAREinLove.
ReplyDeleteI doubt Scptt would let her get closer to any guy. This is as far as it gets so she might as well keep Ryan since he has already been established
DeleteI'm marina and no, I obviously don't think that they are beautiful or in love...but I want Tessa to be the more publically linked to that crap of a man...I still hope one day they'll realize how ridiculous they are
Delete3:52--More power to you.
DeleteI used to cringe at these kinds of ploys to show how ridiculous VM are, but Tessa and Scott have crossed so many lines. With their reality show they set a new threshold of mockery and repugnance and I realized I'm done caring about their sensibilities. They don't care about mine, why should I care if fans treat them "carefully."
Whatever works to bring to light what they're doing is fine by me.
That other tweet account, Sacket? They're doing the same thing, outing what VM are doing.
DeleteI read once that the egghead-profile will come across less credible or fake. I don't know if this is really true or if it was one of those supposed twitter rules when twitter was still new.
In any case. I don't care anymore if these kinds of accounts start popping up re. VM.
@9:58
DeleteRepugnant as opposed to Tessa's repugnant behaviour posing with her pregnant stomach against some man who isn't her husband? Or as opposed to Scott flying half-way across Canada to pretend to play BF to some woman who is not his pregnant wife?
Tessa and Scott get excused from their repugnant behaviour because they're cute, charming, champions. In reality, their actions *are* repugnant and it's about time someone had the guts to address it on the very same platforms they use to hoax the public with this gross behaviour.
Tessa and Scott set themselves up for this. I can't feel sorry for them if some fan decides to take them on.
3:52, I think they do know but they don't take it seriously, if that makes any sense. That's how it reads at times. If they took it seriously, than they'd have to, presumably, deal with issues like ethics. If it's all just hilarious, and they make fun (like the whole "take over the world" text msg. share), it has the effect of diminishing what they're doing and putting the onus on the people who "have a problem with it." This is a tactic that shifts accountability to all the silly people who criticize.
DeleteYou know when sometimes someone is criticized, and the way some people dismiss it is to exagerate, use hyperbole, so they're not dealing with the criticism? The sort of person who reacts by saying things like: "I know, I'm just the worst person who ever LIVED!" Or, "Yeah, and to follow up, I'm going to tank the stock market tomorrow!" Just super exagerate to end up belittling whoever is doing the criticizing, avoid dealing with what's actually going on, actual behavior, and just pretending the criticism is so absurdly exagerated there's nothing to even deal with.
Except there is. And it's a very childish tactic, but that's what Virtue and Moir's reactions often seem like. "Oh we're just so so so bad. We're the ones who brought Ebola to North America." "taking over the world is next!" Just keep it on that level and it's just so so funny and things that are so so funny aren't important or a big deal.
Considering Scott and Tessa's children will grow up and see this stuff - the sham stuff - it's curious how it's okay for Scott to pose and act out as he did with his sham girlfriends, kissing them, holding them, the photoshoot with Jessica in the Dominican with his face meant to be buried in her neck, etc., but all Tessa does is stand beside some guy quite a bit larger than Scott, and smile while his hand is decorously at her waist or upper back. or someone else stands between them. If they're my parents, I wonder what that's all about. Okay, it's fake, they're acting. But why is mommy's acting so restrained, and why does daddy have to take it so far?
DeleteAre we back to the gay - everybody in that crowd has such gay panic they want Scott actually demonstrating he's straight, however ridiculous it is. Declaring the relationship or escorting someone isn't enough? Is it that Scott doesn't believe any man could kiss Tessa without enjoying it, but feels that's not the case for women kissing him, so it's different? Or is it something else, that would be a little tricky for somone to process about their parents.
I don't get the eggshells with Virtue and Moir on any social media platform. Wasn't it said here that Ashley Wagner has to defend herself when she appeared to have skipped an obligation to vacation in Hawaii? Doesn't that mean some of her twitter followers/fans called her out, even though they turned out to be wrong? That's what twitter is about, it's a two-way street. Much MUCH bigger celebrities than Virtue and Moir deal with noise, trolling, pushback and questioning, in addition to fan worship stuff and the usual "Please follow me". It's not supposed to be a platform where someone on the account says something and everybody falls over themselves fawning and ass kissing because the account was actually used and the person spoke. Lena Dunham is on twitter, speaks her mind and gets praised AND reamed. Athletes in other sports deal with the same thing. I don't get why the rules are different for Scott and Tessa, as if they can't hear anything other than validation and praise. It was the same prior to twitter. People didn't even want to criticize them in public forums - it had to go private. I don't know what it is - maybe they've set themselves up as so elusive, and precious, so inconsistent and selective, that fans who follow them and are hoping for recognition from one of them don't want any interference. It's so weirdly controlling, the way people tip toe and try hard.
Delete"but all Tessa does is stand beside some guy quite a bit larger than Scott, and smile while his hand is decorously at her waist or upper back."
DeleteAgreed that compared to Scott's acting out Tessa's sham bf is more "decorous." But I recall that when Scott did the same with Cassandra, a beach photo (both dressed) with his arm around her and his hand close to her boob, no one thought it was decorous.
I don't think Ryan's hand is decorously anything. Tessa is pregnant plus someone else's wife. The combination somehow makes Ryan's hand anywhere on her, intentionally to give the narrative of "bf", not acceptable. I do agree it looks like he's trying to be a little bit careful. It's still gross.
I never said Ryan and Tessa weren't gross. I was wondering about the explanation their kids will get. Here's some photos of mommy and daddy with their fake girlfriends and boyfriends. Only pretend, the kids have met the people, seen context images we don't see (you know, like "behind the scenes" stills from movies), the basic idea is the same for both mommy and daddy.
DeleteHow come daddy DID so much MORE? Okay, mom fakes with her bf, daddy fakes with his "gf". Got it. How come there's so many pictures of daddy kissing on the lips, holding, the Dominican photo shoot stuff (the head in the neck, the on top of her in the sand, the dance floor, kissing in Mexico, etc.). If both mommy and daddy are doing the same thing, why is daddy doing all that when mommy doesn't have to?
I'm sorry, it would creep me out. I think it would creep most people's daughters out, and their friends. Yeah, dad's sham images are so much more involved. Wonder why. Heh heh.
Ryan IS decorous. If some other skater, not pretending to be her bf, were posing with Tessa like that (her turned into him), so what. What if that were her and Mike Babcock, her and Maks Trankov, her and her brother. Who cares. Totally different than Scott and his "gfs.". It's only context that makes it gross with Tessa.
DeleteScott's a super dedicated fake boyfriend. Seriously, I wish I had a fake bf who was so attentive.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I totally believe the sham (which yes, I know whether I believe or not has no impact on what is true but as I have no independent source I can't be sure one way or another). At times things seem so suspicious that I'm totally convinced it's true and then other times Scott's taking off to a different province when his wife is due to have a baby within like 6 weeks and it's just weird. And yeah I'm sure he has other business in Calgary because why would he make that trip, even in the narrative they've set up it would still be odd to go all that way for a minor competition of your gf's.
(Sorry for my earlier comment, I understand why you deleted it...)
ReplyDeleteAaaand, I just realized it's a holiday weekend so of course they are far, far apart and would never celebrate together.
2:18. Last Thanksgiving they were busy filming inside Cassandra's house. It must be a holiday made for shamming.
DeleteOooo, I want pictures and/or video of Scott and Kaitlyn carving a pumpkin in the back of someone's pickup! We already know the dialogue... "Did you miss me?" "Yes! So much!"
Bwahahahahaha
OMG.Tessa!
ReplyDeleteShe appeared on two different events with the same dress.
Are you seeing this?
Well someone on Tumblr posted pictures of Tessa's photoshoot with RealStyle Network in a small skating rink. Naturally Mama Virtue was an onlooker. Now I wouldn't exactly call T totally slim judging by the dress she is wearing. And indeed if those pictures were taken this week - well the skating rink has a couple of flags -Germany, another blue white and green and interestingly enough British Columbia's flag. Now who knows whether all the other provincial flags are around this small rink which doesn't even have boards - so your guess is as good as mine.
ReplyDeleteI saw a comment somewhere that she was at the Cricket Club.
DeleteShe was at a restaurant near the Cricket Club so that's probably right.
DeleteCan we get a new post, the comment section is getting crowded again.
ReplyDelete