Not bad, Rosie.

Rosie DiManno. Her new article on Virtue Moir doesn't suck.

pretty good there, Rosie.

Right off the bat describes Carmen as revolutionary, exquisitely beautiful, and technically demanding, but she's not soap-opera-ing it up; she's not padding this one with histrionics and cheesy asides. She only refers to Davis White as Virtue and Moir's perennial rivals. She also says Carmen never got the scores it deserved in international competition.

What I like about this article is it's direct. There's none of the consciousness of "oh, I'm writing for figure skating fans, so better lard this thing with sentimental shit about their personalities or looks." (That's how most writers distance themselves from this sport and its fans, by trivializing everything or making it melodramatic. God forbid they're caught writing like it's a sport. They want us to know the fans only care about personalities.) She hasn't included any asides about fans whatsoever. A little from Virtue and Moir about their Vancouver experience, what's different this time, how they feel about their new free dance, over and out. No back door shit either. Basically, this article comes off almost as if she's writing in her own, newfound figure skating voice, and not just regurgitating skater spin dressed up with her (formerly) signature purple prose. I actually have to give her more credit than that, since Tessa is going on a bit emotively about how starry-eyed a whirlwind Vancouver was, and Scott, I think, mentions how they chafed about at the emphasis on their inexperience, and she lets those remarks stand alone and drives on by. She didn't get sucked in and succumb to writing about them like it was a personality profile.

Rosie, good job.

Who would have thought Rosie-freaking-DiManno would be the Canadian figure skating beat reporter to set the bar? (I don't count Beverly Smith - who is always strong -  because figure skating is her metier, and she's not heard from enough.) Please maintain this self-discipline Rosie, and please please let the reason you were able to produce this piece be that you've bothered to learn a little bit about figure skating. The sport needs all the help it can get, and the fans need a break.

I don't think this is Rule of the Dolphin

It might explain why, when this photo was originally published, the lighting was poor and the detail indistinct. How foolish to think it was to conceal a lack of comfort level and degree of familiarity on Scott's part.

This is the companion photo to the "vista" photo which Scott decided would be enhanced if he removed his shirt. I won't put it here because it's on the banner, among other places.

And apologies to those who are queasy. 

Since this blog started there have been foaming at the mouth comments reflecting an almost vicious attitude towards the blog, IMO at least. However, at the time, I don't recall that there were particular partisans of Jessica visiting here, saying, basically, when you boil it down: "Fuck Tessa, he's with Jessica, who is (recite why he loves Jessica better)." There was some taunting about "he's with Jessica!" but it didn't rip up Tessa.

Cassandra, OTOH, seems to have quite the fan club, including a few new to the blog. People who, while insisting her relationship is legitimate, also seem to be invested in ripping Tessa apart and claiming that Cassandra is much better for Scott.

P.S. - I put an ip blocker on the blog (sidebar). This is because statcounter (versus blogger.com's own statcounter) counts each page refresh as a page view. If somebody is refreshing like a madman, the entire statcounter read out is going to show just that person's activity, pushing all the rest outside the timeline tracked by the counter. The blog has a number of regular visitors who spend some time here, but however they are looking at the blog, and however many pages they're visiting, their activity is not littering up the counter to where it's difficult to see what else is going on. Only one is. The IP blocker isn't permanent, and currently is blocking only one ISP.

Theories theories theories

Disclaimer: This post is for facetious purposes only. The guideline about no so-called alternative theories on this blog stands. This is not open sesame to have at it in the comments about Scott and Tessa's status. Their status is they're married with a child.

These theories arise out of fan attempts to reconcile the way Scott and Tessa present themselves in mainstream media and the weirdness there, with the way Scott and Tessa present themselves on social media, and the inappropriate and gross there. This preponderance of theories is not down to fans, it stems from Scott and Tessa manipulating fans and behaving like assholes.

I just want to look at some of the theories some fans have rattling around in their brains, as opposed to reality, which is that Scott and Tessa are married and have a child.

In no hierarchy:

1) Tessa is with David Pelletier. She's been with him awhile and broke up Jamie and David. Scott and Tessa are concealing this because it would not do for their image for Tessa to have busted up "Canada's sweethearts." Tessa also got pregnant with David's child at an inconvenient time (very careless of her) and this created tensions in the partnership with Scott.

Comments/observations. Not much to say. It's not true, but that's the only problem with it. There are no logical inconsistencies, just two minor subsidiary issues:

a) Sale & Pelletier are/were Canada's sweethearts? I think that's pretty debatable even going back to 2002.

b) This story (it's not a "theory" per se, it's someone's flat out story that they're peddling) has only recently incorporated Tessa's child into the scenario. There was no mention of either pregnancy or child by the author of this story at the time Tessa was actually pregnant, which was when the author of this story was promoting it most strenuously on social media and in the comments sections of on line media outlets. Apparently now it's a useful story element.

"b" is now discounted because it turns out to be the work of a piggybacker. The original Pelletier/Tessa peddler did not, as far as I recall, claim she had his baby.

2) Scott and Tessa are business partners. They have little to do with each other off the ice. They enjoy fucking with fans, leading them on with stuff like the bridal shoot layout, with interviews extolling their platonic intimacy, with occasional hints of romantic attraction off the ice, and, of course, creating programs like Mahler and Carmen. It's all coldly calculated to lead their fans on and promote their skating partnership, blurring those lines for politics, money and fame. This is why, at the apex of the pre-season, right when a new program has been skated, right when their biggest rivals have revealed their program music, right before Skate Canada's High Performance Camp, Scott will drop a photo like this:

It's Daddy!

It's part of the ingenious scheme to promote Scott and Tessa romantically, sell the illusion created by their skating, and lead fans on to hope that Scott and Tessa might some day be romantically involved, while Scott and Tessa count their money and laugh at us. And we suckers fall for it.

Comments/Observations: Pretty airtight. What better way to lead fans on about how close Scott and Tessa are than to spam fans with a photo of Scott grabbing Cassandra's ass right before HPC? Nothing says "Maybe they'll get married some day!" like Scott pushing up Cassandra's dress on a public sidewalk while puckering up for a liplock. Fangurls. They're so easy.

4) I'm not going to repeat the theories that rip down Tessa and do Cassandra's p.r. for her.

5) Vintage Theory - Jessica Dube Division. Jessica Dube is insecure. Tessa gets all the attention both as Scott's partner and as a skater. People want Scott with Tessa, not Jessica. This makes Jessica feel bad. Scott indulges Jessica by posing for romantic photo shoots with her, and green-lighting Jessica publicizing these photo shoots on facebook at the height of Scott and Tessa's skating season, in direct counterpoint to mainstream media and fan discussion of Scott and Tessa's skating and relationship.

Comments/observations:

a) His indulgence of Jessica is limited to social media. In mainstream media video interviews, his romantic life is treated as a hypothetical, even as he and Tessa purport to be exhausted by pesky inquiries about their relationship - inquiries that could be cut off at the knees by simply naming or describing his famous, real girlfriend. Some fans maintain this is because, in mainstream media, he and Tessa are trying to keep the fans guessing, keep that mystery alive. Even though the central topic of all mainstream media interviews is that they're platonic. This idea that Scott and Tessa are coy in mainstream media (if declaring they are platonic is coy) is, contradicted when

b) Jessica is featured front and center in all shots of the Moir family at the Olympic free skate in prime time national broadcast media, but this Canadian pairs champion/fellow Olympian (who'd skated on the broadcast herself days before) is apparently not important enough for either her name or relationship to Scott to be mentioned by a broadcast media busy identifying everybody else by name and telling us their connection to Scott.

c) Jessica's insecurity and desire to establish her claim on Scott publicly coincides with the fact that, having weathered heavy drama during a period when Scott and Bryce were punching each other out over her, Jessica, and Bryce (who, per fan consensus, was a real pill about Jessica's new relationship) decide to skate to The Way We Were to commemorate their messy break-up that happened when she dumped him for Scott Moir and created a crisis in the ranks of Skate Canada's sports psychologists. They love the program so much they keep it two years running.

6) Scott is cheating/Scott is living a double life. He's married to Tessa but he's also cheating on her - if having a woman on the side with your wife's permission/awareness constitutes cheating. He loves to promote his side action on facebook and instagram, especially when he and Tessa are about to begin an Olympic season, have just unveiled a new program, and fans are vehemently arguing that they are much much better ice dancers than their nearest competition.

Comments/observations: none

7) Scott and Tessa are platonic and Scott is a douchebag. Let's call this the Jekyl and Hyde theory.

"Good" Scott pretends not to be on social media, demurs naming his then "girlfriend'" out of "respect" for her partner when talking to conventional media, repeatedly asserts neither he nor Tessa are on the internet, and waxes equal parts pious and philosophical about fan interest in himself and his partner.

On social media, which mainstream media pretends doesn't exist or refuses to acknowledge, "douche" Scott goes to town. This is a guy obviously concerned that other people think he's gay or a reject, so he makes sure we know that even if Tessa Virtue isn't interested, there's always a girl who is - BOY is she. He achieves douchebag status because that merit badge is earned by any guy, famous or not, whose entire social media output, seven years running, is devoted exclusively to letting strangers know he's getting laid.

Comments/observations: none.

Kicking it Up a Notch - When Sham Photos Progress to the Next Level

In the comments, two posts below this one, some people speculate how fans will "twist" the sham photo output on social media. For instance, one hypothetical scenario supposes that fans will claim Scott was having it off on the side under cover of the sham. Poor poor Tessa.

The "Toddler Moir" post chews Moirville's ass, while nailing Scott to the cross. The post blamed Scott to the extent that he can't say no to Moirville, but most of the shots are at Moirville:

All Moirville's fault!
Poor, poor Soctt.

I've also said that the sham photos show us things we don't want to be seeing, but that we can't avoid seeing.

Not what's in the photos, but what the photos suggest about the dynamics of the people behind the photos, especially when someone is aware of Scott and Tessa's actual status as married parents. Those dynamics are unpleasant.

I've decided to lift up the rock and look at what else might be crawling under there. How fangurl am I being with this, for instance? I was bashing Scott, sure, but for martrying/victimizing himself to the "real" villains - Moirville.

That does strike me now as fangurly. He is, as I've said enough times, 26 years old (in a few days). A big boy.

He's absolutely in love with Tessa, it's true, whom he's been with forever. Faithful to Tessa - we can see that even in the strictly observed boundaries of the sham photos:

The Rule of the Dolphin

He's never kissed a sham girlfriend on social media with any more enthusiasm then he's using on that dolphin up there. And I don't think he's cheating on Tessa with that dolphin.

However, Scott doesn't progress to dolphin until he's been shamming over a year. And being in love with and faithful to Tessa doesn't preclude other dynamics in play.

It kind of comes off like the reason Scott holds back at first is because he and she don't know each other too well and he's not all that comfortable. But once he's warmed up, he decides he should be kissing them on the lips in these photos.

If it's that important for the sham, he'd muster up straight away. It's all performance, after all. Instead it's like once he's used to the girl, he steps up his game because he figures he's owed some perks.

He's been with the same girl (Tessa) a long time.  In the kissy shots, he certainly is scrupulously flaunting his observance of boundaries - look at those chaste arms, the chaste posture, the chaste fish lips - so much so one might wonder what's the point, actually. It's almost like he's playing chicken there. Or a little protesty too much.

I.e., - Look what I'm doing! It's totally inside the ISU's own rules!

He does like to push the envelope on ice - why not off.

Scott IS a semantics guy. And math was his favorite subject in school. It just seems a little too "letter" of the law and not so much with the spirit, and he knows it.

The chronology of both shams does make one wonder. When things started with Jessica she's Bryce's girl, not the greatest English-speaker, the face slash heroine, etc. etc. and one imagines posing a la bf/gf is a little awkward.

A year later it's old hat and boring and what's in it for Scott? How about kicking it up a notch?

Here's what I'm thinking.

The sham with Jessica starts out like this:

Dube Family wedding summer 2008.

and a year later, we're here.

One of three dolphin kisses in a single
photo op. The things Scott does for the sham.

I don't think Scott gives a shit about either of these girls in their own right but it's striking that the shams start out decorous, and after a year passes suddenly "the sham" feels the need to heat things up, when, if the sham were following logic, it would be the opposite.

The actual kisses are no big deal, and in fact that's kind of the point - if they're no big deal, why bother with them?  If they're no big deal, why wait to start kissing until you get to know the girl a little more?

If you wait til you get comfortable and only then start acting like it's important to be kissing, it starts looking like something else.

They're not a big deal for the sham but if you look at it from a really obvious angle it looks like it's a perk Scott wants once he's settled in and sure of his footing.

Shamming at weddings, concerts, holidays, group outings and vacations - so boring and he goes through it every year. A guy should get something out of it, even if just for his ego. And it's kind of Scott-clever with the way he's doing it - kissing the girl while signaling all things he's NOT doing at the same time.

A little having it both ways action.

Then.

Now that he's settled in.
Why shouldn't he get something out of this?

In this light, it's interesting to look again at how sensitive Scott is about any guy around Tessa. How even when it was Fedor, there was no dainty lip kissing to be found. And certainly not with Ryan Semple. Maybe this is because Scott knows for himself that sham or no sham, the guy would be getting something out of it.

How would he know?

"I think part of what makes each year exciting and different is coming up with new lifts," White said.

If that's what he thinks, why doesn't he try it some time?

"At a certain point, it becomes, 'How can we top the lifts we've done before?' "

And the answer is "we can't" and that's why you do the same ones every season?

I have no doubt Derek Hough has designed lift silhouettes that will fairly scream NEW LIFT. But unless Davis White skate into them, show control in them versus pasting their centers of gravity together like a couple of juniors in order to maintain control, and exit into more skating and another element, instead of exiting into jumping around and a lot of other nonsense, it will be the same lifts.

Their programs this season are My Fair Lady (SD) and Scheherazade (fd). Icenetwork's article features a photo from Bollywood - pretty much a no brainer considering that at least aesthetically, Scheherazade is meant to harken back to that.

With My Fair Lady they're at another ball, and I'm sure this time they'll actually dance there.

The ball in My Fair Lady is a fairly sedate society ball - tense, even - and neither Freddy nor Professor Higgens nor Col. Pickering are the sort of guys who, while dancing with their partners, turn 3/4ths away from her to fling their arm out to the crowd and toss back their head prior to leaping.

Charlie says they're putting their own spin on it though, so never say never.

Icenetwork also mentions that Judy Blumberg consulted with DW at Champs Camp and in Canton, which of course means that Judy Blumberg will definitely not be the technical caller or be anywhere near a judging panel at any competition in the coming season where DW and VM compete against each other. I'm sure she's just a pillar of integrity but would she really give her own work fair scores? Or would we get Sandra Bezic type scores (Bezic has never judged in eligible skating on an international level, but she does have the habit of pretending that skaters' she's worked with have skating of the gods.)?

Ah and already, Meryl says "We were honored by her positive feedback." They're gonna be doing this all season. It's gonna be all about selling it off the ice.

"There's a special sparkle that comes with Persian cultural dance," Davis said. "It's kind of the way the women have some mystery about them." Icenetwork 2014.

  2010: "Starting with the twinkle in the eye" (Tom Hammond commenting on Bollywood)

"And Meryl says that's one of the most important nuances - the sideways twinkle in the eye" (Tracy Wilson commenting on Bollywood.)

What Marina says about picturing Meryl in Scheherazade pretty much rips off her tale of her epiphany in Harrods, looking at some Indian silk scarves, and realizing how well Meryl could pull off a Bollywood theme.

And people think VM make her tired.

 They're amazing - the way they top themselves is to repeat themselves and the now that it's Olympic 2014 the best way to break new ground is to recycle 2010.

MY concern is that the USFSA has received a message that if DW closely hew to what they did in 2010 and convince people they've skated clean, the gold is DW's. Otherwise the blatant recycle would seem to put them at a disadvantage.

I feel bad for Toddler Moir

 .
 ^Cassandra Hilborn kissing a little kid's married daddy on the lips, pretending to be his girlfriend and bed buddy. How does it scan in your world, Cass? You're doing it FOR the kid? If SCOTT doesn't mind, it doesn't matter? You have no non-narcissistic values of your own?

What kicks it over the top is the comment. "Hot couple" and "tailgates and tanlines."

Scott will be twenty-six in two weeks. He's the father of a toddler, and here he is.

Toddler Moir doesn't have a chance of growing up to be a mature human being. I don't believe that Toddler Moir will be scarred in the particular way some fans fear the child will - I don't believe Toddler Moir will grow up believing that daddy cheated on mommy with Jessica Dube and Cassandra Hilborn.

Toddler Moir will just grow up without any official acknowledgment of TM's existence during the entire Sochi Olympic cycle, while the relatives in Ilderton elbow their way into the spotlight, and daddy's fake sex life gets its own cheering section. I know these are important distinctions. At least they didn't cheat, Toddler Moir! It was actually all about their love!

Everything was the opposite! No, seriously!

While I don't subscribe to "It was like this for me, ergo it must be like this for everyone" type thinking, I will nevertheless mention that I don't think I would have given a flying fuck that my daddy wasn't sleeping with these ladies, and it was all a con job to protect our privacy as a family. I would still be repulsed by somebody calling him and another lady a "hot couple" and all the rest of it, and I would have been and would remain extremely unexcited by some ladies putting a fantasy romantic life with daddy out on social media using his actual name, and knowing that there are members of the public that think this was daddy and mommy's reality.

Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that even as a child I would know the difference between - we did this for the sham, and we overdid this for the sham. I might wonder how come some of the extra flourishes. #hotcouple, #sleepskyping. #Cass 0 - Tour 1, #definitely sobbed. #someones enjoying this #bad stomach ache #weird feeling.

This is elementary for most people, but as Moirville apparently does not believe in any sort of boundaries, including virtually crawling in between the sheets with their own children, they not only don't recognize that this is going to be uncomfortable for any child who remotely has their head on straight, but it seems to indicate that the sham is actually the least of all possible evils in terms of effective boundaries between Scott and Tessa's private life and the expectations of their nearest and dearest.

Everybody can see what the situation is here, not just the fans. That's what's so uncomfortable.

Everyone outside of Moirville of course, where the zamboni fumes have arrested a lot of people's personalities.

This is about intentionally alienating the public. When we're alienated, it seems to me they think Scott and Tessa belong to them even more.

I say the kid has no chance at growing up to be a mature person because look at the role models. TM may still be in diapers and is already living in a bubble.

This is not a performance by Daddy. This is a con by Daddy. A performance requires willing suspension of disbelief by the audience. The audience knows it is an audience. Here, we have Scott, as Scott, pretending to be in a relationship with someone other than Tessa. This is Daddy, not Daddy pretending to be a character. This is daddy pretending to BE with someone else.

Moirville is so good at understanding context and conveying critical distinctions that I'm sure Daddy's social media lip locking in all its permutations on the web will be explained with no problems, and the kid won't be upset.

They can't possibly anticipate that the kid WILL be upset but have gone ahead and done it anyway, figuring that's the price of dinner. Not when the only agenda at stake is the need to one up a fucking blog, save face to themselves, enable over-involved family members, and put some outspoken internet fans in their place.

If they thought it would upset Toddler Moir down the line, Scott would never do this. Right Scott? You've must have nailed this one down after Tessa studied it in psychology class. You must figure you're on solid child development footing here.

I wonder if they took a hot iron and branded "Property of Ilderton" on Toddler Moir's behind before putting on the first diaper.

For me this is sad, although I haven't articulated all of it for myself. I think this photo is there to provoke. I think it's there to flip the finger at fans. Scott as ever checks his balls at the Arctic Edge arena exit - or at the entrance to the Detroit/Windsor tunnel. I don't mean check them into Tessa's bag, I mean fork them over to the fam.

A family and community that chooses immaturity over respect for their own innocent family member. They choose a pissant fan war that they need to make themselves feel smart.

The photo itself is not a scandal. Scott's kissed a dolphin on the lips. Scott and Tessa are both in show business, which is what figure skating is, essentially, where you fish kiss every other person you meet at certain times of the year, even people you dislike. Cassandra has littered her facebook with photos of herself smooching friends similar to this photo and even more cozily than this photo, so for those who are interested in Cassandra context, it's there, but of course, she's not the point.

Scott's context is he's 26 years old, he's married and he's a father, and there he is.

He'd rather humiliate himself than actually deal with the crux of the problem, and IMO the crux of the problem is selfishness masquerading as support, requiring more time and energy to deal with than he can afford to spend at this time in his life.

There's this, too:

Hear that Toddler Moir? Mommy isn't married to that "Moir dick" and she hooked up with Sidney Crosby in Vancouver.

What do we have here, Toddler Moir-wise? The choice is either that Toddler Moir's nearest and dearest are a bunch of unfiltered, petty, needy, entitled, boundary breaching, overbearing, chip-on-shoulder, narcissistic cases of stubbornly arrested development that Toddler Moir's parents cope with by cravenly enabling left and right, OR the public supporters of Toddler Moir's parents' skating are such incredible assholes Toddler Moir's existence had to be edited out for almost four years. The latter scenario is intriguing - the idea that the fan intrusiveness they experience is dire enough to edit out their kid's existence from the record, while simultaneously fan intrusiveness was never actually serious enough to warrant the employment of a competent sports management agency.

Both scenarios are a wonderful reason to bring a child into the world at ages 21 and 23. Why wait til you can function like a freaking human.

Moirville wants the public to have all kinds of misconceptions and wrong ideas about Scott and Tessa, but especially Scott. That proves our inferiority, and it asserts their ownership.

I tell you what this is - it's humiliating. Not for US, but to see Scott. Where to even start - a twenty six year old man, a father, a husband, a man who as an athlete, a skater, a competitor - is ferociously smart and plain ferocious. He doesn't give a fuck what you, me or anyone else thinks or says in that arena. Fuck us. He knows himself, he knows what kind of skater he is.

Even if we don't know him, we know that about him.

So when we see that guy do this, it mortifies. We're in on something we shouldn't be seeing. Not the kiss. The family dynamics and agendas and how it works on Scott. We shouldn't be seeing it and that's one thing I don't think they know they're showing us. What we see is an Olympic champion and a husband and a father whose original family has no respect for him as a man, compared to what they expect from him. We can all see it. He's not a man to them. He's Scotty. The sham diminishes him, as do they.

I believe the intent of this photo is not sham. I think it's posted to alienate the fans on the web; it's to flip us off, and of course Scott throws himself on the sword, as usual.

I'm not saying he doesn't have a choice - he has a choice, but weighing the hierarchy of priorities and all of the other stuff he's got going on, the personalities, the histories - this is path of least resistance. Just chew on that one. THIS is the path of least resistance. Think about what the alternatives must entail.

It's uppity as shit of me, and very fanlike, but I'm humiliated for the guy. Somebody should be, so I'll do it! I'm mortified for him.

Scott and Tessa are connected to and part of larger communities (internationally, in Detroit, in the larger elite athletic performance community, in the USA, and others) that have nothing to do with Moirville. And so Moirville defaults to competing with the public for ownership. One-sided competition, but they need to feel better than, and we're all they've got.

They portray the public as wanting ownership of Scott and Tessa, so Moirville can assert their superior claim, and win. Ego-wise, it's as lowest common denominator as it gets, and weird. But if it walks like a duck ...

It's pitiful. Even if Virtue Moir's true status was public domain, we in the public wouldn't know Scott and Tessa, we wouldn't have a relationship with Scott and Tessa.

I think it's more than the type of competition involved in "being right" or "not giving in". It's more than pretending Scott/Tessa's marriage is a secret and insisting on the sham against all evidence that not many people even buy it.

As the sham has morphed over time, I think it's now morphed into an alienation device. The more we're alienated, the more Scott and Tessa belong to Moirville.

This will be one of those posts that gets a lot of editing because it's one of those posts where I'm processing my reaction while posting.

P.S., while this next remark may be egocentric of me, I don't care. I suspect that because the blog banner mocked the Cassandra sham's recent use of poorly lit long shots, they decided to one up with a clearly focused lip kiss. That's the level here.

And I may owe Meagan Duhamel an apology. I may call her out for being a poor sport, for taking potshots at her teammates on social media, but at least she signs her name to that activity. That's unlike Scott and Tessa who pretend to be completely above it but engage on a pettier level than Meagan. Meagan may be breaking athlete/fan protocol by directly engaging a fan (you should never EVER break that fourth wall). But Moirville is actually mud wrestling with the fucking blog and other fans on social media while posing as too good for any of it. Meagan, I apologize to you.

And btw, Scott is choosing his original family over his child. I understand how everything can be wanked to rationalize that this is all for his kid, but it isn't. Erasing this child for the entirety of the Sochi cycle while his brothers make sure their own kids get their moment in the spotlight is not for the sake of his child with Tessa. It's because he's chosen to enable his original family, which means he's chosen them over his new family. If a kid comes into the world and for the first three years - and who knows how long it will continue - daddy is smooching it up on social media with other women (in photos that will be there forever with gifs, commentary, tumblr, fan wars, etc. in public) while denying he's even dated mommy, let alone admitting you're alive, while the kid's relatives are out there in public with their hands out, hustling their skating club, there is something wrong, and it's not fans.

I wonder this: if who you are or pretend to be for the public doesn't matter, and won't matter to Toddler Moir (who at some point we may see competing in novice claiming to have been cloned in a petri dish) - why did Jeff Buttle use an article on his hockey playing to unofficially come out? Why does Jeff care how real he presents himself to the public.

And why did Scott give a fuck that someone was faking as Tessa Virtue on facebook? That's just social media, Scott, why did you care?

Scott appears far more sensitive about his wife than he is about his child. But that's just a public impression.

Why is Scott completely unable to pretend he's anything but in love with Tessa, even in public? He can't say anything about her that doesn't adore her. As that is something that undermines the whole sham, why doesn't he put that in check? When he was Jessica-Dube-ing, he could have done a whole lot better, quote-wise, than to say "My girlfriend is sometimes bugged by it all, but you know, fuck her if she can't deal with it. Tessa is part of me."

That was his tone.

Everything he does with Tessa appears to be in his DNA - it doesn't matter if he's in public. It's DNA.

It's odd that it doesn't seem to extend to his child.

(P.S. - all that said, and as embarrassed for Scott as I am, I completely believe that if money were involved he'd suddenly grow a pair. They're wonderful like that.)

Another question about Toddler Moir to throw out there - Scott adores Tessa; she adores him. She's locked down. But Tessa never kissed Fedor for the sham. She never kissed Ryan Semple for the sham. Scott's a little sensitive, so you know, let's respect that.

Yet Scott has placed his lips on women who are not Tessa, while his child is growing up, a sitting duck to see these photos. As sensitive as Scott is about Tessa and even freaking gay guys who have no interest in getting into her pants, as sensitive as he can be about sham matters on her end when he knows everything's platonic, and as sensitive as he is when she's interacting with guys for work, his child is expected to just take what he does for the sham in stride. He can't handle it with Tessa even when it's nothing, but apparently his kid is a lot tougher and less sensitive, and will process all of the stuff he does in photos with women not mommy just fine. It will make perfect sense to TM.

Are these photos wish fulfillment for Moirville - look, what if he were married to a narcissistic idiot we could manipulate instead of Tessa?

Can't blame us if we wonder, but us wondering shit just serves their purpose. Alienation. That's what they want.

Walk This way

These are embedded here with permission. So much better than I was able to do with windows movie maker. And what a great idea.



77 points. The WTF sets in directly after the twizzles. Meryl's random two footing, walking, kind of hanging out, weird sort of stutter steps, and gliding while being pulled.

There's not even a half-assed indication of a sustained edge after the second twizzle pass.

Look at how sloppy they are - the snow they're creating. Not kicking up, creating. There are ice shavings piling up alongside their skates wherever they go and flying into the air as well. Look how sloppy the free legs are, and the hips. They barely bother to articulate their legs in the polka and barely get the free legs off the ice.

The hops in between, the skipping and scurrying I figure is choreography. The times where she's just sort of there for a beat, seemingly two footing at random, or pausing, I do not understand.

Charlie's skating is a little basic but I guess the full effect is lost without the angel smile towards the audience as he turns his torso three quarters to sweep his arm and throw back his head.

The downside to watching only feet is we can't see when Meryl is being pulled or yanked, and when she's not. We can see that in the choreographic lift (where Charlie's position is a squat) she is set down on a flat and on two feet. 77 freaking points for this and it's just full of Meryl on her flats or two feet getting yanked by Charlie, not to mention one or both of them going two feet to bracket every single element. They cannot skate in and out of their elements. Considering their rivals can, I think that's a big difference. God forbid ISU acknowledge this - they'd lose the manufactured rivalry.



I would really love to use the Finnstep sd here, but it's fairer to wait to compare it to Davis White's Finnstep.

Look at the ease, the freedom of movement, how everything defaults to the edge. The freaking blade run compared to DW - compared to anybody.

BTW - that's just "style". people. "Being good at it" is just one style option among many.

How come Tessa is skating this program? It's possible to cover ice, change directions, change holds without walking, two-footing, going up on your flat while being yanked hither and yon, and all the other random weirdness Meryl does outside of what appears to be choreography? Who knew? But why bother?

In Tessa's choreographic lift, she is set down on a deep running outside edge that carries into the next transition. And in contrast to Charlie, who settled into a squat, look at Scott SKATE that lift.

Without question, Virtue and Moir's patterns are bigger, their skating is obviously more powerful, that their speed is superior to Davis White's is in our faces, particularly in the footwork and pattern sequences, there's more, you know, skating, and just they cover more ice in general. The articulation in the free leg is night and day. That Virtue Moir use their entire bodies, versus using just their limbs while haphazardly posing the rest of the body is also clear.



The only thing missing in the gussied up junkyard of Die Fleuder-fake is the skating. This program should have been called The Road To Nowhere. All the leaping, extravagant gesticulating and flinging, building up to nothing happens.

I don't mean to be juvenile with the Die Fleuder-messing and the Die Fleuderfakery - but what is this program but sleight-of-hand? How to skate your free dance without skating.

In both programs Meryl does a whole lot of weird half-finished intersticial stepping.

And look how frequently they slooooww down with their skipping and trotting. The program is one continuous re-set.



The complaint the entire season by VM critics was they weren't doing enough skating; there were too many static sections. What they should have done is waved their arms frantically into the air while leaping around into nothing, like Meryl and Charlie, because if ever a skating program was one big static section after another, it's DF.

There is no trade-off here. There's no apples and oranges. It's not speed and power versus grace and refinement. It's a slam dunk for Virtue Moir. DW are not trading refinement and grace for speed and power, they are sacrificing refinement (including the blade work that represents the finest skating skills) for the APPEARANCE of power and speed. The appearance is created by non-blade-centric, frantic movement and getting up off their edges.

Virtue and Moir have the skating skills, the grace and refinement, and, what is made obvious in these videos, the speed and power. They do more skating, they sustain their edges, use their skating for their choreography. The skating isn't just something they squeeze into the choreography.

P.S. I knew Charlie yanked and pulled Meryl along but until looking at these videos I had no idea how MUCH he yanked and pulled her along, and when he does it, she's not on an edge and he's often simply stepping from one foot to the other. Their choreography appears constructed to get them skating as little as possible and get them off their edges as much as possible. I also think the pulling and yanking is visual trickery leaving the impression they're in hold. Pulling and yanking isn't hold.