Many thanks for all the nice condolence notes regarding my father’s passing… I have very thoughtful readers. I need to leave again today for his memorial, but will take a few minutes here to list my observations from last weekend’s Skate America (I’ve scrambled to watch the key performances since Sunday night!) Sorry that this is more ragged and less cohesive than my usual observations…
+ Did anyone else wonder if “The Pink Panther” would really work as a free skate? A short program, yes, but a long one? (Especially when Aliona Savchenko is wearing a unitard that looks like it was literally cut from the same cloth as that purple and pink getup she wore in the 08-09 season’s short program?) In the end, I liked it more than I thought I would… but am not at all crazy about the dance re-mix version they use near the end of the program.
+ And did anyone else hold their breath, with images of Dube/Davison spinning through their heads, when Felicia Zhang got so dangerously close to Taylor Toth’s blade during their side-by-side flying camel attempt? Maybe it wasn’t as close in reality as it looked on TV, but…
+ Speaking of Dube/Davison: kudos to Kirsten Moore-Towers/Dylan Moscovitch, who proved their silver at Skate Canada was anything but a fluke. I know Dube/Davison are trying to stick around despite Davison’s recent surgery, but they’d better watch their backs…
+ And speaking of the underestimated… add Kanako Murakami to that list. She ran out of gas at NHK, but not here!
+ I’d said I wanted to see what happened when Rachael Flatt skated clean… or at least “cleaner”. According to the judges (who downgraded two of her triples), she leaned toward the latter. But defeated Kostner, at least…
+ Caroline Zhang may not have won a medal in this year’s GP, but I’ll easily give her the honor of “most awkward fall” for that triple lutz debacle that essentially had her doing the splits on-ice, mid-program. Great googly moogly, that didn’t look like much fun.
+ The one “top” skate I didn’t watch yet was Viktoria Helgesson… who was mired in last place after the SP, but apparently turned in the third-best free skate of the day. Is it worth a look? Someone let me know…
+ One more for my “underestimated” list: Armin Mahbanoozadeh, who bested Adam Rippon in what became his weakest pair of performances in quite a while (though he still finished 4th). ArminHammer should also take some pride that he’s been christened as having “the best name in figure skating” according to the one and only Scott Hamilton.
+ Odd happening I noticed: all four skaters/teams that were in 3rd after the first half of competition dropped off the podium to finish 4th.
+ For some reason I never pictured a Kelly Clarkson tune being used in the Short Dance, but thanks to Krein-G-S (my new nickname for they who have the longest combined name I’ve ever seen), I’ve pictured it now. Even “pictured” the audio fadeout. Umm… not crazy about that part.
+ When’s the last time we saw both the top two ice dance teams take their respective tumbles in the free dance? Not to mention Charlie White’s spaz-out on the short dance twizzles?! But I liked the quote I heard from him explaining what happened… something about trying to break the speed of life but physics got in the way… hee. Does anyone have the exact quote?
I hope to have my Rostelecom Cup predictions and airtimes up late Thursday night… thanks for your patience!
4 comments:
Well, of course I've got Charlie's quote for you!
"I was trying to break light speed, physics got in the way."
And I have it on good authority that Meryl and Charlie have already put those errors behind them. Hope they stay there!
That was it indeed! Thanks Sharon.
Not sure if Helgesson is worth watching - not earth shattering.
Yeah, I haven't bothered to watch it yet... I suspect she simply landed most of her jumps, which was more than most could accomplish. Thanks Robin!
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