Wow. Nationals. The tie.

[icarus]

Second telegram from Nationals. (I'll skip the versimilitude and not do it in telegram-caps this time -- you're welcome, mooja ;)

Awful traffic to Men's Freeskate stop
Missed Bradon Overett the-guy-who-skates-like-Jack-Sparrow stop
Bradon Overett sat in front of us though so I have video stop
Also missed the-guy-who-jumps-so-high-he-needs-a-parachute stop
Saw Rohene Ward the-skater-who-looks-like-Ronon in elevator stop
He talks like Michael Jackson complete with lisp stop
He came in last oh well stop
The atmosphere was relaxed but happy for the first groups of skaters stop
They were skating to place, celebrating they made it to Nationals, but not in the running for the podium stop
Enjoyed Wesley Campbell the-gayest-skater-on-ice stop
WG liked Wesley too of course stop
Ryan Bradley aka Mr. Flirt aka last year's silver medalist blew it by goofing off at the short program and didn't make the podium stop
WG thinks he was overconfident stop
I think he couldn't balance playing to the crowd versus competing and went crowd-overboard stop
The crowd still loved him stop

With the top six skaters the excitement suddenly ratched up stop
Loved Jeremy Abbott stop
Especially the shocked blank look at the end of his program stop
Like he couldn't believe it was done and he'd done well stop
Neither of us are impressed by Carriere stop
Lots of jumps, but ho-hum skating, except the last 20 seconds of his program stop

When the top two, Lysacek and Johnny Weir, hit the ice the tension was electric stop
Evan Lysacek is amazing stop
At the end of his program WG said "Look at his face. He is driven" stop
Very intense, you can see everything he's feeling stop
WG points out that Evan skimps on the footwork leading into jumps stop
Evan takes half the rink to set up for a jump which WG feels is a shortcut stop
I have video of Evan's warm-up stop
Johnny Weir is like liquid beauty poured on the ice stop
He was exquisite stop

At the end they were tied stop
But Evan won stop

The crowd blinked and was confused WTF?! stop
The loudspeaker explained that in the event of a tie the person who won the final freeskate -- which is
longer and harder -- wins the competition stop
Wow stop

Next I have boring video of the awards ceremony stop
The skaters were still very tired stop
Skating hall-of-famer Todd Eldredge awarded one of the medals stop
After the photographers stopped posing them, everyone but Johnny Weir signed tons of autographs stop
Evan Lysacek is hard-working and generous to the fans stop
He tried to sign every request until the Arena officials shooed him off the ice so people would leave stop
I like Evan stop

Then we watched the gala of champions stop
The little teenie pairs skater oh wow she was so young and got tossed about like a doll stop
The women's skate was a total upset stop
The former champion placed seventh so all the top women's skaters were virtual unknowns stop
Then they had the Special Olympics skaters on stop
They skated better than I do let me tell you stop
Then the syncronized skating was very very cool stop
Sixteen women stop
I want to see more of that and will provide links when I get home stop
Johnny Weir's Ave Maria exhibition got a standing ovation stop
WG thinks Johnny Weir has a great ass and is a total bottom boy stop
He released his last note like setting free a dove stop
I loved the (Junior Men's champion?) who skated to Pavarotti stop
Two pairs teams and one men's singles skater used the same music oops ha it's the battle of the Carmen's all over again stop
Evan Lysacek did flamenco music and was energetic and a powerful presence stop
Belbin and Agosto (sp?) melted the ice stop
At the end everyone came out again doing their coolest moves
They bowed as a group in a circle as the crowd gave them a standing ovation stop
Then they grabbed frisbees and t-shirts, signed them, and tossed them into the crowd stop
It was chaos stop
I loved it stop
Lysacek stayed longer than anyone else to sign autographs stop
He was shooed off the ice again stop
The moment he was off the ice he slumped in exhaustion stop
Did I mention I like Lysacek?

wildernessguru says he liked the skating a lot more that he thought he would. He thinks Johnny Weir's the better all around skater but that Lysacek is "a force." He decided neither Johnny Weir nor Evan Lysacek define figure skating. They both have their own styles that are radically different.

I have, of course, many, many, many notes from Nationals and more of Out Of Bounds soon.

This was an experience.

Comments

[sulien77.livejournal.com]

I was hoping you would comment about the men's skate tonight. Johnny Weir is a total Diva and an absolutely beautiful artist and I couldn't help but compare him in my mind to the way you've described Rodney in "Out of Bounds" (except Weir also jumps fluidly). And WG is right about Weir's ass...damn.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

We watched the broadcast of the men's tonight, and I kept saying "Are Icarus and WG in the audience? I'll bet they're in the audience," and James kept saying "Who?"

Lysacek and Weir were astounding. I was personally pulling for Weir, but I loved Lysacek skating to Tosca. The announcers were WTFing like mad at the results as well; Scott Hamilton said "It's like flipping th e coin at the Superbowl and it lands on its edge! THAT'S the probability!" Someone else asked if the announcers agreed with the judges, and Scottie shot back, "That's not our decision!" Cute.

[elvinborn.livejournal.com]

I was REally WTF about the tie except not thing, so I'm glad you at least explained the why. Even though it doesn't make me feel better, at least there is logic to it. sort of.


I love Evan Lysacek even though I can't spell his name. I'm glad he's awesome to the fans :D
with the training Johnny Weir has been doing, he's turning into an actual person, and he's just so beautiful on the ice. And now I don't have to hate him because he's no longer completely off-putting. what? I'm shallow.

and whatshisname... Ryan... something. he owned me. Even though he killed most of his jumps, he was thoroughly fun to watch.


kind of jealous you got to see them there.

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

I watched the free skate tonigt. I was thinking of you being in the audience. That and stifling giggles over Johnny Weir's name. What? I'm silly like that. I honestly thought Weir was the better skater. Not that Lysacek isn't impressive and all, but a little more polish with the force would be nice. I'm sure this is going to provide all sorts of inspiration for Out of Bounds now.

[crazed_delusion]

I really think I'm like the only one who absolutely hate Johnny Weir. I think he's an egotistical whiny little bottom boy. You see him talking about Evan through all the interviews and saying such bad things about him. Then you could see when he lost he was like WTF I was robbed. I used to really like him but overall he just has no presence anymore and while he can skate it's just blah. On top of that he's a total media whore and is a complete jerk to his fans. Well...at least Evan won...So YAY!!!

[stanharding.livejournal.com]

We watched the highlights of the men's short and the last set of men's long on TV last night - it was fun! WG is right - both Lysanek and Weir are wonderful and completely different. Weir is the gayest gay thing ever and it's a good thing he's good in his sport because otherwise he'd be making youtube videos about Britney Spears. I love how he makes no attempt to butch it up at all - he just goes all out.

I loved the guy who played to the crowd - wore the unbuttoned bow tie in the shorts. He'll be fun to watch. I missed the ladies completely, but I have no horses in that race at the moment. Kimmie's never been particularly exciting.

[bramble-rose.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to see your 'boring' video !!! Sounds like it was an amazing experience, wow! Love your running commentaries :-) Trying to imagine Ronon with a Michael Jackson voice and lisp (isn't working, broke brain)

[abigail89.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the eye witness account. Thought of you and WG when I was watching. :D

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

There have been a few other ties since the judging changed, so although it's improbable, it's not all *that* improbable, and Scott Hamilton should know that. But he's kind of, you know... excitable. He doesn't tend to explain stuff. He just goes off.

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

What you hate about Johnny, I like. He's not fake. He's totally honest, although he's learned to be more political lately.

With other skaters, they're all like, to the press, "Oh, I'm so glad that Michelle did well. I'm happy with second..." when you know in their hearts that they are competitive athletes and they wish, wish, wish they hadn't come in second to her.

But with Johnny, you know how he feels.

And Evan hasn't always been quite so... Well, let's just say that he and Johnny are not friends.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, that's Scottie for ya. *grin*

[argosy.livejournal.com]

My brother used to skate in Special Olympics. ♥

[moojja.livejournal.com]

Since you name checked me. I feel I have write a long post now.

Missed Bradon Overett the-guy-who-skates-like-Jack-Sparrow stop
Too bad. He's pretty entertaining. But I thought the opening footwork was better at Sectional.

Saw Rohene Ward the-skater-who-looks-like-Ronon in elevator stop
How was Rohene's skate in person? I've been told that live, he's electrifying. But I was less impressed by what I saw on the web.

Ryan Bradley aka Mr. Flirt aka last year's silver medalist blew it by goofing off at the short program and didn't make the podium stop
WG thinks he was overconfident stop
I think he couldn't balance playing to the crowd versus competing and went crowd-overboard stop
The crowd still loved him stop
I love Ryan Bradley. I agree with you, I don't think he was goofing off in the SP. There was no falls, and he hit all of his jumps. The hand gestures in his SP was also great, and he stayed in character the entire way through the LP. But if he didn't try the quad, he might have had a better result.
This sounds kind of silly, but if Charlie Chaplin did jumps, I think he jumps like Ryan. B/c Ryan doesn't look very stable in the air.

Loved Jeremy Abbott stop
I'm so glad he didn't fall on the quad. It hurt to watch him this entire GP series. Every time he attempted the quad, he fell.

Neither of us are impressed by Carriere stop
I like the different arm position his uses in the jumps. Somehow his style reminds me of an older generation of skaters.

WG points out that Evan skimps on the footwork leading into jumps stop
Evan takes half the rink to set up for a jump which WG feels is a shortcut stop
Yeah, but Evan has the harder entrances to his jumps. The lunge into his sal, the spiral into his flip, and the wally, reverse wally into his Lutz.
I really love the reverse wally entrance to his Lutz. Because there isn't a step in between, he jumps off the land edge of the wally into his Lutz. I also like it, b/c the rotation on the second wally is done against his natural rotation. (I hope you will have John do that entrance. B/c it's hard, and really cool looking.)

I have video of Evan's warm-up stop
Please post it, if you can. I love to see the in-betweens. All the stuff an athlete have to do to get prepared, but you don't get to see on TV. That why I love the practice stuff in Out of Bound.

Johnny Weir is like liquid beauty poured on the ice stop
He is very fluid, and soft on the ice. I saw him live on COI, he draws you in.

At the end they were tied stop
But Evan won stop

I was so shocked to see the scores. I actually went and look at the Protocol. It looks like Lysacek did 3 jumps in combination, and Weir only did 2 jumps in combination. He got lucky on the technical score. If Weir tack a single toe behind any of his jumps, Weir would have won.

The women's skate was a total upset stop
Talk about an upset. Except for the bronze medalist, none of them are old enough to go to Worlds. And two of them are skating as seniors for the first time.

Evan Lysacek did flamenco music and was energetic and a powerful presence stop
That was actually his short program. So you got to see both SP and LP live. Which one did you think was better? (I know it's not a fair comparison, since the SP was done as exhibition, but I'm still curious.)

Belbin and Agosto (sp?) melted the ice stop
They are hot. I love their Chopin FD this year. But did they do the horrid Justin Timberlake exhibition number?

Lysacek stayed longer than anyone else to sign autographs stop
He was shooed off the ice again stop
The moment he was off the ice he slumped in exhaustion stop
Awwwww. I feel sorry for all the guys that made top five. B/c it's horrible schedule for them. They basically have to skate in the exhibition a few hours after the LP. For the medalist, it's even worse, since they have to do press conferences right after the LP.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Haven't had a chance to read all of this yet, but just wanted to say that we were there Friday night for the SP and Sunday for both the LP and the gala. I didn't recognize that he skated his SP at the gala -- I don't think he did. But I'll check.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

When we saw Lysacek's Friday night I'd have to say that that was a far better performance. WG -- a total non-skating fan at his first competition -- stood with the crowd and gave him an enthusiastic standing ovation, saying, "That was amazing!"

Seriously, the intensity of the end of his SP was something to see. It grabbed you. He fell several times in the warm-up but when he hit the ice for the SP, he was On. Fire.

Thanks to Evan, WG is now a skating fan, but he's only interested in seeing skating in person. Television just doesn't capture it for him.

But did they do the horrid Justin Timberlake exhibition number?

Yep. I rather like it, actually. But the funny part was that three skaters did the same Justin Tiberlake song, so by the time B&A got to it, the audience was heartily sick of it. *g* The best gala performance by far was the Junior Men's champion, Adam Rippon. He did opera, and... you could tell he loved it. It's Pavarotti's finest performance, the one that makes your hair stand on end.

Please post it, if you can.

I will. Let me edit out some of clumsy camera work first. This was my first time with a digital camera.

Neither of us are impressed by Carriere stop
I like the different arm position his uses in the jumps. Somehow his style reminds me of an older generation of skaters.

Yes! He looks like Brian Boitano when he jumps (only not quite that high).

Missed Bradon Overett the-guy-who-skates-like-Jack-Sparrow stop
Too bad. He's pretty entertaining. But I thought the opening footwork was better at Sectional.

Did you get to see him at Sectional? *wide eyes*

Saw Rohene Ward the-skater-who-looks-like-Ronon in elevator stop
How was Rohene's skate in person? I've been told that live, he's electrifying. But I was less impressed by what I saw on the web.

He was skating in front of his home crowd in St. Paul, and I got the feeling that the pressure broke open every seam in his program. He was much better even at the Regional. In person, he skated the way I packed for this trip: like it was all thrown together haphazardly. His short program was better, much more together, and his music fits him like a glove or he fits the music, I can't tell which. I'd like to see him skate when he's under less pressure. His movements were still arching and elegant, even when he was falling apart.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I take it back. That was his short program at the gala. It didn't look the same at all. At the gala it was a fun program that suited him. At the SP it was just... different.

Okay, I'm a writer, I can do better than that.

Evan Lysacek attacked that program in the SP like a bullfighter facing his first fight. He entered it vulnerable, not counting on anything (Weir beat him in Russia and China) -- wanting it sooo badly. Then, once he knew he had it, he turned up the heat, skating faster and faster, with more intensity, like... he'd beaten the enemy back and was now chasing them with everything he had, victorious, but not letting go for a second.

That's what earned the "amazing!" from wildernessguru.

Then the music stopped, his head fell back, and the crowd roared to its feet.

Weir beat him with perfection in the SP, but Evan's performance was the one to see.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

WG points out that Evan skimps on the footwork leading into jumps stop
Evan takes half the rink to set up for a jump which WG feels is a shortcut stop
Yeah, but Evan has the harder entrances to his jumps. The lunge into his sal, the spiral into his flip, and the wally, reverse wally into his Lutz.
I really love the reverse wally entrance to his Lutz. Because there isn't a step in between, he jumps off the land edge of the wally into his Lutz. I also like it, b/c the rotation on the second wally is done against his natural rotation. (I hope you will have John do that entrance. B/c it's hard, and really cool looking.)

All my betas are intimidated by the technical aspects of the skating. Transitions and footwork are two things I'm researching now. I also just received Rickie Harris' book on choreography for coaches (yay, Amazon) to help me write both Rodney and Sonja's hard work with John this summer.

True, that reverse wally would look cool on John. Hmm... You know what I'd love to do? To work with you on the technical aspects John's final freeskate. If you're interested, email me at icarus.ancalion at gmail.

Icarus

[moojja.livejournal.com]

Yep. I rather like it, actually. But the funny part was that three skaters did the same Justin Tiberlake song, so by the time B&A got to it, the audience was heartily sick of it.

LOL, the same thing happened at Skate America. I watched it on the web, so I can just skip through a few of them. But it must be annoying for the audience.

Did you get to see him at Sectional? *wide eyes*

No, I watched it on the web. I wish I can go, but there is none near my area.

His movements were still arching and elegant, even when he was falling apart.

Poor guy. Beautiful layback, and ambitions too. There was no reason for him to try a quad, but he went for it anyways.

[moojja.livejournal.com]

Wow, I like your descriptions. This season I liked Lysacek's short program a lot better than his long program. Too bad NBC is not airing the gala until next weekend. It'll be interesting to see the difference between the two.

I'm glad WG enjoyed figure skating.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Awww....

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

We were at the far end of the arena, opposite the kiss-n-cry.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Cool. I plan to put them up this weekend.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ha. WG smiled when I passed this along.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The crowd was rather quietly confused, staring at each other.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I like Johnny, too.

I could tell the two of them didn't get along at the end of the exhibition: body language turned away from each other and as much space as was seemly between them.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The bow tie man was Ryan Bradley and, yeah, he's great.

Believe it or not, that was Johnny butching it up.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I can't get on board with the Evan verses Johnny opinion train. For me, it would ruin my enjoyment of the skating to place personalities first. (I feel the same about fanfiction writers. I may dislike the writer, but I will still read and rec their fics.) I don't like to judge people I haven't personally met.

I distrust blanket statements about people. I'll buy a specific statement backed by verifiable fact -- say, "Johnny was egotistical when he said he was better than blahblahblah." I just don't buy broad statements such as "Johnny is egotistical." I haven't met anyone who is always egotistical, at all times, under all circumstances. I've found Johnny Weir's frankness to be anything but egotistical. He seemed determined to be himself and not a packaged product.

The trouble is, the USFA wanted a packaged product and Johnny being himself was bad for business.

In reaction, a spokesman for the USFA slandered Johnny, deliberately and publicly, in a television interview. (Nancy Kerrigan was also there but she didn't comment much.) I watched a YouTube video of the interview. It was character assassination, pure and simple. He made it clear did not appreciate how Johnny's coy-almost-but-not-quite-out gayness (pointing out Johnny appearing in fishnet stockings, going to Elton John's glitzy party, wanting to be a fashion designer) and effeminate figure skating style effected the image of figure skating. He then proceeded to praise Evan in comparison to Johnny as being "more masculine."

The skating world picked up his lines like a bunch of trained seals.

It was just spin. But Johnny went from being a skating superstar to persona non grata. He was abandoned by many of his fans. Research has shown that even when people know a bit of slander is false it will still effect how they feel. When the slander is salted with partial truths it's almost impossible to counter.

I refuse to cooperate with the UFSA spin. Though Johnny seems to have learned about what he called in recent interviews "the business end of figure skating." His style is being carefully repackaged as "Russian" rather than "feminine." He did a wholesome piece on going home for the holidays for icenetwork. The USFA has brought him in line.

I find it discouraging. He tried to be natural and he was beaten down.

[moojja.livejournal.com]

I can't get on board with the Evan verses Johnny opinion train. For me, it would ruin my enjoyment of the skating to place personalities first.

In that case, stay away from the skate boards. At the moment, it's all about the Evan verses Johnny opinion train, non-stop express to Deadlockville.

[crazed_delusion]

Teah I was overly harsh that night I know. *spanks hand for reply while still mad*

I think my main problem that day is what he said in all the pre-game yadda yadda they did on tv. Which if I had a clip I'd put up lol

It just pissed me off, I never like when one competitor bad mouths their main competition before, well a competition.

On a normal day, I try to ignore everything when watching skaters. Ignore country, past history, any of that and just watch them skate. And I will admit Johnny's long program was really good, you could tell he was doing everything he could to win it.

I think it was all the non-stop Evan vs. Johnny hubbub they did for an hour of the show. I'm guessing that if I had been able to just watch them skate. I wouldn't have been nearly as pissed off as I was.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I muted all that. Anything that wasn't actually skating or immediate recap I slammed the button for.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and we didn't hear any of that up in the stands. From there it was all -- okay, mostly -- skating.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Okay, the first video is here (http://icarusancalion.livejournal.com/728398.html).

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

I saw it on TV, and I sat there for a moment, confused. Then I realised that the scores were TIED. And due to the long program, Evan had just won. Very exciting, but it took me a minute.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I think we were far enough up in the stands that we wouldn't appear on camera (safe!). Giggles over Johnny Weir's name? Whyso?

Lysacek has to be viewed in person. He's pure charisma and somehow manages to project himself to the audience -- when he's nervous, he doesn't hide it. It's there, raw and real. You can't help but not be effected and pull for him.

That said, Johnny Weir is pristine. Definitely the better skater.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I feel very lucky that I could go. And yeah, Ryan owned the audience. He's marvelous fun. I hope he places high in next year's Nationals so he can go on to the 2010 Olympics.

Icarus

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

I have been ignoring all that. Best not to get all blah blah blah...

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

And Evan hasn't always been quite so... Well, let's just say that he and Johnny are not friends.

They've been competing against each other since 2001, haven't they?

I'm curious. It was obvious Evan didn't like Johnny from his body language when they were standing next to each other at the gala. I'm curious though. Has Evan ever said that he doesn't care for Johnny?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

No one in media has forgotten the tons of viewers they got over Nancy Kerrigan's knee, so they definitely went for the "rivalry" angle. After the fact, I watched Johnny's catty comments and Lysacek's "It's war."

I thought there was quite a bit of selective editing going on by NBC to play up the nastiness between the two of them. Why else do we have a three-second interview clip from Evan (the only nasty comment they could get out of him, I bet) and Johnny going on for five minutes (Johnny is chatty).

Weir was asked about those comments later and he blinked. "I said that?"

Yes, Johnny, you did.

I showed wildernessguru the clip and surprisingly, he really liked Johnny. "The guy's blunt," he nodded. WG hates B.S. and likes that Johnny says what he thinks.