Aha! Now *this* is Rodney skating.

[icarus]

Hoo-rah, someone posted the performance that, well, it is Rodney skating (in Out Of Bounds, in case that isn't clear):

This. This is Rodney McKay, skating champion, right down to the slight chunkiness.

wildernessguru and I went out to dinner tonight (oops, we overslept and missed bowling) and I talked out John's summer training with him. Illuminating.

Comments

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

This. This is Rodney McKay, skating champion, right down to the slight chunkiness.

Well. He certainly seems to have Rodney McKay's butt. Ahem. *whistles*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, heck yeah. Especially in those slightly shiny pants. *eyes a-gleam*

Of course, these are two totally different types of programs. John's-- er, Lysacek's there is a competitive program where he's giving it all he's got, while Rodney's-- er, I mean, Bowman's is a lazy ice show, all about the audience.

On the other hand, Rodney -- I mean, Bowman -- was always about the audience.

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

And such nice camera angles. *smiles dreamily*

Huh, that's what I thought, too, though I thought maybe I was wrong - I know next to nothing about figure skating after all. But the way you described young genius skater Rodney McKay, and the way Bowman is flirting with both his audience and the camera, it really did seem like a very neat fit.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

Heee, MY THOUGHT EXACTLY. :D

You enabled me to go find the Duchesnay clips I've been fondly remembering for a long time, iracus - so thank you for two reasons at least!

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

WE'RE SO SHALLOW. ♥

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

oops, ICARUS, omg, sosorry. I just woke up. *hides*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, I read it as Icarus. If I miss my own typos, I'm going to miss yours, too.

Duchesnay... I have to admit, I don't know who that is.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

couple! Quebecois, ran for France a few times. Always were considered too modern and outlandish to win the olypmics and suchlike. The iconic number I remembered - I had it on VHS and watched it many many times - is there (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHw_ULxBU_Q) - with links to more in the related vids column.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

They were a French brother-sister pair from the early 90s. I remember they were in Albertville because they were the local favorites. I can't remember if they were pairs or ice dancing, but the routine they did featured a lot of leopard prints and drumming with a lot of crouched, low to the ground/ice skating. I think they placed seventh, to the disgust of the (French) audience.

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

The Duchennays? They were ice dancers, and they were well known for doing really adventurous things on the ice. And at that time, in ice dance, it wasn't necessarily a good thing, to take those sorts of artistic risks. Well, that, and their technique was sometimes a bit less polished than the judges wanted. In effect, the crowds loved them, but the judges? Not quite as much.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Okay, I think I remember seeing them back in the 80s. I confess, I was a teenager back then. I thought they were weird.

[sparrowhawk17.livejournal.com]

So totally Rodney. ::biggrin::

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

He tends to puff his chest out, and he has the same "fling-y" gestures. And just... over the top, to the point of being corny. With an element of joy and a touch of self-mockery. :D

[crownglass39.livejournal.com]

Right down to the hand gestures!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I know! He's all... fling-y and stuff.

[ladyflowdi.livejournal.com]

Man, Skating!Rodney has an ass that goes on forever, doesn't he? That is made of the sweetest pretty ever. Also, his jumps are *fantastic*. He's just a bit over technical with them, though, isn't he? When I'm watching skaters I like it when the jumps come somewhat as a surprise, when you get so involved with their foot work and their moves that suddenly they go into the prep turn for the big jump and you're like "OMG YES".

I agree with what you said in a thread above, about him being just a bit corny and over the top. That's what makes him so very Rodney :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. John may make jokes about Rodney gaining weight but he's noticed Rodney's clear assets (pun intended).

His landings are amazing. But yes, very conscious of them.

[slashbluegreen.livejournal.com]

Ok. I wanted to say something shallow about Skating!Rodney's butt. Seems everyone here beat me to it!! Just for the record, I believe a skater with his statue (eg. weight) needs a substantial gluteus maximus to get body off the ground and into those jumps. And yes, eye-candy! Thankfully we have fic to go with it. :-)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

All skaters have beautiful asses (okay, most of them). But that ass there... oh man.

Bowman had gotten a little chunky there. Part of what makes it perfect. This is what Rodney looked like when he was on the downward slide from competing. No longer in top form, but still landing the top-notch jumps.

[rabidfan.livejournal.com]

The pants! Oh my!

I've always liked Lysacek's costumes. I hate frilly ones, and he always looks so good. I can see John all clad in black...tho it's such a stretch!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Head-to-toe stretch fleece.

Black.

Enough said.

[heythere10.livejournal.com]

Hey! I just started reading 'Out of Bounds' the other week and I'm steadily working my way towards the end of what you have written. Just thought I'd post some encouragement in the form of a skating video!

Kurt's Bonzo program: http://youtube.com/watch?v=WGEuRE-ZW-E

I'm sure you've seen it before, but I think people tend to forget that as an amateur, it took some serious stretching for Kurt to push the evelope artistically the way he's now known for. He was always known more as a technician until later in his amateur career. Of couse, when we think of him, we think of Casablanca or one of his great pro programs like 'Singing in the Rain', but at the time, this Bonzo program was pretty outside the box thinking for Kurt.

Anyway, hope you keep churning out more 'Out of Bounds'!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you. This is new to me, as an American completely unfamiliar with Kurt Bonzo. :)

[dossier.livejournal.com]

that's really amazing to have those two vids side by side. absolutely remarkable.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

It helps me see them, it really does.

[miso-no-tsuki.livejournal.com]

You are sucking me into your ice-skating thang, y'know? Slightly off-piste I know (to mix metaphors) but isn't it amazing that Bowman was in Science blues whilst Lysacek's all black is just soooo John. And then he fluffed his hair!!! *faints*
*coughs* Mention was made of more "Out of Bounds"?
*pokes you*

[bramble-rose.livejournal.com]

I was going to type a comment, but you said EXACTLY what I was going to, so ditto what you said about hair and clothes *g* ~!!!!!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

When we get to 1:47 or so on Bowman's performance, I can just so see Rodney's gestures. I keep re-watching Lysacek and I just don't see the hair fluff.

*tries again*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You know, until you mentioned it, I never even noticed what they were wearing. You're right.

Yep. I'm working on Out Of Bounds, oh yes, indeed.

Icarus

[celtic-tigress.livejournal.com]

Ok, that was fantastic. I got shivers at the end of the vid of 'Rodney' skating, it was that awesome. I'm glad you posted that, his skating is a lot clearer in my head now, I appreciate it.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

From 1:47 on, it's so Rodney, it's scary.

The thing is, I had an image of Rodney's skating first, and then I found Bowman when I was trying to more vividly picture the moves. I've never been able to find someone that skates like my image of John, though Lysacek at least looks like him.

[celtic-tigress.livejournal.com]

LJ is being an arse and not giving me my comments again. Damn it. Er, also, despite the confusion at my journal, there is a bit of a love meme thing devoted to you. I don't want you to miss it because lj was crapping out and randomly deleting part of my posts, so, you know. Just to let you know.

Yes, L does look very much like John, though he was definitely NOT how I envisioned John's skating. I haven't been reading OoB lately, mostly because there have been no updates (how's that going, by the way? you had to throw a bit out?) so the Rodney that is in my head recently is not YOUR Rodney, so B's skating didn't convince me at first. I started remembering your characterization of Rodney though, a little more flamboyant, a little more artistic, with that artistic temperament that is a tad different from non-AU Rodney's jitteriness, and by the end of the clip I had remembered him, and then came the shivers. That was as much me rediscovering the character from watching the vid as it was B's skating itself.

[perfica.livejournal.com]

This is Rodney McKay, skating champion, right down to the slight chunkiness.

With that arse and that skill level, I certainly don't mind (as I'm sure John doesn't either).

[wanted-a-pony.livejournal.com]

Yow, these vids are frighteningly like what John & Rodney in "Out of Bounds" must look like. I've just discovered OOB & am enjoying reading it very much BTW — hope to see more soon!

[zzanthalinn.livejournal.com]

I'm a huge fan of figure skating myself (although I haven't followed it much recently, so thank you for your personal coverage and commentary!), and thus eagerly awaiting the final installments of Out of Bounds. I thus thought *immediately* of you when watching the first scene of this week's ep, MIdway, (I received it early from iTunes for some inexplicable reason) in which Ronon and John dis figure skating.
Just pretend it never happened.

[lumenara.livejournal.com]

The gesture Bowman makes at... about 0:33 had me completely sold. I'm gonna go read this fic now. :-)

[sgafan33.livejournal.com]

Somebody was asking about Out Of Bounds on a list I'm on, so I thought I check up on it. Wow, Chris Bowman did look like what Rodney would look like as a skater.

It was so sad when I heard that Bowman died last month. He was one of my favorite skaters back in the day. He was such a showman and his smile was so full of joy.

[sgafan33.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's Frank Carroll sitting with Lysacek. Carroll was Bowman's first coach, having "discovered" him at an ice rink at the age of 5.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Frank Carroll discovered him? I didn't know that. He said that Chris was the most talented skated he'd ever worked with.

[sgafan33.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the impression I got from this story written after the memorial:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2008-01-17-bowman-funeral_N.htm

"Bowman was 5-years-old when Carroll first spotted him at a rink in nearby Van Nuys."


Here's the first story that the NY times ran.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/sports/othersports/12bowman.html


An article from Time.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1703048,00.html?imw=Y

I saw that improvised performance. There was so much determination. He knew he wasn't good, he wasn't prepared, but he wasn't going to let that defeat him.

Having a natural talent must be great, but for Bowman it worked against him.

Oh, that Nova Scotia performance was the most prepared he'd ever been.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah. I'll bet Carroll was one of the instructors for that skating club. It sounds like an accidental "star was born" discovery, but actually, that's just how it works. Skating is a very small world.

Bowman was diagnosed as bi-polar in 2000-something (2002?) and the drug use was most likely him self-medicating.

Those articles were very gentle about the tensions between Bowman and Carroll, since Carroll is so well respected.

In order to get Bowman under control, before that Worlds performance Carroll put Bowman in virtual sealed retreat. On national television after all this training, Bowman said, half joking, half serious, "Help! I'm a prisoner!"

A famous fight broke out between the two of them in a practice session before the free skate, where Carroll deliberately didn't show in order to give Bowman a taste of his own medicine.

Carroll did not maintain the politeness I would expect, publicly speaking at the competition about Bowman being "very difficult to work with" and talking about him as if he were a small child. Though back then people tended to be more candid. Still, he screwed Bowman over in order to make sure it was clear that "this isn't my fault. This isn't what I teach." Which I can kind of understand.

Anyone else would have been completely rattled and lost after the war.

Bowman instead threw away everything Carroll had tried to drill into him and won the bronze. It was a clear statement on all ends. Carroll's attempted tough love only rattled Bowman. After the most disciplined training he'd ever done, he was less focused.

He was likely udergoing withdrawal -- without the wish to give up the drugs -- on top of the pressure of competition. Bowman treated skating not like a job but like an escape, a release valve for his demons, and Carroll tried to turn him into a worker like Todd Eldredge. But Todd's mentally balanced.

Carroll's desperate attempts to control him did nothing to improve his skating. In the end it was Bowman's guts and talent that won the day.

Bowman put his demons on the ice. His out of control sexuality (he had prostitutes in out of his rooms) comes out in his "Woolly Bully" routine; his need for validation and attention caused him to play to the crowd always, feed off their energy and enjoyment no matter what the cost to his scores back when this was "not done"; his sense of rejection and pleading after the split with Carroll comes out in his "California Dreamin'"; his rebellious defensiveness and amused self-deprecation is portrayed in "Bad Boy."

I wouldn't say his talent worked against him. I'd say his talent is what he had going for him, and that his performances -- especially his best, his exhibitions, where he drove the sport forward and changed it -- were driven by his problems.

For his own welfare and building his competitive career, he needed treatment for psychological and drug problems far beyond Carroll's capacity. He was far beyond anyone's help. His next coach, Toller Cranston, not only couldn't do anything to help Bowman, he got dragged along behind him into a world of drugs and chaotic sexuality.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Asked about Out Of Bounds on a list? Oh, goody. Which list?

Bowman was an amazing skater, so alive and willing to be different. I've heard he helped make the exhibition program what it is today.

[sgafan33.livejournal.com]

It was the McShep slash yahoo group. She tried sgastoryfinders first and got the link to the first chapter. I'm a little confused why she was asking the group if she got the link at finders. I think she was looking for the one chapter of John and Rodney at the farmer's market. So someone pointed her to your tag list.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's one of my favorite scenes. :)

I know why she was looking for the rest. The story is around 250 pages but in the early days I didn't know that. The first part in my LJ only links to the next scene. And the next. And the next. She would have been clicking links a long, long time to find the scene she wanted.

The best link is the one on my website (http://www.icarus.slashcity.net/stories/outofbounds.html). There it's in one big file and you can find the scene you want by looking for a key phrase. When I finish I'm planning to create six or seven long chapters with jump-to links.

Icarus

[sgafan33.livejournal.com]

Hey, sorry to be so chatty, but I just re-watched those 2 vids. While Bowman looks like Rodney, Bowman's attitude is John's approach. Same with Lysacek. Looks like John, but that would be Rodney's precision when he skated. I bet Lysacek would have been very good at school figures.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I love it that you've got such a clear picture of John and Rodney's skating in your mind. *g*

Christopher Bowman, out of bounds

[verityduff.livejournal.com]

First, let me say how much I am enjoying Out of Bounds. It is so well written; and using the skating world ar your setting is just brilliant.
I had left this article on my message page to view later, and I am glad I did. I have so enjoyed Christopher Bowman's performances. I particularly love the 1990 exhibition he skated to the Stones medley. His joy and exuberance shine throughout. What a sorrowful end to a life with so much accomplishment and promise.
So, thank you for sharing your work and your passion. It is greatly appreciated.
V