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My pictures! (From row 20, mind you, don't expect anything much..)

Warning: This is going to be REALLY LONG!!!    Vanessa’s mom took us to the arena at 12:20, and we arrived by 1:00PM. By the time we passed the parking lot, we were glad that we had carpooled – parking was $13!!! Vanessa had made some foam roses for Michelle (they were cute!), and she was griping the whole way about how lousy they were, LOL. She made me sniff them, since they were "perfumed," but obviously I didn’t smell anything cause I have the worst nose….If I can sense it, it’s too strong, LOL….    We had been hoping to catch a glimpse of the skaters as they arrived. Knowing that the skaters had to be at the arena 1.5 hours before the show, it didn’t look good. Vanessa told me that our other skating friend Julia had been at the arena since 11AM, hoping to get backstage passes somehow. We wandered around to the entrance, and found Julia and her friend by the door. They didn’t have backstage passes, but they did see the skaters get off the COI bus when it arrived. Security was pretty high, since they reported that there was a gate and nobody could get through. I wasn’t that sure if we could get the flowers to Michelle anymore, since I had instructed Vanessa to ask a security guard or an usher to give them to her. (At least, that’s how everyone else did it….)    In a vain attempt to locate the bus, we walked around the entire arena, but didn’t see anything. (Poo..) Once we got back, we waited at the door for a little while until they finally opened the doors to let us in. We bought a program, then made our way to the souvenir counter. I wanted to see if there were any posters available, since I’ve been on a perpetual hunt for dorm stuff since summer started. No posters, but there was a posed photo of the cast. Sigh…maybe my own little Michelle poster design would suffice.    We eventually located our seats in section 126, row 20 and then pondered upon which usher we would stalk down to give the flowers to. I spied an usher by the skater’s tunnel, and figured he was our best bet. When we got down there, Vanessa tried to talk to him while I stood there looking dumb cause I couldn’t hear a thing of what they were saying. In the middle of their conversation, Vanessa turned around and gave me a dirty look, LOL, which probably meant it was a no-go. Sigh, San Jose can be so paranoid about these things…So Vanessa was stuck with these foam flowers for the rest of the show…    Vanessa and I both had our cameras and notepads ready! I was afraid of the flash photography rule, though no one really seemed to be paying attention to it. (Well, at least for the skaters' sake..) My camera flash was decked out in five layers of masking tape and a good soaking of black Sharpie. I had hoped it was enough, but I now I'm not too sure if it helped at all... During the show, I wanted to laugh every time anyone landed a jump, since Vanessa and I would both write it down! I think everyone around us thought we were crazy....    I noticed that most of the people started filing into the seats after 2PM, LOL…they must know that the show would start late like it always does. Nearly all of the lower bowl was filled, and about half of the upper rows were filled. It looked like a good-sized audience. We were sitting in the corner, near the skater’s entrance (a bit better than the seats I got last time, right above the skater’s entrance on the short end). I always like to sneak a peek at who’s next and to observe what they do during their 10 seconds of warm-up before their cold spots.    The show started promptly (::guffaw!::) at 2:15... Opening - Call of the Champions    I loved the lighting! Go techies! Brasseur & Eisler - Detroiter Nicole Bobek - 1axel Rudy Galindo Lang & Tchernyshev (yay!) Philippe Candeloro (ew!) Fumie Suguri (OMG I had no idea she was going to be here! ) Anissina & Peizerat Sasha Cohen Punsalan & Swallow Surya Bonaly - 3toe Michael Weiss - 3lutz Kazakova & Dmitriev Viktor Petrenko Bourne & Kraatz (LOL Shae was boogeying to Viktor's music before the spot came on!) Elvis Stojko - 2axel Michelle Kwan  (I got a pic of her spiral! Yay! Plus I poked Vanessa when I saw Michelle at the tunnel, just to make sure she noticed!) Timothy Goebel - 3loop Irina Slutskaya Evgeny Plushenko - 3toe Alexei Yagudin - 3toe (a bit out-of-control, but otherwise fine) Nicole Bobek (Moulin Rouge medley) 2axel, 3toe, 2axel    Whee! Great way to start the show! She has a lot of power, although she was a bit slow on her sitspin and on the can-can footwork...A lot of fun though. (And on her spiral extension!) Lang & Tchernyshev (Parisienne Walkways)    Ooooh, Peter T looks great in that costume! (I'll bet that was a given though!) I really like this program, so it was definitely a treat to watch live. I'm always fascinated by ice dance because of the choreography, even though I'll probably never understand the judging... Fumie Suguri (some version of Pachelbel's Canon in D) 2axel, 3lutz (iffy), 3toe, 3flip    Wow! She is so lovely on the ice! Very soft and very flowy. I loved her performance! (And dang can she do a back scratch! I wish I could do a back scratch.... ) Philippe Candeloro (Wild Wild West) 2axel, 3toe, makes some poor woman slap him on the behind twice, 3lutz - hand down, takes off shirt, backflip, backflip    I'll give Philippe kudos to keeping up with the sound effects in the beginning, LOL. Plus he had a few moments of good footwork, but when I saw him bring out that hamper () I knew we were in for it...My other gripe (besides the fondling and the removing of clothing) is that it's so darned LONG!!! (Why doesn't Alexei get this much time???? Grrrr... ) Philippe can be great (I recently saw his 98 Olympic LP) but can he please stop with this gimmicky stuff? I wasn't really laughing... Dan Hollander (South Park/Mrs. Doubtfire 1axel, 1loop (LOL Vanessa turned to me and asked, "Was that a loop?"), changes costumes, 3sal - stepout, 3toe (iffy), backflip    Another gimmicky program, but I had only seen this once before and besides, he was doing triples in all that padding!! Gotta give him kudos for that! He was hilarious as usual, and the audience absolutely ate him up.  Punsalan & Swallow (String piece/One is the Loneliest Number)    I noted that they meshed with each other really well, as if they were two parts of a whole. Hmmm...not sure if that made sense, but that's the kind of vibe I got. I didn't understand the meaning of her tie, though. I also noted that when they came around our corner, I could hear their edges on the ice. That was interesting.... Sasha Cohen (Hernando's Hideaway) 2axel, 3flutz (iffy), 3sal (iffy), fall on footwork    In her brief ten-second warm-up, she did 2 waltz jumps. (Ha, it figures I would notice things like that..) My major gripe with this program is that the choreography was mostly upper body movements done on back crossovers. I'm glad that she and John Nicks are going to Tarasova for choreography - she needed a little more innovation in this one. (She passed our corner on the exact same path with CW back crossovers 3 times! Sasha dear, I'm sure there are other places on the ice for you to skate...) Otherwise, her stroking and power have improved, and can definitely perform with the best of 'em. Her jump landings give me the willies, though, cause she checks out so late - she's wobbly on the landing, and then she somehow musters a glide out of it.     Michael Weiss (Rolling Stones medley) 3lutz, 2flip, 3toe, backflip    I thought those gimmicky skates were cool, LOL... I mean, if you did that heel spread-eagle on regular figure skates, you would have torn off both your ankles, LOL! I wrote here, "OMG! The shirt!" which means that it was baaad...I think it was on the short side. Still, I really like this guy's skating! Surya Bonaly (March with Me) 2axel from standstill (!!), 3toe, 2ax, 3sal, backflip (one-foot), backflip (two-foot)    This girl is so muscular, she just pops off those jumps like they're nothing! (Though the telegraphing was pretty bad..) And that backflip! Wow! I liked this style from Surya, at least it was a change from the Cirque du Soleil stuff she always used... Rudy Galindo (Village People Medley) 2axel, 3toe, 2axel, 2toe, 2axel    Yup, he's still "San Jose's own!" I know this is an old program, but he just sells it like it's brand new, LOL. He's got great presence and a keen awareness of what his arms are doing, LOL. (Call it effeminate if you must, but at least he knows where they are! ahemcoughcough Timmycough) Brasseur & Eisler (She Ain't Pretty) reverse death spiral, reverse throw 1axel, headbanger ( )    Honestly, I didn't laugh at all with the cross-dressing thing, but I thought the reverse moves were cool! The audience, though, was totally into it and were freaked as I was with the headbanger.. INTERMISSION (Took some pics of the Zamboni and checked film...Show resumed at 3:40PM. I noticed that they didn't have any announcements about flash photography - just warnings about laser pointers and flower throwing. Hmmmm....) Ann-Patrice McDonough (Sugar Sugar) 3lutz, 2axel, 2 or 3flip, split jump into 3flip    Wow! I didn't know she was going to be at our show! What a treat to see an up-and-comer! Her performance ability is not quite up there with Sasha's, but she should definitely be a force to reckon with at the competitions in the near future! (The lady sitting next to me asked me who she was after the performance, since she wasn't listed in the program)  Irina Grigorian    Yet another gimmicky number, but hey, she's got to have some serious skilz to do what she does! Yikes! Hopefully got some good photos of her with the hoops, LOL... Bourne & Kraatz (Sadeness)    Wow! The music was sooo effective in that arena - it just pulsed! They're really fast and their edge moves were so amazing! (I wanna figure out how to do the crouching move with the deep edges!) However, I did notice with the later performance of A&P is that they had less chemistry than the other ice dancers: it's like they're dancing with the music and incidentally with each other rather than dancing with each other to the music. I know...I'm getting more and more incoherent... Elvis Stojko (That Girl) 2axel, 2 or 3lutz, 3toe, cool sliding move on his hands!    I was kinda sad that we had row 20 seats; half of the fun in watching Elvis skate is his lip-synching! It was funny, how Victor Kraatz did a sliding move in the previous program, and then Elvis did it all the way down the ice! God that is a cool move! (But I believe I'd slit my wrists if I tried that on the ice I usually skate on..) Boy can he pull off a darned good back scratch too! (I'm getting jealous... ) Besedin & Polishchuk ("Swan Lake")    Well, what can I say? You've seen one of their programs, you've seen 'em all. The stuff they did in the finale was a lot cooler, since they were actually skating during the lifts. The audience loved them, though. (And I must admit, some of the moves are really impressive...but they're just not skating! ) Timothy Goebel (Freedom) spread eagle into 3toe/sal (I'm still not totally sure with Tim..), 3flutz - fall, 3loop, 3toe    Presentation's better (love the shirt!) though his posture needs a bit more work...Only fall of the night (and the audience "awwww"ed. I was noting the fall, LOL...I'm so evil! ) His jumps seem so easy! Irina Slutskaya (Cotton-Eyed Joe) 3turns into 3loop, 3sal, 2axel    Irina did something different with her hair - it's longer now and it makes her long so much younger! She's so cute! And that Biellman combination is amazing! (not to mention her spins are really fast..) Didn't really notice any difference in speed between her and Michelle.... Viktor Petrenko (Who Let the Dogs Out) 3toe, 2axel, 2axel    I loved the big cute fuzzy! (Hey, what did you expect?) Had some impressive footwork in it, though the constant high-pitched yipping in the music was close to driving me insane! I loved the little touches with the dog, especially with it sitting on his butt during the camel spin and resting on his head during the sitspin. Kazakova & Dmitriev (Matrix soundtrack) Throw 3toe - two foot, death spiral into 1ax, no-foot throw 2sal    I loved the story that this program told, even though it was weird! I'm into weird.. Liked the kind of drama that they portrayed. Also, when they skated around our corner, I could hear their blades on the ice. Evgeny Plushenko (Carmen) 3toe - turn out, 3flip - step out, 2axel, 3lutz - turn out, 3toe/3toe - turn out on the second jump    Egads! When Evgeny Plushenko errs on everything but a 2ax and a 3toe, you know something's in the air....I think he threw in the 3toe/3toe to try and redeem himself...He rotates really fast, and his basic skating is definitely one of the best. (LOL I don't even recall if there was a Biellman or not - I was writing down all the jump errors! ) He was on the slow side and basically un-dramatic, and the rendition of the tango by A&P just a performance later proved it. He was just off. Anissina and Peizerat (Original Dance - Tango)    Drama, drama, drama! (And for the record I think Marina is so lovely with her hair up!) LOL with the audience participation - Gwendal didn't point to our section to shout "Ole!", but still, the rest of the audience was slow.... I love 'em! Alexei Yagudin (Winter) 2flip, 3loop, 3toe    Right when I saw the costume, I knew! (And Vanessa poked me several times to make sure I knew, LOL..) He did a gorgeous airy 1flip in his ten-second warm-up (sigh I wish my 1flips were that gorgeous...) When he popped it in the program, the lady behind said, "Beautiful!" anyways. Maybe she like big airy jumps too! (That's the same lady who said, "Yeah!" when Plushenko landed a 2ax, LOL.... ) Gosh I don't remember much about the program, except that the footwork is amazing live, the jumps are big and that it was waaay too short. I've never seen him live before so I have no idea if he was on or off speed-wise, though he strokes very efficiently and with a lot of power. As I said, waaaay too short and before I knew it, it was over. Screamed real loud for him in the name of the board, LOL... Michelle Kwan (Fields of Gold) 2axel, 3toe, 3lutz    OMG watching Michelle was an otherworldly experience! I appreciate her even more now that I skate myself, cause I swear I've never seen anyone as smooth as she is. She just floats - she doesn't obey the laws of friction at her feet. Gorgeous edges! Sigh...Even if I could just do edges like her I'd die a happy person! Partial standing ovation, but I was too inundated with stuff in my lap to take part in it. I wished she had a longer program too, LOL... Closing Number - American the Beautiful (People started to leave after Michelle's skate! ) Punsalan & Swallow Dan Hollander - 3toe step out Nicole Bobek Irina Grigorian (hey! She can skate without the hoops! ) Elvis Stojko - 1flip wonky, 2toe Evgeny Plushenko - 2axel Lang & Tchernyshev Bourne & Kraatz Timothy Goebel - 3toe/3toe Rudy Galindo Closing Number - Battle Hymn of the Republic (I knew the arrangement, so I sang the whole thing, even the high notes! ) Michael Weiss - some 3jump/2toe (some guy in the aisle was in my way..) Surya Bonaly - backflip Fumie Suguri - spin combination Sasha Cohen - SashaSkid (TM, LOL..) Viktor Petrenko - 3toe Besedin & Polishchuk Irina Slutskaya Anissina & Peizerat Alexei Yagudin - huge 3ax (!!!!) LOL I like to think I willed him to do it - I saw him set up for an axel, my heart started beating faster and I whispered, "Come on, do it, do it.." I screamed my ears off when he landed it! Right after, Vanessa poked me, asking what she had just missed when she was looking for more film! Needless to say, she's very mad... Philippe Candeloro - backflip, 3toe (I almost missed him since I was still on a high from the Yagudin 3ax, LOL..) Kazakova & Dmitriev Brasseur & Eisler Michelle Kwan - 3lutz, stag leaps    I was bracing myself for the fireworks at the end, but it really wasn't that bad, LOL...I heard from other San Jose reports that Michelle had a freak fall in the finale, but I didn't see it since I was watching the other group at that moment. I did see her lagging behind her group, trying to catch up, and I just assumed that she had missed a move. She was fine by the 8PM show, though! I'm still on a skating high right now! Ah, Alexei's triple axel and Michelle's edging in one night! I can die a happy person! (Now if only I could will a deathdrop out of Alexei too, then I'd die as an ecstatic person, LOL..) When it all ended, I dropped everything on my chair and then I took part in the standing ovation! Whee! (I dropped my film in the process, but the guy sitting in front with the video camera/still camera/whatever it was picked it up! Whew!)     Vanessa and I spent the rest of the time wandering around San Jose - it's better with a car - and arguing whether or not Alexei was hotter with short hair or hotter with longer hair. (I'm adamantly siding with the longer locks...) LOL it was great fun! Come on! Tell me you know what this music is! Queen's "We are the Champions," LOL!