|
Home
Figure Skating
Life Experiences
Writing
|
Warning: This is going to be REALLY LONG!!!
Well, my COI experience didn’t start out too smoothly since my dad was getting all panicky that we would get lost on the way to the arena (I mean, just follow the signs, Dad!!) and the bad mood passed on to my mom. So we had two cranky parents sitting in the car, soon to be joined by a cranky sister, who was mad that I remembered the camera but forgot the film (perfect me!). Actually, it was partly her fault, since she told me to bring that particular camera, which HAPPENED to have no film in it!
Anyhoo, I was the only one sitting in the car who had any semblance of a good mood, at least until the show started.
The rink was more than half full, though some of the sections had absolutely no people in them. Weird. The lower levels were almost full but the upper levels still had a lot of seats empty. The seats that my family had were closer than I had originally thought, and we were near the opening where the skaters came out, so I could see exactly who was next without squinting. (Like "Oh, that’s Todd! Looks like Mike with those gold pants!!" etc.) And we have advance order forms too!
Yay! They’re coming next year! I also got a program (the same size as my sister’s BSB program, only $5 cheaper!!
Nya nya!!) eventually found my way back to my seat.
At least I was smart enough to take notes (but silly Anita, forgot the film!), though in the dim light it was hard to aim the pen,
LOL!
The opening number came out pretty good (I thought it was so cool how all of the skaters just flew out at the same time!) and the only fall was from B&S on their throw triple loop. Tim stepped out of a triple
(sal?) and Sasha almost lost her balance on her Charlotte but caught herself in time. (One annoying thing was that all of the Charlottes were done toward us, so all we got to see were their legs and up their skirts.) That change-edge spiral of Michelle’s just gave me chills, it was so beautiful!
Evgeny Plushenko (Tropical-ish music)
- 2ax, 3t, 3lp, 3ax (probably. It was bigger than the ax jump before so I figured it was a triple!), 3lz
LOL, the first time my sister saw those neon pants, she said, "Oh, God…" I personally have no comment on them (taking after Mike with eye-catching pants huh, Plushy?) I thought he was cute, that his program was cute. Except the way beginning when he started
gyrating his hips. (I thought, "Oh my God, Evgeny has been corrupted!! He’s WIGGLING HIS BUTT!! He’s not supposed to do that!!") Other people liked that part though, and cheered. (Fine. Go on and provoke him!) His 2ax was approached soooo slowly…but his other jumps had some speed going into them. I didn’t think he had enough speed even for a 2ax, but he pulled it off! It was cool later on cause he took his catch foot spiral to our side of the rink, and he had a big smile on his face! No Biellmann here. (Thank goodness! Maybe he’s finally learning!)
Sasha Cohen (Anytime, Anywhere)
Man, is this girl small! It’s hard to believe that she’s about as old as I am! Beautiful positions. Her split spiral is
so extended, eek! She has a really pretty layback spin and her pretzel move brought gasps from the audience. I think people said that her spins traveled at Nationals, but I saw none of that here. They were perfectly centered from where I was sitting. Terrific posture and presentation, though she still doesn’t smile much.
Dan Hollander (South Park/Mrs. Doubtfire)
People started laughing when he just came out in his getup, LOL! He was sooooo cute as
Cartman, with the toepick running at the perfect times in the music! People didn’t seem to recognize him before his performance, but he brought the house down! Absolutely hilarious! My sister couldn’t figure out how he could jump at all with all of the padding that he had on!
Usova & Platov (Spente la Stelle? I’ve forgotten already! I noted only the jumps…)
Very exquisite program, though some of the lifts were directed at the other side of the rink so I couldn’t see what they were doing at all. I suppose it’s the downfall of sitting in the short end...
Nicole Bobek (I Need to Know/Let’s Get Loud)
- 2t, 2ax, 3t, 2ax-step out
This girl just radiates energy! I was surprised that no one clapped during her spiral sequence, since her extension is
AAAAAHH!!! Her spins need a little more speed, though, since she almost slowed to a halt on her final
sitspin. For the record I like her hair a lot better when it’s up in a ponytail, not loose like it was last year (judging from the photos). She looks so much older when her hair is down. Only other thing is that she had a different ending than the TNT broadcast. At the way end she dropped down on the ice, maybe into a split. (The angle was wrong, so I couldn’t see that clearly)
Michael Weiss (Superfreak/U Can’t Touch This)
I knew it was Mike when he walked onto the ice with those gold pants! He started his program in a headstand right in front of our section! I think that when he did that headstand, he lost something on the ice, since there was this black thing on the ice during the rest of his program and Liz Punsalan had to remove it after his performance. He did quite well, though in the first fifteen seconds, all he did was wiggle his butt at our section. (Okay Mike. We all know you have a great butt, now STOP IT!!) His breakdancing and "humping the ice" brought cheers from the audience. Great energy overall.
Punsalan & Swallow (W-O-M-A-N)
Their "woman power" program brought cheers from the ladies in the audience (including me). It was really cute, this story about a bickering couple. In the middle, where the music cut was, people started clapping because they thought that it was over, but it wasn’t. The broom prop was used really well.
Rudy Galindo (Send in the Clowns)
We cheered sooo loudly when the announcer said, "San Jose’s own Rudy Galindo!" Clearly this whole audience was behind him (I cheered really loud too, while the rest of my family though I was crazy) His whole costume sparkled, even his hair! It was such a heartfelt program, and I almost cried at the end of it. My mom thought that the rolling hoop/2ax thing was really cool. So did I (I can’t imagine it rolling for that long!!) The audience started clapping and cheering before he even got to the final position,
LOL! And he did his Y-spin, which people cheered for, and a proper martini glass,
LOL! No eggbeater here, at least not what I’ve been told an eggbeater is supposed to look like...
Dorothy Hamill (???)- 1ax delayed, 2? (might’ve been a toe, but it was done on the other side so I’m not sure…), 2t
The Queen of Smoothness, definitely! My sister had absolutely no idea who she was (shame on her!) but people screamed when she came out, so she was recognized! Beautiful layback and forward scratch spin. And that delayed 1ax was big! Perfect edges, too.
Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze (Smooth)
Anton looks so much like Justin Timberlake from N*Sync with those highlights! And Elena is TINY compared to him! And they are very fast; they practically zipped around the ice! Everyone oohed at her split 2 twist landed on his boots. Had a little turnout on the throw 3 sal but they did their flip-lift, which I think is absolutely amazing! Great energy here also. (It was overall a great night in terms of enthusiasm) No unbuttoned shirt for Anton; I guess he did get self-conscious about that,
LOL!
Viktor Petrenko (Mambo #5)
My sister went, "Ummmm…" when she saw him with that doll, but the program was soooo cute! Viktor is a fabulous dancer! What was REALLY cute was when he hugged his "partner" after the program like pairs teams always do after a great performance!
LOL! Too adorable!
INTERMISSION (Ice resurfacing. I was busy recopying my notes to make them neater while my family was calculating the route of the
zamboni, LOL! All of them were wrong! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a purple zamboni before, with Yahoo! written all over it...)
Timothy Goebel (American Pie)
- 3sal, 3lp, 3t-fall (might've been a 4 sal attempt???)
I thought the acrobats were supposed to come after intermission, but Tim did, so I had to fix my notes,
LOL! His posture has improved already, but those rounded shoulders still need some work. I think that his was the only really bad fall today, since a lot of ice went flying up. Or maybe it was the setup for the jump. Anyways, it looked like he went down pretty hard, and everyone groaned collectively. Otherwise he was all smiles; seems like a real nice kid. It was so cool how you could see all of his edging because of the clean ice!
The freaky Ukrainian acrobat dudes
Their routine was really funny and we all gasped at their balancing tricks.
AAAIIIIEEE! I also hoped that their skate blades were really really really blunt!!! EEK!!
Anissina & Peizerat (Carmina Burana)
I was expecting them to do the Esmeralda number, but instead we got Carmina
Burana. I’m not complaining though, hehe. They did have different costumes for this, and Marina’s hair was straightened, though just as red as it usually is. It was really interesting to see this from a different perspective than the camera had at Worlds, and they did their gender-bender lift right in front of us! I think the woman sitting behind me was a really big ice-dancing fan, since she screamed for all of the ice dancers,
LOL! Everyone screamed really loud for them, and it looked like they were having a blast!
Surya Bonaly (???)- 2ax-step out, ? (might have missed something since I was writing down the 2ax and everyone clapped while I was writing) 3t-two footed, 3f? (some kind of triple...) 3t, 3sal, backflip
Surya doesn’t look like she has really bad edging when viewed live, but maybe that’s just me. Her first 3t was really close to the boards, and maybe she got a little freaked. Everyone cheered at her
backflip, and I think in the opening number, she did a backflip into a triple jump
(sal?) Great athleticism.
Elvis Stojko (That's What I Like about You)- 3lz, 3ax (I think it was…oh well, I cheered anyway!) weird fall on stroking
He was wearing his patriotic Canadian boot covers! The crowd totally erupted when he was announced! He also did the Candeloro thing, going into the audience and hugging somebody. Smiled and looked into the audience a lot. Really fast footwork. He had a weird slip while stroking at the other side of the rink and went down, but popped back up so quickly that my sister leaned over and asked, "Was that on purpose?" The crowd did groan though, so I guess so! Needs a haircut...
Klimova & Ponomarenko
Don’t remember much about them, except that her hair is REALLY frizzy...
Todd Eldredge (The Glory)
- 3lp, 2ax (probably popped—it looked like it was supposed to be a triple) 3t, 3s, 2ax
He went out on the ice when K&P were still bowing, stroking around and did a 1ax. Stroked around a little more and did a 2lp before being announced. Todd is the King of Smoothness, definitely! Great stroking and spinning (FAST too!!) Emotional program, almost had me crying at the end. I don’t see the problem with this costume, but I didn’t see much so I guess I can’t comment…He didn’t look as skinny as he usually does on TV. (By contrast I noticed Evgeny’s skinny arms in the T-shirt that he was wearing!)
Kazakova & Dmitriev (Spente la Stelle)
All I can say is, I love Oksana’s turnout on her elements! I think it’s unmatched among any of the pair skaters out there. Their throw 3toe is quite nice, and their death spiral into a 2 (3?) jump was amazing! I think I liked this version of Spent la Stelle better than the other one (whoever did it...)
Oksana Baiul (Love D'Amour)- 3t-step out, 3t-step out, 1ax
It really wasn’t her night in terms of jumps, but she interprets music very well. Didn’t get all dramatic until at the way end, when she went off the ice in a dip position like she was
overcome by the applause. All of us were behind her though.
Philippe Candeloro (Braveheart)- 2ax, 3t, 3lz, 3lp, 2t, 3t
All of his jumps were landed, but most of them were barely eeked out. His Braveheart program really follows the drama of the story, though the music sounds sooooo much like Titanic I could kill somebody! James Horner shouldn’t have won that Oscar for Titanic since it sounds so much like
Braveheart, even though he wrote Braveheart too!! It’s not original, even if he did copy from himself!!
Argh!
(Okay, rant over!) The audience really liked his footwork sequence with the staff, and even that customary
lookie-what’s-under-my-kilt they liked. (Luckily that wasn’t directed at my section!) The guy who comes up and puts the black bag over Philippe’s head wasn’t anyone I recognized, since I watched him go off the ice and take off his mask. He was a big guy with a bald head (maybe one of the acrobats??)
Brasseur & Eisler (We Like to Party)
Somebody tell me she’s not pregnant, please!! That headbanger scared the @&#!^ out of me! (Her head was like two inches off the ice!!) They were really energetic and did a lot of tricks, which also scared me a lot!
Michelle Kwan (The World is Not Enough)
She’s so skinny! I couldn’t believe she was that skinny! (And I have the same BMI as she does!!) Her hair is shoulder-length now, and she still wears it in a half-ponytail. The lighting is really purple, so I could see her other arm, unlike the TNT broadcast (She’s missing an arm!
Aaaaaah!) Absolutely smooth and effortless skating, and fast also! Who said that she was slow?! When she landed that 3lz (right in front of my section!) I screamed so loud, everyone thought I was crazy! Given, it was a little flutzed (either that or it took off from a flat), since I was watching her skating foot, but hey, SHE LANDED A TRIPLE LUTZ, PEOPLE!! That change-edge spiral is so amazing to watch live, even if she did it facing the other side of the rink! It covers so much ice, and that inside edge must be close to 45 degrees off the ice, it’s so deep! I’m thinking that maybe she’s having a little trouble with her back Y-spin, since I’ve only seen her do it once this entire season (on the COI broadcast on TNT) and this time she did it with a bent free leg. She also needs a little more time with that spin doctor of hers, hint hint! But her smoothness in stroking is unbelievably exquisite enough, so I’m just nitpicking. I cheered so loudly after her performance, and so did everyone else!
Closing Number (Bolero)
Right after Michelle bowed, Surya went right onto the ice, LOL! It’s an amazing number, with everyone just coming in and going out, you really have to see it live to get it! It was fun for me since I could see the skaters as they came out, so I kept track of the ones I liked! (Must’ve followed Michelle forever,
LOL!) See it!!
It was kind of funny because during the individual performances, no one gave a standing ovation for anyone, but afterwards, everyone just stood up and clapped like there was no tomorrow! (I personally had some trouble since I had to put aside my pen, notepad, and program,
LOL!) Great show! What a first COI experience for me! Needless to say my family was in a much better mood when they left the arena than going in!
Come on! Tell me you know what this music is! Queen's "We are the Champions,"
LOL!
|
