"The Portlandian" - September 10, 2018 edition

[Terry Hall]

TTTTT H H EEEEE
T H H E
T HHHHH EEEEE
T H H E
T H H EEEEE

PPPP OOOO RRRR TTTTT L A N N DDDD I A N N TM
P P O O R R T L A A NN N D D I A A NN N
PPPP O O RRRR T L AAAAA N N N D D I AAAAA N N N
P O O R R T L A A N NN D D I A A N NN
P OOOO R R T LLLLL A A N N DDDD I A A N N

*****************************************************************
The Portlandian, the Internet's premier source of Tonya News

September 10, 2018 Edition
(C) 2018 Portland Ice Skating Society
http://www.pdxiss.org
*****************************************************************

Yes, it's another edition of "The Portlandian". And given what
Tonya's been up to in the past weeks, we'd like to say a big
"howdy, pardner" to all our subscribers. As usual there's lot's
of Tonya news in store, so lets kick it right off with:


TONYA TAKES TEXAS

Not the title of a '70s porn movie, nor a chain saw massacre. But
something far more interesting. In fact, it's got to be the most
eagerly anticpated thing to hit the Lone Star State since the
revelation of who shot J.R. Ewing.

They say that everything's bigger in Texas, and they don't come
much bigger than Tonya!

Tonya recently did another live post-movie chat after a screening
of "I, Tonya" in Austin on Aug. 14 and 15 at the Alamo Drafthouse
South Lamar. Tonya spoke to the audience afterwards and then
stood and greeted them for over 2 hours, taking selfies with
fans. A report from someone on the scene says "they were so
thrilled to meet her... What a great experience for her and the
audience". There she also met Neon co-founder and Drafthouse
cinema chain owner Tim League.

Tonya posted this picture of herself on Instagram - and it's
attracted lots of positive comments:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmZWxSvH2Hj/?taken-by=therealtonyaharding

Alamo Drafthouse has also posted this picture of Tonya's post-
movie Q&A on their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/AlamoAustin/photos/a.1812162935505920/1812166128838934/


TONYA COOKS UP A STORM

They say that if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
That's the challenge that Tonya will be facing according to this
article in Portland's favorite fish-wrapper, which is reporting
that she'll be appearing in a special celebrity edition of "Worst
Cooks in America" early next year:

https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/life-and-culture/erry-2018/08/4330a993776143/tonya-harding-is-coming-back-t.html

The O-rag quotes Allison Page, president of HGTV and Food Network
as the source, who revealed the news at the Television Critics
Association 2018 summer press tour back in July: "This week, we
wrapped up filming on 'Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity
Edition,' which will return to the screen early next year. This
season, Anne Burrell and Tyler Florence take on the best of the
worst celebrity cooks, from Tonya Harding to Morgan Fairchild, to
see if they can help them find kitchen redemption."

Will Tonya repeat her stunning success on Dancing With The Stars
in the kitchen? Or will her culinary skills be more a case of
Moldy Old Dough? You'll have to watch it all the way through to
find out, but our source within the Tonya camp tells us "she had
a blast doing it".


COFFEE, TEA, OR TONYA?

Meanwhile, Portland legal ethics instructor Stuart Teicher had
the good fortune to sit next to Tonya on a plane as she was
flying back home after completing filming on her "Worst Cooks"
appearance, and took this photo with her:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlzK6lcARdm/?hl=en

Like many people who have met Tonya in person, he was captivated
by her charm, personality and good humor:

"I just sat next to @therealtonyaharding all the way from New
Jersey to #Portland, #Oregon. She is one of the nicest people
I’ve ever met! Tonya, it was a pleasure to meet you and I wish
you the best of luck in everything!"

Who wants "Snakes on a Plane" when you can have Tonya on a plane
instead? It's far more pleasant.


THE SKATES OF SAN FRANCISCO

A detailed account of Tonya's San Francisco appearance from March
has been posted by moderator Dan Han-Klein. This also includes a
video of Dana's Q&A with Tonya, where she discusses watching the
film for the first time, the politics of skating, landing the
triple axel, meeting her husband, and her advice to others:

https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2018/03/29/what-we-learned-watching-i-tonya-with-tonya-harding

"In spite of being in the public eye for so long, she too felt
a bit nervous before the Q&A. Once on stage, I could tell she
truly appreciates having a packed theater full of support.
She absorbs the reassurance from the crowd like a sponge,
soaking up the encouragement as if it could wipe away the
years of negativity aimed towards her. She is blunt, caring,
and - as you'll see in the video below - surprisingly funny."

"They say never meet your heroes, but they say nothing about
meeting villains. The vilified Tonya Harding is a creature of
the past. The Tonya I met that day stayed after the Q&A to
take photos with every single fan who wanted one. Her
athletic prowess still reared its head. She playfully lifted
me up into the air at one point (please look out for the
pairs skating team of Harding/Han-Klein coming to the ice
soon). We bonded over the miracle of Spanx, various
respective sports injuries, and hell, we even did shots
together."

By the way, this was not Tonya's first visit to San Francisco -
back in June 2002 we reported on a previous visit to that city
where she met the then Mayor, Willie Brown, and posed for photos
on a trolley bus:

http://pdxiss.org/port49.htm

http://pdxiss.org/sf_mayor.jpg

http://pdxiss.org/sf_trolley.jpg


A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARDING

A few further reports of Tonya's rooftop appearance in L.A. back
in July have also now surfaced. Not much detail in this one, but
a couple of photos of Tonya, including one with a couple of fans:

http://fangirlish.com/skyline-sound-cinema-i-tonya/

There's also some footage of Tonya's pre-movie Q&A session.
Poorly filmed with a cellphone from the looks of it, but better
than nothing (you'd think Neon/Alamo would film these things
themselves):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJJ7CrI7kzM

Another detailed article, though unfortunately this writer seemed
more hung up on Tonya's politics than interested in the rest of
her story:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/07/falling-out-of-love-with-tonya-harding.html


TONYA TRAILERS DEFINITELY NOT TRASH

Tonya has had to put up with many feeble jokes about being
trailer trash over the years, but this time she's having the last
laugh thanks to trailers of a different kind.

The Oscars may be well in the rear-view mirror by now, but
somebody forgot to tell "I, Tonya", which is still racking up the
silverware. This time it's won two Golden Trailer Awards for Neon
and its advertising agency Zealot. "I Tonya: Haters" won Best
Independent Trailer while the "mirror" trailer won the award for
"Most Original TV Spot (for a feature film)":

http://www.goldentrailer.com/gta19-nominees/

You can view the trailers here - if you haven't seen them already
(which we know you have):

http://zealotinc.com/


TONYA SPOOF TAKES THE CHECKERED FLAG AT ESPYS

And while on the topic of trailers, back in July ESPN's Espy
Awards featured race-car driver Danica Patrick doing a fairly
bang-on parody of the "I, Tonya" trailer:

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2018/07/danica-patrick-and-aaron-rodgers-star-in-i-tonya-parody-at-espys

The sketch, considered a highlight of the show, was introduced by
Allison Janney and featured Patrick's boyfriend Aaron Rodgers in
the role of a Gillooly-type character, complete with bad
mustache, who commissions a "hit" on the race car of rival Helio
Castroneves (who does a pretty good Nancy impersonation).
Definitely one of the better parodies out there, even down to
using the same typeface and alot of the same music (and a real
parrot).

On the subject of parodies, Alamo has also done this other one
featuring Paul Walter Hauser in his Shawn Eckardt role, getting
kicked out of a cinema for failing to silence his pager - all
done in the format of a "Hard Copy"-type tabloid TV show:

https://drafthouse.com/news/shocker-tonya-hardings-bodyguard-speaks


BOY BAND DEBUTS TONYA SINGLE

Hard on the heels of the Sufjan Stevens Tonya song, boy band
Brockhampton premiered their new song, simply called "Tonya", on
the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon back in June:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/brockhampton-tonya-new-album-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon-ameer-vann-latest-a8409461.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U18GJTU7N1M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y0s10oRyHI

Billboard describes "Tonya" as "a soulful track that heavily
features the band's signature mix of soulful singing and rapping,
with a big beat breaking in mid-way through the performance. By
far one of the moodiest songs that the group has released,
'Tonya,' paints themes of family disapproval, loss and grappling
with success."

In spite of its title, it only briefly mentions her, in Kevin
Abstract's rap: "My ghost still haunt ya/ My life is 'I,
Tonya'/Big eyed monster, only face to conquer/I hated songs about
fame 'cause this stuff meant nothing/Until them headlines came,
the first flight I'm jumpin'."

This is not the first mention of Tonya in rap: references to
Tonya & Nancy frequently turn up in gangsta rap, being mentioned
in at least 12 known instances. In addition, a rap called
"Classic Case" by Emma "Lil Freckles" Carroll samples
Nancy's post-whack cries;

https://noisey.vice.com/en_au/article/bry8w6/nancy-kerrigan-versus-tonya-harding-a-beef-timeline

Perhaps Tonya could take up rap - we've had Ice T and Ice Cube,
so why not "Ice Sk8a". She's already got the badass image
necessary to be a rapper.


THE BITCH IS BACK

Tonya also gets a prominent mention in a new book by feminist
writer Allison Yarrow. In "90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the
Failed Promise of Gender Equality," Yarrow continues the re-
appraisal of that decade's most controversial women, such as
Tonya, Marcia Clark, Anita Hill, Monica Lewinsky Anna Nicole
Smith and Lorena Bobbitt - and argues that overall the 90's was a
decade of setbacks for female progress. Yarrow calls this
"Bitchification":

"The trailblazing women of the 90s were excoriated by a deeply
sexist society," writes Yarrow. "That’s why we remember them
as bitches, not victims of sexism". "The advent of the 24-
hour news cycle reinforced society’s deeply entrenched
sexism. Meanwhile, marketers hijacked feminism and poisoned
girlhood for a generation of young women."

https://newrepublic.com/article/149491/1990s-got-wrong

She also argues that Nancy got the short straw in this atmosphere
as well:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/article195679479.html

http://time.com/5310256/90s-gender-equality-progress/

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-bitchified-decade-were-still-paying-for/

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2018/07/26/why-certain-slur-hasn-gone-away/WwPQKsJButDlnShdjX80cM/story.html

https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062412348/90s-bitch/

http://allisonyarrow.com/90s-bitch/


TONYA INSPIRES ON THE CATWALK

Tonya has also proven an inspiration for fashion designers in
recent months, in particular Adam Selman:

https://fashionista.com/2018/02/adam-selman-fall-2018-beauty-hair-makeup

"Adam has a lot of really cool inspirations, her being one of
them," says Holly Falcone, the nail artist behind the
blinged-out manicure, who insisted that the skater has been
an ongoing inspiration for Selman, rather than some fleeting
obsession resulting from the biopic. "Just in general, her
costumes were always really over the top and her nails were
always done, even 20 years later, like in The New York Times,
she's clutching her skates and has these long nails."


Now here's something that you thought you'd never see - Tonya
being referenced in an advertisement by someone in Portland:

https://www.depop.com/naturelizard/naturelizard-sweet-early-90s-avia-jacket/

Sweet early 90s Avia jacket. Very Tonya Harding. Great
condition! Bust: 22.5” length: 24”. Free shipping! 7 months
ago, Portland, OR, USA


Not the title of an early-70's Hannah-Barbera cartoon but a 90's
fashion fad that's been revived, thanks to Tonya:

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/mar/01/the-scrunch-bunch-the-surprising-return-of-the-scrunchie

On I, Tonya, the use of scrunchies had the opposite meaning:
it was a sign of Harding’s pride in her appearance that she so
closely matched her scrunchies to her outfits. Most were
created by Adruitha Lee, the hair designer, "who was
incredibly crafty," says Johnson. "She and her and assistant
would make a lot of them, or find them in cheap and cheerful
shops – drug stores – which is also where Tonya's 'Chanel'
earrings came from. Sometimes we would take those and
embellish them. Margot loved them and would take them home and
wear them."


This article praises Tonya stylish choice of a Louis Vuitton
Speedy handbag:

http://www.instyle.com/news/tonya-harding-louis-vuitton-speedy-handbag

"But one visual element stood out to us above all others:
Harding's favorite Louis Vuitton sidekick. The classic,
beloved, and expensive handbag ($970; us.louisvuitton.com) has
found a home in the closets of many celebrities, but no one
carried it with quite as much panache as Harding did."

How did Tonya come to possess such an expensive bag? Was it real,
or a knockoff? Or a gift from an admirer? Unfortunately the
article sheds no light on the mystery. But it was also an
inspiration for "I, Tonya"'s costume designers:

https://fashionista.com/2018/01/i-tonya-movie-film-costumes-hair-makeup

"There's something about Tonya that's surprisingly subtle to
me," explains Johnson. "She's very neat and very proud; she
always has her turtleneck tucked in and her leather bomber
jacket and her Louis Vuitton Speedy bag and her Chanel [double
C] earrings. It's these little details that show her pride
that she's made it and that she's proud of herself and the way
she dresses." To get the leather bomber right, Johnson
combined the body of one piece found at a costume house with a
button-detail collar from another jacket. "There were a lot of
solutions based on lack of money," she adds, about assembling
over 100 costume changes for Robbie.


Finally, it seems that skating in general is inspiring designers:

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/figure-skater-style

Thanks also to the acclaimed film I, Tonya, where Margot
Robbie plays shamed skater Tonya Harding, who was embroiled in
an attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan, skating is having a
moment in the spotlight. Thank god there is finally a
fashionable sport. As I have written in this column before,
too long have our eyes suffered from badly dressed footballers
in drop crotch denims.


WELCOME TO THE CLUB

Alysa Liu has become the tenth female figure skater (and 4th
American) to enter the triple axel club after landing it at the
Asian Open Trophy in Bangkok, Thailand in early August. At 12
years old, she's also the youngest. May we offer our
congratulations!

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/02/this-east-bay-figure-skater-just-landed-an-historic-jump/


TONYA TURNS UP IN TED TALK

You just can't avoid Tonya these days: a random Tonya reference
turned up in this guy's TED talk about procrastination when I
was listening to the radio recently. It's about 3 minutes in.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt (literally):

http://www.tspr.org/post/what-happens-brain-extreme-procrastinator

Here's Tim Urban's complete talk if you want to listen to it,
plus a transcript:

https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU

https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=490626164

I've been meaning to listen to it, but I just haven't got
around to it...

*****************************************************************
VISIT THESE GREAT TONYA WEB SITES:

PortIce - http://www.pdxiss.org
David House - http://www.tonyaharding.org
Charlie Main - http://www.charliesweb.com/tonya/tonya.html
Puppetboy - http://www.usapaul.net/tonya/
Valerie Smith - http://www.olywa.net/radu/valerie/LilHam.html
Swan Lake - http://members.tripod.com/~TonyaHarding/index.html
Blades of Gold - http://members.tripod.com/tmhfan/index.html
THNK1994 Museum - https://www.facebook.com/THNK1994/
*****************************************************************