"The Portlandian" - August 25, 2023 edition

[Special Duties Section]

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

August 25, 2023 Edition
(C) 2023 Portland Ice Skating Society
http://www.pdxiss.org
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Welcome to another issue of The Portlandian for 2023.

There's been important developments in Tonyaland over the past
few months. The most notable of these is that Tonya is now back
on the ice training, and is reported to be working on a new
program with her long-time coach Dody Teachman. It's the first
time Tonya has been back skating since the pandemic.

We've posted the videos of her skating here, and will continue to
add to them as time goes by. The quality of some early ones is a
bit poor, but other later ones are in HD:

https://pdxiss.org/new-skating.htm

As can be seen, Tonya has now regained almost all of her double
jumps, and some combinations - not bad for someone in their early
fifties. She has also lost even more weight.


June was also planned to see a personal appearance by Tonya, with
her making a special appearance at a local baseball game,
including throwing out the first ball. Unfortunately, due to
scheduling issues, Tonya and the team were unable to agree on a
date, and we regret to advise that this did not go ahead.


AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

Last issue we mentioned a French play about Tonya that played in
Paris from late April to mid-May. The play, "Poor White Trash",
is the work of first time writer/director Laura Boisaubert and is
performed by an all-female cast of four actors.

Now some video clips of the production have emerged on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Crf2EieM0EQ/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CroC-5tr1UU/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsEcJTNM0Wk/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsL6vnvtis6/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsOamkQstZI/

You can also see more photos and clips here:

https://www.instagram.com/lesvaleureuxses/


We also found this review - all in French, unfortunately, but as
they say, Google Translate is your friend...

http://delacouraujardin.over-blog.com/2023/05/poor-white-trash-l-affaire-tonya-harding.html

... and it appears to be quite positive. Unfortunately, we can't
post the entire translation here for copyright reasons, but
here's a sample of what the reviewer thought:

"Laura Boisaubert paints a remarkable societal fresco of
an America confined to its representations and
discriminations."

"Thanks to a striking writing of high quality, with
sharp and very funny formulas, she paints a ruthless
portrait of a society where the markers of poverty
constitute an indelible blemish in the eyes of the
wealthy."

"Mademoiselle Boisaubert had the excellent idea of
dealing with these subjects through soap-opera, these
soap operas with countless episodes and characters
confined to clichés and stereotypes. A tragi-comic
soap."

"The four actresses will each take on several
characters, changing skin and costume with virtuosity.
Here, never a downtime. Everything is fluid, everything
is to the millimeter, during these 46 scenes. Yes,
you read correctly. Forty-six scenes linked together
with remarkable precision."

"As you will have understood, this show, completely
mastered from start to finish, combines content and
form in terms of total success."

"It's clever, it's funny, it's intelligent, it's hard-
hitting, it's enjoyable, all in the service of a real
dramaturgical purpose and a real societal awareness."

The reviewer praised the four actresses - Lisa Colin, Alexandra
Hernandez, Anne Moisset and Manon Preterre - who are described as
"amazing", "who spare neither their effort nor energy", who
"embody with an evocative power never faulted this story of
American women." Particular praise is given for Hernandez (Tonya)
& Preterre (Nancy), who manage to give their characters "a real
depth, with very moving moments".

Special mention is also made of the music, performed live by
Justine Gaucherand with a small Novation keyboard and Ableton-
Live software, who also sings and provides the voice of the
sports announcer.


SHORT PROGRAMS

And now for our category of Tonya-related odds & ends that we've
come across that don't really fit anywhere else:

First, we catch up with some "I, Tonya" alumni: Adruitha Lee was
the hairstylist on the movie and she's uploaded a couple of
pictures of herself doing her thing with Margot's hair:

"Perfecting the #iTonya ponytail on Ms. #MargotRobbie."

https://www.instagram.com/p/Crje1cbBX6J/

"It's a unique experience for me only just now, in this
stage of my career, choosing to be on social media. I'm
uncovering so many photos and getting to see my body of
work in a whole new way. Also, I work with Margot a
LOT! Here I am fixing her wig before a shot in I,
Tonya."

https://www.instagram.com/p/CuUoMClJBKI/

Next, here's a shot of the IT cast & crew:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq1l830Np7z/?img_index=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq1l830Np7z/?img_index=2

Although Tonya isn't in the Barbie movie, her influence lives on
in it in one way - the roller skating scene: in this Vogue
interview, Margot says that she took up roller skating after
learning to ice skate in "I, Tonya". But she had to remove the
brakes, for reasons explained below:

https://www.vogue.com/article/margot-robbie-barbie-summer-cover-2023-interview

"After breakfast, Robbie and I skate over to the
boardwalk. As expected, Robbie is completely at ease
on roller skates. She took it up after she did a
bunch of the ice-skating in 'I, Tonya', LuckyChap's
biopic about Tonya Harding, and that's why she
doesn't like brakes. 'I never had them on ice
skates, so it would mess me up.'"


Barbie is not the only film with an "I, Tonya" connection out
there at the moment. Based on the so-called "GameStop squeeze" of
2021, the new Craig Gillespie film, "Dumb Money" (which also
stars Sebastian Stan) hits cinemas next month:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvFg7uYOcdg/


Portland hip-hop entertainer dj_wicked has shared a Cameo video
that Tonya made for him. If you've always wondered what you get
for your money when you go for a Tonya Cameo video, this is the
answer - she does not disappoint!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm3U_veh0H0/


Photographer Ross Hamilton has shared this b&w shot of Tonya from
back in her boxing days in 2003:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu7ifbCvkVV/


Long-time Tonyaphile Sarah Marshall, who wrote the article
"Remote Control" and is the driving force behind the "You're
Wrong About" podcast (which did a double bill of episodes on
Tonya), recently did a live tour of the Eastern U.S. (and one
city in Canada). Plenty of Tonya mentions in this article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/05/01/sarah-marshall-youre-wrong-about-fillmore/

You can also now buy You're Wrong About merch - a great way to
support the show:

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts?query=you're+wrong+about

Can you spot Tonya here? There's at least one other mention
elsewhere in the store, too:

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/9409911-youre-wrong-about-cityscape

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/14487393-youre-wrong-about-winter-fun


Tonya-related artwork seems to be drying up at the moment, but
there is still some out there.

parisstone_art - a nice pencil sketch:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ctwqgz_uguA/

chloeative_studio, oil pastel study:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvpLkj3LDxz/

public laundry - how more 90's can you get? A Smashing Pumpkins
t-shirt with a Tonya picture:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CunZosUuewi/

tonyaharding.fan - Tonya's 3-axel dress:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi7vIcwFExS/
"I tried to "draw" the dress @therealtonyaharding wore
when she landed the #trippelaxel"

tonya_hardingfan - We all know that Tonya should have been in the
movie as an ice skater Barbie, so here's Tonya as a Barbie:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CwBEtwZMK3f/


Finally, you'll remember this photo of an unidentified woman with
Tonya that we mentioned last issue. Now Tonya herself has come to
the rescue and identified her as being her cousin Debbie:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnLed_bts5C/


"I, TONYA" AROUND THE WORLD - THE EASTERN BLOC

And now, another entry in our tour of "I, Tonya" posters from
around the world that we began a few months ago. Back then we
looked at posters from Ukraine and Russia; now we examine the
rest of Eastern Europe.

The former Soviet bloc countries have always been big in figure
skating - albeit sometimes helped by a bit of dodgy judging - so
it's no surprise that this part of the world was prominent in the
release strategy for "I, Tonya". We've compiled all that we can
find on our new poster page below:

https://pdxiss.org/it-posters.htm

Most just used a translation of the original title, be it "Jaz,
Tonya" (Slovenia), "Ja, Tonya" (Czechia), "En Tonya" (Hungary),
"Eu, Tonya" (Romania), "As Esu Tonia" (Lithuania), "Es, Tonija"
(Latvia) or "Mina, Tonya" (Estonia). But some went their own way
- for instance, in Azerbaijan, it became both "Men, Tonyayam",
and "Tonya Hamiya Qarsi" - the latter being the local equivalent
of the Russian title of "Tonya Against All". In Poland, it was
both "Ja, Tonya" and "Jestem Najlepsza" ("I Am The Best"), with
the tag line "sukces to sliska sprawa" - "success is a slippery
thing". Which certainly applies to Tonya.

If you know of any others that aren't on this list, or different
versions, please get in touch, as we want to build up the most
comprehensive collection available, particularly of foreign
variants.


ARTWORK ROUNDUP - UNLEASH THE BOTS

As mentioned above, Tonya-related artwork seems to be a bit thin
on the ground at present, so we thought we'd try something a bit
different this time around.

One of the biggest concerns currently is the impact of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) on work - it's one of the central issues at the
heart of the actors' and writers' strikes that are going on in
Hollywood at the moment. So we thought we'd see if it's really
the threat to the creative arts that it's being made out to be,
using Tonya as a test case.

We decided to use several AI bots to generate some images using
the prompt "Tonya Harding performing a triple axel". The criteria
for a success was that it must show a skater that looks passably
like Tonya jumping.

First up was one called DreamStudio (dreamstudio.ai). This was
largely a failure - none of the pictures look much like Tonya,
and many resemble something out of David Cronenberg's worst
nightmares, with extra legs, contorted faces, and distorted or
amputated limbs:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.211611078401163&type=3

We've uploaded the rest here for your perusal:

https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/

Next up, aitubo (https://aitubo.ai) - this was another failure: some
chicks with six fingers sitting in a chair with what look like
fountain pens - and who's the creepy-looking guy staring at one
of them in this one?

https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/aitubo_cji8hbdbdbp0008019hg.jpg

Canva (www.canva.com/ai-image-generator/) - Canva is an on-line
graphic design tool. At least some skating here, but the faces
are hideous.


https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/canva_70732813-8728-496e-97e0-5c12757c8129.jpg

starryai (www.starryai.com) - some quite beautiful, usable
pictures here, with no mangled limbs or faces. But most of them
don't look like skaters jumping, and they don't look like Tonya:


https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/starryai_11%20-%20Tonya%20Harding%20performing%20a%20triple%20axel.png

Craiyon (www.craiyon.com) - this produced the odd good one - this
one actually looks like Tonya:


https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/craiyon_13e021cbea1d4f639950e02e8d7bfed3b1388ab1.webp

but mostly more nightmare fuel:


https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/craiyon_070c09b256a1478c92c08c7ca0e961a4.webp

Bing (www.bing.com/create) - we had high hopes for this one,
since it's Microsoft, and based on OpenAI's DALL-E, which is
supposed to be one of the premier AI image generators. But the
result was some quite cartoonish faces:


https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/bing_2f10ec4f-d5a3-45fe-b9b6-a53e15980700.jpg

Dezgo (www.dezgo.com) - offers a variety of different filters,
some realistic, others in Japanese manga style. This one would
actually be usable if it wasn't for the extra arm:

https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/dezgo_Tonya_Harding_performing_a_triple_axel_4070964870_anything30.png

Dream by Wombo (www.dream.ai) - a mixed bag here: some good ones,
some disasters. As with Dezgo, the best ones are the cartoons -
but what's with the extra legs?

https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/DreamByWombo_Figure3.jpg

https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/DreamByWombo_Anime2.jpg

Finally, MidJourney (www.midjourneyai.ai/) - this came up with
some that actually looked like Tonya, and were usable.


https://pdxiss.org/images/AI/midjourney_num107_Tonya_Harding_performing_a_triple_axel_c3b0dfa0-e7ff-42c1-86e2-fb2067866fa1.png

The general conclusion? This stuff is nowhere near ready for
prime time, with most struggling to produce images that don't
mutilate the human form in some manner. We think they
particularly struggle with people in athletic poses such as
jumping, which seems to make them confused. The best results seem
to be with generating cartoons, where the criteria for realism
isn't so strict.

But as they say, "your mileage may vary" - it's all a bit of a
crapshoot. And things are moving fast in this field, so the
results may be quite different a year or even six months from
now. We've included links in case you want to try yourself to see
if you can get better results.


BARBENTONYA?

Barbenheimer or Oppenbarbie? It's the big question that the
world's greatest minds are pondering right now - which movie do
you see first, Barbie or Oppy? There's good arguments for either
option, but may we suggest a third, which we're going to call
"BarbenTonya", or the "Margot Sandwich": a triple bill of
"Barbie", "Oppenheimer", and "I, Tonya". Because, let's face it,
after three hours of atomic bomb stuff, you're going to need
something to lift your spirits, and what better than watching our
favorite skater's life story yet again? Not that you really need
an excuse to watch "I, Tonya" again, but we're giving you one
anyway.

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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
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