Canadians' Thoughts - Part 2 (not as long)
kemc
I really liked the way they conducted the medal ceremonies
this year.
The medals for all the Senior events were given at the end of the
last competition. In addition to the usual referees, etc, they had
invited previous world medalists to help in awarding the gold
medals and to congratulate the other winners. Barbara Ann
Scott for the ladies, Donald Jackson for the men, Barb Underhill
for the pairs and Tracy Wilson for the Dance. Of course Elvis
and Bourne and Kraatz received huge applause when they were
introduced, but the aforementioned stars also received ovations.
When Barb Underhill came off the ice she seemed quite emotional
about it. Barbara Ann Scott is so glamourous and when she
waved at the crowd while walking off the ice, I found myself
waving back at her !
The Novice and Junior medals had been previously awarded, but
all the medalists were brought back and introduced prior to the
senior medals being awarded. The gold medalists from each
discipline, both novice and junior helped hand out the bronze
medals and congratulated the other winners. I thought this was
a really nice touch - gave them some well deserved recognition
and some valuable experience in front of a large crowd.
A kind of funny moment happened when I saw David Dore
motioning to the music people to get the music started at
the end. He observed the whole proceedings from the side
and was obviously orchestrating the whole thing.
Except for the end when Elvis took charge! As at Skate
Canada it was really neat to see Elvis taking younger, less
experience skaters under his wing and help to show them
was was expected. At what seemed to me to be Elvis' urging,
the entire group of medalists got together for a group/team picture.
He then led them into a line right down centre ice to wave to the
crowd en masse on all sides of the arena and took their final bows.
From the smile on David Dores face and the fact that alot of the
skaters appeared to be following Elvis' lead, I got the impression
that alot of this was spontaneous. Kris Wirtz then took the
microphone to thank the crowd for their support. I found this
closing to the ceremonies to be quite touching and skater-directed.
Closing Ceremony:
Nothing formal, but quite a neat retrospective production by
local skaters. They reproduced music and signature moves
from Canada's most famous skaters, right back to Barbara
Ann Scott. It was really well done and quite enjoyable.
Parade of Champions:
Started with the Novice and Junior gold medallists in all three
disciplines.
My 11 year old daughter particularly enjoyed Jessica Hawkins
and C.J. Pugh's interpretation of that Barbie song. They were
the Junior pairs champions.
I particularly enjoyed Fedor Andreev's exhibition. Another black
leather costume, but a bit more understated and I thought it
looked quite nice. It looked to me that this could have perhaps
been his short program. Very athletic and artistic skater. The
future in men's singles looks bright indeed.
Saurette and Fecteau - Trisha Yearwood's "What'll I Do" - she
had her hair long and they had very nice chemistry during the
number.
Angela Derochie - her short program. She smiled alot which
was nice to see.
Wing and Lowe - a not entirely successful, IMO, performance
to a hard rock number. They were costumed as bikers - he
complete with moustache, hair kerchief and tattoo.
Jean-Francois Hebert - a jazzy number to a french vocalist -
displayed some more of his new-found foot work. Tried a triple
axel, two-footed it.
Sale and Hebert - Shania Twain's "Don't be Stupid" complete
with a bit of line dancing.
Annie Bellemare - a cutsie-pie little girl number that didn't quite
do it for me.
Lefebvre and Brunet - a really serious, but lovely performance
to an Italian vocal piece.
Emanuel Sandhu - showed more of his artistic side with a spiral
that alot of ladies would probably give their eyeteeth for. An
opera - I don't know the name - hopefully someone can supply
this detail. He opened with a triple-triple-triple combination.
He really has got it all :-)
Sargeant & Wirtz - "Fly Me To the Moon" She has improved
her presentation and they did not do at all badly with this number.
Jennifer Robinson - Two numbers - nothing spectacular.
Bourne and Kraatz - Riverdance which seemed to me to be over
in about 10 seconds - I found it absolutely enthralling live.
Elvis Stojko - Two numbers - the ballad from Armageddon and
another rock piece - nothing spectacular.
Other impressions:
We had wonderful neighbours for the entire event who helped
shorten the time during intermissions. The lady who sat
beside me was a skating Mom, her daughter was a contemporary
of Annie Bellemare, but she gave up skating in 1996 - apparently
didn't care for the competition aspect. Her daughter attended
some of the events and they certainly gave me a different
perspective on the competition. And on the CFSA.
For the ladies short program, pairs long program, ladies
long program and men's long program, Netty Kim sat
in the row in front of us. She very nicely gave both my
daughter's her autograph.
Met Karen Magnussen in the corridor and she was very
gracious to my girls. Took a few minutes to chat with
them about skating. She asked them if they skated,
when they replied, just for fun, she said that was just
wonderful and asked them about it.
It was a great competition. The Pairs and Men's events
look to have a lot of depth for the next few years. And
the ladies certainly appeared to me to be very competitive,
hopefully we'll soon be back in a position of being able
to send two ladies to Worlds.
Personally, I'm most concerned about the dance -
after Bourne and Kraatz I'm not entirely sure that any
of the couples we have will be able to get in the top ten.
But, that's probably just me being very pessimistic,
and showing my lack of knowledge about ice dance.
It'd be really nice to be proved wrong in this regard.
kemc.
Fiona McQuarrie
opposed to us poor souls stuck in front of the TV all weekend :) )
Cheers, Fiona
Lynn M. Podgurny
thoughts to add. I had a tv seat - cheap but not always the best view.
It really, really, really ticked me off that Rod Black told us Elvis was
second in the short program before they showed Emanuel's skate. Doesn't
the man understand the concept of spoilers? If CTV is going to show the
skaters out of order then they should tell their commentators to keep
their traps shut.
And why do they have to show the skaters out of order? With all their
modern tape equipment surely they could have shown Emanuel's skate first.
I've complained about this to CTV in the past and the answer I got was
that they have to do this in order to show the event live. I don't
really understand this reasoning since it live-to-tape anyway but maybe
someone else can explain it. Showing only the last group of skaters live
is useless anyway in the short program. It means you get to see lower
ranked skaters with relatively poor performances and miss higher ranked
skaters. I personally would have loved to see Daniel Bellmare,
Jean-Francois Hebert, and Hugh Yik instead of some of the skaters we did
get to see.
While I'm complaining about CTV, I might as well complain about the number
of hours of coverage. I don't know how many times I heard them boast
about 10 hours of coverage whoo, whoo. But in other years we got to see
the last TWO flights of skaters in the long program. Not so this year and
what was the result? We didn't get to see the fifth place finisher in
either the men's or women's. And I really wanted to get a look at
Lariviere/Faustino in the pairs but forget that. When Sportsnet came on
line we were told that we would get more coverage but that coverage seems
to be centered on the Grand Prix series. I hated what they did with
Junior Worlds.
One big kudo to Sportsnet. I loved the junior and novice coverage. It
was my favourite two hours in the whole competition. If anyone else feels
this way, please, please let Sportsnet know.
Now for some skating comments. I thought the junior men were amazing.
I'm trying not to get too excited about Christopher Mabee because he's
only 13 and tiny. For every Pluscenko who manages to keep the jumps as
they grow, there are ten Daniel Bellmare's who grow out of the jumps. Or
Tracy Wainman's. Or Alexander Abt's. Or Oksana Baiul's. (I know, I know
Abt has his back but it took him quite a while.)
Fedor Andreev is terrific. My only qualm is the amount of momentum he
seems to lose in his first jump. He seemed to be having difficulty in
doing combinations. Maybe more speed would help. It was hard to tell on
tv how fast he was.
I like Debbie Wilkes. I think I prefer her to Barb Underhill as a
commentator. But did she have to call Christopher Mabee a cutie patooty?
I was cringing all over.
The saddest moment in the competition for me was watching Marie-France
Dubreuil skid on her butt in the long program. I was hoping that all the
dancers skated cleanly since they are so close in ability. It WOULD be my
favourites who bit the dust. What was scary to me was how much faster
they looked than Bourne and Kraatz. Sure the B & K long program music is
catchy but it's also repetitious and virtually all one speed - a speed
that they don't seem quite able to keep up with. I know they are trying
very intricate holds in both the long and the OD but sometimes their hands
are twining behind their backs so much that their bodies seem to get stuck
in a standstill. Plus - every time I see their long program costumes I
think Deep Space Nine.
Best choreography bar none - Sandhu's long program.
Best performance - Micallef and Marcotte's short. I loved the music
(Indian Reservation I think) and the driving energy they had. Okay, okay
Stojko's long was good too (performance wise not choreography wise) but
we've seen that before haven't we?
Best costume - Annie Bellmare's long. Very classy. Sandhu's long is good
too.
Best music in a program - Angela Derochie's long. Too bad she didn't
manage to skate to much of it.
Worst music - the Yiddish folk stuff that Sale and Pelletier are using for
their long. Most of it is too draggy to me and doesn't let them
capitalize on their personality. Before the competition started I would
have had Elvis' long program winning this category but it wasn't as bad as
I remembered from the fall competitions. Maybe I was affected by how well
he skated.
Worst costume - Angela Derochie's long. I know someone else said it was
one of their favourite costumes but I thought it was hideous. And a
skater who has such poor arm positions should not wear red gloves. They
looked red on my tv anyway though someone else said they were fuchia.
Elvis gets honourable mention for the leisure suit in the long. I didn't
mind the trash-bag short so much. Honourable mention also goes to Fedor
Andreev's long - it's a great wine red colour but all those ruffles at the
front make me think of the infamous Seinfeld pirate shirt.
Best lift - forget the floringo. What about that Micallef and Marcotte
lift? Loved the exit. I kept rewinding my tape trying to figure out what
they were doing. Mind you the helicopter position at the top is not that
pretty.
Worst lift - love Dubreuil and Lauzon (particularly him) but the lift
where she hangs from his neck by her knees is just plain ugly.
Worst program - I know a lot of people are going to violently disagree
with me on this but I hate Wing and Lowe's Coppelia OD. I hate when
grown women play little children or dolls. (I also hated Krilova and
Ovsianikov's Russian Doll number.) Anyway it was too cloying and sweet
for my taste.
Hardest moment to watch - Jeff Langdon at the end of his long program.
That was one time I really didn't want to see a close up.
If you've made it this far in my message - hope it hasn't been too much of
a drag. Back to lurking.
Lynn
tendu
<podg...@calcna.ab.ca> wrote:
>I like Debbie Wilkes. I think I prefer her to Barb Underhill as a
>commentator.
I'm starting to like Barb Underhill's commentary, but my personal
nitpick would be the way she pronounced David Pelletier's last name.
She would say "Pel-ah-te-ay". And she kept doing it time and again
even after Rod Black would say "Pel-che-ay" and the announcer would
introduce them as that too, but Barb never got it. She started
refering to him as just David which was much better.
>
>Best costume - Annie Bellmare's long. Very classy.
I loved it as a non-skating dress (would look very nice at a cocktail
party), but thought the tan/sand colour was too washed out against an
ice surface.
>Best music in a program - Angela Derochie's long. Too bad she didn't
>manage to skate to much of it. (snip)
>Worst costume - Angela Derochie's long. I know someone else said it was
>one of their favourite costumes but I thought it was hideous. And a
>skater who has such poor arm positions should not wear red gloves. They
>looked red on my tv anyway though someone else said they were fuchia.
The whole program seemed to scream "Josee Chouinard" to me. That whole
whimsical thing, the gloves, the colours reminiscent of Josee's
American in Paris costume. I think Derochie may be one of those whimsy
impaired skaters. She has a certain power, but I don't see any
charisma or musicality there, and when the jumps go missing, it's more
glaringly obvious. Derochie reminds me a lot of Tonia Kwiatkowski,
skating and looks-wise.
Nancy
Louis Epstein
: I'm a lurker whose read all the posts on the Canadians and I have a few
: thoughts to add. I had a tv seat - cheap but not always the best view.
:
: It really, really, really ticked me off that Rod Black told us Elvis was
: second in the short program before they showed Emanuel's skate. Doesn't
: the man understand the concept of spoilers? If CTV is going to show the
: skaters out of order then they should tell their commentators to keep
: their traps shut.
As ever,I'll point out that to some of us,it "spoils" things to have
the results kept from us before we see the taped events...if coverage
is not live,I'd sooner do whatever I had to do to learn the results
before the taped coverage lets us know,than let the embargoers "win".
Lynn M. Podgurny
On Tue, 2 Feb 1999, Louis Epstein wrote:
> Lynn M. Podgurny (podg...@calcna.ab.ca) wrote:
> :
> : It really, really, really ticked me off that Rod Black told us Elvis was
> : second in the short program before they showed Emanuel's skate. Doesn't
> : the man understand the concept of spoilers? If CTV is going to show the
> : skaters out of order then they should tell their commentators to keep
> : their traps shut.
>
> As ever,I'll point out that to some of us,it "spoils" things to have
> the results kept from us before we see the taped events...if coverage
> is not live,I'd sooner do whatever I had to do to learn the results
> before the taped coverage lets us know,than let the embargoers "win".
>
>
That's fair enough - if you want to look for the results go ahead.
Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I make sure I don't
listen to the news or any sports channels that may carry the results.
Sometimes I can't bear to wait. But looking for the results ahead of
time is a far cry from having the announcer spill the beans in the middle
of the broadcast. Why should they treat figure skating any differently
from other sports? If they show a tape delayed broadcast of a European
soccer game or alpine skiing, they don't begin the broadcast by saying -
we're putting on this great win by Manchester for you or this great
victory by Herman Maier.
Lynn
Sarah Weinman
> That's fair enough - if you want to look for the results go ahead.
> Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I make sure I don't
> listen to the news or any sports channels that may carry the results.
> Sometimes I can't bear to wait. But looking for the results ahead of
> time is a far cry from having the announcer spill the beans in the middle
> of the broadcast. Why should they treat figure skating any differently
> from other sports? If they show a tape delayed broadcast of a European
> soccer game or alpine skiing, they don't begin the broadcast by saying -
> we're putting on this great win by Manchester for you or this great
> victory by Herman Maier.
>
> Lynn, I suspect that one of the reasons Rod "spilled the beans" was b/c he was
> basically shocked into doing it. Nobody but nobody expected Elvis to be
> anywhere but first. But after falling, I would bet that there was a bit of
> scrambling. I say this b/c up until that time Rod had given no indication of
> how Emanuel did. And it's my belief that it would have stayed that way had
> Elvis skated a clean short.
Sarah
Eda Tseinyev
> I particularly enjoyed Fedor Andreev's exhibition. Another black
> leather costume, but a bit more understated and I thought it
> looked quite nice. It looked to me that this could have perhaps
> been his short program.
I didn't go to the exhibitions, but yes, Fedor skated his short program.
> Emanuel Sandhu - showed more of his artistic side with a spiral
> that alot of ladies would probably give their eyeteeth for. An
> opera - I don't know the name - hopefully someone can supply
> this detail.
Apparently it was the aria from "La Wally."
> Sargeant & Wirtz - "Fly Me To the Moon" She has improved
> her presentation and they did not do at all badly with this number.
Now there's some damning with faint praise! :^)
Eda
MCleoMarie
>I'm starting to like Barb Underhill's commentary, but my personal
>nitpick would be the way she pronounced David Pelletier's last name.
>She would say "Pel-ah-te-ay". And she kept doing it time and again
>even after Rod Black would say "Pel-che-ay" and the announcer would
>introduce them as that too, but Barb never got it. She started
>refering to him as just David which was much better.
>
>
Is "Pel-che-ay" how *David* pronounces his last name? Because Barb's
pronunciation is correct if one is in France, I believe. Also, I think Tracy
Wilson used this same pronunciation ( "Pel-ah-te-ay") for David's last name at
The Masters.
-Cleo, wondering
Margaret Burwell
MCleoMarie (mcleo...@aol.com) writes:
> Is "Pel-che-ay" how *David* pronounces his last name? Because Barb's
> pronunciation is correct if one is in France, I believe. Also, I think Tracy
> Wilson used this same pronunciation ( "Pel-ah-te-ay") for David's last name at
> The Masters.
>
> -Cleo, wondering
I would say that it is somewhere in between. It is never easy to
be 100% accurate when giving phonetic equivalents of words or names in
other languages. I have not spoken to David, but I would assume that he
speaks with a Quebecois accent. The vowel in the middle of his hame would
be slurred. I would suggest Pel-te-ay where the 'te' tends toward a 'tse'
sound. I could tell you easily enough, but I'm not sure I can explain it
in writing where your interpretation would be affected by your own
language and spelling assumptions.
Marg
MCleoMarie
Pel-tse-ay... the "tse" sound is soft at any rate, not like "che" with a hard
"ch" sound like I was imagining.
-Cleo
>MCleoMarie (mcleo...@aol.com) writes:
>> Is "Pel-che-ay" how *David* pronounces his last name? Because Barb's
>> pronunciation is correct if one is in France, I believe. Also, I think
>Tracy
>> Wilson used this same pronunciation ( "Pel-ah-te-ay") for David's last name
>at
>> The Masters.
>>
>> -Cleo, wondering
>
Margaret Burwell answered:> I would say that it is somewhere in between.
BK
with me on this but I hate Wing and Lowe's Coppelia OD. I hate when
grown women play little children or dolls. (I also hated Krilova and
Ovsianikov's Russian Doll number.) Anyway it was too cloying and sweet
for my taste.
Lynn
I hate the Coppelia number also. I think that all that floppiness and her
head down like that is very ugly to watch. I hated it the first time I saw
it and I hate it more everytime I see it. I think it would be better as an
exhibition number. They are capable of much better. IMO
Kelly
Chelsea Christenson
> Is "Pel-che-ay" how *David* pronounces his last name? Because Barb's
> pronunciation is correct if one is in France, I believe.
Depends. How would you pronounce "Belletete"? It's actually a
combination of two single-syllable words -- "belle" and "tete." So
would you pronounce the two words, or make it "bel-luh-tet"?
There's a nearby town called Billerica. Most people tend to say
"bi-LER-ri-ca" but it's actually "BIL-ri-ca."
Trudi Marrapodi
I feel exactly the opposite. I LOVE IT. To me it was the best dance at the
whole Canadians. Perfectly in character, and had to be hard as heck with
Megan not looking where she was going so much of the time.
"Coppelia" is ABOUT a doll, so when I watch a grown woman skate to it, I
check my feminism at the door. Or, should I say, I buy into what the story
is supposed to portray rather than worrying about my own feelings about
"grown women as dolls." I LIKED the fact that it was like an exhibition
number, yet difficult enough to be competitive. That's the kind of skating
that always gets me in the gut.
--
Trudi
"I see no reason to celebrate something that's biologically impossible."--Kate Bratton of RSSIF
HILL JANET SWAN
>
>> Lynn M. Podgurny (podg...@calcna.ab.ca) wrote:
>> :
>> : It really, really, really ticked me off that Rod Black told us Elvis was
>> : second in the short program before they showed Emanuel's skate. Doesn't
>> : the man understand the concept of spoilers? If CTV is going to show the
>> : skaters out of order then they should tell their commentators to keep
>> : their traps shut.
>>
>> As ever,I'll point out that to some of us,it "spoils" things to have
>> the results kept from us before we see the taped events...if coverage
>> is not live,I'd sooner do whatever I had to do to learn the results
>> before the taped coverage lets us know,than let the embargoers "win".
Louis ...... I understand your point. I understand that you believe that
the common usage was "ill-coined". Unfortunately, the word "spoiler" has
taken on a special meaning on this newsgroup that transcends the original
meaning of the word "spoil". Language works like that.
We are not Humpty-Dumpty. Words do NOT mean whatever we personally happen
to want them to mean.
If you know how the word "spoiler" is generally used in this newsgroup,
then your enjoyment is NOT spoiled, because you know that you ARE
interested in the contents of messages labeled "spoiler". You get what
you want. Others get what they want. Lots of us don't care. But we all
know that a message with "SPOILER" in the header contains results of a
competition that has not yet been televised.
janet
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