I missed Rafa Nadal. Knee injuries can be devastating (see Daisuke Takahashi). It definitely wasn't the same without him but the men's final was still a great show.

I was pulling for Andy Roddick (the underdog) but Roger Federer (the god of tennis) broke him to win after a insanely long 5th set. Now Fed is #1 and he now holds the record for most Grand Slam wins with 15. And he's a father-to-be too! Congratulations on everything! Poor Andy! You can really see the sadness and pain in his eyes. He is in desperate need of hugs right now. That second set tie breaker must be eating at him. He conducted himself very well in the interviews though. He even apologized to Pete Sampras for not being able to hold Fed off.

Serena and Venus were in the finals again on the women's side but it wasn't as spectacular as last year. Venus seemed a bit worn out after totally embarrassing Dinara Safina in the semis. Serena took it in straight sets although she didn't look like she was the greatest form during her semifinal match against Elena Dementieva. Then they turned around and won doubles the same day!

Michael Jackson songs have been common choices among figure skaters for their programs (competitive and exhibition). Out of all of them, I think Tomas Verner captured the spirit of MJ (mixed with his own unique performance quality) the best in his exhibition at worlds this year. Definitely my favorite program at the gala this year.

And here it is:



Enjoy!

Michael Jackson passed away earlier today. It's a sad day but the King of Pop lives on through his music. No artist has transcended the generations like MJ has. His biggest hits are enjoyed by many all over the world regardless of age, gender, or culture.

Growing up, I was absolutely captivated by his music and dancing. I was also impressed by the music videos he produced. In fact, it was Michael that changed the way music videos were made. Before Thriller, music videos had no story. They certainly didn't have the gloss of the videos we see today. If you look at his videos for "Rock With You" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", they look quite cheap in comparison to the videos of today. When Thriller came out, it set off a trend that never left. Music videos became the huge productions we see today with story lines we expect in TV shows and movies. And it was Michael Jackson that started it off.

Michael Jackson is timeless. I venture to guess that in 2050 (if we make it there), his music will still be played and his dance moves will still be performed.

If I may borrow a quote from The Sandlot..."Heroes get remembered but legends never die". Michael Jackson was indeed a legend and he will never die in our hearts and souls. Regardless of what you think of him, you can't deny his contributions to music.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

And if I may borrow an idea from my favorite figure skating blog, Axels, Loops and Spins, here's Evan Lysacek's Michael Jackson/Chris Brown EX. He moonwalks on ice!!!!

I am definitely 100% going to Skate America! Just got my tickets over the phone in less than 10 minutes! I'm in Section 8 for the whole thing but my seat flips between rows E, F, and G. Not bad!

This will be my first live competition ever and I'm so excited! November can't come fast enough now! I feel great right now! If I had waited any longer, I would have found some lame excuse to convince myself not to go. The tickets were the easy part though. The hotel won't be so bad because I already have a couple in mind. The hard part is the flights. The cheapest, most direct option is Cape Air but I'm a bit weary of those Cessna planes. Aaliyah died because one of those things were overloaded and I'm a teeny bit frightened of that. But other than that small, irrational fear, I think I can deal with the Cessna for 1.5 hours.

I plan to go to Skate Canada too. Daisuke Takahashi being assigned there sealed the deal. I realize he could withdraw but some of my other favorites will be there. Plus, it's right before Thanksgiving so I'll have this trip and only two days of class to follow it. This season is going to be so awesome. For the longest time, I've been longing to experience a competition live. Everyone seems to have so much fun at competitions and I've wanted to be a part of that. Now I will be. 2009 just got a whole lot better.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm really close to giving into the "evil" that is Twitter. I don't know how much longer I can ignore it especially since I'm really starting to tire of Facebook.

I like to pick up the Metro newspaper every morning to read during my morning break. It is free and I get news without tons of bulk. Anyway, they've been running a great series on gay marriage this week. It's been interesting to read about the issue from all sides. Yesterday and Tuesday's pieces proved to be the most interesting.

( Gays in the Black Community )

( Gay Marriage )

6/12/09: Today they ran letters and I'm upset that they only ran letters from the anti-gay/anti-gay marriage side. It would have been nice to hear from people on both sides of the debate. The letters they ran contained some of the most ignorant crap I've ever read! One letter in particular got under my skin. The person wrote that being gay is a "Caucasian" thing and that there are no such thing as gay black people. Not only is this anti-gay, it's downright racist! What a moron!

Twitter is like the hot new trend in figure skating. A couple of months ago, the only skaters that had one (that I knew of) were Tanith Belbin, Ben Agosto and Kimmie Meissner. Since then, a whole slew of other skaters have joined. Johnny Weir, Adam Rippon, and Yu-Na Kim are among the twittering skaters. Jeremy Abbott just joined today (By the way, Happy Birthday!). Evan Lysacek (Hopefully he had a better birthday yesterday than I did.) has one but he's not using it just yet. It's spreading like wildfire!

It's not just the skating world that's crazy for Twitter. Everyone and their momma seems to have a Twitter. Even Kim Jong Il has a fricking account! Kim Jong Il now! Who's next? The President of Iran? I mean really, in just a few short months, Twitter has taken over. MySpace is basically obsolete (not like I was on that anyway) and although Facebook is hanging in there, Twitter is the hot new thing. I can understand why it's popular though. It's very easy to update since short and sweet is the name of the game (you can't go over around 150 words). People with busy lives can update them without taking hours out of their day. On the skating side of things, it's great to see what your favorite skaters are up to during the off season (which can be a "painful" time for fans). As for me, I won't be joining up anytime soon. My life isn't interesting enough for it and plus I tend to write a lot more than the word limit. I will stick to LiveJournal and Facebook for now. Maybe when things get more interesting (like when I start traveling), I'll get one.

By the way, this is entry #500! Wow!

A few surprises...

1. Shen and Zhao are coming back to competition!!! I thought it was an old one when I saw their names but then I saw other names and realized it was true. They'll be at Cup of China and Skate America! I had hoped for Pang and Tong at SA but Shen and Zhao are just as good!
2. Davis and White not at Skate America. :( I had hoped to see them live this season but maybe next season.
3. Sasha Cohen gets 2 events? Evgeni Plushenko only got one (via host pick) and his circumstances are about the same as hers.
4. Delobel and Schoenfelder doing back to back events. Even with wanting to compete later, I would think they would have wanted to avoid back to back events.
5. Japan didn't pick Mao Asada.
6. The ladies series is quite lopsided! TEB is a huge gauntlet and the rest are enormously lighter. NHK is a gauntlet for the men's event but the rest, while lighter, are interesting in their own right.

( Where some ended up... )

Two more coaching changes have been announced. Last off season was the "Year of the Coaching Change". Could this season be shaping up to be one as well?

Jeremy Abbott Moves to Detroit

This is quite surprising. I thought Tom Zakrajsek and Jeremy had a great relationship. Still, a change of scenery might be good for Jeremy. He's got all the goods, he just needs to get his mind in the right place when the pressure's on. I think Yuka Sato is an odd choice since she mostly has experience as a choreographer but maybe she can teach him to relax. I'm very glad that he's keeping Tom Dickson as the choreographer for his long program. His Eight Seasons Tango was one of the best programs in terms of choreography. All the best for Jeremy!

McLaughlin and Brubaker Switch to John Nicks

Another interesting choice. John Nicks coached pairs long ago but he's mostly known for his work with Sasha Cohen. Dalilah Sappenfield did great work with Keauna and Rockne and I'm glad she's not bitter about the switch. It almost seems like she helped them to decide. Hopefully, John Nicks can help them fix their side by side jumping which caused them a few problems last season. If they can get all their elements down, they have the potential to be an amazing pair team. Good luck to them!

The flow of skating news had been stagnant...until today! All news is from IceNetwork.

First, Mirai Nagasu has moved to Frank Carroll. Interesting choice! I was not expecting this at all but I think this might be good for Mirai. I hope she does great next season.

Second, Evgeni Plushenko has officially announced that he's coming back. He says he has his triple axel back and will be putting two quads in his long program. Men's skating has changed quite a bit since he won the Olympics though. The quad is just one piece to the puzzle that is the complete skater. It wasn't even necessary for the last two world champions. The talent pool has increased as well. This time, the Olympic gold medal doesn't necessarily have one person's name on it with the rest of the field gunning for silver.

Plushenko is also expecting that Stephane Lambiel will come back. That's odd because in a recent interview with IceNetwork, Stephane said he was perfectly happy being retired and was not intent on coming back. I'd be happy to see him back but I won't expect it.

Great Finale!!!

( The Winners and Season Thoughts )

I hope season 15 is every bit as good as this season. I hope to see the super leg again. It would be really interesting if a team was eliminated in the middle of a double length leg. Until the fall!

But first some baseball news. Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 (count 'em, 50) games for...you guessed it, steroids. Put...the...'roids...AWAY!!!!

Now the real big news

Sasha Cohen's coming back to competition. I'm not sure what to think. She'll probably get invited to Skate America but if she's waiting until next month to start serious training again, I doubt she'll be ready. Still, her return might attract more people to SA which means I better hurry up and get my tickets. It might actually be interesting to see if Sasha can make the Olympic team. Best of luck to her!

I'm cutting straight to the elimination...

( Eliminated Team )

I had the day off from work yesterday and I managed to escape...to Rhode Island! Providence to be exact. It was raining off and on so I spent the whole day at the mall (which was conveniently located 2 minutes away from the train station!). The state house was nearby so I got to see the outside of it. I must say it was quite impressive! Anyway, I happened to stumble upon Lush while shopping. I decided to take a peak inside since I've heard so many raves about it from reading amazonstorm's journal. The guy who helped me was so nice! He really knew his stuff. I tried the hand treatment and it worked really well...just too much for me to do at home. I was looking around (and also going into sticker shock-some of the stuff was over $40 for a tiny amount) and I saw the facial products. I went in intending to buy nothing...I walked out with $100 worth of stuff (which amounted to 4 items...the stuff is expensive for how much you get but since you're really only supposed to use a little at a time, it'll last a while).

In other randomness, U.S. skater Brittany Rizo is taking season off to enjoy freshman year...at my university! That first year can be tough (especially here) but it's definitely doable. If she does co-op, don't expect her to come back to competitive skating. Northeastern ended up being a bad fit for me and I hope it's a better one for Brittany. Katrina Hacker and Curran Oi are also taking next season off to focus on college. Katrina will be at Princeton while Curran will be at MIT. Congratulations to all of them and I wish them the best.

Today, we will be examining 4 instances where the costume (or costumes in the case of pairs and dance teams) were so fugly that they were funny. These skaters skated with total confidence while wearing these...or at least most of them did.

( LOL Fugs )

No work tomorrow!! Too bad it's going to rain. :( If it's just light rain, I think I'll go shopping in Providence. I need to get out of Boston.

It's been a while since I've talked about TV. My DVR conked out on me so I lost all of the Heroes, Smallville, and Supernatural episodes I had been saving to watch. I also lost my recordings of worlds and I'm especially sad to lose the free dance. I liked to turn it on sometimes and watch Tanith and Ben and Meryl and Charlie. There is YouTube but it's not the same as watching it on TV. :(

Heroes had its season finale last night so I really need to catch up...I'm at least 10 episodes behind. The same could be said for Supernatural which is looking good now that they've gotten back to the major plot of the season. As for Smallville, I'm about 2 or 3 episodes behind. I'll have to catch up on all this online.

I also discovered this new sitcom on ABC Family called Roommates. Well technically I didn't discover it because I knew about it and had been meaning to check it out. Anyway, I watched 4 episodes yesterday and it was pretty funny. Tamera Mowry's in it and she's still got good comedic timing. She was awesome in Strong Medicine but comedy has always been her strong suit. Actually, all the actors are pretty good. The show revolves around two guys (Mark and James)and two girls (Hope and Katie)who share an apartment. Mark is totally in love with Katie (typical element for this kind of sitcom) and is too shy to admit it. There's also Mark's friend Thom who doesn't live there. He's pretty funny but the funniest character is James. Shame that ABC Family is stepping towards canceling the show but maybe they'll bring back Lincoln Heights (just read that they will...except I have to wait til August...at least Army Wives is coming back in June...)

Part 3 in my "The Costume Makes the Skater" series. These are a few of my favorite costumes from each discipline. In this segment, these costumes were worn from the first competition to the last (there might be an exception or two...).

( Men )

( Ladies )

( Pairs )

( Dance )

Coming up next on "The Costume Makes the Skater"-Working the Fug: Skating Great While Looking Fugly! This is going to be so fun...and of course I mean no harm to the skaters. In fact one of the features will have a favorite of mine.

The teams head to Beijing. Tension between Margie and Luke and Kisha and Jen still exists. I guess they didn't work it out at the Pit Stop. Margie and Luke really know how to hold a grudge. Anyway, the Roadblock involved a traditional Chinese foot massage. It was quite painful. Cara looked like she was in labor during the task! LOL! Next the teams head to the Detour which involved swimming and diving. Everyone did the swimming challenge but Tammy and Victor and Kisha and Jen started with the diving. Jen can't swim so she had a real hard time with it. Phil mentioned Michael Phelp's time on the 400 IM. If teams had to meet that, everyone would be eliminated!!

Now my favorite part...Jaime and Cara get to the Pit Stop and Phil says they're the first to arrive...but this leg is not over!!! Yes! The Super Leg returns! The KF will really start kicking in (as if it hasn't already!).

Next week: Star fish, crickets, and all kinds of stuff! This looks like the Roadblock because only one team member was doing it.

Now we're getting down to the end. The only team I really want to see win is Tammy and Victor. They compete but they know how to have fun at the same time. The way they've bounced back from Romania is amazing. There's a huge difference in their team. Plus, they haven't done anything to annoy me. Last week severely dimmed my opinion of Margie and Luke. Luke has become a bit too aggressive. The last two episodes, he has been coming off as a bit of a spoiled brat and Margie just feeds it. Jaime has treated the locals horribly ever since Thailand although she wasn't too terrible this week. Cara is actually quite likable and if she was racing with anyone else, I'd root for her. As for Kisha and Jen, they really haven't done anything to annoy me but I'm not really rooting for them either. On the unfortunate chance that Tammy and Victor are eliminated next week (oh I hope not-especially not in China!), I'd prefer to see history be made with the first all female team winning the race. Although Margie and Luke winning would make a great story, I'd rather not see them win.

Today we will be studying Tanith and Ben's first OD costumes and Tessa and Scott's first FD costumes. Tanith and Ben's originals and also Scott's original weren't astronomically fugly like the example in part 1. Tessa's original however...is another story...

( First Tanith and Ben... )

( Now to Tessa and Scott... )

Coming up next-The costumes that worked...the first time! And also, "Working the Fug-Skating Great While Looking Fugly"

The costume can definitely play a huge role in the overall performance. If the skater is not comfortable in what they are wearing, it can show in the performance. Take Evan Lysacek for example....




This is what he wore at Skate America and Skate Canada. As you can see, it is FUG-LY!!!! It made him look rather gangly and awkward which is not what you want for a figure skater, especially one that is 6-3. He was clearly uncomfortable in it and I think the discomfort came across in his performances at SA and SC. On paper, the downgrades kept him from winning both of those events but even without them, I still would have given SA to Kozu (Takahiko Kozuka) and Skate Canada to Patrick Chan (who am I kidding? I would have let Shawn Sawyer have the come from behind win). Anyway, I think the costume played a little role in why Evan's season didn't start off so strong.

Fast forward to U.S Nationals....Evan shows up in this...



Yes I know the photo is from worlds but it makes the point...

This is much more flattering on him! It did wonders for his line and the difference in his demeanor while wearing it was obvious. I think he was able to stand a little taller and be proud of what he was wearing. Even if he didn't skate his best at Nationals, I liked the performance better than what he did at either SA or SC. The costume change was only the beginning. Evan got proactive and made some adjustments to the program itself with Lori Nichol. It paid off in dividends! And it all started with a costume change...

I had fun with this so I think I will do a few more...plus I still have to wrap up the season. Plus, icenetwork is supposed to give us the World Team Trophy on demand so I will wait until I get access to that before I actually comment. I have to congratulate Team USA, though, for winning the whole thing and winning 2 out of 4 disciplines (Evan won the men and Tanith and Ben won dance)!

The teams leave Thailand and head to China. The tension ramps up as Jen and Luke race to the first clue box in Guilin. Luke gets there first and when Jen comes up behind him, he elbows her (he almost got her in the face). She calls him a bitch. Then Jen and Luke race towards the Roadblock clue box. Jen gets there first, Luke comes up behind her and the momentum propels Jen into the box. At the Pit Stop, a confrontation ensues. Luke gets angry and the whole thing blows up. It was so tense I could feel it through the TV screen! I think Margie and Luke would have let it go if it wasn't for Jen calling him a bitch. When it's down to a few teams, it can turn pretty ugly. I think this is the ugliest I've ever seen it turn...it's like Survivor ugly! I think the two teams should have talked it out during the rest period instead of doing it in front of Phil and Tammy and Victor. I had more to say but I really don't feel like diving into this too much. It's making me sick (I got to have some disease if it's affecting me this much). I will say, though, that I don't really like Margie and Luke that much right now.

Moving on, the Roadblock involved throwing 10 fish for trained birds to catch. Tammy and Victor were speaking Chinese throughout the leg which was great. Usually when a team knows the language, they just use it to get around. Tammy and Victor spoke to each other in Mandarin and spoke to the birds at the Roadblock which was so cute. Jaime and Cara and Kisha and Jen got through it pretty fast and left it. Luke got bit by one of the birds and they left around the same time as Tammy and Victor.

Detour: Choreography or Calligraphy. Choreography involved learning a dance and doing it until the music stops. Calligraphy involved copying Chinese characters at 4 stations. Everyone went for Calligraphy except for Jaime and Cara and Mark and Michael. Jaime and Cara didn't read their clue because they kept doing the dance once and then stopping. Then they got pissed at the judges. What's funny was that when they asked if it was that they weren't doing the dance until the music stops and the female judge nodded. But instead of noticing that, they were all like, "we're done". Margie and Luke and Kisha and Jen were basically following Tammy and Victor through the Detour since they knew Chinese. They finished it at around the same time but Kisha and Jen won the leg in a footrace. Of course the celebration of their first leg win was ruined by the confrontation.

I'm not even going to bother to cut this because the eliminated team should be obvious. Mark and Michael didn't have a prayer! What's funny was the Speed Bump task was right at the first Route Marker in Guilin. Usually, it's out of the way somewhere. If it wasn't for their penalty, Mark and Michael would have been in contention for sure. Too bad they got very little air time in favor of the Pit Stop blow up. They can count their blessings because they can go chill at Elimination Station (if they do go there) instead of dealing with the tension between Margie and Luke and Kisha and Jen. Tammy and Victor are working well together and with the next 2 legs still in China, they'll have plenty of chances to use their Chinese. Now, they are my favorites and I hope they win.

Next week: Chinese massages! It looks to be a Roadblock because I only saw one member from each team getting them. And Jen's fear of water puts the team's chances into question. This must be the Olympic themed task that the producers were talking about...the one that leaves teams "gasping for air". It will probably be a non-elimination leg too since we have one more left. My guess is that Kisha and Jen will do the "first to worst" and get non-eliminated.