Davis & White #15: The Polka Connection

[DORISPULASKI]

Exactly so. No sooner did Ashley Wagner qualify for the GPF then the icenetwork (wholly owned by USFSA) GPF ads were a big picture of Ashley and a tiny little one of Meryl & Charlie...and that's how USFSA views things, IMO.

And for that matter, as part of their stuff they ran a nice puff piece on Tessa & Scott reworking their SD before 4CCs.

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/artic...&vkey=ice_news

BTW, Lynn Rutherford who wrote the piece is not an occasional writer for IN, but perhaps their most frequent writer.

The one thing they did that might have been strategic is to tell Lois Elfman, when she asked, to use the most recent version of their FDs to show to whomever she picked as a dancer to critique programs, when the most recent V&M FD was Canadian Nationals, and the most recent D&W version was GPF. I thought V&M's Canadians performance was perhaps their weakest of the season (they had changed quite a lot of parts since GPF); that might have been strategic by USFSA. Or just obliviousness.

[mollymgr]

Exactly so. No sooner did Ashley Wagner qualify for the GPF then the icenetwork (wholly owned by USFSA) GPF ads were a big picture of Ashley and a tiny little one of Meryl & Charlie...and that's how USFSA views things, IMO.

And for that matter, as part of their stuff they ran a nice puff piece on Tessa & Scott reworking their SD before 4CCs.

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/artic...&vkey=ice_news

BTW, Lynn Rutherford who wrote the piece is not an occasional writer for IN, but perhaps their most frequent writer.

The one thing they did that might have been strategic is to tell Lois Elfman, when she asked, to use the most recent version of their FDs to show to whomever she picked as a dancer to critique programs, when the most recent V&M FD was Canadian Nationals, and the most recent D&W version was GPF. I thought V&M's Canadians performance was perhaps their weakest of the season (they had changed quite a lot of parts since GPF); that might have been strategic by USFSA. Or just obliviousness.

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/artic...&vkey=ice_news
Hmmm…according to Lois' response from facebook:
The video of Davis & White came from the U.S. Championships. The video of Virtue & Moir came from the Canadian Championships (I gave him the links prior to 4C). The Russian and Italian teams were their free dances from the European Championships. So for each it was the most recent free dance.

So I don't think the USFSA had anything to do with that. She just picked the most recent ones for each team.

[Whitneyskates]

I have news for you that may come as quite a shock, so hold on to your hats. PJ Kwong has predicted that V/M will win the 2013 world title.

If one needed more proof as to the fact that she is a blind uber (and a hyporcite) then you need look no further than her worlds predictions. She predicts Javier Fernandez(yay!) will win the world title based on "momentum" and, in her own words, Patrick Chan's season of "inconsistent results". Yet, when we get to dance, where V/M have had a season of inconsistent results, have yet to win, and momentum behind D/W, she predicts V/M will win.

Oh well, I hope D/W win! Mainly because I love them, and also because I'm dying to know what PJ will compare them to next. My money is on labelling V/M a fine aged Chardonnay and D/W a box of Zinfandel.

[mollymgr]

I have news for you that may come as quite a shock, so hold on to your hats. PJ Kwong has predicted that V/M will win the 2013 world title.

If one needed more proof as to the fact that she is a blind uber (and a hyporcite) then you need look no further than her worlds predictions. She predicts Javier Fernandez(yay!) will win the world title based on "momentum" and, in her own words, Patrick Chan's season of "inconsistent results". Yet, when we get to dance, where V/M have had a season of inconsistent results, have yet to win, and momentum behind D/W, she predicts V/M will win.

Oh well, I hope D/W win! Mainly because I love them, and also because I'm dying to know what PJ will compare them to next. My money is on labelling V/M a fine aged Chardonnay and D/W a box of Zinfandel.

I always rely on my trusty box of Zinfandel when I'm going through some rough times. It washes down my pack of Kraft slices with ease.

[shan]

I always rely on my trusty box of Zinfandel when I'm going through some rough times. It washes down my pack of Kraft slices with ease.

[circuscandy]

Exactly so. No sooner did Ashley Wagner qualify for the GPF then the icenetwork (wholly owned by USFSA) GPF ads were a big picture of Ashley and a tiny little one of Meryl & Charlie...and that's how USFSA views things, IMO.

It's so frustrating, too. Ashley (and I really enjoy her and do want her to do well, and this is hardly her fault) wins her GP events and she's got sponsors coming from left and right. Meryl and Charlie could gild an entire house with their gold medals and they're world champions and only now do they get a large corporate sponsor? It's not as though they're not marketable. They're gorgeous, warm, professional people.

But ranting about it won't do anything except raise my blood pressure.

Whatever, then. I love them, and will always love them, even if PJ Kwong thinks they're Kraft singles and cold duck and the powers-that-be don't care about ice dancing.

[DORISPULASKI]

No, no. The Zinf is too good. PJ will compare them to Boone Farm Fuzzy Navel flavor wine coolers. Or maybe Mad Dog 20/20

or Ripple or Night Train Express

[mollymgr]

No, no. The Zinf is too good. PJ will compare them to Boone Farm Fuzzy Navel flavor wine coolers.

It will be easy to match the flavors on the right to their SD and FD costumes.

[literaryfreak]

I always rely on my trusty box of Zinfandel when I'm going through some rough times. It washes down my pack of Kraft slices with ease.

D/W victory dinner!

[semogal]

I always rely on my trusty box of Zinfandel when I'm going through some rough times. It washes down my pack of Kraft slices with ease.

Thank you. I needed a good laugh tonight.

[mollymgr]

More about Meryl's Canadian roots, this time with some pictures (no hateful comments so far, until the vultures get wind of it )
http://www.teamusa.org/Road-to-Sochi...Sh02BA.twitter

[Jiazumi]

While I was looking for a live stream to share with you guys, I came across this: http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesu...ite/index.html.
I find it very unusual that it is geoblocked in ALL of the "major" skating countries. So basically those in Australia, Africa and South America can only view it. Do they even know what "ice" is? lol

[Sylvia]

While I was looking for a live stream to share with you guys, I came across this: http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesu...ite/index.html.
I find it very unusual that it is geoblocked in ALL of the "major" skating countries. So basically those in Australia, Africa and South America can only view it. Do they even know what "ice" is? lol

The ISU's live stream of Worlds is available only to the countries that have not bought TV broadcast rights.

[lauravvv]

I thought V&M's Canadians performance was perhaps their weakest of the season (they had changed quite a lot of parts since GPF)

Sorry for continuing on that here, but I just can't agree. All the problems that they had in the FD was on the elements that they hadn't changed since the first outing at Skate Canada - problems that they hadn't had before. Two overheld lifts, a weird one-time problem in the spin, loss of levels on one of the two lifts that were overheld (the combination lift - Tessa didn't hold the first lift position long enough). Other than that, the overall skating, step sequences, the kicking move, the changed choreo lift all looked smoother than they had before. And in terms of expression it was, imho, also the best performance of the season.

[Jessiebanana]

It's so frustrating, too. Ashley (and I really enjoy her and do want her to do well, and this is hardly her fault) wins her GP events and she's got sponsors coming from left and right. Meryl and Charlie could gild an entire house with their gold medals and they're world champions and only now do they get a large corporate sponsor? It's not as though they're not marketable. They're gorgeous, warm, professional people.

But ranting about it won't do anything except raise my blood pressure.

Whatever, then. I love them, and will always love them, even if PJ Kwong thinks they're Kraft singles and cold duck and the powers-that-be don't care about ice dancing.

OMG YES. Meryl and Charlie are, by what seems to be natural temperament, like every sports sponsors dream come true and what does the USFSA do with that? Nothing. Can't handle it.

[sap5]

OMG YES. Meryl and Charlie are, by what seems to be natural temperament, like every sports sponsors dream come true and what does the USFSA do with that? Nothing. Can't handle it.

Well, they did just sign a deal with Kelloggs. isn't that pretty major?

[Cachoo]

More about Meryl's Canadian roots, this time with some pictures (no hateful comments so far, until the vultures get wind of it )
http://www.teamusa.org/Road-to-Sochi...Sh02BA.twitter

Her gran is lovely.

[skatingfan12]

Jackie Wong's top 10 predictions for dance at Worlds: http://www.examiner.com/article/2013...or-the-top-ten

[circuscandy]

This competition is going to be something else. I'm so curious/nervous/excited.

[CassAgain]

Has anyone seen or heard practice reports from this morning?