Davis & White #15: The Polka Connection

[circuscandy]

Time for some DJ!

@CharlieaWhite She knew it was her time to shine. http://t.co/DnlVBHe8F3

[lmarie086]

DJ is probably one of my favorite pets on the planet, and I'll never even meet her. I love seeing all the pictures of her, though!

[TanithandBenFan]

One of my favorite DJ moments was at SA 2009 when DJ came to watch the medal ceremony and Tanith put her medal around her. Too cute!

DJ the medal winner

[professordeb]

Yaaaa for DJ! yeah, I'm sucker for dogs and how cute of Tanith to do such a thing.

[sap5]

You know you're in a great relationship when your boyfriend adopts your dog.

[mollymgr]

One of my favorite DJ moments was at SA 2009 when DJ came to watch the medal ceremony and Tanith put her medal around her. Too cute!

DJ the medal winner

So cute!!!

[CassAgain]

The US Nationals gold medalists are on the cover of the March Skating:

http://skatingmagazineblog.com/

Meryl's hair won the platinum.

[circuscandy]

Her hair should net them at least +3 GOE on every element, plus a 1 point bonus on all components.

[aftershocks]

A lovely story indeed! And do ignore the comments and please note that a Canadian newspaper published it! From what I've seen over the years, Canadian fs fans love good skating no matter who is doing it!

Yes, and nicely written as well. There are some great reader comments and some comments. Those complaining about USFS buying something are particularly brainless since USFS is not known for great politiking skills and actually have no money to bargain with. In any case, most often, talented skaters from any country are gonna win on their merits! Reminds me of the crap that went down in SLC re quid pro quo pairs for ice dance trade-off ... as if Anissina and Peizarat were not the best there was in ice dance anyways! They didn't really need any help from the Russian mob or the cheating French judge. And S/P vs B/S was always gonna be a toss-up, IMHO.

The linked article in the Canadian publication is just what it is and what it seems. It's an interesting slice of life and a breath of fresh air from the past that IMO highlights the strong and interesting connections both culturally, work-related and family-oriented between Canada and the United States, particularly in the regions where our two countries have overlapping boundaries and mingling interests. This article should be posted in the DVMW Love Thread!

One of the things I found most interesting is the mention that Meryl's Great Aunt Marian was an Ava Gardner look-alike as a young lady. Meryl has that exotic Ava Gardner look about her as well.

Tessa also looks like a glamorous movie star with her huge dark eyes. And don't get excited anyone, but I think Charlie is cuter than Scott Moir is handsome.

[mollymgr]

This article should be posted in the DVMW Love Thread!

That thread died a quick and painless death. It is now located deep in the bowels of FSU. Good luck finding it.

[aftershocks]

^^ Awww, but anyway maybe the person who said they were gonna make t-shirts with Davis - Moir on the front and Virtue - White on the back, might show up with some at Worlds.

[TanithandBenFan]

The Skating Lesson Worlds preview with PJ Kwong. She tries to explain her cheese comments. Hmm.....

[reese]

The Skating Lesson Worlds preview with PJ Kwong. She tries to explain her cheese comments. Hmm.....

Oh PJ. Her attempt at explaining the cheese comment is almost worse than the comment itself. I guess Meryl/Charlie are the crappy, accessible cheese that will keep poor people from starving, but sophisticates like herself are worldly enough to understand how wonderful a free dance like Carmen is while simultaneously feeling sorry for the losers who enjoy something as generic and sad as Kraft singles...

But the thing that got me was her ridiculous comment about how if Meryl/Charlie had skated Die Fledermaus cleanly at Worlds last year, they would have won. Did she watch the event? I often wonder about this with PJ because sometimes she literally gets the facts wrong, yet she always states her opinions as fact and with such confidence that you almost believe her.

[aftershocks]

^^ Yep, as I posted in TSL podcast thread in GSD, there were lots of remarks by PJ that make me go hmmm ... But well, since she knows Scott from when he was nine-years-old and she has intimate knowledge of both the Virtue and Moir families, then she has even more reason to love and to root for V/M, which makes PJ not very objective as a figure skating journalist (which is not unusual, of course).

PJ didn't give a good explanation why she thinks The Hunchback of Notre Dame program of D/W is run-of-the-mill vs V/M's Carmen, especially since Carmen is such an overused war horse. I agree with Dave that it's fascinating to see Tessa groping herself and the opening and ending of V/M's Carmen is exciting, while the flow and excitement gets lost in the middle with the tempo change in the music. Dave and Jenny did not counter with why D/W's fd is so good, or point out that it does match up very well against V/M's fd. At least Dave pointed out that V/M have had problems skating their Carmen fd without small mistakes all season long.

IMO, Dave had the more interesting insights to make of the three (Jenny, Dave, PJ).

PJ had overall more generous things to say about the Shibs than she did about Meryl and Charlie. I'm surprised Jenny and Dave didn't follow up and ask PJ what she thought D/W messed up on in their Die Fledermaus fd at Nice Worlds???


ETA:
The comments about Ilinykh/ Katsalapov's Ghost program were

[shan]

Oh PJ. Her attempt at explaining the cheese comment is almost worse than the comment itself. I guess Meryl/Charlie are the crappy, accessible cheese that will keep poor people from starving, but sophisticates like herself are worldly enough to understand how wonderful a free dance like Carmen is while simultaneously feeling sorry for the losers who enjoy something as generic and sad as Kraft singles...

But the thing that got me was her ridiculous comment about how if Meryl/Charlie had skated Die Fledermaus cleanly at Worlds last year, they would have won. Did she watch the event? I often wonder about this with PJ because sometimes she literally gets the facts wrong, yet she always states her opinions as fact and with such confidence that you almost believe her.

Yeah. I wished they would have followed up that comment about Worlds. V/M were the ones with the small mistakes and yet they won. I'm definitely not a fan of her comments about cheese. Obviously the judges disagree with her so far this season.

[mollymgr]

With comments like these, how can anyone take her seriously? (excluding the youknowwhos )

[circuscandy]

I think the thing that grates on me the most is the notion that somehow one's taste is flawed if they prefer one of the teams over the other. Like it's somehow a FACT that program A is objectively better, and if we don't like program A (or find faults in it), we're somehow missing the point or doin' it wrong.

Essentially, these two programs are the same concept. They are dramatic love stories. One is erotic and one is unrequited. Ultimately both are Romantic and angsty. Both involve the destruction of one character at the end, even. One uses popular music and the other does not. One uses more modern dance in places and the other does not. They're thematically matched.

So what makes one somehow 'finer' than the other? Because where this Carmen may be different than the other Carmens, it's recognizably Carmen. It hasn't been completely revamped.

Again, I definitely look at some of these statements about how boring and simple and unfeeling Notre Dame is and scratch my head. This program is intense from beginning to end. It's cohesive, choreographically and (with the addition of the glorious bells) musically. They know their characters and play those characters.

I mean, I know a lot of the negativity relates directly to the fact that Meryl and Charlie have done so well and are real threats, but I still can't help getting a bit frustrated. Especially when things are espoused as facts when they aren't.

And I had no idea Meryl and Charlie had major flaws at Worlds last year. Who knew? I should watch whatever competition PJ was watching. (She is really going to hit on how much she loooved DF to try and make her current argument seem less biased, I guess.)

[Whitneyskates]

Oh PJ, you receive Level 4/ +3 GOE acorss the board for backtracking and backhanded comments. So according to her, only those who have no knowledge of the finer things in life can enjoy D/W. I've said it before, I don't mind criticism of D/W, not everyone is going to be a fan, but PJ crossed a line into cattiness and desperation. She wasn't always like that, she used to be very complimentary, and not even in a backhanded way. She was very impressed by their performances at 08 Skate Canada.

She also contradicted herself when it comes to what she thought about the FD's last year. At every head to head competition, she predicted that if everyone skated perfectly, then V/M would win. She has never predicted D/W to win in a head to head with V/M, ever. Even in '10-'11 when they missed most of the season, she predicted they would win without even seeing their programs.

I used to really enjoy reading her blog, she used to offer constructive ctricism and while I may not always agree with what she thoughtI could at least understand where she was coming from and how she arrived at that opinion. I don't read her blog anymore, if I wanted to read postings by a blind uber who states their opinion as fact in an insulting manner, well there's a place I can go for that.

[Jessiebanana]

Thanks everyone who listened to that. Now I can know what was said without hurtling objects at my beloved laptop. I was pretty peeved about 3 minutes in...didn't make it to the end.

^^ Yep, as I posted in TSL podcast thread in GSD, there were lots of remarks by PJ that make me go hmmm ... But well, since she knows Scott from when he was nine-years-old and she has intimate knowledge of both the Virtue and Moir families, then she has even more reason to love and to root for V/M, which makes PJ not very objective as a figure skating journalist (which is not unusual, of course).

I can handle a little bias. The figure skating community is tiny and to find a completely unaligned commentator is never going to happen. Tanith, obviously, has people she's rooting for, but she's fantastic at her new job. Johnny isn't good at holding his tongue on any opinion he has, still I love him when he does commentate and interview. There is no excuse for out and out lies!

[aftershocks]

^^ Yeah, I agree that Tanith does an excellent job of ice dance commentary, and even though she is clearly pulling for Meryl and Charlie, she manages to speak about them professionally and to provide informative insights that help the audience enjoy D/W performances all the more. Plus Tanith's commentary is frank and honest and refreshing.

Johnny manages to be witty and insightful with his skating commentary, and it's too bad he's not setting his sights on making Sochi in the commentary booth. Pardon me tho', I'm whether you're referring OT to Johnny's admitted lies from his rebellious teenage years, or to PJ's whopper re V/M deserving to win in Nice last year over D/W's "not perfect" Die Fledermaus.

In any case, PJ as most people do, sees what she prefers to see for a variety of emotional, preferential and experiential reasons. The fact vs opinion argument is also as people individually perceive it. To me PJ is mostly voicing her opinion and its persuasive to her and to others who view V/M in the same way that she does (which is to say the majority of Canadians I would imagine, but I don't know that for a fact ).

Personally, I don't think of what PJ says as being factual when its clearly her opinion. She speaks forcefully (if not always convincingly) because that's how she perceives it and perhaps wishes for others such as the judges to see it. In terms of facts, it is a fact that V/M won Worlds last year, but the actual reason they won, IMHO, has nothing to do with PJ's false belief (lie to herself) that D/W didn't skate Die Fledermaus perfectly, when of course, they did. IMHO, audiences usually don't lie, certainly the audience in Nice didn't!