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Calalang / Johnson - OMG. I am becoming an uber
Thanks so much for the links!
I really liked Jessica & Brian's SP music choice. I think it will be very effective for them this season. I'm so happy they had a good showing today and I hope they skate great again tomorrow!
This is a lovely sp and they had a very strong debut, with only a slight fall forward by Brian on the sbs jumps. I absolutely love that bent leg/skate blade hold by Jessica on the death spiral with a lovely dismount. What a gorgeous dress Jessica is wearing, color and all. 
Go C/J, go! @ANL, C/J only need to continue working on rocking their own style. They do not need Russian style, IMHO! They've already shown a lot of versatility in the programs they've competed so far, both last season and this season. Who knew that together they would be this strong? They trained together with other partners for years. But I guess it took those years with other partners to get them to where they are now, in wonderful harmony.
L/M still need to grow in terms of projecting more to the audience, but they are always a pleasure to watch.
But once you get it under your belt, they say, everything can kinda fall into place (no pun intended). It looked like Olivia was trying for a difficult leg variation on the ds, and lost her balance. But let me just commend S/T for the cool move they performed at U.S. Nats in January: A double spread eagle into a death spiral! I always love seeing innovation in pairs moves. 
I'm pulling for you Merv and Livia! 
Did you see an interview or quotes from them though regarding their goals? If so, can you provide a link? I always liked Jessica with her former partner, Zack Sidhu, so I'm very happy for her and Brian.
That's a fair summary.
I understand what you are saying, but I prefer not to regard these teams as 'threats' to each other when they look good and seem to have great potential. Also, it's not helpful for any top team to 'go south.' The U.S. continues to need strong pairs teams at the top, pushing each other!
Right now, it's simply a matter of go, go, go for all these teams. Now is the time. They all need to improve. So every team who looks good is a beacon of hope for them all getting better, pushing each other and pushing the envelope to be highly competitive internationally, so that the U.S. can eventually gain three spots. Politics in fs scoring is always a factor. So, all the skaters can do is keep working hard and continue focusing on seizing every opportunity to improve and to make an impact.
I always support U.S. pairs, and I'm gonna pull for my favorites through thick and thin, come hell or high water. Figure skating is hard, yet the skaters are all dedicated to doing their best to make it look easy.....
]. And sorry, but I'm a realist, at least one pair is going to 'go south'. It happens, and it's not a terrible thing to point out. In fact, U.S. pairs are kinda famous for it. They can prove me wrong and I would be happy for it.
No one is going to get physically violent because a team is a competitive threat [OK. It happened once
ETA - ERGH. Waiting for LP videos!!
We are very lucky Rasher was there and generously filmed and tweeted about the senior pairs short programs, along with some of the singles short programs and a few of the fp of juniors.
I understand that all teams have to be competitive with skaters in their own country. That's the name of the game: competition and being your best. But still, my feeling is that athletes do better when they don't obsess overmuch about their competition, but simply focus on improving every aspect of their own training strategies and performance skills. The coaches can worry about competitors and/or competition strategies while keeping their athletes focused on doing their own thing to the best of their abilities. That's in fact the approach that has worked so well at Gadbois, where many rival teams train under the same coaches.
I'm not sure why, but the rules were obviously different, and changes were probably put into place soon afterward. In 1953, for some reason, no U.S. pairs teams competed at Worlds. From 1947 - 1950 (after the WWII layoff) the Kennedy siblings of the U.S. were on the rise, and the U.S. sent two pairs teams to Worlds in those years. From 1951 thru 1952, the U.S. sent 3 pairs teams to compete at Worlds, post the Kennedys winning gold in 1950 and becoming the first NA team to win gold in pairs.
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I'm enjoying watching Chris' on-point grace and follow through as well. 
The video is apparently courtesy of a relative of Livia. I'm glad it was uploaded.
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The Detroit Skating Club has published full results with protocols on their website and here are the links for the Senior and Junior Pairs:
Hopefully they will continue to do well as they continue to up their difficulty! Obviously it's a very low result now, but it is their first senior comp and she's still very young.
