I lied. (I.e. more figure skating!)

[elwen]

I decided the gala deserves a post of its own. At first it was just so I could whale on Evan some more, but... I'll try to have other things, too.

But I'll start with Evan. I was going to say, "He cemented my dislike of him by doing Rhapsody in Blue." First of all, I really don't like that song. Second, Ilia does it better. (In bed. And with a quad.) But I'll let him off because his arrangement was mostly parts of the song that I can tolerate and not the parts that really annoy me. I still don't like him as a skater, though. The first announcer was like, "He won with his combination of athleticism and artistry" -- not. What artistry? At least the other announcer felt the need to add that it was also his work ethic. Yeah, you mean his robot-ness. Oh, and does he ever wear anything besides black? I really don't think it looks good on him.

Overall, I thought there were a lot of programs that were really beautiful or lots of fun to watch. For beautiful, I would put Pang/Tong and Davis/White at the top. The emotion in Pang/Tong's program was so intense and so infectious. For fun, I liked Mao Asada and, of course, Virtue/Moir, haha. So cute.

Also, there was Takahashi. *swoon* :D

And speaking of cute, OMG, Shen/Zhao and their little kiss. ^o^

Faiella/Scali seem to have a knack for picking these beautiful, emotional pieces to skate to. I forgot to mention it when talking about the free dance, but their program to "The Emigrants" was lovely. I don't think it's so much their skating as the music, though.

Miki Ando did Requiem again. The arrangement this time was really weird and all out of order. I couldn't tell what the first part was from, but the transition to Lacrymosa was pretty cool. Didn't think she should have had Dies Irae again, but whatevs. They can do whatever they like with the exhibition, I suppose.

Plushenko has grown on me over the course of this Olympics. Maybe in part I'm just catching the amused awe the comentators have for him. And in part I think his skating has matured since the last time I paid real attention to him (which was probably Salt Lake City, not even Torino). Too bad I had to figure it out now, I know. Well, there's Worlds.

Speaking of Plushenko, and others, what's with the guys deciding they can leave a bit of 5 o'clock shadow when they skate? Is it really because it's after 5 o'clock? Do they think it makes them look older and not like dancing little boys? [Doesn't save men's skating from the gay jokes. Even at my workplace, ugh.] I'm not sure how I feel about it. Though when combined with his slightly-too-long hair, it does make Lambiel look like the erratic, brilliant professor or something. XD

Do I need to say what would have made the gala even better?

Poker Face. ^______________^

And that seems like a good note on which to end my Olympics figure skating "coverage".

Comments

[solidark.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of sad it's over. I mean, it was irking that I only got to see the interesting parts a day later than most people but all in all it was OK. And is it just me or was there a lot more drama of all kinds this year? Not only in figure skating but also in other competitions like ice hockey and speed skating (well, for the Germans at least because there was so much drama in that team even beforehand and the way they won - newspapers are full of images of Anni Friesinger crossing the finishing line on her belly ^^;;).

But the ice skating World Championships will start in less than a month and I'm sure Evgeni will take back his (deserved! =P) throne.

Also, re: your other entry - I, too, really liked Miki Ando's Cleopatra costume! I wish more female skaters would have been this adventurous with their costumes :/

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm going to feel kind of lost for at least a few days now that all the excitement is over. Yesterday afternoon I started watching other events just because I needed the fix. ^^;; (But short-track speed skating is so exciting. I wish I'd realized this sooner.)

I didn't watch a lot of the other events, but I got the news blasts for whatever events were on figure skating days, and it did seem like there was a lot of drama. But I think there are always these spectacular failures and these great stories of impossible wins... I mean, the media gets to pick and choose what to focus on. I bet there are lots of boring parts, too. And, after all, it's the Olympics. Everything gets imbued with specialness. :D

Can't wait for Worlds! I gotta figure out how I'm going to watch it and make sure I don't miss it. ^^;;