Johnny Weir Journal Update !

[Mafke]

The response is similar to how you feel a little angry when a jock pokes fun at a nerd (boo!), and when a nerd pokes fun at a jock (yay!), it doesn't feel quite as bad.

An excellent point! Now, please erase it so that I can repost it and claim it as my own...

 

[dutchherder]

I just wish Johnny and Evan would quit snarking at each other. They remind me of a childish and hurt newly divorced couple who don't see the harm in saying nasty things about each other in front of their child. I feel like they are forcing me-- and other American skating fans-- to choose between them. I like both of them, and would like to continue rooting for both of them. If either of them had any brains at all, they would realize that they NEED each other. Johnny wouldn't be as interesting if he didn't have Evan as a constant challenger and vice versa. That was something Brian Boitano and Brian Orser seemed to understand. Their on-ice rivalry perpetuated their popularity and strengthened their skating. Each knew if he slacked off, the other would pull ahead. Somehow, they managed a MUCH more intense rivalry without being petty. Evan and Johnny should take notes.

 

[figureskatingfan22]

Pretty darn close. No one else made it to 230. Of course, Brian Joubert was not able to do his second GP assignment, but still, I think that it shows that Johnny and Dai are not *that* far apart.

I meant that Johnny might have been on the podium already(i.e. last season).
At short notice Johnny's current strategy is the best. But I wonder if it will be the best in the long term. But I like that he doesn't promise to put the quad into his programs anymore as he did the last 2 seasons. This is better than promising it and not (or only seldom) doing it in the end.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

His program is quite simplistic but he shows excellent technique. The closest style to him would be Patrick Chan,but Chan is still in the growing stage.

Daisuke's and Stephane's programs are much more complex than Johnny's and therefore more prone to mishaps..

Evan's program is the standard 'macho' cut, and Kevin's is standard Candoloro.

It would be great if they all skated their best. I'd like to see what the judges would do with 6 brilliant well skated programs. :scratch:

Joe

 

[jennylovskt]

It would be great if they all skated their best. I'd like to see what the judges would do with 6 brilliant well skated programs. :scratch:

Joe

In this case, I would say it should line up like this:

1. Lambiel
2. Takahashi
3. Weir
4. Lysacek
5. Chan
6. Van der Perren

 

[Dodhiyel]

....Daisuke's and Stephane's programs are much more complex than Johnny's and therefore more prone to mishaps..

That's an interesting observation, Joe.

I find myself remembering some changes over the years. After Urmanov's victory over Boitano in the Olympics, there was some puzzlement among non-core skating fans, i.e., general U.S. TV audience, because Boitano had "skated clean" (I have abandoned hope of seeing it called "skated cleanly" lol; the adverb is a dying breed.), while Urmanov had not, although he had attempted a program which the judges considered more difficult. I found Urmanov's performance beautiful, even with the errors. Perhaps to keep the U.S. audience interested in watching figure skating on TV, the ISU then ordered that judges should not give mental credit for moves not completed successfully. This led to an era where skating cleanly was paramount, and even one fall could unhorse a skater in the standings. I remember Nancy Kerrigan saying something like "I just want to skate clean" before her Olympic adventure, and one heard versions of that a lot, for a long time. That was also a time when a failure to include successful versions of required elements in the short program spelled goodbye to the gold.

Originally, not skating cleanly had served the purpose of encouraging skaters to try new, difficult things, to stretch the sport. I guess the ISU wanted that back in skating, so the design of CoP was such as to bring back the motivation to take risks, rather than to focus only on "skating clean".

For some skaters, the risks pay off, big-time, in points, points, points, for risks that failed. Jeffrey Buttle, in the early days of CoP, was a good example of that. His programs often were very far from clean, but he was high in the standings, for all the what I shall call "attempt points". The tuning of CoP from year to year has lessened the reign of attempt points, but we still do have plenty of them, so it seems that complexity pays off, although Madame Bianchetti does not appear to care for programs full of complex mishaps.

There is an old U.S. radio soap opera that began with a question: "Can a little girl from a mining town find happiness....?" etc. etc. The question now is can a guy with an elegant, clean, very difficult if seemingly less complex, program gain medals at Worlds?

I think he can; I do not know, of course, if he will. That depends upon the given day. We have seen variance, considerable variance, in the scores from event to event of both Stephane and Daisuke. Absolute consistency becomes harder and harder to achieve, with the fine point count upon which a skater's position depends now, not to mention injury, illness, emotional stress in their private lives that may occur concurrently with a competition. Nobody out there is a machine, in spite of the expressions used by some commentators, nobody. They are all too human; that is what makes their performances so moving, the effort required to rise to the moment, despite all obstacles, all problems. It is also part of what makes figure skating so exciting for its core fans; anything can happen; nothing is certain.

The top guys are close in their best scores, but have different approaches to earning those scores, and therefore, different risk factors when they have a bad day.

Judging from the fact that those who cannot jump well are usually advised by their teachers to undertake Ice Dancing or even Pairs, I would say that jumping is, at bottom, considered more difficult than the other elements in figure skating. Because of this, I think that those whose scores depend mainly upon jumping, like Brian Joubert, are more at risk, score-wise, than those whose scores depend largely on spins, musicality, etc., like Stephane Lambiel. What do you think about this, Joe?

I am going to post this without proof-reading; I spent too much time writing it lolololololol so please forgive any errors lol.

 

[jennylovskt]

I think Johnny's been good to Evan until this journal (if his Myspace comments didn't count). He's been saying a lot of good things about Evan and how they got along well off ice. He mentioned once before that Evan's idea of masculinity for figure skating was ridiculous when he was asked, if I recalled correctly. I don't think it should count. Now he decided that he should do the same to Evan, like Evan's always been doing.

 

[yelyoh]

The Evan masculinity thing always makes me LMAO… In comparison to what? A box of newborn kittens?

Yeah I don't get it either. He's masculine compared to what? Whom? His skating style is more frenetic than balletic so what. He dresses in black and doesn't wear things that sparkle or flow. He doesn't lisp. So he's masculine!!!!! That's a great logical construct.

As far as JW goes, I think he can get a medal this year at Worlds and who knows maybe win. But I do think in the long run he needs a quad at least in his LP. I heard the Eurosports PBP guy last year say that JW's quads look effortless in practice so he can do them.
Go figure.

 

[attyfan]

I just wish Johnny and Evan would quit snarking at each other. They remind me of a childish and hurt newly divorced couple who don't see the harm in saying nasty things about each other in front of their child. I feel like they are forcing me-- and other American skating fans-- to choose between them. I like both of them, and would like to continue rooting for both of them. If either of them had any brains at all, they would realize that they NEED each other. Johnny wouldn't be as interesting if he didn't have Evan as a constant challenger and vice versa. That was something Brian Boitano and Brian Orser seemed to understand. Their on-ice rivalry perpetuated their popularity and strengthened their skating. Each knew if he slacked off, the other would pull ahead. Somehow, they managed a MUCH more intense rivalry without being petty. Evan and Johnny should take notes.

ITA! IMO, the best rivalries have avoided the kind of petty snarking that Evan and Johnny engage in. They are either along the lines of friendly rivals (Boitano/
Orser or Kwan/Slutskaya) or a real, crackling hatred (Yags/Plush) -- but not this childish nonsense.

 

[slutskayafan21]

ITA! IMO, the best rivalries have avoided the kind of petty snarking that Evan and Johnny engage in. They are either along the lines of friendly rivals (Boitano/
Orser or Kwan/Slutskaya) or a real, crackling hatred (Yags/Plush) -- but not this childish nonsense.

Very true. Also to this point Evan and Johnny have a total of 2 world bronze medals between them. They are no Boitano and Orser, Kwan and Slutskaya, or Yagudin and Plushenko.

 

[Tonichelle]

ITA! IMO, the best rivalries have avoided the kind of petty snarking that Evan and Johnny engage in. They are either along the lines of friendly rivals (Boitano/
Orser or Kwan/Slutskaya) or a real, crackling hatred (Yags/Plush) -- but not this childish nonsense.

yeah but my generation - which they are a part of - can't seem to get out of high school mentality... we're all childish brats who need to be taken down a peg or two.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

The question now is can a guy with an elegant, clean, very difficult if seemingly less complex, program gain medals at Worlds?

I think he can; I do not know, of course, if he will. That depends upon the given day. We have seen variance, considerable variance, in the scores from event to event of both Stephane and Daisuke. Absolute consistency becomes harder and harder to achieve, with the fine point count upon which a skater's position depends now, not to mention injury, illness, emotional stress in their private lives that may occur concurrently with a competition. Nobody out there is a machine, in spite of the expressions used by some commentators, nobody. They are all too human; that is what makes their performances so moving, the effort required to rise to the moment, despite all obstacles, all problems. It is also part of what makes figure skating so exciting for its core fans; anything can happen; nothing is certain.

The top guys are close in their best scores, but have different approaches to earning those scores, and therefore, different risk factors when they have a bad day.

Judging from the fact that those who cannot jump well are usually advised by their teachers to undertake Ice Dancing or even Pairs, I would say that jumping is, at bottom, considered more difficult than the other elements in figure skating. Because of this, I think that those whose scores depend mainly upon jumping, like Brian Joubert, are more at risk, score-wise, than those whose scores depend largely on spins, musicality, etc., like Stephane Lambiel. What do you think about this, Joe?

Indeed, these guys are close in their scores and do have different approaches to winning. I think you brought up a topic that should be separated from this topic.

My take on the topic was just to point out that Johnny has his approach to winning in a 'simplistic'style and not a 'complex' style. He does what he is known for and offers nothing new. That's not a bash. He is being himself and why not? His competitors are reaching out in different directions than being themselves.

I have my preference but I can not predict a winner here Just wondering what the judges come up with while scoring these gentlemen. And yes, clean and jumps are all part of the equation. (Brian will come into being during Worlds, and here we have a skater without much style but super jumps.)

And Johnny is ready for that judgement.

Joe

 

[MichelleTodd]

I think Johnny's been good to Evan until this journal (if his Myspace comments didn't count). He's been saying a lot of good things about Evan and how they got along well off ice. He mentioned once before that Evan's idea of masculinity for figure skating was ridiculous when he was asked, if I recalled correctly. I don't think it should count. Now he decided that he should do the same to Evan, like Evan's always been doing.

I respect your right to your opinion, but I don't think Johnny was being nice when he accused Evan of always using his hip as an excuse for a bad skate or of deliberating forgetting his pants at Marshalls in order to steal some of Johnny's publicity in Johnny's home state.

Dallene

 

[sillylionlove]

I appreciate Johnny's honesty and him writing down exactly what he is thinking, no matter how off base or crazy it is.

 

[Tonichelle]

Just a thought:

Why is it racked up to honesty when Johnny says something underhanded or... controversial

but when Evan says something underhanded/controversial he's a considered to be a jerk?

aren't we asking for a double standard here?

 

[psycho]

but when Evan says something underhanded/controversial he's a considered to be a jerk?

First of all, I never heard Evan or Johnny ever say something underhanded, and their comments can be seen as controversial only by those who either live under a rock or freak out over morning breakfast.

Second of all, the reason why I personally hope that Evan is not being honest when he starts with the classical rant/masculinity talk, is because his comments are so stupid I'd rather not think that he is actually that dumb. And I don't. I think he's been fed these lines by the USFSA.

Johnny can be a drama queen or an occasional whiner, but he's not an idiot, and I never read/heard him say something truly ignorant.

 

[fenway]

Second of all, the reason why I personally hope that Evan is not being honest when he starts with the classical rant/masculinity talk, is because his comments are so stupid I'd rather not think that he is actually that dumb. And I don't. I think he's been fed these lines by the USFSA.

Woah. So do you think the USFSA is helping to promote the feud between Johnny & Evan by hand feeding Evan ammunition?

 

[Fossi]

Has Evan ever mentioned Johnny by name and insulted him, or do people think he made comments about outfits and meant Johnny? I think Johnny is just jealous that he was beaten fair and square and can't understand why he didn't win.People I know say Johnny has been rude toward both Tanith and Sasha just because they are close with Evan. That is very highschool behaviour. I think the only one fighting is Johnny.

 

[Snowgirl]

Has Evan ever mentioned Johnny by name and insulted him, or do people think he made comments about outfits and meant Johnny? I think Johnny is just jealous that he was beaten fair and square and can't understand why he didn't win.

That is nonsense, Johnny admitted it was fair. Do you consider him that stupid not to understand why did he lose those Nats?

People I know say Johnny has been rude toward both Tanith and Sasha just because they are close with Evan. That is very highschool behaviour. I think the only one fighting is Johnny

Oh, yes? And how does it show?
And those people are following Johnny and girls close enough to judge?

 

[Tonichelle]

I've never heard anything of what you're claiming, Fossi. From what I understand Johnny's a decent guy - I've had my own experiences with him (first time he was kinda rude in that he kept putting his feet up on the chair in front of him by my head during the ladies warm up in 05, but he stopped when I looked back at him like 'excuse me' I'm sure I was rude in the way I looked at him, but it was annoying! in 06 I was going out as he was coming in at the hotel and he held the door... very courteous... said something about enjoy the skating or something like that... made me feel bad for not cheering for him earlier that day lol) I have to say he's an okay guy by what I've seen

AFAIK he and Sasha are still very good friends from what they've said in past interviews... so Sasha rented Evan's guest house for a little while... whoopie.