That's a lie, as usual in Chan ubers' rants. You came here a year ago when I wrote about Chan zamboni-ing the ice in DOI show last June. Looks like you are not over it. Poor technical content of fs shows was one of the reasons why the average viewers in NA, and partly in Europe, lost the interest in attending them. Why to go and pay if you know the guys are not going to do their best. You are in the middle of fs nowhere- Riga, Latvia (Btw, did someone say just recently that the worst Plu haters, and apparently his fans haters, are immigrants, which I assume is somehow relevant to all ex-USSR residents?
). I am in a fandom. And I don't want to end up not to be in the one. AOI had a very low tickets sale, basically a frozen one, until they included Dai in the cast and ran the commercial about his collaboration with Fumiya on TV. Guess why. No need to pretend with too long wordy post. Just say "I don't like let`s talk because she doesn't lke my PC!"
I admitted that I was not completely right, and I was going to apologize to you and thank you for the good things that you wrote about Stephane (although I don't agree that his skating is heavy and that he has less passion than Daisuke - it's just different). But calling me a liar is too much. I didn't write any personal insults to you.
I will explain in more detail, then. I came here from a fan page where a link to your review was posted, and where several people called it unpleasant. And it wasn't a Patrick Chan page, I assure you. I wanted to read the review for myself to see if I agree or not. I wrote upon my first impression after reading it only once. I shouldn't have done that. But initially I didn't know who had written the review - I didn't even remember your user name. I remembered that earlier 'Dreams on Ice' review and our conversation about it only some time after having read this review.
As for Chan - yes, I like him, but he is probably somewhere in 9th or 10th place of my top 10 of current male single skaters (current meaning both those who still compete, and those who continue skating in shows). My absolutely favorite current skater is Stephane Lambiel, then Kurt Browning (such a pity that he must retire completely soon), then Daisuke, then Jeffrey Buttle, Jeremy Abbott, then Plushenko, Joubert, Amodio. When it comes to the 9th and 10th place, I fluctuate between skaters like Chan, Denis Ten, Javier Fernandez, Tatsuki Machida, Johnny Weir, or recently even Shawn Sawyer (a great show skater).
As for being from Riga ("the middle of nowhere" - absolutely true when it comes to figure skating, very true in many other aspects, not so true in some other things) - I am not an immigrant from Russia. I am a Latvian with some Russian-Jewish ancestors who have lived here for generations (not from soviet times, but from earlier times). I also have purely Latvian ancestors (as purely as it can be) and Austrian ancestors. On the record, I don't hate Plushenko - I like him, and respect him a lot, as indicated by his place in my top 10 of current single male skaters.
Finally, I don't want to repeat our conversation about show skating, but I will say that I can understand the negative view on show skating as mere entertainment. I personally don't have strong prejudices against easy entertainment programs, but I am not ecstatic when it's all I see in a show. At the same time, I don't think that show programs should always contain difficult jumps, complicated spins and step sequences like right out of competition programs. I miss the old times of professional competitions and truly great show skating even without having lived them. But it's not just because of the technical content that skaters tried to include in their programs then. Most of all I miss skaters trying to create works of art instead of mere exhibition programs with very much reduced content, or just strings of their trademark elements, I miss the innovation and creativity. I even miss the entertainment programs of those times that were often of much higher quality than now - sometimes to the point that they became art. But I understand that the current requirements for competitive skaters are so high that they don't have much time left for creating exhibition programs. It's even easier to include some difficult technical elements, than to think of an interesting idea and/or story, and then to invest enough time and effort to be able to embody this idea/story properly, and/or to learn new, interesting choreography, or new interesting elements. Fortunately, there are skaters who at least try - styles (in terms of music, movement and performance) that are new to them, if nothing else. Of course, professional skaters have more time for that. But even they don't always do that. I personally am lucky that I am able to enjoy pure skating without big tricks when it's done by skaters who have some qualities that show through even in simple programs and/or who are basically good performers who don't need very much to excite the public. But I still want to see something more at least from time to time. That's why I am a fan of Stephane. He may not always include difficult jumps, but he always thinks of idea/story, style, choreography, or some interesting elements that are not jumps/spins, also about steps (although they are not as complicated as in competition programs).
So does everyone on this board. So post often and post long, please! :yes:
