I loved Antonio Najarro's work, which shows us the brilliant artistic side of Javi. Somehow I am tired of those criticisms on him, classic music does not automatically equal artistic and skaters are entitled to skate to the music they feel most comfortable with, given the extremely high technical level.
I am with you completely on this. As a huge classical music fan myself, the way some programs butcher the music actually annoys me. Of course, there are great programs with classical music, but using classical music does not automatically make your program "more artistic". And many classical musicians themselves would not say that classical music is the only one superior art out there. One of my favorite classical pianists, for example, is also a Jazz fan and an amateur Jazz pianist himself. By his confession, Jazz is neither easier to master nor of inferior artistic value.
Along the same line, the other two arguments I strongly disagree with are 1) comedy is easier to do, and 2) it's easier to portray a character.
Those who believe comedy is by its nature easier to do have little to no idea how comedy works. Unfortunately this attitude can be found in other disciplines, too. If you talk to anyone who understands the craft of screenwriting, for example, she/he will tell you that comedy is by no means intrinsically easier than drama, although the work that goes into making comedy is often not fully acknowledged. One screenwriter said that many critics deslike comedy because they don't have anything clever to say about it: one can always analyze drama, tearing apart all kinds of elements and dropping all kinds big words in front of the reader, but it's difficult to do the same with comedy. In a certain sense, whether comedy works depends on, and only on, the kind of reaction it's able to get from the audience. And many critics don't like it, as they don't know what to do about it. Because they don't know what to say about comedy, they deem it somehow less worthy of appreciation.
Similarly, contrary to what some people would like to think, putting together a comic program is not intrinsically easier. For example, first of all you need a great comic sensibility, which comes from an acute understanding of life, people, and society. And a lot of details and nuances are needed in order to make comedy work, and the timing must always be exact. Javi himself once admitted to a fan that he found comedy more difficult to do, because of how precise comedy must be, and how much work has to go into making every single detail precise.
And I won't even start to argue against the idea that to portray a character is by definition easier. Instead I'll just refer to a Chinese saying: "it's easier to draw a ghost than to draw a person." Why? Because no one has seen a ghost and we all see people everyday. The more frames of references you have, the more difficult to make the drawing work. A mere "look like" just won't do.
Whew... I didn't realize my rant was going to be this long. Sorry!
Brian will come to Spain for Javi's summer camp in
Andorra. Tracy Wilson also came last year. How nice they are, helping him to build the figure skating in his country.

Javi used to assist them with Toronto's summer camps, but I am not sure whether this is the arrangement this year.
I am curious which GP events Javi will select or he finally decides to skip the GP competitions this coming season, which he had planned to do so but didn't because of two back-to-back GPF at his home country. However, it is not common for elite skaters to skip GP events in the pre-Olympic season, and it is very important for Javi to keep the momentum towards 2017-18 season.
Seeing these 3 guys together is a sugar treat
It's so nice for Brian and Tracy to help develop figure skating in Spain! And I guess the experience of having these camps must be extremely valuable for Javi.
It seems that this
article says Javi will be going to a camp in Canada, although I don't know whether the information in the article is 100% correct. (Javi's camp is in Andorra but the article says Spain, so I am not quite sure how much we should trust this article.) :
Javier will also be taking some time away and Brian joked that he won’t be back for training until September, as Javier relishes his time off. Orser will join Javier in Spain this summer for a skating camp and then Javier will come back with Brian for a two week skating camp that Brian is heading up.
I agree that at this point it is unlikely for Javi to skip the GP season. In addition to the reasons already mentioned in this thread, waiting until the Euros to find out how his new programs are received could be risky, not because of whether he wants to have a chance to defend his Euros and Worlds titles, but because Worlds next year will also determine how many spots Spain is going to get for 2018, if I understand the qualification thing correctly, and I don't think Javi would want to risk losing his country a spot.
Oh and the video is lovely!:luv17: I love the CSOI cast!