Max Aaron | Page 66 | Golden Skate

Max Aaron

I hadn't seen that one before, thanks ice coverage!

I noticed that Brendan's harnessed 4A attempt also got a shout-out from Tom Z in that article. :)
 
:hap10: Good luck to Max at the upcoming US Nats! :hap10:
Just finished my registration to J-Sports, meaning I can watch US Nats LIVE. :biggrin: My hubby and me will be cheering hard for him in front of TV next weekend! :cheer:
 
deedee1, is J-Sports an alternative, non-icenotwork way to watch US Nationals? Is it free or paid? Geoblocked?


Is it today that the IceTalk podcast comes out, or tomorrow?
 
^^^Thx apgold for posting the Instagram with Max's bullfighter SP clip. Can't wait to see it at Nats. He looks so committed to the program, and I can see improvement in his spins. His hard work is paying off! Also loved his positivity in his interview. He is such a class act.
 
Good Luck to Max at Nationals. Fingers crossed he has two great skates! Looking forward to seeing his his new SP!
 
What really caught my eye on that snippet from Z was the spin! Phew, that's the best spin I've seen him do in ages. I'm really looking forward to this.

The feels after that interview. The FEELS.
 
It seemed to me that Max went into his spin with tremendous speed and really kept the speed up throughout. It was very cool. I guess that's what happens when you work with a spin specialist. Pretty amazing! :)
 
If any of you follow Team USA on Facebook, they are showing a live video right now of Max in a photo shoot for their merchandise. Looks like it is St. Valentine's Day themed with some paper hearts as props so far.

The live video is still going - it's 20 minutes long as of right now.
 
Oh my, he looks very handsome in his jeans, white shoes and that Team USA polo he's got on right now.

EDIT: Hahaha they've clothes-pegged the shirt so it's tighter on him
 
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I'm really impressed by this video that Team USA is doing with Max. It is now 59 minutes and it's still going.

Goodness! - I love my country and all, but that hat, scarf, and sweatshirt ensemble is a bit too much red, white, & blue!
 
So because I'm totally bored I'm watching the whole of Max's video from the photoshoot.

Of course, he's totally adorable. Someone mentions the "Show Me Healthy" shoot and Max jokes that they photoshopped him and shopped in lots of muscles. Everyone laughs. (I'm guessing they all know he's lying.)

He starts in a nice red t-shirt and blue trackpants. He does several leaps and jumps for the camera including several Russian splits until he achieves the position the photographer is after.

Now they're doing a cute shoot where they're throwing little red paper hearts in the air, which are supposed to flutter down around Max. At first Max tosses them into the air, except he's adorably fail at the tossing part so that they flutter. Two assistants then throw them in from the sides, which ends up with hearts in Max's face and a lot of giggling. Finally someone gets on a ladder and tosses them from above, whereupon they flutter appropriately.

Now Max is being goofy with a Team USA and a Team USA fun sign. Several different positions and poses. Now he's doing Russian splits with the sign. He gets really good height on these considering he's doing them almost cold, from a standstill on the floor.

I want to know what the go with the plain white sign is.

Now they're specifically taking shots of the red hoodie he's wearing. They tell him to be goofy, stretch, dance, whatever. A few silly poses, and then he does some stag jumps.

The videographer asks Max how he's going, Max grins and says he's tired. To be fair, he did do about twenty Russian splits, four stag jumps, and a stack of other work just then.

Adjustment of the ties on the hoodie. Now more stag leaps. Max is quite light in the air on these, and light on the landing; no loud thumps. Photographer is loving Max's stag jumps.

Dang, camera was looking away while Max changed t-shirts. We did get a sneaky peek at his back and shoulders. :o:

Max has found the puppy and is much more interested in the puppy.

Now he is wearing a plain navy blue t-shirt. I think the lady with the bag of tools doesn't like Max's hairstyle that much. She keeps fidgeting with the front part. Lots of hairspray/gel involved I think.

More goofy poses. He's pointing to his chest, so I wonder if they're going to photoshop some kind of message on it later.

I think it's quite late at night; no wonder he's tired, he's probably been skating all day. Oooh, long distance shot of Max changing shirts again. :o:

White t-shirt now with a shiny gold logo on the front; the OTC logo maybe? Now they're discussing whether or not to shoot this shirt against the white backdrop that they've been shooting all their photos against so far. The instruction is that Max needs to look strong and confrontational for this bit. His adorable smile ruins that a little. He waves to the camera between shots.

They shift over to the brown brick wall to shoot against. Max waves to the camera again as the photog gets set up. More poses including a very stretched out not-quite spiral. He likes this pose on his knees with the sign. (This one is a "thank you for your support" sign).

Time for Max to change outfits. Some discussion over by the clothes rack, perhaps trying to make sure they have the right sizes. Max wanders off to the bathroom to get changed this time since he's also changing from his sweatpants to jeans.

Now he's in jeans and a navy polo shirt, and white shoes. He looks really handsome. More adjustments to his hair, and the clothes pegs go on the shirt to tighten it up. I think this is around the point I came in originally. More businesslike poses, a few walking shots, now the casual leaning-against-the-wall look.

He has to wriggle back into the red hoodie because they forgot to do the mitten shoot. They unclip all his pegs so he can get it on, but he musses his hair even while trying not to so the lady with the hair gel comes over again. They hand Max the beanie and ask him to put it on however he wears them, he admits he doesn't really wear them, nor does he wear scarves so they'll have to coach him. The mittens seem to be mislaid, though they comment he looks very patriotic.

They agree he should wear the grey hoodie, so after all that contortionism to get the red hoodie on he has to take it off again.

There's a delay, and Max wanders over to the camera to answer some questions. Unfortunately there aren't many Max fans on the stream at this point, so the questions are quite generic. (Furious typing at this point.) Max is asked about his favourite food, and philosophises whether he can answer "steak and pasta", because isn't that two foods? They put the puffy jacket on him and zip him in. "Someone wants to know if you can give a hint about your new short program costume." "Um, matador, unique, blue, part of it is blue."

Switch back to generic questions. One thing he'd bring if stranded on an island? "A fun friend. We can die together but it would be fun" :laugh:. He likes beaches, too. They clip up his puffy jacket and it's back to work. Beanie goes on again. Mittens! Scarf goes back on.

Max is being extra dorky and pretending to be cold. "Is it snowing in here?" Lots of poses, he's pretending it's snowing. Pause for some adjustments to the scarf. More cute "I'm so cold!" poses. Max traipses back over to the white backdrop, and the photog scrambles around to re-setup. "You look so bundled up!" "I'm super cold inside, you know. I can't help it." :laugh:

Max pretends to "put up the dukes" (and nearly gets the lady adjusting his scarf. giggling ensues.). More fake snow poses. Now the signs are whipped out again. This one called for you to "Join Team USA in Pyeongchang!" The Thankyou sign is next, now they're doing the white sign. Really really want to know what they're photoshopping onto that one. "Nice!" says the photog. "That's a wrap!" someone else says.

"Would you rather speak every single language or play every single instrument?" "I'd rather speak every language because then I could talk to everyone." The next question is who should play him in a movie. He says Shia LeBouf at first (because of the physical resemblance) but then the lady with the camera says he doesn't have to look like him so Max changes his answer to Ryan Reynolds. Then he says goodbye, and hopes it wasn't too boring!
 
... Alex has worked with other people recently too -- Alexa & Chris, Mariah Bell, Shoma, and I know Max Aaron was there at one point (but not sure if it would have been for jumps).

Arriba has been posting lot of great stuff in other threads about her recent trips to the rinks in Illinois where Shoma and Gracie recently were visiting for training with Alex O.

The quote above is from the Gracie thread in The Edge.
I hope Arriba eventually will tell us a little more about Max having been there.


Lucky us to have received so much Max content lately :popcorn: :yay:.

Adding some links to this thread for posterity:

~ Video of Max's quad toe:
I could swear that karne posted this link earlier somewhere on GS. But sorry, I can't find which thread at the moment, or else I would have quoted you.

It's out - Jackie Wong talks to Max during the second half of the podcast. Great interview and Max is lovely and thoughtful. http://web.icenetwork.com/fans/icetalk ...

One of my favorite Max interviews ever, even though we can't see him.
Echoing some of our comments elsewhere: His voice sounds so animated. Lots of good discussion related to his skating, plus his sweetness and big heart really come across.

~ Just for posterity, will mention that it is in Episode 14 (which of course is obvious at the moment, but will be increasingly less obvious for anyone browsing through this thread many weeks later when IN's episode list will have grown much longer).
The Max interview starts at approx. 31:00.

The whole IceTalk interview is definitely worth listening to.
~ As a teaser, IN had tweeted an audio snippet about Max's fondness for West Side Story, and esp. for Black Swan :luv17::

If any of you follow Team USA on Facebook, they are showing a live video right now of Max in a photo shoot for their merchandise. ...

~ musicfan, thanks very much for the alert to watch this streaming. I was able to catch some of it live, and then watched the archived video in entirety a little later.

I had trouble hearing everything, so am very appreciative that karne's excellent ears and notes filled in some stuff that I had missed.

Chiming in with assorted observations:

Max was expected to improvise most of his poses for the camera, and quite a few of them were balletic in nature. He was drawing upon his skating as an inspiration, of course, but it was his natural ease and comfort with the dancerly movement that looked so good to my eyes.
I too was struck that Max was extremely light on his feet, even when he was getting tired from so much jumping.
And I too found it interesting (although understandable) how much Max was asked to adjust his jumping in order to show off the branded clothing better.

Whoever came up with the Valentine hearts business had not thought the props through well. The flatness (and "stickiness") of the hearts worked against getting them to fly up into the air (and to float down) as desired. IMHO, I think that slightly folding the hearts along a vertical center crease would have improved the mechanics. The hearts also would have just looked better with something of a third dimension.
But ... clever SnuggleBat to the rescue :cool:. As the photo crew was brainstorming as to how to get the flat hearts to cooperate, it was the ever-helpful Max who solved the problem with his bright idea for someone on a ladder to toss them down at him.

The accessorized red-white-and-blue winter outfit complete with Team USA hat, scarf, and mittens tugged at my emotions. Although I know it is not a real opening-ceremony uniform, the overall impression was similar enough to make me feel both wistful for 2014 and extra-excited for the possibility of 2018. Max already was looking as if he was born to wear this type of ensemble ... and then he was given the PyeongChang sign to hold ... for the next year, I will be holding my breath with high hopes for him.

Side note (unrelated to Max): I'm disappointed in Team USA for selling that very poorly designed red hoodie -- with a neckhole so tight that even agile Max really struggled to get it on and off. Esp. disillusioning b/c I'm guessing that most of the sales are online, with no opportunity to try things on before purchase.

But to end with more positive comments, I am very happy for Max :dance2: that he once again is considered one of the faces of Team USA. And not that it was his first time with photo shoots, but I imagine that the novelty has not worn off yet and I hope that it was a fun experience for him.
Plus I am happy for us :ghug: that it was his shoot that was selected for the behind-the-scenes Facebook Live video. Very enjoyable.​


ETA:

Regarding the FB Live video, forgot to say that I thought it was cute that among his favorite places, Max gave very specific examples of beaches -- Huntington Beach and Malibu.
And then added his hometown Scottsdale as another favorite place.

Max and the entire 2016 U.S. Men's podium were in a USFS #100DaysOfChampions tweet:

As were Maddie and entire 2016 U.S. Pairs podium:
 
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Good Luck to Max at U.S. Nationals this week! :)

Side note (unrelated to Max): I'm disappointed in Team USA for selling that very poorly designed red hoodie -- with a neckhole so tight that even agile Max really struggled to get it on and off. Esp. disillusioning b/c I'm guessing that most of the sales are online, with no opportunity to try things on before purchase.

The hoodie is poorly designed - especially since Team USA has athletes like wrestlers, weightlifters, and gymnasts and those guys don't have exactly typical male measurements for necks, waists, arms, and legs. Nike (I'm assuming) is supposedly known for being a market standard for this type of appeal.

Regarding the FB Live video, forgot to say that I thought it was cute that among his favorite places, Max gave very specific examples of beaches -- Huntington Beach and Malibu.
And then added his hometown Scottsdale as another favorite place.

I'm somewhat surprised - I thought Max wanted to eventually apply to schools on the East Coast. But there are always schools like USC and UCLA. ;)
 
I just listened to Jackie Wong's podcast interview of Max and was very impressed by him. He really seems to be a thoughtful and mature young man and to have his head on straight. I found his straightforward answers refreshing, not the usual pc scripted answers you hear over and over. I hope he does fabulously at Nationals!
 
Posting some info as per ice coverage's request. About Max training in IL, I honestly can't remember when he was there or what the purpose of his visit was. Don't mean to be vague, but I think I was half brain dead after being at the rink for 7 days in a row. I do remember that when he was there, he took part in the off-ice training that Alex does with his students. He thought the training was extremely challenging and enjoyed it. Apparently they run sometimes anywhere from 12-15 miles, do plyometrics, some exercises involving hand stands against a wall, and who knows what all else. Everyone enjoyed him being at the rink, and he was super friendly. This info was from one of the moms who was there at the rink watching her daughter. Alex never tells them when someone well-known is coming, so they'll walk in and find the likes of Gracie, Shoma, Mariah on the ice. I know I was there in hopes of seeing Shoma and was quite surprised when I realized Gracie was there too. Alex is known as being quite a jump technician, so usually people come to him to work on their jumps. Former ice dancer Vladimir Fedorov works with people on footwork and moves in the field.
 
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Posting some info as per ice coverage's request. About Max training in IL, I honestly can't remember when he was there or what the purpose of his visit was. Don't mean to be vague, but I think I was half brain dead after being at the rink for 7 days in a row. I do remember that when he was there, he took part in the off-ice training that Alex does with his students. He thought the training was extremely challenging and enjoyed it. Apparently they run sometimes anywhere from 12-15 miles, do pliometrics (sp.?), some exercises involving hand stands against a wall, and who knows what all else. Everyone enjoyed him being at the rink, and he was super friendly. This info was from one of the moms who was there at the rink watching her daughter. Alex never tells them when someone well-known is coming, so they'll walk in and find the likes of Gracie, Shoma, Mariah on the ice. I know I was there in hopes of seeing Shoma and was quite surprised when I realized Gracie was there too. Alex is known as being quite a jump technician, so usually people come to him to work on their jumps. Former ice dancer Vladimir Fedorov works with people on footwork and moves in the field.

Arriba, thank you so much for sharing. All very interesting. So nice to hear that friendly Max was a welcome presence at Alex O's rink, and that Max enjoyed the challenging training.

I wonder whether Max had made a special trip to Chicago for the sole purpose of working with Alex.
If not and Max was killing two birds with stone, then just my speculation, but maybe it could have been in Dec 2015, when Max was in Evanston as a guest star in a weekend of holiday shows with local skaters.
Again, just my imagination running wild, but it had been pre-announced on the schedule of four shows that Max would perform in only three of them: Friday and Saturday evening, plus Sunday afternoon. The show without Max was on Saturday afternoon so .... maybe he wanted to be sure to put some hours into productive training before the evening show?? (With the context that Max prob. was as fired up as ever for Nats, after not quite qualifying for the 2015 GPF.)
Or ... going further back to summer 2013, Max took part in a charity show in the area with the Golds and others.


:hap10: Good luck to Max at the upcoming US Nats! :hap10:
Just finished my registration to J-Sports, meaning I can watch US Nats LIVE. :biggrin: My hubby and me will be cheering hard for him in front of TV next weekend! :cheer:

Thx as always to deedee and Mr. deedee for cheering from Japan for Max.

The thread is rarin' to go for Kansas City. Adding my bookmark for :bmrk: 2017 U.S. NATIONALS :bmrk:.

Minor aside: I think maybe the Edea poster of Max at the secondary arena in KC is a new version??
Seems to be in that shawl-collared sweater of his? I don't recognize what he's wearing as a costume.


Good Luck to Max at U.S. Nationals this week! :)



The hoodie is poorly designed - especially since Team USA has athletes like wrestlers, weightlifters, and gymnasts and those guys don't have exactly typical male measurements for necks, waists, arms, and legs. Nike (I'm assuming) is supposedly known for being a market standard for this type of appeal.



I'm somewhat surprised - I thought Max wanted to eventually apply to schools on the East Coast. But there are always schools like USC and UCLA. ;)

Good point, musicfan. Duh .... had not occurred to me that it really is Nike that is at greater fault for the hoodie.

As for his favorite places, maybe for the beaches Max means favorite places for a vacation? :hap93:
Such as when he is business at school at Harvard or somewhere in the east ;).
Some people might say their favorite place is Paris, for example, without wanting to actually live there.

ETA:
In light of the FB video, throwing back to a USOC photo of Max looking extremely light on his feet. (LOL, maybe with the help of a trampoline or something??)
https://www.instagram.com/p/_rmAnTLIdi/ (2015)​
 
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