Skated to Caruso, by Lucio Dalla. (All together now- THAT'S ELVIS' MUSIC
!!!!!) That's what I said! Technical difficulty was way down, he had a
couple of nasty looking falls in it, and the artistry wasn't all that
either. Elvis did it better. His blouse wouldn't have looked bad with a
pair of jeans at the local nightvlub, but his hair.......let's just say
that Santa forgot to leave the hairdye under the tree. There's about 6
different shades between blonde and brown in it, including one BRIGHT
blonde streak in amidst the brown. Scary looking.
Michael Weiss.
Skated to what I can only assume is his Doors medley, in tight leather
trousers. (Girls, hold yourself back!) Much posing, preening and swivelling
of hips ensued, to convince us all of his studly qualities. I was doing ok
with it (ie managing not to laugh) when the final piece of music came on -
Touch Me by the Doors. Suffice it to say that as this music was interpreted
much better by one Paul Wylie, and I adore his routine beyond measure, I
was seeing Paul not Michael on my tv screen.
Evgeny Plushenko.
Did his russian folky-funny whatsit, with an encore along a similar theme.
I don't know if it's just me, but this number does nothing for me. The
Russians found it hilarious though. On a personal note, I did have a
breakthrough, in that fourteen months after first looking at him, I finally
figured out who this child reminds me of. He's the living spit of John
Ingman - never heard of him? Right, any of you ever seen the British comedy
from the Seventies, Are You Being Served? the one set in the Grave
Brother's Department store? He was the white haired chap in it, notoriously
camp, went on about his "mummy" all the time, Mr Humphreys, his name was.
Whatever way I looked at Plushy last night, I was like "yes" that's who it
is!"
Yagudin.
I have it in my head he skated to some classical violin thing. I can see a
white shirt with black brocade and black trousers. The rest of the routine
I draw a total blank on. Which says it all really.
Urmanov.
Skated to Michael Jacksons Scream. The intent from this is obviously the
same as his free program, to convince us of the fact that he is a mucho
macho stud. The choreography (much preening posing, hip thrusting and hip
swivelling) and the costume (black trousers and a black sequinned waistcoat
buttoned up to be a vest, with nothing underneath it) point to that. The
music is obviously intended to have the ladies screaming with lust.
Personally, I screamed with horror at the costume. And then, when he
actually began to get down and get funky to the music, complete with his
pair of what can only be described as gold lame soccer goalkeepers gloves,
well that was it for me. I fell about the place laughing. Just too funny.
Drobiasko and Vanagas
They did their original dance, and it was just exquisite. I am such a big
fan of these two, and have been for a while. For them to leap over the
italians was great for me. They have such a light touch, and there's such a
great connection between them on the ice. And it's a real waltz of a waltz.
I loved it.
Petrova and Tikhonov
Can't remember the music, but I do remember being impressed.
Shen and Zhao
One Fine Day from Madame Butterfly. It's great to see these two mature into
such artistically pleasing skaters. They've come on in leaps and bounds
from 1996 when they came on the scene in Edmonton, and they've lost none of
their technical ability. Their throws are the most god-astounding thing
I've ever seen in my life. The height, the distance is amazing. They also
did a double twist with an astonishing delay....she could've cleaned the
ceiling when she was up there!
Slutskaya
No funny comments here. This was exquisite. Her layback spin is fabulous -
great position, fast and centred. She can still do the double Biellman and
she has her jumps back. Not only that, but she's finally found her artistry
- her interpretation is improved, and she's got sophisticated music and
choreography to show her off. Her haircut is much more flattering, she's
lost the little girl dresses, and praise be, she's done what I've said she
should have done years ago, and mastered the magical make-up wand. She's a
different skater and much improved. End of gush.
Sokolova.
The wardrobe fairy obviously lost her costume because she came out in what
looked very like a warmup outfit. You know the kind - little black skirts
and black tights? Skated to Live Forever by the Spice Girls, with a
horrendous musical edit at the end. Not as bad as once I feared a skating
routine to the Spice Girls would be.
Butyrskaya
Tango number in grey and black. Not that I'm a fan of the tango anyway, but
this, to me, didn't look as crisp or as sharp as a tango should. She got
the jumps back, although she got it all wrong on a triple toe. It was
better than her free program!
Malinina
Skated two numbers, using the same sugary pink confection as in her short
program. Her music was nice, the skating was nice, but the whole package is
curiously bland to me. There's no spark or fire to her skating at all. Even
Tara, who I was never a huge fan of, had a bit of oomph in her. Malinina's
like candy floss ( and I don't just mean the dress!) - light, fluffy, nice
to consume but it doesn't fill you up.
Lobacheva and Averbukh
They did the Tutti Frutti OD from last year - was it ever this long before?
Now don't get too surprised gang, but this is actually growing on me.
<pause while the list collectively pick themselves up off the floor> I
don't know what it is, but it doesn't annoy me as much as it usually does
any more. I guess I've become immune to it.
Annissina and Peizerat
Flame and Flopsy did Time to Say Goodbye - get a new program for Gawd's
sake! I'm getting so sick of that gold bodysuit, although I reckon the
male persuasion can't say the same. On a purely personal note, Gwendal has,
I can confirm, trimmed his hair, it's not as raggedy at the ends as it was
at Euros, and he looks the better for it.
Krylova and Ovsiannikov
Skated to Still Got the Blues for You. This really was better than their
free! It's a great piece of music anyway, and their interpretation to it
isn't half bad either. Part of my problem with Angelika is those darn
facial expressions and that forced smile of hers - she's so much prettier
when she really smiles.
Bereshnaia and Sikharulidze
OK. I saved the best for last. Remember Saturday, when I raved about their
long program costumes, and how great they are? Well, I'm not going to do
the same thing here. Nope. These are, to borrow a phrase from a favourite
author of mine, a cross between a fashion plate and a nightmare. A
psychedelic nightmare at that. Wear sunglasses. He wears bright, royal blue
trousers, with a stripe of pale flourescent orange down the right leg. His
top (it's a jumpsuit by the way) cuts itself in half diagonally. His right
sleeve and half the top are the same blue as his trousers, with a little
spangly sparkly sequinned epaulette on the shoulder. His left arm and the
rest of the top are the same orange as the stripe in the pants, except for
from his left elbow to wrist- that's flourescent lime green. And that's
just him! She's dressed in the same colour orange dress, with hot pink
piping around the neck and the same colour ropey belt around her waist.
(This is a dress that achieves the impossible, in that it makes the
absolutely waifish girl look chunky. Not easy to do.) There are pleats in
the skirt, except they only look like pleats, they're actually strips of
material (kick pleats my mum would call them) On the outside, they're the
same lime green, on the inside they're hot pink.
The routine was Barcelona (get a new number PLEASE!!!) with a mistake on
their signature lift halfway through, you know the one where she does the
splits high in the air and he just is holding her with his hands resting on
her thighs, and she makes those weird hand moves? She didn't get above
shoulder height. They did it properly as their encore. I really like this
pair, but they need a new routine, and new costumes!
That's about all, except for all the skaters got these little hat boxes
after they skated and we never found out what was in them. Chris kept
saying we would, and then Eurosport cut away before we found out! So if
anyone can clear up the mystery of the boxes, let me know!