Skamerica!
Oct. 22nd, 2022 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
allekhaSo these past few weeks have been very busy for me. I'll try to write up some of it later, but I went to a wedding in Pepin, WI (which has cemented my dislike of weddings despite being one of the better ones I've been to), then a day and a half later was off to visit my workplace in person/see my parents, and then two days after that I left for Skamerica.
My mom and I both had some adventures in transit. My bus got delayed over an hour (and I got a voucher for it that I may or may not be able to use because I rarely take long-distance busses) because Greyhound demanded that the bus we were on needed to go elsewhere, so they had to bring us another bus for the driver to drive? It was very strange and didn't make much sense. But an older lady came over to ask me what was going on since she and her husband were from Japan and weren't sure they were understanding what was going on - they were pleasantly surprised to hear me speak Japanese back at them! Alas, my ability to speak Japanese is very rusty since I have nobody here to practice with (need to figure out a solution for that) but they were nice and I helped them get their own vouchers at the end of the trip and explained how they worked.
Our first night, we endeavored to see if we could reasonably walk from our hotel to the skating venue. Unfortunately, while there is an open country club/golf course between us, there's also a brook, so the direct walk is out, and on the other side is a divided freeway with no pedestrian crossing anywhere nearby, because this is America and who needs to walk anywhere?
On Thursday, we walked around downtown Norwood a bit - it has painted parking barriers, approximately one hair and/or nail salon for every ten people, and the most ostentatious town hall I've ever seen - before we went to the MFA. I wanted to see the Life photographs exhibit, so we went there first. I enjoyed it for the most part as they do have some very striking photos and context around how the stories were chosen, created, and presented, and the changing cultural context of those photos, such as how that sailor kissing a woman on the streets is now being interrogated as potential sexual assault. But there was one part that a) came off as more pretentious than meaningful b) chose to put glowing white text on a pure black background, which set off my astigmatism something fierce to the point where I could barely read it (and that seems ironic considering that the MFA is self-consciously patting itself on the back about inclusivity everywhere in the museum). They also stuck a bit about their portrayal of the Holocaust versus that of other news media right at the very very end of the exhibit in a place where it didn't fit in well.
After that, we grabbed a snack and then went to the portion we most wanted to see, the Asian art. My mom knows a lot about it, so it's fun to walk through an exhibit like this with her because she can explain more about the Buddha depictions and the techniques than the placards, which she sometimes had Opinions about. ("It's not a 'votive tablet', it's a tsa-tsa!") I accidentally walked past several examples of famous pottery techniques without appreciating them properly, and she made sure to drag me back to make sure I knew exactly what I should be looking at 😅
I wanted to see the textiles after that - it turns out that they no longer have a coherent textile collection on display :( However, when we were asking about it, the map volunteer turned out to be a pottery geek herself, so she was very interested to talk with my mom for a few minutes. And she also suggested we look at the American collection as they have some examples of textiles from various native cultures. There was some lovely beadwork that I was happy to admire. When we were finished with that, we were feeling tired, so we returned to the hotel.
And yesterday was our first day of Skate America! We left very early to get dinner and then walked over to the rink. I accidentally picked really good seats, although the arena is fairly small, so any seats would be good. I guessed correctly that our corner is near the kiss-and-cry and on the judges' side, but we also turned out to be thirty feet from the media platform, so a lot of people gathered at our corner to see Johnny and Tara. I also accidentally got us the closest seats to the ice on that side; I assumed the closer seats were sold out, but they're closed due to camera equipment and being the area where the skaters get on! So we can see quite a lot. I'm very happy with where we are. The sound in the arena is a bit loud, but not to the point where I needed earplugs, and it was nice and toasty.
Pairs SP: I don't have much to say about the pairs. M/M were pretty cute and structured their program interestingly instead of heading straight to the twist corner like everyone else. SD/D and K/F were very clearly ahead of the rest of the field; K/F were winning the costume contest. But I am grudgey about Alexa Knierem since the Coughlin thing, so I can't bring myself to care about them too much.
Men's SP: A couple of the guys had to fight with the sweepers to get a plushie! It was hilarious and adorable.
Koshiro - jumps are fake, who needs jumps. He performed really well. I like this song choice for him; he seemed quite into it and got the crowd going despite his technical issues.
Donovan - however much charm he has on video? Dial it up another notch when you see him in person. He got a very warm reception from the crowd both when he was introduced and when he was skating. I would have kicked him up another half point in the PE category. His slow approaches to his jumps made me nervous, so I hope that's one thing he's working on.
Kao - he came out there and went hard for it! Not my favorite program of the night and not as expressive or memorable as some of the others, but still good and his jumps looked solid - he goes into them with good speed.
Roman - he can do the aaaangst programs forever as far as I'm concerned.
Ilia - you could tell how mad he was at himself about the fall. His jumps look very light, but while he has improved a lot in terms of his movement/performance as well, I felt meh about that aspect. I think it didn't help that he looks young enough that I have a hard time taking 'I Put a Spell on You' seriously' on him. But I'm glad he's not solely focusing on jumps jumps jumps, although I do worry that he's going to overdo it and hurt himself.
Daniel - his jump technique looks, if anything, even more wild and baffling in person. What are his head and legs doing? Somehow he landed them? I liked his costume. Also not my favorite program, but I love him going for so many weird and wild spin positions. It wraps around from 'plz stop with the ugly contortion' to 'you do you, Daniel'.
Junhwan - I did not like this program last time I saw it (probably Finlandia?) but I think they have smoothed it over since then, as it seemed to flow much better than I remember it doing before and has more oomph. Everyone was very there for it and he was fast on the ice. My favorite performance of the night.
My mom and I both had some adventures in transit. My bus got delayed over an hour (and I got a voucher for it that I may or may not be able to use because I rarely take long-distance busses) because Greyhound demanded that the bus we were on needed to go elsewhere, so they had to bring us another bus for the driver to drive? It was very strange and didn't make much sense. But an older lady came over to ask me what was going on since she and her husband were from Japan and weren't sure they were understanding what was going on - they were pleasantly surprised to hear me speak Japanese back at them! Alas, my ability to speak Japanese is very rusty since I have nobody here to practice with (need to figure out a solution for that) but they were nice and I helped them get their own vouchers at the end of the trip and explained how they worked.
Our first night, we endeavored to see if we could reasonably walk from our hotel to the skating venue. Unfortunately, while there is an open country club/golf course between us, there's also a brook, so the direct walk is out, and on the other side is a divided freeway with no pedestrian crossing anywhere nearby, because this is America and who needs to walk anywhere?
On Thursday, we walked around downtown Norwood a bit - it has painted parking barriers, approximately one hair and/or nail salon for every ten people, and the most ostentatious town hall I've ever seen - before we went to the MFA. I wanted to see the Life photographs exhibit, so we went there first. I enjoyed it for the most part as they do have some very striking photos and context around how the stories were chosen, created, and presented, and the changing cultural context of those photos, such as how that sailor kissing a woman on the streets is now being interrogated as potential sexual assault. But there was one part that a) came off as more pretentious than meaningful b) chose to put glowing white text on a pure black background, which set off my astigmatism something fierce to the point where I could barely read it (and that seems ironic considering that the MFA is self-consciously patting itself on the back about inclusivity everywhere in the museum). They also stuck a bit about their portrayal of the Holocaust versus that of other news media right at the very very end of the exhibit in a place where it didn't fit in well.
After that, we grabbed a snack and then went to the portion we most wanted to see, the Asian art. My mom knows a lot about it, so it's fun to walk through an exhibit like this with her because she can explain more about the Buddha depictions and the techniques than the placards, which she sometimes had Opinions about. ("It's not a 'votive tablet', it's a tsa-tsa!") I accidentally walked past several examples of famous pottery techniques without appreciating them properly, and she made sure to drag me back to make sure I knew exactly what I should be looking at 😅
I wanted to see the textiles after that - it turns out that they no longer have a coherent textile collection on display :( However, when we were asking about it, the map volunteer turned out to be a pottery geek herself, so she was very interested to talk with my mom for a few minutes. And she also suggested we look at the American collection as they have some examples of textiles from various native cultures. There was some lovely beadwork that I was happy to admire. When we were finished with that, we were feeling tired, so we returned to the hotel.
And yesterday was our first day of Skate America! We left very early to get dinner and then walked over to the rink. I accidentally picked really good seats, although the arena is fairly small, so any seats would be good. I guessed correctly that our corner is near the kiss-and-cry and on the judges' side, but we also turned out to be thirty feet from the media platform, so a lot of people gathered at our corner to see Johnny and Tara. I also accidentally got us the closest seats to the ice on that side; I assumed the closer seats were sold out, but they're closed due to camera equipment and being the area where the skaters get on! So we can see quite a lot. I'm very happy with where we are. The sound in the arena is a bit loud, but not to the point where I needed earplugs, and it was nice and toasty.
Pairs SP: I don't have much to say about the pairs. M/M were pretty cute and structured their program interestingly instead of heading straight to the twist corner like everyone else. SD/D and K/F were very clearly ahead of the rest of the field; K/F were winning the costume contest. But I am grudgey about Alexa Knierem since the Coughlin thing, so I can't bring myself to care about them too much.
Men's SP: A couple of the guys had to fight with the sweepers to get a plushie! It was hilarious and adorable.
Koshiro - jumps are fake, who needs jumps. He performed really well. I like this song choice for him; he seemed quite into it and got the crowd going despite his technical issues.
Donovan - however much charm he has on video? Dial it up another notch when you see him in person. He got a very warm reception from the crowd both when he was introduced and when he was skating. I would have kicked him up another half point in the PE category. His slow approaches to his jumps made me nervous, so I hope that's one thing he's working on.
Kao - he came out there and went hard for it! Not my favorite program of the night and not as expressive or memorable as some of the others, but still good and his jumps looked solid - he goes into them with good speed.
Roman - he can do the aaaangst programs forever as far as I'm concerned.
Ilia - you could tell how mad he was at himself about the fall. His jumps look very light, but while he has improved a lot in terms of his movement/performance as well, I felt meh about that aspect. I think it didn't help that he looks young enough that I have a hard time taking 'I Put a Spell on You' seriously' on him. But I'm glad he's not solely focusing on jumps jumps jumps, although I do worry that he's going to overdo it and hurt himself.
Daniel - his jump technique looks, if anything, even more wild and baffling in person. What are his head and legs doing? Somehow he landed them? I liked his costume. Also not my favorite program, but I love him going for so many weird and wild spin positions. It wraps around from 'plz stop with the ugly contortion' to 'you do you, Daniel'.
Junhwan - I did not like this program last time I saw it (probably Finlandia?) but I think they have smoothed it over since then, as it seemed to flow much better than I remember it doing before and has more oomph. Everyone was very there for it and he was fast on the ice. My favorite performance of the night.
