It's going to take a week to wipe the smiles off our faces. Three incredible
days of skating, limited sleep, arena food and living in a hotel where everybody
talked figure skating and nothing but figure skating and everyone knew what they
were talking about! Heaven!

Regrets? I regret that I didn't find Brennan's room and egg it after that nasty
article about Michelle. (CB was in the same hotel as us - sharing a room with
Lori Nichol, BTW.)

The whole ISU section went crazy after it was announced in the arena that A&P
had won the Dance. Morry and the gang all left the stands to have a meeting,
after which B&K were announced as winners.

The men's practice on Saturday was a hoot. The one-upsmanship and psych
attempts were almost as entertaining as the competition. First Yags landed a
4/3/3. Plushy tried a quad and fell - hard. Then Goebel landed a 4/3/3.
Plushy tried a quad and stepped out. Then Todd landed a beautiful 4T/3T.
Again, Plushy tried a quad and failed. All of this went on while Plushenko
acted like the Lord of the Ice.

I still haven't recovered from the shock of the dance results. A&P's new
freedance just doesn't work. B&K's MJ FD is growing on me and they've really
picked up the speed. It was good to see D&V get a medal here. F-P&M in fourth
was fair and reasonable. C&S are overmarked - her toes don't point, her freeleg
doesn't extend and he pulls her around the ice. Now that she's wearing shorter,
light skirts, it simply highlights their flaws.

Past programs I loved: Carmina Burana was an absolute highlight of the event
and Love Story was incredible. Everyone in the stands was crying at the end,
myself included. Spente Le Stelle was another highlight. I was gushing before
it started and Tink was ho hum. Then when the music started she said "This is
Spente Le Stelle? Oh I love this one." Sarah's Turandot was also wonderful.

Current programs I loved: Winter - not as perfect as Skate Canada but a
highlight regardless. Chaplin - my favourite program from my favourite team.
Man in the Iron Mask - really powerful. Can you tell we're Yagudin fans?
Goebel's American In Paris was another highlight.

Old programs I could have done without: March With Me - B&K skated it
brilliantly but that music just hurts my ears. Michelle's Rachmaninoff was not
well skated.

New program comments: Plushy's new program is horrible. Can I add that sitting
opposite the judges, I got really tired of looking at Evgeny's back. We always
talk about his programs being judge centric but this really doesn't come across
well on television. Watching him live, I strongly felt that he should receive
deductions from his presentation marks for spending so much time hovering near
the judges tables. This comment applies more to last year's program than the
new one.

B&S Meditation didn't really excite me and neither does Irina's Tosca.
Michelle's Schaherizade gets better every time out. D&V have obviously reworked
their FD since Skate America. I finally got to see Tim's American In Paris and
man has Frank done wonders with Timmy!

Other ramblings: Onda landed a 3A in practice. It was ever so slightly cheated
but it was huge and very impressive. Todd landed a 4T/3T in practice Plushy
would have been proud of. Seeing the beauty and ease of that combo leads me to
believe that Todd's problem with the quad in competition is more mental than
anything else. Are Elena's problems with the T3S related to Anton's throw?
Ina & Zimmerman have a real shot at the bronze at SLC. Shen & Zhao have really
improved their presentation, but their technical seems to have suffered.

We threw dragons (what else?) to all of the skaters. We were seated near the
Kiss 'n Cry and Tink got quite adept at putting them at their feet as they
skated off the ice. They seemed to be a huge hit with the skaters. Tarasova
asked her about them and of course, we gave Madame Tarasova a dragon. We also
gave them to the kids in the stands - there were at least 10 kids around Tink's
age in our area.

Lauren Wilson and her mother were seated right behind us. Nice kid. Nice
mother too. We congratulated Lauren on her season so far.

I'll post more comments as I think of them.

Dragonlady
Elizabeth Joiner
www.SleepingDragonSports.com


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