2009 Stars, Stripes & Skates

New Johnny Weir short program - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htUBlVmcYpk
New Miki Ando long program - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgicbEPMPi0

I'm in love in Miki's new LP. She really improved her use of arms! I loved tiny choreographic details such as highlighting the swooshy part of the music with a rotational hand motion ending in turning palms upwards... (It looked better in the program than in my description. ) There's much more transitions than in Miki's previous programs, and there's no bobbing on the CoE in the spiral sequence.

I really like the music. I'm PML at how when Miki mentioned that her LP tells a story of a woman some people immediately assumed that it was Tosca and Morozov ended up using something totally new...

The dress is gorgeous. Hmm, I thought that sparkly golden/silver dress would be perfect for Mao's "Bell", just for Olympics, but it looks like Miki got there sooner.

Johnny's outfit, OTOH, scares me a little (here's a closeup). It looks like something borrowed out of the house of pleasures.


virtud1984 and buckhollywood tweeted a bit about Nobu's LP:

virtud1984 wrote:

Nobunari Oda did his FS to Charlie Chaplin... 8 triples! brought the house down!!!!!

buckhollywood wrote:

I love when the Japanese skate to Charlie Chaplin. They so get it.

I can't watch the programs right now (family gathering ), but here's a nice photo with Miki, Nobu and Chris warming up before the show:
http://tweetphoto.com/mtl6avir

I love Miki's new program, too! And her costume is gorgeous! Her music cuts came from:
Rome HBO OST - Rome Main Title Theme -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8faqWJ96IQ
and
Marco Polo -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qStrgrX2vE

For a brief moment, I thought Johnny was raising breast cancer awareness with all the pink ribbons he was decking out on his outfit.

I'm really liking Miki's new program! Now, I need to see Tono's Chaplin.

Nobu's Chaplin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTuT_JSd0m8&feature=channel_page

Nobu's Chaplin is GENIUS!!! This is choreographically the best program I've seen from him. Perfect, perfect music choice!

Despite the tiny rink, the graininess of the video and inability to see facial expressions this program just gives me a fluffy feeling and the biggest grin ever during the step sequences. Also, I love the final spin.

Nobu's Chaplin program is also wonderful. I love it! Imagine all those jumps he performed in a rink like that. The Japanese team look great! I really hope they all do well this season.

Great program by Tono! It's always a treat to see a good performance to Chaplin.

clovera wrote:

Great program by Tono!

If I may ask...where did he get the nickname Tono?

Okami wrote:

Despite the tiny rink, the graininess of the video and inability to see facial expressions this program just gives me a fluffy feeling and the biggest grin ever during the step sequences.

I couldn't have said it any better...the program is jam-packed full of happy feelings

After watching Nobu's program I thought , wow, Chaplin, my favourite character ever. Hmm, it's a pretty good program, I can't say my favourite, but it's very,very good, but you know, no one can touch Anton at this point He's the best Charlie Chaplin in figure skating!) And then I download all music from Chaplin's movies, gorgeous music, why not use this more often? A lot of different, interesting music, and then dance teams are skating to Phantom of opera again How original!

inskate wrote:

I think it's because he's a descendant of warlord Nobunaga Oda. "Tono" means" "Lord" in Japanese.

That makes sense ...thank you!!

polosatik wrote:

A lot of different, interesting music, and then dance teams are skating to Phantom of opera again How original!

I think the major themes of the season are officially: "Arabic/Persian" and "Phantom of the Opera"

inskate wrote:

I think it's because he's a descendant of warlord Nobunaga Oda. "Tono" means" "Lord" in Japanese.

Kinda OT: I looked up Nobunaga Oda in Wikipedia and there's an image there (Portrait of Oda Nobunaga, by Jesuit painter Giovanni Niccolo) in which there seems to be a resemblance between him and Nobu. hehe...

I like Miki's program! I love both the music, and the dress. Very beautiful!

I like Jonny's program too. The music is definitely very "Johnny". lol. I thought his costume had a big ew factor, but if it's for breast cancer awareness, then that's cool. Although I still think it was pretty ugly... And if it's not for breast cancer awareness, and it's what he's going to be wearing all season, he's just feeding into the gay tag that's been pinned on him.

Seems like Miki's gold dress will not be used for competition.

Quote :

I did think Miki’s gold dress, although lovely, was a bit too bare and sparkly for a competitive costume, so I asked Nikolai Morozov about it after the show. He replied that she had many costumes to choose from, and that this dress was “probably better as a show” costume than a competitive one.

http://miki-ando-and-fans.seesaa.net/article/129015970.html

awww... Nobu's english is very good. This video of his FS is better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Hbnfh6yIQ

Can I say that I absolutely LOVE Miki's music cut???? I love the fact that it is different from everything that Miki has done so far competitively. Unique and profound without being overdone.

Nobu is really in his element! you can totally see that he's enjoying his time out there on the ice. Thanks for sharing the vids , everyone!!

BTW, his english is reaaaally good! WOW! But perhaps that's not too surprising because I've read somewhere that he wants to become a teacher?

roma wrote:

Seems like Miki's gold dress will not be used for competition.

Argh! I loved it! Poo on the interviewer for suggesting the change to Morozov. I could live with a different dress for the GP series, but the silver-gold dress would be really great for the Olympics. I suspect the whole arena (seats, walls and boards) will be painted in some loud colors again as it happened at the Olympics in Torino... A light, silver-gold dress would work with just about any color.

snowdrops24 wrote:

BTW, his english is reaaaally good! WOW! But perhaps that's not too surprising because I've read somewhere that he wants to become a teacher?

It's true (as inskate said). Nobu, like me, is studying at the department of English Language. If he didn't took a year off to prepare for Olympics, be would be on exactly the same year!
He's not quite sure about his future yet. In older interviews it sounded as if he wanted to retire immediately after Vancouver. More recently, however, it sounds like he's considering continuing his skating career for a bit longer... In the most recent interview he said that he will discuss this matter with his coach after the Olympics.