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close encounter of the figure skater kind
Aug. 31st, 2009 05:58 pmSo I mentioned that I wanted to go see Pop Star On Ice, the documentary about figure skater Johnny Weir? But I wasn't sure if anyone would go with me? Well, Mamiko was totally on board and it was AWESOME.
They were doing a Q&A after the movie, so we knew he'd be around. But when we entered the theater, five minutes before showtime (we'd been getting dinner across the street), who's in the lobby but Mr. Weir himself! They were taking promotional pictures. A few other people were milling around so we were like "Do we go in? Are we socializing?" and stood and chatting and watched pictures being taken (specifically, these pictures, if that absurdly long link works in any way -otherwise you can, if you want to, go to Getty Images, search for Johnny Weir, and then choose the BAM premiere from the Events drop-down) and ogled Johnny's amazing outfit. Then we realized we should go actually be going in. . . it was my first BAM experience. Mamiko's so ahead of me, only been here three days. XD
We ended up sitting sort of towards one side, but not too bad. And um, it turned out to be awesome. Because a couple minutes later Johnny came in with a couple of his friends, and they ended up sitting right in front of us. Johnny was literally the row ahead of me and two seats over. Hahahaha so crazy! And awesome! Like, watching a movie and then looking over and the star of the movie is right there?? XD The movie was really good, though, so mostly I was watching that. But occasionally I'd glance over to see his reaction or whatever. He laughed in appropriate places. He whispered to his friends a couple times, but not being a huge creeper, I didn't lean over to hear what he said. XD However, I overheard one thing - there was a story about a woman who got his signature tattooed onto her ankle - apparently she was like "Hey, if you sign my ankle, I'll get a tattoo of it!" And he was like "No you won't!" And she was like "I totally will!" And then later she was like ". . . Shit, did I say that?" But she went for it anyway. XD So I heard him whisper to his friends "She's a schoolteacher," which I thought was kinda cute.
The movie was actually fantastic. I really, thoroughly enjoyed it and would totally see it again. Anyone with an interest in figure skating, Johnny Weir, or things with a gay sensibility (it was part of the Next Wave Gay & Lesbian film festival) would probably really enjoy it. Unless you're an Evan Lysacek fan. . . But no, it was really funny and interesting. It gave a cool behind the scenes look at the training and the competitions (well, sort of the competitions - more of a mental behind the scenes) although not the touring. Seeing his relationship with his (former) coach was really interesting - she seems really sweet! Hopefully they're still friends now, but I do feel like it was time for him to move on. Just based on his skating and performance, not that they pushed that so hard in the movie. The movie showed her in a really positive way. And there was a lot of fun parts of non-skating stuff, like when Johnny walked in a Heatherette fashion show or spoke to kids at his old elementary school in rural Pennsylvania (he was very sweet and appropriate).
( further review - funny bits and skater perspectives )
And Johnny himself came off pretty well, both in the movie and during the Q&A. I go through phases of affection and respect, and then sort of irritation and impatience. He seems to. . . more than having an ego or a temperament, he seems to like having an ego and a temperament. I don't know if that's better or worse? Anyway, he's certainly quite fond of himself, but he was pretty charming and likable in the movie, and gave very thoughtful and generally excellent answers in the Q&A. I was impressed. Haha, he said "Everyone sleeps with who they want to sleep with" and I was like "Yeah, I bet extremely attractive figure skaters can sleep with whoever they want. . ." but I appreciate the sentiment about sexuality being no one's business but your own and your partners'. But yeah, he was intelligent and not too self-aggrandizing.
. . . And hopefully he doesn't have a google-alert for himself or we'll have another Len Wein situation (WHAT AM I TRYING TO DO TO MYSELF). He did say he wasn't techno-savvy in response to a fairly aggressive question about blogging.
Although he is on twitter, as is Jeffrey Buttle. . . as J-Butt. Which is obviously what I need to call him from now on. Johnny's is good because he doesn't @___, whereas Jeffrey does a lot, but his is still adorable. A few brief moments' stalking indicates that he's friends with figure skater/model Fedor Andreev, who is SO good-looking that normally I'd assume he's a huge toolface, but he does come across as pretty sweet through twitter. Whatever that's worth? Maybe I just like him because he posts pictures of J-Butt. It's also fun to see them talk about touring and stuff like that like it's totally normal. "Oh, good luck tonight. . . IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE." (That's what I would say in their situation.)
J-Butt.
Mamiko is gone! ): She actually found a place and decided to move in tonight because she has class tomorrow morning at 8. In light of that, I'm quite thankful, but otherwise I miss her! I thought we were going to get to hang out a bit more. She was a great guest - and was actually out of the house a lot of the time looking at apartments in the evening! Mostly when she was here we watched figure skating videos (yay!) and did quizzes on sporcle to help her learn some cases where we use different terms in the US and the UK (since she's spent the last three years studying in England). Luckily for me she got her bank card shipped here so I have to see her soon - possibly she's going to come out with us after work on Wednesday. And I need to see her place, and she's going to take me to some Japanese restaurants to laugh at my chopstick skills, and we have more figure skating videos to watch. XD Also my parents invited her out to LI to see if she wants to borrow any furniture from my grandpa's place, although if she's going to do that sometime when I'm available it might be a while because there's a filing on Friday. ::sigh::
Oh, speaking of work, I saw a bit of the Public Advocate debate on Sunday. God damn, Bill de Blasio is not fucking kidding when he says he's "Standing Tall for New York." It was like TOKIO without Mabo, the four of them. Hilarious! I kept wanting to just be like "To end this debate, I WILL CRUSH MY OPPONENTS BENEATH MY FEET!!" RAAARGH. He'll never be in a Bloomberg campaign ad that way! (For those of you who don't live and breath local NYC politics, Bloomie is not a tall man, and in his commercials and literature he always tries to be standing next to people his height or shorter. The NYC of Bloomberg ads is the tiniest city in the world.)
They were doing a Q&A after the movie, so we knew he'd be around. But when we entered the theater, five minutes before showtime (we'd been getting dinner across the street), who's in the lobby but Mr. Weir himself! They were taking promotional pictures. A few other people were milling around so we were like "Do we go in? Are we socializing?" and stood and chatting and watched pictures being taken (specifically, these pictures, if that absurdly long link works in any way -otherwise you can, if you want to, go to Getty Images, search for Johnny Weir, and then choose the BAM premiere from the Events drop-down) and ogled Johnny's amazing outfit. Then we realized we should go actually be going in. . . it was my first BAM experience. Mamiko's so ahead of me, only been here three days. XD
We ended up sitting sort of towards one side, but not too bad. And um, it turned out to be awesome. Because a couple minutes later Johnny came in with a couple of his friends, and they ended up sitting right in front of us. Johnny was literally the row ahead of me and two seats over. Hahahaha so crazy! And awesome! Like, watching a movie and then looking over and the star of the movie is right there?? XD The movie was really good, though, so mostly I was watching that. But occasionally I'd glance over to see his reaction or whatever. He laughed in appropriate places. He whispered to his friends a couple times, but not being a huge creeper, I didn't lean over to hear what he said. XD However, I overheard one thing - there was a story about a woman who got his signature tattooed onto her ankle - apparently she was like "Hey, if you sign my ankle, I'll get a tattoo of it!" And he was like "No you won't!" And she was like "I totally will!" And then later she was like ". . . Shit, did I say that?" But she went for it anyway. XD So I heard him whisper to his friends "She's a schoolteacher," which I thought was kinda cute.
The movie was actually fantastic. I really, thoroughly enjoyed it and would totally see it again. Anyone with an interest in figure skating, Johnny Weir, or things with a gay sensibility (it was part of the Next Wave Gay & Lesbian film festival) would probably really enjoy it. Unless you're an Evan Lysacek fan. . . But no, it was really funny and interesting. It gave a cool behind the scenes look at the training and the competitions (well, sort of the competitions - more of a mental behind the scenes) although not the touring. Seeing his relationship with his (former) coach was really interesting - she seems really sweet! Hopefully they're still friends now, but I do feel like it was time for him to move on. Just based on his skating and performance, not that they pushed that so hard in the movie. The movie showed her in a really positive way. And there was a lot of fun parts of non-skating stuff, like when Johnny walked in a Heatherette fashion show or spoke to kids at his old elementary school in rural Pennsylvania (he was very sweet and appropriate).
( further review - funny bits and skater perspectives )
And Johnny himself came off pretty well, both in the movie and during the Q&A. I go through phases of affection and respect, and then sort of irritation and impatience. He seems to. . . more than having an ego or a temperament, he seems to like having an ego and a temperament. I don't know if that's better or worse? Anyway, he's certainly quite fond of himself, but he was pretty charming and likable in the movie, and gave very thoughtful and generally excellent answers in the Q&A. I was impressed. Haha, he said "Everyone sleeps with who they want to sleep with" and I was like "Yeah, I bet extremely attractive figure skaters can sleep with whoever they want. . ." but I appreciate the sentiment about sexuality being no one's business but your own and your partners'. But yeah, he was intelligent and not too self-aggrandizing.
. . . And hopefully he doesn't have a google-alert for himself or we'll have another Len Wein situation (WHAT AM I TRYING TO DO TO MYSELF). He did say he wasn't techno-savvy in response to a fairly aggressive question about blogging.
Although he is on twitter, as is Jeffrey Buttle. . . as J-Butt. Which is obviously what I need to call him from now on. Johnny's is good because he doesn't @___, whereas Jeffrey does a lot, but his is still adorable. A few brief moments' stalking indicates that he's friends with figure skater/model Fedor Andreev, who is SO good-looking that normally I'd assume he's a huge toolface, but he does come across as pretty sweet through twitter. Whatever that's worth? Maybe I just like him because he posts pictures of J-Butt. It's also fun to see them talk about touring and stuff like that like it's totally normal. "Oh, good luck tonight. . . IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE." (That's what I would say in their situation.)
J-Butt.
Mamiko is gone! ): She actually found a place and decided to move in tonight because she has class tomorrow morning at 8. In light of that, I'm quite thankful, but otherwise I miss her! I thought we were going to get to hang out a bit more. She was a great guest - and was actually out of the house a lot of the time looking at apartments in the evening! Mostly when she was here we watched figure skating videos (yay!) and did quizzes on sporcle to help her learn some cases where we use different terms in the US and the UK (since she's spent the last three years studying in England). Luckily for me she got her bank card shipped here so I have to see her soon - possibly she's going to come out with us after work on Wednesday. And I need to see her place, and she's going to take me to some Japanese restaurants to laugh at my chopstick skills, and we have more figure skating videos to watch. XD Also my parents invited her out to LI to see if she wants to borrow any furniture from my grandpa's place, although if she's going to do that sometime when I'm available it might be a while because there's a filing on Friday. ::sigh::
Oh, speaking of work, I saw a bit of the Public Advocate debate on Sunday. God damn, Bill de Blasio is not fucking kidding when he says he's "Standing Tall for New York." It was like TOKIO without Mabo, the four of them. Hilarious! I kept wanting to just be like "To end this debate, I WILL CRUSH MY OPPONENTS BENEATH MY FEET!!" RAAARGH. He'll never be in a Bloomberg campaign ad that way! (For those of you who don't live and breath local NYC politics, Bloomie is not a tall man, and in his commercials and literature he always tries to be standing next to people his height or shorter. The NYC of Bloomberg ads is the tiniest city in the world.)
