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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).
It really was so funny, too - genuinely funny. We did a lot of laughing out loud. Some of this was Johnny, saying funny things, and some of it was the filmmakers. Like, for the former, one of the first scenes is Johnny with his friend Paris (possibly a nickname) doing a pretend interview. . . in the bathtub. Johnny is wearing a blond wig and glasses and they're both nekkid (as far as we can tell) and it's not a large bathtub so they're all folded up awkward. And Johnny puts on this Russian accent and says "To know Johnny Weir, we will interview his best friend Paris during bubble bath time." And then at the end he's like "Paris, let me give you advice from older person: Everybody dies." (Quotes are from memory, so I can't vouch for them.)
And the filmmakers did a really good job of cutting things together in a funny way. Especially making fun of Evan Lysacek. I mean, I think the audience was just really ready to laugh at Evan. He's the other top American male skater right now, and he's really, really different from Johnny. He always says the right thing and is all "I'M A GOOD ROLE MODEL" kid but he's just really boring and inane. And more masculine (apparently straight? supposedly he dated Tanith Belbin. !!! That ain't right. Also, maybe Jeffrey is straight! XD) and conventional. So they'd kind of show Evan saying something incredibly dull and lame and we'd all laugh. I don't think they had to work that hard cutting his interviews to create this impression. The absolute biggest laugh was at a press conference after an event where Evan had won - I think where he took the National title from Johnny - so he's talking, and going on about how he feels like his hard work paid off, and then it pans over to Johnny sitting next to him, cos he's the silver medalist. And Johnny is just making the biggest death glare face of doom. Hahaha, it was incredible. I think I literally slapped my thigh.
Not enough Jeffrey Buttle. :( But he did have the most perfect description for pretty-naked-man Brian Joubert: "I think Brian Joubert was born with a six-pack." YES. Hahaha. And then you hear Brian saying something like, "It's not that I want to be naked, it's just that's my routine before I skate. I just have to take my shirt off." and they show Brian wandering around topless. XDD Heck, if I looked like him and had that body, you could have to knock me out and force me to put on clothes. Maybe that's why his costumes are always so shitty and don't suit him at all. Wearing clothes is just unnatural! He needs a simpler, manlier look, but he often ends up wearing glittery bodysuits - and he cannot pull that off like Johnny. Or otherwise his costumes are just awkward in some other way. So much potential!
Johnny is way too skinny, though. Oh, skaters. And Johnnys. But I mean, members of JE, not people named Johnny. I was just thinking that the JE guys are also too skinny. That got confusing. And I know I can't talk but I just made myself a big cheesy wrap with veggies, and had that with fish and an ear of corn and I think I will have some yellow pepper slices or something soon. And pudding. Ahh, appetite. I missed you so.
We also learn that Johnny is friendly with Stephane Lambiel, also a gorgeous man and a two-time world champion. Fun to know sort of who's friendly with whom - albeit to a limited extent. I loves me some Stephane and some Stephane's beautiful spins. Interestingly enough, I think they cut to talking about Stephane right after (or before) a bit where Johnny was complaining that the new judging system wasn't conducive to good spins. Stephane and Jeffrey, especially Stephane, still do beautiful spins!
Johnny complains a lot about the new scoring system, which I think is good because it sucks. They say it's bad for the sport because it's hard for fans to follow - you don't get as excited seeing that someone scored three points above their season best as you do at seeing a perfect 6. I think it's bad for the sport because it leads to shitter programs that are less interesting to watch. Not from Johnny or Jeff, actually, but from stupid Plushenko, certainly, and a lot of other skaters. Maybe it's better now, I was last really big into skating when the system was brand new. Anyway, he was complaining and then they showed a clip from Brian Orser who was like "well, he has to skate in the system so he should shut up." I was like, "No, Brian Orser! He should continue to discuss problems with the system so maybe they'll improve it." There might be better methods to raise concerns, though.
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).
It really was so funny, too - genuinely funny. We did a lot of laughing out loud. Some of this was Johnny, saying funny things, and some of it was the filmmakers. Like, for the former, one of the first scenes is Johnny with his friend Paris (possibly a nickname) doing a pretend interview. . . in the bathtub. Johnny is wearing a blond wig and glasses and they're both nekkid (as far as we can tell) and it's not a large bathtub so they're all folded up awkward. And Johnny puts on this Russian accent and says "To know Johnny Weir, we will interview his best friend Paris during bubble bath time." And then at the end he's like "Paris, let me give you advice from older person: Everybody dies." (Quotes are from memory, so I can't vouch for them.)
And the filmmakers did a really good job of cutting things together in a funny way. Especially making fun of Evan Lysacek. I mean, I think the audience was just really ready to laugh at Evan. He's the other top American male skater right now, and he's really, really different from Johnny. He always says the right thing and is all "I'M A GOOD ROLE MODEL" kid but he's just really boring and inane. And more masculine (apparently straight? supposedly he dated Tanith Belbin. !!! That ain't right. Also, maybe Jeffrey is straight! XD) and conventional. So they'd kind of show Evan saying something incredibly dull and lame and we'd all laugh. I don't think they had to work that hard cutting his interviews to create this impression. The absolute biggest laugh was at a press conference after an event where Evan had won - I think where he took the National title from Johnny - so he's talking, and going on about how he feels like his hard work paid off, and then it pans over to Johnny sitting next to him, cos he's the silver medalist. And Johnny is just making the biggest death glare face of doom. Hahaha, it was incredible. I think I literally slapped my thigh.
Not enough Jeffrey Buttle. :( But he did have the most perfect description for pretty-naked-man Brian Joubert: "I think Brian Joubert was born with a six-pack." YES. Hahaha. And then you hear Brian saying something like, "It's not that I want to be naked, it's just that's my routine before I skate. I just have to take my shirt off." and they show Brian wandering around topless. XDD Heck, if I looked like him and had that body, you could have to knock me out and force me to put on clothes. Maybe that's why his costumes are always so shitty and don't suit him at all. Wearing clothes is just unnatural! He needs a simpler, manlier look, but he often ends up wearing glittery bodysuits - and he cannot pull that off like Johnny. Or otherwise his costumes are just awkward in some other way. So much potential!
Johnny is way too skinny, though. Oh, skaters. And Johnnys. But I mean, members of JE, not people named Johnny. I was just thinking that the JE guys are also too skinny. That got confusing. And I know I can't talk but I just made myself a big cheesy wrap with veggies, and had that with fish and an ear of corn and I think I will have some yellow pepper slices or something soon. And pudding. Ahh, appetite. I missed you so.
We also learn that Johnny is friendly with Stephane Lambiel, also a gorgeous man and a two-time world champion. Fun to know sort of who's friendly with whom - albeit to a limited extent. I loves me some Stephane and some Stephane's beautiful spins. Interestingly enough, I think they cut to talking about Stephane right after (or before) a bit where Johnny was complaining that the new judging system wasn't conducive to good spins. Stephane and Jeffrey, especially Stephane, still do beautiful spins!
Johnny complains a lot about the new scoring system, which I think is good because it sucks. They say it's bad for the sport because it's hard for fans to follow - you don't get as excited seeing that someone scored three points above their season best as you do at seeing a perfect 6. I think it's bad for the sport because it leads to shitter programs that are less interesting to watch. Not from Johnny or Jeff, actually, but from stupid Plushenko, certainly, and a lot of other skaters. Maybe it's better now, I was last really big into skating when the system was brand new. Anyway, he was complaining and then they showed a clip from Brian Orser who was like "well, he has to skate in the system so he should shut up." I was like, "No, Brian Orser! He should continue to discuss problems with the system so maybe they'll improve it." There might be better methods to raise concerns, though.
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.)
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Re: Sorry, had to split. :/
Date: 2009-09-02 09:48 pm (UTC)... By the way, since you talked about athleticism and excitement... I have no idea whether you're into stuff like that, but there's this one absolutely great (and looong) Stargate Atlantis AU fic about John Sheppard, the not-really-good-and-already-too-old figure skater whose last chance at success is Rodney, the former Olympic skater who dropped out of competition at 17 and is working in a little ice-rink in Toronto... (Or, as the author puts it: "John's a rebellious figure skater who after twelve years of competition has one last shot. Rodney's the former World Champion, shattered by defeat (can't you just hear the Olympic theme song?) who can make it happen. But first....")
Fic like that can go really, really wrong, but this one doesn't, because the author keeps her characters really IC and she really knows her figure skating. (Actually, it seems she even had a beta just for the skating stuff? And someone who choreographed John's long program for her, apparently. Never doubt dedicated fans.) And it's so vividly written that I could actually see John performing his programs. And I found it actually interesting to read about the two of them coming together (both professionally and personally - it's a slash fic), despite them being completely different, especially in the way they view skating - John who's the totally athletic type with nothing in between (worse than Plushenko) and Rodney the "artist", who's great at being expressive, but even as a teenager struggled with jumps. Plus, it's really entertaining to read about Rodney having to teach eleven year old little girls who're prone to burst into tears when he's his usual self. XD
So yeah, if you're at all interested in stuff like that - give it a try.
Also, by a freak accident of nature (and I swear, I only saw this just now, when I looked the fic up again to link you to it!), the whole fic is dedicated to Evan Lysacek for replying to his fanmail. XDD
Anyway, back on topic. ^-^ The costumes - for me bad costumes actually aren't that much of a problem, because usually my mother and I watch the skating together and it's a lot of fun for us to joke about bad costumes.
Of course, thanks to Arashi I'm now so desensitized against bad costumes that I often don't realize anymore just how horrible some of them truly are... XD
That's why, when I'm downloading, I stay away from competitions unless I KNOW how it goes.
...You can download performances? *blink*
I actually kind of like the expression "figure skating", because it really shows the tradition of the sport, that it comes from exactly that - (crazy) British people starting competitions on who could make the most beautiful figures on the ice. ^-^