Detroit 2, Constructivist Family 2

I've gotta admit I can't tell a quad from a triple unless Skate America, NBC Sports, or every freakin' skate blogger/tweeter on the planet points it out to me (just search #SA2013), but I can tell you a little bit about what the Constructivist family's Detroit road trip has been like so far.

Like how we avoided another traffic jam on the 75 and got to the men's practice session just about on time by freelancing it through some pretty scary neighborhoods on the way to the Joe Louis Arena (score 1 for Team Constructivist).  Or how we again enjoyed the Detroit People Mover and had another great dinner, but this one gave The Full Metal Archivist stomach trouble (score 1 for Detroit).  Or how cool it was to watch Adam Rippon and Jason Brown rock their short programs, then get smoked by Tatsuki Machida (whose name has been pronounced seemingly every way but right by the rink announcers), but how disappointing it was when our fave Daisuke Takahashi couldn't bring his jumping to the level of his artistry on the ice right after Machida's brilliant performance (score another for Detroit).  Or how much the girls enjoyed dancing around after the practice skates, riding the People Mover, and getting make-up done and pictures taken at the fake Puffs kiss and cry area between the men's skate and the dance competition (score 1 more for the Constructivist family).

Instead, though, let me focus on how amazing Meryl Davis and Charlie White are.  So many couples skated so awesomely.  The Reeds got a season best and still ended up in 6th, while the Shibutanis did the same and looked to be in great position at 61.26 and 1st of 6 teams.  Until the Italians beat them by 8 points, that is.  Facing the same kind of pressure that Takahashi did, Davis and White made it look effortless, elegant, charming, sophisticated, romantic, and athletic.  Like Takahashi, they have a level of artistry and body control and musical interpretation that is truly their own.  Unlike Takahashi, their biggest rivals (Moir/Virtue) weren't competing against them.  But sometimes it's as tough being the favorite--especially in front of a home crowd--as it is being the most popular skater in the world who's fighting for a spot in his 3rd Olympics against 5 other world-class Japanese skaters.

I'll close with some video and some notes, first on Machida:



I was repeatedly impressed by how much air this guy gets.  I wonder if he can dunk...

Rippon:



Loved his reaction at the end! Maybe he can take a page from Adam Scott's book and get a big win today!

Aaron:



Man, he practices hard. He was the only one going full-bore in the morning practice session. Hey, he's young, he can handle it.  (Me, I'm officially in my mid-40s and walking like someone in his mid-80s.  I'm beginning to think my back won't be better by the time we leave Detroit.)

Shibutanis:


I hope onechan and imoto learn from these siblings how to appreciate each other and work together!  Have I mentioned that imoto's discovered moodiness and loves to needle onechan into overreacting and getting in trouble?  Seriously, I don't usually like brother-sister pairs on ice, but these two picked some great music and skated their hearts out!

In closing, Jason Brown has it all:  flexibility, jumping ability, artistry, personality.  Don't be surprised if he wins this thing.

Detroit 1, Constructivist Family 1

The Constructivist Family loves Detroit!

Sure, Detroit scored first against us when construction and a pair of accidents that slowed traffic to a crawl on the way to our hotel just north of the city added about a half hour to our road trip, but we did get to the Joe Louis Arena in time to catch the tail end of Daisuke Takahashi, Takahiko Kozuka, and Tatsuke Machida's practice session and then got to see the rest of the men (we were most excited about Jason Brown, Adam Rippon, and Max Aaron) and all the ice dancers (most notably, from our perspective, Davis and White, the Reeds, and the Shibutanis).  We got our pick of awesome seats and imoto and I got to explore almost every nook and cranny of the arena.  Plus, following her around actually helped loosen up my back!

Afterwards, we explored downtown via the Detroit People Mover, a cute little monorail that took us straight to a restaurant named after one of my favorite bands (not Tool, not Radiohead, think New Orleans-style food...).  I'm not naming them directly because although we loved the place and had a great meal, imoto got a burger with some mold on the bun.  This is where we scored against Detroit because the manager made imoto's meal and ice cream sundaes for the girls all free.  So you can see why we're looking forward to exploring more of downtown tomorrow.  There's a gap between the last of the practices tomorrow and the start of the competition at 7 pm, and the weather for my birthday looks like it'll be much better than today.  Maybe we'll do the River Walk, maybe we'll find another restaurant to check out.

We'll get our first look at the ladies and the pairs tomorrow afternoon and we'll see more of the men and dancers before them.  I'm curious to see whether and how their practices are different from today's, what with the start of the competition for them coming in the evening....

The Golf Gods, They Are Jealous Gods

I'm telling you, it seems like every time The Constructivist Family is about to take one of our patented road trips/pilgrimages to the site of a major international skating competition lately, my body betrays me.  This past spring, an awful stomach bug had me doubled over in pain and dazed for most of the World Figure Skating Championships.  And now this morning, I tweaked my back at the gym so bad that I had to shamble/shuffle/limp/grimace my way through the last day of work before the start of our fall break, which The Full Metal Archivist, onechan, imoto and I will be enjoying in scenic Detroit while we occupy Skate America.

All I can say is, thank you very much, golf gods.  It's not enough that you torment me on the course and deploy the Mostly Harmless jinx against my favorite golfers--no, now you also have to go and punish me for following Daisuke Takahashi and Mao Asada and the rest of the skaters there for a few days!  I get it:  the way the Skate America schedule works out, I'll probably be able to watch only the final round of this week's LPGA/KLPGA tournament, and probably only part of it at that--and that's only if the hotel we switch to on Sunday has Golf Channel.  So I guess I deserve this lower back pain and stiffness by some sick, twisted logic--you know, the kind you golf gods specialize in.

But hear this, o ye golf gods:  we splurged for all-access tickets and, by gum, we shall use them!  We're cutting through Canada early tomorrow morning and plan to be in the Joe Louis Arena by noon!  It's not like I've broken my back like American skater Max Aaron did a few years ago....

Skate Canada Saturday: Patrick Chan Makes It 2 in a Row

Heading out to the gala practice now, so no time to do anything but congratulate Patrick Chan on his 2nd-straight Skate Canada victory and embed some youtube clips from the leaders:

Here's the winner:



Here's our guy Daisuke, who had a real opportunity to take the title after Chan made some uncharacteristic mistakes, but came out flat himself:



I wonder if he tweaked his skate or his ankle or knee when he landed his next-to-last warm-up jump badly? Looked like he was worried about his landings early in program....

Fernandez also had a chance to take it, but looked like he got conservative:



All in all, not such great skating from the leaders. I don't like it when the results are left in the judges' hands. Too bad nobody stepped up and won this thing convincingly.

Skate Canada Friday: Daisuke Takahashi Skates Near-Perfect Short Program

20-year-old Javier Fernandez of Spain thrilled the crowd at Skate Canada yesterday evening when he landed a quad and a slew of triples early and charmed his way through the rest of his short program, threatening to preempt the long-expected showdown between defending champion Patrick Chan and 2-time silver medallist Daisuke Takahashi.  Chan's program wasn't perfectly executed, but he got within a point or so of Fernandez by nearly landing a quad himself, so the pressure was firmly on Takahashi's shoulders when he took to the ice.  You couldn't tell it, though, by the way he skated--I'd say it was the best early-season short program of his career.

Take a look for yourself!  Here's Fernandez:



And Takahashi:



Let's see how the new Brian Orser protege handles going last in the free skate tonight, right after Chan and Takahashi get to lay down their challenges!

[Update 1 (10/30/11, 9:56 am):  Here's Chan's short program:


Thought he caught a bit of a break from the judges myself.]

Look for Us on TV at Skate Canada Tonight!

We're here in Mississauga and hanging out at our Holiday Inn Express for a little while after watching a 14-year-old from Russia take the lead in the ladies short program at Skate Canada.  The girls want to go swimming, but we're forcing them to watch the pairs competition on TV.  It turns out that not only did we have great seats at the Hershey Centre but we'll also be visible on camera at times while we watch the men's short program tonight.  Just look for us 5 rows above the Canada sign on the boards--you should be able to see onechan and imoto not too far above the little Canadian flag after the last "a"!  And you'll probably see me shushing them!!