Tonight on TV, we have a new episode of Lost and three new interesting things on NatGeo: The Truth Behind Crop Circles, a new series called Paranatural and on Explorer, an episode about vampire forensics. Yes, you read that right. Vampire Forensics. Plus on tonight’s Olympics, ladies’ figure skating short program, women’s bobsled, women’s ski cross medal round and Nordic skiing team event.
Did a bit of tweaking but while the Olympics are going on, I’m just not feeling the love for writing.
The main thing that happened last night was the ice dancing free dance programs. So that’s all I’m going to discuss today.
The first U.S. team to skate was Emily Samuelson & Evan Bates. It was their first Olympics and they skated an amazing program. Scored their personal best. They’ll be a force to be reckoned with in 2014, I think. This year they finished in 11th place.
Great Britain’s brother/sister team of Sinead & John Kerr skated to Linkin Park‘sKrwlng which I thought was an odd choice of music. But their program was actually pretty good even if I didn’t like the music. They ended up in 8th place.
From France, Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder (and how weird is it that I could spell his last name and not hers???) knew they were out of medal contention, but they skated their hearts out with their beautiful farewell performance. They’re retiring now. They finished in 6th place.
The Italians, Federica Faiella & Massimo Scali were…. frankly, I don’t even remember their performance. They finished in 5th place, however.
Meryl Davis & Charlie White of the U.S., my personal favorites, skated their beautiful, breathtaking program to Phantom of the Opera. They were the first of the final five pairs to skate (and this was also their first Olympics) and they threw down the gauntlet. They also scored their personal best.
The U.S.’s Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto had a gorgeous performance, too. Though I found their choice of music odd. They skated to Ave Maria and Amen.
Canada’s Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir’s performance was stunning. They skated to Symphony No 5 by Mahler. Being the hometown team, as it were, they brought down the house. They were also first-time Olympians and scored a personal best.
The final skaters of the evening were Russia’s Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin. They skated to some freaky weird music called The Double Life of Veronique. And their costumes were controversial, having ropes tied around their bodies which they used in their lifts. To me, that smacks of cheating. And NBC’s expert announcer, Tracy Wilson, said she fully expected the rules would change starting next season not allowing anything like that. As well they should. I did not like their performance. It was just too weird.
And now for how the final four finished. I was hoping against hope that we’d have a North American sweep. Unfortunately, the judges scored the Russians slightly higher than Belbin & Agosto to give them the bronze medal.
On the plus side, that means two North American couples won top honors. Davis & White won the silver and Canada’s Virtue & Moir won the gold!!! In the entire history of ice dancing, only Europeans have won gold. Usually the Russians, although Britain’s Torvill & Dean won in the 1984 Olympics.
So, while I was hoping Davis & White would win the gold, I’m very okay with Canada winning. I even hummed along when O Canada was played during the medal ceremony.
Not a lot going on here. It’s overcast and kind of gloomy. Bleah.
I’m still all about the Olympics, although I’ll be glad when they’re over so I can catch up on all my shows that didn’t go on hiatus during the games. Those would be ABC and Fox programming, plus the shows on USA that didn’t get pre-empted by Olympics coverage.
Tonight, of course, is more Olympics coverage. It’s the finals in the ice dancing, freestyle skiing (men’s aerials), and ski jumping.
Reading: Still reading Vampire Sunrise which is most excellent!
And now for last night’s Olympics report!
First up was the men’s Super Combined skiing. Bode Miller from the U.S. won the gold medal! Then we had the debut of a new Winter Games event, ski cross. It is INSANE!!! None of the U.S. skiers made it into the medal round, so I was rooting for the lone Canadian, but he wiped out near the end of the race. Oh well. To everyone’s shock, even though it wasn’t a medal round, the U.S. hockey team beat the Canadians, 5 to 3. Shockwaves went through the hockey world!
But my favorite thing last was the ice dancing original dance. There was a theme (apparently planned, though I don’t recall that being the case in the past) of country/folk dances.
The U.S. team that seems to get the most press is Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto. I really didn’t care for their Moldavian folk dance routine. But they ended up in 4th place going into tonight’s medal round.
In 3rd place is Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin. I hated their program. They did what they called an aboriginal dance (supposedly based on the aborigines of Australia). The aborigines were highly offended the first time this pair did this dance. And I can’t say I blame them. They toned it down for the Olympics, as well they should. But I still didn’t like it.
Then the U.S.’s Meryl Davis & Charlie White, my personal favorites, did their Indian (as in Bollywood not Native American) dance and they rocked the house! They currently sit in 2nd place.
And in 1st place is Canada’s Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir. They are deservedly in 1st place at the moment. Their program was awesome! So, last night, North America ruled the ice!!!
Yes, maybe I am gloating just a tad over the Europeans, but, hey, they’ve had a stranglehold on ice dancing for decades. It’s time to let another group have some fun. So looking forward to tonight’s gold medal round!!!
I’ll explain today’s subject at the end of this post.
It’s another sunny day here. Got up to 59 yesterday. Today is supposed to be the same. But it supposed to get cold again starting tomorrow. Oh well. I knew it was too good to be true that Spring had sprung. Well, I spoke too soon. It’s suddenly clouded over. Oh well.
On this date in history:
In 1878, the New Haven, Connecticut telephone company published the first phone directory. It had 50 people in it.
In 1948, NASCAR was incorporated. Stock car racing got its start during Prohibition when bootleggers would load their cars up with illegal alcohol and outrun the Revenuers.
Tonight, of course, it’s more Olympics! Tonight we have ice dancing original dance, speed skating, freestyle skiing, and bobsled.
First, we had the women’s Super G (which stands for super giant slalom) skiing event. Lindsay Vonn from the U.S. won bronze. In the men’s 1500m speed skating the U.S.’s Shani Davis won the silver.
Then it was time for the men’s 1000m short track skating. No rules were broken, but that doesn’t lessen the fact that I find the Koreans really, really annoying. They won the gold and silver and our Apolo Anton Ohno won the bronze, making him the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian ever. So even without the gold he made history. Which is more than the whiny Koreans can say. The best race, however, was Apolo’s semi-final race. He managed an amazing end run around the Korean in his group and then the Korean and the Canadian fought it out for the second qualifying spot. In retrospect, the Canadians were almost as bad as the Koreans with the pushing and shoving on the track. But somehow I still don’t find them as annoying as the Koreans. But maybe that’s because you don’t hear them whining about how Apolo is a horrible person and should be disqualified every time he sets foot on the ice.
But it’s turned off cold again. Oh well, it IS still February.
In the entire history of ice dancing, only Europeans have won gold. Usually the Russians, although Britain’s Torvill & Dean won in the 1984 Olympics.
Then we had the debut of a new Winter Games event, ski cross. It is INSANE!!! None of the U.S. skiers made it into the medal round, so I was rooting for the lone Canadian, but he wiped out near the end of the race. Oh well. To everyone’s shock, even though it wasn’t a medal round, the U.S. hockey team beat the Canadians, 5 to 3. Shockwaves went through the hockey world!
