Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

* Great moments in marketing: Spotted during a showing of night of the Living dead: a commercial for Readybox disaster supplies, featuring a terrified family huddling in a basement from an unspecified disaster and the Readybox making it all better. I saw no sign of a gun or an axe specific to zombie apocalypse, but damn that was clever ad placement.

* I don't watch much figure skating anymore. I used to love it and know all the important pros and amateurs. I haven't watched that much since the last move as I can't tape them to watch at leisure. As I have to watch in real time, It means I generally didn't have the attention to give it that it requires, or it ends up conflicting with something else. as a result, since the VCRs stopped recording round about my last move, I'm just not invested the way I used to be. I was thinking of not bothering anymore, but I stumbled on the last hour of Skate Canada's men's free skate and got seduced all over again by Chan, Fernandez, and Rippon. I'm amazed all over again by the long term good effect of the rules change after the Millennium. You still get spectacular jumps, but all around quality skating studded with those jumps is the way to win again, like it was before the '90's jump arms race killed everything but the quest for quad combos. It really is the best of both worlds and you can see the effects of enhanced feedback on the performances. I suppose I should pay more attention to the skate schedule again and see if I can catch more late night rebroadcasts.

* Side note: It's nice to see Brian Orser out their coaching young talent. It's not just an I'm glad he's got a solid after career option, but also because it gives me hope that the culture in the skate world is changing for the better. He was one of the first, after all, even though he was dragged out by a palimony suit. I always loved out, proud, fierce, defiant Rudy Galindo more, yes, but Brian Orser kept on skating, quietly competent in the face of all the bullshit the dinosaur elders of the skating judging establishment heaped on the heads of out skaters. Remember, even Brian Boitano skated from inside a closet while he was competing. Skating's always been full of closets and open secrets, but the judges looked the other way as long as people pretended they'd just "never found the right girl." There is so much psychology involved in competing at the highest level. A lot of folks never lived up to their potential because they, for one reason or another, couldn't get their heads together in the place they need to be to do something requiring so many skills and so much perfection. I have often wondered how many people crashed and burned or turned in uneven seasons because the pressure of the closet was simply one too many. some folks rose above it. Mr. Boitano went with the smile and wink that said, "We both know it's a flimsy pretense." it didn't stop everybody, but I think it hurt a lot of people over the years. Mr. Galindo and Mr. Orser boldly braving the openly gay score deductions, let Johnny Weir stand with one foot in the closet, thumbing his nose at the homophobes. Having an openly gay elder statesmen training up part of the next generation of skaters will help make it easier for the next Galindo and the next Weir. Having folks who liked and skated with Mr. Galindo and Mr. Orser out training their own skaters, or, like Ms. Yamaguchi, doing commentary, while ease the way for this generations young skaters. The changes in judging have lessened, though alas, not erased the openly gay deduction. The more dinosaur judges retire, the more my generation and younger will fill those spots, the smaller that deduction for being gay will get. It's a little hope for the future, for the day some brave soul can win a gold metal without having to compete with extra obstacles.