BSR

Thanks, latbear4blk! One day, when I finally get around to my bucket-list trip way down south, I'm sure these resources will be invaluable.

I missed the short program live and had to watch it on tape. Because I already knew the results, it took me a long time to bring myself to watch Nathan's short because I knew it was a disaster. Oh boy, was it ever. You almost have to expect the step-out of the triple axel, but not the fall on the quad lutz and the spin-out of the quad toe. Eek! he couldn't even complete a combination, to plunge his score even lower. It really bums me out because he's improved his PCS so much. Yes, Nathan has a tremendous future as a figure skater, but I don't know how long he intends to stay in the sport. I know he wants to go to Harvard; he might have already been accepted. Other skaters manage to go to college full-time and keep up their skating, but it's awfully tough. I'm not sure Nathan can handle a Harvard course load and compete as a world-class figure skater at the same time.

I used to be pretty lukewarm about pairs. Honestly, I thought pairs was for skaters who weren't good enough to cut it in singles. But lately, the pairs are doing the most unbelievable lifts - beautiful, difficult, and fraught with risk. It's become my second favorite event after the men's. I'm with you about ice dancing. I actually used to like it, but honestly, you couldn't pay me to watch it now.

In reference to another thread about guys with small cocks, lemme say that I couldn't give half a flying sh*t if Chris Mazdzer were hung or not. That body, that face, that fur ... mmmmmmmm ... plus it looks like he has a really goofy sense of humor, which makes him all the sexier.

OK, that makes sense. The team event sells more tickets, and it gives the Winter Olympics a couple more days of figure skating, one of the highest rated sports. The men's short had ten skaters, but five countries got chopped, so only five teams even competed in the free skate. Because Hanyu didn't skate in the team event, the Japanese team picked some scrub to skate the free. OMG, out of his maximum eight jumping passes, he did two double salchows, not in combination with a triple or a quad mind you, just plain double salchows. In a "competition" *cough* for Olympic gold, a skater is doing double salchows? Ten-year-olds do double salchows! The level of skating in this team event is a pathetic joke! But as you pointed out, I'm sure the TV ratings in Japan were sky-high for this team "competition" *cough* which is all the IOC and ISU care about.

Here's your favorite constantly argumentative board member, back again World-class singles skaters, ice dance pairs, or pairs teams don't just spring up overnight. Skating is an incredibly expensive sport, with very little financial reward. This hostile financial reality makes it extremely difficult to develop top skaters, which means it will always be difficult for nations to field a legitimate team, i.e., a team with decent representatives in all four disciplines.

Remember back to your schoolboy days, when teachers gave partial credit on essay tests? Well, that's kind of how it works in skating. Prior to 2010, the point value for a successful quad wasn't that high whereas the penalty for falling on a quad attempt was quite severe. Because of the controversy of quad-less Lysacek's victory over two-quad Plushenko, the point values for quads were increased, and even botched quads (under-rotations, step-outs, two-foot landings, and falls) were given "partial credit." The scoring change sparked the quad boom that we're seeing today. Those in favor of the scoring change argue that the "partial credit" point values have allowed the sport to evolve. Opponents argue that they place too much value on quads at the expense of everything else. I think a compromise needs to be worked out because the old system discouraged anyone from even attempting quad jumps while the new system encourages the splat-fests you see at too many competitions. The ISU will re-evaluate the point values at the end of this season. Besides the controversies of the scoring system, skating is very much a reputation sport. The skaters with strong results, like defending gold medalist and world champion Yuzuru Hanyu, get propped up in the judges' scores whereas skaters without the stellar resumes, like Adam Rippon, must fight an uphill battle. The new scoring system (point values vs. the old 6.0 system) was supposed to eliminate "reputation scoring," but nothing changed really. Frankly, even without the handicap of reputation scoring, Adam has almost no chance because his level of technical difficulty is so far below the Big Six, the six skaters considered the top contenders for a spot on the podium. I'm hoping that Adam scores a moral victory by finally landing a clean quad lutz in the free skate because he's never landed one in competition.

It's not that other countries aren't "as strong" as Canada, Russia, and the US. They literally don't have teams! Javier Fernandez is a two-time world champion and a six-time European champion, plus Spain has two pretty decent ice dancing pairs. But because Spain doesn't have a single competitor in either the ladies or the pairs, they couldn't even compete in the team figure skating event. China has no ladies or ice dancing pairs. Japan did manage to field a team, or at least vague semblance of one, but because they have no serious ice dancing or pairs teams, they finished a country mile behind the Big Three. There were only three countries with legit teams in the entire team figure skating event. How the hell does an event with only three competitors become an Olympic sport? Marathoners, on the other hand, come from all over the world. 30 different countries have won medals in the men's marathon. The women's marathon became an event only in 1984, but 14 different countries have won medals. In Rio, 155 runners competed in the men's marathon, representing dozens of countries. 52 runners finished within 10 minutes of the gold medalist. If you won a medal in the Rio Olympic marathon, you beat out a helluva lot of strong runners, who came from all over the globe. If you make the podium in team figure skating, all it means is that you are from one of the three countries who could field a team. Winning a medal in team figure skating is the Olympic equivalent to a participation trophy.

I'm not really criticizing Rippon, more the event itself. True, I do find his reaction to "winning" a bronze (in an event where only three legit teams competed) a bit much, but I have to remember just how tough figure skaters have it. It's an absurdly expensive sport, and Rippon has suffered through his share of very tough times. I found his story of how he had to steal apples from the gym both amusing yet sad and poignant. After surviving what he's gone through, I really shouldn't rain on Adam's parade. I will, however, go full bore in my criticism of what is an absolutely absurd event. What is the point of staging an Olympic event with only three competitors?! This "team figure skating" thing has to be the most ridiculous joke in the entire summer and winter Olympics. I decided that I want my own Olympic event, and I get to limit the number of competitors to just three. That way I'm guaranteed at least a bronze!! I expect a full ticker-tape parade.

I used to be an avid figure skating fan, but kind of stopped following it from 2003 to 2016 because I got so wrapped up in baseball and tennis. In the interim, who the hell came up with the totally bogus fraud of an event, team figure skating?! How is this even a competition when only three countries in the world can even field a decent team?? Canada, Russia, and the US are the only three countries in the world that have a decent representative in all four disciplines. China has no ladies or ice dance teams. Japan has no ice dance or pairs. Spain has no ladies or pairs. And so on. How can you create an event and award gold, silver, and bronze when only three countries can field a team?? Adam Rippon is blubbering about his great triumph of winning bronze. Dude, there were only three real teams in the competition. You basically came in last, but last in this event means you get the bronze. Gushing about "winning" the bronze is like gushing about winning a participation trophy.

Thank you for getting rid of any temptation to start watching the re-boot. W&G used to be one of my favorite shows. A friend of mine and I were die-hard Karen Walker fans. We'd talk about the show every week and bust a gut rehashing all the hilarious lines Karen had on the last episode. But then Will & Grace got more and more annoying, to the point that I stopped watching the show entirely. I suspected the re-boot would be tired & awful, even though their 10-minute election special was pretty damn funny. I'm glad to know I'm not missing anything.

1. I hate body-shavers, so I'm loving all the intact, natural hair on these guys. 2. John Daly's boyish good looks absolutely melt me. Without even a first date, I'd get down on one knee and propose marriage. 3. Joey Mantia's thighs belong in a museum.

Ugh, please do not refer to shows like "Gran hotel" as a "telenovela." A telenovela is basically a Latinamerican soap opera, in other words, a 5-times a week series produced primarily for bored housewives. "Gran hotel" and other series like it (plenty of series from Spain have made their way to Netflix) are once-a-week shows produced for general audiences. Because telenovelas are a daily shows with a limited audience, the quality of production, acting, and scripts suffers due to the rushed shooting schedules and tight budgets. The quality of shows like "Gran hotel," on the other hand, is more on par with once-a-week American series like "This Is Us" or "Quantico." It's really unfair to call "Gran hotel" a telenovela because it's so much better than your typical soap opera. That said, I wasn't crazy about "Gran hotel." It started out with a great premise, the disappearance of a poor maid in a luxury hotel, but ended up as the love story between the maid's brother (who goes to the hotel & gets a job as a waiter in order to investigate his sister's disappearance) and the daughter of the family who owns the hotel. But the show's visuals definitely make it worth watching. Set around 1900, the dresses and suits of the era's Spanish aristocracy are a knockout. I loved the sumptuous luxury shown in the interior and garden scenes. Most of all, I loved the hotel itself, which in the real world is not a hotel but the former summer palace of the Spanish monarchy. In every outdoor scene of the hotel (the indoor shots were done in studio), my jaw dropped because the palace's architecture is so amazing. Like I said, Netflix features a number of series from Spain that are definitely worth watching. My favorite series of all time, whether Spanish or English, is "Velvet," the impossible love story between the scion of Madrid's most prestigious house of fashion and a poor seamstress. For all the bi/straight guys on this board, "Vis a vis" (I think Netflix gave it the English title "Lockup") is a good series packed with female full-frontal nudity and lesbian sex scenes. Also, the villain in "Lockup" is so deliciously evil. I've heard really good things about "Cable Girls" and "Morocco" as well, although I haven't seen either one. Edited to add: all the Spanish series on Netflix give the option of either the dubbed version (eek!) or the original Spanish version with English subtitles, Spanish subtitles, or no subtitles at all. If your Spanish is good enough to watch the Spanish version (either without subtitles or with a bit of help from the Spanish subtitles), you'll be amazed how much your Spanish improves after watching just one series. Second edited to add: since I am 1000% gay, why did I bother to watch all 24 70-minute episodes of beaver-saturated "Lockup"? Because one of the prison guards was played by this guy: http://agency.muchoartemanagement.com/1716-thickbox/harlys-becerra-cuba.jpg

Who are these guys? Oh gawd, please tell me they do porn.

While I agree that Johnny goes a bit too far with his drag goddess antics, when he does commentary, he's actually quite good. He tosses all the theatrics aside, buckles down, and gives some really good brass-tacks insight into the skating. I definitely prefer his commentary over Tara's, who makes some inane or really obvious remarks.

I have such a crush on Javier Fernandez. I used to be a pretty die-hard figure skating fan until baseball & tennis took over my sporting passions. But once I spotted Javi, holy smokes! Those big brown eyes, that goofy, boyish grin *swoon* Here's a 1-minute video with (far too) brief glimpses of Javi with his shirt off. Of course, he has a very slim torso, not an ounce of bodyfat, but he is super-cut. You can also check out his goofy, boyish grin at the very end of the video.

LOL, great thread! The differences in slang between different Spanish-speaking countries never cease to amaze me. In Spain, "pija" means a spoiled little rich girl. In Argentina, it means cock. Now read Post #21 with the assumption that pija = spoiled little rich girl and imagine the confused look on my face Anyway, thanks for the link because I'll definitely continue to follow the Adventures of Tobias. I wonder if something like this could be planned for the Palm Springs weekend ...

Or the language of Austrian.

Wow, he popped the quad toe, what is actually a relatively easy jump for Nathan. I don't know what happened exactly, but I'm guessing that yeah, it had to be nerves.

He attempted a quad lutz and managed to land the jump, but it wasn't a quad. The judges gave him credit for only a triple lutz and even dinged him 1.10 on the GOE (grade of execution) because the jump was under-rotated. If you look at the following video, he completes the last half-revolution on the ice. Skip to 6:05 in the video for a slow-motion of the "quad" lutz.

Many skaters do struggle with the triple axel, but of the Big Six (Chan, Chen, Fernandez, Hanyu, Jin, Uno - the top contenders for the Olympic podium according to conventional wisdom, whatever that's worth) only Nathan really struggles with it. When was the last time he landed a perfectly clean 3A in competition? The difference between the triple and double axel is 5.2 points (8.5 vs. 3.3 on the ISU website), so a difference of 10.4 for the two programs. In both the short and free skate, an axel jump is compulsory, but it can be either a double or a triple. If Nathan plays it safe and opts to do doubles in both programs, he can make up the deficit by doing a quad lutz in both programs. I don't know why he opted out of the quad lutz at Nationals considering that it's been a pretty solid jump for him in the past. The problem with ditching the triple axel is that Nathan can probably win a medal without it, but winning gold will be very tough, and of course Nathan wants to go for the gold. I can't believe how much Nathan has improved his PCS in just a year. The difference between his skating at the 2017 US Nationals and the 2018 Nationals is amazing. He got a decent bump in his scores: 2017 short/free PCS were 44.32/91.00, 2018 short/free PCS were 46.54/94.92. But the scores fall far short of telling the whole story. His improvement in posture, positions, and body lines can't be quantified. The competition in Pyeongyang will be killer. The men's short is next Thursday, Feb 15, with the free skate the next day. I'm already defecating a brick PS: Rippon's chances of winning a medal are about the same as my chances of getting a date with Ricky Martin

Marlon Brandon circa "Streetcar Named Desire," I'd be that man's love slave. He could lock me up in his basement without food or water; as long as we had sex every single day, I'd be the happiest man on earth. Marlon Brando circa "Last Tango in Paris," I'd chew off my own hand in order to escape.

Rippon starts his free skate with the most difficult jump in the sport, the quad lutz (no one has landed a quad axel in competition yet), but never ever lands it clean. Maybe he's managed to hold on & stay on his skates somehow (two-foot landing, under-rotation, spin-out), but I've only see him fall in the attempt. I wonder if that's his way of telling himself that he belongs with the big boys ("yeah, I start with a quad lutz"), never mind the eensy-weensy detail that he falls every single time. I agree that quads are very much a matter of finesse, balance, and strength. No, you don't need huge legs. If anything, huge legs just weigh you down, which handicaps your jumps. I would add that you also need a good ratio of fast-twitch muscle fiber (like sprinters & NBA slam-dunkers) as opposed to the slow-twitch muscles of marathon runners. Of course, a high percentage of fast-twitch doesn't translate to particularly developed or large legs. Novak Djokovic is one of the fastest men in tennis, yet his legs are pretty slim.

Trust me, if the priest who hit on me were as hot as Fr. Mike, I would have rushed him home. Then again, the thought of doing it in a rectory sparks all sorts of naughty Catholic schoolboy fantasies.

Because a free program with five (six?) quads is fraught with risk, it's crazy to say he's a lock. Plus in both the short program and free skate, Nathan has to face his bête noir, the treacherous triple axel, which he crashes more often than he lands clean. A lot of Nathan fans are begging him to ditch the triple axel & opt for the far simpler double (Nathan has no problem with the 2A). True, it's a huge loss of tech points, but Nathan has so many quads in his two programs that he can bridge the gap and then some. I wish he would, but chickening out is just not the guy's modus operandi. Besides all the risk packed into Nathan's programs, five other skaters are strong, solid contenders for Olympic medals. Yes, if Nathan skates perfectly, he should medal because his tech score is so high and his PCS (what used to be called "artistry") has improved so much. But even a little bobble (reminder: ice is slippery) could knock him off the podium.