On the move: SkateAmerica
Oct. 30th, 2000 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetDespite not going to see Dancer in the
Dark with Mike, John and Bob, I failed to get to sleep. So I was getting on
toward exhausted by the time I picked Beckie up at home on Wednesday
morning. We got breakfast at McDonald's and went to Logan, where we
returned the rental car and, after some gate changing hijinks, got on our
flight to Dallas. By the time we got to Dallas it was pretty clear that I
had let a cold get hold of me--my throat was sore and I was starting to
develop a rich, burbling cough. We switched terminals, got on our flight to
Colorado Springs and then sat on the tarmac for an hour, waiting in a line
of planes that were being spaced out to get around the line of thunderstorms
off to the west. We made it to Colorado Springs about six, picked up our
rental car, realized the driver's side seat belt was jammed and switched
cars, and went into town to check into the Residence Inn.
We were very happy with our accommodations there. We had a two-room suite
with a queen-sized bed in one room and a fold-out couch in the other, along
with a fireplace and a full kitchen, including a dishwasher and a dining
area. We got free breakfast and free cookies in the evening and enjoyed
their large hot tub, tho' we skipped the pool. All this just across the
parking lot from the arena where Skate America was being held. We were
especially pleased to be getting all of this for half of what the Doubletree
wanted for one room with two beds, twice as far from the venue.
I decided hot & sour soup would be the best thing for my throat and head, so
we took a chance on a place in the Yellow Pages and were well
rewarded. After getting lost, we eventually found our way to the Golden
Palace, where we split soup, dumplings and black bean chicken. We went into
the KMart in the mall there and got cold medicine, bottled water, chicken
noodle soup and binoculars and then went back to the hotel and crashed.
Beckie brought me breakfast in the room on Thursday morning and I went over
to the arena with her to watch practices, but after one group of men, I knew
I needed more sleep, so I went back to the hotel. She came back around one
and we got lunch at Arby's and went to Target (running into one of the
Russian skaters there) and took a nap before heading back to the arena. We
grabbed dinner at Outback, also next to the arena, between events.
On Friday we watched practices in the morning and had lunch at the Macaroni
Grill (an Italian place B. had discovered with Anne & George last year). We
split an appetizer of spinach artichoke dip with shrimp, served with garlic
bread, and then I had the chicken piccata, while she had the ravioli
Bolognese. We went up through Garden of the Gods and were once again awed
by the amazing red rock formations. We spent a while in the extensive gift
store and bought a couple of gifts for folks back in Boston. Then it was
back to the arena for more skating and hot dogs for dinner.
On Saturday there was more practice in the morning. Beckie had succumbed to
the cold by then and was dreaming of hot & sour soup, so we went back to the
Golden Palace for lunch. I was dangerously close to running out of reading
material, so we made a stop at Barnes & Noble.
I had brought steve's copy of David Eggers _A Heartbreaking Work of
Staggering Genius_, which I had torn through despite its flaws; Orson Scott
Card's second anthology of influential short stories from the 80's, _Future
on Ice_, which I'd gotten halfway through despite Card's increasingly
crackpot introductory essays; and Peter Mayle's _A Year in Provence_, which
was a fun but quick read. I picked up (and have since read) Terri
Windling's new Borderland collection, _The Essential Bordertown_--once again
she has gotten an astonishing group of authors to play in her world (Charles
de Lint, Patricia McKillip, Ellen Kushner, Midori Snyder, Stephen Brust,
etc.) and this time the interstices are in the form of guidebook entries on
Bordertown and are highly amusing. I also got Jonathan Carroll's _The
Marriage of Sticks_. He is a marvelous writer, but I was disappointed in the
ending of this one--perhaps he's gotten too deeply pigeonholed as a fantasy
author to be able to recognize a good straight fiction when he's got one and
has to take it off the deep end.
Back to Colorado: Beckie had invited all the folks from
rec.sport.skating.ice.figure who were attending Skate America to join us for
pizza in our suite on Saturday afternoon. We were pleased to get about
twenty people. I spent most of the time talking to Leysha, who had brought
her astonishingly alert and outgoing 5-month old son, Maxwell, for us to
play with, and Roxane, who is writing her Ph.D. thesis in dance on figure
skating. We had to shoo everyone out so we could make it to the ice dancing
final in time.
On Sunday we had brunch with Roxane and two of the other rssif people, Ruth
and Julie, at the Broadmoor Hotel, the grande dame of the area. They have
an incredible brunch (made-to-order omelettes and waffles, roasts of beef,
ham and turkey, cold cut trays, caviar, smoked salmon, bagels and muffins,
fresh fruit, eggs Benedict, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, corned beef
hash, hashed browns, chicken saltimboca, roast pork and gravy, garlic mashed
potatoes, fried catfish filets, Spanish rice, and then a whole table of
desserts, including made-to-order sundaes or bananas Foster-and I'm sure
I've forgotten half of what was on offer) all for $22/head.
After stuffing ourselves, we walked around the lake behind the hotel to the
site where the Broadmoor Skating Arena used to be. There is a bench there
in the form of a stylized skate, in honor of the members of the Broadmoor
Club who were in the crash that killed all the skaters and parents and
coaches of the US 1961 World Championship team. We all took our pictures on
the bench before proceeding back to the hotel and heading back into town for
the men's final and the exhibitions.
And now for a few thoughts on the actual skating:
It's always hard for me to get really involved in the ice dancing
competition. Of the four events, it's the one in which the technical
differences between the teams are the hardest to discern and the judging
seems most pre-arranged. The top US team (Lang & Tchernyshev) placed 5th,
despite skating extremely well and having a spectacular free skate that
earned them the only standing ovation of their event. The Italians
(Fusar-Poli & Margaglio) won, with the Canadians (Bourne & Kraatz) in second
and the Lithuanians (Drobiazco & Vanagas) in third. There were a lot of
particularly ugly and distracting costumes this year, though the colors
seemed milder than last year.
The women's event was fairly low-key. It was good to see Michelle Kwan's
new programs and I liked her short program, though not as much as last
year's "Norwegian Wood" number. Her long program didn't really do it for
me. There was absolutely no competition for her and, other than Sarah
Hughes, the US bronze medalist who took silver here, none of the other
ladies were really memorable.
The pairs event was good, though without surprise. The Canadians (Sale &
Pelletier) did well enough, with another passionate free skate-though not
nearly as moving as last year's "Love Story"-to hold onto gold, with the
technical-but-cold Chinese pair (Shen & Zhao) in second and the Russians
(Totmianina & Marinin) in third. The top US team (Ina & Zimmerman) skated
well, but ended up in fifth, so no excitement there.
The men's event really provided the excitement at Skate America this year.
Alexei Yagudin was in first after the short, to no one's surprise, with Tim
Goebel in second and the Canadian (Emmanuel Sandhu) in third after an
excellent skate. Todd Eldredge, returning after two years out of
competition, had a disastrous short-despite having skated it beautifully in
practice the day before-and ended the night in fifth. The next day he had
an accident in practice and rumors were flying that he was dropping out.
But he skated his long program well enough, despite a bad first minute, to
come back to third. Yagudin fell apart--I have never seen him skate so
badly, he's usually an extremely consistent skater--on the long, leaving the
door open for Goebel to skate a clean program with three quads (just call
him "The Quad Father") and take gold. The crowd went wild.
Last year's exhibitions were a real let-down, with most of the medalists
just re-skating their short programs. This year everyone did something
different and a lot of them were fun and energetic and really showed off
their personal styles. Yagudin skated a gorgeous program, very similar to
his long, within an hour of losing, so it was obvious that the trouble was
in his head, not his body.
We were glad we didn't have to race out of the arena this year, but could
have a nice dinner downtown at MacKenzie's Chop House--fabulous shrimp
cocktail, excellent filet mignons for both of us, and a raspberry crhme
fraiche tart to share--and check out in the morning. Our flights home went
relatively well, though we got to enjoy another hour of ground-time in
Dallas due to a weather delay in Boston. We arrived to pouring rain--nifty
to fly through, but not so fun on the ground--and met Jason and Neil at
Sakura Bana for sushi before going our separate ways.
Dark with Mike, John and Bob, I failed to get to sleep. So I was getting on
toward exhausted by the time I picked Beckie up at home on Wednesday
morning. We got breakfast at McDonald's and went to Logan, where we
returned the rental car and, after some gate changing hijinks, got on our
flight to Dallas. By the time we got to Dallas it was pretty clear that I
had let a cold get hold of me--my throat was sore and I was starting to
develop a rich, burbling cough. We switched terminals, got on our flight to
Colorado Springs and then sat on the tarmac for an hour, waiting in a line
of planes that were being spaced out to get around the line of thunderstorms
off to the west. We made it to Colorado Springs about six, picked up our
rental car, realized the driver's side seat belt was jammed and switched
cars, and went into town to check into the Residence Inn.
We were very happy with our accommodations there. We had a two-room suite
with a queen-sized bed in one room and a fold-out couch in the other, along
with a fireplace and a full kitchen, including a dishwasher and a dining
area. We got free breakfast and free cookies in the evening and enjoyed
their large hot tub, tho' we skipped the pool. All this just across the
parking lot from the arena where Skate America was being held. We were
especially pleased to be getting all of this for half of what the Doubletree
wanted for one room with two beds, twice as far from the venue.
I decided hot & sour soup would be the best thing for my throat and head, so
we took a chance on a place in the Yellow Pages and were well
rewarded. After getting lost, we eventually found our way to the Golden
Palace, where we split soup, dumplings and black bean chicken. We went into
the KMart in the mall there and got cold medicine, bottled water, chicken
noodle soup and binoculars and then went back to the hotel and crashed.
Beckie brought me breakfast in the room on Thursday morning and I went over
to the arena with her to watch practices, but after one group of men, I knew
I needed more sleep, so I went back to the hotel. She came back around one
and we got lunch at Arby's and went to Target (running into one of the
Russian skaters there) and took a nap before heading back to the arena. We
grabbed dinner at Outback, also next to the arena, between events.
On Friday we watched practices in the morning and had lunch at the Macaroni
Grill (an Italian place B. had discovered with Anne & George last year). We
split an appetizer of spinach artichoke dip with shrimp, served with garlic
bread, and then I had the chicken piccata, while she had the ravioli
Bolognese. We went up through Garden of the Gods and were once again awed
by the amazing red rock formations. We spent a while in the extensive gift
store and bought a couple of gifts for folks back in Boston. Then it was
back to the arena for more skating and hot dogs for dinner.
On Saturday there was more practice in the morning. Beckie had succumbed to
the cold by then and was dreaming of hot & sour soup, so we went back to the
Golden Palace for lunch. I was dangerously close to running out of reading
material, so we made a stop at Barnes & Noble.
I had brought steve's copy of David Eggers _A Heartbreaking Work of
Staggering Genius_, which I had torn through despite its flaws; Orson Scott
Card's second anthology of influential short stories from the 80's, _Future
on Ice_, which I'd gotten halfway through despite Card's increasingly
crackpot introductory essays; and Peter Mayle's _A Year in Provence_, which
was a fun but quick read. I picked up (and have since read) Terri
Windling's new Borderland collection, _The Essential Bordertown_--once again
she has gotten an astonishing group of authors to play in her world (Charles
de Lint, Patricia McKillip, Ellen Kushner, Midori Snyder, Stephen Brust,
etc.) and this time the interstices are in the form of guidebook entries on
Bordertown and are highly amusing. I also got Jonathan Carroll's _The
Marriage of Sticks_. He is a marvelous writer, but I was disappointed in the
ending of this one--perhaps he's gotten too deeply pigeonholed as a fantasy
author to be able to recognize a good straight fiction when he's got one and
has to take it off the deep end.
Back to Colorado: Beckie had invited all the folks from
rec.sport.skating.ice.figure who were attending Skate America to join us for
pizza in our suite on Saturday afternoon. We were pleased to get about
twenty people. I spent most of the time talking to Leysha, who had brought
her astonishingly alert and outgoing 5-month old son, Maxwell, for us to
play with, and Roxane, who is writing her Ph.D. thesis in dance on figure
skating. We had to shoo everyone out so we could make it to the ice dancing
final in time.
On Sunday we had brunch with Roxane and two of the other rssif people, Ruth
and Julie, at the Broadmoor Hotel, the grande dame of the area. They have
an incredible brunch (made-to-order omelettes and waffles, roasts of beef,
ham and turkey, cold cut trays, caviar, smoked salmon, bagels and muffins,
fresh fruit, eggs Benedict, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, corned beef
hash, hashed browns, chicken saltimboca, roast pork and gravy, garlic mashed
potatoes, fried catfish filets, Spanish rice, and then a whole table of
desserts, including made-to-order sundaes or bananas Foster-and I'm sure
I've forgotten half of what was on offer) all for $22/head.
After stuffing ourselves, we walked around the lake behind the hotel to the
site where the Broadmoor Skating Arena used to be. There is a bench there
in the form of a stylized skate, in honor of the members of the Broadmoor
Club who were in the crash that killed all the skaters and parents and
coaches of the US 1961 World Championship team. We all took our pictures on
the bench before proceeding back to the hotel and heading back into town for
the men's final and the exhibitions.
And now for a few thoughts on the actual skating:
It's always hard for me to get really involved in the ice dancing
competition. Of the four events, it's the one in which the technical
differences between the teams are the hardest to discern and the judging
seems most pre-arranged. The top US team (Lang & Tchernyshev) placed 5th,
despite skating extremely well and having a spectacular free skate that
earned them the only standing ovation of their event. The Italians
(Fusar-Poli & Margaglio) won, with the Canadians (Bourne & Kraatz) in second
and the Lithuanians (Drobiazco & Vanagas) in third. There were a lot of
particularly ugly and distracting costumes this year, though the colors
seemed milder than last year.
The women's event was fairly low-key. It was good to see Michelle Kwan's
new programs and I liked her short program, though not as much as last
year's "Norwegian Wood" number. Her long program didn't really do it for
me. There was absolutely no competition for her and, other than Sarah
Hughes, the US bronze medalist who took silver here, none of the other
ladies were really memorable.
The pairs event was good, though without surprise. The Canadians (Sale &
Pelletier) did well enough, with another passionate free skate-though not
nearly as moving as last year's "Love Story"-to hold onto gold, with the
technical-but-cold Chinese pair (Shen & Zhao) in second and the Russians
(Totmianina & Marinin) in third. The top US team (Ina & Zimmerman) skated
well, but ended up in fifth, so no excitement there.
The men's event really provided the excitement at Skate America this year.
Alexei Yagudin was in first after the short, to no one's surprise, with Tim
Goebel in second and the Canadian (Emmanuel Sandhu) in third after an
excellent skate. Todd Eldredge, returning after two years out of
competition, had a disastrous short-despite having skated it beautifully in
practice the day before-and ended the night in fifth. The next day he had
an accident in practice and rumors were flying that he was dropping out.
But he skated his long program well enough, despite a bad first minute, to
come back to third. Yagudin fell apart--I have never seen him skate so
badly, he's usually an extremely consistent skater--on the long, leaving the
door open for Goebel to skate a clean program with three quads (just call
him "The Quad Father") and take gold. The crowd went wild.
Last year's exhibitions were a real let-down, with most of the medalists
just re-skating their short programs. This year everyone did something
different and a lot of them were fun and energetic and really showed off
their personal styles. Yagudin skated a gorgeous program, very similar to
his long, within an hour of losing, so it was obvious that the trouble was
in his head, not his body.
We were glad we didn't have to race out of the arena this year, but could
have a nice dinner downtown at MacKenzie's Chop House--fabulous shrimp
cocktail, excellent filet mignons for both of us, and a raspberry crhme
fraiche tart to share--and check out in the morning. Our flights home went
relatively well, though we got to enjoy another hour of ground-time in
Dallas due to a weather delay in Boston. We arrived to pouring rain--nifty
to fly through, but not so fun on the ground--and met Jason and Neil at
Sakura Bana for sushi before going our separate ways.
