On the Rock

Call me crazy.

(you probably will).

I mean, what is this? the 90's?

(I wish it was).

But my obsession is with ice skating (not Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, that's a rumor Claire started over at blog.clairececil.com. Never got into for myself, can only barely get myself by on a couple of skates. Maybe that's why it's so fascinating to me-- it's just not something I can do. So I am so enthralled by those who pull it off.

(by pull it off, I mean win the olympics).

I brought up the 90's. And for a reason (not just to make fun of myself for my love of skating). I think that was the golden decade of skating-- it simply won't happen the same way again. I mean, it's still thrilling to watch the winter olympics and I can get myself tied up for an entire afternoon watching youtube videos to bring myself up to speed on new competitors before the winter sport season. That's one thing that is so cool about following skating-- there is a huge online database of videos old and new. No one puts whole baseball games online (wish they would!). The availability of videos online is actually the reason I am able to revisit the 90's and convince myself that skating will never be *that* good again. It wasn't about tricks, it was about artistry and control-- plus the music was better. Cheesier, sure, but much better for skating routines than the anti-climactic movie scores used today, if you ask me.

But you weren't asking me. Or were you?

So anyway. Skating. That's my obsession. My favorite is pairs skating. I still don't understand ice dancing, really. Girls have better music, but guys have better jumps. That's the breakdown.

If you were to ask who my favorite skaters are (I know you didn't), I'd have to say Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov. That's partly because of the whole dying young/tragic romance factor they have going on, but who can really say? Matter of a fact, I made my own video of the two of them back in February (the olympics had me re-hooked). Back in November 1995, after they'd skated together for 11 years, been married for 4, had a 3 year old daughter and had never placed lower than second in any competition they skated, Sergei died of a massive heart attack while they practiced a routine on the ice in Lake Placid. Katia skated a tribute to him three months later.

I took clips of their performances over the years and mashed it together with that tribute performance, set to the music of the program they were practicing (but never got to perform) when he died, Grieg.

Claire likes to laugh when Katia does the camel spin for seemingly forever (at 0:53), as if to suggest quite cheesily that they will go on and on, per Celine Dion's blockbuster hit. She then made some sort of smart comment like "they'll be dizzy forever, too."  ;)



I also created an epilogue video about Katia's solo career and new family with 1998 Men's Skating Olympic Champion, Ilia Kulik.

For the record, Claire laughed at this video per the music before she ever even saw it. Blog world, show a sister some support!