Miho's favorites

People’s views are always different especially when it comes to artistry. I really think we all are biased for our favorites based on our taste, our views, our personalities, and it also might be coming from which side of the brain is more developed , right brain or left brain. And whatever art or other things that we learn, there are always levels, whether it’s judges scoring by whatever the rules happen to be, which BTW the rules were made by people who also have their own bias and favorite type of figure skating, or it comes from laws of nature.   We can feel which pianists are playing from the heart or not, besides being able to appreciate the technical ability.  In figure skating, Genuine artistic skaters to me are Johnny Weir Emanuel Sandhu Tatiana Navka Oksana Baiul These skaters come to my mind first. The following are also genuine artistic skaters,  Stephane Lambiel Daisuke Takahashi Staviski (of Denkova/Staviski) Shen( of Shen...

This season, I was unable to post my reviews for each GPS event because of many other things I needed to do even though I watched all the GPS events for singles except for Skate America and wanted to post about it. Figure skating Grand Prix Final competitions was held in December 3 to 6, 09. The qualified skaters for singles were below, Men  Nobunari Oda (JPN) Evan Lysacek (USA) Brian Joubert (FRA) ( withdrew for injury ) Jeremy Abbott (USA) Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) Johnny Weir (USA) Tomas Verner (CZE)( was replaced for Joubert ) Before the event, I was guessing this competition will be really heat up especially between Takahashi vs. Oda in Team Japan, and Lysacek , Weir and Abbott in the team USA. Felt sorry to hear about Brian Joubert ’s injury during the practice. Sounded extremely pain when he got the injury.  He also had to withdraw from GPF last season after SP , because he got injury during practice before LP.  Hope he will get better soon and...

It’s been a long time since my last post. Just too busy for my work right now, and since hearing only Universal sports/NBC broadcast will show the GPS here. But Ray got a great news, NBC ( not universal sports), one of the major broadcasts will show it for single skating, ladies and men both !!! and pairs and ice dancing will be shown at Universal sports.    I’m very happy to hear that because I much prefer to watch figure skating on TV to Internet.  October 18, (TEB) October 25 (Rostelecom Cup ) November 8 (NHK) November 15 ( Skate America ) November 22 ( Skate Canada) December 6 (GPF) Figure skating TV schedule http://heatherw.com/mk/sch.htm   Disappointed news is Sasha Cohen had to withdraw from TEB competition because of injury.  I was very excited to see ladies TEB, because I was wondering how Sasha can compete with present top skaters with different judging system. It’s also great to see her skating, especially for her artistry....

Johnny’s new interview from Outsports part 1 is already up at   http://www.outsports.com/os/index.php/component/content/article/43-2009/261-johnny-weir-the-outsports-interview This interview is all about figure skating, and according to the article, in part 2, he will talk about sexuality, his own sexual orientation , crazy fans and his personal life. I always love his interviews, and this is also no exception.  My impression of him from this interview, So strong !  Full of fire !  Direct and honest as usual. My top favorite parts of his answer is when he was asked about his competitors,  “ I personally have no resentment , because competitors mean nothing to me. I just need to do my best and think about what I’m going to do and make sure I look gorgeous. “  Really love his answer for this.  It reminds me of the quotes from Ma Zu, “ Be a witness, not a judge. Focus on yourself, not on others. Listen to your heart, not to the cro...

It may be the first time I watched World Championships for track & field this year. Except for figure skating, I don’t usually watch any other sports competitions and I only watch Olympics. I have been a fan of Jeremy Wariner (400m) since 2004 Olympics but since watching last Beijing Olympics ( 2008), and his struggle to get gold medal, and rivalry between LaShawn Merritt and him at that time, I became more concerned about his competition. They showed the first round ( rehearsal ) two days ago, and Jeremy’s time was 44.64 or something like that, and he looked like he was not seriously running and I thought it just for warm-up before the final. And in the final, he placed second with the time 44.60 ! LaShawn Merritt won with the time 44.06 . I was wondering what was wrong with Jeremy ??? Then in the interview, he said he has been having an ankle injury. That’s why… The time 44.60 is slow compared to his usual time he had been having in the past. It’s really a sh...

I’m so glad to hear that Sandhu is challenging the audition for SYTYCD again this year !  And was able to watch his dance on YouTube here ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI7bIwQuM7w What an awesome beautiful dancer ! Every angle of his moves and his line are perfectly well done, technically, artistically. IMO.  And his expression is hilarious. His standing pose in the beginning reminds me of Freddie Mercury’s pose in “ another one bites the dust “ in Queen’s music video. So cool ! Sandhu has well balanced proportion and looks taller than his actual height . I think because he knows how to show his body line. And so did Freddie Mercury. One judge called him that he is a beast ( of talent ). I agree, he is like a monster of talent for dance. I really hope he will pass the audition this time. Such an amazing talented dancer.  I also loved his dance in his last audition. But when I think about SYTYCDC ...

Even though I didn’t expect Japanese media will write something about Johnny or catch his photos of his performances, I’m still disappointed to read this article below, http://www.toyama.hokkoku.co.jp/subpage/E20090627001.htm ( Japanese ) As a Johnny fan, I want to know about him the most, how he skated and the reaction for his performances. But in this article they didn’t even mention anything about him, while they mentioned other foreign skaters, Victor Petrenko, John/Rena, and Stephane Lambiel attracted audience with their unique performances. I did understand Japanese media always care for only top Japanese skaters mainly, and little about Lambiel. I have no idea why, but I think he is definitely very popular in Japanese skating world especially in men‘s skaters. It’s really shame to see this difference between Korea and Japan. Also, I was a little worry about his Poker Face in Japan, whether it is loved by many Japanese Johnny fans or not. Just like it happened f...

It was shocking to hear the news about Michael Jackson’s death by heart attack yesterday. When I was a teenager to 30, I often listened to his music, especially Thriller video was always the biggest hit on TV while I was around 20. I’ve been to his concert only once. It was when I was around 29. He was so popular and at that time it was hard to get his concert ticket and to get the tickets, everyone had to line up in front of the ticket centers, and there was no phone selling. I remember that my friend’s co-workers spent 3 days in front of the entrance of the ticket center and could get good seats. And they shared the tickets with me and my friends. Our seats were row 10 in the biggest concert hall in Japan, so I was luckily able to see him clearly, and got to see his famous moon walk and his amazing dancing and performance. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of his dance, I had no doubt he was a wonderful dancer. And his talent,he composed many music. He absolutely was on t...

I got a pimple on my face a few days ago. Maybe because I ate ice cream , or maybe it came from Muenster cheese. And while checking about some info for how to remove pimples, I happened to find the info which says toothpaste can relieve pimples fast at one of yahoo questions & answers. So I tried it , putting a little toothpaste on my skin before going to sleep, now it’s almost disappeared !!! I never knew toothpaste has such a power to remove pimples, but actually mint has power to kill germs , so I’m glad to find this discover !!

http://www.figureskatersonline.com/JohnnyWeir/journal.html This journal was wonderful and very touching. I don’t remember how many times I got that same feeling seeing and reading about his life. Although he is one of the top athletes, an Olympian, I’m often feeling like he is one of my family. One of the nice things about reading Johnny’s journal every time is that he always shares his true feeling with many details, not only the things he feels proud of, but also both good or bad. Things change so his mind may not be always the same. I didn’t think his result of last season as failure, it was just one of the results he received one his way to get to his dream. I believed that he will be okay and he has experienced tough times in his life many times, so he can handle it again. Seeing Johnny’s experience, I can also learn many things, and apply them to my life as well. I believe so do many people, and never give up or lose your dream. It’s also very nice to hear about that he has ...

Seems like Johnny’s film has been getting all positive reviews so far. I wish they would also show it in Arizona area. Or I wish I was living near New York or if there was miracle door which can get to everywhere wherever I want by just opening the door. The film sounds really awesome according to all the reviews. It started from Johnny’s cool triple axel (?), and his childhood, how he got into skating till 2006 season. Also the strictness of his training required by the sport, and his need to freely express himself at the same time . You can hear Johnny talking throughout so you get to listen to his explanation about events described or shown. It will be published in DVD in this fall . I can’t wait to see it ! On June 11, Johnny was at his movie premiere , New York and the video was already up in ice network.com and also in life skate.com http://www.lifeskate.com/ Must write about it. I really loved this interview. There are Part1 , Part 2 for the in...

I sometimes check Japanese Amazon.com site to look for some interesting books, and while I was surfing around the site, I happened to find a Japanese long time best-seller cartoon “ Mask of Glass “ by Suzue Miuchi ‘s series 43 finally ! It’s a series from a long long time ago, since when I was a child. I started reading the cartoon when I was 13. I collected all of them which were published until series 42 and was waiting for the next series coming. It’s one of my all time favorite cartoons, because the story is really interesting. The main story is about two theater actresses who were born in different situations, different type of talent. both girls challenge to perform in the legendary award story which is owned by a genius actress called Chigusa who was the only person who could perform the drama, and is considered as very difficult to perform. The main girl called Maya in the story was born in poor surroundings , with her mother who worked for a tiny noodle res...