You Know You're a Figure Skating Fan When... | Page 35 | Golden Skate

You Know You're a Figure Skating Fan When...

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
Keeping one eye out on 2017, fast forward past break, stop before the next skate on a guy with his back to the camera, half-body shot...
First thought, “Ah, Denis Vasiliev...”
Second thought, “prob need to watch less FS...”

I actually had a similar experience a season or two ago, but didn't want to embarrass myself by telling the story. But, since you have told your story, I will now tell mine.

During one of these backstage shots that the TV directors have liked to show the past few seasons at the end of an interval, I saw this girl doing her warm up exercises. She was wearing a plain black (or maybe dark grey) track suit, so no indication of nationality from it. It was shot from behind and she didn't turn around, so you couldn't see any of her face. And there was nothing indicative from her hair.

Yet within a split second, I was able to say "Ah, that's XXXXX".

And another shot much later on where you could see her face confirmed it.

CaroLiza_fan
 

Layback11

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
You know you're a figure skating fan when you can watch almost no skating for two years and still wake up one day and think, "you know what? I'm going to write a novel about figure skaters*."

You do so. You end up "researching." This takes you down a rabbit hole that leads to you watching a compilation of every Virtue/Moir program ever in the background while you write, even though your novel is about junior ladies' skaters and has absolutely nothing to do with ice dance.

Now you are crying over The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. You have decided that you will include this music in the novel as a symbol of the protagonist's aunt's tragic pairs skating career. There is still no finished book. You are confident that your current progress of 113 pages will turn into an actual novel, but you are still crying over The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, so this will not be happening anytime soon.

(this was one chapter, guys. ONE CHAPTER. I'm gonna go nuts.)

*[fictional, my RPF days are long over *shudder*]
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
When you're reading up on etymologies of Russian surnames and you count down like half of the surnames on the list that you recognize from figure skating
 

lariko

Medalist
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Country
Canada
Okay, this is a weird one, hopefully you guys would get my feels. My figure-skating story got added to the Sport genre reading list on the online books website. The list is obviously dominated by all the big team sports... I was just so happy that figure-skating made it as a sport there... anyway, sniffle, sniffle.
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
...when you normally avoid horror films like the plague, but you are considering taping "Schizo" (1976) when it is on tonight, because the story centres around a figure skater.

That said, I have a feeling that I will watch it for a few minutes to see if there is any skating shown, and then delete it before it starts getting scary.

CaroLiza_fan
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
...when you normally avoid horror films like the plague, but you are considering taping "Schizo" (1976) when it is on tonight, because the story centres around a figure skater.

That said, I have a feeling that I will watch it for a few minutes to see if there is any skating shown, and then delete it before it starts getting scary.

CaroLiza_fan

Just realised that I forgot to tell you how I got on with "Schizo". I decided to watch up until the first murder, which I was surprised to find wasn't until about 45 minutes into the film (there were adverts before it, so I can't give a precise time). So, I got a good idea about the story. It was in a flashback scene, and I had to stop playback very early into the scene as, even with looking over my glasses rather than through them, it was immediately obvious that it would become a very grusome murder.

And that was the end of the film for me.

In the 45 minutes or so that I watched, there was just one scene on the ice. I didn't recognise the rink that it was filmed at. (That is one thing I love about the Alexandra Palace - it is instantly recognisable). But, I have done a bit of digging around, and found out that it was the Richmond Ice Rink in Twickenham, Middlesex (see Capture 7 on this page). Alas, it was demolished about 30 years ago to make way for luxury appartments. I actually wrote about the Richmond rink before in a post in the British thread, and found a very interesting page about it on the Twickenham Museum's website. (As I said that time, the old version of the page has more information on it than the current version).

CaroLiza_fan
 

plushyfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Country
Hungary
when you leave the figure skating forums for a year but then come back and do it smarter but you keep going and enjoy reading the news about all skaters ..
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
...when you put on a film, and it starts with music being played. And just as it reaches the second note you say "Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto Number 2".

And here is the full recording of the performance by Eileen Joyce that was used in "Brief Encounter" (1945):

Sergei Rachmaninoff - "Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18"

CaroLiza_fan
 
Joined
May 13, 2020
...when you put on a film, and it starts with music being played. And just as it reaches the second note you say "Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto Number 2".

And here is the full recording of the performance by Eileen Joyce that was used in "Brief Encounter" (1945):

Sergei Rachmaninoff - "Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18"

CaroLiza_fan

Ah yes! I remember one time I was somewhere and Schindler’s List started playing. I was able to recognize it within about two seconds :).
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
...when it's 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] July, and you watch a Christmas film because the description says one of the characters is a figure skater, and you want to see some skating.

As it turned out, within 5 minutes I was thinking "do I really want to sit through an hour and a half of this?!" The acting was absolutely awful! :eek: Thankfully, it soon improved, and the hour or so in the middle was watchable. But by the end, the acting was awful again. :drama:

I stuck with it in the hope of seeing some ice action, but there was none. We saw a few pairs of skates during the film, but we didn't get to see them put to use. :disapp:

The film was "A Christmas Hero" (2016), and it was broadcast yesterday as part of the Christmas Season that Movies24 is having for the whole of July. (With the length and frequency of the adverts on that channel, there was no way I was going to watch it live!)

Yes, you heard me correctly. They are having a Christmas Season in July. :rolleye: :drama: :palmf:

Well, I suppose you could say that it is the right weather for an Australian Christmas... :p

CaroLiza_fan
 

Autumn Leaves

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 22, 2018
When you congratulate a Canadian friend with Canada Day and when she is surprised that you are aware of this holiday, being in Europe, you say “of course! Canada is a significant player in figure skating, so I keep an eye on you...”

And that’s only after two years of accidently seeing a performance on tv and becoming somewhat interested...
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
...when you watch a Benny Hill film, even though you don't particularly like Benny Hill, because his character is an ice rink sweeper (for the benefit of younger members, this is what they had before the Zamboni machine was invented - a team of people with wide brushes).

Unlike the other films that I have watched recently because there were characters who were figure skaters, this film did actually show skating. It may only have been at the start of the film, but it was a pretty long scene.

Looking at the IMDB page for "Who Done It?" (1956) afterwards, I was able to find out who some of the skaters were. Unfortunately, not many of the skaters were listed. But of the ones that were, there was one name that I recognised - Jean Alsop.

I also found out from the Wikipedia page that "Who Done It?" was actually Benny Hill's first film. Which probably explains why he was not anywhere near as unbearable as he was later in his career. Yes, there were hints of what was to come. But it was extremely mild in comparison.

Incidentally, I watched Benny Hill's second film, "Light Up the Sky!" (1960), about a month ago. (Although he was playing one of the main characters, he was not the main character, and did not get top billing. So, I don't think of it as a specifically "Benny Hill film"). And in that one, there was no sign at all of his future outrageousness. He played the part perfectly seriously, which came as a very pleasant surprise. And I admit that seeing him acting in this way did influence my decision to watch "Who Done It?" as well.

Overall, "Who Done It?" was an enjoyable film. And, even though I am not a Benny Hill fan, I would recommend it.

CaroLiza_fan
 

SXTN

Final Flight
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
... when you hear a piece of music in films, series, advertisements and you think: Ahh, XY skated to that in season 2009/2010.
 

cheerknithanson

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 13, 2014
Country
United-States
You know when someone mentions Cowboy Bebop and you remember that Kevin Reynolds skated to it in the 2015-16 season.
 

DreamSkates

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 12, 2015
Country
United-States
And you can see in your mind, XY skating to that piece of music.

...when you learn foreign language from listening to commentators. I love learned a little Russian, and I can read many words!

...you fantasize about doing crazy jump combos. I on my dreams I do a perfect triple axel-triple loop combo. I win the fantasy comp, of course!

Once I dreamt so clearly that I was competing at Nationals. Michelle Kwan was there. My program went really well and I landed some great triple jumps. (I do not skate, at all).
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
When you watch horrible programmes like the ISU skating Awards, just to get to see some skating....
 

lopsilceci

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Country
Mexico
When you're doing the dishes and suddenly the fork you're washing slips off your hand, does a couple revolutions in the air just before you catch it while still mid-air and your brain immediately goes "wow, that was a nice twist" :palmf:
 

elegance

Words are my skates.
Rinkside
Joined
Jul 12, 2019
When you're down on the floor thinking, "I could never do a sit-spin."
 
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