For those delightful rainy summer days…

This is another lovely exhibition from the surprise silver medalist  this year, Denis Ten. this performance reminds me a lot of Kurt Browning. Also, Denis’ speed across the ice was incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him skate like this. Then again, I’ve been expecting crazy implosions from him for the last couple of years. On another note, I think I’m seeing Patrick Chan-like posturing and footwork. Am I going crazy?

 

Enjoy~!

The Rinkside Cafe

Figure-Skating Looks!

So whenever I’m bored or procrastinating, I always find myself on modcloth. I don’t really buy stuff off the site since I’m not a huge fan of polyester clothing but occasionally, I’ll stumble upon a cotton dress that I’ll think about for a while and debate about whether or not I should get it. Nonetheless, I think there are a few looks currently on the site that have a figure skating feel to them. I’ll group them  under the song that comes to mind when I see them. The dresses are currently available so I’ll put up links to them if you think you want to get it.

Let me know if any of you decide to purchase any of the dresses – strike a figure skating pose and send the picture in! I’ll put it up!

Swan Lake

Swan Dance Dress:

Once Upon a Gleam Dress:

Ladies in Lavender

Happily Ever Lavender Dress:

I Amethyst Who I Am Dress:

 

The Prettiest Pixie Dress:

 

La Strada

It’s kind of like the colours got reversed! Grad Party Dress in Pink: 

When You Can Dress:

Mahler’s 5th Symphony

Ice Sculpturess Dress:

Elegance with a Sparkle Dress:

I Do Declare Dress:

Goodnight Swoon Dress:

Marshmallow Whirl Dress:

Enjoy~!

~The Rinkside Cafe

Look-Alikes: Carolina Kostner

I was watching some clips of Stephen Colbert and nowadays when you want to access the videos on that site, you have to watch a commercial. Sigh. In any case, this Dove commercial popped up and I noticed that one of the girls looked like Carolina.

Here’s the commercial:

Dove commercial girl:

Carolina:

What do you think?

~The Rinkside Cafe

Look-Alikes: Cynthia Phaneuf, Tessa Virtue

I was wandering around The Slate and was reading about a movie about Rosaline, the girl Romeo was going gaga over before he met Juliet. An interesting concept though as far as I can remember, Rosaline was supposed to remain celibate or become a nun or something. Either way, she doesn’t get into the mess that is the relationship between two horomonal teens. (I do like Shakespeare but I found Romeo and Juliet to be terribly asinine. Mercutio was the only decent character in that entire play. “A plague on both your houses, I am dead. Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.”)

In any case, the article named Allison Williams as the girl who might play Rosaline. When I saw her, I immediately thought she looked like Cynthia Phaneuf.

Allison Williams:

Cynthia Phaneuf:

However, when I was searching for other pictures of Allison Williams, I found that at certain angles and with different makeup, she also looked like Tessa Virtue.

Tessa Virtue:

What do you think?

~The Rinkside Cafe

The Coveted Spoils for the Victors in Sochi

This is what our skaters will be competing for next year in February: the elusive Olympic medals.

The design:

The coveted gold Olympic medal:

The silver:

The bronze:

The Paralympic medals.

Despite the debacle that was the mascot selection for the Sochi Olympics (both the initial slate of candidates as well as the allegedly rigged voting process to vote for the winners), I must admit that these medals are absolutely gorgeous. The Vancouver Olympic medals had a more earthy feel to them which I find to suit the feel of Vancouver. These medals are elaborate and flashy though not in a tacky way, which is definitely not in line with Russian figure skating costumes. Oh well. That’s fine with me.

What do you think of the medals for Sochi?

~The Rinkside Cafe

Edit: The people at ontd_skating have provided a picture of previous Winter Olympics medals. I personally like all the ones after 2002 Salt Lake (aka Turin and Vancouver).

And just for fun, I’ll throw in this picture of the medal designs for the Summer Olympics. You can see that the Winter Olympic medals are a lot more interesting and varied.

Look-Alikes: Jeff Buttle

The other day, I was wondering what sorts of posts I could do during the off season. The most obvious one would be a look-alike post since I wouldn’t have to comment on skating (I’m detoxing from figure skating right now to prepare myself for the action and drama of the Olympic season) and since people seem to enjoy the posts. While I was thinking about my look-alike posts, I realized that a lot of them were for female skaters. I was thinking about this while going over to a friend’s house and when I entered into his apartment, his roommate was watching Sliders. I have no clue what it was about but lo and behold, I noticed that one of the characters looked like Jeff Buttle! What great coincidence!

Dude from Sliders:

Jeff Buttle:

The Silders guy also sort of looks like John Travolta.

What do you think?

~The Rinkside Cafe

A Pleasant Surprise

So if you’ve followed me for long enough, you know that I kind of dislike exhibition skates and skating shows like Stars on Ice because skaters don’t want to risk injury so they skate safe. In other words, most exhibition skates to me are super boring and irritating because the crowd are generally appreciative of the cheap big tricks.

As for the pleasant surprise, I’ll start with this admission: I find Meryl Davis and Charlie White kind of boring when they do exhibitions. They tone down their content like the other skaters and they can’t seem to get away with romance themed programs because their chemistry and connection is lacking. I like Meryl and Charlie as I do Stephen King novels – fast and furious with a huge driving force behind their art which is why their drama-laden programs (aka Samson and Delilah, PotO) are fun to watch. In any case, ridiculous metaphors aside, I found this year’s exhibition a huge surprise. Meryl and Charlie aren’t known for their lines but I like this calm, lyrical program that has a good clean feel to it. No overwrought angst or cheesy smiles, just elegance.

Enjoy!

~The Rinkside Cafe