ESPECIALLY "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic!!!

Cheers,
jazzpants, who almost walked out of a local supermarket this afternoon empty handed b/c Celine's "My Heart Will Go On" was playing in the background!!! BARF city!!!

*Prays* Please, no "Sweet Home Alabama" programs. *shudders*

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REALLY not looking forward to the onslaught of High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers and other awful teeny bopper stuff that becomes cool. Coaches who let their kids use that music need to be banned from all area rinks. The coaches at one rink I skate at collectively have the WORST taste in music ever, I think they as a group buy 1 cd per year and do every program off of it. Last year 4 different kids who took from the same 2 coaches skated to Carmen. This year every other kid has a program from Bond's first album, which was so overused 5 yrs ago. And they don't even use the pieces off of it that don't get used, it's the same few songs that everyone and their mother have skated to. I dread what kids there will skate to now.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

I only have the Facebook link:

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.ph...u=sBBCV&ref=mf

Not sure if this is open to non-Facebook users... I think it must be on the US Figure Skating site... somewhere.

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

I have the link that it goes to....

http://2009govcouncil.wordpress.com/

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Thanks for sharing that! I've been trying to keep up-to-date on all the changes and what went down, but there's just so much information.

Does anyone know about changes to well balanced programs?I read that pre juv program was going to 5 jumps, not 6.
Thanks!

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http://www.youtube.com/user/alaskanmom

LOL!! This is another reason I don't want to judge. I don't think I could take the music choices over and over and over again.

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Can someone clarify for me? (I think from reading that blog this is correct...)

Vocal music can also now be used for tests.

I think only at the "6.0 levels", but it's not just a 6.0 competition thing?

Hmm... might be switching my program...

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Just to clarify, the proposal was to use paper and pencil, not the mini-systems, so this cost would not have been a factor.

Can someone tell me what the rationale for the vocal music thing was? I don't get it.

ask me how many "Annies" I've seen this winter. And Hannah Montanas. And the little girl that did the Cinderella movie last year.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

Or "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock... based on Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama"... although it might be worth it the FIRST time a 10 year old comes out to skate to a combination of these songs.. because her coach hasn't actually listened to the words of these songs.

And as a judge I would have to say while most coaches and parents are pretty good about listening to lyrics of the younger skaters' programs, not all of them listen carefully. I do NOT think it appropriate to have a 7 year old skating to "Hand Jive" or "Greased Lightning" from "GREASE" or "Fever" or "Hey Big Spender" or a lot of the songs I hear at artistic competitions. If I know the coach or the parent, I do mention it when I hear a song that they might want to check the lyrics. I've had more than one adult say they had never actually listened to all the lyrics...

I had someone comment about an instrumental that never had any lyrics. It was from a TV show that this person felt was too racy. She was 3 when the show aired, and she's never SEEN a single episode.

People who like to be offended will be offended at all turns.

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2008 my old synchro team (Crystallettes) skated to a combination of songs, the first in our program being Candy Man by Christina Aguilera. I'd run it on my own at least once every freestyle session I was on. One time a mom complained because of the lyrics. My response to her was "your 8 yr old skates to Grease for her showcase....you understand that's about teenagers having sex in cars, right?"

I would always get annoyed at synchro competitions when I'd see these juvenile and intermediate teams skate to Grease, Chicago, and all sorts of other stuff that is not appropriate.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Nothing offends me more than someone being offended just to be offended. That said, I can see this vocal music rule being taken advantage of....who's to stop an adult skater from skating to Baby Got Back because they can now? I'm exaggerating a little, but rules will be taken advantage of.

I really just don't see the need for vocals. We have showcase and Interp for a reason! Now everything's going to be one big Interp.

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

Why would you get annoyed?

If "Candy Man" was cut so that the parts about "popping cherries" and getting into girls' panties were left out, you might have a valid point. If the cut included those, the woman wasn't out of line. What song in Grease were you comparing it to? "Born To Hand Jive" is a fun song that has nothing to do with "teenagers having sex in cars."

Unless they're re-enacting the inappropriate things on the ice, it's giving new life to music. Just because a musical or movie is racy, doesn't mean that every song in the score has to be off-limits.

"Twilight" is the new Harry Potter for this season. Gak.

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I think lyrics can be offensive, moreso than instrumentals from racy musicals, lol. But it's true: some people just LOVE to comment about others' music. I'm more concerned about what choreography we'll see on the ice - is is okay to touch yourself if it fits the song? I'm only half-joking. I think you'll see some people testing the envelope with music just to see how far it will stretch, lol.

I do think it will help lower-level skaters present their programs better. It will also make it more difficult for coaches who want to stick with instrumentals because other skaters will be using music with vocals.

Was the vocal music motion passed with no restrictions? Is it for all adult levels, test and competition?

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People are really skating to Twilight? There's nothing on the score that's really suited for skating, with the exception of Bella's Lullaby and even that's not all that exciting. I tried finding something from the score to use but it's just not skating music.

Here's my argument......Does skating to vocals give a slight edge to someone not skating to vocals? It's "easier" to interpret vocal music, so would that skater get better presentation marks? Personally, I don't want to skate against someone using vocals. I'd be annoyed since I'd feel that skater already has an advantage over me.

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

I've seen an adult duet to baby got back on youtube. It was hysterical.
I don't know if they did it at an adults only competition or not.


Coaches at our rink often pick inappropriate music for their kids for showcase. Why is this any different?
Just gives them a new arena to have bad music choices. But hey, if it's one less Phantom good for that!
(Worst music choice for a kid "Miss Otis Regrets", which I've actually used myself. But this particular choreography involved miming shooting a gun, and I believe drinking - though that may have been a different song-. The drinking was bad enough. The gun, was a time issue. She was learning the routine the week before a competition. After a huge uproar in our town about a husband who had shot his wife and kids, and then killed himself. Um, I have issues with kids miming guns in routines at all times, but around the rink people were horrified.)

It is really difficult to find instrumental music. Someone said something upthread about this being part of the challenge (something) of figure skating. Not everyone likes music. If being able to skate to their favorite song means more kids will participate, I think it can only be a good thing. I know I'm not going to have to spend weeks looking for music anymore.

So many of the things we hear at local competitions have the "ghost" vocals of a bad job on audacity anyway.

Not to mention, I don't think we are going to hear any more of the same awful disney/hannah montana songs. We've always heard these songs too many times. Adding lyrics doesn't change that.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

ROFLOL!!!

A lot of kids at the rink have said that they bought the Twilight soundtrack. THEY think it's wonderful music for skating, I haven't been impressed by anything they've tried. I think it's the same issue Rachel's brought up, but in reverse: the kids loved the books and the movie, so therefore ANY music from the soundtrack is perfect, even if it's not skateable.



At the Basic Skills levels, they're just skating elements, not really skating to the music. When they reach a point of really skating to music, the coaches usually switch them to something more traditional. That said, there's a skater (not my student) who skates to some piece of pop music that I don't recognize at all, the vocals are blurry and it ends as if someone turned off the recorder. That's bad editing, but I think I'd prefer Hanna Montana to it so I could at least sing along. (I do like Miley's "Hoedown Throwdown" though! lol)


Stormy's making me think: do vocals give the skater an advantage in presentation? Hmmmm...that might be a good point. It certainly adds a level of subjectivity to the performance. I'm not sure if it's good or bad though. Skittl- I think I mentioned hunting for instrumental/karaoke versions of the songs. It's not always easy because part of what makes a vocal song good is the lead vocals. Many karaoke versions just leave out the lead vocals, whereas an instrumental substitutes (a) musical instrument(s) for the vocal track. I prefer the latter, personally.

For example, one of my kids wanted to skate to "Hello, Goodbye" by the Beatles. There are lots of karaoke versions, but the whole vocal part of the song is gone. I had to look for a symphony version, which wasn't as perky, but it worked. It would have been easier cheaper to just use the Beatles CD I had on hand already. I think it will encourage more participation at the lower levels if they can skate to their favorite song instead of a version of it.

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and here I thought I was allover original thinking of using that piece.

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It's all about the dress!

Stuff Like That There also isn't original, but it's a fun skate too.
And Gotta Get A Gimmick.

I wouldn't use any of these for freeskate though. They are clearly showcase pieces, IMO.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Music issues aside, I think this is a progressive move:




I hope they make it searchable.

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Isk8NYC, I see that that announcement was sent out in a PSA GC Summary e-mail. Is that e-mail only being sent out to those who attended GC or to all coaches and/or PSA members? Just wondering as I have yet to receive anything and would be interested in reading it.

As for the online format of the rulebook, I agree that this is a great idea that will hopefully make things more accessible for coahes, skaters, and officials. While the test book will still be available in hard copy format, will this have to be purchased separately? I like to have my test book with me at the rink, and while I suppose I could just print it off the Internet, I like having that professionally bound copy with me.

It's about time! And I do like the way they've been doing the test book - I keep my copy in my skate bag - very handy.