The 25 Event

[NYSk8Fan]

IFS Magazine and Mark Lund hosted the announcement of their 25 Most Influential people in the sport of figure skating at a movie theater in Manhattan last night. It had been advertised with a full page in the magazine and on the web site. The letter accompanying the tickets said that it would be a video presentation and it would be about one hour. In fact, it lasted about 20 minutes and was not really a video so much as a series of slides of a photo of the influential person and their name shown on the big screen - exactly what we will probably see in the magazine. Sarah and Alexei did speak briefly and both did quite nicely. It was an insult to fans to have advertised this the way they did and they should be ashamed of the presentation. Oh - and there was a slide of Mark Lund's up coming book. :(

[Scott]

So, who was listed on this esteemed list?

[The Village Idiot]

The event was crap. Try closer to 15 minutes. And what was the "back half" of the theater doing after we left? Stupid waste of time and money.

From memory...

Dick
THe Speedskater
Dorothy
Timmy
Michelle
Sarah
Yags
C&S
S&P
B&S
The #1 influential is Kristi

(ok 11 out of 25 ain't so bad...forgot the rest) If it were an actual event I'd probably remember/care more.

In presence were I&Z, Sylvia Fontana, Sarah, Yags, Handra & Sinek, Dick...I think that was it?

[Orable]

Did they say why these people were influential to FS? Or is it just that they were influential to FS in this season? Seems to be a pretty disparate bunch of people...

Cheers, Orable

[Chris_E]

It was a completely pointless event and a waste of my time. The only good thing was getting to catch up with 'The Village Idiot'.

Just to add a few things, Scott Hamilton, Jeff Billings and the French judge also made the list.

Also in the audience were Oksana Baiul and her fiance, I can't remember anyone else.

Chris

[Scott]

Oksana is getting hitched? What next??

[hippiechick]

Sounds like typical idiotic IFS stuff.

[Orable]

so what were the criteria?

[Artistic Skaters]

Sorry, but I can't stand IFS or any of their advertised productions. It reminds me of vanity publishing.

[Dustin]

Ok, I understand the French judge and many of the others but why C&S or Oksana's fiance (unless he is some wellknown skater that I did not know they were getting married...)?

[NYSk8Fan]

Also Sarah Kawahara for choreographing Olympic ceremonies.

[valleygirl]

Yea, it was very lame. We were led to believe this was a BIG event and there'd be a lot of people, a big reception, etc, etc. But it blew chunks.

Oh, the "back half" thing was for the VIP invites. They had a reception afterwards that also blew chunks. We were told to proceed upstairs into the next "room" for the party, except that it was really just a ramp and a hallway. There wasn't really room for everyone, so a lot of people just bailed right away. They served champagne, but you couldn't even get to it, which was a BIG disapointment. There was also a freaking tropical rainstorm outside, which made everyoned jsut want to get home as soon as possible. I was very disapointed in the event, yet another reason why I don't enjoy IFS.

Oh, and there were some crazy Kwan freaks in the front who kept screaming and gasping everytime Kwan's face was shown. It was a little obnoxious.

[BigB0882]

[quote:ea3e3e529e="Scott"]Oksana is getting hitched? What next??[/quote:ea3e3e529e]

This has been known for quite a long time, give her a break.

[CMc]

[quote:d20771d819="valleygirl"]Yea, it was very lame. We were led to believe this was a BIG event and there'd be a lot of people, a big reception, etc, etc. But it blew chunks.

Oh, the "back half" thing was for the VIP invites. They had a reception afterwards that also blew chunks. We were told to proceed upstairs into the next "room" for the party, except that it was really just a ramp and a hallway. There wasn't really room for everyone, so a lot of people just bailed right away. They served champagne, but you couldn't even get to it, which was a BIG disapointment. There was also a freaking tropical rainstorm outside, which made everyoned jsut want to get home as soon as possible. I was very disapointed in the event, yet another reason why I don't enjoy IFS.

Oh, and there were some crazy Kwan freaks in the front who kept screaming and gasping everytime Kwan's face was shown. It was a little obnoxious.[/quote:d20771d819] Interesting!!
I was there too! I have to say, despite the fact that it was an absolute pleasure and honor to see Sarah up close and in person again for the 5th time ever in my life, to be greeted by her responding wave for the 3rd time ever, and to get a responding greeting from her brothers Matthew and David, I was a bit disappointed (ok, a LOT disappointed) by this "event". I traveled from CT to NY for almost $20 for carfare (I took Metro-North over) and walked up and down 34th street trying to find what I THOUGHT was the West end of 34th--It was RAINING like you wouldn't believe by the time night fell--I ate horribly cold chicken wings from the place called Penn Plaza Deli/Restaurant (Avoid it like the plague if you're in the area--The pizza looked really disgusting too!), and we waited for over an hour listening to techno dance music while they ran slides--Even THAT was more entertaining than the film, never mind Sarah walking in! :wink:
I think it's a shame that IFS was very over-ambitious in promoting this film, which, to me, felt just like a movie trailer where they remind you to not talk during the movie and to visit the concession stand! It wasn't even a countdown, and I would have loved it if they did a profile and ran footage and interviews a la VH1, but we got no such thing!
I'm glad we saw Oksana Baiul and her husband, and Kyoko Ina was there looking rather glum, but John Z and an unrecognizable Sylvia Fontana (I forgot he was dating her) were close behind.
And I remember the huge applause for Michelle, which I kind of expected--I wa-hooed for Sarah when she was named on the list, though!
I can't believe even the reception was a disappointment, valleygirl! What did the skaters think of it?