count it all JOY

That's the great lesson from the Figure Skating competition in Italy.

Count it all joy!

Alysa Liu had walked away from ice skating in 2023, after feeling that the sport had taken over her life.

Now, she clearly has that work-play balance not only restored, but the very thing that once caused her grief provides great joy to her.

As she herself has said multiple times, she is on the ice because she wants to be, because it is her choice, for herself and not for any other reason.

It is the canvas upon which she paints her gratitude for the world!

Wow!

For her Free Skate today, she earned 150.20, almost three points higher than the two next highest, giving her 226.79 including the Short program.

Not only did she place first in Free Skate, she won the Gold medal for Women's Figure Skating!!!

That hasn't been done for the USA for the last eight Winter Olympics! 

Shout out to Sarah Hughes for being there to see her do as she had done. 

The next highest score for the Free Skate, of 147.67, belongs to Kaori Sakamoto of Japan.

This was her final time in competition, as she is retiring from the sport.

She will be 25 years old in two months. 

So, this was a bittersweet performance for her on Olympic ice and she chose songs by Edith Piaf to mark the occasion.

Such a beautiful dance she had, full of emotion!!!

Now, she will forever remember this every time she hears that music, knowing this was the day she won her Silver medal in the Olympics!

Amber Glenn, of the USA, placed third in the Free Skate, with a score of 147.57, thanks to the encouragement from her fellow Blade Angels.

They told her to take the freedom to skate for herself, not for the competition, and to truly enjoy her time in front of the crowd.

That was very good advice!

She was able to stay in the top five overall and that's definitely something to be proud of in Milan.

The woman who placed 4th in the Free Skate, as well as 4th in the Women's Figure Skating, was Mone Chiba of Japan.

I fully expect to see that 20-year-old at the 26th Winter Olympics.

So graceful she was for her "Romeo And Juliet" routine, so joyful to be there!

Her score of 143.88 for this part, and 217.88 for the total competition, will make her a favorite for the next time.

The next three skaters all scored within 0.5 points of each other!

Adeliia Petrosian, a Neutral Athlete, was absolutely fierce and was the only one who had two quadruples planned in her performance - WOW!

Even though she didn't complete them, she still placed 5th in the Free Skate (141.64) and 6th overall (214.53).

Imagine what her scores would have been if she had landed just one!!!

Yes, I will be watching for her next time, and so should everyone else.

Right close behind her for the Free Skate was Niina Petrokina of Estonia!

Skating to music from "Dune", she scored 141.19, just barely getting edged out (skating pun, y'all!) into 6th place for the Free Skate and 7th overall.

Ji-a Shin and Hae-in Lee, both representing South Korea, know all about getting edged out!

That's Hae-in, the 19-year-old, skating to the opera "Carmen", music she has wanted to perform with before but had saved for this Olympic moment.

She was fabulous, too!

She scored 140.49 and Ji-a scored 141.02, placing them 8th and 7th, respectively, for the Free Skate today.

Hae-in had the higher overall score (210.56), granting her 8th place for the Figure Skating overall, whereas the 15-year-old Ji-a had 206.68, landing her in 11th place for the competition.

There's another two that should return for the 2030 Winter Olympics.

And now, in 9th place with 140.45 for the Free Skate, is the lovely Ami Nakai!

In mirth and cheerfulness, she reminds me of Yuma Kagiyama!

"What A Wonderful World" provided her background music for this time of her expressing her joy of being on the ice!

Don't let that lower Free Skate score distract from her overall of 219.16!

Bear in mind that the Free Skate was just ten points below that of Alysa's today, but Ami's score yesterday gave her 1st place in the Short program.

Combined, the two parts made a whole that won her the Bronze medal!!!

That's two medals for Japan in Women's Figure Skating!!!

Brava, and brava to Alysa Liu for getting the Gold for the USA!!!

Now, before I sign off, I want to congratulate the skater from Georgia.

Was it because she secured 10th place in the Free Skate?

No, that honor goes to Sofia Samodelkina of Kazakhstan, whose total of 207.46 also secured her 10th place overall in the Women's Figure Skating.

Then why single out Anastasiia Gubanova for this post?

She made me smile with the inside joke of her skating costume and music.

(smile!)

The song was "Unchained Melody"... but she had chains all over her bodice and back with this free-skirted outfit!

She's 23 years old now, but I look forward to seeing her again in 4 years.

What a wonderful time I've had with these Winter Olympics in Milan!

i thank You, God!

womens' shorts (no, not panties)

At this 25th Winter Olympics in Milan, there were 29 women competing in the Shorts Program, all hoping for Figure Skating medals.

I was able to see watch an even dozen perform in the segment aired here in the United States today.

As good fortune would have it, that meant I was treated to 8 of the top 10!

That was just the luck of the draw for the skating order with the Americans... but it meant I saw the top three contenders!

One of those in the lead - Alysa Liu - was even on the USA team!

She placed third with her Short program, scoring 76.59 points.

I absolutely loved all the fringe on her outfit, flowing in the breeze of her incredibly fast skating!!!

Her score was less than 0.7 lower than that of Kaori Sakamoto of Japan.

Her outfit was quite stunning, with the blue fade and the long gloves!

She definitely earned that 2nd place for the Short program!

But the most impressive of the three was the not-quite 18-year-old skater who skated in the 18th place in the line-up.

Does it seem that I'm attempting to draw some correlation between age and skate order?

Well, I do enjoy playing with numbers!

This young woman resembled one of the many school girls in Okinawa, riding the bus with me over in Kadena Circle - such a good memory!

Ami Nakai of Japan will be 18 tomorrow... and tonight, with 78.71, she placed first in the Short program!

Right place, right time, for her and for me!

What a way to start my two hours of Olympics!

I wouldn't see any more of the top skates for well over an hour.

Alysa Liu was 24th in the order and Kaori Sakamoto was 27th.

The woman who placed 4th in the Short program was the very last skater.

She was Mone Chiba, of Japan, and I am absolutely sure her song choice was meant as an inside joke.

Why else would she use Donna Summer's "Last Dance"??? 

Then again, maybe that was another right place, right time gibe from the Universe for me!

A little something to make up for all the falls out there, starting with the second skater I saw.

Madeline Schizas, of Canada, wore a perfect costume for her dance to "The Lion King"... but then she fell, and fell again.

She ended up with a score of 55.38, in 25th place.

She will not go on for the Free Skate in this competition.

The 19-year-old from Kazakhstan will be, as her score of 68.47 netted her the 12th place in this Short program.

That means Sofiia Samodelkina will be getting a shot at an Olympic medal.

So will Belgium's Nina Pinzarrone, who scored 68.97, skating to "Send In The Clowns" and doing admirably at it.

She's one place higher than Sofia.

However, Amber Glenn of the USA is one place lower than Sofia and only scored 67.39 on the ice.

Not even Madonna's "Like A Prayer" could save her after missed jumps and two falls.

It's truly a wonder she didn't place farther down than 13.

The other skater for the USA, and the other one part of that trio of Blade Angels, is Isabeau Levito.

She made it to 8th place after her Short program, with 70.04 points.

That's still almost two points less than Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia scored.

And it's less than the Belgium skater, Leona Hendrickx, by almost one point.

What it all comes down to is this: only those women who dare to throw some triples into their routine - and to successfully land them - are making it to the podium.

I'll be sure to tune in on Thursday!

(smile!)

getting some culture: part 5

This event for expansion of my world was also part of the Savannah Black Heritage Festival (SBHF37), just as part 2 and part 4 had been.

The Annual Future Of Jazz concert is one that I've attended for almost two decades, after my good friend Deborah Ray first turned me on to them.

(She's been living her best life in Costa Rica ever since she retired from working on the garbage trucks for the City of Savannah.)

This one, like last year's, featured the same instruments, with the saxophone man being the only repeat performer.

He's the one in the middle, in case it's hard to tell in the photo.

The male trombone player and the female bass player, both on the right, were both students of Donald Anderson School of Arts.

Sadly, I don't know their names, as there was no program, nor does the website say.

The show, dedicated to the memory of Ben Tucker as always, began with two of his songs, the same as last year - very nice!

Then we had a brand-new one from Teddy Adams!

Titled "The Patron", it was in honor of Bob Faircloth, notable not only for supporting jazz in Savannah, but also the Savannah Music Festival and Savannah VOICE Festival.

Thanks, Bob, for helping to keep all that culture alive!

Altogether, there were three more tunes that Adams had written: "Hutch Is Much", for 85-year-old Laurence Hutchins, his friend since the first grade; "A Piece For Reese", for another friend; and "Calypso Kelly", a really swinging number that led with a drum solo.

That Caribbean-flavored beat really rocked the Savannah JEA!

The song that stood out above it all, though, was "Georgia On My Mind", performed by the talented young woman who was one of the vocalists last year, and the only one this time around.

For SBHF37, she was the only vocalist!!!

Such great phrasing, such fine breath control, and a voice smooth as silk - oh, I wish I knew what her name was!

Perhaps Tina Tyus-Shaw will have her on the 5:45 "Wind Down" segment of WSAV's news broadcast.

I'm so glad I was there for the entire show this year!

All told, it went into overtime from its scheduled 90-minutes.

The last song was another Tucker tune, "Comin' Home Baby", which has been recorded by Michael Buble, along with Boyz II Men.

I wonder if Ben's widow, Gloria, still gets royalties for that tune?

I'm sure she does!

What a nice bit of music culture for me!

(smile!)

japan takes the gold! georgia takes the silver!

The hour's worth of Free Skate aired this afternoon revealed a big upset in the Pairs Figure Skating and was a very truncated show.

The first teams that were on at 4 PM were China (Sui Wenjing/Han Cong) and one of the USA teams (Ellie Kam/Danny O'Shea), but it was just a couple of highlights of their turns on the ice.

China scored 135.98 on the Free Skate and that USA team had 122.71.

Basically, both were in line with their standings from the Shorts program.

However, everything got taken up a notch when Japan came up.

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihana took their mistake yesterday to heart and were absolutely, positively, perfect for this free skate!!!

The music, from "Gladiator", crafted specifically for this place and this program, was obviously one they felt strongly about and they were completely rapt...

as was I, watching them...

that had to be a Gold Medal performance, right?

The judges certainly agreed that it was.
The couple came off the ice with the highest score yet: 158.13 - wow!

The closest competitor - the team from China, whose skate wasn't shown this afternoon - was still 23 points lower than them for the free skate.

They were 23 points lower for the Figure Skating total, too.

That's a lot of points for some team to try to best at this juncture. 

Totally incredible!

Four more teams to skate; could Japan hold that spot? 

For the first time ever, it was possible that Japan could get a medal if the next two teams scored lower.

Hungary's pair, Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko, were next.

They had ended yesterday in 4th place... would this Free Skate advance them?

Their score was 141.39!

That wasn't enough to knock Japan off the pedestal yet.

What about the team from Canada?

Oh, my... Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud were skating to "Gladiator", the exact same music that the Japanese team had used.

Nice costumes, that's for sure... but then they had a fall, and one of their required jumps was under-rotated... and they knew when they came off the ice that their position was in peril.

Yesterday, they had been in third place. 

Now they had a 125.06 for their Free Skate, giving them 199.66 overall.

They were totally out of the top five.

But that was good news for Japan - they were definitely getting a medal!

Now to determine if it would be Gold, Silver, or Bronze.

Georgia's team was hungry for a medal, too, as the country had never won.

Would "Keeping Me Alive" be enough for Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava to pull into a space closer to, or above, Japan?

Oh, it was good, and they skated their hearts out, too!

And they succeeded in scoring 146.29 for their Free Skate!!!

That gave them a total of 221.75, ensuring they were going home with an Olympic medal, just as Japan would be.

One team left: Germany's Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin.

Would their "Memoryhouse" program grant them an Olympic podium position, or just a memory of what might have been?

Would it be them or Hungary's team up there for a medal???

They met the challenge, scoring two points below Hungary for the Free Skate, but that was offset by the 7 points higher yesterday.

That gave them the Bronze medal!!!

That meant Japan took the Gold and Georgia won the Silver!!!

I do love fairy tale endings!!!

I also love that I get to watch this again for Prime time!

(smile!) 

pairs' shorts: no, not ice dancing

I had once thought that Ice Dancing and Figure Skating were synonymous.

They are not.

Both are done with pairs of skaters on ice, but the technical bits differ. 

In Ice Dance, at least one member of the pair must be in contact with the ice at all times, so there are no jumps of any kind.

The emphasis is on synchronicity, with twizzles and choreographed step sequences, as well as lifts, used to supply dramatic tension. 

In Figure Skating, the technical aspects of axels and toe loops and fancy jumps returns, as well as throws of one partner by the other.

There's also a requirement for hand-holding at certain times.

I really like that one.

(smile!) 

Here's the German team of Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin, executing a perfect lift and spin.

I really love that overhead shot on this one!

They were dancing to "El Abrazo", a song written just for them... wow!!!

They amply deserved their first place standing at the end of this program!

This time, I have the couple from Georgia - the country, not this state.

Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava were skating at high speed to "Bolero" as they performed this fabulous lift.

Just look how blurry the sidelines are as they whiz on by!!!

This clearly shows his strength, too, as well as hers as she holds that stance.

Second place they secured, though almost five points below the Germans.

Third place belonged to this pair from Canada, Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud.

Such a lovely display of hand-holding by this couple, as well as highly synchronized movements of their arms and legs, as shown here.

That merits the high points for sure!

This is the team from Hungary, making fourth place with their short program.

Here, I captured the moment when Alexei Sviatchenko was in process of lifting Maria Pavlova to his shoulders.

Their performance used Michael Jackson's "Earth Song", which I don't know that I've ever hear before.

Nice to associate it with this skate in Italy!

Time for the pair from Japan, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, who gained fifth place!

I don't know why "Paint It Black" was their choice, but that seems to be a popular one this year.

I guess it's those Euro-Asian-Indian accents that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards imbued into it that makes it so appealing across the globe.

I like that their outfits remind me of "Star Trek" uniforms!

As for Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China, their Short program wasn't included in the blocks aired for the USA tonight.

All I have for that 6th place team are their names and standings.

Maybe I'll get to see their Free Skate!

I did, of course, get to watch the 7th place performers - they represent the US!

They are the 35-year-old Danny O'Shea and 22-year-old Ellie Kam, as disparate in age as they are in height and appearance - but both big smilers!

Their song choice?

"Hallelujah", a song of praise and gladness!

Good choice... and perhaps an inside joke?

(smile!) 

Behind them by less than two-tenths of a point was this Italian team of Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii.

What fun they were having with "The Wild Bull"!!!

That was some definitely fancy footwork they had going on!

The home crowd truly loved them... and so did I!

Before I leave, special mention must be made for the Canadian team who skated to an operatic bit, "Carmen Burara", placing tenth.

Maxime Deschamps and his partner truly classed up the joint. 

Deanna Stellato-Dudek wore an Oscar de la Renta skatesuit of gold that caught every bit of light in that arena.

Here's the highlight for me: she's the same age as my first niece.

Good for her for still chasing that Olympic dream!

They may not have made the top 9 on this leader board, but they'll have another chance in just a day or so.

I'll be watching... and hoping... that their dreams come true!

(smile!)

getting some culture: part 4

Nothing like a bit of history to make me feel like I've been schooled!

Especially on a rainy Sunday afternoon - lol!

"Say Her Name: Susie King Taylor" was a Savannah Black Heritage Festival event, held over at Savannah State University, in a place I knew well: the Kennedy Building, home of so many plays and musicals from Collective FACE in its prime.

The drawing card for me was the screening of the documentary, "The Making Of Taylor Square", about the transition of Calhoun Square into this new one that served two goals: the first named for a woman and the first named for an African American.

The woman was Susie King Taylor, who had been 13 years old when she found herself serving as a nurse for the Union Army in South Carolina.

That was in 1861, when the American Civil War caused her mom to send her and her siblings to that state to stay safe.

Taylor could read, write, and count, so she made sure to teach that to others over there, both children and adults.

She served in the position of nurse and teacher for three years, but never received any financial benefits from those jobs.

Five years ago, a grass-roots movement began to gain recognition for her.

The woman who started that movement, Patt Gunn, was a tour guide who always shared Taylor's story on her tours.

That's her, second from the left, beside the college student asking the questions during the post-film Q&A.

The documentary's director, Caroline Josey Karoki, is on the far right.

I didn't catch the names of the other two women, but they were part of the group that was instrumental in getting the square renamed.

Some folks may think all the squares downtown have the same names given to them by James Oglethorpe when he laid them out, but that's incorrect.

For instance, Telfair Square, home of two museums I love, was originally called St. James Square. 

Upper New Square was renamed Oglethorpe Square in honor of our city's founder.

Then there are squares lost to road construction - like Liberty Square and Elbert Square - and new squares added in the 21st century, like Yamacraw Square and Washington Square, where a park and a garden once stood..

In other words, Taylor Square follows a long history of changes with our walkable green spaces downtown, squares that have long welcomed peoples from other lands to our fair seaport.

I know the folks involved with this five-year project hope others will follow the blueprint for change which is modeled quite well in the documentary.

Who knows what structure, or road, or park, may be renamed in the future?

getting some culture: part 3

For those keeping track, I've explored fashion art (at the Jepson) and the world of books.

Now, time to get my science groove on!

One Hundred Miles' Savannah office had a Naturalist 101 lecture and, although tonight's air was too chilly for my warm heart, I attended on fb.

Hooray for that option!!!

They named it differently on social media, but I knew it from the OHM website as "Seabirds & Shorebirds On The Georgia Coast".

That made me suspect it would be a lot like a lecture from last year.

Yep, that's Allie Hayser presenting the talk, just as before!

This time, though, she was solo, and was very excited to be talking about birds!

So brisk and lively she kept the topic!

It was obvious that she is accustomed to sharing this information with children at various schools and at the Tybee Marine Science Center.

Most excellent!

I waited for an opening and shot her a question from the fb audience.

"So horseshoe crabs aren't endangered?"

She was talking about their blood being used to check for drug purity, as well as talking about horseshoe crab roe being a favored food for Red Knots.

Red Knots are quite easily her favorite shore bird!!!

Here, she was talking of using the band information on a bird's leg to track where it was last seen.

This page covered the bird's movements from 2015 to the present!

That was truly amazing!!!

She finished the talk with a preview of the 2nd Annual Shorebird Festival coming up next week at Tybee.

I do hope the forecast will allow me to take part this time around!

Thursday will be out, as I already have other events then.

However, all the fun activities next Saturday may even encourage some of my great-nieces and great-nephews to join me!

That will be wonderful!!!