#lady lubov

[black-ak9]

Es lindo consentir a tu pareja 🖤

Creo que podría seguir poniendo cosas en Tumblr, aunque tengo más actividad en Instagram

[ozziescribbler]

Can you tell me your opinion on the "dead mom" trope in Hotel Transylvania with Martha Dracula, and explain why "love at first sight" is a harmful trope?

I don't mind "dead mom" in writing all that much... Execution is what makes or breaks that trope. Hotel Transylvania, very much like Finding Nemo, at least has enough dignity to show how the widower dad's grief and trauma influences his approach to single parenting. Which is more than can be said about Disney princesses having dead mothers. Disney dead mom became a pattern to such a degree that Moana's mom allegedly got resurrected during late writing stages (it's quite obvious when you notice how small her role is compared to dad and grandma). Seems like unless widowed dad is a (co-)protagonist, there will be a lot less thought put into making his kid a half-orphan. So yeah, Martha Dracula/Lady Lubov being dead was never the problem.

The problem is Hotel Transylvania's entire philosophy around love, and how in the climax of the first movie Martha is used to legitimize the entire fucking "zing" idea. In one single scene, the script's ENTIRE PHILOSOPHY turns out to be "For a Zing only happens once in your life." The Dead Mom has spoketh and she can not possibly be wrong because moms who are dead are always good and right about everything and only their widowed husbands errr! See: Deceased Parents Are the Best, The Lost Lenore and Too Good for This Sinful Earth on TV Tropes.

It should really go without saying, but let's say it anyway. It's wrong. It's fucked up. It's amatonormative. This movie says that love at first sight is real and that you should blindly follow it because you won't get another chance at it. Imprinting is real and good and fuck you if you think otherwise, I guess. Because it's not like tons of people, in real life AND fiction, happily fall in love more than once or end up in toxic relationships just because there was initial attraction (dare I say, a zing), right? /s

And, as @wormwoodworms commented under my last post about HT, it's just a bad, lazy trope to play straight:

What's the point of love story if it says that true, undying love starts at eye contact? If the movie's central subplot is Jonathan/Mavis romance then WHY can't they just naturally grow attracted to each other? WHY their first impression ("Zing") is given so much significance over the scenes them getting to know one another?

Ironically, as I said before, it's a good thing this flashback to Dracula couple meet cute was left on cutting room floor:

It's sentimental for its own sake and adds nothing. This romance is sufficiently established in other scenes of the final movie. If they left that in, Mavis' dead mom would basically have better established romantic plotline than Mavis herself.

Also, as much as I appreciate third movie letting Dracula move the fuck on and retconning the "once in a lifetime" part for him, BY THE FIRST MOVIE'S LOGIC his second love is illegitimate and he should not marry Ericka. Fuck you, Drac, be lonely and miserable for the rest of your unlife because your one and only zing is dead!

[rosetyler42]

Hi! I want to ask what you like about Martha Dracula.

Personally, I hate how she had no purpose other than die to make Drac sad. We didnt see any of her personality so her death feels far less impactful than say, Bambis mom, and I hate the concept of zing/love at first sight trope" because the idea you will immediately know who you are supposed to be with forever based on immediate attraction sends a harmful message to kids and erases aromatic and polyamorous people and ppl who break off romantic relationships but are happier off that way.

I do wish we got to know more about Martha beyond the tragedy of her death and her book about Mavis finding her own zing, but I can kinda understand it as...the story's more about Drac, Johnny and Mavis and there were alot of other things to focus on. We do have SOME window into her personality and relationship with Drac: Mavis is implied to be similar to her and be the peice of Martha he has left, part of the reason he's so protective of her (With all the talk of Ericka being Martha's reincarnation - basically this universe's Mina to compare to other Dracula adaptations, I kind of think MAVIS is actually closer to that role. At least symbolically, although there are other similarities after having read Dracula Daily.) We hear that Martha is clearly the more bold of the two (similarly to Johnny and Mavis.) There's the legend of her and Drac's love story and family in the "Lady Lubov" legend, Drac's been clearly sitting Shiva for over a century, Her book about zings and how they met when she was Mavis' age, And it's implied Drac and Martha loved making music together as Drac mentions he hasn't sung in public since Martha passed. But as much as I do love the things we got, I wish we'd gotten to see more of Martha, seen her and Drac together and their (Less amorous) Gomez and Morticia type dynamic. Now, there IS a deleted scene on the HT bluray that shows Drac and Martha meeting, their courtship, and them having Mavis which gives more of a glimpse at Drac and Martha together which you may be interested in seeing if you haven't already. Matter of fact, Martha's reveal of her pregnant belly as a bat CLEARLY got reused in HT2 in Mavis' reveal of her own pregnancy.

As for the whole zing business...Yes, like all "Love at first sight" and Soulmate stuff, it does spread some harmful ideas, particularly for aro and ace people (like myself!) My mother had similar issues with it herself when we first watched it (though I don't think she knew about aro identities) Though I can kind of understand why it exists. Social interaction, particularly dating, can be a confusing, difficult, and potentially painful process. And I guess it's nice to imagine that you COULD just know the person you're meant to be with without having to go through all the mess. In the case of the HT films, it's also supposed to be a gothic fairytale Romeo and Juliet kind of story, which Love at first sight and soulmates are common tropes in that. Not to mention the trying to juggle a love story plot, a buddy film, family antics, gags, worldbuilding, (and in HT3, the whole "Monster Genocide" business) doesn't exactly lend itself to slow burns. The zing is a sweet idea, even if it doesn't necessarily work that way in real life.

This got long as I have some feelings about anatonormativity + HT , so here's a read more:

To a certain extent, that's part of what I like about HT3: It challenges the "A Zing only happens once in your life" idea by having Drac find love again. And having him DEAL WITH the "You only zing once" being wrong. Alot of people hated that. Some seek to think him falling for Ericka lessens what he had with Martha or means that he's forgotten about her. That he's cheating on Martha somehow. Some dunked on Ericka saying she was "weird" and "ugly", saying Martha was prettier. Some tried to find explanations like Ericka being Martha's reincarnation. But to me...I mean, we tend to think of love as being "The One," yet people fall in love again and remarry all the time. There doesn't HAVE to be a reason Drac zinged twice. And it resolves an issue the first movie had ABOUT "If a zing only happens once, what about people who fall in love and remarry?" Making it at least a BIT less amatonormative in my opinion. Of course, I'm something of an expert at bending rules and finding less amatonormative interpretations, and they never explicitly state EVERYONE has a zing.

Honestly in some ways the HT films are both amatonormative and anti-amatonormative. You have the whole zing/soulmate business, Drac teasing Dennis about Winnie, the guys setting Drac up on dates despite him saying he's not interested, and the whole "late bloomer" conversion therapy business. Most characters in the show have a partner except the mummy (who's shown dating), Vlad (who's showing off for the witches and talks about Nefrititi) and Blobby (who's more comic relief.)

On the OTHER hand, You not only have a 3 generational Non-nuclear family (with a stepmom, yet!) Living together in the same building in close proximity to eachother, but also a bunch of friends that are basically considered family, and at no point in the franchise does the romantic relationship get put higher than the familial or platonic ones. Heck, half the franchise I'd about the familial relationships. And even in the ones about romance, the familial relationships are a big part of those too. (There's also quite a bit if gray-rose coding with Drac himself looking back at the series - including the fact the man only experienced confirmed romantic attraction TWICE that we know of despite how much of a charmer he's shown to be. He can flirt until he's actually interested, then he can't function around them. There's also possible internalized aphobia that does get touched on, particularly in HT2 with him trying to make Dennis a vampire but then turning around and saving him from Vlad's "scare the fangs" plan and ultimately coming to accept Dennis as he is - which there's parallels between Dennis and his younger self drawn there.) I'll also point out that despite the "love and family over racism, we're all basically the same" message, love isn't treated as what makes one "human" in the series. If ANYTHING, it's bravery and willingness to take risk. Particularly to have fun OR protect others.

So yeah, kind of mixed feelings there as an aroace fan.

PS: I'll warn you about the HT3 junior novelization, there's a scene of VH dismissing Love as if it means nothing to him which...more aphobic than the scene in the film was. Particularly since Van Helsing gives off aroace vibes himself.

[then-be-a-warrior]

"Two lonely bats crashed in the night."

"They felt a zing! Love at first sight."

"They knew right then they would be husband and wife."

"For a zing only happens once in your life."

"Your zing will come, my love. Cherish it."

-Martha 'Lady' Lubov Dracula (Hotel Transylvania)

[leociinta]

okay but I love them too okay

[macaroni-rascal]

this is the good place

[eggplantgifs]

pairs ladies + short hair

[noramoya]

MICHAEL JACKSON: THE DANCER OF THE DREAM •••

“Michael Jackson was a gifted, unique and outstanding dancer.His contribution to the Art of Dance is analyzed in this fascinating article by the professional Flamenco dancer and choreographer, Amor (Lubov Fadeeva)”…

“Let’s go back to the roots of Michael’s dance once again. When people speak of his dancing, they often recall the legendary Fred Astaire and his dancing pieces. Here we can see a lot of what Michael “inherited”– that whole gangster style with the shoes and the hat, the costumes, the color and lighting effects, and the direct use of tap dance elements. But the amazing thing is that he borrowed only external stylistic means (like motives from the pop classics) and mixed them with his spontaneous African passion – and not as much in the manner of tap dance performed by black dancers, but in the improvised and passionate nature of folk dances of Africa and the Caribbean basin. This is where the merriment, stage glitter, and elegance suddenly transform into a spontaneous shaman dance to the sound of drums. Notice how Michael looks extremely at ease and organic in the crowd of Brazilian drummers in his They Don’t Care About Us short film. They have a common nature.

In truth, Michael looks like a stage dandy in patent leather shoes only from afar. It’s just a theatrical show he puts on to create a certain effect. He has not gangster spats on, but black loafers and white socks; the black jacket hides a tee and a shirt he would rip from top to bottom at any moment; and the elegant fedora covers tousled hair that has nothing in common with the brilliantine of well-groomed dancers of the past. He needs the look just to appear in the spotlight. The spotlight is a theatrical tool as old as the world, we all use it – and Michael was not the first to create it. He borrowed it from the classics. The light and shadow of high-contrast lighting, accenting a white glove or white tape on his fingertips – and you have the first intriguing chord of mystery. A cavalier dressed in black, walking out of darkness, an archetype so seductive for the ladies since the times of cloak-and-dagger comedies. A woman cannot see his face, but already dreams of him as her romantic secret lover visiting her in the dead of the night and climbing through her window. Hence the hat pushed down to shade his eyes.

The most eloquent parts of the body when dancing are the hands and feet. Especially the hands. The hands are the third tool after words and facial expression to help us express our thoughts and feelings. They make gestures; they talk; they can even sing. I often tell my students that, to be truly expressive when dancing, the hands have to continue the impulse coming out of you, your gaze and your feelings. The palm and fingertips are the source of outpouring energy. They have to be visible. The hands are the most delicate instrument in movement.

Michael enhanced the visual effect with the help of white tape and a glove. They acted like fireballs of energy flashing against the darkness of the mysterious image. The same was true of the white socks – they accentuated his feet. And all this elegant magic of a cavalier in black suddenly opened up in a wild African ecstasy concealed under the covers of the theatrical props. Tap dance movements turned into sensual arching of the body, the famous daring crotch grabbing and crazy shirt ripping.

This works better than a striptease. It’s seduction at the level of subconscious associations and emotions, the level of beauty and not plain physiology. This is how Michael gripped the attention of even the most demanding women and young ladies who don’t fall for demonstrations of rude masculinity. Did Michael realize what he was doing? I think, intuitively he did, and he also realized that he was drawing a lot of attention – but he never thought too much about it. And this allowed him to dance naturally, chastely and ingenuously, like a wild man. His dancing body became seductive and desirable, while his soul remained filled with pure energy. It is sensuality of a higher level, where the body is subject to the spirit.” — Amor (Lubov Fadeeva).

[comrade-meow]

Pandora Papers: The secret owners of UK property worth billions

The secret owners of more than 1,500 UK properties bought using offshore firms have been uncovered by a BBC investigation.

The details are featured in the Pandora Papers leak of offshore financial documents and list property with an estimated value in excess of £4bn.

The owners include high-profile foreign politicians, individuals accused of corruption and UK political donors.

Ministers say they will bring in a new law when they have parliamentary time.

Successive Conservative governments have pledged to introduce legislation making it compulsory to name those owning property via foreign companies in a bid to stamp out money-laundering.

Among the revelations:

Retail magnate Sir Philip Green and his wife went on a buying spree of London property while the couple's recently sold High Street empire teetered on the verge of collapse

The Qatari ruling family purchased two of London's most expensive homes through offshore companies, saving millions of pounds in tax

Ukrainian billionaire Gennadiy Bogolyubov, who is under investigation by the FBI and had hundreds of millions in assets frozen in a fraud case, owns more than £400m of UK property

A £40m London office block is owned by the son of sanctioned Russian oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev

The BBC worked with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Guardian, Finance Uncovered and other media outlets to identify in the leaked files the individuals behind overseas companies that owned property in England and Wales.

Owning real estate through an offshore firm is legal, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing in simply using a foreign company to purchase property.

However, the UK government recently raised its own assessment of the money laundering risk for the property market from "medium" to "high".

The greatest level of risk is where there are "difficulties in determining the ultimate beneficial owners", according to a Home Office report in December 2020.

It comes as a number of world leaders - including the King of Jordan and the ruling family of Azerbaijan - have featured in the Pandora Papers leak after buying property in the UK using offshore companies.

The Greens

Sir Philip and Tina Green

The wife of retail tycoon Sir Philip Green purchased multi-million-pound prime London real estate as BHS, the department store chain they had owned, headed for collapse.

Her identity as the buyer of properties in London was hidden because they were bought through anonymous companies based in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven.

The purchases included a £15m apartment in Mayfair and a new home for their daughter near Buckingham Palace, bought for £10.6m in 2016.

The buying spree took place in the months after the Greens sold BHS for a token sum to a one-time bankrupt who had no retail experience. The chain collapsed, leading to the loss of 11,000 jobs and vacant sites in town centres.

The downfall also led to an outcry when it emerged the business had left a black hole of up to £571m in its pension fund.

Through their lawyers, both Sir Philip and Lady Green declined to answer detailed questions, suggesting that these were private matters.

Qatari Ruling Family

The ruling family of Qatar

The Pandora Papers leak also reveals the property portfolio of the Qatari ruling family owned through another cross-border network of companies.

The royal Al-Thani family purchased two properties on one of the world's most expensive terraces, overlooking Regent's Park in London. They were bought through offshore companies, saving millions of pounds in tax.

BBC analysis found numerous other properties owned by members of the family through these structures, estimated to be worth over £650m.

The Qatari government did not respond to questions about the BBC's findings.

Gennadiy Bogolyubov

Gennadiy Bogolyubov

Gennadiy Bogolyubov is a Ukrainian billionaire who is under investigation by the FBI for money laundering.

He and his business partner are accused of defrauding the bank they founded of more than £1bn.

Court documents included in the Pandora Papers reveal him to be the ultimate owner of a collection of UK properties likely to be worth over £400m, including a building on Trafalgar Square.

They are held via a network of companies, some offshore, that hide the identity of the owners.

Mr Bogolyubov is the co-founder of PrivatBank, Ukraine's largest lender.

The bank was nationalised in 2016 after regulators found a £4bn hole in its balance sheets.

PrivatBank has been pursuing Mr Bogolyubov and his business partner Igor Kolomoisky through court action in England and the US, trying to reclaim more than £2bn relating to the money lost during their leadership.

In 2020 the US Department of Justice sought to seize commercial properties in Texas, Ohio and Kentucky from the pair, suspecting that they were "acquired using funds misappropriated from Privatbank". The court cases are ongoing.

Mr Bogolyubov's assets are currently subject to a worldwide freeze, secured in court by PrivatBank in 2017.

In 2016 he decided to leave the country and settle in Switzerland, partly for "tax reasons".

Lawyers for Mr Bogolyubov declined to comment as legal action is ongoing.

Mikhail Gutseriev

Mikhail Gutseriev is a Russian oligarch who was sanctioned by the UK in August for his close relationship with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. The Pandora Papers reveal that his son owns a multi-million pound office block through a secret offshore company, purchased for more than £40m.

Mr Gutseriev is the founder of Safmar Group, a Russian conglomerate with interests in oil, coal, property and retail.

Following the crackdown on human rights and democracy in Belarus in 2020, the UK and EU have recently brought in sanctions against President Lukashenko, along with Mr Gutseriev and other close associates.

The British government has accused the Belarusian regime of continuing to "crush democracy and violate human rights".

It described Mr Gutseriev as "a prominent Russian businessman who is one of the main private investors in Belarus and a longstanding associate of Alexander Lukashenko". It added that he had "provided support for the government of Belarus, including through use of his business interests".

Mr Gutseriev is no longer involved in Safmar, which is now part-owned by his son, Said, a British citizen.

Said Gutseriev's representatives told the BBC he did not have "any business links with his father".His lavish wedding made headlines in 2016 - it featured performances by Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias and was reported to have cost £1bn.

What is the UK government doing?

Plans for a register of foreign companies owning UK property were first announced in 2016 by then Prime Minister David Cameron, so that "corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London's property market, and will not benefit from our public funds".

Draft legislation was published two years later and "progress" on changing the law was promised in the 2019 Queen's Speech.

Earlier this year, following the G7 summit, the government reiterated its commitment to create a public register of overseas entities who own UK real estate.

However, the law has still not been introduced to Parliament and was not listed as one of the government's legislative priorities at this year's Queen's Speech.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge told the BBC that when in government David Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne "promised us that they would create a public register of beneficial ownership here in the UK... but we've been waiting since 2016 for that promise to be enacted".

She added: "It's ready, it's sitting there, it's not complicated... but it has yet to emerge... so it's a scandal that that's not happened."

The government says it is cracking down on money laundering with tougher laws and enforcement, and that it will introduce a register of offshore companies owning UK property when parliamentary time allows.

World leaders

UK properties owned offshore by foreign leaders

The UK property holdings of the King of Jordan and the ruling family of Azerbaijan were exposed by BBC Panorama on Sunday.

Lawyers for King Abdullah said he used his personal wealth to buy the homes and there was nothing improper about him using offshore firms to do so.

Other revelations from the Pandora Papers highlight further links between foreign leaders and offshore ownership of UK property.

The family of Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, which has dominated the country's politics since independence, secretly owned offshore companies for decades.

One of these firms bought an apartment in central London, according to Land Registry records.

The company was set up by Ngina Kenyatta, the president's mother, and her two daughters Kristina and Anna.

In 2018, Mr Kenyatta told the BBC Hardtalk programme that his family's wealth was known to the public, and as president he had declared his assets as required by law.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky participated in a network of offshore companies, co-owned with his long-time friends and TV business partners, the Guardian revealed on Sunday.

These firms held assets including apartments near London's Regent's Park.

A number of world leaders have released statements denying wrongdoing after featuring in the leak.

Tory donors

Closer to home, major political donors to the Conservatives have invested in properties through offshore companies.

Conservative donors

Mohammed Amersi, bought two properties using offshore companies: a Mayfair townhouse and a country home in Gloucestershire. He was revealed by Panorama to have been involved in one of Europe's biggest corruption scandals. He denies any wrongdoing.

Lubov Chernukhin has given more than £1.8m to the party since 2012. The Pandora Papers leak revealed the scale of the secret offshore wealth she shares with her husband, a former Russian minister. It includes a house near Regent's Park in London now worth about £38m, and a mansion in Oxfordshire bought for £10m. The properties were secretly acquired through a network of offshore companies. Mrs Chernukhin's lawyers say she is a British citizen and is entitled to do as she wishes with her money

Russian businessman Victor Fedotov's companies have given £900,000 to MPs. He purchased a Hampshire manor house through a network of offshore companies. Files in the Pandora Papers suggest he made millions from a project that became mired in allegations of corruption. Mr Fedotov's lawyers said "there is no evidence whatsoever" he behaved improperly.

The BBC searched for information about donors to all of the political parties among the Pandora Papers documents but the stories that emerged from the files were about Conservative donors.

The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents and files exposing the secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires. The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington DC and has led to one of the biggest ever global investigations. More than 600 journalists from 117 countries have looked at the hidden fortunes of some of the most powerful people on the planet. BBC Panorama and the Guardian have led the investigation in the UK.

[ivyprism]

🔥 Hotel Transylvania

The story had SO much potential! The first movie was amazing!!! The Legend of Lady Lubov was such a touching and sensitive scene.

The second movie could've been better, but it was way more tolerable than the third one and I am not looking forward to the fourth.

The story had SO much potential! But they wasted it.

-H

[ohtheseskaters]

[sywtwfs]

2019 Summer Competitions

A list of some notable small competitions in the early 2019-2020 season. Although several of these competitions have already taken place, we’ve decided to compile a post for reference! Most of these competitions are domestic club competitions, though sometimes international skaters also participate. Withdrawals with no notice are very common. For more events and info, please check out Unseen Skaters or threads on Goldenskate.

JUNE

Lake Placid Figure Skating Championship (6/27 - 6/30) Skating Club of Lake Placid - Lake Placid, NY

Website & results

Notable entries:  Senior Ladies - Gabriella Izzo, Alina Soupian, Michelle Long. Junior Men - Mark Gorodnitsky, Ilya Kovler, Maxim Naumov

How to watch: Paid livestream by Snapshot Live.

Broadmoor Open (6/25 - 6/29) Broadmoor Skating Club - Colorado Springs, CO, USA

Website, Results

Notable entries: Senior - Karen Chen (SP only), Amber Glenn (SP only), Hanna Harrell, Pooja Kalyan (SP only), Alysa Liu, Yi Christy Leung, Young You,  Jimmy Ma

How to watch:  No paid Livestream this year.  Youtube videos

JULY

1st Interclub League Competition: North Division (7/11 - 7/14) Hailar, China

Website

Notable Competitors: Boyang Jin, Han Yan, Xuehan Wang/Lei Wang, Jiaxi (Chelsea) Liu/Xie Zhong Yi Christy Leung, Yi (Beverly) Zhu, Emily Zhang, Ashley Lin

How to watch: Fancams posted around the internet

Glacier Falls Summer Classic (7/18 - 7/21) Glacier Falls Figure Skating Club - Irvine, CA, USA

Website Schedule   

Notable Entries: Senior - Alysa Liu, Emmy Ma, Gabriella Izzo, Akari Nakahara, Audrey Shin, Megan Wessenberg, Yaroslav Paniot, Emmanuel Savary, Ryan Dunk, Joonsoo Kim, Sean Rabbitt. Junior - Stephen Gogolev

How to watch: Fancams 

Skate Detroit (7/23 - 7/27) Detroit Skating Club - Bloomfield Hill, MI, USA

Website/Results, Schedule

Notable Entries: Senior - Amber Glenn, Alex Krasnozhon, Jimmy Ma, Ashley Cain-Gribble / Timothy DeLuc, Audrey Lu / Misha Mitrofanov, Jessica Calalang / Brian Johnson.

How to watch: Paid livestream by 828 Studios. Youtube videos

Minto Summer Skate (7/25 - 7/28) Gloucester, ON, Canada

Website, Entries/Results, Schedule

Notable Entries: Senior - Nicolas Nadeau, Conrad Orzel, Michelle Long, Camille Ruest / Andrew Wolfe. Junior - Corey Circelli, Alec Guinzbourg, Iliya Kovler, Olivia McIsaac / Corey Circelli, Irina Galiyanova / Grayson Lochhead

How to watch: Free livestreams of each rink on Skate Ontario’s Dailymotion account

Ice Dance Summer Cup (July 26-27) Lyon, France

Entries/Results

Notable Entries: Junior - Loicia Demougeot / Theo Le Mercier, all French junior teams.

How to Watch: There are no current livestreams available 

South Korea JGP Selection Event (July 27-28) Taereung International Skating Rink - Seoul, South Korea

Website, Schedule

Notable Entries: Haein Lee, Jihun To, Seoyeong Wi, Hyun Soo Lee, Sihyeong Lee, Younghyun Cha, Sunghoon Park.

How to Watch: Fancam videos [1] [2]

Note: This competition determines assignments for the Junior Grand Prix.

Lake Place Ice Dance International/Championships (July 30 - August 2) Skating Club of Lake Placid - Lake Placid, NY

International Website, International Schedule, Championship Website, Championship Schedule

Notable Entries: Senior - McNamara/Carpenter, Carreira/Ponomarenko, Soucisse/Firus, Smart/Diaz, Min/Eaton, Green/Parsons, Chen/Sun, Lanaghan/Razgulajevs. Junior - Brown/Brown, Bronsard/Bouaraguia, Makita/Gunara, Bashynska/Beaumont, Galiyanova/Lochhead.

How to watch: Paid livestream by Snapshot Sports Live

Philadelphia Summer International/Championship (July 30 - August 2) Iceworks Skating Club - Aston, PA, USA

Website, International Competition Results

Notable Entries: Young You, Karen Chen, Hanna Harrell, Starr Andrews, Pooja Kalyan, Donovan Carillo, Camden Pulkinen, Andrew Torgashev, Alexei Krasnozhon

How to watch: No livestream this year, the company they previously used went out of business. Fancam videos [1]

AUGUST

Russian Junior Test Skates (8/1 - 8/9) Novogorsk, Russia

Website 

How to watch: Livestreamed on Channel 1

Wild Rose Invitational (8/2 - 8/5) Leduc, AB, Canada

Website, Entries/Results, Schedule

Notable Entries: Senior - Aurora Cotop. Junior - Aleksa Rakic, Eric Liu, Rinka Watanabe.

How to watch: Free livestreams of each rink on Skate Alberta/Nunavut Dailymotion account

57th Kitakyushu Open & Izuka Ice Palace Cup (8/2 - 8/4) Fukuoka, Japan

Website, Schedule

Notable entries (Full List) Senior - Mitsuki Sumoto, Ryuju Hino, Wakaba Higuchi

How to watch: News clips on Japanese TV

Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy (8/5 - 8/9) Dongguan, China 

Website, 

Notable Entries: TBA

How to watch: TBD

Quebec Summer Championship (8/8 - 8/11)

Entries/Results, Schedule

Notable Entries: Senior - Véronik Mallet, Lubov Ilyushechkina / Charlie Bilodeau, Justine Brasseur / Mark Bardei, Camille Ruest / Drew Wolfe, Carolane Soucisse / Shane Firus, Marie Jade Lauriault / Roman Le Gac, Oliva Smart / Adrian Diaz. Junior - Joseph Phan, Bronsard/Bouaraguia.

How to watch: Free livestreams of each rink on the Patinage Québec Dailymotion account

Gensan Summer Cup 2019 (8/8 - 8/12) Shiga, Japan

Website, Schedule

Notable entries: (Full list) Senior: Taichi Honda, Yuto Kishina, Kazuki Tomono, Sota Yamamoto, Yuhana Yokoi, Mako Yamashita, Yuna Shiraiwa, Mai Mihara, Kaori Sakamoto, Wakaba Higuchi. Junior - Sena Miyake, Mitsuki Sumoto, Nana Araki, Miyu Honda

How to watch: News clips on Japanese TV

Dance Pairs Chicago

Website, Schedule

Notable entries: Junior - Avonley Nguyen / Vadim Kolesnik, Katarina DelCamp / Ian Somerville

How to watch: There are no current livestreams available

NRW Summer Trophy (8/9 - 8/11) Dortmund, Germany

Entries, Results, Schedule

Notable Entries: Senior - Egor Murashov, Konkina/Drozd, Popova/Byelikov. Junior - Kazakova/Reviya.

How to watch: There are no current livestreams available 

BC Summer Skate (8/15 - 8/18) Burnaby, BC, Canada

Website, Entries/Results, Schedule

Notable Entries: Senior - Aurora Cotop. Junior - Emily Bausback, Emma Bulawka, Olivia Gran, Eric Liu, Beres Clements, Aleksa Rakic, Makita/Gunara

How to watch: Free livestreams of each rink on the Skate British Columbia Yukon Dailymotion account

Sectional Series North York  (8/15 - 8/19) North York, Ontario, Canada

Entries/Results, Website, Schedule

Notable Entries: Senior - Keegan Messing, Nam Nguyen, Conrad Orzel, Roman Sadovsky, Gabby Daleman, Moore-Towers/Marinaro, Walsh/Michaud. Junior - Corey Circelli, Alec Guinzbourg, Iliya Kovler, Mark Gorodnitsky, Shingo Nishiyama, Alison Schumacher, Amelia Orzel, McIntosh/Toste, Andrew/Daleman, Leung/Fletcher, D’Alessandro/Waddell, McIsaac/Circelli, Galiyanova/Lochhead, Bashynska/Beaumont, Yoshida/Nishiyama

How to watch: Free livestreams of each rink on the Skate Ontario Dailymotion account

5th Interclub League Competition: NorthEast Division (8/15 - 8/18) Jilin, China

Website

Notable Competitors: Senior - Xiangyi An, Hongyi Chen, Xiangning Li, Ashley Lin, Yi (Beverly) Zhu, Xuehan Wang / Lei Wang, Xiaoyu Yu / Hao Zhang, Yuzhu Guo / Pengkun Zhao, Tong Liu / Quanshuo Ge, Wanqi Ning / Chao Wang.

How to watch: Fancams posted around the internet

2019 Rinspo Cup (8/24 - 9/1) Osaka, Japan

Website, Schedule 

Notable entries (Full list) Senior - Mitsuki Sumoto. Junior - Miyu Honda

How to watch: News clips on Japanese TV

1st MGC Ice Arena Cup (8/31 - 9/1) Niigata, Japan

Website, Schedule, Results

Notable entries: Senior - Hiroaki Sato

How to watch: News clips on Japanese TV

[pope-francis-quotes]

31st March >> (@ZenitEnglish By Deborah Castellano Lubov) #PopeFrancis #Pope Francis’ Full Homily during the celebration of Holy Mass ‘Contemplate, Pray & Give Thanks:’ Our Proper Response for Jesus Having Born Our Sins (Full Text of Pope Francis’ Morning Homily)

At Casa Santa Marta, Prays for the Homeless

Contemplate, pray and give thanks…. This is how we ought to respond to Jesus’ having born our sins…

Pope Francis stressed this today, March 31, as he offered his private daily Mass at his residence Casa Santa Marta for the victims of Coronavirus, which has claimed more than 11,600 lives in Italy.

Today, the Holy Father prayed for the homeless.

“At this moment in which everyone is supposed to be at home, may society, men and women, realize this reality and help them, and that the Church might welcome them.”

In today’s homily, the Holy Father reflected on the symbol of the serpent presented in both readings of the Fifth Tuesday of Lent (Numbers 21:4-9 and John 8:21-30), reported Vatican News.

As he reflected on how from the very beginning, people have been sinful and ungrateful, the Pope stressed how we must be grateful to the Lord for taking on our sins to redeem all of us.

Jesus, Francis stressed, took upon himself all of our sins….

“There was a vendetta by the doctors of the law who didn’t want Him,” he reminded, saying: “All of that is true. But the truth that comes from God is that He came into the world to take our own sins upon Himself to the point of making Himself sin…. Our sins are there.”

Exhorting us to be more grateful, he continued, “Christians need to make it a habit of looking at the crucifix “in this light”, in the “light of the redemption” and as a reminder that Jesus did not pretend to suffer and die.”

“Rather,” he said, “it was the moment of His utter defeat,” as “He was entirely alone with the burden of our sin that He had taken on Himself to the point of annihilation and the feeling of total abandonment by His Father.”

“It’s not easy to understand this,” the Jesuit Pope said, noting “should we think about it, we’ll never arrive at a conclusion.”

“We can only contemplate, pray, and give thanks,” he said.

Before concluding, the Pope exhorted faithful to partake in Spiritual Communion in this difficult time, and ended the celebration with Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction.

Here are the Holy Father’s words, followed by the prayer for Spiritual Communion:

I prostrate myself at your feet, O my Jesus, and I offer you the repentance of my contrite heart, which abases itself in its nothingness in Your Holy Presence. I adore you in the Sacrament of Your Love; I desire to receive You in the poor abode that my heart offers You. While waiting for the happiness of a Sacramental Communion, I want to possess You in spirit. Come to me, O my Jesus, that I may come to You. May Your Love inflame my whole being, in life and in death. I believe in You, I hope in You, I love You. Amen.

The Masses in Francis’ chapel normally welcome a small group of faithful, but due to recent measures’ taken by the Vatican, are now being kept private, without their participation.

It was announced this month that the Pope would have these Masses, in this period, be available to all the world’s faithful, via streaming on Vatican Media, on weekdays, at 7 am Rome time.

The Vatican has also published the Pope’s Holy Week and Easter schedule, confirming this year’s events will not welcome the physical presence of the faithful, and the events will be made available via streaming.

This comes at a time too when the Italian bishops’ conference has canceled public Masses throughout the nation, until at least April 3rd, following guidelines put out by Italian authorities.

In addition to Santa Marta, the Vatican has taken other steps to keep people safe and to stay close to the Pope, even if from a distance. They are televising the Pope giving privately, from the papal library, his weekly Angelus and General Audience addresses.

The Vatican Museums are now closed, along with the Vatican’s other similar museums. There have also been various guidelines implemented throughout the Vatican, to prevent the spread of the virus.

For anyone interested, the Pope’s Masses at Santa Marta can be watched live and can be watched afterward on Vatican YouTube. Below is a link to today’s Mass. Also, a ZENIT English translation of the Pope’s full homily can be read below:

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***

FULL HOMILY

A serpent is certainly not a likable animal: it’s always associated with evil. In revelation also, the serpent is in fact the animal that the devil uses to induce to sin. In the Apocalypse the devil is called the “ancient serpent,” he that from the beginning bites, poisons, destroys and kills. Therefore, he can’t succeed. If he wants to succeed, as someone that proposes beautiful things, these are fantasies: but we believe him and so we sin. This is what happened to the people of Israel: they couldn’t endure the journey. They were tired. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. It’s always the same thing, isn’t it? “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt? To have us die in this wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food, the manna.” (Cf. Numbers 21:4-5) And, we read in past days, their imagination goes always to Egypt: “But, we were fine there, we ate well . . . “And it also seems that the Lord didn’t endure the people in this moment. He got angry. God’s wrath could sometimes be seen . . . And then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, which bit the people and they died. ” Many people of Israel died” (Numbers 21:5). The serpent is always the image of evil. In that moment, the people saw in the serpent sin; they see in the serpent the one that has done evil. And they go to Moses and say: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us” (Numbers 21:7). They repent. This is the story in the wilderness. Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses” “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live” (Numbers 21:8).

It makes me think: is this not idolatry? The serpent is there, an idol, which gives me health . . . It’s not understandable. Logically, it’s not understandable, because this is a prophecy; this is an announcement of what is to come. Because we also heard in the Gospel as a close prophecy: “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on my own” (John 8:28). Jesus lifted on the cross. Moses makes a serpent and lifts it. Jesus will be lifted, as the serpent, to give salvation. However, the core of the prophecy is, in fact, that Jesus made Himself sin for us. He didn’t sin: He made Himself sin. As Saint Peter says in his Letter: “He Himself bore our sins” (Cf. 1 Peter 2:24). And when we look at the crucifix, we think of the Lord suffering: all that is true. However, we pause before coming to the center of that truth: in this moment You seem to be the greatest sinner; You made Yourself sin. You have taken all our sins upon Yourself. He annihilated Himself to this. The cross, it’s true, is a torture; there is the vengeance of the Doctors of the Law, of those that didn’t want Jesus: all this is true. However, the truth that comes from God is that He came into the world to take our sins upon Himself, to the point of making Himself sin, every sin. Our sins are there. We must get into the habit of looking at the crucifix in this light, which is the truest; it’s the light of the redemption. In Jesus made sin we see Christ’s total defeat. He doesn’t feign to die; He doesn’t feign he’s not suffering, alone, abandoned . . . “Father, why hast Thou forsaken me? (Cf. Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).” A serpent: I am lifted as a serpent, as that which is all sin.

It’s not easy to understand this and, if we think, we’ll never come to a conclusion. We must only contemplate, pray and thank.

The Pope ended the celebration with Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction, inviting the faithful to make a Spiritual Communion.

Here Is the Prayer Recited by the Pope:

My Jesus, I believe you are really present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar. I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul. As I cannot receive You sacramentally now, come at least spiritually into my heart. As You have already come, I embrace you and unite myself to You. Do not let me ever be separated from You.

Before leaving the Chapel dedicated to the Holy Spirit, the Marian antiphon Ave Regina Caelorum (Hail Queen of Heaven”) was intoned.

“Hail, Queen of Heaven, Lady of the Angels: door and root of salvation, bring light into the world; delight, glorious Virgin, beautiful among all women. Hail, all holy

31st MARCH 2020 15:59POPE'S MORNING HOMILY

[figureskatingfanblog]

2019 Cup of China Predictions

OVERVIEW | PREVIEW - MEN | PREVIEW - LADIES | PREVIEW - PAIRS | PREVIEW - ICE DANCE

Men

GOLD - Keiji Tanaka SILVER - Keegan Messing BRONZE - Camden Pulkinen 4th - Boyang Jin 5th - Matteo Rizzo 6th - Junhwan Cha 7th - Han Yan 8th - Conrad Orzel 9th - Andrei Lazukin 10th - Brendan Kerry 11th - Chih-i Tsao 12th - He Zhang

Ladies

GOLD - Anna Shcherbakova SILVER - Elizaveta Tuktaymsheva BRONZE - Young You 4th - Satoko Miyahara 5th - Amber Glenn 6th - Sofia Samudorova 7th - Marin Honda 8th - Yi Christy Leung 9th - Kailani Craine 10th - Hongyi Chen 11th - Yujin Choi 12th - Yi Zhu

Pairs

GOLD - Wenjing Sui and Cong Han SILVER - Cheng Peng and Yang Jin BRONZE - Lubov Iliushechinka and Charlie Bilodeau 4th - Alisa Efimova and Alexander Korovin 5th - Tae-ok Ryom and Ju-sik Kim 6th - Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea 7th - Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise 8th - Faitao Yang and Yongchao Yang

Ice Dance

GOLD - Madison Chock and Evan Bates SILVER - Viktoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov BRONZE - Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorenson 4th - Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-luc Baker 5th - Shiyue Wang and Xinyu Liu 6th - Anastasia Skoptcova and Kirill Aleshin 7th - Sofia Evdokimova and Egor Bazin 8th - Misato Komatasubara and Tim Koleto 9th - Hong Chen and Zhouming Sun 10th - Yuzhu Guo and Pengkun Zhao

[anewbeginningagain]

(Part 1) This is the Anon who posted about following VM since they were pre-novice... Yes, the pairs team I loved was Seguin/Bilodeau and while I like Lubov, I can't cheer for I/B after the way the S/B partnership ended. (I can also objectively say that I'm not that excited by I/B so far; although they obviously have potential, the style they are presenting does nothing for me.)

(Part 2) As for PC, I LOVED To Be a Home in 2016 (it was actually the only thing that really got me back into skating after being bored with the 2014-2018 quad prior to VM’s comeback) and I actually really like this year’s FD. They aren’t versatile, but they do their thing very well. They don’t push the envelope, but the current scoring system doesn’t really encourage anyone to do so. If things like closed holds and complex lifts aren’t rewarded, I can see why no one would take the risk.

(Part 3) I feel like PC’s fluidity and ease of movement makes everyone else look unfinished and makes a lot of teams look tacky compared to them. I don’t think they are Great Artists All the Time (like many on FSU, etc., seem to think), but they do manage to elevate most concepts - e.g., I think the spoken word piece they are using is very pretentious, but they somehow manage to elevate the FD itself above that, IMO. OTOH, I was bored with Mozart and thought VM should have won the Oly FD easily.

With Seguin/Bilodeau I think that with the time that passed I can understand more why he decided to split, the main issue is that he did it in such a douchey way that it’s hard to root for him after that. That being said I do see potential with I/B, for such a short time they have nice matching lines and good timing on the lifts. Time will tell what will become of them but it will be interesting to watch (imo). Generally, I would say that pairs skating is the discipline I’m most excited about (followed by ladies, ice dance is too big of a mess right now). I hope you will be able to find another pairs team that will excite you.

With P/C I’ve never really liked any of their material. Maybe if I would have experienced To Build A Home in real-time than I would have gotten the hype but when I first watched it I failed to see what was so good about it. I can imagine that the program did stand out compared to what others were doing, but when I see it I just see a replica of everything else they did. In fact, the first time I somehow enjoyed a program of theirs is this season with their RD, but even that is tainted with the judges ignoring their mistakes and rewarding them with undeserving scores. I agree about teams looking “unfinished”, I tried to put into words what it is about Stepanova/Bukin, a team I really like, that bothers me and it came down to feeling like they don’t complete their movements - they don’t extend their arms or legs as much as they should, and their steps look smaller because of it and their blade feels like it stays too close to the ice. Overall, P/C have nice extensions at times but Gabi also fails to extend and finish her movements very often. On the other hand, Gui barely interprets anything and she became much better than him when performing. Basically, no dance team is even close to being the full package - excelling in both the technical side and artistic side, and that combined with the politicking and the reign of P/C really ruins to sport for me.

[macaroni-rascal]

general canadian nats thoughts

-ladies was such a shitshow i can’t even talk about

-very proud of eve and trennt they better get that second world spot they earned it charlie and lubov need another season settle in

-marinaro always skats best when kmt has fucked something up whats that about?

-piper and paul’s free dance is just so nice. just lovely. just a big old pile of wonderful.

-l/l were way over scored but it’s nats so we get it i still just miss their free from last year zak had a few stumbles poor dude

-i didn’t even watch caro and shane, tbh they have had their time to get better, they haven’t, given the third 4cc spot to l/z or f/a to give them the experience (i’m assuming the canadanes won’t be there he was on crutches last week)

-i’m ready for us nats